Kanthos

He wants to split his keyboard so that he can play two or more instruments at once. As far as I know, this is different for every keyboard. Try looking in your keyboard's manual.

You should add Leah's "How to get submitted on OCRemix" video to the group.

Awesome job! My only very minor and generally irrelevant complaint is that Sonic's piano playing, a nice touch, was a bit inaccurate. He hit the same key at different times to play different notes. At least make him use a pitch bend wheel or something

You probably mean this.

Dual-core machines won't offer performance benefits over equivalent single-core machines if the single-core programs aren't multi-threaded. Intel doesn't have or isn't yet using technology to split up a single process over two cores. In all likelihood, that's something that could only happen at the compiler level (doing it at runtime would be too inefficient); compilers would have to schedule the instructions to be run on two cores with data being passed back and forth. It's possible, but the overhead for this would be significant, and until compilers generated code sequences for single-threaded programs with dual-core support in mind, it wouldn't matter. Even if compilers did so, the only practical advantage would be to run floating-point instructions with a high execution time and latency on one core while the other core executed other instructions. With processor pipelining on a single core, this wouldn't really be worth it.

I meant it more as a rough point of comparison. Anyone who doesn't know any other details about computers and doesn't bother to ask probably isn't going to be using their PC for much more than word processing and surfing the Internet, so comparing by clock speed alone is probably fine for that type of person.

I can't remember whether it's SFArk, SFPack, or both, but one or both of them worked as both a packer and unpacker.

Clock speed is still entirely relevant. Current CPUs are multi-core (essentially having two or more CPUs, called cores, on the same chip). So, a dual-core machine has two identical cores, and for most programs or for general multitasking, this allows you to achieve almost double the speed of a single-core CPU. Clock speed for multi-core CPUs is reported as the speed *per core*, so a newer 2.0 GHz dual-core machine is able to outperform a 3.0 GHz single-core machine because the dual-core machine is essentially 4.0 GHz altogether.

Happy birthday! *is late due to not checking forums on weekends*

It should be possible, but won't necessarily be easy. Try googling around to see who else might have tried this already. If no one has, you'll need a way to plug a controller into your computer (such as finding a DDR controller to USB adapter of some sort), a way to have the computer recognize the events coming from the controller (you might want to look at the source code for a PlayStation emulator for this), and a way to output MIDI data based on the controller input. Then you'd have to route your MIDI output to a program like Battery to generate audio. Unless someone has done this before, it would be a substantial amount of work, and probably wouldn't produce that good results. If PlayStation controllers and DDR controllers are anything like PC joysticks and gamepads, you'll only be able to get press and release events (which would logically correspond to MIDI note on and note off events). You wouldn't get velocity events, so your MIDI data would be played at a uniform volume unless you incorporated some other way to adjust the volume. Hmm, thought of another possibility. You'd still need some kind of MIDI output software, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was a way to treat a PlayStation controller like a normal PC joystick or gamepad. If there is, you wouldn't have to figure about getting PlayStation-style events; you could use DirectX to get PC-style joystick events, and since DirectX pretty much hands you code to do that, it would be easy. This sounds like a ton of work either way but it's a really neat idea, so I hope it works out for you. EDIT: Apparantly, this has with a DDR pad. Unfortunately, I can't find information on *how* it was done.As an alternative, there's homebrew DS software out there that lets a DS work as a MIDI controller.

Technically, VSTs and VSTis are two slightly different things. A VST is an effect like reverb or equalization, while a VSTi is a virtual instrument. VSTis can use samples or can be some type of synthesizer that generates sound on the fly. However, most sites and users apply the term VST to everything and distinguish between an effect and an instrument based on context. I'm just mentioning this because DDRKirby's comment to not bother with effect plugins makes it sound like you want to avoid VSTs as a whole, but depending on what kind of music you want to produce, you probably want to stick with FL Studio's effects and get other VSTis.

Use Fraps or a similar program.

I'm not sure how official this is, but I heard on a WoW podcast that the level 58 restriction was to prevent everyone from flooding Outland when Burning Crusade launched, and that it would later be removed.

Whether you use the step sequencer or record live depends on how good you are as a pianist and what style of music you're making. If you can do a pretty good live take and do a bit of overdubbing or editing to clean it up, you might as well do live. If you're doing something like jazz or classical, especially jazz because of swung rhythms, you're better off using a MIDI controller. If you're doing styles like techno and electronic, such as Zircon does, where there's not as many notes to input and things like automation and production are more prominent, it's probably faster to use the piano roll than to constantly move your hands from computer keyboard to MIDI controller.

