dannthr

The low synth sounds like a saw wave with a bit of a filter laid on it. The melody sounds like a synthetic dulcimer or struck string, you could create that sound any number of ways--FM synthesis, a comb filter, etc. Did you try contacting the remixer?

The Focusrite is LIKELY to have better preamps, but I don't know what they're putting in their $150 range devices compared to what Mackie is doing. I don't THINK of Mackie when I think of computer audio, for sure--but everyone's trying to get in that game. Obviously, a shootout would be best--but who wants to take the time to shootout between two very cheap models?

I know that the 18i6 Scarlett has the same converters as you would find in the Focusrite Liquid Channel, but I don't know what's in the 2i2. I'd be okay using a Mackie console in a live scenario, nothin' special, but it'll get the job done, but as an interface? I'd have to hear it in action before I'd even consider it. With that said, there's not much going on at the $150 range. The Komplete Audio 6 is definitely worth considering for its HIGH sample rate possibilities.

You're not looking at a huge difference, but I'd pick Focusrite over Mackie almost any day if it meant passing signal through.

ScoreCleaner is an iOS app that let's you sing a melody in and it attempts to notate it for you--the analysis is spot on if you have great pitch, but it's an easy way to save ideas on the go. They might have an Android version, I didn't check.

I don't know, man, sounds weird to me--I would reinstall Shreddage just in case. I'm running it fine in Kontakt 5 and Cubase.

Don't forget that a headphone amp passes signal, you will want something of quality (especially since you're going to be adding to the signal).

Do you have a reference of the electronic styles that comprise your album?

Yeah man, no problem. Regarding your TOPIC title: Scales and modes were created exactly for that purpose--to organize pitches into a harmonic framework. That's what they're for, that's why we use them.

The chord progression is what is in front of you, that's what you have, that's the music. The scale/mode you're using is an organization of interval relationships and a tonal center. You're not mutating to a new mode unless you're actually changing your tonal center without changing your key. The tonal center can be implied, but it should be clear to you as it will be the center-point of the strongest resolution. You're only changing your mode if you've changed where we feel that resolution (without changing the key).

I don't quite understand what you're asking. This is what I think you're asking: "I've got a phrase where I'm in E-Phrygian at the start and A-Aeolian at the end, is that MUTATION?" The short answer is yes, the long answer is: Are you sure you're in E-Phrygian and not just creating the first half of a double period or something where you end the first period with a weak cadence? Because it sounds like you're just in A-minor and you're just flirting around with E for the first while because it's the DOMINANT.

First thing is first: I am not a lawyer and what follows does not constitute legal advice. Okay, so now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let me just say outright: You ARE a business, you don't have to do anything--you're making money, an income, right now, this year, on work that you're doing: You are a business. You're what the IRS calls a Sole-Proprietorship and you're doing business under your own name. This is okay, this is how this works, and you're in good company. This is income you declare on your taxes next year and you WANT to do that because there are so many wonderful deductions that you can declare as well. I HIGHLY recommend finding a Tax-Class or small business class you can take--like at a community college or through some life-learning or continuing education program nearby, there's so much really useful details that are great to know when running your own business. Contracts: Yes, contracts are REALLY important. Not because they're official but because contracts DEFINE the business relationship concisely. You didn't realize it, but you are already under contract. In the US, contracts can be verbal or defined in correspondence--as in email. You have an arrangement--you make music, they pay you, and wherever this arrangement is defined is your contract. Anywhere where you and your client AGREE on terms is part of your contract, it's just a really, really sketchy way of keeping track of obligations, especially when the relationship goes sour. A good contract protects you, defines how your music is to be used, who owns the music, what they're allowed to do with it if it's a license (instead of a buy-out). If you're dealing with a client in another country, and something goes wrong, which country's courts should handle the case? Etc. Contracts define the entire boundaries of the relationship and you should get in the habit of creating or modifying your contracts for EVERY gig. It's a really important step toward protecting yourself and your business. Let me ask you a question: These guys are hiring you to make music or buying music from you--do they own it then? What if they make another game? Can they use your music on that too? What if they decide to cash out their company, can they sell your music? What if they decide the music is better than the game, or their friends ask them if they can use the music, can they license your music to other people and make money off of it? What if the game is a mega-hit and it gets turned into a movie starring Nathan Fillion? Can they use the themes you wrote but have it credited to whoever they get to write the film score? Can they sell your music for use in an infomercial about aerobics equipment? Contracts define the boundaries of the relationship--especially boundaries you didn't realize were there.

