The Legendary Zoltan

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/81603940/First%20Orchestral.mp3 I just wanted to hear thoughts on what's good or bad regarding anything but particularly production types of issues. It's still in progress. I'm sorry to suddenly post this out of the blue. I have to go to bed now but I promise to give the best feedback I can on at least three other songs in this forum very soon. I don't wish to take advantage of the community without giving something in return. Thanks a lot for your help in advance.

What the hell happened to music!? Because you touch yourself at night. No wait. That isn't how you use that joke. Let me try again. What the hell happened to music!? That's what your mom said when I... No that's not right either. I guess I don't know. That's what we have OCR for, though.

Faster Than Light has a race of aliens called the Zoltan. YES!

They used something called Matrix view to create a song from a bunch of loops. That's really new and interesting to me, although I probably wouldn't ever compose my own songs that way. It looks amazing never the less. There's a REALLY impressive looking guitar amp simulator also. WOW!

I am now going to watch that video. As a long time Sonar user who JUST got X2, I'm having a hell of a time finding everything in the new interface. Like I just want to try out my midi keyboard but I can't find anyplace to assign inputs, outputs, or even set the sounds I want to use. I'll let you know as I get used to it and after I've watched the video.

Thanks a lot everyone for all of the useful information. I've already got Windows 7 installed to the SSD so I decided to install Sonar X2 to the hard disk. One article I read online said that it's not really the writing alone that destroys an SSD and that if you remove all other factors from the equation, an SSD can write 100 gigs of data per day and last roughly 10 years. Read that here. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/data-recovered-failed-ssd/ I learned a lot from you all. Thanks. I think the best thing for me to do is just get an external USB hard drive and have everything backed up for when the time comes and not freak out about it.

Happy birthday! Metal brothers unite!

You know, I emailed them about whether the UPGRADE contains a full stand alone program and I'm still waiting for the reply. I'm sure they'll reply within a few business days but it seems like this info MUST be located on their website somewhere. I can't find it though. I feel like I'm wasting all my time by waiting for their reply, but the last thing I want is to get it and have it be the completely wrong thing. ARGH! Hurry up! I wanna make orchestra music on my new computer! EDIT: YAY! I got the reply. The upgrades are always full programs! I'm going to get it right away!

Hahaha. Yeah, it seems like Sonar is the least popular of the DAWs. Probably because it's so expensive. The only reason I became a dedicated Sonar user is because the very first time I got experience with a DAW was when I was 17 and a friend burned me a copy of Cakewalk 3 and was told to try it out. I was TOTALLY hooked on writing songs in that way.

What the? I thought I replied to Mustin. Guess not. Thanks, Mustin. I have 8 but I lost the install discs (can't find it anywhere) and I have absolute confidence that I won't have all the files and everything correctly placed if I try to copy everything from this computer to my new one. Also, I read that Sonar 8 has compatibility problems with Windows 7 and THAT has me quite worried. So I'm looking forward to getting X1 or X2. But since X2 JUST came out, I suppose there's a possibility of some annoying glitches or problems that get discovered in the near future. Sorry, I said the Cakewalk "guys" but what I really meant was the website. But I think I figured it out. I kind of suck at using computers.

Yes. Studio to Studio. I used to have Producer edition and it seems like the only real difference is that there are more samples included (like orchestra stuff) and some special but not terribly necessary tools such as V-Vocal. So it's kind of funny that I'll be using Studio edition to "produce" orchestral music.

Both of these sites you guys posted look great. Thanks for adding that! Here's an awesome page from DiscMakers with lots of good articles on it. This article that's displayed on the page is all about music licensing but if you go down a ways, on the right side are links to a bunch of their other articles and at the bottom are links to more reading regarding licensing and publishing. Since, licensing is my main goal at the moment, I found it quite fun to read. I'm starting to get dollar signs in my eyes, yo. Hahaha!

Yeah, I just got the email, too. Thanks guys. I went ahead and asked Cakewalk directly. Once I get the reply, I should be good. On the other hand, if Sonar X2 is out, I MAY be able to pay for a download version of the upgrade to that. It'S two versions above mine though, so I probably can't get it for just $99 though. But there's still that free upgrade from X1 to X2 if I register in time. These Cakewalk guys can be confusing. Hahaha. It doesn't matter because I will soon have ALL the components needed to start making some awesome orchestral music! YEAH!

