Emura

Ehhh... no. You're wrong. You couldn't be more wrong. Hey, so where does the TV series and CD-i games fit into everything? Edit: Yes, I meant CD-i, not 3D0.

OK, I'm just going to completely re-write this post so that people will get off my case about how wrong I am and get back to the subject at hand... I've never played Minish Cap or the Four Swords so I can't guess where it lies in the storyline, but here is a rough guess at some sort of order: Minish Cap || Four Swords Games? || Ocarina of Time ==> Wind Waker Majora's Mask Phantom Hourglass || Twilight Princess || A Link to the Past Link's Awakening || The Legend of Zelda The Adventure of Link (Philips CD-i games and the TV series might fit in here) Oracle of Ages/Seasons

It's hard know what will be expected of you since many programs have different expectations. For example, for my performance auditions (multiple) I was to prepare two pieces of contrasting style totalling 5 to 7 minutes in length. I wrote an arrangement of Nobuo Uematsu's "Tifa's Theme" for saxophone and piano as my lyrical piece, and played Dizzy Gillespe's Groovin' High as my technical piece. If your choice of music is not left completely up to you, as with my program, one of two things may happen. They may have a list compiled of pieces for you to choose from to play on your instrument, and tell you to pick one or two of them, or a program coordinator may give you a piece to learn. I've found that almost all programs will have you play a romantic or baroque era piece, and it seems jazz or pop music is heavily frowned upon. After playing Groovin' High at one of my auditions, the auditor told me I "should have played something classical [note: baroque or romantic], because jazz isn't 'legit' music." Obviously though, if you're auditioning for a jazz program you'll be expected to play something jazzy, and probably have an improvised solo section. Sight reading and scales hopefully won't be a problem. I've found that sight-reading passages tend to lean towards the lyrical side, so you should know the notes easily and be focusing on phrasing. I've never had to perform an ear training test or sight singing test, so I can't tell you what to expect in those. I assume you have a piano or keyboard at home as well as an electric tuner, so hopefully you can start practicing right away! Good luck!

I imagine so, but you'd have to go all Roman Catholic and use only perfect 4ths and 5ths. Actually, maybe even throw in a 3rd to fill the "creativity" quote.

ROFL. I hope you were trying to be funny. The only place I know of for System 7 software (and only games at that) is Macintosh Garden: http://mac.the-underdogs.info/

EastWest: http://www.soundsonline.com/ These guys are pretty much industry standard.

Weird how all the interesting stuff happens when I'm away. I'm internet-less for a week and unmod dies? I wish there was something I could add, but the Coop has pretty much summed up all I would have said, and much more articulately too. Personally, I'm feeling a bit homeless. Half (or more) of the threads there were of no interest to me, but there was a lot of solid humor and good conversation too. Fads like ffffffffffff made me, almost literally, rofl, and in general I just found it all to be a lot of fun. I understand that if it had to go, it had to go in the way it did: without warning. But did it really have to go?

Do you think think that testing a beta version of Vista for 6 hours is really enough time to get a feel for what it does? And I'm pretty sure Vista can do anything that Windows XP can do. Microsoft doesn't write device drivers for anybody but Microsoft. Your frustration with ATI and Creative's Vista drivers should be directed to those corporations, not blamed on the OS. As a footnote, the machine I ran Vista on had a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum card and it ran beautifully. I never had any other driver troubles. Those issues certainly sound extreme, but by the time Vista is out all the driver issues should be resolved. I don't think you should judge an OS based on 3rd party beta drivers. ROFL I see where you're coming from and what you're getting at, but I wholehearted disagree. Let me start by saying I am a full-time Information Security Analyst. I do know what you're saying when you argue XP can be secure. The PC I'm on right now is an XP Pro machine running without any anti-virus software. By following good best practices I've kept myself virus free. Mostly that's by sheer luck, though. I was lucky not to be hit by the WMF exploit. I was lucky not to get compromised by the VML exploit. I was lucky not to get attacked by the SetSlice exploit. These three attacks in the last year alone could have compromised my machine, but I was lucky enough to avoid them. I feel the people who will experience the greatest benefit from Vista's enhanced security will be those, unlike you or me, who aren't quite up to speed on computer security. There are millions of grandmas out there who go out to Best Buy and buy a computer so they can "have the internet," and these are the people who will benefit from security the most. For the tech guys, it's a less significant, though still important, bonus. Out of curiosity, how well did Windows XP run on your Windows 98 machine? How about 95 on your 3.1 machine? Or, what about OS X on your System 8 machine? Don't blame Microsoft for Moore's Law Actually, Microsoft hasn't advertised Aero Glass as being a "3D" interface, this is something consumers have done themselves. I like the "live taskbar thumbnails" thing that shows you a thumbnail view of the windows you have in your taskbar when you hover over them, and I like the new "flip 3D" way to alt-tab. Though, as you say, those features alone aren't enough to convince one to upgrade. What's "worth it" will definately be different for everyone. For students who get Vista free through their school's MSDN agreement, it would certainly be worth it. For the hobbyist system builder looking to save his pennies, then Linux would be the no-brainer. It all depends on what you need from your OS. I wouldn't go out and buy it next month just because, but when I build my next PC, for sure one of my OSs will be Vista. All the features I've already mentioned, plus superfetch, drive encryption, integrated searching, and particularly DirectX 10 means it makes sense to me. Obviously your mileage may vary.

