dannthr

Steinberg just released Cubasis, a DAW for the iPad. I'm curious, since it apparently is openable in Cubase. I am really excited about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66AEYRXiVnA

I haven't tried The Giant or Addictive Keys, but if I was looking to do a lot of pop and rock stuff, I would go with a Yamaha Library--Yamahas, to me, always have a high-end crispness or brightness to them that cuts well through pop or rock mix. Alicia's Keys is a Yamaha C3--but it's not the only Yamaha out there. Synthogy Ivory has a Yamaha, QL Pianos has a Yamaha as well. EDIT: The Bosendorfer 290, which is popular for its unique range, also has a brightness that could work well in a pop/rock context, but to me it always sounds too refined/classical.

I'm into it--12-hours is a tight deadline, can we choose what day is good for us? My mom just died of cancer a few months ago, so any way I can use what I do to help raise funds for this would be of great meaning to me.

The Pianos that come with Komplete are okay--not my favorite. New York = Steinway Berlin = Bechstein Vienna = Bosendorfer Upright = Steingraber I prefer the Steinway B that comes with EWQLSO to the New York Grand, but the New York Grand and others do have better scripting than the EWQLSO one.

Meteo, are you running Gold or Full? It could be that my info is from someone I knew who was a beta tester before QL Pianos released--they've probably updated it to be more efficient since. But the full versions are like 60GB per Piano, right? That's no small library. jnWake, Alicia's Keys sounds GREAT, probably one of the best Yamaha Grand Piano libraries out there. With that said, I prefer Steinway--I just like the sound of the Steinways better. The two Steinway pianos I dig right now are Galaxy Vintage D (which uses the Kontakt Player, so you don't need Kontakt) and CineSamples Piano in Blue (which requires the full version of Kontakt).

Yeah, but with Pianos, what do you want to do with them? QL Pianos is a fairly recently sampled library in addition to the fact that it has repetition scripts/samples which most Piano libraries do not have. I would probably really enjoy them, if I didn't already have several satisfying piano libraries, and I wasn't worried that they would not perform well on my system (I have a pretty beefy system, but I've heard QL Pianos is just murder). Gypsy, MoR, and Storm Drum 2 are both recently recorded comparitively, and I think they would serve well in someone's template. PLAY is just inefficient, especially on Mac OS. :-\

Kontakt is necessary and purchasing Kontakt stand-alone is ridiculous next to Komplete. Komplete is a no-brainer for anyone starting out making music or sound. Kontakt is a deeply powerful sampler for which entire business have been built around sampling for it. Reaktor is a deeply powerful design tool--want to create your own synth? Go for it. What to create your own processor? The world is at your feet. Buying a single stand-alone library is like buying a model, buying Kontakt and Reaktor is like buying Legos.

Kontakt is required. There are so many libraries available to you if you have Kontakt that would otherwise be completely out of your ability to use. Kontakt is required.

I know there are a ton of great proprietary VST drum instruments on the market from SD2 to AD, but I'm curious if you guys can help me compile a list of Kontakt based drum libraries appropriate for a variety of main-stream genres. Not produced by Native-Instruments, already know about those. I know about: CineSamples Pro Session Drums Straight Ahead! Jazz Drums Impact Sound Works Groove Bias Mixosaurus Drumasonic NDK Natural Drum Kit (Formerly Natural Drum Kit 7) I'm looking for libraries that cost in the $100 range that are specific to one or two genres. I'm looking to satisfy the following styles: Rock/Modern Rock Pop Metal Indie Hip-Hop I'm also looking for small libraries that might have shakers and toys as well. I'm seeking multi-sample libraries and not loops. (This will be cross-posted with VI)

Well, that's too bad about the Gold Close samples. I'm one of the lucky few who invested in EW before they switched to PLAY. But I still believe that for a usable out-of-the-box sound, for an orchestra that has EVERYTHING and can sound GREAT out-of-the-box--East West is still the best impact for your buck. I don't mean to offend the fine people at Vienna, but their brass sound like poop. You can't record brass on a quiet sound stage and expect to be able to add reverb enough to simulate the acoustics that occur in a natural, live playing scenario. I have the driest, coolest brass samples out there, and I have the best room simulation plug-ins and it still NEVER beats the sound of samples recorded in a GREAT reflective space. The technology just isn't there. Now, if we're NOT talking about trying to keep this cheap--I can make recommendations that are neither VSL nor EW.

