theshaggyfreak

While my wife isn't on OCR, we've been married since 2005. This summer it'll be ten years since we've met!

See you there, Nick! Bought my ticket a couple of weeks ago. I shall have my camera in tow to immortalize the event.

Here's a little freebie from Sound Toys! They're giving away their little Microshift plugin right now for SXSW. https://www.soundtoys.com/sxsw2013/&rc=318-3580-924

I'll be sitting down and listening to things on Monday but I'm sure it's full of spectacular stuff! Congratz to all the winners!

Despite not winning, I'm happy with what I did in just two days. This was actually my first submission to anything OCR, though. So, I definitely have some catching up to do compared to other remixers.

I took a class from Berklee on this and learned quite a bit. A good bit of what we learned is what type of music/chord progressions goes with a specific mood. Here's an example: *** The Action/Chase Template All of the music this week shared some basic characteristics. All of these characteristics enhance the tension in the music, matching the energy level inherent in action/chase film scenes. Together, these characteristics form a template for action/chase music in film scores. You can then use this template as a guide when writing your own music. Tempo and Rhythm The music is rhythmically unpredictable. It is common to use odd meters-such as 5/8 and 7/8—to create rhythmic tension. It is common to use frequent meter changes to create rhythmic tension. All action/chase cues are fast in tempo. Harmony Dissonance is commonplace. Chords using minor seconds and tritones—very dissonant intervals—are commonplace. Key changes often occur extremely rapidly. It is common to use scales other than the common major and minor scales. Melody Some action/chase music contains no melody, using only tense rhythm and harmonies to drive the music. When melodies occur, they are short and fragmented. Melodies are commonly based on scales other than the traditional major and minor scales. Using pitches that form dissonant intervals with tonic and dominant is commonplace. Orchestration All action/chase music contains fast, repeating figures to drive the music. These are primarily placed in the upper strings (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, and/or Cello). The rhythms in upper strings can be enhanced by staccato brass and/or percussion. When sustained lines are called for, they are typically placed in upper strings and/or brass. Woodwinds are commonly given ascending runs to enhance crescendos and runs/arpeggios that function as background material in large orchestral passages. Bass lines are spread across the bass instruments in all families—woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion. *** This is more along the lines of doing orchestral work but you get the idea. I have found that syncing the music to what was going on in the video is a lot of trial and error. Practice goes a long with with that sort of thing. I do all of my scoring in Reaper, though, which has a fairly decent setup for adding music to a video.

I lowered the price on this since I'm still not getting any bites. It's now set at a buy now price of $250. *** Update! Well, lowering the price again seemed to do the trick and it's been sold!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300872160401 I'm getting rid of this little guy and moving on to something different. This is a pretty good deal considering a new one is $400 and the one I have is pretty mint. I'm also throwing in a USB to MIDI converter into the deal and you also get the pro version of the editing software (costs $40 by itself). Please check it out!

This video gives one of the best explanations for this topic that I've ever seen. It's quite scientific but I don't think it'll go over most peoples heads. It also debunks a lot of myths concerning the subject as well. It's definitely worth watching! http://youtu.be/d7kJdFGH-WI

Okay, Mr. Zircon! You should have an e-mail from me.

There are things you can do to make using Finale easier with DAWs. There are settings that you can use so that when you export the MIDI out of it, VST software like Vienna symphonic will respond better to the CC data. It's still not perfect, though. When I was taking some courses from Berkley, I had a number of discussions with my professor about this subject and he pretty much agreed that there is really no good way to get notation software to work symbiotically with DAWs. I personally like to sketch out songs in notation when it comes to writing orchestral music since it's a lot easier to see various instruments at the same time. If I have to score something to video, though, it's just quicker to start off in the DAW. In the end, you just have to find a work flow that fits your needs.

I think I'll give it a try this time around. I'll see what I can do with Fanatics.

I run all my samples from external firewire drives without any problem at all.

