Kanthos

Fair enough; I missed them somehow. Time to download now

Have you ever seen a 'commercial' album with covers? Whose name is on the album? The original artist, or the one who made the album? Sure, the original artist will get credit somewhere for originally writing/recording the song, but they don't get credit for making someone else's version. Why would OCRemix be any different? This isn't a question of 'user experience' (which, IMO, is just fine the way it is). It's a question of correctness. Zircon made Calamitous Judgement; Yasonori Mitsuda, OCRemix, and Chrono Trigger did not. Zircon belongs in the artist field, period. Nothing else would be fair to the remixer. It's the remixer, not djpretzel, not the original composer, who is putting in the majority of the effort to get remixes on the site. Sure, djpretzel and the judges do a lot, but without a doubt, the time put in by all remixers outweighs the time put in to judge and host the mixes. If the user experience isn't to your liking, too bad. You're free to fix it. And incidentally, since iTunes has a simple Javascript interface, it would be a joke for you to fix up remix tagging to your liking. Make no mistake, what you're doing with custom tagging isn't fixing a broken user experience; it's customizing the user experience to your own personal tastes. OCRemix is not 'wrong' and you are not 'right'. You and OCRemix differ on your viewpoints. All this does is trade a 'bad user experience' for another 'bad user experience'. Your method won't let me play all zircon's tunes in a row on my iPod; OC Remixes' method won't let you play all Mario 1 tunes in a row. Again, your way is not 'right', it is different. If the remixer did not make their 'derivative work', there would be no remix. If you bought a classical album, would you expect the artist to be 'Beethoven'? Of course not, the person who performs the work, even though it's their own interpretation, would be listed as the artist (and, since it's classical, one that varies from the composer's intended interpretation in small ways like dynamics and tempo). This is exactly the way the music industry works. The recording artist gets predominant credit, giving credit where it's due to the original composer/songwriter. You took a representative poll of all OC Remix listeners, did you? If you know what video game remixers like to hear and how it's organized, why are you not a published remixer or the host of your own site of video game remixes? What you really mean is that you (and perhaps some of your friends) want things one way and aren't open to other possibilities. Who wrote the remix is just as logical a grouping as what game it comes from. I don't know why OCRemix hasn't published arranged albums by individual mixers, though my suspicion is that they haven't been asked to do so, or the quality of some of the mixes on the album weren't up to OCRemix's standards. You're missing one thing, though: in an OCRemix project, the tags are still in the same way. The individual mixers get credits for their track, in the same way that a group of rock bands contributing a track each to a benefit album would get credit for their own track. No one questioned that to get what you want is more difficult in iTunes. But your 'logic' consists of ignoring FACT (that zircon produced a mix, based on someone else's composition that first appeared in a game), and jumping back to the same argument you've made before, which is based on your OPINION (and as such, is not FACT). And good job saying that the second-most-important person on this site today is wrong. Liontamer is essential to running this place; who the hell are you? The grouping is arguably less 'logical' in your case, but in either case, is your opinion. Ignoring the page I referenced as to why OCRemix does not want to be involved with tagging or assigning genres (good job there, champ), a comma-separated list is NOT easy to deal with in any audio player that does not support filtering by search. Which, of course, I pointed out hours ago. Uh, you have what, a grand total of 2 posts here. What kind of idiot do you think would a) trust your statement of experience and give you the keys to the database? As I mentioned earlier this post, there's no reason why you can't run some javascript to periodically reformat tags in iTunes. Do this and let the people running the site run it the way they want. You're getting FREE music after all, so stop making yourself look like an ass by complaining.

The big advantage of using a Mac is that Mac uses Core Audio which provides low-latency audio support out of the box. Most standard sound cards for Windows PCs will run at a much higher latency since they aren't designed for heavy-duty audio work. If you don't want to record any real instruments and aren't playing a MIDI keyboard or anything where you need a dedicated MIDI interface, using a Mac will be cheapest for you, given that you already have one. I'm assuming by stronger you mean that your Mac is more powerful (as opposed to you're more comfortable with OSX than Windows); if so, definitely use that. For starting out, I'd suggest that the first thing you do is read this. As far as instruments and effects go, any reasonably-priced DAW should give you some to start with, but it won't take you very long to find that some things are lacking, and that list will help you out. As for a DAW, I recommend starting with Ableton Live, if only because you can get a free unlimited 30-day trial and because it has a great set of lessons built into the software. Other DAWs may or may not have lessons; starting as a complete beginner on a DAW without lessons will probably lead to frustration that won't let you evaulate the DAW effectively. If FL Studio has lessons, that's probably a better place to start since so many people here use FL compared to other DAWs, so you'll find it a bit easier perhaps to get help. Another good choice is Reaper, because it's really cheap (I think it's something like $50 for a non-commercial license, and I don't believe it's initially limited unless you pay anything either). Reason is a bit of a different issue. Some people here swear by it, but its big limitation (or big improvement over other DAWs, depending on how you look at it) is that it doesn't support plugin formats beyond its own, which means you can't download some random VST synth and use it in Reason. If you're comfortable with the workflow, the available instruments, and the price, Reason can certainly be a good choice, but just be aware that it's limited in this way.

