theshaggyfreak

It helps that I was taking classes from Berkley when I purchased VSL. I do suppose it's true that you need a better understanding of how an orchestra works to use it to its full potential.

Well, there are two ways that I achieve this sort of thing. Using a straight up vocoder of some sort can get the job done for most of the stuff that you posted. I really love the Bitspeak plugin, though. It's very easy to use and you can get some fantastic results with it. http://soniccharge.com/bitspeek

That's pretty true. I tend to like Vienna because I'm able to use it for a bigger variety of things. With EWQL, you're kind of stuck with the big Hollywood sound.

For a number of reasons, I would suggest starting with Vienna Special Edition Volume 1. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VSE1Bun/ I have this and EWQL Symphonic Gold and I have gotten more milage out of the Vienna library. It helps that Vienna's sample player is a more usable piece of software than Play.

I actually run a Thunderbolt drive for all of my data/samples, etc. It's a mechanical drive but it's blazing fast when loading up sample libraries and such. It's one of the Seagate Goflex desktop drives. The only major problem I've had with it is that it gets really hot. I set a small fan on top of it and that took care of that problem.

And as I said at MAGfest, I can help with this project in any way you need me to. I've got your back 100%!

I have found the music apps on my iPad good for getting ideas and occasional work on the go. It is in no way a replacement for my current studio setup. I think we're quite a ways before that's going to happen.

I might be able to build you a custom cable to make it a bit less confusing if there's nothing on the market that fits your needs. It can be a pain to use several adapters to achieve a single goal.

I recently got Chipsounds for a game project that I'm working on and I'm loving it. While I do have a Commodore 64, NES, and Gameboy for authentic sounds, the Chipsounds VST handles the job nicely and gives you a wide variety of sounds.

Yeah, you're going to need an adapter of some sort. Most likely you'll need a mono to stereo adapter.

I have an iMac with 16gb of RAM and haven't run into any issues doing full orchestral pieces (mostly with Vienna Symphonic). Right now, I don't personally know that many producers users more than 16gb.

It really depends on what you learned first. I learned to read staff music at the age of 8 and I never saw a piano roll until I was in my 20s. No matter what, I always feel a lot more comfortable working with notation compared to the piano roll.

Some years back, I was told by some fellow local engineers about the Apex 435. It's less than $100 and it sounds pretty damn nice on acoustic guitar. I ended up buying two of them and it's been my go to mic for acoustic guitar since then. If you want to record in stereo, you can grab two of them! Another pair of mics that I've used for stereo recording are the K-Micro Silver Bullets. Believe it or not, they're $35 for a pair and they're about the size of your thumb. These are great mics to throw into a backpack or if you're trying to fit a mic into a tight spot. The third thing I use for recording in stereo is the Zoom H2n. While it is a portable handheld recording mic, it can also be connected to your DAW via USB. Not only does it record in stereo but you can do surround sound with it as well! Not bad for less than $200!

I for one have dipped beyond video games and even music. Since I run my own show, I can stretch my arms out into whatever I can if I have the skills to fit the job. Sometimes you work on getting a particular gig and you end up being hired for something totally different than originally planned. Everyone has these sort of stories.

True that! I am going to put together some demos, though, so I have something for my profile. I suppose the best way to do it is to just do it.

I started to work on doing VA stuff in college but it kind of went by the way side as time went on. I'm working on trying to gear myself up to do it again, though, and have started working on demos. i have the time and I have the equipment. I just need to get myself back into the practice of it. Are there any good sites you recommend to get scripts from for this purpose? As much as I love photography, I am myself trying to keep it as mostly a hobby. I may do some occasional work if asked but I could never see it being my main gig. I don't have nearly the amount of equipment to be a full on photographer for one but I am getting better at getting some decent shots.

So, I'm just jumping back into this to see how things are going. I got really busy with the holidays and MAGfest. Where are things at right now? I'm not really sure what's currently going on from looking at the initial post.

1. Frozen Factory Zone 3 - Sonic Lost World 2. Silent Forest Zone 2 - Sonic Lost World 3. Windy Hill Zone 1 - Sonic Lost World 4. Desert Ruin Zone 3 - Sonic Lost World 5. Tropical Coast Zone 3 - Sonic Lost World What I had listed were zone music pieces but I didn't list them by zone. So, that's fixed.

Boo...I missed that part. Okay, will re-list.

1. Tilt the Machine - Sonic Lost World 2. Owl Lights - Sonic Lost World 3. The Deadly Six Theme - Sonic Lost World 4. Sugar Lane - Sonic Lost World 5. Sea Bottom Segue - Sonic Lost World Now that I'm catching up with stuff after the holidays and MAGfest, I can jump back into things.

I finished going through all my pics and posted the best ones. For those who don't follow me on Facebook, here's the link to my Picasa gallery for MAGfest 12: http://www.picasaweb.com/wchrapcynski/MAGfest12

If you're still needing bass, I can do more of that upright sound now that I have my fretless U-bass.

That picture of Darkesword is one of my favorite picture from all the ones I took this weekend. It captures his essence perfectly.

Ni no Kuni was by far the best game I played in 2013 and is now one of my favorite games of all time. I can't really say that I have any negative thoughts about this game. The music is good. The story and game play are great. This game also does some one of the best jobs at cel animation that I've ever seen.

For those not following me on Facebook, I will also be posting all of my pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/116294723695410258054/MAGfest12?authuser=0&feat=directlink Some are uploaded already and I will be adding more over the next day or two.