AngelCityOutlaw

Water bottle right next to the controller and a cup, presumably also full of liquid actually resting ON the MIDI controller. The balls on this guy...

Fan reactions to video game trailers honestly make the trailer in a lot of cases. Listen to people go nuts over this. I remember their enthusiasm had me so hype for the game years ago.

"Worthwhile", "Fulfilling", etc. That's really the common denominator among everyone here who has quit. When you're a kid with no job or anything like that, getting the new high score, finding secrets, beating bosses and getting "achievements" actually feel like achievements. It's utterly meaningless when compared against advancing your career, creating works of art, traveling, romantic life, etc. If, as an adult well into your 20s or beyond winning at games is still a proud achievement, you may want to take a step back and reflect on your life up to this point.

Depends what you're looking to buy

Kinda like the title says. Chopped guitars, distorted drums, angry synths, etc.

A year...two years(?) ago, I tried Street Fighter V. Couldn't do it. I used to be the SHIT at SFIV back around 2010. I knew every Chun Li combo and could wreck just about everyone with her. Now I simply don't have the patience and time to learn fighting games like that anymore, so I returned it. That made me feel old.

I have quit gaming as a regular hobby, though I have recently played a bit on steam and am back into Overwatch for the new event for a couple weeks. Overwatch is the best gaming investment I have ever made because it's one of the few games these days that's just meant to be a blast with your friends and they always keep doing things to make it feel fresh. It was a $50 dollar purchase and I get continued enjoyment out of it. However, months often pass where I don't even touch it. As I get older it just becomes apparent what a waste of time and productivity killer video games really are and I would rather do just about anything else most of the time. I often see users on Steam who have 300 hours sunk into a game in a short timeframe. I simply cannot fathom my life being so remarkably boring and/or non-existent as to be able to rack up that many hours in a game.

I'm guessing the logo is an existing font?

Can we all take a moment to appreciate how utterly awesome the new "Uprising" event is? Thank you

No

Man, I've got too many to list. The worst is Demon's Souls. It's fairly good until right after you beat the Phalanx; the first boss. Then, especially if you picked the wrong class, the game just becomes stupid tough. Like, "No job, no girlfriend, no-future-if-you-want-to-beat-this-game" tough. I've solved this problem now by researching any game I'm about to buy (though I almost never buy games these days) and if I find out that the game is absurdly difficult with no adjustable settings or requires an enormous investment of time just to make it through the story (and most game stories are garbage anyway) I dodge it like

I was posting under the assumption the user was making the remix their own

Even if it wasn't okay, the good news is that no one would ever know anyway.

I've been down this road, not with Jazz music but rock and it's why I eventually stopped with "bands" altogether. To be fair, I always enjoyed the composing and recording stuff a lot more than performance but I feel my thoughts are much in line with Nikanaru's: Most musicians have absolutely no interest in learning even the fundamentals of music. If you ARE someone who actually cares about it and wants to always keep learning, finding even just ONE other like-minded individual is considerable task. From my teens into early 20s, I kid you not, I must have jammed with around 100 different musicians and only a few come to mind who could play to a click, understood chords, scales, modes and have a good ear for pitch. It's my observation that a successful band is one that is NOT a democracy. Everyone should know their place in the band, focus on filling that role and not everyone has equal say. If you're the songwriter (or guy picking the covers), that's your job. The drummer is there to play his drums and he BETTER do it in time. The bass player isn't there to noodle around while you're rehearsing or pitch her song ideas; play your bass and shut up. What I would do, is start your own band and scope out the best players you can find. If the singer shows up and starts changing the arrangement (and he'll change to something that doesn't work) fire his ass. Drummers that think they're too good for a click track? Don't hire them. Guitarist that can't improvise worth a damn, but insist on it? Tell him to either stop, get good or you'll replace him. Bands I've met who work together well and get things done seem to always work this way. There was a local metal band I liked and I was talking to the singer once about the band's process and what not and she just said "I just show up, sing and go home."

Needs more monitors

Well you did say "something usable to learn with" which I saw as the same thing - the advice takes many forms. and I disagree about Symphobia (I wasn't referring to it specifically, though) only being capable of the style that I think you're referring to. Though it's true that it's primarily aimed at that kind of music.

I agree with everything Gar says except the first half of this. Spend the most amount of money on the highest quality stuff you can afford right now or save up a bit to get the highest quality stuff you can then. It's true that poorly arranged, badly sequenced compositions are gonna sound bad whether you're using the best of the best or the worst of the worst, but I'm a victim of this frighteningly common mentality that if you're inexperienced, you should start with the low-end stuff and work your way up. It's music; not surfing or learning to ride a bicycle with training wheels where you can outgrow your board or bike. Would you rather be a n00b with the best stuff out there and then become a top-tier composer and still have the best samples money can buy or would you rather become a god-tier composer with utter shit samples and now have to spend MORE money (quite easily thousands depending) on quality samples? The choice is clear, to me. I know it sounds dramatic, but this has become one of my greatest regrets in life. I bought all this low-end shit and then some mid to higher-end stuff like ProjectSAM and in the last while, I've really been focusing on improving my orchestration and arranging skills and it's made me realize I should've just gone with the ProjectSAM or maybe Cinesamples stuff to begin with, because now the cheaper, old, "entry" stuff is useless and money essentially wasted.

