mickomoo   Members

oh, Acoustic and pre-loaded, mostly

I've written the percussion for my first song, I kinda got some sort of idea of how to work it. Kick or thud on 1 or the down beat and snares on 2, then a cymbal clash to replace the thud when the melody goes up an octave... the most current draft of the song is in my topic on the originals boards. I mixed the percussion down because I'm really not liking it, and I didn't want it to over power the song. But, if you do listen to it, any feedback would be great!

I'm kinda embarrassed asking this, but I'm not really good at understanding how building a drum/percussion line in a song works. Like what determines the order you hear certain drum parts, is the timing while the bass is playing or after the bass plays a note? I'm really having trouble understanding. What I do know is that the bass and percussion compliment each other, but that's it... are there any books or resources that could point me in a direction? Also while on the topic, are there any good drum vsts? I'm currently using Native Instrument's free kore player presets, but are their better ones for a decent price?

I'm going to school again soon and I'm kinda forced to use this old 2008 (it looks like 2008 model, it could be younger) HP pavilion dv5-1004nr. I can't really afford a desktop, but I really really want to still make music. The thing is usually when playing my speakers just burn out and stop producing sound. Are there any tips for making music or using a DAW software on a laptop. My dad was telling me about portable machines that kinda act as DAWs and you can apparently store virtual instruments on them. I have no idea what he was talking about... but yeah anyways, any advice?

Yeah I found a bunch on KVR and mixcraft's sight even links to a few... most of the ones I found weren't too good though, or they sounded odd, even after a bit of mixing. In the few songs I've recently put on my page, none of them use anything other than mixed mixcraft synths. But thanks for the ones you mentioned above KORE's by native so, lol not trying to overestimate it, but I think I can safely raise my expectations. And thanks for the advice, I wasn't mixing before hand. I also layered a bunch of heavy instruments together. It's also just that my laptop, I think wasn't meant to handle that, lol. Thanks for the info, I'm googling EastWest now. And as you said, mixcraft 5 distorted bass is pretty good, I used it in the song I'm completing. Actually I find most of their basses to be decent. What do you think about mixcraft's default strings and choir? I used both in my latest work, and they seem decent enough. As for the guitar, I'm assuming you played that? I'm looking for decent electric guitar, in addition to brass/sax and woodwind/string (orchestral I suppose, but also like a band and jazz set up too) Also the static problem is particularly on my laptop, I suppose that the problem was that I wasn't adjusting volume. The weird thing is that it'd static then just mute completely, like the speaker became fried. I'm now mixing as I go along so I'll see how it works out when I go back to school. But for now I don't have to use the thing, lol.

Yeah the default vsts suck. Where did you find higher quality ones. I'm pretty much looking for some of the same instrumentation that's in the song you posted (it's really good, btw), albeit I want brass and complete orchestral as well. Also do you have this problem where your speakers static if you layer or add to many instruments? I wrote a basic melody layering these 3 virtual instruments and my speakers just start frying. I think that problem happens when I use my laptop at school, but I'm not too sure if it was just the laptop or mixcraft.

Yeah that's kinda a muddled title, but it's the best I can think of... For those of you who write remixes, do you find that you really need to have a solid background in music and theory? Also when remixing do you follow the notes in the songs by ear, or do you try and find sheet music for the songs you're playing/remaking? I started writing my own music and I found that that's much easier than remixing for some reason. I'm figuring it's because I'm not completely adept at music theory, I mean I have a small background but nothing to brag about. I was just wondering what skills others find necessary to utilize when remixing.

well I'm trying to write jazz, orchestral sounds/band arrangements (including both strings, brass, and woodwinds), and I guess rock or fusion. I'd record with real guitars but the guitarists I know are unreliable and I'm still learning the instrument. >_< Do you know if there's one company that would provide such a wide range of vsts for a decent price?

Yeah, I suppose I'll stick to mixcraft for now... I guess I should just find higher quality vsts. Anyone know of some good ones, free or relatively inexpensive. I was going to look into native but I'm not sure yet

EWQL's free promotional ended, huh? Crap... I'm looking for really good orchestral, brass, and maybe electronic guitar. I've heard of native and was going to look into it, but anyone know any other company that might have all of these with decent quality?

I'm just wondering cus, that's the program I currently use and fine easiest to handle. If any of you do use mixcraft, do you have any tips for mixing, virtual instrument selection, or anything else?

About six months ago I eagerly started on a remix for OC, but as I learned... rushing leads no where. I'm kind of biding my time now, working on original projects with a pretty simplistic plug and play sequencer until I gain enough experience to move on. Also trying to gather more info on better virtual instruments and sequencing software... if anyone could lead me in a direction on that I'd be very grateful. The music I've been producing pretty much falls in the genre of an audio soundtrack for a movie or video game, I'm having difficulty writing anything else. I used mixcraft and various virtual instruments to make these songs. I'm no musical genius but I played a few instruments in my 18 years... just a bit. These songs are just drafts, I'm looking for feedback. I know they're not too particularly good, but I need people with musical ears to critique them. Here are my 4 major songs plus one random recording. Anyways, without further ado: warming up: This song was literately me warming up and testing this prelayered virtual instrument that imitates a full orchestra. I just decided to record, I think it sounds decent, nothing special. first song: This is the first song I wrote, I added the bass, brass, strings, and choir over time. I know it says melodichaos, but I'm trying to think of a better name. I layered some guitars with an orchestra together by accident and got the effect that is the melody of song. I know a real guitar would make this song so much better, but I thought the effect was kinda cool at the time... anyways, my sense of rhythm is off and the virtual instruments aren't too great... uh any other feedback would be great. It was heavily inspired by err songs like "hell march to the apocalypse" in terms of the instrument choice, road to bowser's... ect. It's basically a villains theme, I suppose. I'm pretty much editing it everyday so the link literally changes every time I update this post! second song: tried to play a melody I made while sitting at my piano and record it with this orchestral vst, didn't work out to well... =/ third song: the sole instrument playing is the orchestral virtual instrument, it has a deep tone but is painfully simplistic, as a lot of my works are. I'm trying to currently trying to access the melody and add to it as I grow. fourth song: If you've been following a long, you can kinda tell that I've grown somewhat in my er, music making. This song is probably my best in terms of a coherent rhythm and bassline, and it's maybe a little catchy. It was my attempt at jazz, but ended up being kinda like a mystery score... I have others, but that's probably all that's stomachable, the rest were experiments in techno and pop >_< I do admittedly have a problem with bass rhythm and drums... more so drums though. I just added drums to my first song but I'm still working on the percussion. All songs have been edited and posted on tindeck

Hi, I'm mickomoo I'm a new user who apparently registered half a year ago... >_> I'm not really new to music but this is honestly the first time I've taken it seriously, I played a few instruments in the past but I'm kinda new to digital music production, but OC and vg game music in general kinda inspired me to begin writin musics. Anyways, I'm hoping to start a band and make a few remixes on the site, lol.

I'm just playing around with a freeware sequencer and whatever Vsts I can fine while crawling the internets... I was wondering though, what do people use (virtual instruments and sequencers) to produce higher quality music? I'm currently using mixcraft and kinda clinging to it because it's so easy to use and is cheap. Are there better similar alternatives or if I'm becoming more serious about this what should I look into?