dannthr

In 6th grade I was watching "The Wonder Years" and unknowingly influenced by Joe Cocker's rendition of 'With a Little Help from my Friends' I wrote with my clarinet a flute piece that went something like this: Dan's First Piece (Re-enactment) That's not exact and the sheet music is lost to the ages, but that's essentially the first song I ever wrote down. Before that it'd been you know... humming and singing to myself on the playground. This is a work in progress 14 years later: Memories of Flame and Smoke (Still writing for flute )

Also, there's too much air in the recording that is needlessly adding to the overall volume.

Windows XP64 is great, just make sure you can find the hardware drivers and you're solid--boots faster than XP32 and supports gobs of memory. (I wouldn't touch Vista with a forty-nine and a half foot pole) Cheers,

I use IRs all the time. I use them on individual instruments in Kontakt and sometimes, as Zircon uses them, a single IR with multiple sends. They are resource intensive and can be annoying in that sense, especially when you have IRs that have tails as long as a few seconds. I also use IRs in my mastering process as a single post production application on a stereo wav file. There are several, very fantastic free IRs all over the internet.

Just throwing my hat in for a second. Generally, Cakewalk's WDM code outperforms other DAWs. I think they spend more time optimizing their WDM code, especially since they're not cross-platform (it's in their best interest). With that said, I generally get about 5 to 10 times better latency using ASIO over WDM and I'm a SONAR user with a multiple computer setup where latency compounds. On my master computer, I have around 5.7ms latency.

It's true! Learning Music Theory has made me a more pro-active, action-oriented individual. I'm no longer a human being, I'm a human doing. Thank you, Music Theory.

Are you able to select the microphone from the input lists? If yes, then you're not missing a driver...

Really solid, man! I've got the perfect project for these too--I'm scoring a short film that heavily references anime.

Thank you, sir! 　鈴を鳴らす I'm supposed to know that but I'm a less than exemplary Japanese student.

Awesome, man, good luck with learning everything. Music is an amazing path to take, even if it's just one path amongst many you journey down, it's worth every step. I agree with Zircon, if possible, learn both at the same time--additionally, guided instruction is incredibly valuable in the beginning. Even if you don't continue with lessons, they're a fantastic jump-start. Just remember, also, that finding a good teacher is about compatibility and definitely not to let a bad teacher turn you off from a really fantastic journey.

BRILLIANT FIND MAN! That's so fascinating. Obviously, I never was taught about them because they seem specific to Shintoist ceremonies/rituals! Awesome tenacity! I'm totally interested in the Giga file, bro! EDIT: Also, I think SUZU is the sound effect used for a bell.

Haha, you think he's joking, but he's not:

Try writing a melody for these parts at a quarter of the speed, and then write a harmonically accurate up arpeggio for the other three notes. You can get this speed, just not in the way you want. You want to have the player playing the melody say, with his thumb, then you want to have the index, middle, and ring finger playing chords. Analyze some classical guitar music.

This is actually on my pile of to do, but it's been deprioritized lately. Mine would be orchestral.

I have around 3 years of University level elective music solo voice training, which isn't much, but decent. I've performed on stage about 8 times for these classes. My range is baritonish or low tenor. My effective range is A below middle C to about D mid treble staff, at around E or F I have to break into falsetto. My full range, when well warmed, is probably about F below middle C to unknown falsetto heights--but I don't recommend giving me too much in falsetto. I'm not well trained up there. What kind of project are you putting together?

Plus, unless something's changed, BBB also uses its own proprietary sampler. Annoying. There's also another great set coming from a slow moving company, WarpIV. http://www.warpiv.com/1050394.html Their screaming trumpets are pretty sexy--their other stuff is... coming along? There definitely aren't enough Jazz package contenders. The WarpIV Tribute to John Berry, however, is worth a listen.

It's just a really low annoying rumble and if your listeners have a decent (or even a shitty) sub--it'll get all brrr on you.

