Q.K.

Look, I know this must be annoying for all of you, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing! My track, whether I push the master volume up to 100% or 0%... the db level stays the same. Shouldn't that go...you know. Lower? It brings that monitor way out of the red, but then the track is even quiter than before. Is there a way, that without sending that monitor into the red and starting to clip, that I can keep the track loud? It seems the only way for me to get it down, is to turn the volume down, and it's already too quiet. Look, like I said, I know this must be a pain for you to have to explain this, but I would really appreciate some help, rather than a search function. I checked out all the topics I could find on this matter, but I didn't really understand what they were talking about. Sorry.

Edit: I got the volume and monitor levels right, check the latest post for my problem, thanks. Alright, so I'm doing this piece, and I finish the song, listen to it a couple times...then listen to some other stuff, and find out that the track is way too quiet! A little disclaimer here I've searched the forums already, but couldn't find anything that was of a lot of help, so I'm asking this here. Now... the track itself sounds really quiet compared to other music, and yet at the same time, I'm getting pretty close to clipping... I really don't know why. Right, so you see, it's only reaching -5 db here, and yet that monitor is showing a bit of red. I'm curious, how high/red/filled does that monitor have to be before it's considered clipping, or it interferes with the song? I'm really confused right now. I've taken a couple other professional tracks into FL, checked things out, and while the volume gets nice and loud, that monitor stays pretty low, and the waveform is pretty tame, whereas mine... well, you can see what's going on in the picture. So, if anyone could help me with this, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

Alright, I'm looking for some sort of "percussion" sounds. I don't mean drums, I'm moreso just looking for some of the more rare/random sounds, like... woodblocks, guiros... hmm, a few sounds in particular. If you have heard... the Tales of Symphonia OST >__> "Shinobi Life", there's those woodblock sort of "taps" going on. You can find a similar sound in the Goemon games, or heck, a ton of oriental music. That and that sort of shaker... again, I have no clue what instrument they used to get the sound, so I'm going to refer to House of the Flying Daggers for this . It's that sort of sleigh bells/shaker hybrid. You can hear it in the beginning of the movie, where... Zhang Ziyi is singing the song while she does that test. Whoo, movie/game references.. Look, I'm sorry about that, but I just don't know how to describe those sounds. So I guess any asian percussion would be what I'm looking for... minus the drums. I've got lots of those. Hopefully free...?

Heh, and of course the Solaris would happen to cost about $300 more than the SM57.... *sigh* Well, I'll keep looking I suppose. (And the Luna is a bit cheaper, but I mean... still... $300 for a mic is a bit out of my range).

The Proteus X can't be used for recording? Well, alright then. I'll take a look at the 0404 then. When you say a large membrane condenser mic... Would something similar to the SM58 be better for that? I'm planning on doing vocals, yes, but I want to be able to get good quality recordings on other things too (instruments, random objects ie: rain, glass, tapping, cracking, basically just any sound in general). Is the SM57 good enough for doing a wide range of things? (I hear it's good for snares ) I've heard about Behringer before, and I'll be sure to look into, as well as Line6. Any personal preferences? Thanks. EDIT: Alright, I've done some revision to my list. I think this stuff might work better for me? -Emu 0404 -SM57 -Tube Ultragain Mic200 (By Behringer, but I'm not sure how good it is really. It's cheaper than the other one, at only $70 CAD)

Yeah, pretty much Oh well. I guess I shouldn't have ignored the search function. Still, would anybody mind taking a quick look at my list of what I'm planning on picking up, to help me incase I pick up something I really don't need? XD

Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I'll use the search feature next time. But... how does this setup sound? -Proteus X -SM57 -Studio Projects VTB-1 Again, I'm sorry about this.

Alright, so I'm starting to get interested in doing some vocal recordings, and I know so far that I need: -Mic (of course) -Preamp -Better Soundcard So here's what I was thinking of going with. For the mic, I was a little undecided, seeing as I'm new to this and don't know what would be considered "a good deal" or a good buy. I've heard people like to use Shure microphones, but any more info on that would be great. For the Preamp, well... I'm wondering whether I'll actually need one. The soundcard is going to most likely be the Emu Proteus X, but if you think I'll still need a preamp for recording, should I go with something like Tube, or what? Thanks.

