dannthr

Oh, I was looking at Edirol, I like Roland a lot. However, the two units I saw didn't have S/PDIF (Coaxial) which I use right now a lot (almost all the time). At the moment I have four TRS inputs and I don't want to spend this money 1) feeling like I downgraded, and 2) closing the doors on future project setups where I might need multiple line-ins. That's sort of how I'm feeling about the line-ins at the moment. I am a bit flexible, I suppose, since I'm even considering the Saffire, which only has 2 line-ins, but it has supposedly outstanding Mic Pres.

Basically, I'll be recording soft synths in from a slave machine via the S/PDIF, but I'll be recording instruments and vocals as well, hence the need for an interface--I also prefer zero-latency monitoring so an out of PC interface is ideal for that (as well as the potential to move from computer to computer if necessary) as I'll be doing some "on-location" ADR for an indie feature later on this year. Neither the Lynx, nor the Hammerfall are in my budget--though the Hammerfall is tempting because RME recently added virtual audio bussing on their DSP.

Hey folks, I'm in the market for a new 'prosumer' audio interface (my current one is crapping out on me, randomly crashing my machine) and I need it to run $400 or under (student summer budget, etc). It needs: 4 TRS inputs 2 XLR inputs 1 S/PDIF input speaker output (or line outputs to convert) headphone monitor output 24/96 MIDI I/O phantom power So far I've been looking at: The E-MU 1616 PCI Good: A good review from another musician I know and it meets my minimum requirements. It also has a PCI interface, which I hope is fast. Bad: Some skepticism concerning the actual quality of the interface being CL's high end line expressed by fellow GANGers, no reviews of the mic pres. The Presonus Firepod Good: Lots of mic inputs for the money, some really good reviews of the mic pres, and it's a bit more mature, visually speaking. Bad: Some really bad reviews of the mic pres and some nightmarish accounts of bad customer service and almost consistently defective units, also doesn't have 4 TRS inputs. The Focusrite Saffire Good: Supposedly good quality mic pres. Bad: Some complaints with wonky drivers and stutters. I'm open to suggestions, if anyone has some good experience or bad experiences with what I'm looking for/at, I'd really appreciate hearing from you. - Dan

Step One: Get a box Step Two: Cut a hole in that box Step Three: Put your MIX in that box

YES! Analysis is your brain teaching itself!

Using FLStudio doesn't help me, and I can't ever say it helps you. Experiment. When I was starting out with electronic music I was told by a veteran of my hardware to simply listen to a track and emulated as best as I could, when I got damn close was when I could say I was "capable" with my hardware--the same goes for FLStudio. Cheers,

I learned by getting some MIDI sequencing software, getting a decent sound module, and playing around with sounds until it sounded like I wanted it to sound like, then I started programming sounds until they sounded like I wanted them to sound like, then I started learning how to edit recordings until they sounded like they way I wanted them to sound like, and after about two years from starting out with absolutely no knowledge, I would be able to whip something like this out: http://www.dannthr.com/samples/Dan_goes_crazy_30_seconds.mp3

I dislike keyswitches for that same reason, actually, because I store all my articulations into instrument banks and use the patch change MIDI control to switch between them. To the OP: There are new instrument libraries that are coming out with performance scripting built in--PLAY from EWQL and VI from VSL are a couple to name. This would allow certain kinds of performance detection to take over the articulation switching. Repeated notes are cued, legato notes are detected, etc. Any sampler worth its salt will allow you to make your own keyswitches. I don't like keyswitches because it makes my music messy looking--all those sub-bass notes floating around, etc.

It's much more fun to do it manually in soundforge or a wav editor of your choice--yes, I said fun.

PREPAAARR YOURSELF FOR DA MAASSTAH OF DISASSTAH! Arnold Schoenberg: Theory of Harmony

A remix becomes an original when you can't be sued for selling it.