I think I should help clarify something here. Most of the quotes from the original post have been taken out of context. The downgrading of AV quality only apply to copy-protected high definition content from HD DVDs and Blu Ray discs, which both use the High Definition Content Protection (HDCP). This is a requirement of Intel's HDCP specification, and not a pointless restriction by Microsoft to frustrate users. All (legal) operating systems will have to work this way, including Windows XP, Mac OS 10.4, and your favourite flavour of Linux. I have been running Windows Vista now for about 4 months, and frequently watch high definition content downloaded from the internet. I can honestly say Vista is the best thing to happen to Windows ever, from the fancy-pants user interface, to the search-based desktop, to the hardened security. I'll leave the discussion on what OS is better to the rabid fanboys and flameboys. I will say though, for those running Windows XP already and who can afford it, Vista is an excellent and obvious next step.

Yes, that's exactly what I do. I use Finale (lol 2004 edition) to create the MIDI, then bring it into Cubase SX 3. It's just a habit I got into since before Cubase, Finale was all I had.

[image bomb that clearly took too long to make] Crap, I feel dumb. EW: 1 Emura: 0 Though I'm chalking their victory up to poor webpage design.

Wicked find Zircon! Has anybody else gone through the checkout process and found that they want to charge you $22 for FedEx shipping? I can't find a "download" option or anything.

... crap! Note to self: read all replies carefully. Actually, that's one I didn't know about. I might be able to have some fun with that!

As far as I know it hasn't been done yet, and I thought I would end up being the first. As far as I can tell, the only way to actually make use of the sound generating capabilities of the GB is to keep the hardware intact and run sequencer/tracker software on the GB's Z80 processor. But that's already been done, so there's no point in even writing your own programs. Nanoloop and Little Sound DJ (LSDJ) are the two sequencers available for the Gameboy. Nanoloop can only be purchased in cartridge form, and usually sells on eBay for over $50 US. LSDJ on the other hand is a little more powerful, though you have to pay for a subscription to the program (which works a little like typical Antivirus software), then you'll need to either buy or build a Gameboy backup device. If you would rather develop your own solution, then you're pretty much on your own. I once had planned to do such a thing, but I've pushed that project to the back burner for now. Whatever the case, if you plan on writing your own program, you're going to need to learn C and assembly. Here are some links to hopefully get you started: http://www.devrs.com/gb/ http://fms.komkon.org/GameBoy/Tech/

Very awesome! Makes me feel like I should be listening to Switched On Bach

I don't think your sound should be crafted to match a certain style of headphone, or a certain home PC setup, etc. In the end though, you music doesn't have to be good for my setup; it just has to be good. While you're learning, I think you should keep in mind how frequency response of songs you like sounds on (preferably) both of your systems, and try to match that. For example, if you're building a bass heavy beat, try and get the bass in your music to respond similarly to another bass heavy song from your collection. Professionally produced music should sound great on all systems, so mimicing that will help your sound as well. In practice I've found that the largest difference in how a piece sounds between different systems depends on the subwoofer, i.e. whether they have one or not. Headphones (and many 2.0 systems) don't have a good low frequency response, cheap ones in particular, so it's key to not depend on anything below 80Hz for music you intend to share with the world.

Here are some images I have used as avatars before. I decided to give the Space Invaders names, which are (left to right) Ecks, Jobs, and Skim. LT: I love that dead Mac, but we won't use it. At least fill in the Space Invaders with some different colors for each one, otherwise the images are just too plain. Personally I still like "Ecks" (the left-most Space Invader) in original white, but I've done a coloured version as well. The middle is filled with "Space Invaders Green," which is the same color as the green from the original arcade game, and the yellow and aqua colours are derivatives of that green. LT: Hey, awesome! No offense, but instead of going with your names, I named them squid, crab, and octopus based on an interview with the game's designer, Toshihiro Nishikado. Nice choices with the colors. Basing the color variants off the original Space Invaders green to be faithful to the game whole giving them the color they needed is a small detail that someone like me would appreciate.

