Kanthos

The real problem the OP wants to get rid of is threads asking vague, general questions that could be easily answered if people were willing to search the forums and search google. People are lazy idiots, so that's not going to happen. Simplifying everything into a single post won't help much; people still won't find it. Directing them to the search form or to the Guides & Tutorials section is probably good enough.

Congrats! That's a really nice ring. Jordan has good taste!

All hail the music expert. I am consumed by your vast knowledge.

You do realize that there are numerous forums for DT fanwankery? We get it, you like DT. If you want to discuss DT in great depth, do so somewhere else. Enough of us like them, but unlike you, most people here have fairly broad musical tastes, as well as reading comprehension enough to grasp the point of a thread before posting something in it. Not to mention that labeling any album the best album ever made is highly pretentious and subjective. *sigh* A month was too short. As for real suggestions, I'm going to add Inside Myself/Once Upon A Time by Destiny (Helen Trevillion), Origins and Through Sand and Snow by Pixietricks (Jillian Goldin), and Zircon's albums, especially Antigravity and The World Circuit.

Smooth jazz is more funk/pop-oriented and is fairly modern: bands like the Crusaders, Spyro Gyra, Kenny G, etc. are partially/totally in the smooth jazz vein. Basically, porno music with a bit more creativity Cool jazz is laid-back, small ensembles: think the kind of small quartet or quintet you'd hear playing background music in a smoky jazz pub. Chronologically, cool jazz came after bop and before fusion. Good examples here are Coltrane's later work, Miles Davis post-bop and pre-fusion work (Kind Of Blue is a classic), Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, that era. I'd probably consider Neskevartetten to be cool jazz more than anything else, although genres of jazz are less clearly defined than classical.

Absolutely; I'm not arguing that either forum is useless for presenting suggestions to remixers. It's more that if I have a limited amount of time to respond to something, I'd respond in the place where my words will probably have the most impact. Not to mention that many remixers of earlier mixes may not frequent the site or the forums anymore and may not ever read a review I give them, while WIP-forum posters are specifically asking for feedback. Both scenarios are good; one scenario is probably more useful.

I'd suggest at this point avoiding anything that doesn't have some margin for error in terms of picking stats (i.e. anything with a D&D/D20-based ruleset), unless you know already that they're into that kind of thing. A game like Neverwinter Nights has a great story and runs great on relatively older machines, but if you don't have the right stat balance for your class, don't pick the right feats, and don't increase the right stats as you level, you can end up getting destroyed. The game isn't very forgiving. Morrowind is a game where you don't have to pay attention to stats in the same way. As long as you know what your major skills are, it's not hard to level, and your skills increase in natural ways.

To some extent, there's less point reviewing a posted remix than a remix in the WIP forums. Reviewing the former may or may not help the artist improve, but given that their mix got posted in the first place, they're obviously hitting some level of quality, plus the judges review often still points out rough edges that could use more polish but aren't worth rejecting the song over. Reviews at that point often become ideas to make the song better/different (which often means "more to my personal taste"), instead of being suggestions that genuinely improve the person's music. The WIP forums, on the other hand, are much more useful to review because they allow someone to provide direct input into an in-progress track, many of which need significant work before they'd be accepted.

Also, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has been sold (darklink42 has it listed under Wanted items).

The general consensus on OCR is that FL Studio is the best for piano roll input. I'm inclined to agree with Yoozer though: even if you're not a keyboard player, having *some* kind of MIDI interface is beneficial. If you can't afford that, you'll probably have trouble affording FL Studio too.

I'm listing the following stuff for sale. For shipping, if I'm sending you just game discs or games with a small manual and you're in North America, I suggest a flat $5 wherever you are; it's easier than multiple trips to the post office to bug them about how much it costs to ship something somewhere. For larger packages, either those with a box or with multiple games and manuals (battlechests), I'll get you an actual quote for shipping. :::pc::: Diablo Battlechest (full box & manuals): $20 plus s+h Starcraft Battlechest (full box & manuals): $20 plus s+h Oblivion + Knights of the Nine disc (all downloadable content) + Shivering Isles expansion (discs in third-party cases only, no manuals/boxes/official cases): $35 plus s+h King's Quest I-VII package (2 CDs in official case; manual is in PDF format and contains codes for all KQ games that need them): $20 plus s+h Myst I-V plus Uru: Complete Chronicles (Uru is in a jewel case; can't remember for anything else but I have whatever original packaging and manuals came with the software when I bought it) $40 + s+h :::gamecube::: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (I bought it used in original case; disc is in great condition but can't remember offhand if it has a manual): $10 + s+h :::wii::: Smash Brothers Brawl: $35 + s+h :::ps1::: Chrono Cross: $30 + s+h

