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Hi everyone, One of my friends recently launched a new web-based game called TetraDefense (that I composed the music for ) - it's a sweet combination of Tetris and "tower defense" that will blow your mind. The game looks simple, but watch out...although the first couple levels are easy, they get harder in a hurry! In fact, I still haven't beaten all the levels :), but I bet some of you guys will do better than I did: http://www.tetradefense.com/ FYI, the music changes every 3 levels, so you don't get bored of listening to the same track. And if you get stuck, the "How To Play" link at the bottom left will probably help you (of course you should read that first, but who has time for that?) Let me know what you think - and by all means, let me know if you manage to beat all the levels! GLHF -ContinueTheEnd

Never mind, everyone - apparently I had an older version of the SFZ player; I downloaded the version at http://wayback.archive.org/web/jsp/Interstitial.jsp?seconds=5&date=1184537031000&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rgcaudio.com%2Fdownloads%2Ffreeware%2Fsfz.zip&target=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20070715220351%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.rgcaudio.com%2Fdownloads%2Ffreeware%2Fsfz.zip and that SFZ player worked fine with multiple instances...I now have 8+ instances of the SFZ player (with different soundfonts, etc.) playing just fine. Thanks everyone for the help...I guess sometimes you just gotta search around for a quick fix.

Greetings everyone, Does anyone know how to successfully use multiple instances of the free SFZ player plug-in with REAPER? If I use one instance, everything works/sounds fine, but as soon as I add more than one instance of the SFZ player plugin, I hear a hideous crackling/popping upon playback. I have seen this problem mentioned before, but my question is: is there any way to fix this? Some setting or something that can be adjusted so I can have more than one SFZ player plug-in active? Any advice is appreciated - and again, my DAW is REAPER. Thanks! -ContinueTheEnd

I totally hear you - I fully plan to use the trashy guitar VSTs that I have for now...and no, the Megaman X comment I made earlier doesn't mean I'm trying to bash the music (Megaman X has some of the greatest music of all time, no questions asked), but just the realism of the instruments used...which may not matter anyway, like you said, since people just want good rocking music. I already have my drums taken care of - and I'm planning on getting a cheap audio interface (~85$, Tascam) for direct guitar recording, should I ever need higher-quality sound, for whatever reason. Thanks.

Hello everyone, Another newb remixer question: what exactly do I need to record guitar directly into my computer? I am assuming that I need BOTH of the objects in the links below (one is a soundcard, the other is an audio interface): Soundcard: http://www.guitarcenter.com/M-Audio-Audiophile-2496-PCI-Digital-Audio-Card-101145522-i1154070.gc#customer-reviews Interface: http://www.guitarcenter.com/TASCAM-US-100-USB-Audio-Interface-106541899-i1478020.gc Do I only need one of these, or do I need both (for recording guitar)? The soundcard looked like it had some kind of input capability, but I'm not sure if it can accept a guitar jack...any advice is appreciated. Also, I'm on a low budget, so that explains why I'm not spending more than 200$ on both components combined. Thanks for the help. -ContinueTheEnd

Alright thanks everyone I will try the Pettinhouse guitar stuff...I've already got a couple decent drum kits that should suffice (one from Darkesword's site) and one "Heavy Guitar" soundfont that sounds like stuff from the Mega Man X games.... I find it funny that guitar virtual instruments/effects are so expensive relative to everything else...you can get a practically complete orchestra library for free that sounds pretty good, but you can't get a half-decent sounding guitar for less than 400$? Wow...

Greetings everyone, I am looking for some good guitar and drum sounds (either virtual instruments or soundfonts is fine, whatever) and am not sure where to start looking. I would like them to be FREE, if possible, since I am still learning how to mix and thus do not need expensive/high-quality sounds...but obviously I would like the best possible quality that can be found with free instruments. If anyone has any pointers/recommendations/advice, etc., please let me know. Thanks so much. -ContinueTheEnd

K everyone thanks for the tips - to tell the truth, I think there's issues with running the 0404 on Windows 7 (googling "Emu 0404 PCI Windows 7" brings up a lot of driver/compatibility complaints on forums).

I tried buying an Emu 0404 soundcard off of Amazon, but the new model uses the PCIe slot on your computer (the traditional Emu 0404 used PCI slots). Currently my PCIe slot is being used by my nVidia card, so I can't get the Emu 0404 card. I also checked Creative's site for the normal Emu 0404 PCI cards, but they were out of stock...basically, I can't get the Emu 0404 card that I want. Can anyone recommend an "equivalent" soundcard (in terms of performance) that is ~100$ and uses PCI slots (instead of PCIe)? Any advice would be appreciated - thanks.

