Argitoth

Wha!? pick me, pick me! i prove my reason experience with this thing: www.argitoth.com/files/Tavern_Tales.mp3 (Note, turn down your subwoofer when you listen to this. I am having trouble getting the right EQing on my new speakers. It'll be fixed soon.) look, the truth is before two people can collab they have to agree that each of them has similar levels of experience, or the finished product will be lopsided... one doing more (or better) work than the other. arrite tiz all.

I am using combinators to control the Orkester library. The refill is strictly combinator patches and will not contain samples or synth patches.

I am using combinators to control dynamics, playing styles, attack, release, and volume to make it easier to create orchestrations. I'm going to create a few combinators for each instrument (including brass, woodwind, and of course strings). Piano to Forte w/Detache on/off, Piano to Forte w/Tremolo and Detache on/off, and a Pizzicato combinator (which will be nothing special). Both P to F and P to F w/Trem will have staccato/marcato for both detache or staccato. So far I've completed Violins and Cellos and made this demo in like 10 minutes. It was really easy with combinators: www.argitoth.com/files/performance%20demo.mp3 (warning, noob composition) I plan on paying an artist to skin the combinators to not only look good, but to give useful information about certain knob positions. The key to the easyness is firstly the automatic well-blending of the samples. Secondly, the ability to drag notation and modulation from one track to the other and have it work flawlessly. I have accopmlished this so far by making every combinator exactly like the last. Say you created an intricate violin line with dynamic modulation and keyswitching for detache on/off and you want the few last notes to be tremolo. Simply drag the notation to the tremolo track without worrying about it sounding like "a different sample pack". A more official announcement will be made when the refill is completed. More specific and transparent demos coming. Price will be around $30.

At this point I'm still trying to weigh the benefits between Guru and Battery. Guru is a very strong loop constructor, but in terms of sound tweaking, Battery has a lot more power. Battery is meant to be used with a sequencer which I believe can provide better flexability. But Guru has a lot of features in its internal sequencer that makes it easy to construct loops. I'll have to download the Guru demo.

Yeah. I haven't had a computer for about a month now, but my new computer has already been ordered. Funny thing is my studio now LOOKS like a studio, just like yours, except a lot less expensive. I got a new computer, got new speakers, I planned on getting a new keyboard, but it's a waste of money. I need Kontakt more than anything. Hopefully I can find a deal on Kontakt. Anyway, Stylus RMX and Basement Arts ReFlex are both loop machines. Battery and Guru are not, except that Guru can work with loops. And when I say loops I mean loop wav files, not as in creating loops out of individual wavs, which Guru and Battery are meant to do. I have a question about ReFlex. The most important feature in a loop machine that I find is the ability to change the parameters of each individual slice. Concrete FX Dicer can do that, and I believe it is a very powerful loop machine for the price (haven't had a computer to try the demo), but it can't import Rex2 which is a problem. It can import Rex1 and wav. Can ReFlex change individual slice's properties? Zircon and Compyfox, please stop your quote war! Just chill.

BFD is an acoustical drumkit machine. I need a sampler/loop builder/rhythm builder/drum machine, whatever you want to call Guru, that's what it is I need; that, or Battery.

Yes, I would like to. But... I can't. It's another $90 I just don't have and I'd have to sell Cubase to get the money. And I can't do that because I need rewire support. Podium is *trying* to get ReWire at this moment, but Props noobs aren't responding. And I would LOVE to get rid of Reason so I don't even have to depend on ReWire, but I need things to replace Reason before I get rid of it: like a sampler such as Kontakt, and a drum machine such as Guru. I plan on buying Guru this year. But at the end of the day, for me, the only selling point for Podium is its low price because I'd pretty much be happy with SX3. But then, I still am really interested in Podium.

The ability to use midi plugins is not a selling point... not now anyway. I would never switch to Podium just because of that reason. Also, by Cubase 4 I meant the new version of Cubase SL/SX... like Cubase SX4 since you said it was coming out I wanted to know if you knew any features that are planned. I'm not switching to Podium any time soon, I don't have the resources to do it. There are none, including myself, switching to Podium for this reason. I'm not even switching. It's the interface, the fact that it's a very stable program, the customer support, the fact that you can request features, things like that. That is why people are using Podium. Plus, Midi plugin support is not implented yet. To switch to Podium for that reason is... dumb?

here are some midi plugins: http://www.midiplugins.com/ http://www.tobybear.de/p_midibag.html Look what I found: "MFX (or MIDI FX) is a part of the DirectX music specification that allows for the processing of MIDI data. All recent Cakewalk products (SONAR, Project5, Home Studio, etc) can use MFX plugins, and recent Cubase (SX/SL) offerings can use them through a wrapper provided by Steinberg." http://www.tencrazy.com/gadgets/mfx/ uhh... well ok, but where's the wrapper?

