LITHE

well personally, I dont know. I havent played a FPS on a PC since counterstrike and I dont mean source... and even though Im getting used to trackball, FPS still seem like they would be awkward. but if I remember correctly, according to him (he is not a trackball user) trackballs have the advantage over mouse because of the "flick, stop" action or something. apperantly when you get a feel for the trackball, you can flick the ball and stop it at the right area. It was something like that. I dont remember all of it. I'll ask him next time I see him. Though I usually trust this guys judgment over anyone when it comes to gaming. its practicaly his life. hes more of an RTS guy though... but one advantage I do know of that trackball have is that you never have to lift and move the mouse. to me the FPS advantages over eather doesnt really matter too much. the computer is more of a workstation to me. and I personally like the feel of trackball over mouse with what I do. and in almost everything I do, I like to stay away from the norm and go my own direction.

what resolution are your displays? mine are both 1920X1200. thats a lot of pixels to scan across. And yes... trackballs are great for gaming. I havent tried out mine yet because Im more of a "hands on" gamer... consoles... I first decided to switch to trackballs because I had an Idea of switching the right thumbstick with a trackball on 360 and PS 3. apparently when I looked it up I wasnt the first person to think of this. I was telling a friend that works at THQ about my idea. I asked if trackballs are at all suitable for FPS. he said "actually some of the best first person shooter gamers use trackball". also, my brother visited a cartoon network studio, and he noticed that the guy using pro tools was using trackball and was incredibly fast at it. I decided to look up on google "trackball vs. mouse". every review that I saw favored trackball. I also read somewhere that trackballs range in quality is a lot wider than a standard mouse. I read that the placement of the ball is important (thumb track balls are not as good apperantly) and the most important factor is the size of the ball. thats what lead me to keningston expert mouse. this mouse is very accurate and easy to use. and I noticed that some of my work is already more efficient. this is only after a week of use... I did notice that my trackball has acceleration. I absolutly love it and wish my old ligitech had that. though with or without acceleration, I would have to go with trackball.

I just recently switched to trackball and Im really surprised how much more efficient it is when your mixing tracks. especually if your like me and you have 2 high res displays. before I had to constanly lift my mouse off the pad and move it back to span across both displays. now just a little flick of the ball and Im there. its much better for scrolling too. its also surprising how fast you get used to it. I was also told that when you get used to its a lot better for gaming, especually first person shooters. if your thinking of switching to trackball I highly recomend it. the trackball I got is a kensington "expert mouse"

thats actually a very good point. I think Ill go for realguitar since Im not really going to be using it as a solo instrument in most of my work. in the future I can get something like acoustic legends, when I get a little more familiar with composing with an acoustic guitar... realstrat can sound a lot better than the demo videos. though it doesnt sound as real as prominy lpc or sc... I know it is. but still something about it doesnt sound real, even when played through an amp simulator. though the sound it produces can fool most people that dont play the guitar...

yeah Im not impressed at all if its not a synth. I cant load the videos but every demo Ive heard sounds fake to me. I guess its just because it doesnt really change the articulations and dynamics from each note. Im sure that also the quality of the recording doesnt help much eather. acoustic legends has 2 different nylon-stringed guitars, 7 different steel-stringed guitars, and 2 different twelve-stringed guitars. you can easily do doubling by adding a guitar on the left speaker and adding another on the right speaker, and having both guitars playing the same melody/harmony. also Ive tried out RealStrat made by the same creators. now that program sounds like a synth. compare it to Prominy SC (both of which are fender stratocasters) and you'll see what I mean... EDIT: I heard real guitar used properly with better effects on music labs webpage and it does sound pretty good if done right. real strat doesnt sound too bad eather but still something about it doesnt sound too real to me. I could imagine that real strat can be better than prominy sc for composing multiple guitars in one project, since it doesnt take much memory from your RAM. this is actually a problem Ive been having while using prominy LPC... I'll give real strat another try, with using it for composising, and using LPC for final rendering...

realguitar sounds very impressive for a synth. though it is still a synth, and doesnt sound real. I heard some of the demos on acoustic legends just now, and that is well worth 3 times the price of realguitar. thanks for all your help everyone!