In revision there's a horrific process called "Kill Your Darlings" which is a mandate directing you to eliminate some of the elements of your work to which you are attached that might be holding you back. It's painful, but important. The trumpet "call," I believe, is holding you back. It's trite, it's shallow, and it rides bluntly over your harmonic progression. That's not to say that a good war theme shouldn't have fanfare--it SHOULD, but you abuse it. What I recommend is getting rid of it, or at least getting rid of any facsimile of it until later on. It's too shallow to be a starter theme, it will work better as a development later on--a countertheme, if necessary. I would develop the horn line you have and just work, for at least one day, without your "darling" trumpet call.

Thought this would be interesting, some frequency response graphs on various headphones discussed here. The Beyerdynamics definitely seem right on for the money--I'm just not sure if I'd want the boost on the highs or take the hit for the senns... I'm almost more wary about boosts over damps, but it's definitely a solid candidate, Zircon! (the iPod buds are for the cat who suggested radioshack phones) The iPod buds are great for listening to someone speak and trying to hear someone speak clearly because it has a frequency boost in the vocal range and it's got a spike around 4khz, right around where the bulk of human intonation occurs. Of course it's camel hump response does nothing for mixing. The AKGs aren't bad, but they taper off the highs, eliminating the ability to hear certain details in the mix--especially bad details that might hit off the spectrum--and they have an insane, nearly 10dB bass boost. The Beyer and the Senns are quite comparable, and the Beyers are quite a bit cheaper--but I, like I said, am not too big on what those couple of high end spikes would do--might just bring out some of the detail, but it might be for the worse? Not sure--but at the same time, I'm not big on the Senn's dips either, even though I do like that it keeps most things low and even. Interesting, to say the least...

Take the abuse or don't take the abuse--just never do a bad job and never burn bridges.

Currently, I have the MDR-7506's which have great detail but have the slightest bass boost and the slightest high boosts--great for monitoring dance music, but not so good for orchestra. My next pair will probably be these bad boys: Senn HD650

Thanks man! BTW, sometimes your voice reminds me of Bradley Nowell of Sublime, which I think is pretty cool--was he ever an influence for you?

No, man, I've been crazy busy at school, I missed it (Especially if you're updating via myspace, I haven't been on myspace for like 6 months) Regarding your voice: You've come a long way in exploring the timbres you can create/manipulate, man, the only thing I would recommend is to not neglect your falsetto, man, it'll give the structural shape of your vocal lines so much more room. Also, working that falsetto, while easy to neglect, actually works out your lower voice at the same time--it's good stuff all around, bro. You hit that falsetto nicely when singing softly, but you rarely touch it with the big heavy hitting lines and you can develop power behind it, though it's not easy, and some of the rockinest rockers ever had really strong falsettos. To Monkeybrain: The implication that there is a correlation between the physical construction of someone's resonating vocal chambers and their personal interests is absurd--and most definitely idiocy. Unless, of course, their personal interests include home surgery or some shit like that. Additionally, you should know that a person's speaking voice, while holding clues to that person's vocal range, is not clearly indicative of their vocal range because our spoken tones are determined by social acceptability, not physicality. I am by no means an expert at singing, however, I have studied voice for 3 years at the university level and I can tell you that Zyko's vocal quality is just that: Quality. What you're typically hearing from him, I imagine, is a resonance focused primarily behind his front teeth. This is not uncommon for people who teach themselves how to sing because this resonance is nearer to how people speak in most parts of the US. But Zyko has developed his voice wonderfully. He's mastered a tonal range that fits well with his musical flavors and is wholly Zyko. So we shouldn't have any more of this geek voice bull shit lest I break out my AKG C1000, I who builds computers.

Oh, I notice you wanted some samples--well, here is a Gregorian Chant test that I made with Symphonic Choirs a while back, just to see how it would do. Wordbuilder can be challenging and in this instance I went with some of their out-of-the-box latin phrases without tweaking it. Then I took a classic gregorian chant midi and let it do its work--then I soaked it in cathedral verb. http://dannthr.com/samples/sketches/chant_test.mp3 Aside from a few glitches that could be cleaned up with some minor tweaking, it did a pretty good job out-of-the-box.

Sup, Z? Haven't heard the whole thing yet, but so far, man, it sounds like solid Zyko--some of the best I've heard from you--and your voice is sounding great!