Steinberg will not lower the upgrade price when they bring out a new version. (The upgrade price from SL to SX is $300) If they were changing the price at all it would certainly go up, not down. And yes, I'm talking about midi plugins. I guess they are not VSTs. But like I said Cubase does not support it and Podium will. I have given you reasons why I would want to use Podium, you don't have to tell me how great Cubase is. I'm raising awareness about Podium because it looks really great. I wanted other people to know about it. That's it. Compyfox, do you know anything about Cubase 4?

Compyfox, when I say "support for midi VSTs" I mean support for devices outside of Cubase. There are a good number of cool midi VSTs out there that will not work with Cubase or Podium. Podium will support it in the future. Plus, upgrading for Cubase SL3 to SX4 is still going to be at least $300. Podium will have had many updates by the time Cubase 4 comes out. Anyway, there are already people using Podium that have used Cubase already. Just read the reviews. Even on the forums of Podium there are many "converts", those who've been using other programs and now use Podium.

huh? "other software suites"

Nothing special about it. Right now it's just "click and record" to bounce a track in real-time. But in the near future it will become better, as in not real-time. I quote this because I'm responding to your entire post, Zoola. First of all, Steinberg is a very well established company and therefor there's not much evolution in their products currently. But right now Podium is new and it will get MUCH MUCH better in the future and it will get better very quickly. One thing I look forward to is the ability to use vst midi effects (VSTs controlling VSTs and VSTs controlling incoming MIDI). Cubase will not support this nor I doubt we will see an update ANY time soon. Now since Podium is new (I'm being redundant, yes) I will be able to request features that have a GOOD chance of being added unlike Cubase. Now, Steinberg limits you purposely because I didn't have enough money to buy Cubase SX which still imposes limits, who knows why. But Podium will never waste programming lines to impose limits. Limits are just plain stupid. ONE LAST POINT TO BLOW EVERYTHING AWAY!: I have Cubase SL and Cubase SX is $300 upgrade. Podium is $90. Come on, Zoola... come on... just do the math... I could sell Cubase SL and get enough money to pay for Podium and have some money left over. I know. I'm just saying Podium can bounce tracks. I really like that. Naa, what do you use notation for? Most of us are electronic artists. Yep. Cubase is the only host/sequencer that I know that imposes limits. I've wanted to use more than 4 group effects (which is the limit of Cubase SL) to do some complex and convenient routings, but I was limited.

I hear it's very stable, very ergonomic, and can compete with any sequencer out there. Take a look at the reviews: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/834.html Frits Nielsen is the only developer and he updates his product very often. It's looking really promising and I might replace Cubase with it because of all the limitations that Cubase purposely imposes for GOD knows why (such as the limit on VSTs, insert, send, and group effects, it drives me insane). The product is still in its infancy, but it looks AWESOME. I can't wait to try the demo (no computer yet). The coolest feature I think is the bouncing (freezing) of tracks. Check out the video files on the front page. http://www.zynewave.com/

Dood, the PDF manual in reason is very awesome. Read it.

wire an LFO output to the input that you want to modulate. The best LFO in reason comes from Maelstrom. In reason 3.0 you can use a combinator to redirect LFOs to any parameter (such as those with no input). Also, most of the devices (if not all) already can control amplitude with their onboard LFOs.

my room has no reverb. it's small and carpeted.

what I really want to know is if I can connect a subwoofer to my two speakers.

laugh now, friend. But when I have surround sound monitor system, I'll be the one laughing at YOU. Because I will be watching movies in my room and it will sound like a freekin theatre. HEHEEE

I heard you could do it by I have no idea how. I have two of these. Is it possible to buy some kind of subwoofer for em? Also, is it possible to buy enough to make a 5.1 or even a 5.0 surround system?

I like that term. My battle station is going to be up and running hopefully by this saturday. I haven't had a computer for over a month

yes definitely. Like I said earlier, before you start a big project, you must limit your selection so that your creativity will come more quickly. Limiting your choices also helps to make the sound more distinct, blend well together.

Hey Chokst, I might be able to try what you were suggesting, that is, use a regular every-day recorder. I got an m-audio condenser mic and I'm borrowing a recorder. All I need now is to convert mic male to 1/8" male. I can do that.

Hmm. Who says this thread should end because of Christmas? Lets just keep posting what we get throughout the year! WEEEE I GET THIS NOW:

Definitely. Actually, I got some good insight from one book I was reading and it basically said before you start a project you MUST limit your choices in terms of sounds, synths, whatever. You must have a small gathering of resources so that you can spend more time using the tools that you have decided to use than to continuously waste time looking around for stuff among your entire studio.