Thanks for the advice - I will try this. However, you mentioned that you haven't used SFZ in a while...well, what do you use then? Is there something better that you would recommend (anything free is a plus)? Again, I am fairly new to sequencing/mixing, so any tips or advice you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks again.

I just got Shortcircuit - however, the program can't "see" any of my sf2 files...I put a shortcut of my REAPER Plugins folder into the "sample" directory just like it said, but all I see is the folder and no samples to load in the player itself. I'm using Windows 7 - I wonder if that messes things up. Any help is appreciated - I just need a soundfont player that works...I'm kinda disappointed that it's this hard to get one that does. I'

I'm having a frustrating problem with REAPER (I'm a new user trying to learn the ropes): I have my soundfont players (SFZ and the Font! one) both installed, and I've got two different sound libraries (one orchestral and one guitar-based) as well. My first problem is that when I assign the SFZ soundfont player to a track, IT ONLY PLAYS THE FIRST INSTRUMENT ON THE LIST. Even if I change the instrument on the SFZ player in the FX settings, when I actually hit "play", it always reverts to the first instrument on the list and ONLY plays that one...then when I open the FX options to check, sure enough, it automatically reverted to the first instrument. I'm not sure how to fix this. My second problem is, with the Font! player, I can't hear any sound at all when I play back the instrument (although the player can load instruments and I can see it playing them "digitally", I don't hear sound!). This problem is puzzling because I can hear the playback of the SFZ player, but for some reason I can't hear sound with the Font! player. Any advice is appreciated - thanks. -ContinueTheEnd

I'm having a frustrating problem with REAPER (I'm a new user trying to learn the ropes): I have my soundfont players (SFZ and the Font! one) both installed, and I've got two different sound libraries (one orchestral and one guitar-based) as well. My first problem is that when I assign the SFZ soundfont player to a track, IT ONLY PLAYS THE FIRST INSTRUMENT ON THE LIST. Even if I change the instrument on the SFZ player in the FX settings, when I actually hit "play", it always reverts to the first instrument on the list and ONLY plays that one...then when I open the FX options to check, sure enough, it automatically reverted to the first instrument. I'm not sure how to fix this. My second problem is, with the Font! player, I can't hear any sound at all when I play back the instrument (although the player can load instruments and I can see it playing them "digitally", I don't hear sound!). This problem is puzzling because I can hear the playback of the SFZ player, but for some reason I can't hear sound with the Font! player. Any advice is appreciated - thanks. -ContinueTheEnd

Thanks for the description, but based on what others have said, your "minimum description" seems quite high...you're saying a "good DAW" is 500$, but I just got Reaper for 40$, which people say is enough to pass the OCR judges if you use it correctly. You're talking about monitors that are 500$+, but people have said that good headphones are 50$ - 100$. Please keep in mind that when I say "bare minimum", I'm talking literally "the bare minimum I need to compose a mix that will satisfy the OCR judges' standards." And this is all assuming that I learn how to use my equipment (both hardware and software) properly, which I understand will take a lot of time and effort on my part.

Thanks for the link - that's helpful because I really have no idea where to begin as far as brands/companies go with headphones. As far as the headphones vs. monitors banter goes, I think I would stick with getting a pair of decent headphones and working from there...I'm in a pretty noisy household right now that would make it difficult (if not impossible) to do it any other way. Thanks again for your help; any more tips are appreciated.

I am definitely willing to wait for the sake of quality...I will try to purchase a PCI soundcard that will give me MIDI input capability without latency, as Snappleman and yourself explained. However, I have no experience whatsoever with soundcards (especially in regard to their PCI abilities)...can you recommend an affordable PCI-compatible soundcard (someone mentioned Soundblaster Live earlier)? In the downtime I can try to familiarize myself with Reaper's functionality...again, any tips are appreciated. Thanks everyone for all the help.

Alright I just ordered the $40 Reaper package...that takes care of sequencing. I have a Yamaha PR 263 that I can use as a MIDI controller...how do I make my PC MIDI compatible? What do I do to set up the "audio interface" or whatever? Can someone recommend a decent pair of headphones for me? Again, I can use all the advice I can get. Thanks.