It all depends on your use. If you want it for recording and also for playing classical or jazz music and you're proficient enough at either of those styles to be playing pieces that have a large range, then yes, an 88-key will be necessary. If all you're doing is recording, if you don't need the range, or if you can work out a piano piece to the point where you may have to hit the octave shift once or twice to be able to perform it as intended, then a 61 will do. I wouldn't get less than 61 though unless you're a horrible pianist and only want a MIDI controller for stepwise recording or something.

The best way to read sheet music, in my opinion, is to start with really easy music and just do it. As long as you know enough theory to play the piece, no matter how slowly (i.e. as long as you know the lines and spaces on the staff), then you can sit down with any piece of music and play it, albeit with mistakes and very slowly. Get yourself some beginner-level sight reading books and work your way through them. Reading music really is a skill that requires a bit of knowledge, although more knowledge like knowing chords helps, and a lot of practice.

Looks like someone took a half-decent looking wave editor, skinned it so it looked like crap, and then decided to use MS Paint to apply some "finishing touches".

Raised 6th as opposed to a scale with no accidentals (technically A aeolian).

Vanishing shouldn't make magic 100% effective. How does that make any sense? I'm glad Vanish/Doom is out; it made most bosses too easy.

Sure, you want to book a couple of the big things (reception hall, church, photographer, and florist) as soon as possible, but those are decisions that don't take a ton of planning and research to make. If the little stuff takes a long time, learn to plan or go elope or something.

Not really. I mean, you can turn off the metronome and play at your own pace, ignoring the tempo you set in FL Studio, but if you plan on using more than one instrument, it'll be hard to sync them all. Of course, if you're doing something like a solo piano piece, you'll want to use FL Studio just as a way to record the piece and clean up the notes and maybe add some effects like a little bit of reverb, so the tempo setting doesn't matter. Assuming you're working with more than one instrument, the only point I can see of recording while ignoring the set tempo is to either do tempo changes or other tempo effects like rubato. In both cases, you'll be better off by recording at a steady pace and using FL Studio's event editor to manually adjust the tempo (gradually for rubato, an immediate switch for a hard tempo change) than by trying to play it in like that. EDIT: Oh, I figured you might also be saying, "Why do I have to record at the playback tempo". Well, lower the tempo when you're recording, and bump it back up for playback.

Well, free upgrades unless you bought the boxed version (I did, since I could get it at an academic discount if it was boxed). Then, you have to pay something like $29 to get free updates for life. Definitely worth it. To record using a keyboard, arm FL Studio for recording (hit the record button), select the channel you want to record into, hit space to start recording, and then start playing. You might also want ot turn on FL Studio's metronome to keep in sync, and there's also a feature to have a bar of lead-in, giving you time to get your hands from the space bar to your MIDI keyboard. Sytrus itself is a synthesizer. The presets specify the particular settings of all the knobs in Sytrus needed to make a particular sound. If you have to buy a new version, I'd also suggest the producer version, but it depends on the kind of music you want to make. If you don't have a budget to get other/better synths (Native Instruments' FM 8 and Absynth are great), and want to make music using a lot of synths, XXL is probably the way to go. If you want to sequence jazz, orchestral, rock, or other styles not relying on synths very much, you'll want to spend money on samples or get free ones. I have XXL and don't use a lot of the extra synths included in it.

Congratulations! I hear you on having to wait until you graduate. My parents were ok with me getting married before my wife and I graduated, although it took some convincing, but we had friends who had to wait an extra year because their parents thought it was a bad idea and wouldn't help them with the wedding financially if they'd married earlier. You'll have plenty of time to plan things though. Good luck!

I've got an Axiom 61 and love it. No, it doesn't feel like a piano, but it's got semi-weighted keys (as opposed to unweighted keys), and and it didn't take me long to adjust to playing it. Yes, there are octave switches near the mod wheel, but keep in mind that even if you choose to get a controller that doesn't have an octave switch function, you can always transpose the notes in your sequencer. There are probably more knobs and faders than you'll want, but unless it makes a big difference in cost, it's better to have a too much than too little. I recommend it highly as a good compromise between affordability and quality. Just so you know though, it's strictly a controller. Don't expect to use it to play live without bringing a computer or an actual keyboard/synthesizer with you (you could set the Axiom's MIDI out to the MIDI in on a keyboard or synth that actually creates sound, and use the Axiom to control the other keyboard). The Axiom and any other MIDI controller will only produce MIDI data, not audio data.

Synth, may I ask why you're concerning yourself with modal music to begin with? Obviously, to be a more complete guitarist and have a complete understanding of theory, knowing modes is important, but at this point, where you're still working on understanding major and minor scales, it might be easier to stick to those and not worry about other modes.