Vaylos

Quick bump here: I've completely reworked the WIP texture wise to aim for a more cohesive sound. I also adjusted levels and effects to add structure and try to aim for a more organic/moving flow to everything. Hopefully this is much improved over the last version. I'll post the link at the top a well. http://www.thesixtyone.com/JBot/album/manage/#/JBot/song/Crystalized+Zebetite+%28remix+of+Brinstar+Red+Soil+Swampy+Area%29/62613/

Yeah I think I see where you're coming from now. And I'm familiar with both of those two tracks, particularly Moon Rhapsody. They're in my playlist...somewhere hehe. But yeah I understand what you mean about having some more ebb and flow, and making the whole thing more organic. I've got some ideas brewing already, and I'll work at changing up some of the textures and make the whole thing more fluid and less stale. I also know a couple spots where I think a keychange would work well. It will take some time to make the changes (I'm not exactly a prolific musician by any means) So yeah, I'll get at reworking it a bit once I find some time between job hunting splurges. -J

Yep, I have a feeling some of that may be how t61 handles the file uploads. I've had some others in the past which after upload ended up being a bit...erm...less than stellar in the dynamics department. I'll take a look at it though, I have a feeling I may need to back off on the limiter a tad. The mix is a bit spaced out, but I was aiming for a somewhat large spacious feel, what with the area reminding me of large mine shafts. I'll play around with it a bit when I find time though, and see if I can tweak a few things. I had a feeling the violin would get shot down though, I'll have to do some experimenting with leads I guess. I'm not sure if I can make the background pads anymore dynamic. As for the plucked sound, that's actually part of the synth, it just has a bit of an attack if you staccatto the note, so it sounds like a pluck. I can see about smoothing it out a bit though so it doesn't sound arbitrary. But yeah, I'll see what I can do. The original file that was uploaded was at least 160kbps if not 192. That I can guarantee. I think just the way t61 handles mp3s is kinda like the radio station and the way some of them like to compress a track that's already had the life squashed out of it. But like I said, I'll look into it. Thanks for the crits. -J

Reworked Remix here: http://www.thesixtyone.com/JBot/album/manage/#/JBot/song/Crystalized+Zebetite+%28remix+of+Brinstar+Red+Soil+Swampy+Area%29/62613/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Hi all, it's been a long time since I've attempted a remix. Anyway, I was trying to get some ideas for an original project down, but it ended up turning into a remix for the Red Soil Swampy Area from Super Metroid. It's pretty much "complete" but I wanted to get some ideas before trying to submit it. You can find it here: http://www.thesixtyone.com/jbot/#/JBot/songs/new/?goto_song_id=47495&full_refresh Just hit the play button in the upper left corner. There's an alternate version where I did not include a bassline that seems to stand on its own merit somehow. I was thinking of submitting one of them, but then saw yet another remix of the same track not too long ago, so I thought I'd wait a bit. I do take some liberties with the source material, but I don't think I deviate too far out. Let me know whatcha think! -J-Bot

I'd have to say my monitors are my most important piece of equipment. It's a joy to actually be able to hear what I'm doing right, and wrong when I work on things, and my production abilities have steadily improved over the last year or so. On the inspirational side of things... hmm. Oatmeal VST. I love that randomize button, and closely behind it another freebie from KVR, The Element of Surprise. Which...is kinda like oatmeal, but it's only a single button randomizer for the stuff under the hood. Can't really tweak anything, but still good for messing around. My EMU Xboard61 for my controller. I really do like the key action on this guy, and it's compact enough to fit on my desk.

I'm partial to the Tannoy Reveal 6's myself. Er, the passives that is.. Think I got em for $370 off of e-bay (I think musicians friend had em for $450 at the time) They seem to work pretty well for me. Just realize that it's a good idea to actually go and listen to different sets of monitors if you're able, since everybody's ears are different, and you're the one who will be doing the monitoring. Here's some brands I tend to hear good things about: KRK Rokit series Tannoy Reveal series Event (the 20/20 are supposed to be similar to my tannoys and about the same price) Yorkville (a.k.a. "Yorkies") Think the YSP-1 were pretty popular for awhile, don't know if they still are or not. Read tons of reviews, get opinions, ask people who've used the equipment, and try to find a place that sells monitors to do some A/B comparisons. I literally researched for months before making my decision, given what my budget was. Good Luck!

It's acoustic as in...er....not classical hehe Which I understand carries over to electrical. It's your typical steel-string guitar with the narrower neck. I ordered the Ibanez V50 package off zzounds through the OCR link. I know it's on the dirt cheap side of things, but it sounds good to my ears, and the action isn't super-harsh or anything. It is not a classical guitar (broader neck/smaller body/nylon strings) so I'm not trying to learn classical technique. I'm not finger-picking anything here hehe. I might try learning classical technique later on once I get used to fretting though. My g/f has a classical guitar, but she doesn't really play anymore.