Atonal jazz fusion would be the best description I could come up for this one. There's no clear chord progression and no obvious melody so the arrangement feels random and hard to follow (all save for the middle section). I don't think that's bad at all though, and is pretty typical of 20th century orchestral pieces, so I think this arrangement is effective. At first, I thought the synthed saxes were going to get on my nerves, but as the pad came in at 0:25 I had pretty much forgotten about them. They fell into the back as they should, and the new tones kept my mind off the repeating sax. There's not too much I feel needs to be said about the rest. It can pretty much stand on its own. It's fresh, and it's interesting. I will talk briefly about production. This is the first review I'm writing after listening on my new cans, and I had absolutely no concerns regarding sound quality. No clipping, no hissing, a well put together mix all the way through.

Apple Cinema displays? Bah. The Dell LCDs have 11ms response, great customization for height, 2 extra USB ports, a built-in 5 in 1 media card reader, and 3 year warranty (instead of 30 days). That's one crazy collection, though. People look at me the same way when they find out I collect old video game and computer hardware. Again, where is her music though?

It's been 4 months since the last review of this piece, but I felt I just had to add another one. A few weeks ago we celebrated a birthday for a very good friend of mine, and one of her friends wrote some very fun and clever lyrics to this piece, and sang it for about 15 of us. I won't post the lyrics here, mostly because I don't have them, but also because they're most likely meaningless to those who aren't "in the know." As djp mentioned in the write-up, there are some recording issues with the piece, but they also give it character at the same time. By default, live recordings always impress me much more than SoundFonts and drum loops, and in this case make the pan flute all the more impressive to me. I'm reminded of a few tracks from the Xenosaga II soundtrack actually, which is a personal favourite of mine, so bonus points to this mix. This one has a special space on my hard drive.

Oh no, I think I'm becomming a Geoffrey Taucer fan (Not to discount Usa's work on this piece, mind you)! Tell me that's a recorder playing between 0:10 and 0:41. If so, the recorder will have finally redeemed itself in my eyes, from being a cheap $10 piece of plastic those education-types force students to butcher in the early grades. I have to say, the title of the song matches perfectly with the piece. I get two visions in my head when listening, one being the town centre in Majora's Mask on day one, the other being a Renaissancy celebration at one of those "medieval" fairs one tends to see during the summer. I just wonder how they would have brought a piano back in time to that era? The bagpipe sound seemed a little lacking of character to me, and I'll assume it is a soundfont. The main giveaway is the fact that it's playing in key. It's just missing something, which unfortunately I can't really describe. At least this song will never be accused of being too long. It's short, but pure gold. The length is actually perfect for the song, mind you. It leaves me wanting more, which is infinately better than being bored of it. I'd say it speaks highly of the remixers' talents as well. Edit: Whoops, should have read the write-up first. So it's an Irish whistle, and not a recorder. Ah well, one day I will hear a real recorder.

Your interface doesn't have any blinkenlights? I don't think it's true that most laptop sound cards can't handle MIDI sound. My first Windows machine, a 486SX2 with a massive 4 Megabytes of RAM could handle MIDI, so the processing requirements clearly aren't that high. Maybe my laptop is just special though?

No doubt I'm a sucker relaxed, reflective electronic rock music, so this mix hits all the right notes with me. With a style reminding me of Tears of Contention, this mix definately feels like a part of a much larger story; no doubt why many reviews mention it would feel good at the end of a movie or video game, and I'll second, or third, or whatever that motion. The key, I think, is all in the synths. With the grinding, distorted guitar behind and the silky smooth synths leading and providing added effects, the mix proves that in music, opposites do attract. My one minor point, is that I think the synths are drowned out too much by the guitars, so I might enjoy a small dynamic tweak there. But that's only if I had to pick something out. First rate.

You will not be able to find a "good" sax on eBay for less than 250 euros. Even if you do, it will still need an overhaul, which means new pads, springs, and cork. While I did pay $232 US for my Buescher True Tone, I also paid $600 more for the overhaul and repairs to get it into working condition. Unless you have a friend or neighbour around with a sax they're willing to give to you, 250 euros won't buy a sax that I believe is worth investing in. Actually, I'm pretty sure Brad used an alto for that. He used a soprano in "A Star Freezes Over," though (except for the chorus, for which he used an alto) Whoops, my bad. A beautiful song, none-the-less.