Garpocalypse

That's the best way you could have done it. That I thought you might have done a midi rip means you have a fantastic ear! A midi rip is when you get a midi file say from vgmusic.com, import it into a project then reassign all the midi tracks with your own vst's. Record, Mix, Done. Someone else's work. If you don't have any material to work with then a midi rip is ok to do, but i think it's more important to work on your ear than to rush right into the mixing stage. Looking forward to hearing the next one.

Some of the best advice I ever got on one of my remixes went something like this. "Get a tindeck or soundcloud account, if people have to click more than once to hear your song they get put off."

Is this New York City? Or just anywhere in New York State? Most people in upstate NY want NYC to be it's own state. It's not NY!

I dig what you have so far. What vst did you use for the guitar? I think the lead sits a little too far in the background. If you were planning on moving it up to the foreground after the intro then that should work but I think it's too distant to keep it where it is. Is it me or am i really feeling some funk bass for this?

Well, you put "Sonic" in the title so I guess i'm compelled to click on it. As an early mixing attempt it's not too bad. Reminds me alot of where I was around a year ago. Is this a midi rip by chance? Even though I think they are great for getting some mixing material to work with it does prevent the chance to internalize the music you are working with. I prefer the much slower approach of figuring out each note by ear (or by occasional glance at a midi file). This will do wonders for your ear training. If that's what you did here then great! if not, not so great! but at least you got going! I was listening to some of your other stuff on your youtube channel and I think you more than have the interest needed to excel. My one dig would be that there's alot of frequencies clashing to the point of extreme abrasiveness. When you first start mixing 0 everything out on your faders then gradually find the level they need to be at one section at a time. Once you start to get an idea of how you want it to sound, chip away with the EQ to get things to fit. There's alot to mixing and the way I was able to practice it was by remixing the same piece over and over and over and over. Don't get discouraged, cause you are going to get discouraged alot. Be ready to break yourself down and build yourself back up constantly.

Hey thanks for the comments so far. At least I'm not hearing anything more about the drums so i guess it's off to a better start. I want to know why everyone thinks this is an 80's inspired piece! It wasn't a specific goal of mine to get an 80's sound when I started it and other than the repetitive machine drumming that I had in my earlier posts that some people said were 80's like, I don't know what else is really 80's about it. About the reverb, my favorite part of this remix is the Flute that's part of Zero G's Phaedra. The problem with it is I can't adjust the reverb that's on it at all so I tried to blend a bit by adding more reverb to the instruments around it. Though I may have over done it. I've been working on getting some of the things I need to record myself playing bass. Given how tricky recording bass can be I thought a VST bass would have been the better way to go but a little spicier, human playing would inject some life into this for sure. Going to bump this down to finished until I get the new parts recorded.

Wow, February was when I last posted this remix. Since then it has gone under numerous remixes/arrangements and well, I pretty much destroyed the piece and gave up on it. I went back to an older project file and tried to fix some of the crits against it. Most notably the drums are far better than I had them almost a year ago and I centered the mix around the bass and drums this time. This will probably be my last post before submitting to the judges unless of course there is something glaring. Like a MOD screaming DON'T SUBMIT THIS!!! Dimension Pro Ministry of Rock Some stuff from Kontakt 7 Elements Source:

This has been one of my favorite threads in awhile. It's good to have differing points of views. Just so long as we don't kill each other, that energy will go back into making our art better. Can you post the link to your mix if you submitted it on the forums? after what, 4 pages here, i'd like to hear it. Let's keep this thread going until at least until Sonic Generations is released in less than 1.5 weeks. Neb! Get back in here!

Now i'm really lost... What was this thread about again? Piano. Humanizing. something about midi controllers.... Dear OP, the midi keyboard is a central part of many small home studio setups. Given it's versatility, there is plenty to learn and many ways to communicate an idea with it. Put the time in to develop your finger skills, and you can play any instrument you want. Not in a strictly professional setting of course, but for the home it's ideal. The biggest plus for a keyboard is that it gives you access to Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm so you can internalize everything you need to communicate music. A musician is only limited by what he/she/it refuses to learn, or gives up learning. I wouldn't want to sequence a djembe solo. My God that would take forever once the finger rolls came along. And sequencing the Tabla? Forget it. It would be faster to have a seizure over your keyboard then make some corrections by hand. Faster, and more human(e).

