dannthr

Depending on your time-line you could put me down for Human 2. I actually was working on the title theme for a WC3 mod to update WC:O&H long, long ago: http://www.dannthr.com/samples/sketches/doc/doc_title_a.mp3

Shaggy Freak, I dig your sideways channel strip monitor!

If you have EWQLSO Gold on PLAY, then you can spend some extra money for the CLOSE mic positions which are a bit more dry. I do not have the PLAY version of SO Gold, but you you can probably unload the release tails in the articulation load/unload window.

Ensembles vs Solo instruments. In modern times the choice of an ensemble over a solo instrument is based on the timbre of the homogonized sound of an ensemble versus the timbre of a single instrument. In older times, the choice of an ensemble over a solo instrument is more one of power. For example, 4 f horns at full fortissimo can over-power the entire orchestra. So pre-recorded-music-era (how's that for german style?) composers and orchestrators detremined a series of instrumentation ratios that defined balance in the orchestra. There are several thoughts on the subject and usually they change based on the total size of the orchestra. With a MOTU Symphonic Instrument, go with your gut and what sounds best.

6-20 hours per minute of music for paid work. I don't know if I ever finish personal stuff.

Island Beach Jazz Music for a Caribbean Themed Puzzle Game... :S All I can say is there is some serious Guiro abuse going on.

It really is a shame that XP64 wasn't better supported, it was a fantastically lean machine.

I have used both, and this is my feeling: Windows 7 x64, Windows XP x86. You don't need dual boot nonesense. Windows 7 x64 works great. I liked Windows XP x64 a lot and yeah, lightweight it was! It's best feature was how smooth, stable, and quickly it ran. But there is almost no friggin' audio hardware support for Windows XP x64. It's nigh impossible to find decent XP x64 drivers and hardware support is it's biggest weakness--and really, that's one of the most important things for a musician, more than almost any other discipline. Windows 7 x64 works great. I am happy with it and I have not looked back at all. You just know, as any smart computer dude must, that you click advanced installation settings and you install only the things you want to and then uninstall whatever default stuff you don't.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-------------------

I use Cinesamples' Session Drummer Series Vol 2 Ballad Brushes for my brush stirs. http://cinesamples.com/products/session-drummer-series/ Basically, it has an endless unaccented stir loop with an accenting sample. Here is a sample in a cue I did for Monkey Island 2 using that library:

If you're looking for a good, cheap Kontakt based guitar library or series of libraries, check out Lyrical Distortion, they have dozens of small, cheap libraries that are quite usable for the price. lyricaldistortion.com

Why the f*** do you think you want to mix in 5.1? I mean, seriously, are you mixing a film? Are you mixing a AAA game with a major publisher? Do you actually need this capability? I have SONAR X1 Studio and I can mix in 5.1 but jesus why the hell would I want to? There's really no point unless I'm mixing a film or for some AAA game. Wait until someone pays you to mix in 5.1, then budget in the cost of an HD system.

I'm confused by your title. Do you intend to connect 2 PCs together via audio interfaces? Or is this your 2nd PC and you're looking for a good audio interface? Anything with ASIO support is probably going to yield much better latency than without--I'm using the old M-Audio 2496 and getting 6-11ms of latency. Gotta keep it low.

Just used Sitar Nation in a cue--can't recommend this stuff more highly.

I will also say that my original purpose for having each instrument have its own midi channel was because I wanted to emulate the look and design of a live score--what I came to also realize in this respect, was that most samples really don't stand very well on their own and it became necessary to layer libraries together--libraries that don't respond identically or layers which you don't necessarily want to be initiated identically. So, creating patch changes, for example, for 3 layers of french horn samples became a little absurd and it just became easier to group by folder, as you said, and separate by MIDI channel. My orch projects tend to have more than 40 channels each now and some can get pretty up there (more than a hundred, etc).

I don't remember if PLAY has any sort of bank system, I will say, however, that for probably a whole year I set-up all of my templates with giant banks and had each instrument assigned to its own MIDI channel until I realized that scripting patch changes took a LOT longer than swapping to a new midi channel.

The industry needs more Audio Programmers. Composers and sound designers need more Audio Programmers. Audio implementation on the programming side is an extremely important skill and you will be welcomed open armed by composers and sound designers in this industry.

I'd move the 2nd oboe to a 3rd flute, personally. I like my horns 4 to 3 trumpets. 2 trumpets on top, 1 on bottom and 2 and 2 for horns or 4 part choir, which sounds great. It just seems weak on the trumpet side, in my opinion, but whatever. The strings are real light here--hopefully the mic placement will take care of that point.