I'm by no means a spokesperson for the site, but here are my own thoughts on this. OCRemix treats mixers as independent artists, not as artists contributing to some now-2000-song compilation. Any decent media player on a computer will let you limit the current playlist by some search criteria and will search across all fields, so other than in portable players, this is moot anyway. Also, from a technical perspective, Final Fantasy VII is not an artist, it's a game. Nobuo Uematsu is the composer, not the artist, as he did not make the remix you're listening to. Putting the game name as the artist may lead to better sorting on MP3 players, but is technically wrong, and since it makes it harder/impossible to sort by artist, which I think OCRemix probably sees as a higher priority (and I know I do), this probably isn't the right way to go. But they should. The remixers aren't some nameless body of people who have contributed tracks for the benefit of OCRemix. Many of them are musicians looking to (or already) composing and arranging for video game soundtracks and other outlets. Obscuring their names would do them a disservice. Agreed, I think this is a pain. OCRemix is openly against setting genres. Granted, many listeners look for particular genres above others, but that's a personal choice. This also wouldn't help you on portable MP3 players where you'd end up fragmenting your genres, because of the use of multiple genres in the one field, to the point where you couldn't really listen to, say, your Classical music collection plus all the remixes you have that could be considered Classical (an iPod, for example, will treat "Classical, Orchestral, Symphonic" as a different genre from Classical unless you make a smart playlist within iTunes first, which is clearly something no one wants to do for every major genre type). This'd be nice; it'd let you do something like listen to all the remixes you've downloaded in chronological order. Everything I've said so far ignores the two biggest points of all. Firstly, it will take an immense amount of time to retag all the remixes to meet any new scheme, and however it's done, it won't please everyone and many people will find the new scheme worse than the old one. Secondly, once everything is retagged, there's the matter of the insane amount of bandwidth for people to download everything. If I knew that the tagging format was going to change, I'd want to download everything again to keep it consistent. Sure, that could be done via torrents, but not everyone is bright enough to do so. Also, anyone who makes any custom modifications to the tagging would lose out - in my case, I put a number of 'tags' in the comment field and make smart playlists in iTunes based on those tags, and I wouldn't want to have to do those again.

It did, actually; a friend of mine has one. It could be legitimate and they meant to say that the DS Lite is similar to the original DS, or it could be a scam. I'd still avoid it.

FL Studio, like all DAWs, is too broad a product for it to be easy to give out generic tips without knowing your experience, the types of things you'll do with the DAW, and the ways in which you want to produce music. Someone could give you, say, some suggestions on advanced recording techniques, but if you are only using software instruments, you won't be recording any audio so this will be useless to you. You really are best off asking specific questions. They could be basics about the program like 'How do I have a count-in before recording' (though answers to these kinds of questions can be found in the manual, of course, so don't annoy people by asking here because you're too lazy to look for yourself). Or, they could be more advanced things, something like 'I've recorded my guitar, and here's an audio sample of how it sounds. I'm getting some hiss and it sounds kind of muddy; how can I clean it up'.

Changing things up a bit, what new features would you want in the 3DS? I'd want the following: 1) Dual cartridge slots (especially if the 3DS uses the same cartridge size as the DS, or if a hybrid slot can be built, like how some computers have cardreaders that fit SD/CF/Memory Stick/other kinds of media format). I would be much more likely to play casual games like Animal Crossing where you put in a bit of time each day if it didn't mean switching out cartridges all the time. 2) 3D visualization can't be hard on your eyes. If I'm going to get a headache if I play much more than an hour, I'm not interested in 3D games. 3) Online store account done by personal authentication rather than system ID/WiFi card MAC ID/not done at all (however it's done now). If you want people to upgrade systems and you want to introduce a download-only store, you need to allow them to transfer between machines, and an easy way to do this is by using user accounts like the PlayStation store. If parents are concerned about their kids accessing the store, have some parental controls to block access. 4) Gaming over WiFi via user account (same account as the store). Again, if parents are concerned, provide some parental controls to do something like limit connections to people on a parent-controlled friends list. Get rid of the stupid friend codes.

