Kanthos

Your hp has increased by 5.

Happy birthday! May the day bring you many good things to leg-hump.

Thanks to both of you. It sounds like there are two ways to do this: get a condenser mic (my audio interface has phantom power) or get a preamp and stick with my current mic. I did get a fairly good dynamic range when I recorded (I was playing mostly on the loud end of my dynamic range); it just came in really quietly because the signal wasn't boosted. I only mentioned moving around to say that it didn't really cause any effect on my levels; I would expect that if I walked across the room, that would make a difference. As for effects, like I said, I'm recording the solo for someone else's track, so I should find out who's going to apply the effects to the recording Edit: Hmm, says my audio interface has a built-in preamp. I wonder if there was something else I did wrong then? I'll have to look through the documentation at home. Or maybe the UA-25 is just underpowered. I don't want phantom power enabled, right? That's only for condenser mics?

Hmm, did some research here. Definitely not Cloud from Final Fantasy VII. Maybe there's another Cloud in another game? Not exactly Crono either; he doesn't have a bandana. Then again, not exactly Serge, the equivalent to Crono in Chrono Cross, since Serge has a swallow instead of a sword. So maybe it is some other Cloud, or maybe it's an (accidental?) Serge/Crono combination that got announced wrong.

Also in the cosplay section, the person you labelled as Cloud is actually Chrono.

I tried recording my alto sax tonight, and wasn't really impressed with the results, so I'd appreciate any advice from those of you who have done any live recording of acoustic instruments before. My setup is a SM-57 which I had pointed pretty much right at the bell (pretty much because I move a bit as I play; not enough to do anything really significant with respect to mic placement though). I was recording into Cubase via an Edirol UA-25 audio interface, recording at 24-bit, 48 kHz. The two things I noticed with my sound were that it sounded a bit tinny and that the recording was very quiet. I think the tone was due in part to the fact that my own tone isn't fantastic and that natural reverb in a small room tends to enhance my tone a lot, and I wasn't capturing that by directly micing my sax. As for the recording being quiet, I'm not sure what caused that. The recording is pretty clear and noise-free; the mic picked up the key clicks on my sax quite well. I started iith the sensitivity low on my audio interface and turned it up until the peak light came on when I played my loudest. It wasn't a question of the volume of the sound coming out of my horn either; it was quite loud. But when I played back my track against the original in Cubase, I was strongly overpowered. I'm much more of a composer than a remixer or performer, although I'm trying to be both of those, so any suggestions anyone can give are much appreciated. I'm going to post the audio of my sax too, I just have to switch accounts so I can get into Cubase and extract it. Edit: Here's the audio of just my sax. I'm not going to post the backing track unless I get an ok from the person I'm recording the solo for (and if you're reading this, I'll do a much better solo on the version I send you; this is more of a warm-up run to figure out my recording setup).

I've never tried the Edirol models, but I love my Axiom. Just looking at the descriptions of each, you want the Axiom for one reason: semi-weighted keys. The Edirol models don't seem to have that. As for getting it in Canada, if you're around Toronto or Waterloo, I can recommend places that carry it. If you're not, you could try <a href="http://www.kellysmusic.ca/productinfo~id~-1810211958.htm">Kelly's Music</a>. I've bought lots from them before and they're quite knowledgeable and provide good service. PM me or post again if you want more information.

Oh, I'm well aware of that, and I also know the source tune well. When we say "MIDI Rip" around here, we don't necessarily mean that you found a MIDI of the original tune and added drums/synths or something, or that you took the original MP3 and added to it. We use the term more to mean "Despite the fact that you created your music from scratch, it's marginally different from the result you'd get if you'd taken the original MIDI and added drums". I'm not trying to be mean or insult you. All I'm saying is that your song isn't going to be accepted as is, and trying to explain why. If you haven't already, you might want to read the submission standards; it explains clearly what everyone in this thread has been trying to tell you.

It doesn't matter where you made your mix. That's not in any way a submission criteria. You aren't going to get accepted for doing a "MIDI rip" recording of a piece with a full symphony orchestra because that's unique either. The big problem with your mix that will bar it from acceptance is that it doesn't have any direction. It has very little variance, both in terms of instruments used and melodic development. Adding drum parts and changing the background textures a bit from the original don't make it especially creative. Something needs to happen in the piece; a bridge, key change, instrumental solo, drum break, something. Right now, it sounds like you came up with a groove you liked and cut-and-pasted it about 4 times to make the track longer. There needs to be variance, and there needs to be something original. A rule of thumb is that you want to be fairly close to 50% original material and 50% source material, although more on the side of using source material. This is about 100% source material; just adding drums doesn't do enough to make it seem that different from the source.