Of course, none of you guys have anything on this guy: Now that is rock and roll!

If I'm writing for overdubs, then that's a conscious decision--I program my parts with the performer in mind so that I can make sure what I'm doing at all times is true to a performance. You want to write realistic parts, program realistic performances? Be conscious about the performer--even when they're not real, your job is to make them real.

I write my patterns in one track because writing good kit drum patterns means understanding and keeping track of the virtual performer's limbs. If I can avoid doing the impossible or even keeping my virtual performer from playing something excessively difficult, then my patterns will stay true to form and sound like a drummer. Separating them is easier on the programming side, but it's harder to keep track of what is playing at any given time making it too easy to suddenly have a 5, 6, or 7 handed drummer, which is just silly.

The instrument doesn't play a lot, but I suspect that going for the African vibe, he used a Kora or Ngoni sample. Kora: Ngoni:

Accuracy and definition--most consumer subs that I've heard sound floppy, they sound like cardboard: colored by harmonic distortion. A good sub will sound smooth and defined. Check it out with your ears.

Take what I have to say with a mole or two of sodium chloride. I say: Do your own thing. If you want to make beautiful engravings of interesting piano reductions or arrangements of existing game music--do it, there's a place for you in this community, even if you don't submit them as remixes. Do it because you want to do it, not because the site wants you to do it.

There's a reason I call it "Old Skool" in my video--stitching multiple articulations together either through keyswitching or multiple patch usage (back in the day we'd use Program Changes which is really what Keyswitching was designed to avoid) is old fashioned. I have several excellent VSTs and Patches that are so well programmed, that articulations can be controlled by performance context or through manipulation of continuous controllers. I don't consider either method superior over the other because I consider them both inferior to better scripting or programming. I don't like keyswitches personally, because I don't perform my parts in (generally) so I don't benefit from the real-time switching capabilities, and I don't like my MIDI Rolls to be littered with keyswitches, I like clean MIDI parts that only represent the actual music data.

Yes, Composer "Jobs" are extremely rare--a working composer makes their own work--and when you're being appraised for a gig, schooling rarely factors. If I were to go to school for music again, I would do the Masters level Film Scoring certificate at USC, lots of hands on work and great networking opportunities.

I have a degree in English: Creative Writing. I am a working composer and music producer, and I am the Chief-Instructor in a Video Game Sound Design and Music Production program in an accredited college. I just finished authoring our Music Theory curriculum in our new Music Production degree program. If you can't go to college because of resources, then the spirit of learning will be your ally, but if you can, GO, GO TO COLLEGE, GO TO A UNIVERSITY! The University is a unique place. There will never be another place like it, and there will never be another time in your life like the time you spend there. It's rife with potential and opportunity and those two things are some of the most important things you will ever encounter throughout your career. Do it.

As everyone suggests, the only way to remain proficient is frequent practice and activity. Give yourself GOALS, and challenges. They don't always have to be about your DAW, remember being proficient in your DAW isn't what you want from DAW proficiency. It's about production workflow and getting the music out the door. That's why your practice should have a compositional element.

This is for the OP so they get a full answer--here are all the instruments playing that run in the concert version (this is the version of the piece that John Williams uses when he tours or holds concerts)--I don't think the original version had a piano in this, at least I can't hear it. Flute Piccolo Oboe Clarinet and Harp. All of those instruments at certain ranges can assist in creating a glassy and shiny timbre, and John Williams uses them all together here to add a lot of substance to this run gesture. The piccolos play an octave above the flutes, the oboes an octave below the flutes, and the clarinets and harp play with the oboe. Hope this helps (obviously I ommitted all the instruments that do not play this run).

You shouldn't feel bad, that 3 days was your personal moment of exploration and discovery--it's yours--more importantly, no one is born knowing this (some are born with great intuition) and no one who is any good is good without hard work and stacks and stacks of 3 days like yours.