A digital audio workstation (DAW) is only one cog in the music making machine. A DAW will assist you in audio recording, editing, and mixing and will facilitate MIDI recording, playback, editing, etc. Ideally it will be an environment that allows many different plug-ins and will offer a lot of different features, but it's only one part of the whole. What are your goals? What do you want to be able to do and how much money are you willing to spend to make it happen? Understanding the kind of money you have to work with and what your specific goals are music-wise will help us help you decide what kind of gear is appropriate for your needs.

It's a neat concept, I have a VGPiano, a VGJazz, and a VGRock folder each filled with old VGMix tracks I liked and sorted, obviously, by genre. The piano and jazz folders, however, had less than an hour each, while the VGRock folder had over four hours. I think maybe a project that focuses on one of the more overlooked genres would be cool. My ears are a bit tired of anything but the most inspired electronica works. But something that's really different could be refreshing. Genre's I would like to see: Modern Rock (w/ lyrics) Showtunes Jazz Folk

Can't you chain a distortion FX onto a Gate? You just have a gate set at some x volume and it doesn't send to the distortion until you hit that volume level--that's what gates are for.

No kidding man, when is that guy going to get LOCKS on his doors?

In Progress: Unthemed Wind Waker Project Some bard style arrangement of the Wind Waker opening Prolog (Live Guitar + Singing... eventually) Wrath of Thanatos Secret of Mana Thanatos Project (Epic orchestral feat. "Thanatos Revealed," "Battle with Thanatos," and "Thanatos Defeated.") The Future: Untitled Leged of Zelda A full orchestral Zelda remix in the style of one of my favorite composers: Ennio Morricone Untitled Chrono Trigger--the Trial remix A full orchestral remix of the Trial music in the style of Nino Rota's 'The Godfather.' Distant Concepts: - Some kind of Operatic arrangements based on one or more RPGs - Lufia 2 suite Non-Video Game: The Hippopautamus Song A full arrangement of one of my favorite songs from Flanders and Swann (Will feature full Orch + singing) Victor's Piano Solo A friend asked me to complete this interrupted song off the Corpse Bride OST -- I've only gotten so far as to transcribe the original w/o block chords at the end (not played live to preserve notation).

I also like this link: The Orchestra: A Users Guide http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/%7Eahugill/manual/ Which basically has samples of instrumentation layering which sounds like what you're wanting to get into--it's pretty superficial, but it's a neat site.

That and Gypsy is going to be badass I'm working on the sound track for a Medieval Combat HL2 mod and RA has been infinitely useful. There are so many old "folk" oriented instruments from all around europe that has just... made it the most used library next to Gold XP. I prefer Kontakt 2 to what I've read about Play, but I still wait to see how it performs. I'm a bit of a nut and like to program patch changes by hand and really control the performance as close as I can. But I do like CERTAIN scripting like legato scripts or stuff that can add some slurs depending the interval, etc. RA doesn't really have any loops. It has a Hurdy Gurdy set of loops and some wind instrument I think, I basically hate loops. So RA is great for that. However, it has been noted on the Game Audio Forum that RA utilizes some pitch shifting, but I think that's largely due to the fact that several of the instruments are literally limited to what pitches they can actually pull off. Why Kontakt 2? I typically work with more than 40 instruments at a time, so I need something like Kontakt 2 which can load 64 instruments spread across 4 MIDI ports. It can also apply pretty decent effects right into the mix so I can usually mix my RA instruments which have no sample tails and mix them to fit with my SO Gold XP instruments which are recorded in a concert hall. Here's an example: This piece was created within a few weeks of acquiring RA and SO Gold XP, and it is largely improvisational. http://www.dannthr.com/samples/sketches/shakuhachi_sketch.mp3 I used SO Gold XP's Steinway B and RA's Shakuhachi Keyswitch and was able to throw this down from start to finish in like 10 minutes. I recorded the MIDI data for the piano, then the MIDI data for the shakuhachi keyswitch, and then soaked them in Kontakt 2's reverb respectively. While it's not necessarily possible for a shakuhachi player to play that (I forgot to leave breathing room during my improv), it turned out well I think. My experience with RA, like many other sample libraries, is that they're better when disguised or hidden with other instruments, but there are times when you can play them almost naked and RA has plenty of patches that you can do that with. So I recommend RA

