Rozovian

When it comes to synths, get FreeAlpha. It's free, multiplatform, has a neat user interface, and a nice smooth sound through its built-in chorus effect. One lfo, two envelopes, and an easy-to-learn mod matrix. Comes with some cool presets too. The thing is, with synths you can make your own sounds. Samples take up memory, processing power, space, time to download/install, while synths just take up processing power (how much depends on the synth). You don't have to load up tons of samples into memory or stream from disc all the time, and you can customize anything you want with the sound. lol, "hardsynth"? Softsynth means software synth, it's got nothing to do with the sound. (eg, I've been playing with FreeAlpha for a few days now, made a few cool sounds mostly as synth patch making practice. Organ, gliding lead, reso bass, comping saw, warm pad, synth brass... All of which you could do as well. I suggest you just learn to use free synths. Getting a well rounded package with decent sampled instruments and sounds isn't a bad thing, but you need to learn to work those controls to get the right sound out of them... and sometimes you just need your very own synth sound.

In any case, don't rush things. Get your DAW and learn it. Get a sample library virtual instrument whatever, learn it. Get something else, learn it. Also, look for package deals when you buy stuff. For example, Komplete costs 500€, the included products (like Kontakt) costs three times as much if bought separately. Also, I second learning free synths before buying big pro ones (or at least before learning the pro ones). The principles are the same, and you'll learn faster starting with something like FreeAlpha than by jumping headfirst into Zebra.

Been quiet in this thread for a while. Meanwhile, I'm gathering everyone's latest wips and completed tracks to show the project mods. Would be cool to have wips for all claimed tracks, and completed versions of all those almost completed ones. I was recently struck with this strange feeling that Splash Hop will be one of the big hits from this album. No spoilers. I said, no spoilers

I IMd your thread to one of the judges with inbox access, and someone will probably see this anyway. In the mean time, I wouldn't worry too much about it. OCR is slow, they're only at November's submissions on the panel. Not that it's any use to say now, because the thread's already made, but Site Issues & Feedback might have been a better place to put this. No worries, mods can move it if it's a problem. The feedback board can just move fast enough sometimes that your thread would be buried. not a problem now tho.

I appreciate the invite to crit your track. Sometimes, that's just what my ego needs. Sorry it took a little while tho. First thing that strikes me some artificial quality in the intro strings' vibrato, but I don't think it's much of a big deal. Piano reverb is a little weird, tho not sure why so I'd rather not make any claims about why or what you could do about it. The 1:32 section feels a little hard on the sequencing. I'm still learning to notice stuff like that, but that probably just means it's all the more important to fix. Your bells and harp feel a little too hard to me for most of their time. Not the ending, but their other appearances. Emu already pointed out the high sustained string notes as being a little painful. Not painful on my speaker setup, but they do stand out a little too much imo. 3:14 crash could be longer, it sounds like it's cut off after the crescendo. 3:34 crash has a timing problem. The loud parts seem to fill up mostly lows and mids. Aside from the high strings the highs are a bit empty. A SUBTLE high shelf boost to piano and flute could alleviate that. That's my crits. This is a beautiful arrangement. Source is pretty, but you've taken it to another level. Nice work. halc mentioned before that it might be a little conservative, dunno if that still applies. I might listen more to it and the source, maybe comment on that later. Comparing it to one of Vampire Hunter Dan's tracks shows you could probably boost it a dB or so to get it to about the same level. You shouldn't lose any of the dynamics, but it'd fit in better with other ocr orchestral tracks. Make sure not to boost it too much tho, better to leave it as-is than to boost it too much/clip/whatever, and the aforementioned suggestion of a high shelf boost for some of the tracks might solve this issue too.

You're in Maryland, that's GMT-5, which makes 7 PM 2 AM for GMT+2. Late for normal people, but doable.

Ta-daa! A thread for asking about sources, if the one you're interested in is valid vgm for ocr or not. The perfect thread for music from games based on movies, whether EA Tracks are random licensed works or written by the artist for the game, and when old classics show up in a game. -- original post: Probably just easier to wait for Liontamer on irc, but I might as well make a thread for source questions. Unless there's already one, but none of my search words found it. The standards say a source must be written for the game to be valid. I don't think that's what Tchaikovsky had in mind when he wrote the Swan Lake. , the one at 2:07 is the one I'm interested in. My question is whether I can remix it for ocr or not. If Tetris music is valid, shouldn't this be too?

For guitar, you'd best get an audio interface to get a good recording quality. You can plug it straight into the computer soundcard (with the right cable), but you might end up with all kinds of electric noise and stuff that way. For recording, you could probably use Audacity. For writing and mixing and stuff, there's other free software to use, like LMMS, and commercial music software is pretty cheap these days. Expect to not be awesome tho, learning new skills and perfecting your skills takes time.

I miss the days when Bungie made games for mac. Or actually, I miss Bungie making games for mac. Marathon's a classic, but I prefer current-gen graphics. Should just save up for a PC for my non-mac, non-console gaming needs. Now if only I also had time for gaming...

Yeah, but that doesn't quite work so well when you need your left hand for other things. Like running for cover. I'm a longtime mac user in a long-time mac using family, and I'll be the first to say that the default mac mouse sucks. Scroll ball gets full of crap, mouse doesn't always discern between left, middle and right "buttons", side buttons must be off or else you can't do anything without being interrupted by whatever "convenient" function they're set to by default, you can't lift the mouse while holding the button down (without changing your grip to hold on to the aforementioned side buttons), etc.. Anyway, this is a thread of good news.