You're kind of missing my point too. No problem though, it's the internet. We can't get beyond the voice in our head when reading these things. I was saying that with practicing the piano/keyboard in different ways you can avoid spending tons of money, time, and space by learning how to get as authentic as possible playing of a given instrument all through your midi keyboard. Being an instrumentalist myself, it pains me greatly to say that, but it does take time to learn to play any one way. It's not perfect, the dedicated players of each instrument will probably sniff you out and give you tons of hate for it. I'm that way 100% with keyboard bassists. But it will give you a chance to sound more human. FlamencoGuitarhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34MIV3HXxPs -Sax -Drums Ihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs3kxzPYwHc- Drums II:-) Much more versatile of an instrument nowadays. So to get back to the OP's question. It is a worthwhile investment of both time and money for your studio. And yes, your piano will sound more piano-y if you actually play it. Get a book, get on youtube, and take a month of good practice time then try your piano part again. You can only improve as a musician. Now, I'mma go practice

Was a blog, now a thread. So whatcha wanna talk about? Issue solved by not spending money. A testament for creative development through monetary limitations perhaps? A mod can delete if need be. If no one really wants to talk...

The midi keyboard controller is going to be the death of most musicians if it isn't already. With my minimal piano background, I usually just used the keyboard to input my notes then tool with them from there. Lately though, after seeing some crazy keyboarding skillz i'm actually making using the keyboard in different ways part of my practice time. Right now for example, instead of programming my drums with a mouse (which has been a terrible weakness in most of my mixes) I am now doing some keyboard drumming, which I thought was a useless skill to learn until i saw it working. Pretty soon you're going to see the greatest Tabla, Djembe, Conga, Bongo and Set players in my mixes and I didn't have to pay anyone a dime! So yea. Keyboard. Invest.

Damn you marketing departments! Making me think I needed to buy your plastic to get better drums! I'mma go practice now. I still want a wavedrum.

I spent a little too much time today youtubing videos of the Korg Wavedrum and was just about to dip into my savings to get one when I saw that the Wavedrum has no MIDI capabilities at all. I think it sounds great but I already spent a bunch building up my drum library and I would like to have something that allows me to interact with what I already have in a new way. For that reason I'm looking into getting another MIDI controller but I'm wondering if anyone uses a MIDI drum pad and could make a recommendation. Durability is an issue. Some MIDI controllers feel, and break, like 20 bucks worth of plastic. I'm looking into: Alesis Performance Pad http://www.zzounds.com/item--ALEPERFPAD Yamaha DD45 http://www.lenrom.com/p-50323-yamaha-dd45-4-pad-digital-drum-machine.aspx Yamaha DD65 http://www.pssl.com/!PqBzqboIAgTlOd3np6RrLg!/Yamaha-DD65-7-Pad-General-Midi-Drum-Machine-s Also i'm looking at picking up an xbox360 drum controller and converting it to a midi controller. It looks kind of iffy so to speak, but if it works it would save me some money. Has anyone tried it? So far I haven't seen anything that would be a Wavedrum MIDI controller knock off. Which is what I want Even though it's more expensive and not as flexible would a Wavedrum be a better buy?

Thanks alot for the comments. In the past I used to worry about putting up a WIP for a punching bag on the forums so i would spend way too much time obsessing over whether something was worth posting or not. Then i realized that I was preventing myself from learning as well as limiting my motivation. My new plan is to post something more often from now on. For the opening, I was trying to get a shocking change in the mood of the piece. Like the opening to Die Hard 3 for example. "...Something something breakdown isn't it a pitty, doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city. But at night it's a different world..." BAAAAM!! Change in mood. Something like that at least.

I think the best thing to do would be the Bruce Lee method to learning music. It's good to learn as much as you can in as many ways as you can but you should have a primary instrument to use as a lens to see the rest of the musical world with. So in short, get really good at something Music is a language, and like any native speaker of any language most don't think of the grammar they are using, the verbs they are conjugating or how many syllables they need to express their point. They just say it. But it took them years to develop that skill. If you feel musically inclined I strongly recommend you picking this book up by Victor Wooten. http://www.amazon.com/Music-Lesson-Spiritual-Search-Through/dp/0425220931/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318818439&sr=8-1

It's time for me to once again post another WIP based on a Sega Genesis game. I'm sure my fans, have noticed that I have been on a Renovation Studios kick for the last month. And since my last WIP didn't get much attention http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36795 I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up for this one This time I'm working on Final Zone. One of the best Shoot em up mech games that you've probably never heard of. Unless you've played Final Zone II. Which was crap. I used: Dimension Pro Rapture Absynth Ministry of Rock (just a wee bit this time) Steven Slate Drums Here's the first stage of the game, at this time i couldn't find a better link to the source. Things I'm working on: -The opening 20 seconds are an attempt to paint kind of a futuristic city concept. I'll either expand or scrap. -My leads sound robotic, I tried playing this but it came out awful, so what's there now is a place holder until i get my keyboard skills up to speed. -Making it longer -I used both a House like drum kit and my usual rock/metal kit. Not sure if it really works, let me know what you think. -gar

