dannthr

Oh, that's cute, they modeled it after an SSL. The cheapest SSL you'll put your hands on is going to be about $80,000-$100,000. The most you'll get from this mixer interface is learning how to use an SSL channel strip and hopefully be able to abstract that to work with other channel strips. But, if you can look at that channel strip and work it, and abstract the principles to work on any other channel strip, then there is no reason to specifically use Reason. Miroslav is a great sample library for samples that came out 10 years ago. But I would hardly call them current--there are some really golden string sounds--but you don't have to have Reason to get them: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/philharmonik/features/ Here is Miroslav in RTAS, AU, and look at that, VST. Moreover, there are any number--COUNTLESS--of new sample libraries that surpass and ridiculously outclass anything you can get for Reason. There is nothing worth getting for Reason that isn't made for something else first. Period. PS EDIT: You may learn how to use a channel strip, as you should learn how to use a channel strip with ANY DAW, but that doesn't mean you'll know what to do if you get sit down in front of this: Don't kid yourself, eh?

I am a teacher here: http://www.pinnaclecollege.edu/ We have probably one of the best game audio programs in the country. You will learn everything you need to know to create music and sound for games, film, and television.

Samples only don't matter if you're not working. With that said, 50-90% of the work involved in producing music professionally is using and programming samples. Which is why you can spend so damned much on those suckers. Komplete is a great buy. Students should consider Komplete (it won't take years to get through all the sounds there, but maybe a week or so to get the idea of what it offers and its scope of limitation). Students interested in Orchestra production should consider East West's Symphonic Orchestra Gold, which can be had at an Educational discount of about 250 bucks--it's a GREAT starter set of samples for students interested in diving into more realistic production. I have no opinion on Reaper, but I will say that if you're interested in composing or producing music, you should make sure that your DAW is GREAT for MIDI and CC editing. Especially if you want to make the ancient VSL Orchestra set in Komplete sound good.

Video games are such a young media that I'm not sure if there are even 100 GREAT orchestral soundtracks. Some of the best of video game music wasn't even for orchestra. When I teach music appreciation, I divide video game music into 4 or 5 eras: hard-wired, chip-tune, MIDI, CD-Rom, Streaming Audio. There's lots of game music that could have been written for orchestra, but you don't really get it until CD-Rom/Streaming Audio.

I write and produce orchestral music for games (and have worked with Zircon on a LucasArts project) and other interactive media including work for THQ, Eidos, and most recently AMD. Here's what I use: Sibelius 6 (For score preparation only when working with live instrumentalists) Cubase 6 (full version) (To compose, record, and produce my music) SoundForge Pro 10 (To edit waves and master my music) VST Effect Plugin mainstays: - QL Spaces (Killer reverb) - Altiverb - R2 - iZotope Plugins Kontakt 4 (For sampling and sample library playback) Omnisphere 1.5 Zebra 2 And several other VST instruments. And the following sample libraries for Kontakt and VSL: Woodwinds: - Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition Woodwinds - Westgate Studios Woodwinds - EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold WWs Brass: - CineBrass Core - CineBrass Pro - SAM Orchestral Brass Classic - SampleModeling The Trumpet - SampleModeling The Trombone - EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold Brass - Custom Brass Samples Percussion: - *So many freaking libraries--dozens of libraries--some I've collected for free, some I've won, some I bought, some are custom* Highlights include: - Cinesamples Pro Session Drums - 9Volt TAIKO - Andy and Will's Groove Bias - EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold Percussion - QL RA - QL StormDrum - I have a 15 GB Custom Orchestra Percussion Library as well and will soon be getting Flying Hand Percussion! Choir/Voice: - EW Symphonic Choirs - SoundIron Requiem Light - 8Dio Francesca String: - Audiobro's LA Scoring Strings (Full) - EW Symphonic Orchestra Gold Strings - Custom String Ensemble FX Misc Highlights: - Galaxy Vintage D (great Steinway Piano library) - Scarbee Black Bass (Now called Mm-Bass) - Wavelore Glide: Resonator Guitar - Prominy LPC - CoreBass Pear - QL Ministry of Rock - etc, etc, etc Oh, and the ManyTone Upright Bass, which is probably the best upright bass library I've ever bought for 15 bucks! None of this I would be able to have if I used Reason. There are orchestral essentials in my collection, libraries I can't do without, but this also reflects years of collecting (there's a reason it's called a collection) and if your friend is serious about this work, he has to get software that is going to grow with him and that will allow him to expand his sound. Unfortunately, the investment is a lot of time and whole lot of money.