Well, MIDI machine is more like an old school analog sequencer. You're really not going to play a full song with it. There are Apps, though, that you could do that with and make it work. BTW, the latest update to AudioBus has helped out quite a bit for running multiple apps on my Ipad Mini. This makes a Shaggy happy.

I actually converted a closet in my basement studio into a make shift vocal booth some years ago. I did put a bit of acoustic foam in there but I also have some boxes stored in there and that seems to have helped things too. This closet isn't of a normal size, though, since it's situated underneath a set of stairs.

Here's another one I've been playing lately on my PSP.... Pangya Fantasy Golf! It's odd, quirky, and quite cheesy. It's even a half decent golf game and I'm usually not into that sort of thing. While I may not have ever paid full price for this game, I'm having a good time playing it.

I just discovered something that's really awesome if you have any hardware synths. Little MIDI Machine is a free app that acts like an old school step sequencer and it works via coreMIDI. I was able to plug my Little Phatty straight into my iPad (via camera kit adapter) and run this app like a classic sequencer. It'll also work over an ad-hoc connection to your computer. For doing Berlin School style jams, this is pretty awesome!

I picked this up at MAGfest and it's pretty damn good! I'm not a huge hip-hop/rap guy but I enjoyed this album quite a bit. I chatted with Mr. Lucio Baldomero a bit and he's a darn nice guy. A big thumbs up from me!

Yeah, it gets cranky if you run a couple of massive synths at the same time but I'm justly happy to just be able to multitrack stuff. I don't plan on doing too much production with my iPad but it's nice to have as an alternate source. Animoog is still my favorite one to play with so far. I Am Synth is another one that's really intuitive and fun to play with. Synth1 will definitely be a must have when it comes out. Oh! Figure is also another really fun app to play with. You can really get some nice grooves with it rather quickly. Yeah, my last name is quite Polish/Slovak and there aren't many families in the world with that name. You can understand why my wife decided to keep her maiden name.

I guess I'll toss my list up here: RoughRider AutoArp Black and Orange ReVolt CV Processor Resampler DCAM EnvShaper Morfin XF Crossfader Anansi Mid Side Router Itsy Audio Phase Inverter Mordred Audio Bypass Merger Shelob Audio Bypass Splitter Polysix CV Tuner Glitch Effect Probability CV Trigger Probability Drum Trigger Buffre Beat Repeater Polar Pulsar CV Suite Line Processor Stereo Splitter Softube Saturation Knob Bitspeek Echobode Frequency Shifter SB Slice Arranger Synapse Antidote Divisor Truth Uhbik A Uhbik D Uhbik F Uhbik G Uhbik P Uhbik Q Uhbik S Yoko Band-Splitter Zvork Volt CB-1 Volt SH-1

The click sound is often somewhere between 6k-8k. It's that really hard attack that I often hear in the drum sound of various metal bands. You don't necessarily hear so much of the click when things are mixed together but it does help the kick drum break out of the mix a bit. Again, there are so many types of metal and the sound depends on what you're going for. It's best to point out a song that you like the drums on and say, "Help me get my drums to sound more like this!"

It really is a matter of taste since various types of metal have various types of drum sound. Often, though, I tend to hear a lot of 'click' in the attack of the kick drum. Also gota get that kick to lock in with the bass.

I'd play around with this before you spend any money. After all, it's free! http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/

Not quite true about Audiobus. I have an iPad mini now and it works out rather well running several applications at once. I've also seen a number of youtube videos demoing Audiobus on an iPad mini and no one has really been complaining about performance issues. I think only the original iPad will really suffer with this sort of thing. Sure, you won't be able run as many apps simultaneously as an iPad 4 but an iPad 2/3 will work fine with Audiobus. I mostly like the fact that I can multitrack record other apps via Audibus easily. It's nice to have that option.

They did perform live and I know there was video taken but I'm not entirely sure what happened to it. Level99 (Stevo) would be the one to ask.