Instruments: An old bundy Clarinet A steel-string washburn guitar A Roland RD-100 borrowed stage keyboard A Roland JV-1080 Sound Module Computer #1: Specs: AMD Athlon 1700+, 512MB RAM, 120GB 7200rpm HD Hardware: Tascam US-428, Sony MDR-7506, AKG C-1000 Software: Cakewalk SONAR 5: Studio, Sony SoundForge 8, MIDIOverLAN Computer #2: Specs: AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 4GB RAM, 40GB 7200rpm HD, 3 x 74GB 10,000rpm HD Hardware: M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 (audio bussed over S/PDIf) Software: Native-Instruments Kontakt 2, MIDIOverLAN, East-West Wordbuilder Libraries: EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Gold, EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Gold XP, EWQL Symphonic Choirs, QL RA, QL StormDrum, DISTORTED Field Equipment: M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 Audio-Technica ATR-55 Shotgun Microphone Audio-Technica Pro24 Stereo Condenser Microphone Audio-Technica ATH-M20 and about 1.7GB of CompactFlash media Please don't rob me.

I am really interested in this project--I'm already getting ideas of some fun music for it. But I'd actually want to try to do something a bit different from the Wii shop channel (something orchestral harking back to that sort of kitschy 1950s/60s commercial, similar to the wii shop channel music but done with an orchestra) If you're interested feel free to email me: dannthr [at] gmail [dot] com I'll reply with some examples of some other stuff I've done (or maybe a short demo). Questions for me and everyone else: How many assets are you looking to have? - How many tracks do you need - How long Do you only need music or do you need sound as well? These questions will effect the perception of your apparent "rush" job.

Thanks guys. I'm definitely looking to hyphenate the beginning. I've been having a bit of difficulty trying to squeeze more musical content out of the original themes and I'm probably going to look it over a bit again. The problem is that at the moment my Guild is having a big annual student/apprentice music composition contest and I'm probably going to put this on hold until after Feb 11th. As for the samples, no they're not rips. I'm using EWQL Symphonic Orchestra and Symphonic Choir. I really would like to do these tracks justice.

Thanks, At the moment I'm not sure how long I want my sections, I'd rather have extra than less for the time being. The opening 35 seconds is supposed to be my interpretation of the first track on my list: Thanatos Revealed "The Curse" http://secretofmana.planets.gamespy.com/mp3/som36_-_the_curse.mp3 I tried to have an orchestral mock breath between the low, low bass drum and a scraped cymbal. The waterphone was my interpretation of the mana beast/whale voice thingy. The strings sounding synthy were, I think, due to the fact that I way over-compressed the file. Here's a new WIP version, of course still in the alpha phases: http://dannthr.com/music/tests/thanatos_wip.mp3 Again, feedback is appreciated and thanks for listening.

Cool idea, I'll start off with the WIPness, if I ever get to actaully polishing it... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v223/Dannthr/ocr_sketchy.jpg Just sort of playing around in Painter -- the sketch is mine. I'll probably ink it if I decide to actually polish this off and I'll just make a pic that doesn't have any cheeeeeesy photoshop filters

A WIP thread is up if you want to comment: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6798 Cheers,

Hey this is my first WIP posting ot OCR. This is in response to a request for a Thanatos themed remix. The final work will feature the three Thanatos related tracks: Thanatos Revealed "The Curse" Battle with Thanatos "The Oracle" Thanatos Defeated "A Conclusion" as well as the main SoM theme in part. A quote from wikipedia about Thanatos: "In Greek mythology, Thanatos (θάνατος, "death") was the personification of death (Roman equivalent: Mors), and a minor figure in Greek mythology." I'm trying to keep this in mind as I imagine this parallel naming-theme playing into the story line in the game itself. What I have done so far: http://www.dannthr.com/music/tests/thanatos_sketch.mp3 I imagine Thanatos revealing himself from Dyluck's corpse and transforming into the Dark Lich, what I have so far is what preceeds the actual battle music but is technically the first two Thanatos themes on my list. Feed back would be appreciated.