My poor thread... I only wanted to bring people together, and to perhaps see everyone join hands in calling me a noob of some sort. Just kidding of course. OCR is a very supportive community. Well except for this thread of course. I mean, if you're going to argue/kill each other over something it should be important. Let it be over the use of mix compression, Let it be over the use of mono when mixing in stereo. Not freaking dongles. To get back on topic, I'm not a huge fan of dongles. Something about my muy shpensive East West libraries being dependant on a $35 piece of very breakable, losable, throw at your dog after a bad day at work, now it's gone forever, plastic. Anyway, I'm excited 'cause i'm about to post a new WIP! Seeya!

There is kind of a tactical side to this game, unlike other action rpg's, and if you pull it off right and make it to a boss with all of your estus potions un-imbibed, than there is some limited satifaction to be had. Until you run back to the bon fire and do it all over again. 4 more times, and die a few times because your plan didn't work quite as well as it did the one time. My point is that until I played this game I thought games were fun because they were enjoyable. Now i realize it is possible to have fun while being tortured, but your not going to realize it at first. If they had a decent multiplayer option for this game too i would be playing it right now.

Wow, 3 pages? Thanks for the suggs. I found this to be more of a motivational thread and I appreciate it. Well, before it turned into a Windows 7 debate . The whole reason for the upgrade started when I realized Sonar 6 producer doesn't have support for Side chaining and keying. This, with my limited experience, seems like a huge gap. So I figured I'd either upgrade to Sonar 8 or go with a different DAW. Still not sure what I want to do yet. Though I would like to save my money.

I got a chance to play this game for a day with a friend of mine and let me tell you, I've seen HELL. I've been jones'n for an action rpg lately but this game is ridiculous. If you are the kind of person that enjoys pulling out their nails one by one. You might make it through the first couple of areas. Gameplay is all about baby steps towards the end and will it take FOREVER to get through. Forget the novelties of swinging an axe into your foe, collecting armor, or even developing your character. The real gameplay here is repetition. Each time you play through a small area, defined by the locations of the bonfires, you may be able to take a few steps further than you did the last time, and if you do, your only options are to turn back and spend the souls you have, which respawns everything exactly where it was before, or die. I love From Software, I love Action Rpg's, I love looting the fallen, collecting weapons, and developing my characters, but I absolutely ABORE THIS GAME! I hate every moment of it, it's torture to play, and if you make it a bit further than you did the last time there is just more repetitive hell waiting for you. Which doesn't explain why I feel like I might run out tonight and buy it.

I'm trying to figure out what I need to put some money into to get a little bit more from my music making. I've also been getting some pretty random errors from Sonar saying that system resources are low and various (newer)synths couldn't be loaded. Yet, if I reload everything it tends to work. Here's my setup Soundcard DMX 6fire 24/96 (discontinued) http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/terratec-dmx-6fire-24,410-2.html Windows XP Quad Core 2.60(not sure exactly but around there) 4GB Ram Sonar 6 Producer (looking to update, still researching different DAWs) Roland A-37 Midi Controller 76 keys http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=276 M-audio AV-40 Speakers http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-Studiophile-Powered-Speakers-Previous/dp/B000MUXJCO Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones http://www.sennheiserusa.com/professional-dj-headphones-HD-280-PRO_004974 Kind of the minimum needed to get going I know, there's so many different types of gear out there now that I have no idea what to check out first. Thanks for any suggs.

The last issue of Music Tech i picked up back in August (no small feat being in the states) has a neat little mixing tutorial video. Kind of nice seeing something done right in front of you rather than trying to relate something you read about in an article to your mix. My only gripe is that it's too short and he only does the drum tracks, but seeing how he starts a mix cleaned up some of my questions and I might now be able to get off on the right foot when I begin. Does anyone know where i can find more of these mixing tutorials from Groove3? I'm not in the UK and can't get a subscription to Music Tech.

The title of this can be read a number of ways so i'll elaborate. How do you study music? GarAside: Nice one idiot, you just lost anyone who clicked on this thread GarBside: Wait, I'm just letting it sink in. For the drama. GarAside: You better explain yourself quick or people might think you have problems with your mental health. GarBside: I know, I know. I love you man. Anway, How do you study music? Lately I've been doing alot of transcriptions, playing by ear as much as possible and of course going over scales and modes on my two main instruments, keyboard and bass. However, I feel like something has been missing since I got out of school. So if anyone has anything special they do with regards to increasing musical literacy i'd like to discuss them.