What do they mean by standard doublings? And it just seemed imbalanced to have 4 horns and 2 trumpets, or things like 2 flutes which are very quiet and 2 oboes, one which could be heard over an entire orchestra. Things like that. And the strings are very small compared to the other sections--of course, if they double track the strings, that can make up for it, for sure!

Bratislava doesn't care if it's good or not. How much studio time are you alotting per minute? 15-20 minutes? Cool offer, very cheap. Did you choose the instrument proportions? It seems very strange to me.

Sometimes it feels like a hobby, especially when I encounter many people in the course of a single day expecting professional quality at amateur rates. But I do have indie rates and would charge differently on this job than I would on say Marvel Superhero Squad. (by the way, my gig with Highlander was choir programming)

If you ever decide you have a budget and change your mind about asking people to make your music sound better for free. I do professional MIDI Programming for a price. I have done it for composer Richard Jacques on Highlander: The Game (which was never released by Eidos), I have done it for Mick Gordon of Game Audio Australia for Marvel Superhero Squad for the Wii, and I have done it for LucasArts for Monkey Island 2: Special Edition which released on XBLA, PSN, iPhone/iPad, Steam/PC, etc. I also do it for myself on every game I work on.

One of my favorite rules of thumb for bass lines is have the bass phrase end on the down-beat of the next measure. Not something that always has to be adhered to, but damn it works well.

The drums and cymbals at the end were all done with your bass?

So, for me, the way I usually work is I get some sort of spec detailing the kind of music I have to write. Detailing is an exaggerated term as some specs are pretty stripped down--sometimes it's like "forest music, needs to sound foresty." Sometimes it'll be overly specific and they'll reference some pop song from the 1970s but want it to fit in the context of the orchestral palette that has already been established in the game. Whatever the spec, I will spend a lot of time just listening to that kind of music. Analyzing instruments, statements, form, playing style, mix, etc. Sometimes I'll do this as I'm discussing the spec with the client, sometimes I'll do it while I put together a new template or adapt an existing one, but I always do it. I try to immerse myself into a certain kind of music to prepare me for writing, so to speak, and I try to do as much of that kind of music as possible so I don't get a certain theme stuck in my head or anything like that. Then I'll try to knock out some ideas sketching, piano or some kind of strings pad, etc. If I get stuck, I take a break--I'll work out, I'll take a walk, take a shower, whatever I can do to isolate myself and just think or blank out for a bit. Something to get the blood flowing through the head. When I'm in the zone, I'll stay with it, I'll try not to leave for any reason. You don't want to break the zone. When I have a sketch I think is good or I get to the point in my sketch where I have such a distinct idea of what the orchestration will sound like that I might as well be writing it out with those instruments, I will start arranging it out as I write. So most of my sketches stop once I have that idea or are only improvised meditations around a single theme because once I have the idea in my head on how to branch out or expand on a theme, I just start doing it proper. Again, if I get stuck.... It is not uncommon for me to have a false start. Sometimes I'll get half a minute to a minute in and hate everything I've done, and start over. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it's not, I think this happens more often when I have less developed sketches to start out with (the implementation then becomes a sketch where I've started to discard ideas). Usually, I try to bring the client in on the progress as I go to avoid rewrites, but sometimes it's not avoidable (like I said, I don't stop when I'm in the zone, and I will sometimes nearly finish a track before my client has had a chance to hear it). Here are some very old examples of me going from sketch to final product: Wonderland Adventures II "Wonderfalls" Piano Sketch So, there's like a little counter melody playing over the main melody, and while I didn't keep that particular one, I did keep that idea for the final: Wonderland Adventures II "Wonderfalls" At 0:06 is theme A, at 0:48 starts theme B, at 2:00 they play together. Here's an example of a false start, the spec was village music for these creatures called the Kabooms who were friendly little bomb people who lived in island beach huts and stuff. So the client is like, think tropical, and I'm like okay, island music... So I don't have any great ideas at first, and so I just start writing some island music: Kaboom Village False Start Sketch It's like... the cheesiest island music ever. And I'm thinkin', yeah, I need a better idea. The client on the other hand likes it. But I insist on making it better. So I start thinking about this island-y situation, the fact that it's islandy is actually kind of boring when you think of it, it's a cliche'd pastiche, so I was like, well, I can keep touches of the island feel, but the village theme should touch on the people... who are goofy bombs people. So I imagine that these bomb people are only bomb people because they have the tendency to explode. So then an image of a very kooky village appeared in my head, one where little quirky friendly bomb people wander around occasionally exploding. So, I put together a village theme that occasionally explodes, with a ticking sort of build-up, but with the occasional breath of island music. Wonderland Adventures II "Relax, KABOOM!"