I must question your motivations in posting that snarky link, then, if even you agree that the software is good (now). I specifically mentioned that the latest version is good and has received a lot of positive feedback. For years I have seen complaints from average Joes on forums, but I'm struggling to think of any composer I've personally met who uses the software or a lot of the more esteemed members of VI Control echoing these sentiments; so I've not seen evidence that "PLAY sucks balls" (Tekkera's words) is the consensus as you suggest. It really doesn't matter though, since Zubaru is going with CSS — I've no doubt he/she will not regret his/her purchase.

Haven't got around to playing this yet. But I still want to soooo bad. Also, dat Main Theme with Julie Elven (?) vocals...so good.

The reality is that most people who use the software do so without issue across Mac and PC with all industry-standard hosts; especially with version 5. So because you've had a problem with it, that means it's bad software? It's like Windows 10. It's installation, for whatever reason, refused to work with music software on my machine despite no reported compatibility issues. It doesn't change the fact that most users here, seem to use it without issue. Lots of people, outside of music-related tasks, have grievances with Windows 10 — doesn't mean it's inherently bad software. Yes, some people have had technical problems with PLAY. Like they do with every piece of software ever made. Hollywood Strings is still a great library, well worth the money if you can swing it.

Not trying to "start anything", but I've seen this complaint for years and I still don't get it. The PLAY engine works great; I've never had a problem with it in the years that I've been using it. So I would not use PLAY (aside from the ilok) as a reason NOT to get Hollywood. In fact, the only reason I wouldn't recommend Hollywood Strings is because of the price and it's the Diamond Edition that gives you all of the Mics and it's a pretty demanding setup. Most guys I know who use it are using slave machines. That being said, East West does do a fantastic job with their samples and those libraries usually contain unique samples not found too often elsewhere. Even with Symphonic Orchestra, the "lyrical" and "expressive" patches are really great. On a related note, Zubaru wants strings with a "cinematic" sound. I'd argue that no library inherently sounds "cinematic" as that sound is more just a style of orchestration and including ethnic percussion and sound design in the music. The only thing that makes a real difference with the samples is if they were recorded on a scoring stage instead of a hall. There's also 2 kinds of "cinematic", in my opinion. 1) The "Old Hollywood" sound, characterized by soaring strings and brass with lots of woodwind flourishes, fx and ornaments and fast string runs within the lydian mode. 2) The "Hans Zimmer" sound which is largely ostinato based and as such, those close mics are important. Most libraries these days seem to cater to option 2.

Is it just me or are all of your posts lately just you bragging about this and how you think mastering piano is easy? I don't mean to be a dick, but when you make topics like this, you just come off as really pretentious. To your OP: A) It's not true that no one else can do it. I had a teacher who definitely had absolute pitch. B ) Are you sure you have absolute pitch and not just really strong relative pitch? A lot of people mistakenly think that a good sense of relative pitch is the same thing, but it's not. Just because you learned to play Countdown from Punch Out or Eye of The Tiger (which are not exactly complicated pieces) by ear (and remember them) doesn't mean you have perfect pitch and you are more likely to remember music learned from ear anyway, so the passage of time is not relevant. For example, I can often tell what tuning the guitars are in and how to play a particular guitar riff or chord progression without having an instrument to compare. However, at this point it's not so much because of my sense of pitch as it is my familiarity with electric guitar music and recognizing recurring patterns and timbres. If you can hear a song just once and without singing or playing an instrument for reference you can name me all of the notes and their octaves, what chord and what inversion, in order and be right all the time, every time, then you have perfect pitch. Otherwise, it's just relative pitch.

Yeah. Your choice is mostly regarding your needs. Like, if you're doing electronic music, FL or Ableton is probably among your best bets given their workflow, layout etc. I would not try to score a film or record a band with FL studio though...

Logic, Cubase, Reaper, Digital Performer, ProTools, Studio One, etc. are all equally good. It really is a (mostly) level playing field now.

This is primarily an issue of composition. Focus on improving that before anything else. • Your pieces lack a strong sense of harmonic direction and movement. • The melody lacks phrasing, pleasing contour or true thematic structure. It sounds "random" as a result. • The pieces are extremely repetitive. Without introducing new elements at regular intervals, repetition gets boring fast. Think of it as if you're sitting outside on a summer day. First, you notice the breeze passing through trees; then, you hear a dog barking in the distance; next, you notice the sound of traffic, etc. Each time a new sound comes in, you're still hearing the previous ones, but your focus is now on the new one. Use this same effect in music. • The arrangements don't feel very "full". Try adding in more instruments, counter melody, arpeggios etc. Basically, create more movement. • Try harmonizing some of the melodies either via counterpoint, thirds, octaves or other doubles • Greater range of dynamics to create sections that sound "bigger" than others. Some sections should be soft, others played more fiercely. • Use cadences, instrument flourishes, rolls, etc. to create transitions between sections.