Was bored so I created a little piece inspired by your image. Too busy to contribute for real tho, and tbh I wouldn't trust you with my music. You're completely unknown to us, we haven't heard your music, any previous projects by you, we know nothing about you and the work you do. Your project forum is empty, google can only find this and a similar post on scene.org about your endeavor. Your might want to contribute to the communities you recruit from, otherwise you easily come off as a kind of spammer. All we know is what you've posted here, so don't be offended when we judge your endeavor's level of seriousness based on the quality of the picture we're supposed to be inspired by. You've kind'a gotten started on the wrong foot in this community, ending up on the defensive about the pic and not getting much response about the album idea. You might want to lurk some more, get to know the community, contribute some. In any case, good luck with your endeavors.

In principle I agree with what Meteo is saying... except this line. What you use is always secondary to how you use it. That said, a laptop might not be cost-effective as your primary music machine for reasons already stated in this thread. I used a laptop for a few years as my music machine, and it eventually ran out of juice to run my music projects. A laptop is good for writing, recording (few tracks, not a lot of effects while recording...), and some level of mixing, but at some point you'll likely run out of power and memory to keep up with your tracks.

You can hear some previous versions here (along with lots of other unfinished stuff and old versions of some mixes). I keep a lot of my older versions online. They might help someone learning to write or mix, they're a nice reminder of how badly I used to fail (so I can forget how much I fail nowadays), and it's fun to hear how far a track has come since the first version. Dunno when I added the drums, but my favorite comparison is between the first and second versions. tbh, I'm not sure I like the drums here. The idea to use drums is sound, but imo I should have used different drums or different synths to keep their respective sounds a little more together. But hey, it got posted, director OA likes it, and as the album came out this was said to be one of those gems ppl might discover. So I don't mind. Thanks, but dude... I already stretched a repetitive circa 30 second source to 5 minutes. And went further with my posted Zelda mix. Patience, it'll be a while until I have the time to make a 10 minute behemoth.

Sucks if you get knocked out in the first round, I suggest the GMRB first rounds be in groups. Up to Darke to decide, I'm just suggesting.

Here.

You know they aren't physically louder than the threshold of the computer/speaker volume, right? It's all about mixing. You're not the only one struggling with making your work "louder".

Fortunately, subtractive synths are relatively simple - you have a couple of oscillators that are run into a filter that's controlled by an envelope. Basically. There's a couple of nice tutorials on youtube, including a pretty good one by ocr's own Dj Redlight, and articles all over the net. Google it. Just get a synth and start screwing with it. If it comes with presets, screw with different parts of the synth to learn how they change the sound. Then try to create an initialized patch (as simple as it gets) that you can start working from. Add filter, set how the filter is controlled by key, velocity, envelope; change resonance; add an LFO, make it screw with pitch, volume, filter; change volume envelope; change filter envelope; change waveforms, detune it; get another synth, screw with that one; get yet another, learn more. Most synths are subtractive, so they'll be pretty much the same, just do the same things a little differently. Other synths have a lot of the same controls anyway. So do samplers.

Return to Forever and Powell are now open, Innocent Water is now taken. Just fyi, until Bahamut edits the first post.

JudgeAvenger!

First thing that strikes me with v8 is that the snares are way louder than the kick. Kick needs to be louder, snare and clap need to be softer. Same with the tambourine and hihat, they easily overshadow a lot of the other instruments. The bassline could be a tad louder too, but it's better as-is than if it gets too loud. Overall, the volume levels could use some fixes, I probably missed some instruments there. Some of the instrumentation sounds a little plain, not sure how you'd bast solve that. Subtle reverb on the pad might work, or a second pad, maybe an octave down. The crescendo sound at 1:34-36 is cool tho, don't change that one. 2:16 synth-bells combination could use some mixing work, it gets a bit muddy there, hard to distinguish the sounds. Dunno if it's a problem that is best solved with EQ, with volumes, or with screwing with the sounds themselves, but see if there's something you can do to make the leads more clear there. You might also want to lower the sustain level on the bells, maybe by 20% or something. I hear some distortion or something at 1:24-1:35. Could just be my headphones or something, but you should make sure. Ending with the percussion only is a cool idea, but imo it exposes them too much. You could face them out slower than the rest of the instrumentation, but I would advise against leaving them solo like you have here. As for source, I think you're in the green. I heard two parts of the source clearly throughout the mix. Feels creative enough to me. Pretty good. I'd be hesitant to call it finished, but you're close. Nice work.

For FS1, FSPORT among the mods. Then there's FS2_Open and the the imrpoved mediaVP files. This reminds me, I should fix my fs2 track and resub it.

Freespace 2's source code was released, and modders and fans upped the graphics quite a bit. Someone even ported FS1 to the FS2 engine. Not familiar enough with the others, but I second the recommendation for Freespace.

Probably because he hired usa to do mastering or something for his album. They've got the most professional relatioship, thus the first one he'd respond about. Since Brandon's also on the project, usa could tell him and us at the same time. Thanks for the message Brandon, it explains a lot. Also, since I'm now awake and it's the 21st, the deadline is officially up. Gonna open a few tracks later today, Religion Thunder is one of them (unless I hear from the remixer _really_ soon).

Gonna go over all the wips I've gotten later today, I'll respond to stuff then. Thanks everybody so far, keep them coming ppl! In practice, time's up when I wake up on the 21st. Should be in 18-20 hours Next deadline in a month and half or so. Official date pending.

Willrock's almost done, the Dual Dragons keep being crazy awesome, LuIzA joined, Fishy left, and I updated the tracklist. As for the deadline, I'll check what we've got on sunday morning my time (where morning is... late) and open the appropriate tracks.