callitsleep89

The Satriani combo will give you a good base tone to work with. It should work with most styles of music. Dimarzio PAF Joe in the neck. Dimarzio FRED in the bridge

I am really enjoying this little series you are doing, keep it up!

I have been working on a soundtrack for a game, a whilst I am generally liking the music I've come up with, it still sounds a bit too mechanical for my taste. Does anyone have any tips for humanizing an orchestral piece within FL Studios? I already have done things such as basic automation of expression, velocity, proper orchestration, and changing the timing. Thanks in advance

I'm currently on a different computer than I do music on, so uploading isn't an option at the moment. I currently program in all the notes by hand, as I do not have a midi controller of any kind. Also, I try to do things to humanize my compositions, (such as automation,slurring of notes, slightly altering timings, slight variations in tempo, etc) to make the sounds seem less robotic. I think where my issue lies, is that my background is that of a rock guitarist. From a compositional point of view, this means the majority of writing would be using the same tired ver-chor-ver-chor-bridge-chor structure. Works great for rock music, not so much for classical. I guess the base question is, how can I break out of this? A secondary question which may help to get an answer to this is how do you compose? What is your process (in broad strokes) from idea to completion composition wise? Thanks in advance.

I assume this is the correct place to put this, as opposed to the fruityloops forum, if I am incorrect, i apologize. When I am writing a more orchestral influenced piece within FL Studio, I still tend to get stuck into the pattern-based mindset with which you can approach most contemporary music. The end result is that my pieces, whilst sounding decent (that seems to be the general consensus anyways), tend to sound very blocky, divided, or just plain FL Studio-esque. I was wondering how I could go about breaking out of this? A bit of background: I do still tend to subdivide a track into sections, (similar to verse-chorus type things), into which I try to build themes and evolve the track. Could this be part of the problem? Should I just go about evolving the music by my ear alone as opposed to using a tool such as dividing into sections? Any help would be appreciated.

Due to my circumstances(mainly being broke and my cd drive being broken) I believe I am left with 3 choices for gaining some decent sounding drum samples. I have looked at truestrike: tension, big fish audio epic drums, and cinesamples drums of war; all 3 can be downloaded, and all 3 are below $100. Which of these would best give me that percussive sound I am looking for?

I've been analyzing soundtracks on a simple level, and have realized some of the tendencies for this type of music, (such as pulsing stacatto strings coupled with a taiko drum and a brass lead makes things kind of drive forward, etc). I guess I should explore this further than the simple inferences I have been able to make. Do you have any advice music theory wise? What scales, progressions, harmonies, or cadences help drive this big sound? And once I get some money (I'm a broke college student) to buy a new computer (which will be when I am back from studying abroad), and some better software (need something a bit better than FL studios), I'll try and track down some EastWest libraries. Has the play engine been improved yet? The demo just crashes FL half the time.

I have recently started listening to more movie soundtracks, and am amazed at the epicness of everything; the thundering drums, the tense strings, the ambient noises, they are all amazing. My question is, how would I go about emulating this style, composition-wise, instrument-wise, and effects-wise? Like what specific progressions could be used? Specific scales? Are there any orchestration or arranging tips/techniques that one could begin to implement to improve they're writing in this style? Thanks in advance for your help.

with the proper effects and processing i believe this could get that effect better than anything else i have come across. thanks!

it is reminiscent of the tones within a videogame soundtrack when a character has entered any icey area, (think ice caverns), if i remember correctly. i am honestly not sure as to whether it is a pure synth effect or a doctored instrument sample.

I am currently looking for some type of sample (soundfont, VSTi, etc) which has been eluding me. If anyone knows where to find it, or even how to make it, and will help I would be grateful. The sound is difficult to describe: the only thing I can think of that gets close is crystal, but with more of a rounded sound as opposed to a brittle sound. I know I am being difficult, but if anyone has any suggestions, it would really help. Thanks

This is a quick looping theme I made. I was trying to keep an adventure/RPG style game in mind when I created this. Any critiques and suggestions would be appreciated. I always tend to make my music too cluttered, so I thought I would try to go on the minimalistic side Click here to listen to Wandering in the Dark.mp3

Ill take trouble on the raft! Hopefully after I'm done moving I'll get some demos up on this and (hopefully) some cover art as well.

id like to try my hand at the music side and (possibly) the art side of this project if there is still time

i revised the drums, trying to look at them as more of a composition on their own as opposed to just an after thought. let me know what you think, and if theres anything else i might need to change. Click here to listen!