Reason does not support VST technology. Reason only supports Reason native instruments and plug-ins. ProTools only supports AudioSuite, RTAS, and AAX (which is new) SONAR supports DirectX and VST Cubase supports DirectX and VST (and VST 3.5) Garageband and Logic support only AU

Don't get Reason, there's very little point if the goal is to do anything classical or if your friend wants to grow and mature and eventually move on to bigger things. Reason will be a waste of time in this respect. Not supporting VSTs is not a benefit to Reason, it is a draw-back, a limitation. Moreover, Reason doesn't support any other format (VST, RTAS, AU, DirectX, etc). Sample developers are not generally interested in developing virtual instruments for Reason for two, well, reasons: There are so few people using it, that it's literally a waste of development resources, and the Refill scripting native to Reason is way behind the times. Now on to other programs: ProTools is a necessary evil. It's an excellent multi-track audio editor, it has unparallelled internal audio routing, and it's solid for tracking. But for MIDI composition, it's going to be a PAIN IN YOUR BUTTS. It's necessary because it's default DAW in the recording studio (in the US). FLStudio, I have no opinion on its current incarnation. I don't use it. As a professional and a teacher I have absolutely no reason to explore even the possibility of using it. It's not going to do anything I am already doing with other programs better than I am now. Cubase is made by Steinberg. They invented VST. That's kind of like, if we're talking to a programmer, it's like saying they invented the *.x or *.dll files (they didn't, obviously, it's an analogy). Most DAWs support VST for a reason, it's spectacular, but if you're concerned with VST stability, then Cubase is your answer (not Reason). Almost every virtual instrument or effect plugin has been developed for VST along with the other standard formats or is developed for VST primarily and is ported to other formats. For many people, this discussion is kind of like asking PC or Mac--but most people who defend their DAW with a passion haven't actually tried out other DAWs. Most DAWs will all do the same thing, but in different ways, so it's hard to switch to a new one after getting used to a workflow. Other DAWs might be SawStudio, Reaper, SONAR, MixCraft (ugh), etc, etc, etc. In the end, it's going to take an investment of time and energy from your friend to learn how to use the software. Suffice to say, you can spend A LOT of money on setting up a whole computer based music creation workstation.

You often find Trackballs in studios because there is limited desktop space on which to have a mouse move about. With a trackball you can put the sucker on the 5" margin between your console and the edge of your over-priced studio desk.

Near fields are tough, it's usually all that you can get away with in a home studio. I like Equator Audio's D5's--they're brutally even, probably about as good as it gets for 5" drivers and they're coaxial, so there's no phase distortion on the cross-over, which is great for near-fields and really necessary when you're dealing with messy stereo imaging in a small home studio.

Quite the opposite: They divorced. Mike Peasley and Troels Folmann parted ways to create two independent companies: 8dio and SoundIron. They split the products between the two of them.

Generally, agents won't want to have anything to do with you unless you're already bringing them work. Unless you're bringing something unique to the table, they're not going to find you work, you have to do that on your own. It's not as if there's some great surplus of work available and you just need a match-maker to connect you to the right job. You have to be great. You have to be great just to talk to the people who might contract you. You have to be great just to sit at the table and ante up--a game of poker is the perfect analogy. Think of an agent like a wildcard, they'll give you the edge, but always at a cost (they give the same edge to anyone else who has them), and they're not going to show up in your hand unless you're playing with a full deck. Everything else is luck and business cunning--that's how you win and get the good gigs. But just to sit down at the table, you have to be really fucking good. Otherwise, you better sit on the sidelines, watch, and work on your game.

Wait for Komplete, the price is so close and what you get with Komplete is ridiculous in comparison. You get a lot.

The best part is when they incorporate the Cantina theme under the Force theme and the Duel of Fates theme in the climax, just before the end.

Of course, but if he's looking for a gig, this community will likely fail him.

Welcome, Castor. Unfortunately, this is not the community for you. This is a community of musicians and producers, not of job recruiters. Keep at it, keep working, and make sure you network with more game developers.

I would personally go with the Focusrite solution over the PreSonus--Focusrite has a long and steady tradition of excellent mic pres.

