LegendofSymphony7

Joe Brown here. I recorded both the guitars and the basses (as there are more than one) in this tune; Josh thought it would be more appropriate for me to respond because of that. I first would like to thank you for listening and constructively critiquing the current issues in the mix. If I had the money, I'd be running out of a Marshall JVM205H head and not a Crate GLX212 combo on the guitars. The bass... well, being that I was using my friend's equipment (and I shall not be using his processor anymore. xD), I really can't do much about that. Second, the ending as written is very different from the ending as executed, and I had attempted to get that Tool-esque payoff. Guess I didn't hit it quite on as I should have; but we gotta go back into the studio anyway! Heh. Frankly, I'm surprised that no one has attempted a remix in this vein yet. A second one we have in the works is for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and it, too, carries the Tool sound (I think it hits the mark a hell of a lot closer than this mix does), but up until I get new equipment, I don't think I'll be trying anything else until this mix is perfected with what we have in hand. Thanks again for your P.E.A.C.H.ing!

Now I'm asking myself questions about what instrument to use for the new textures... Could a flute add something that fits? another violin? Maybe a synth? You can blame the lack of highs on the quality of our mixer, as well as the quality of our speaker cables. We had to filter out the higher frequencies to reduce the static, hum, and hiss. Now would be a good time to get a job... Our guitarist/bassist was a bit of a fool to add distortion to all but one track -- and that guitar track had the toughest effects to work around. I'm going to destroy that effects processor of his, I swear it. We're glad you liked it, though. With enough work, we hope you can love this piece.

So, after being a pair of idiotic teenagers for two years, we (the Legend of Symphony) have decided to actually use the WIP forum before sending DJP any more absolute junk -- and trust me, even though we only tried three times, we tried with stuff so bad it would make an anthropomorphic trash can vomit in disgust. Anyhoo, I suppose I should be talking about the mix in progress. Well, it's an arrangement of "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" (aka "City of the Ancients" aka anything else you can get from roughly translating the Japanese title), with a bit of a feel from bands like Tool or Porcupine Tree -- I am aware that the two are not exactly separated at birth when it comes to sound schema, but that's what we've heard from people who've listened to it. It's nearly finished, but there's always room for more polish. So, without further ado, we give you 'Tools of the Ancients'. Any advice would be appreciated, and we will be reworking and improving upon this piece until we think it works. NOTE: The tune is being hosted on NG using a user name different from our OCReMix handle. This is not a theft of someone else's work.

Okay, cool. I'm glad I got this working, thanks to your advice. I can finally kiss my crappy Line-in on my sound card good-bye.

Could that be it..? I'll give a Mono audio track a shot and see if it works. The manual said instrument track, though I may have misread it. EDIT: It worked! Thanks so much, Tweek. My music shall read across the boundaries of the Internet to you as soon as it can.

Just one instrument track, though I suppose I could throw in a few... useless, more or less, tracks. I wonder if the track type has something to do with it. I can't trust instruction manuals with no troubleshooting on an issue like this.

Yup. Solid red.

It turns blue. This might be a matter of my computer's Theme, though.

Not even a straight line. I get zilch. I'm using a Monster 5' (whoops, I marked it 5 in. in the specs!) 1/4" cable.

Yes, I can hear myself. But when I playback after recording, I get nothing.

I didn't allude to it, but yes, I had set the track for recording status. The light was blinking. What I can hear coming out of my headphones (I should probably hook my speakers in) is what I'm playing on my keyboard. The output is being routed out of the MBox outputs. In fact, I can hear myself playing through the MBox (via headphones/speakers, of course). But what I'm playing isn't being recorded. I'm trying again just this moment but to no avail. And just to clarify, I'm plugged into the TRS jack. And I have the MBox set for the TRS/Mic jack.

Okay, so I just got the Pro Tools Ignition Pack (MBox 2 and P.T. LE 7.0) and I hooked it up as per the enclosed instructions. However, as I was recording (using a Roland ep-5 digital piano), Pro Tools seemed to not be picking up the recording. In fact, in the region area where time had been consumed for recording, there was nothing recorded there. Yes, I had the volume up. No, my speakers weren't/aren't muted. Yes, I set the gain so that clipping wouldn't occur. Yes, the mix knob is balanced to hear both input and playback. I suppose it would help if I listed my system specs, just in case someone else has this problem and a similar setup: Windows XP Professional SP2 [sadly not Genuine, though I don't know how having non-Genuine Windows would be an issue] AMD Anthlon XP 1.09GHz 512MB RAM VIA '97 Audio Controller (VDM) [i've got this weird feeling that my sound card is an issue -- Heck, I don't even know what I've got] Philips MMS 223S/17 w/Built-in Radio NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 Digidesign MBox 2 Pro Tools LE (7.0) Roland ep-5 Electric Piano Monster 5' 1/4"-1/4" cable I'd really like to know just what's going on with this thing. $450 is a big loss for a product you can't take advantage of. And if someone else has already submitted something about this, I'm sorry for spamming. I searched around the OCR ReMixing threads but found naught.

I don't believe it. Nobody else finds ties to Tool in this piece? That's what I was thinking when I first heard it. Very wonderful piece, zyk0. Please, bless us with more awesome music.

