AngelCityOutlaw

Be careful with this. The ipad's speakers are too small to reproduce the low-end frequencies, but a car stereo can easily give you the exact opposite problem — too much bass. If you can, I'd recommend in investing in at least a good pair of headphones that will give you as "flat" as possible of a frequency response. I recommend the AudioTechnica ATH-M50x if you can't afford or don't have an ideal room for speaker monitors.

@Silverpool So I'll try to provide a bit of an explanation and link to some resources. You're a pianist, so that will make things much easier to explain. I assume you know the notes on the instrument? Here is a chart. • So all of the white keys, going from C to B, form the "C Major Scale". This gives you 7 notes to work with. A distance of two tones, counting the black keys too, is a "whole tone" or "whole step"; a distance of only one key between notes is called a "semi tone" or "half step." Since "C" is what we're using as the basis to create the scale, we will refer to C as the "tonic" or "root" note. Notice that between E & F as well as B & C, there is only a half step but no "sharp" black key. As such, there is no B sharp or E sharp. The distance between two notes is referred to as an "interval". • The formula to create the major scale, in any key, starting from the root note, is: Whole step - whole step - half step - whole step - whole step - whole step • Starting from any note you choose on the keyboard, this formula will give you the major scale for that key. • Now, if you count three keys down from the "root note" of your major scale, you will get the minor equivalent. In the case of C Major, counting three keys down, the note is "A". So, all of the same notes as the Major scale, but instead is "minor". It has a different sound, trying playing all white keys from C to the next C note; then, try playing all white keys from an A note to the next A note, and you will hear the difference in sound. Congratulations, you now know the musical scale used to create ostensibly all of western music! But why is one major and the other minor, you ask? The answer has to do with "triads" (three-note chords) that can be built from the "root" of the scale. To form a "major triad", start from your root note, and count up four keys. This will give you the "third" interval of your root note; a "major third" specifically. From this major third, count up 3 more keys, and you will get the "fifth" of the root note. In C, this gives us C, E and G. To form a "minor triad", start from your root note, and count up 3 keys. This will give you the "minor third" interval of your root note. From this "minor third", count up 4 more keys to get the fifth of your root note. In "A", this gives us A, C, and E — an "A minor chord." So, you count "4 - 3" to form a major triad, and "3 - 4" to form a minor triad. Easy, right? • If we apply this formula to all of the notes available to us in the scale, we can form 7 basic triads. Starting with the root in C Major, we get: C Major, D Minor, E Minor, F Major, G Major, A Minor. You will notice that this is only six triads. The reason that the B triad is omitted, is because it is a "diminished" chord. If you use the counting formula, you will notice that F# is the fifth of B and NOT simply F. F is a half step lower; a fifth that has been lowered by a semi tone is considered "diminished" and a diminished triad sounds "dissonant" or unstable. • Melodies, the "tune" of the song, are constructed from the scale as well. To harmonize a melody, all one must do is match the notes of the melody to chords they belong in. For example, a melody note of "C", in C Major scale, could be part of a C major triad, an A Minor triad, or an F Major triad, as the C note is present in all of them. To practice this, try coming up with a simple melody using only quarter or half notes. For each note you play, play a matching chord with your left hand. The practice of changing chords to a specific rhythm, is called a "chord progression" and certain chords "prefer" to move to certain other chords. • Once you are comfortable with this, you can move onto more advanced subjects. Including: Creating basic chord progressions Using notes not found in the current chord in your melodies The harmonic series, or why you should use wider intervals in the lower register and closer intervals in the higher register. How to smoothly change chords by using "inversions" (the notes of the triad played in a different order) Extended chords and harmonies created by combining different intervals to create more complex chords The seven church modes and how harmony works when "fifth" and "fourth" intervals are stacked to create chords instead of thirds. Hope this helps!