Though sadly it's not available anymore, so if you don't already have it or find someone wanting to transfer a license, you're out of luck.

What's the buffer size set to in FL Studio/on your audio interface? Probably you set it too small. Also, what other programs do you have running in the background? They could be slowing things down. And sometimes even having your network interface and/or wireless network card enabled (even if not in use) can cause some interruptions in the audio.

I'm all for kids playing online in games that both have some kind of ranking system (if you suck just because you're 12 and inexperienced and I'm 28 and good at a game, I don't want to waste my time thrashing you) and some kind of way to block/not play with idiots (if you're a good player but act like immaturely over voice or in-game chat, I don't want to play with you). These factors apply equally to me regardless of your age. If you're immature and annoying, I'm not going to enjoy being in your company no matter how good you are (though depending on the game and the difficulty in finding a replacement, I may tolerate you anyway). If I know what's going on and you have no clue, I don't want to waste time playing either with you or against you.

Corrupted savefiles can happen to anything. Bad sector on your PC's hard drive, dirty connector on your DS cartridge, no storage media is 100%% permanent and guaranteed as long as it's in use.

Glitched save file or something? There's probably only a byte or two that say where the Lunar Whale is on the map; a single bit being off could make it inaccessible or not shown on the map.

I probably won't play very much, but I wouldn't mind trying it out. You've already got my Facebook info, so invite away.

Please add: FOR SALE :::computer/music electronic stuff::: Cubase 4 + manuals + Steinberg Key: $300 (inc. shipping) - Kanthos

Looks like it's one of these. Basically, it's a special gaming keypad where you'll map each key to the core functions in your game so you have one hand on the mouse and the other on that. More ergonomic and more customizable than a normal keyboard.

Also, isn't the Oxygen synth action while the Axiom is semi-weighted (and has a pretty good feel to it; I used to own the 61-key version)? And, the Axiom has MIDI IN and OUT if you ever have a need to play live or use it as an additional controller for a keyboard (though you'd have to buy an AC adapter to power it if you do so). If none of that interests you, go for the swap though.

All taken care of, thanks to AMT!

Sounds more like an Am9 chord in an inversion so that the 9th isn't on top, though you'd need to know the context to be sure. Either way, cool chord; I use it or variations on it in a lot of the pop/rock stuff I play at church. Malcos, seems like a cool project. If you want any feedback on it, I'd be happy to watch and comment.

Just curious; what are you calling the 'magic chord'?

I'm sure there's someone here who has some hardware device that came with an Ableton Live LE CD that they're not using. If so, would you be willing to let me have the serial number? I'm currently evaluating Live as a host on the basis that I use a product called Cantabile as a live performance host (I'm a keyboard player) and Cubase as a DAW for standard work, and rather than build up skills in two different products, with very little ability to transfer anything I do in one product to the other, it might make more sense to use Live in both contexts. I'm using the demo of Live now, of course, but the Live LE serial number would give me a discount to upgrade to the full Live 8. Anyone have an unused serial number they don't mind passing on?

Happy birthday to two fine ex-judges and great musicians. Good luck with the new solo release, Jill!

Obviously this isn't a medley, but you might like .

If you end up not liking it and are interested in a PodXT, I have one for sale. It's been very rarely used, in perfect condition, with the FX Junkie expansion added to it (though not the other amp packs or the bass pack). I'm selling for a good deal less than retail. PM me if you want to follow up on this.

That's the way I do it; the download is faster (if your PC uses an ethernet connection instead of WIFI). The PSP has a bunch of good fighting games too, though you might want to do a really easy mod to your d-pad for games like Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max that use the d-pad for all the circular moves that are best done on an arcade stick.

I doubt it's a hard drive issue, at least as far as the drive making noise. One possibility is that you've got a lot of other drivers for other devices loaded and running in the background and/or a lot of other programs running: a web browser, iPod drivers, antivirus, etc. Unload everything you can, and if possible, set things to not load when you boot up. You may want to make a second account on your machine (I'm assuming Windows, yes?) that only loads the drivers you need for your music and nothing else. Another possibility is that you're just asking too much of your CPU. Cubase is stuffing small portions of audio into your sound card's audio buffer and as the buffer fills, it can begin to 'empty out' to your speakers. A really large buffer will make it easy for your computer to keep the buffer full, but you'll have bad latency, which is a problem when you're recording MIDI or audio against the audio you've already recorded. Make the buffer too small relative to your CPU speed, the number of VSTs you're trying to use, and the number of audio clips you're playing back, and your computer just won't keep up and you'll start to hear crackles.