Quite impressive, DS. Sort-of like how 4 measures of 7/8 (2-2-2-1) equal 7 measures of straight-eighth 4/4, eh? As for the 13/8 at the topic starter, the song the thing I played comes from is mainly in 12/8 for the verses and moves into the chorus in 13/8, which lasts four measures (as long as I played it) and goes right back into 12/8. Verse 1 lasts 12 measures. Verses 2 and 3 last only 8. Between Chorus 2 and Verse 3 is either a breakdown or a bridge (I can't really decide) in 14/8. Chorus 3 has an extra beat on measure four of it (making it 14/4) for the sake of a fill. So, taking the total beat-counts from Verse 2 and the next chorus (12 measures [8 in verse, 4 in chorus]), that makes 148 eighth notes. If you translate to 4/4, that's 37 measures, and in 6/4 it's 24 and 2/3 measures. Freaky math, no? And if someone wants to know the drummer of the band in question the song derives from, look up Tool, go to any Tool fanpage, and check for a bio on Danny Carey.

I didn't mean that Oblivion. I meant something along the lines of "from out of nowhere". Obscure time signatures you thought a remix has never seen before.

You're forgetting another real band (they're good, I don't care what anyone says) that plays a lot in odd time signatures (and since I'm saying this, no one can guess what the drumbeat at the top is from anymore): Tool. The link at the top? It's the chorus from Schism, a single from their 2001 album, Lateralus. The song dips into 12/8, 14/8, 13/8, and at times 11/8 and flows smoothly. Another example is the album-title song Lateralus. The bridge from the intro to the first verse goes from 9/8 to 8/8 to 7/8 (for all you math junkies: 987 is number 16 in the Fibonacci [sp?] sequence and the vocal pattern also loosely follows the sequence) twice before going into a more permanent drumbeat.

It's alright... I'm a terrible beat-boxer and an even worse TEXTUAL beat-boxer.

I dunno. I use Tag&Rename 3.2.

I'm not really sure how to go about this, since I haven't done it before. In theory, though, I guess you could if you press record inside FLStudio. I've got a Rolan EP-1 electric piano (it's a keyboard with piano, e.piano, vibes, organ, and strings). You can record and then replay the last thing you recorded on it, so if I tried the theory in question, I wouldn't have to play it on the spot. My Roland's with a MIDI-out jack and a MIDI-in jack, but I have no MIDI input on my computer, so I guess I'd have to get one of those USB MIDI 1x1's to test it, then, wouldn't I?

Okay, about your recording of pianos. First, is your piano an actual piano, or is it an electric keyboard? If it's the latter, just pick up a guitar cable or something and a 1/4"-1/8" adapter and plug that baby right into your line-in jack. Then, of course, plug the other end into one of your line-out/headphone jacks. If it's the former, you will need a mic, obviously. Don't talk to me about this one, since OverCoat's got the best idea.

I'm not sure if you're actually going to get answers, but your best bet is to actually ask the remixers themselves. If they have time, they'll probably give you some tips on what to do, if not go in-depth on how they do what. And as far as software goes, I highly recommend Fruity Loops (now known as FL Studio). It's easy to use, has the ability to render MIDIs, has its own VSTs (and VSTi's), and can export in MIDI, WAV, or MP3 format. The only problem is it tends to get expensive if you try to buy it retail (look for wholesalers online. I happened to to find the $800 Macromedia Flash v8 Professional, a computer graphics software, for just $250.). I'd say, though, that you can make quality music with the stuff you've got. I know I can with the stuff I have floating around my computer (still waiting on judgment for my latest possible ReMix).

Actually, I'm just bad with triplets. It's actually doo-doo-doo-cha!-ding-dicha-crash!-ding-dingding-cha!-ding-dingding repeat. Oh, and fifty moot points to the poster who can name the song that beat came from. Fifty more if you can name the band and drummer.

Okay, I thought the topic was obvious, but I guess it's not. It's offering help with 13/8, not asking about it. Sorry about the confusion...

I've come to notice that there are no mixes in 13/8, probably because it's such an awkward time signature. Actually, it's not that awkward if you just consider the accents. Check this out (recorded this morning in my own home on my own drumset): http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=517752

There's some other things that make finding the tempo difficult, too. For one, it's the genre of the music that sometimes sets it apart. From some of what I heard, most techno/trance/lectronica is either in 120 or 140 BPM. All rap is in 120 is it's fast, 60 if it's slow, and 90-107 if it's medium. For rock, metal, or punk you're just gonna have to know the band's average BPM (The average for all music, though, is roughly 120), although punk drummers tend to pull the tempo double-time. (As in 4 on the floor and snare on every *and* when you count 1and2and3and4). My best advice: Tap your foot every time you hear a bass drum kick followed by a snare. Of course, this probably only works for 4/4 or any meter/time signature with 4 beats (i.e. 6/8 can't be done like this unless 1] you know it's in 6/8 and 2] you're willing to tap your foot in a dotted quarter pattern for two measures. For 3/4, the waltz time signature, you're just gonna have to waltz it). Oh, and by the way - You just took advice (if you bothered to read this) from a drummer.