theshaggyfreak

Kate and I quite enjoyed viewing it at the theater yesterday. The little behind the scenes thing they showed afterwards was a nice touch. It was worth it.

I really enjoyed having you on the final version of my remix. I hope to repeat that again a some point soon!

If I'm writing a strictly orchestral piece, I prefer to start in notation. It's just much easier to get a view of the big picture when looking at a score.

My first Final Fantasy game was X and I hold a certain amount of fondness for it because of that. I played VII, VIII, and IX after that. I've played nearly all of the major releases at this point and I can't really think any one of them is a particularly good place to start. If I had to go back in time, I think I would still start with X, though.

For those that want to listen, here's the revamped version with XPRTnovice's sax and I just now did a bit of tweaking to help glue things together a bit more. https://soundcloud.com/theshaggyfreak/sazhafreyasazh-sazh-vs-freya-1

A lot of the low-fi sound that you're hearing is mostly from the organ. There are things that I can do mix wise that give it a bit more life, though. I already have some ideas on that myself.

I did want it to sound a bit more on the old side and I agree that giving it a more 'tape' sound would help in that respect. I also agree on the sax sound as it does clash with the vibe of the rest of the piece. I have XPRTNovice already lay down some real sax tracks and it helps out tremendously but I didn't get that mixed in in time for the contest. As far as giving it more of a tape sound, I think I may just have to run it through my reel to reel deck to dirty it up a bit. It switches back and forth from 5/4 and 6/4 with a fairly quick tempo around 180.

XPRTNovice was kind enough to lend his sax playing skills to my remix. Here's the new version with that replacing the simulated sax line: https://soundcloud.com/theshaggyfreak/sazhafreyasazh-sazh-vs-freya-1

I don't personally use a lot of loops but there's a ton of creative stuff that you can do with them. Just throwing them in a song and using the as they are is kind of lazy, though. They're just another tool and can be used for good or evil. I don't feel presets are a bad thing either but I tend not to rely on the 100%. It's just a matter of using these sort of things creatively. It helps to do a bit more with them than just sitting in some MIDI notes.

I got the Stickbreakers Vol 2 Ten Man Taiko and Duo Tingklik since those were the only two that held any interest for me. The Ten Man Taiko is very cinematic in nature and sounds pretty nice. With the various mic positions they have available, there's a number of ways that you can use this library. The tingklik just has a really great sound to it that I've heard in a number of music pieces that I love. So, that's something I've been wanting.

This is what I'm submitting for the first round of the Final Fantasy Crystal Clash composition tournament. Despite being around OCR for quite some time, I really haven't done too much of the remixing thing. I suppose I tend to spend more time on original music but I'm looking to change that. I wanted to stick with a jazz like sound that the original version of has going. I dialed things back a bit and when for a more laid back brown vibe. So, there's some sax, organ, and drums. I also have a bit of Chapman Stick layered in there too. The entire song was done in Reason. None of the instruments were recorded live. They're all from synths or samples.As far as mixing in some stuff from , I used what is more or less the melody. I kept it in the same key as Sazh's theme, though. I was surprised how well it fit in.Anyway, here's the tune. Feel free to give out constructive criticism. I feel fairly happy with what I accomplished in such a short time since we're only give a week to mix for the compo. https://soundcloud.com/theshaggyfreak/sazhafreyasazh-sazh-vs-freya/s-ZrbhR

Do you want us to wait until Monday to post them in the forum?

Turned in mine just a bit ago. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

I tend to keep my Amazon wish list updated. It's mostly for my own personal use but I do give it out when people ask for gift ideas: http://amzn.com/w/3F687T2SN5XBE

Yep. I'm definitely in.

I think they're good mics if you're just starting out and down have many in your current collection to work with. The nice thing about the 990 is that you can upgrade the parts later on in it if you're handy with that sort of thing. http://microphone-parts.com/mod-kits/mxl-990-mods/

Here's the Ebay listings for those who are still interested: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=301013632476&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=301013625928&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

Oh, if I must How about... Tifa - FF VII

Sure, I'll bite... Sazh - Final Fantasy XIII Auron - Final Fantasy X Paine - Final Fantasy X-2

Well, I'm now willing to drop the price a bit. $120 for both or $65 each. I'm also willing to take a straight up trade for an old Line 6 POD or possible something similar. I wouldn't mind having some sort of guitar modeling that doesn't require a computer.

Don't worry! When everything starts going down, I'll make sure to communicate with everyone on this forum post.

Uh, yeah...that should be mics. I'm not sure how I got miles out of that. I'm upgrading some gear and decided to get rid of some stuff. An ART tube-PAC preamp and a set of mxl 990/991 mics. I'm pricing them at $75 each or both for $140. All is in great condition and comes as shown in the picture here: http://instagram.com/p/fVRsh3hJyZ/ While the Tube-PAC is cheap, it has served me quite well over the past 7 or 8 years. I've also found the MXL mics quite useful when I was starting out and needed something to experiment with. With the 990, you can actually perform an upgrade on it and get quite an awesome microphone. I almost did that myself but just decided to get a new microphone instead. Here's the info on how to get the parts for the upgrade: http://microphone-parts.com/mod-kits/mxl-990-upgrades/ E-mail me at shaggy@zoiks.org if you're interested since I don't always check the forums on a regular basis.

I may eventually experiment with getting my libraries in soundfont format. I need to play around with that end of things.

Well, I have the next little library finished and it's available for purchase for the price of $15. It's called Eccentric Autoharp and here's a description of what it's about... *** received an Oscar Schmidt autoharp from my mother-in-law a handful of years ago and I can't say that I put it to good use until recently. I had always liked the way it sounded when you plucked the strings individually but it wasn't very easy to do on a consistent basis when playing along with a piece of music. I decided that the best way to obtain this sound was to multisample each of the thirty-six strings. Those very samples are what's contained in the Eccentric Autoharp library. These samples are mapped in the middle four octaves and there a few round-robins set up for each note. Due to the very nature of the autoharp, other strings will vibrate sympathetically when only one is plucked. What you end up with is a very unique sound that is a cross between a harpsichord and a hammer dulcimer. *** It's available for both Reason and Kontakt. Thanks for checking it out! http://www.pureshift.com (under Sound Design)

This is a pretty dodgy thing to do and I personally wouldn't recommend it. Most employees would probably raise an eye brow at this sort of thing too. When it comes down to it, I think it's kind of silly to ponder things like this. A $3000 guitar isn't going to make or break a remix.