Okay okay okay, no fighting in my thread. Don't make me grab the hose >_< I'm going to have to agree with Suz though. Chord structures, knowing how to build them, and switch between them would be a necessity in learning music, whether learning guitar, or piano, or violin, or any instrument capable of producing them. Learning the scales and moving between strings and fret positions I would have to say is equally important especially when it comes to melodies, as I would assume that would be necessary for playing leads, and doing melodic improvisation on guitar and other instruments. I would also wager, that learning to move between chords as well as learning scales, and getting faster at BOTH would be a good idea. Mike, no offense, I think I see what you're trying to say, however, the way you said it just didn't sound right. I agree that learning scales and building speed on them sounds like a good way to get better at working with the leads and melodies, but seeing as I'll be laying down a -chord- progression, and then improvising a melody over the top (if/when I get good enough to actually record myself) I'd have to say BOTH are important for me to have a good hold on. Especially since chords kinda lay down the key/mode of the track, and I tend to use a lot of modality in my work. I'd also like to say, that I generally work in a variety of musical genres, not as much in popular, but I've been planning on branching out a bit, seeing as how some of my music is starting to sound. (that, and Jamstix2 is just plain fun to play with )

I kinda had a feeling that you'd say that hehe. Well, it's good to get an opinion on the site i've been using at least. Step 1: Learning scales and chords Step 2: Building muscles and callouses Step 3: .... Step 4: Profit! I guess I should have phrased my original question this way: " Been using the guitar lessons on about.com http://guitar.about.com/library/blguitarlessonarchive.htm Is this a pretty decent site, or are there better free lessons out there?" Well, the lessons seem pretty straightforward to me at least. I may need to do some work on my left hand pinky though...playing piano seems to have given me some tension in that finger...reaching down to that 4th fret is still awkward for me. (not NEARLY as bad as my right hand though lol) But, all in good time, Thanks!

Hi all. I've kinda been wanting to learn guitar for awhile now. Finally saved up enough to go out and get one. Thing is, I'm broke again, so it's going to be awhile before I can afford a tutor. Now, I remembered in a past thread, think it was last year sometime, someone posted a link to a website with some pretty good lessons for someone just picking up guitar, but I haven't been able to locate it really. (been using the one on about.com for now) Anyone remember which site it was?

I'm using Tannoy Reveal R6's (the passives) for monitoring. I really need to get some decent headphones for double checking though. Ah well, maybe when I have money again...someday. edit: the amp I'm using with the speakers is an ART-SLA1.

Edit: for content and spelling: I'm still very much an amateur, but I'm making progress I think. Current setup: Instruments: Bach-Strad Bb Trumpet (haven't played in awhile) Eb and Bb Bamboo Flutes (still learning to play) -Hardware Tannoy Reveal6 Passive connected to an ART SLA-1 for monitoring. EMU Xboard 61 for midi control and recording. Some nameless dynamic mic. Pretty sturdy though. Sounds better than the SBlive mic that came with the card -Software FL Studio 6 for most of my work. Rosegarden4 for music scoring Audacity in the rare instance I need to record something. -VSTi Oatmeal and Crystal, freebies found on KVR, capable of many different sounds. Kinda my bread and butter for my electronica-type music. Jamstix V1.81 Demo (because I can't afford a real drummer right now, and I suck at writing percussion, a weakness I need to remedy) DSK Brass: not -too- bad sounding to me. I might take a look at their other stuff as well. Proteus X: came with the Xboard. Full version, not the lite version. The strings sections are handy for layering, and fleshing things out. Other various things found on KVR. -VST Effects Primarily Kjaerhus's Classic series. MDA effects from time to time. kinda gives a different color or flavor. BlueCat audio released some freebies not long ago. FreqAnalyst is useful. -SF2 Mostly solo instruments I've painstakingly hunted down through the garbage piles of SF2midi.com Squidfont A nice sounding guitar font Suzumebachi posted up on the samples thread. some sounds from other fonts like Fluid or SGM on occasion.

Nice! Thanks for the link. Will give it a watch asap. edit: Perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. Endless possibilities there. Must go explore some ideas now.

I've searched around, and haven't come across this thought or problem (or maybe I just failed to word it correctly) I'm not sure if FL Studio is "smart" enough to pick this up, but is it possible to control two seperate channels from one keyboard? Now when I say control, I don't mean volume/pan/other parameters, I -think- what I mean is splitting the keyboard so left hand/bass range plays one VST or channel, and the right hand/treble range plays a different VST or channel. If that fails, is FL Studio smart enough for me to hook up a 2nd midi controller and use one keyboard for one channel, and the other for a different channel for playing/recording? Er, assuming I had enough midi ports. I know the way FL Studio tends to work is that you highlight a channel, and that's the one the controller points at for playing/recording and whatnot, but I'm not sure how to make a second controller recognize a different channel, or if it's even possible within the scope of the program.

Well, I didn't have anything better at the time heh. I used a sharpie to dim the LED light recently though, so I took the sock off. MUCH easier on the eyes