Learn music theory; specifically "functional" 4-part harmony to solve the issue of your music not being "in tune". Learn the 7 basic triads that of the diatonic scales (Major and Minor) that are applicable in all twelve musical keys. It might seem a little complicated at first, but it's actually really simple; you could probably get the hang of it in less than a week's time and you'll know how to effectively harmonize a melody and voice chords. All you need to know is seven chords, how to effectively change chords (voice leading) and just one scale. You should be well on your way in no time. As for the samples, all you can do is become more experienced using them until you hit a brickwall (and you will) of what they're capable of and will have to purchase "higher-end" or otherwise "superior" samples that suit your needs.

A cinematic, ambient track; my first real attempt at creating a piece of music with Cubase!

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall

Narcissism What did you expect? If people aren't "following" something, it's because they don't want to and it's not even particularly useful to be honest. There is also the matter of the forums being borderline dead — nobody is asking how to follow threads. Therefore, this thread (and your choice of words) comes off as "Here's how painfully easy it is to follow threads, you idiots."

Likely won't help you at all, to be honest. While they're unlikely to turn down money if you're willing to pay it, they do still have to consider the other benefits of licensing the track, and if the game is just given away and/or you don't have a proven track record of making great games, it offers little promise of many royalty payments or other financial return down the road. The only option is to contact his label and/or management and ask what they would charge to license that song to you. I don't see you walking away without pay at least a 3-digit number, to be honest. Established musicians who aren't film/tv/game composers by trade, but are pop artists, often demand high prices on licensing their songs with no regard for the scope of the project. Their stance is often "You want this song for whatever project, you pay X amount of dollars." Your best bet, is to just stick with licensing music from stock music libraries like Position Music, Audio Machine, Killer Tracks, Liquid Cinema, AudioJungle, etc. as their entire purpose is to distribute music made for media and it will be easy to find whatever kinds of styles you're looking for and the prices are generally pre-determined or negotiated based on the type of project.

Not difficult, the opposite, but MVC: Infinite Tried the demo for it today My god that game is crap. Horrible graphics, same awful MVC3 high-contrast artstyle, looks like a port, gameplay is extremely dumbed down, only two characters instead of 3, atrocious voice acting, cringiest story I've ever seen, 1-button super combos, 1-button normal combos, and already the worst roster in the history of the genre. First time I've ever rage quit a game just because it sucks so bad. They're going to charge 74.99 for this shit.

You ever play Jet Moto 2? The CPU are all playbacks of the best players they could find. As such, most of the CPU opponents have a near-perfect run. Screw up even once and you're almost guaranteed to come in last. Arguably one of the best, forgotten soundtracks in video games, though.

I know this is a bit off topic, but I find it a bit ridiculous that there is a twitter account dedicated to "outing" people who — the majority probably crappy hobbyists — want artists to work on their projects for free. Just say "no" and move on.

I think I have a few 90s Archie Sonic Comics kickin' around somewhere. Anyway, I'm actually more surprised to learn it was still going. I legit think that in 10 - 20 years, comic books will be essentially extinct. Back on "Free Comic Book Day" this year, I was reading an article documenting the industry's sales and comic books are like, the one industry where the digital sales have not eclipsed physical. In a business where physical sales are at an all-time low — that's a pretty ominous sign.

First video game adaptation to be "certified fresh". The curse has been lifted, ladies and gents. Adi Shankar came across as a bit of cocky douchebag in the days leading up to its release, but I suppose he's earned the bragging rights.

Problem with Soundcloud (aside from the shitty changes they made) and similar apps is that there is no free lunch. Someone is footing the bill and most people aren't going to pay for "pro" since they realize that charging the customer to post music without allowing the user to monetize it themselves is absolutely stupid. Nobody wants to have ads attached their music unless they're on a platform like spotify (and even then they'd prefer you have premium), so that's not a reliable method of income either. At a certain point, the site gets too big for its boots and if you're not pulling in revenue to cover operating costs, bills start piling up, and investors are going to start jumping ship and you'll get to the fate Soundcloud is currently looking at sooner rather than later.

