Kanthos

Ask her the following questions. The answer as to what you should do should be pretty clear once you're done. 1) Can she even get into the graphic design program at this point? Not sure of the details, but you made it sound like she's going into college as a general major and hoping to specialize. 2) What does the college recommend? Are there any software products they use now or are likely to use before she graduates that are Mac-only? 3) Does she use any apps outside of your basic browsers, word processors, and MP3 players? Is the software she'd use available in a Mac version at no extra charge if you have the PC version? Is she smart enough to figure out how to run Windows software within Mac OS? 4) If she gets a Mac, are you or anyone else she knows any good at troubleshooting it? Are you or anyone else she knows any good at troubleshooting PCs? 5) Common apps like Photoshop are available on PC and on Mac. Would she have access to on-campus computers for other less-common, Mac-only software that's included in the curriculum?

If you're lucky, your school will have a course or two in audio production or digital music. Take them as electives and view your music as a hobby. If music gets you somewhere, great! If not, you haven't spent years in a degree that will force you to find another job anyway.

After doing a spontaneous piano & cello jazz improv on Summertime with my cousin-in-law, I have a few ideas for jazz cello and piano duet remixes, although it could be a while before they actually get recorded since she lives a few hours away. Not sure she'd want to do a game mix either; she's not a gamer and is a good 10+ years older than me.

This may have changed already, and if not, I'm sure the hacking community is working on it, so I'd suggest you do some investigation on your own first, or ask someone more knowledgeable. Good that you didn't spend money without being sure that you'd get what you want

From what I've read in this thread, the PSP Slim models all have a firmware high enough that a hack hasn't been found yet, so you were probably out of luck even without upgrading the firmware.

Get better, Jordan. You can pull through this. You and Jade are in my prayers.

The problem with consumers is that everyone seems to think it's their *right* to have the music they want, when they want it, at no cost. It doesn't make logical or economic sense. I don't have a particularly good studio, but I've spent probably $1,300 on gear (audio interface, two MIDI controllers, guitar effects, amp, mic, and headphones), plus probably $2,000 or more on software, plus a laptop. I'd call my set of gear laughable compared to even a poorly-equipped professional recording studio. I can do what I want with what I have, but the price tag isn't cheap. I'm a hobbyist who happens to have a software development job that lets me afford my audio gear. If I was trying to go pro, I'd need and want a lot of improvements and additions to what I have. And that's not to mention the cost of a music degree, if your styles of performance or composition make it worth going down that road (I paid for my computer science degree through co-op work terms; music students don't have many opportunities in that regard). No one is going to be able to be a full-time musician unless they're making money on their music, someone is otherwise funding them (an inheritance, or something like "I'll give you $1,000 a week to do whatever you want"), or they're married to someone who supports them. It's not as much about people wanting to get rich or even wanting to get paid for their time as it is about people needing money to live. Sure, there are tons of remixers here who have essentially donated *some* of their music to the general public. But make no mistake, every remixer who is attempting to be a full-time musician is also selling their own music independently, teaching, performing live, doing other musical work, or some combination of those. OCRemix is sustainable because it was and is a site for musicians to pay tribute to video game music and composers. It is not sustainable as the sole source of income for those who have posted material.

But it's not from scratch, since there's an idea involved. You're not just taking inspiration from character art, scenery art, or music; you're using their plot in a remake or adding to their intellectual property in a spinoff.

Ever sat through the credits of a Square-Enix RPG? They typically have a large programming team, larger QA team, translators, designers, producer and director, musicians/composers. They often hire a pop singer to do vocals on a track, and maybe even write it, which means both a base salary plus royalties. Then there's the team of artists and modellers for in-game art, other artists and modellers for CGI movies. Say there's a team of 20 people with annual salaries of $50,000 (probably high for QA, low for programmers and other team members). If the team of 20 people with an average salary of $50k/yr works on the game for only one year, that's a cost of a million right there. Teams are larger, salaries are higher, and the development process is more than a year for any game that isn't thrown together quickly (i.e. not written by EA).

There's also a pretty good free simulation of a small number of amps and effects. Think it's called SimulAnalog Guitar Suite.

