Garpocalypse

What is this? Elaborate.

I'd recommend getting some DVD's of Noh or spending some time hunting things down in youtube. (though youtube is tough to recommend if you want a decent finished work). Record and cut as needed. Let me help you get started

Right now I am thinking my setup will be just my monitors, my headphones, a midi keyboard that only uses midi cables and as many of my VST's that i can put on a second machine (DAMN YOU EAST WEST!) I put together my audio pc myself and it seems to me that alot of pc's that are marketed as audio pc's are horribly overpriced for what they are yet I don't want to take the time or money to try making a laptop. I think as long as I have ASIO drivers with the right inputs for my stuff i'll be fine. My setup is kind of stuck in 2006 and the only interface I ever needed is part of my soundcard. Would I be able to buy just any laptop that can run Sonar then supplement it with USB soundcards and external interfaces?

My job is moving me around quite a bit right now and I could be on the road for awhile. It sucks to live out of a hotel, but it shouldn't suck quite as hard if I am able to bring some means of making music with me the next time I go out. I'm planning on taking every part of my studio with me but my current audio pc. If that got lost or stolen I would be kicking myself in the ass so hard that you could say I was kicking myself in the teeth. Can anyone guide me to a decent laptop for audio that would be under $1000 and not apple? I've never really owned a laptop before and certainly have never used one for music production. Is there anything I need to be aware of? Thanks.

*as heard by Gar23* I agree with your points and overall views on life WR. Snowboardin Sonic was the best Sonic remix ever. Could you post a link to the rejected version? I'm curious as hell as to what it sounded like. -gar

Personally, I like to skip the classical period entirely and listen to Baroque and early Romantic. Baroque music, which shares alot of similarities with early VG music, is usually what I prefer to listen to if i'm in the mood for some non-pop music and i'm not already listening to Brahms. The best of the best of the three b's. Just as long as it's not Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Overplayed to the point of aversion.

DOA2 Ultimate was the best of the series and that was over half a decade ago? Itagaki lost me forever when he said that DOA4 was the peak of fighting games as the game had real balance issues. If you didn't play a ninja character, you weren't going to win! I'm looking forward to this game but I'm not getting my hopes up. Now where the heck is the annoucement for VF6?

Thanks for the response. I wasn't feeling much love when I posted this... I'm working on getting the guitars much more balanced. It seems like the more I try the worse it gets If anyone who plays guitar wants to contribute to this i'd be more than happy to have it. You can skip Valis II, complete garbage except for the soundtrack. I took a little time to hunt down the entire Valis Collection between the TurboGrafx and Genesis. Very fun games with a steep difficulty curve, stroke inducing boss fights, and plenty of Tn'A! All with the most ridiculous dialogue... (4:00)"My intro was a bit flashy... do you like it?" "Why do you do something like that?" "Ask your sword!"

Could you elaborate on what you meant by this roz? Is this an actual technique for pipe instruments or is it a recording trick where the mouth of the player was recorded seperately then chopped up over the recorder recording. hehehe. I just started playing a pipe instrument, the shakuhachi, and being a string player most of my life this has been quite an eye opener. So far I can play all the notes fine in Otsu (except for getting some half steps from playing half covered holes) but the Kan octave is giving me tons of problems. Back to experimenting...

It's been awhile since I posted anything for some ears on this forum so I thought I would post one of my current mixing fodder remixes. I'm probably going to start mixing it down all over again but is there anything that I should pay specific attention to? I know my leads sound a bit lifeless but anything on the production end of things would help. For reference here is the Genesis Version: And the remade version for the Turbo Grafx (my favorite) BONUS POINTS! To anyone who doesn't bring up Valis X while discussing this remix.

Kind of a noobish question here. I have always thrown a compressor on the master whenever I start a new project. Alot of what I use tends to fly deep into the red when i am just playing around and i always thought that would be damaging to my speakers and soundcard. Does putting a compressor on the master so that nothing goes above 0.0 do what I think it's doing by helping me extend the life of my gear?

I will never touch the music of FFVII or Sonic 2 because i've managed to relate some pretty good memories to those games and I wouldn't want one of my busted ass remixes changing my concept of the music. I'm sure that most people, when remixing a piece, have a far different feel of the music they remixed after they have torn it apart and listened to it over 500 times.

Ho-ly Shm-it. I remember giving herzog a rent back when I was a kid. Loved it on two player though it was confusing for the first hour or two as to what you had to do. One of the most underrated games ever made.