Orfium has been gaining steam in recent times; might want to check that out.

and people said I was crazy when I nuked my stuff a week and a half ago. Anyway, Soundcloud started to go downhill when they got rid of groups (because reasons), which were easily the best way to find new music and share your own; you didn't have to ostensibly resort to cold calling people to get a new follower. Especially if you just created an account — it would be like an anechoic chamber. It would also help if I wasn't getting messaged and follows from at least one bot every day telling me about what a bad girl she's been lately.

I forgot we did this lol Regarding the strings — you'll have to take it up with Tim, since I recall that I composed most of the string parts, but forwarded the MIDI itself to Timaeus so he could hit it with LASS (?) as it predates my ownership of Hollywood Strings or otherwise libraries with real legato. Anyway, glad people dig the intro

It's actually cheaper than all of the other industry-standard DAWs even if you are releasing commercially. It's 60 USD if you make less than 20,000 a year from it (which most do) and only 200 USD if you make 20k or more. Anyway, I can vouch for Reaper. I switched over to using it exclusively like...3 years ago now? Can't go back to anything else. I do wish it had superior video playback, but nothing is perfect.

I'm sorry, but these complaints are absurd. • There has to be a fleshing out of the story before he went to Dracula's Castle and the Church behaving like a gang and preventing the advancement of medicine and science by deeming it "witchcraft" is perfectly reasonable in 15th Century Europe — I mean it's not the like church ever did that back then, right? • The series doesn't end at episode 4. There is more to come. Lastly, I find the music perfectly fitting to the series when you actually watch it. The ambient, moody and pulsing soundtrack is a perfect fit. I've not seen anywhere in the series thus far and I've watched it twice through where nearly any of the music from the games would fit without making the scene terribly cheesy.

Oh, also, something that gave me a hardcore nerdgasm is the that the intro's style and colour choices are directly lifted from the art of Edward Gorey and Aubrey Beardsley. The former who made one of the earliest illustrated adaptations and plays of, and the latter's whose art influenced and was featured in, editions of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

I'd say IGN, of all places, put it best in saying (paraphrase) "When a show's biggest problem is that it's too short, you know it's doing something right."

You've essentially parroted, in a lengthier post, my statement about why TV is better suited for a video game adaptation than film. This has actually been achieved before — The mid 90s adaptation of Fire Emblem, in its two episodes, was easily just as good as Castlevania and for the same reasons. It's not that Warren Ellis has conquered a huge mountain in making a good TV series out of a video game with serious subject matter and lore while hitting all the beats from the game — it's that he's one of the few who's bothered to do it.

Both Cubase and Logic (and maybe some others) support sheet music and I believe can export as sheet music (you can also load MIDI into Finale and Sibelius). However, DAW capabilities with notation are not nearly as robust as dedicated software for notation like Finale and Sibelius. It is also input as MIDI data, but it will be ultra-rigid, inhuman sounding MIDI, so you'd be better off to do what most people do with DAWS: Play the parts in live with a MIDI-keyboard controller for the most realistic results and edit the MIDI data after if need be. You could still compose the tune in Finale first if you want, of course — but a truly synergistic system between the two doesn't really exist, sadly.

I learned this hard way and lost considerable time because of it, as I'm sure that perhaps most of us do in the computer age. With my newest stuff, I'm pretty pleased with the "mix" and "production" so to speak and have got positive reception on it. No EQs or any "tricks" necessary most of the time. Now, I make a good effort to keep all of my lines in their own pitch ranges, avoid voice crossing, be careful with selecting timbres, etc. and it has paid off tremendously.

Well, Finale is not a "DAW". It is a notation program that can support MIDI and playback via proprietary samples. In the case of orchestral music, Cubase if you're on a PC and Logic if you're on Mac are the way to go for DAWs. Load this up with 3rd-party orchestral sample libraries like East West's Hollywood or Symphonic Orchestras, Cinesamples, Spitfire, Orchestral Tools' "Berlin" series, 8Dio, etc. and you're good to go. Be warned that this is an expensive endeavor with a steep learning curve, but it is absolutely worth it.