I use both when I play live (not enough USB ports, so one keyboard goes through USB and the other through MIDI), and I don't notice a difference either way. Really, it's the speed of your sound card drivers that make the difference; USB is probably faster but not enough that it'd really be noticeable unless you already have considerable lag.

Congrats! Being separated for even a few weeks is rough; I can see why you'd want to avoid that long-term.

You've got Hale-bopp listed as both engaged and married.

I frequently play through Mario 3, Mario World, New Super Mario Bros, and Link to the Past.

Happy birthday!

By precise, I meant that no human hits each note with exact precision in timing, and also that it's often stylistically pleasing to vary the timing of a melody, especially in jazz. Parts of your piece, on the other hand, sounded like you programmed them in by clicking on a piano roll or that they were played in and then quantized. They line up too perfectly, which takes away from the impression that this was played by a human. Whether you did actually play the notes or not doesn't matter. In order to make realistic-sounding jazz remixes, you want it to sound as human as possible. Precision is less noticeable in other genres, but is one of the things that makes jazz as vibrant as it is.

Drums are very repetitive, and there are significantly large parts of the song, particularly at the start, where I can't follow the beat. I'm used to hearing and playing Latin rhythms and polyrhythmic jazz, and for a song that ends up being in 4/4, the intro just felt off. There's also very little variance in dynamics, which is a big part of why the piece feels mechanical. Edit note velocities a bit and shorten and lengthen some of the notes to make it feel more humanized; it's almost too precise. The song didn't really feel like it went anywhere to me, but that's largely because of the repetition in the comping and percussion and the lack of dynamics, I think. Groove tunes with simple melodies and simple chord progressions *do* work sometimes (Joe Zawinul is the best example of that), but it's variation and makes it work. A simple composition can be harder to work with sometimes simply because you have to be more creative in the subtle nuances of each instrument since there's less coming from the song itself. You also need to do a lot more with regards to mixing. I didn't know there was a bass at all until the bass solo, and even then, several of the percussion instruments and the piano overpower the bass. I'm not meaning to be harsh or mean with my comments. I just listen to a lot of jazz and demand a lot of myself as a musician, and don't feel that I'm doing you any favours by not saying what I feel. If you have enough attention to detail and can put a bit more creativity into the piece (leaving it alone and listening to and playing other stuff for a few days might help you come back to it with fresh ideas), you can do a lot with this. Good luck!

Not sure about that particular kit, but the few different electric drum kits I've seen all have MIDI out, so you'd connect that to a MIDI in on your computer or on another device (audio interface, maybe) connected to your computer.

You still didn't answer the question. Assume your song is played (and recorded) at 120 bpm. Does the second track you record end up at a constant 120 bpm but start later than the first track (i.e. the second track is delayed slightly) or is the second track not at a constant 120 bpm (i.e it speeds up or slows down, or skips through time?)

I won't guarantee any of these are any good, but I went to Kelly's Music & Computers (the place I buy my gear from here in Canada). They have a wizard for selecting keyboards based on what you want. Here's the list of all keyboards with soundcards; some or all of them should be able to accept a 1/4" input from a guitar. EDIT: The link doesn't save your search results; you'll have to go through the wizard yourself (it'll take you ~15 seconds) to get to the results. Remember to pick keyboards that are also sound cards.

Any reason why you posted the same thread twice? I'm guessing it was because you waited 30 minutes and didn't get a response. That's a little impatient, don't you think? There's also an FL Studio section of the forums that you could've posted in.

I think Dyne's argument is that artists get screwed. They're forced (or at least pressured) to sign an agreement with the label, and in doing so, give up some of the rights to their music. Legal, yes, but I think his point is that it's not the way it should be.

Don't blame you. My brother was at Queen's, and I was never impressed with the city when I went to visit.

I love that piece. Have to give credit to my ex (a violin player in Toronto) for getting me hooked on Shostakovich. My parents never listened to anything more musically complex than Chopin. Actually, you're from Toronto too, aren't you? If you go to U of T, you might know her and her husband; they both graduated from their masters at U of T last April (2007), and from their undergrads in 2005, and they're good friends with my wife and I. You know anyone with the last name Loewen (her) and Andrews (him, a pianist)?

If you're German, it is (see this).