If price is not a true objection, then I would seeriously consider an interface from RME--excellent D/A conversion and highly flexible inputs outputs, etc. Also, Totalmix, which is their input/ouput management software is far more flexible than Saffire's MixControl software. This is how we roll at Pinnacle: We've got a couple of these: http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_fireface_800.php and one of these: http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_octamic_2.php We have the Octamic going into one of the ADATs on one of the Firefaces. Then we have one of these when we want some really nice quality mic-pres (the RMEs have great pres, but when you want really solid presence and great analog warmth--you've got to get a stand-alone mic pre--obviously these are optional, something you work toward acquiring over time): http://adesignsaudio.com/pacifica.html It's hard to see, but each channel has an XLR input and output on the back and a hi-Z input on the front-side with phase inversion on each channel if needed, a pad, standard phantom power switch, but also enough gain to power a ribbon mic--which is great! It's GREAT as a mic pre, it's GREAT as a direct input on a guitar. My boss recently did an updated recording with the Commadores (Yes, these Commadores: ), 2 sessions, one for drums, one for guitar/bass, (another session is pending with keys and vox). He mic'd the drums through the octamic and the pacifica--killer sound--and he recorded the guitar direct into the pacifica and the bass was split between direct input and we also re-amped it through a bass amp in our live room. Great session! Great sound! Great players! But that direct sound, I personally liked the direct input on the pacifica over the re-amp--just spectacular.Now, keeping in mind that firewire is on its way out, and USB is still around, I would actually recommend this USB 2.0 interface: http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_fireface_ufx.php

Are you talking about composition/arrangement or mixing/engineering?

The trick to humanization, for any instrument, is putting yourself in the shoes of the player. This means, on a fundamental level, pretending like the virtual performance is one performed by an actual player. On the surface, this means that you must understand more about the instrument. What note transitions are difficult? Easy? How would they actually sound? Listen to a recording. How long can a player sound a note without turning purple? What is typical phrasing like for the instrument? On the next level, this means understanding how the instrument works in a way that a player understands how their own instrument works. How is sound produced? If the flute player tilts their head, what happens to the sound? If they tap their keys down quickly, where does the sound come out primarily, etc? Nest, how does the virtual player sit in with the rest of the virtual band? Are they soloists? Is the band listening to them? Or are they following a conductor? Who is listening to whom is like dancing when someone is leading--you need someone to lead for a natural dance, but if both people or no one leads, it's awkward. So you need to visualize--imagine--what is going on in your virtual performance. On the last level, the one most people don't explore, who is the player? They are imaginary, virtual, yes, but give them life, who are they, does performance make them nervous? Playing in a difficult range might make a performer nervous, that might change the way they play, they might get tired, but also they might tense up, they might speed through the passage a little quicker than the pace of the music, etc. I have used some or all of these factors/considerations when mocking up a virtual performance. The trick is that you must UNDERSTAND your own software capabilities and incapabilities and moreover understand how to reproduce all of these little human nuances with your technology. Does that mean using modulation, automation, controlling volume, timbre, and timing? Yes, yes to all of it.

Why is it that people just assume that using more advanced sounding multi-sample libraries is as easy as merely plugging the music in? Composing is never more than half the work for a professional delivering a virtual performance as a final production. And on a simpler piece, production can be 80 to 90% of the work. Your arrangement is weak and repetitive, to get it up to snuff and make it interesting, it would require jazz comping by the players. If I wanted to slap my name on this, I would have to spend time rearranging the work, and performing jazz comps with multiple instruments in hopefully slightly different styles so as to reproduce the originality of multiple performers, not to mention programming virtual instruments and human performance quirks (which are plenty in Jazzier stuff). I know I wouldn't be able to do it without some kind of compensation. Is there something you can offer besides money?

The RME over NI--RME converters are KILLER! If you want to do any kind of recording, RME.

This is one of the things I do for a living, I teach people music production and I teach them how to use EWQLSO.

Now try layering in Spiccato samples to double your staccato samples on notes that need rhythmic emphasis.

My suggestion was meant to be in addition to what you were already doing.

Well, it is inconsistent, it sounds like you were a bit random in your velocity selection. Now you want to think about phrasing. A good instrumentalist thinks about music in phrases, and those phrases have a dynamic arc of expression that stretches across many notes. Think about the players, and how they would be playing WITH the metal band.