Thanks. I guess it'll do for what I need it for, even if there IS a whole bunch of un-related stuff in it Now here's another tricky one... seeing as I don't know if it's an actual instrument or what, does anybody have a sound of that sort of... metal type drumstick that people use repeatedly right after each other really fast in some pieces? Here... if you want to hear what I'm talking about, check out Palpable's Mystical Ninja Goemon remix at about 01:35 http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01255/ I can't seem to identify what that sound is. Let me know though if you have any samples of it.

I've done some searching, but I can't seem to find any "nature" sounds (VST, soundfont, what have you) such as birds chirping (And not the synth kind of trill, or just the same bird in different keys) or water, or rain or wind or anything. I suppose soundfonts might not be the way to go, but if anybody has any links to sounds like these (free or otherwise) would you mind linking me to them? Thanks.

Oh, good. I was checking out some... "real" samplers? And they were all going for around $1000+. Hopefully virtual samplers cost a lot less? I'm wondering... is there any possibility of a say... miracle sampler? XD One that could load nearly every type of file? If not, then just one that at least can load a few types would be great..

Alright, then let me get this straight... a sampler is a "hardware" type thing? As in, it's a seperate machine, and not just some software?

While we're on the topic. I understand FL can't merely go and load AKAI files, Roland files, what have you. My question is, would using a soundcard such as an Emu soundcard make any difference? And also... what can you use to load Roland files into FL? Something like that CDXtract program?

Hehe. That Proteus X looks pretty nice, I must admit. And 2GB of sounds?? My god. It appears you can load AKAI, Halion and all those other sample types on it as well? Sweet. Well, I dunno', but it certainly looks good. I might have to consider it

Well, right now I'm using a Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS... however I've heard that they are very inferior to soundcards such as the Emu404, Audiophile, etc. My question is... since I don't do any recording with a microphone, would I benefit from getting something like the Emu404? Just how much better would it be for working with things that (Aside from a few audio/wav samples) are mostly digital? (ex: VSTs, Soundfonts <--bleh, and stuff like that).

Oh... Well so much for that idea Do you know if there's anything planned in the future for FL to use other formats such as AKAI?

I'm curious. Is there anyway you could play the AKAI sound on it's own, and using something else that records from your soundcard, you could record that as a wav file? Instead of having to spend 140 bucks on that CDXtract? (Why oh why must we pay $140 just to get some samples we're already paying for to load in FL Studio...)

I'm just wondering, because I've seen a lot of stuff that usually costs well over $50 per item (Whether it be a program, a VST, or a sample CD) and can get very expensive, like.... $4000. I'm just wondering... how do you guys get the money for all this?? Freelance musician jobs? Just your regular "job" job? Your company?

Hey, I'm just wondering. I've looked around, but I can't find any free electric guitar VSTs. I suppose I could always pay, but if there ARE any free ones that sound relatively good, would you letting me know? Thanks.

Ha... funnily enough, I tried messing with it and I got it to listen to me... Sorry about that. And thank you.

Basically, I just bought the Prosamples Volume 31 CD, and I've started using it, but all the samples are really...strange. I put a quarter note's worth into the Piano Roll, and it just keeps on holding the darn note for like, 10 seconds, making it virutally impossible to use in music. Do you have any ideas on what I could do to "shorten" the wav file?

Then I guess it would be pretty much out of the question getting a hoody. And there's no where else we can buy these from?

So do you guys know if getting one of the hoodies is still possible? From what I hear, everyone there isn't responding to anything.

Oh, about that soundonts. It turns out it was just my program would only let me load 1 at a time (and ones under like, 5MB or something crappy) They work fine with other stuff though.

I'm not sure if that's it. If it is and I'm just missing something, tell me, but I can't seem to get it as low as it is in Into the Deep...