Just do what you want to do--if sounding like someone is what you love, gives you pleasure, then do it. Trying to sound like someone can be a guide in your artistic growth. It has its use. How can you express and articulate to your fullest desire if you don't know what it takes to sound like everything else out there?

They are VERY old Vienna samples--the stuff you buy from Vienna now are not the same samples--I believe the Kontakt stuff is from their First Edition--which is from 2003. With that said, EWQLSO is from 2005-ish.

Remember if you get EWQLSO Gold, you can upgrade to acquire the Close samples which, while still containing the hall reflections of the beautiful Benaroya Hall, where it was recorded, they are detailed and useful in their own way.

There's no point in stressing over it as you'll always sound LIKE something. Every once in a while, a composer will step so far outside the musical conversation that they will bring something new back with them--like an explorer finding new land or establishing some new trail, but those people are RARE!

Your voice is a lens, shaped by your influences, tinted by your preferences, and it will bend the light of music to shine upon the world in a way that is unique to you. Unless you're a hack, then you just sound like everyone else. Enjoy the journey!

If you can't tell you're improving, then you need to work on your critical awareness and your analytical thinking skills--these are skills that are learned in High School when you write papers, and then honed later on in college when you write papers. It is critical to your success that you are fully able to discern the difference between good and better. If you can't do that, then you are in trouble because you will never be able to direct your self-education to ensure that you're working on your faults or failings. - A song is finished when it's either required to be finished or when the final product suffers rather than benefits from additional work. - For me, if I'm not being paid to work on a piece, and it's not required to be delivered, then I consider it a learning piece, and I only do what's required from the challenge of the piece itself--I don't usually bother finishing the piece outside of that. Every piece you work on should be thought of a stepping stone to the next level of self-education. Don't hold on to them, they'll weigh you down--be willing to let go of them in the name of edification. - Just always move forward--look back at pieces you finished last month, 6 months ago, a year ago, and compare and see if you've improved--if you have not improved, that's trouble and you need to work on that.

Most of the time, singers sing the vowels, consonants must be constantly tamed in their length and transitions through to the vowels. Learn VOTOX--know it like you know the alphabet. Feel free to contact me directly with questions--Programming Symphonic Choirs is how I got started in the game industry. The best word-building I've ever done was NOT using Wordbuilder, but using a massive custom template with every phoneme and constructing my words manually in MIDI. The most important thing: When you get 50 people to sing together, you can't understand them. Use that to your advantage.

Oh yeah, forgot, Zebra 2 and Diva--since you asked about Synths in your OP. Omnisphere is cool, but Zebra 2 and Diva are ridiculous. Be sure to post more gear porn when you're through putting everything together. Don't forget really great room treatment and additional monitors (5.1, etc).

Here's a great free resource as well--good for studying: http://academic.udayton.edu/tobyrush/theorypages/

To be honest, it sounds like Oscillator Sync to me, which is REALLY similar to detuning two oscillators, the difference is that the secondary oscillator is reset every cycle.

I think that working in a Bass line is only intuiting the harmonies you're struggling to create. Find the pulse or beat of your melody--where are the hits, how does the rhythm function. Then work with chord tones, as mentioned before. Let your melody land on a chord tone. There are 7 chords in a diatonic scale that are easily accessible to beginners, three major, three minor, and one diminished. Find your pulse and divide your melody up into pieces, then for each piece, find the one note that subsumes the entire pulse, what is the most dominant note in that section of the melody, then write down all the chords that you COULD use--explore each one, in order, to discover what combination you feel best works. This is the systematic method I teach my students when discussing how to harmonize a melody to beginners of music theory.

I see. Fixed.

The syllabi look legit, but as I wrap up teaching a course in Sound Design myself, I feel pretty confident in saying that the course looks heavily focused on musical sound design and the order in which he surveys the topics is all sorts of wacked out. Ring modulation before frequency modulation? Filters before synthesis? It looks like a really poorly organized course. Either way, free is free, good luck!

Molasses is slow.

I would say, Alicia's Keys is the only acoustic piano worth anything in that bundle, the New York Grand is passable, but only because I have a soft-spot for Steinways. Alicia's Keys is a really great piano. The Scarbee stuff is definitely worth while as well.