If your relationship is stable, you'll be able to go out once in a while. In a good relationship, there shouldn't be much that you have to *totally* give up for the other person. Kids, on the other hand, demand a lot more sacrifices.

I'm probably late so I won't send a sig, but anyone who talks to Zircon soon is welcome to give him my best wishes for a fast recovery.

It's always better to sell to a friend than to EB Games. You'll get very little return on your initial purchase, even if the games are recent. The *most* I've ever gotten for a DS game is $20 CDN (~$18-$19 US or so, at the moment) and most go for much less than that. PC games tend to be worse too, because piracy isn't as much of an issue with console and handheld games. If you want to sell a game, sell it to a friend or even consider eBay first. If that doesn't work, then take it to EB Games, because it's better to have credit against a future game purchase (or just put it towards a title you're buying at the same time) than have the game sit around and not be played, but do this as a last resort. If there's any chance you'll play the game again, keep it instead of trading it. Edit: The previous post came in while I was responding. EB Games in Canada has never had issues with CD Keys in general; they do, however, care about CD keys that are tied to some kind of online account or are in some other way one use only. For example, I couldn't trade in Guild Wars, because the Guild Wars CD key is tied to my online Guild Wars account; Neverwinter Nights, however, had no such problem, despite you being able to register your CD keys on Bioware's site, because you don't need to be the only one playing with a key to play the game. Then again, this is true in Canada but might not be in the US or at Gamestop (we don't have them up here, just EB Games).

FF III is the only one that's really hard, and that's only because the final dungeon plus the Eureka zone is massive and has something like 13-15 bosses. You really have no choice but to run in and out a few times if you want to get all the extra stuff you need from the boss fights. II had a ridiculous grind; I'm never in favour of a system where you have to cheat (i.e. the choose action-cancel action trick) or play for hours to get just a little bit better. I was a cakewalk. Levelling up doesn't make a game *hard*, it makes it long. Some of the games can be hard if you don't ever spend time levelling, but especially in FF I, if you spend the time being able to acquire the equipment you need, you'll more than likely be pretty much levelled enough. The only other thing you'll need is to level up at the Eye boss who has the instant death spell in the volcano, and that's about the shortest place to level in any FF game I've ever played (which is all up to XI).

I don't quite have a psychological background, but I've had discussions about this with my wife (a sociology major and psych minor). I think that those who the public would label "addicted" fall into two categories: those who cannot stop playing, even if they try, and those who choose not to stop playing. I don't think the latter case is an addiction at all, even if the person choosing to play a game puts his or her gaming interest over family, friends, romantic interest, or other hobbies. Are they making poor choices? Probably, but it's their choice to do so. If anything, such people need to learn about balance and responsibility, not be deprogrammed from an addiction. Unless the AMA plans on labelling poor moral choices as a psychological disorder, I'd argue this is a non-issue. On the other hand, I don't think that someone choosing to play games instead of do things they *don't like* is an addiction either. Again, it may be a poor choice or dodging responsibilities, but as a friend said, "It's not an addiction if I'm playing World of Warcraft instead of talking to my family; they drive me nuts and I can't stand them, so I do other things because I don't want to be around them". Obviously, there's a scale here, and no one is going to get into an addicted state or develop a dependence on a game or show withdrawl symptoms without passing through the "poor choice" phase. For example, if someone has gotten their first WoW character to level 5 and have already become unable to stop playing, there's likely more going on than just video gaming; they probably have some other mental disorder or imbalance. Assuming this isn't the case, it takes at least a little bit of time playing to develop a strong interest in a game, and probably a lot more to get you to choose to put the game before other things that you like, and both of these states must be passed through before a person becomes unable to stop playing. I think there are two things needed. The AMA should clearly define the difference between a video game addiction and choosing to play video games to avoid other responsibilities. The first is a video game-related problem and, I suspect, happens to a very small portion of gamers (not something like 75% of all WoW players, like some American psychologist claimed in an article I read about a year ago). The second is a problem too, but is a problem with responsibility. If someone wasn't using video games to avoid their family or chores, they'd find something else, be it TV, reading, exercise, socializing, and so on. In one case, the dependency on video games must be broken; in the other, the person needs to learn to accept responsibility and find balance in life. gamklr: The enjoyment in WoW is in teamwork and the social aspects. Levelling up is a means to an end and, if done right, isn't that bad, especially if you find a levelling buddy and play good music. WoW's strengths are the fact that the levelling is much shorter than in other MMOs, the PVP game (admittedly not better than most other MMOs, particularly Guild Wars, but still fun especially if you're competing with or against friends) and the PvE and Raiding game (whether you're a hardcore raider or just casually do instances, the group dynamic makes all the difference). I play WoW because I like interacting with other people. If I spent my "hobby" time working on music or playing offline games, I'd socialize with my wife a fair bit and that would be all. If you don't like WoW, fine, but there are plenty of good reasons to enjoy it.