Snappleman - for the record, I have a pretty decent music theory/music performance background; I've been playing guitar and piano for years; I still practice piano every day for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. I have already composed several of my own pieces, and have already submitted a mix to the OCR Judges (got rejected; it was a live performance, not a mix, which means that some of the rhythm/quality was sub-par due to my recording equipment and the fact that I can't match the "perfect" rhythm of a sequencer 100% of the time. PM me for more info if you want). What I have NEVER done is make an actual mix, with a MIDI controller, 100% sampled instruments (I usually play mine by hand, and manually pound a drum machine for my beat), and sequencer to boot. That's why I'm asking for help - I have the music background, but am totally lacking in knowledge of how to do it all with software/sampling...I do have some mastering experience, although not much. Thanks to everyone for their contributions - if I understand correctly, what I need is the following: 1. Sequencer (I'll try Reaper for now) 2. Audio controller/keyboard (ATM I have a Yamaha PSR 260 sitting in my house, if that's any good) 3. Music samples (will try downloading cheap/free versions for practice) 4. PC MIDI interface (I use a desktop PC, Windows 7 64-bit) 5. Anything else? Please add what I'm missing, anyone. Thanks again for all the help.

Thanks...will take a look at it.

I'm not sure if my definition of "remix" is too rigorous/strict, but I say if you're using source material of any type (whether from a video game, song, or live performance), you're remixing...even if you tweak it significantly and add your own interpretations/effects, etc., you're still using the original music as a springboard. "Making" your own music refers to starting from scratch - basically freeballing an entire piece from what's in your mind. True, your mind contains bits and pieces of music/songs/sounds that you've heard from other sources, but it's much more difficult to make a coherent piece from all that than it is to start with a definite source. Semantics aside, thanks to you (and everyone else) for the advice - you mentioned budget. Let's pretend that I wouldn't like to spend more than 500$ on my setup...can you give me some recommended DAW/library/audio interface/controller keyboard recommendations? I definitely want something that will give me OCR quality (assuming I know how to use the equipment properly), but at the same time is not overkill. I know it's difficult to spit out some concrete advice, but I do appreciate any and all tips you can give me. Thanks again everyone for all your help.

Hello everyone, I have decided to start remixing music, possibly for this site, possibly for my own pursuits. I need to know what the bare essentials are for remixing; at this point I have very little idea of this, and will appreciate all the help I can get. I know I need some sort of a sequencer (i.e. software that lets you arrange notes/rhythms, define key signatures, etc.), some sort of music library (software that contains instrumentation for you to use in your remixes), and some sort of mastering hardware (a mixer to turn your arranged music into "real" existing music). Please, keep it simple and just give me a numbered list of the things I will need...I already read djpretzel's thread about buying software/hardware from some other site that OCR is affiliated with, so I will keep that in mind. If you have company/manufacturer recommendations, you can include those as well. Also please keep in mind: I am not interested in expensive, highly-modern/detailed software or hardware, just stuff that will get the job done effectively. As far as instruments go, I think a basic guitar/orchestra set will be more than enough. Again, I am totally new to remixing (although not new to music...I have been playing piano/guitar for years and am fairly skilled at performing it "live"). I need help getting started, and I know OCR is the place to go for stuff like this. Any help is appreciated - thanks so much. -ContinueTheEnd

Alright guys, thanks for the help. I think I'll just get Audacity and use that to convert my WAV file to MP3 once I've got the final mastered version from my sound mixer. People mentioned VBR encoding; would this be an okay format to submit to OCR? The submission guidelines say that the file has to be MP3, but from the sounds of it, some of you think that a VBR file would pass as well. I'm not an expert on sound files and I've never actually heard of VBR files, but can someone (judges?) confirm whether they would be valid file formats as well? Thanks a ton.

Hello everyone - I'm wondering if there's an MP3 converter that's available for free online that's considered to be "the best" for converting WAV files into MP3 files. I know there's probably a whole bunch of converters I could select from, but before I do, I want to make sure that I'm choosing the best one and not some trashy one that will compromise the quality of music from the WAV file. Any recommendations at all (and explanations) are appreciated. Thanks. -ContinueTheEnd

Alright...I'll sit this one out; it sounds like I would just be hindering all the people who really want to play. I know how frustrating that can be, heh. Hopefully there'll be another tournament after this one. I definitely plan to join it if there is.

Garian, I have a question: I'm still in college right now and finals are coming up in two weeks. I'd love to sign up for this tournament, but there's no way I'll be able to play any matches until about three weeks from today. I'm going to be studying like mad, plus I'm taking a one-week trip right after college lets out. If you expect players to start playing next week, then I can't join...however, if there's still several weeks until the tournament actually starts, then I will definitely join. Please answer as soon as possible - the signup deadline's almost here. Thanks. -ContinueTheEnd