Can anyone who has upgraded their Sonar to a new edition confirm something for me? Thanks. I want to buy the Sonar X1 upgrade on Amazon but does anyone know if the entire version of the program is in the "upgrade" version? The reason is that I lost my Sonar 8 discs and I got a new computer, so I will not be installing X1 OVER 8. Is that a requirement? Or can I install the upgrade version of the program from scratch and still have it be complete? Thanks a lot for your help, everyone. I appreciate it.

Information is half of the game. If we want to become a professional (meaning: MONEY) at making music there are lots of things to read out there. I was hoping that we could compile some really good resources here for people to study. It could be for anything from composing tips, effects guides, music business stuff, playing guitar, etc. I've got two that have been VERY useful to me lately. http://zirconmusic.com/tutorials/text/ Most people here know Zircon but have you read his articles? If you want to be a DAW musician that is IN the business, you'd only be making your life intentionally more difficult by not reading what he's got. http://www.axemanjim.co.uk/articles.html This guy's articles are mostly targeting people who record, sing, and play guitar. He's also got some articles about mixing and effects. I hope you guys can post some other great sites. Thank you.

Let me explain my situation and my acronyms. I'm preparing to install a digital audio workstation program (in this case Sonar) to my computer but must choose whether to install it on the solid state drive or the hard drive. I've been reading stuff and read that the best possible use of an SSD with regards to making orchestral music is to place the orchestral sample library on the SSD and put NOTHING ELSE there. The reason being that you don't want your SSD being accessed for any kinds of tasks while composing with samples because it takes away some of the "power." That makes sense to me but what about the DAW itself? It's the program that has to USE the orchestral samples in the first place so it seems like that might ALSO need to be on the SSD. It's all quite confusing to me. Unfortunately, Windows 7 came already installed on the SSD. Does anyone have any experience with problems using DAWs, samples, and solid state drives? Thank you very much for your time.

The story of FF12 is awesome. The sailing in Windwaker is awesome. The desert in Breath of Fire 3 is awesome. The camera in Metal Gear Solid is awesome. You guys are all crazy-heads. How about this one? Blight Town in Dark Souls. Ugh! It's really mostly because of the camera but the mosquitoes, slowdown, millions of tiers, and the poisonous swamp definitely add to it for me. Does anyone actually like Blight Town? If you do, you are amazing and I kneel before you.

Great to meet you, Omega. I really only know about the DAW that I use personally and that's Sonar and it can make printable sheet music very well in my opinion. Maybe some other DAWs have some kind of faster or more streamlined interface for it but you can do everything you need for notation in Sonar, no problem. Here's a picture of what it looks like. http://www.myspace.com/cakewalksoftware/photos/66273499 I usually do it without those other windows at the bottom. I sequenced a song on there using the mouse and keyboard and then printed out the 10 or so different orchestra instruments and gave them to musicians to play when I was in college. No problem yo. I got Sonar Studio Edition with doesn't come with as many instrument samples and effects as the Producer Edition but still let's me record anything I want. Besides, one can always buy a sample library and use it in Sonar. If you have any more questions about Sonar, I may be able to answer. Although I have made a few remixes, I feel like I'm in a similar position as you because I'm only just now trying to buy a computer and orchestral samples for some SERIOUS compositions. Let's DO IT!

Thanks again for everyone's input. I very much appreciate it. So I'm listening to Vivaldi Summer on this page and it's absolutely blowing my mind. http://www.soundsonline.com/Symphonic-Orchestra That's the East West Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra. But really any song that I listen to of any of these high end libraries sounds great. So since money IS actually a bit of concern and I seem to like the different things that you can do with each library, I'm considering starting out with Orchestral Essentials. You can tell me if the logic seems flawed. Logic point #1: I'm not trying to learn orchestration so it's OK, at least for now, if I don't get a ton of first hand experience with manually layering all kinds of instruments. Logic point #2: I'm VERY serious about starting to make money in the music business as soon as possible and film soundtracks are an area I'd really to hit. Logic point #3: I may not be able to do everything with OE but I can still do a lot. I'll do what I can with it as my first library and then get EWQLSO in the future once I've saved some money (hopefully from music jobs). Logic point #4: I'm freaking poor right now because I'm buying the computer at the same time.