Well underway with my new game now. Almost out of Midgar. I can't believe that the director of FFVII was the same guy who directed FFXIII. Kind of looks like Kitase went the way of Lucas. Age makes you suck.

Or Happy Final Fantasy VII Day if you want. This is the one day where I get to completely dweeb out on quite possibly the best game ever made! The box told me so! Time to start up a new game and beat it all over again. For the 8th time or maybe this is the 12th! I have no idea! Then when i'm done I may need to go get help... Happy FF7 Day! Only to the people in NA! EU you got 2.5 more months to go! -gar

You have some very well developed mixing skills but alot of this is very repetitive. A melody, B melody, A melody, B melody and back and forth right to the end. I would say that wherever the drums drop out, try a little variation on one of melodies. Take it waaaay out of context and not just the rhythm of it but all of it, and see if you like it. Also, play around with some key changes a piece that flat lines harmonically gets pretty boring. Sonic 2 really is my favorite game of all time and that's why I will probably never touch this music myself. It seems that you captured the spirit of it well though so crack it open and see what you come up with. FINISH THIS! Also, PM me if you want to chat. You gotta tell me everything you know about music production. -gar

When I first played the demo I thought it was an upcoming Xbox live arcade game and I was sold on it. Then i found out it was a major release and would be the full 60 bucks. At that point I shut myself off from getting it completely. No way was that game going to be worth it. Then i was talking with some gamestop staff about games with very limited retail runs and we started talking about the games we missed because we didn't pick them up when we had the chance. Since I didn't want El Shaddai to be one of them I decided to pick it up. El Shaddai is a very simple and fun action game with hallucinogenic drug elements and was directed by the same action genius that was behind DMC and other games. Really, I think that was the most disappointing element of the game so far. There are only 3 weapons and they hang like power ups in mid air very much like Blur or Mario Kart. But the real draw was getting back to the great japanese quirkiness that drew me to gaming in the 90's and early 2000's. There are plenty of moments where you are thinking "What the hell...? ...is that?" and just wait until you get to the motorcycle segment. What I love most about it though is that El Shaddai seems like it came more out of the 90's in terms of gameplay but with insane visuals. Running around each level is such a pleasure that you will forgive the linear gameplay. It's probably not worth 60 bucks to everyone but if you can get your hands on it in some way you owe it to the japanese gaming industry to try it. (i know it was developed in europe) Sorry for the sucky OP. I was tired....

I picked up El Shaddai after curiosity and the realization that i haven't done drugs since college got the better of me I have to say this is probably one of the greatest and most unique games I have ever played. Too bad it has cult following written all over it... and look at the reviews. All high marks except for IGN who gave it a five since it wasn't COD. Since we are all (or most) artists here I think everyone should at least try to game fly it or rent it if you can. It's a bit short lived but it's a must play.

Great. The trailers at the legendary EVO of SC5 involve one of the designers spamming verticals. I'm having SC4 flashbacks and may knock this off of my list if the system hasn't been improved to get a least some sort of depth to it. So Xianhua was what? Mid-20's? and now she's too old? So her 15 year old daughter is taking her place? Come on, this is just getting corny. Why not bring characters back that actually matter like Li Long and Hwang instead?

i wanted to cry when I saw him raping that bass... interesting way of looking at music though. I think I'll try bowing my cat's whiskers to see what sound I can get.

I was a little unsure of it at first but as I listened to it, it kept getting better. For some reason I get a strong 80's vibe from this mix. Makes me want to put on a red headband a denim jacket and watch some Van Damme movies.

Thanks Roz, just the information I was looking for. More than likely I am going to invest in a guitar and maybe a few basic stomp boxes or a MEP. I picked up Ministry of Rock a year ago and have been hearing nothing but bad things. I am also getting tired of the limitations of using a guitar VST but it was 200 bucks at the time. I am almost positive that MOR was on the soundtrack for Duke Nukem Forever. So at least someone is using it professionally!

I have a question related to this one. If I am trying to double track a rhythm guitar VST that's being played through a midi sequence what can I do to vary it just enough but not too much? i tried adjusting the timing to be slightly off for the second recording but it sounded awful. I would think that recording a midi sequence twice would produce the same effect as copying and pasting an entire audio track right?

It always sucks when someone who spends their life creating things dies. While I fondly remember the Grandia series, I think it was a bit overrated.

It's your birthday? How old are you anyway? I just want to gauge how much longer I have until I am deemed a musical failure by my peers. If you're in your late 30's-40's then I still have some time. Less than that I'm in trouble. But seriously forks. Happy Birthday DJP. Now do another Phantasy Star remix! -gar