PrototypeRaptor

If you're in the market for a new comp/eq, the duende native suite ones are easily the best I've ever tried, even over waves, cytomic, stillwell... pretty much everything. wish they had a limiter though...

http://www.mediafire.com/?f89qgcl8bv4fabx the spl has a bass tuning feature in addition to the compression which changes the whole spectrum from a lo-mid heavy tuning ("tight") to a sub-heavy one ("soft") which I find perfect for balancing multiple tracks, like changing the kick and bass into different eq slots really easily. first loop is lo-mid emphasis second is sub emphasis

FWIW, my new favorite tool for tightening up the low-end is the SPL Vitalizer vst. http://www.kvraudio.com/get/4181.html It's a bit of a double-edged sword in that it can destroy your mixes like any sound enhancers are apt to do, but it has this really nifty bass compression feature which can really get you to datbass

While that is my interface and it kicks ass, I would not recommend getting it in fw. USB is plenty fast and more universal. Also, I still don't think you should mix ENTIRELY on headphones. At least use a pair of logitechs or car speakers as a second monitor if you go that route - hearing the mix on as many platforms as possible is really important, imo. Zircon, do you really mix entirely on headphones with no other checks and balances? Do you use something like Isone?

a slight rebuttal (all imo, of course): 1. While headphones are indeed cheaper, a really good pair of open air ones will cost almost as much as entry level monitors: 350$+ (I think I remember you having the beyer dt880s right? not cheap) 2. Yes, but the stereo imaging on headphones is just plain wrong. Even a bad pair of monitors in a terrible room aimed imprecisely in your general direction will show reverb, delay, and even panning much more effectively than cans, despite the room exaggerating things. Also, don't forget how much of sound, especially bass, is felt, something which headphones can never emulate. 3. Relates to 2 kinda, but room correction is a big deal, I agree. However, the problem is very dependent on the actual shape of the room - and I've mixed in dorm rooms and apartment cubes, and the problem has more often been user error than the room itself. Listening to your setup and learning it is more valuable in the long run and is much more easily achieved on monitors than headphones in my experience. 4. I have lived with room/apartment-mates for many years, and if you are monitoring loud enough to disturb them you are doing it wrong. Mixing quietly preserves hearing, reduces problems with the room (esp. lo-mids), and helps with overall sound balancing. I only mix 'loud' when I want to adjust sub-bass in a club environment simulation. I'm not saying it can't work - I tried to mix with headphones for the longest time, but I just gave up. They will never translate properly, you can ask any "professional engineer:" headphones are like microscopes - good for zooming in and nitpicking, terrible for getting an overall picture. That's why you need both

I am super skeptical of PCI audio interfaces after having helped a friend deal with getting one (it was an M Audio like the one linked). It was a disaster to set up, plus you can't take it "on the go" with a laptop (for recording things like a live piano) I would highly recommend getting a usb interface like http://www.zzounds.com/item--MACONYXBLACKJACK and then buy a cheap usb midi cable to use for your controller until you feel the need to upgrade. this way you can still record anywhere with a good pre and play midi through to your sequencer in the studio. also, if you plan on getting "serious" about music production at any point in the future - DON'T SKIMP ON THE MONITORS! Headphones are not a viable alternative to mix with; they are great for balance checking but not good enough to solely use. Spend the money for some nice monitors now and save yourself the trouble later on. Yeah it sucks, but hi-fi won't cut it.

FL is the only reason I don't have a mac, cause they won't port it for some inane reason. Not that my custom WinXP machine doesn't work, I'm just sick of having to do all the hardware cross checking myself, like you said. As far as audio interfaces go, I really like this one that my friend picked up on the cheap: http://www.zzounds.com/item--MACONYXBLACKJACK It's built like a tank

this is one of the best posts I have ever read ...but you owe me a new keyboard, I got sprite all over mine on topic, 40% is usually as far as I pan individual instruments unless I'm specifically trying to get a separated sound: guitar multi-tracking, pads, backing vocals, etc though there are lots of tricks to make the stereo field seem wider as a whole

no, but, lord was the story terrible... Anyway, I'm definitely more excited about the reboot of the first halo than halo 4: the search for more money

if there's one thing I've learned about the whole "music business," it's that this kind of idealism will get you eaten alive. also, anyone who claims to "create for creation's sake" typically doesn't make anything worth listening to. granted, not that it doesn't happen... rarely...

The way I see it is that nothing will stop pirates - they're going to do it whether there's consequences or not. But when businesses like tonehammer and east west disappear, the only music being created is by amateur bedroom musicians in their spare time, and the only hardware is cheap m-audio stuff, the end result will suffer dramatically - and hopefully piracy will stop simply because the listener has such a terrible experience. ...The amount of money put towards something does have a correlation to its quality. But that point is far in the future, I hope.

UAD's stuff comes to mind, too. definitely a case where a native solution would be much better than the current hardware one, but the fact that it can't be pirated means the semi-obsolete dsp hardware dongle remains.

eh, my showing wasn't very good - but no way I'd go down as a DNF! haha listening to all the others now

yup, me too. mixing this one was pretty tough though cause I didn't have a bunch of free time. oh well, that's part of the fun, right?

Japanese Dissonance is the greatest name for a terrible jrock band ever. maybe they could do the theme to the next season of bleach

imo, the only thing worth it in NI's synth line is Massive All the others are just not top shelf stuff anymore, sound-wise save your money and learn how to program with one synth first, then look at the options... I would recommend Massive for that - it can do just about anything you want/would need to learn.

can't we all just be friends

I want a vst that actually stacks up to even an entry level analog unit with minimal effort... you can get close with polyana, fxpansion, etc, but it takes way too much time and effort. I want something that's "plug and play" haha

not sure if this is an actual "remix," but the main melody is AMAZINGLY like angry birds coincidence or no, it always puts a smile on

well, it's as good as it's getting... good luck to everybody tomorrow!

My composition professor told me something really profound the other day - he told me that it is impossible to compose something that doesn't already exist. By that he meant that I was writing music that I hadn't already created - I was using my midi mockups as a crutch for actually "hearing" the music. If you think about it, that was how ALL music was written until 50 years ago - with only imagined sounds and possibly a piano. I mean, Beethoven went deaf and still had stuff to say... I would try this, as he told me to: Listen to the melodic material, then "hear" it in your head. Then start to mess around with ideas that could go with that melody in your mind, don't start messing with the piano or synths. When you truly have an idea, cement that sound in your mind, then try to recreate it with the tools available to you. This is damn hard, but the only way to really "practice" composition - you gotta get to the point where you are hearing the music before actually "writing it." not that stealing from Chopin is bad, but it gets old fast...

let's do this

rats, I also got put into a second pick... oh well anyway, I hope go up against solar man as some point as his theme is BADASS

happy birthday! but don't think I've forgotten that you now have FL 10 time to crack the whip

Nothing was reamped or redone, I tried to do my best with the actual recordings. No cheating! The drums are gated and treated with a transient designer separately then compressed and run together with a little eq in their own buss. Guitars were layered together using more of the 57 than the AKG then compressed and enhanced with a little more distortion to get some of that "garage grit" I like in these type of things. The BGV are stereo enhanced with a quick delay... all of the vocals are running pretty wet through a plate verb. also, going back and listening... whoops those guitars are freaking loud. might go fix that at some point