Im looking for the best known acoustic guitar library for kontakt 3. something like Prominy LPC or SC just instead an acoustic guitar. anyone have any recommendations???

nobody has posted on this subject in a while, but I just got the sennhieser HD650's and the sound is truelly amazing! I bought these for composing, since most of the time I work on my music late at night and I dont want to wake everyone in the house. some people say these headphones are great for listening but not creating. I highly disagree! I have only read good things about these headphones, and when I saw that it had the most perfect frequency reponse on head room (headphone.com) I was sold. I apgrade from Audio-Technica's ATH-M50's and the upgrade was worth it! these are the only headphone I have ever wore that gave me a sense of depth and feel for where the sound is comming from. I listend to some orchistra tracks and when I closed my eyes I felt almost as if I was listening to a live performance. every other headphones Ive used gave me a sense that the sound is comming from the center of my head rather than around me. rock music sounds as powerfull as it should sound through these headphones. the most important thing I can say about these headphones is that I can hear things in a song that I have never heard before. that includes problems in my own music. I highly recomend these headphones for anyone composing music. the only thing I wouldnt recomend the headphones for is recording or anything else that requires noise insolating. obveously sealed back headphones are much better in this case. these headphones are so "open" that you can hear pretty much everything outside of the headphones. for example, Im listening to music right now at a mid volume and I can here the the clicks comming from keyboard. so these wouldnt block out screaming babies on an airline.

I got a playstation 3 about two months back, and I was told that it can work with all playstaion 2 games. I thought that was cool because I can play all the ps2 games I missed out on when I only had an xbox. the other day I got sly cooper, and my ps3 is telling me that my version of ps3 will not work with the ps2 format. does anyone know if I can download, or even buy an update that can let my ps3 work with ps2 games?

oh I get it. sounds good to me. that card is actually giving me issues in many different ways. I think Im just going to get a good motherboard with a 5.1 soundcard built in it along with optical or s/pdif, and sell the other peice on ebay... thanks!

so how much does a mixer cost? one with not many inputs that gets the job done... well as for the 5.1 I dont plan on using my monitors and the surround system at the same time. I realize that monitors eather use a mic jack or a 1/4" jack. so I can actually use both cards? how would I switch between using one or the other? and whats the point of the audiophile 192 having an s/pdif out, if it doesnt output 5.1?

hey everyone, soon I'll be getting a new set of monitors (m-audio Studiophile BX8a Deluxe) along with a sub (m-audio BX10s), and along with that I think I should get a new soundcard. right now I have a "creative sound-blaster xfi elite pro" (what a big name for such a lame product) which was a big waste of money! anyways I need my sound card to be able to hook up a midi keyboard, two monitors and a sub, 1/4" jack headphones, my guitar, and an s/pdif out (or optical out) to hook up to a 5.1 reciever (I also want my pc to be my media center). right now Im looking at this sound card http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Audiophile192.html does this have everything I need?

damn. that is pretty inspiring! I see what you meen though. the solo should be much more melodic than it is. I'll try and fix that. hopefully I can get another version out within the next couple of days...

yeah I know exacly what your talking about. on the previouse cut, I had a complaint that you couldnt hear the kick so I tried fixing it. just now I fixed it and I think it sounds right. so does the rhythm. I'll post and update soon. I also took your advice and fixed up the reverb a bit. Tensei-San, what part of the solo do you not like? I personally like the arpeggios, but which part do you think I should fix? what start time(s) to end time(s)? some of the solo was kinda improvised, and I just got used to listening to its tune so I kept it. so I guess I can take out certain parts and maybe extend it, but I need to know which parts sound weak to you.