Metal-Ridley, I think part of your problem is that you're confusing the type of data that you work with inside the DAW with the type of file that you can export. Basically, you create MIDI data by entering notation, clicking notes on a piano roll, or recording from a MIDI keyboard. The DAW turns the MIDI data into audio either by using soundfonts, a VST or other plugin format, or by using your soundcard's built-in MIDI-to-audio capabilities. Alternately, you can also input audio data directly by plugging your guitar into your mic input on your soundcard or by using a mic to record an instrument, voice, or other sound. (There are drawbacks and considerations for both methods, and plugging your guitar in directly isn't recommended on a standard soundcard). Once you've gotten data into your DAW and have your song sounding the way you want, you have to export it to a file. Don't bother exporting to MIDI unless you plan on printing notation (although it's best and easiest to just work with a notation program like Finale or Sibelius in this case). I wouldn't bother with recording "What U Hear" either, as this will probably cause a loss of quality. Given that you've said you can't export as an MP3, what you should do is export as a WAV (you *can* do this in your software, right?) and use something like LAME to convert it to an MP3 for submission. If I came across as harsh or rude earlier, I apologize, but I strongly recommend you post a version of your song in the WIP (work in progress) section of the forum for opinions before you submit. Your song can be in the judge's queue for a long time before you get a response. If that response is a NO (which, if you haven't humanized your performance by adjusting note velocities and overall dynamics, is pretty much guaranteed), you'll be waiting a long time, but if you post on the WIP forum first, you'll get feedback much quicker and will be able to do the fine-tuning you need to get your song OCR-worthy in less time.

I think the OP is suggesting that there's a trust between Sony and EA, Blizzard, Mythic, etc, and that similar trusts exist between Nintendo and Wii/DS game shops and Microsoft and Xbox360 game shops.

Darklink42, not sure if your PM box is a bit screwy (I know some other people have complained about that). I PMed you over a week ago, you get it?

Yeah. There's no way that your remix, played back in whatever notation software you're using, will sound good enough to be posted. Don't waste your time submitting it; it will be a guaranteed NO. Get a DAW and some soundfonts or VSTs and work on making the mix sound realistic and human and not mechanical, then post it on the WIP section of the forum to get some feedback.

Yeah, too bad Ezra didn't pull through. I just did that tauren quest (the one where you have to feed Kyle the Frenzied his lunch in Bloodhoof Village, if you don't know) a couple days ago while going back to do old quests for the loremaster achievement.

Pilots are the only one who can haul passengers? That won't work, I don't think. Ever played a mage in WoW? Ever had people spamming you for water or food or portals somewhere? Being the only class to haul passengers would be significantly worse. Yeah, there's no way that everyone would want to play a Jedi, or at least play only a Jedi. I'm just somewhat skeptical that there will be enough of a compelling reason to play each non-Jedi class they introduce. I really hope it is balanced, but based on KOTOR, I didn't feel it was. I played both light side and dark side for both KOTOR games and found that making someone a Jedi, even if they kept their original skillset (Atton Rand in KOTOR 2 sticking to pistols and rifles and such) made the characters more viable. I don't know, my concern isn't that much with Bioware as it is with the existing mythos of Jedi and Sith being far superior to the ordinary person. The only times in the Star Wars movies I can think of where a Jedi or Sith is overwhelmed by non-force users is when there's sheer numbers, like the arena scene on Geonosis in episode II. Presumably, the Jedi can't concentrate on everything coming at them. Other than that type of situation though, Jedi generally outdo regular people. This is a lore issue, and not one that Bioware can just ignore, which makes balancing classes much harder.

I'd love it to do well (I loved the KOTOR games), but I don't think it will. Ignoring the problems I've read about with SWG, the biggest issue will be class balance. Jedi and sith are cool (and will likely be not all that much different, given stuff that the official site says about both republic and empire force users being able to go light side or dark side), but who will really want to be any other class? How many people are going to want to play a protocol droid, scoundrel, scout, or something else when they can be a force user? Some will, obviously, but unless they work under the assumption that all players are force users with lightsabres that specialize (using the force for stealth, using the force for melee attacks, using force powers to cause ranged damage, and so on), the lore itself doesn't really allow for many non-force users to be more powerful or more significant than the force users. This one issue alone will probably make the game fail unless Bioware approaches it *very* carefully. They claim that most of the game will be single-player and that PvP will be a big focus. I can't see PvP working with non-force users fighting force users. And making most of it single player or soloable? I really hope they have something in mind that isn't like World of Warcraft: you *can* do a lot of things solo there, but unless you really like questing and levelling characters, you have to form a group and run instances to make playing worthwhile. I honestly don't see the point of an MMO that is almost entirely soloable content anyway; that makes it more like a single-player game fused with an IRC client than an MMO. I really hope they pull it off well, and have no doubt that the plot arcs will be fantastic, but I'm not convinced. Also, given that companies like Blizzard who have had established server technologies for years have had trouble with World of Warcraft (i.e. with every major patch), I'm skeptical that Bioware will be able to pull off a good user experience with respect to downtime and technical network issues.