For wordpress, it's more like download a zip file, unzip and upload everything, set up a database, and edit a configuration file to tell wordpress which database and database username/password you're using. I'll be glad to help you out with setting it up if you need. I buy my domain names through www.domainsatcost.ca and never had any fees to get them set up. At the moment, I only have one domain name hosted on the server account, but I have had several before, like when I hosted the website for the musical I was musical director for last year. So yes, you can do everything you've talked about so far for free. To set up a second domain name, you add a subdomain (i.e. something like music.kwarp.com) and then set up an addon domain that points to your subdomain (i.e. www.kwarpmusic.com poitns to music.kwarp.com). Again, I've done it before and will be glad to help.

Happy birthday young'un!

Wordpress is awesome. I use the version you download and install. It's in PHP though, so that would probably mean switching servers for you. I'm on a server that costs $3.95 US a month if you buy a year at time, and I get something like 2 GB bandwidth and 200 MB of storage. Their service is also great too; while there's occasional downtime, they're quite responsive. I've been quite impressed, overall. The site is http://www.domainsvision.com.

And Neverwinter Nights

Anyone playing Chocobo Tales? I'm on the final boss, and overall it's been quite a good game, although there are a few minigames that have made me want to pull my hair out and I still can't finish them. The only other minigame collection I've played is Bomberman Land Touch, and this one is better, in my opinion. A few less games involving blowing in the microphone (only two), and the card game battles add a neat strategy component. I just don't like that there's 3 or 4 cards I can't get because I can't seem to get a gold rating on the minigames needed to unlock them, but besides that, quite enjoyable.

Swinging Eporno mix? I'm interested in a jazz ballad of Ballad of the Windfish. I'll try and get my WIP finished off with drums and sax; at this point, you'll probably want to hear more than either of the WIPs I've posted since neither has had production skills applied properly yet, being WIPs and all.

If you want anyone to help, post again with a description of the game and a description of the music you want. How many tracks do you want? How long should they be? What styles or genres? What will be happening in-game for each of the tracks (menu screen, animation/video, gameplay?) You said it's a fantasy-themed RTS; do you want different music for different races? Different music for different maps? People around here tend to get interested in something only when they know enough about it, so the more you say, the more likely you are to get involvement. Screenshots and as many details about the game as you can reveal at this point will only help you. Depending on your needs, be prepared to consider having multiple people do your music.

No, it doesn't have lifetime free upgrades. Most software doesn't; FL Studio is the only thing I can think of that does. However, upgrading probably isn't necessary. It's not like upgrading your OS where you'll quickly get out of date if you don't; there's nothing wrong with using older versions of VSTs to save cash. The only software I've paid to upgrade was FM-7 to FM-8, and that's only because by buying Absynth as well, I could get Massive free. Actually, if you're looking to buy any synths, you might want to consider this too: NI has a buy 2, get the third 3 on those 3 synths that can save you significant money if you want them all.

I picked up Cubase 4 pretty fast by reading the manual. Maybe not the best way to do it, but it worked for me. I don't know what SE is like, but Cubase 4 had a large manual that described how to do pretty much everything plus a smaller one that was more of a getting started kind of thing: how to connect your equipment to get Cubase to recognize it, basic recording of audio and MIDI, and basic mixing.

I'm sorry, I wasn't meaning to put you or your band down in any way. I just think that Reign of the Septims is an easy enough tune that it seems like overkill to write something out explicitly as opposed to playing it by ear first and sketching out an arrangement with your band and then writing something down (whether notes/parts or just a text-based sketch of how the piece would work). Also, there are tons of people in bands who can't read music; both my brothers are fantastic guitarists, but one can only read tabs and chord charts, not actual music. Theory knowledge and reading music will make you a more knowledgeable musician, but not necessarily a better one. As for my comment, all I meant was that especially since you can't seem to find a MIDI but you do have the Morrowind theme, turning one into the other wouldn't be that hard.

You guys don't have the skills to write it out yourselves? Especially since Reign of the Septims is based very heavily on Nerevar Rising (Morrowind's title theme)?