I can hear the over compression in the drums now that you mention it. I can try fixing the piano but thats the best sample I have. its one that comes with kontakt 3. I actually like the arpeggios at 2:00 I cant try and change it around and see if I like something else better. ...weaksauce! I've been composing for a little over a year, give me a break! lol I cant try and make it better but I dont think Im capable... remember, this is my first remix...

actually the rhythm guitars dont have any reverb or delay. both tracks are slightly offset so that may give it that muddy feel. Ill change that and see if that fixes it. I can tone down the reverb on the drums a bit, but the reverb is supposed to go with the whole feel of the track. without the reverb the piano sounds sort of out of place. mainly in the beginning, mid solo, and end. what do you mean by "transient attack"?

The subject for this remix is formerly known as "Sky Sanctuary Rock (starting over)". I changed the name of the subject because I never mentioned the name of the game or level. so many people that are fans of this game may have just looked over it without realizing what this was... I started this remix over a year ago. When I first started I didnt know much about music. I hardly even knew what a scale was. and still, til this day I dont know much of the music theory. all my work is just made up of sounds that pop up in my head at the moment, or some tune I heard in my head while waking from sleep. In that past year, I learned a whole lot about music, software and equipment from this page. I would like to thank everyone that helped me out over the year. The final version of this remix took so long for me to finish because I wanted to wait til I was skilled enough to make it sound as good as I wanted it at the time. Personally I think the wait was worth it! Please comment, and let me know if I should change anything in this remix before I submit. UPDATE: LATEST VERSION HERE _____________________________________________ here are some of my older versions... Version 1 Version 2 Version 3 Previous Cut

thanks for the input! the rhythm guitar and its distortion sounded a lot more fitting and full when I had it under "ultimate guitar kit 2" soundfont. I'll spend time fixing that up and making it blend better from the piano intro. which piano rhythm are you talking about? the one that starts at 2:45 is staying. but Im guessing your talking about the one thats at 3:50 backing the guitars. that repetitive rhythm is in the origional track, and its backing the lead. that rhythm actually repeats through the entire song switching between the C major scale and I think E major. the ending repetitve piano is a little bit louder with more sustain than the rest of the song. I can hear how it gets annoying on that part so I guess I can tone it down. I loaded the song up and I realized that the bass was turned way down. I can fix that np. I see what your getting at with the drums though. the high hat is way over powering. I'll fix that up! other than that, and a bit of tweaking the song is done. I dont plan on doing any more with it... ...haha I didnt even know I could change my name! w/e its not like I had any remixes out under that name... BTW, the oringional track is Sky Sanctuary zone from Sonic & Knuckles

meh, I finished this up last night and I can hear that the rhythm guitar can use some improvement... but what do you guys actually think about the composition of the track? any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Its been a long time since an update, but here is the final version of this remix! I may tweak things a little before I submit, but the composition is done. I have come a long way since I posted up my first version. I learned so much from the people from this site, and I thank everyone for all the help and support. let me know if there is anything I should change before I submit. the reason it took me so long was because I wanted this remix to sound so much better than what I was capable of at the time. so I waited until I learned a little more about composing music. and I really think the wait was worth it. Please comment! I want to know what everyone thinks before I submit! The name will be Sanctuary of Rock

so you guys are telling me that I shouldnt offset? but there is no way somebody can play perfectly on beat. the remix Im making is a rock song using guitar samples (prominy lpc). when I play sweeps and each note is perfectly timed it sounds too perfect. it sounds like its being played by a machine. I want to show you guys two examples from my music myspace. (add me if you want too!) CLICK HERE for my music page first listen to "PowerSlide". about half way through the song is the sweeping part. the whole song is perfectly timed. to me it sounds mechanical. then lisen to "optimistic perspective". everything in the background is perfectly timed but the guitars and bass are offset. it also has a sweeping part about half way through. which guitars sound more realistic? powerside or optimistic perspective? (note that optimistic perspective has two lead guitas and powerslide only has one lead) remember that Im only talking about the guitars...

I just completed a remix and I think Im just about ready to submit. but before I do I would like to offset the notes so it doesnt sound mechanical. is there a way I can automaticly, offset the timming of each note randomly in fl studio?