Didn't realize that the first kind, at least, sat on the floor. I'd think that'd be a bad idea though; wouldn't it pick up the noise of the performers moving on stage? With the show up in a week, I can see why you wouldn't want to go out and get more mics. As for positioning, I'm far from being an expert, but I'd think that the most important thing you want is to have mics positioned so that all the leads are directly in front of a mic on the slower numbers. Based on where they're going to be standing on the stage, that might not be possible, but you'd want positions that minimize the overall distance from the lead to a mic at all times. Other factors that might make a difference are stage monitors, if any; you obviously want to position the mics to avoid feedback. I don't know enough to suggest ideal positions, especially with all the unknowns (at least, unknown to me) in your venue and production. Maybe someone else here can help, but I believe that the people who know the venue best probably have the most knowledge. Ultimately, if it works, it works, right? Good luck with the show!

Well, I'm not that experienced with mics, but I always thought that vocal mics worked best when the singer was a few inches from the mic head. Also, headset mics are too obtrusive and will be visible but stand mics on the front of the stage won't? How does that make any sense? If you're set on using what the theatre already has, why not ask the guy what he recommends? Have him sit down with whoever in the production is involved with blocking and work something out? I'd say that evenly spread out is ideal as long as the leads will be close enough to the mics during all the smaller songs when you don't have a full chorus on stage, but if you have someone who's been doing this over 30 years, talking to him will be better than talking to any of us, especially since he also knows (or should know) the quirks of the venue. And I'd bring up the possibility of headset mics with him. If he has a good reason to avoid them, by all means do so (and I'd like to hear what that reason is), but other than budget, I'm not aware of any reason why you wouldn't want them in addition to whatever works well for capturing the chorus. Out of curiosity, what show is it?

Um, maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that you'd only need a total of 4 simultaneous threads from all processes to make use of all cores on a quad-core at the same time. I'd be surprised if many current-gen PC games had fewer than four threads, let alone the OS and any background processes you may be running. Quad-core is overkill if you just want to surf the web and make Word documents, but for gaming and remixing, quad-core is nice.

If you want the production to sound anything near good, get each one of your leads a headset mic. You can get ones that are flesh-colored. The idea that they won't (as opposed to can't, for some reason) use headset mics seems silly. Unless the show is performed in a very small venue and all of your vocalists have significant vocal training and a lot of power, they're not going to be heard well with hanging mics. You're also going to have an impossible time hanging mics appropriately for leads to sing into. Hanging mics need to be high enough that none of the performers will bump into them at any time (and don't count on the positioning of the performers to be precise enough that you can put the mics lower because the few lifts and such you might have are in certain spots). If you're a lead singing into a hanging mic, you're either going to be fairly far away on the stage from the point where the mic would be if it were lowered to the stage, or you're going to have to tilt your head up significantly. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't rent headset mics. Why can't the performers have them clipped? I was musical director for Footloose in school a few years ago and was involved with a lot of the production issues, including getting audio equipment, and we went with headsets. Footloose is also a very energetic show, especially the way we choreographed it. If you don't have the budget to rent headset mics, make the budget. There is no other financial investment that will have a bigger impact on the quality of your show than this. As for the hanging mics you do have, I'd spread them out in a grid. Is there any permanent staff at the venue you're performing at (our school's main lecture hall had a tech guy for this kind of thing) who could give you any advice? Or maybe talk to a local audio rental store, especially if you're already going there to get headsets.

I've got a copy I could sell. Do you already have a DS, or were you hoping to find someone to sell you a GBA first and then worry about games? I'll need an hour sometime to make a Tactics A2 save that has the bonus abilities from starting the game with Tactics Advance inserted; after that, it's yours if you like. PM me and we'll talk price and such.

*cue Aladdin music* Congrats! Zenimax/Bethesda is the company I'd want to work for if I wanted to be a game programmer.

I was thinking more for raiding, but yeah, I guess you can deal with the occasional frost boss and take the DPS hit by using frostfire.