AngelCityOutlaw

The US exchange rate is just brutal

Long post: So I'll bold the important parts. OCR was the first site I joined where I got (and gave) feedback on music, and as the years have gone by and I've recently been sharing more music and listening to more on various forums, this is something I've put a lot of thought into: Does feedback and criticism from forum members actually do anything more than make the individual question their decisions? Does it directly "help you improve" like is so often said? I've always noticed this underlying feeling of responsibility in online music communities when one of their members (OCR is no stranger to this) goes on to great things. I think communities (obviously) like this sense of being like "That's our boy/girl! out there!" when they see this happen; they remember how, when that user showed up back in 200(?) they could barely play a coherent phrase, and now they're off composing epic scores, or making popular albums, etc. and I think that most feel like the feedback that user got from the community nurtured them to this greatness, or at least accelerated it, and that in some small way, we contributed to this person's success. I'm starting to doubt if that's the case. I think that most of these people probably just had the ambition, honesty, and willingness to learn and study on their own so that them improving to the point they have was inevitable, and of their own doing. The best advice I've ever seen online has happened not in feedback to a particular tune, but rather someone asking a question, and then a member explains a concept that opens the person's eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. Because most of the established, pro musicians aren't generally sharing their tracks for critiques anymore, nor do they offer much advice. Some of that is probably due to time constraints, but I really suspect most of it is simply "I don't care what a bunch of people on forums think" as they've become confident in their ability to make what they want to hear, or what the people they're making it for want to hear, that it's unlikely any critique is going to be of much real value unless it's fairly unanimous. If they do share their tracks for feedback, it's likely limited to trusted peers who are at the same or greater level. As an example, @timaeus222 's most recent track in workshop was apparently submitted before he shared. And why wouldn't it be? He knows the standards so well, and has hit them so consistently, that what a bunch of us randos think about it, is really inconsequential. It's going to pass, he's satisfied with it, his listeners will probably all be satisfied with it, and being the smart dude he is, I'm of the opinion (he may disagree) that he would've got to this point regardless. And when subbing to OCR, it's only the feedback of the judges that ultimately matters. So I'm curious to know what you think? Has feedback from the forum been directly responsible for your improvements, or have they simply been opinions you use to gauge wider reaction, and a fun, good way of engaging with the rest of the community?

I disagree Thanks! Nothing =D All of the sample libraries generally keep the orchestral instruments recorded to where they would generally be placed in an orchestra relative to the conductor. Especially since it's recorded from tree and stage mics (mostly), the violins for example will be on the left sides of the recording. Cinematic Strings, Cinebrass, Cinewinds, Apocalypse Perc., Olympus Choir It is true they were the good ol' days, when the forum was bustling with activity

That was a different, darker time, Mak! Sweet! Ask away.

I dig it. But I can agree that with real guitars it would sound even better.

An Indiana Jones, Zorro, etc. inspired action tune.

I have to admit I'm surprised at how good this has actually wound up being

30 - 40

Season 7 of Voltron dropped yesterday, and so I spent the night before making an opening-theme tune inspired by the show's music, and I think it turned out well. You may disagree.

RIP Luigi Also reaaaaallly weird seeing the original, Conan-style designs in 3D instead of the pretty boys of the last 20 years.

Oh yeah, that's actually like, the most obvious option no one here thought of lol. I tried out composer cloud for a while, but wound up canceling after a month and just bought stuff outright. East West's instruments are good, but most of them are very outdated in terms of programming, and Hollywood Strings, while amazing, is HUGE in file size and pretty demanding on your system. I'd say give it a shot

Double post, but I see they're now coming out with Berlin Inspire 2! Which also seems great, and is aimed a more "emotional" stuff and is a bit cheaper than Inspire 1 (currently).

I would also recommend looking into Berlin Orchestra: Inspire. I'd argue it's the best "all-in-wonder" library out there and is about 400 and some USD. It was designed to be a "sketching tool" or for getting ideas down quickly, but honestly (and as the demos show) it's pretty damn great if that's all you have and I'd easily take it over Miroslav or Symphonic Orchestra.

Yeah, Meteo is right. Also, I'm not sure what string vst you're looking at that would cost 750, probably some over-priced garbage from 8Dio. You're in the USA and all prices are either Euro or USD. You can get CSS for like 399. I saved up over a year and bought nearly 2000 (that exchange rate to Canadian is brutal!) in all the things I wanted to the point I don't see myself upgrading any time soon, while suffering the same expenses normal people do. I just think you're very unlikely to find anyone sympathetic to your cause and you could also lower the amount required for a MIDI controller and string library easily

I'm not banking on the quality suffering given the talent behind it, and the fact that Warren Ellis clearly has the story planned (as he has for ten years); I doubt this is going to be a show that goes on and meanders for years. Most of the complaints center around it being too short and gamers not understanding that certain things from the game (soundtrack mostly) do not translate well to an animated series or film. They also complain that Grant isn't in it, but Warren Ellis said 10 years he has no plans to include Grant because "Grant DaNasty" is a stupid name, and a pirate in a landlocked country makes no sense. It makes even less sense since the Ottomans cut off Wallachia from the black sea in the early 15th century.

Can't find the old thread about it for some reason, but anyway. They dropped the trailer for season 2 yesterday and daaaaamn does it look good

I mean, that's a neat find and all, but I don't see why anyone is really all that thrilled. Just unfinished versions of games that eventually were released commercially. Probably a lot of bugs, probably not much fun to play, probably not worth anything (if you even could legally sell them), etc.

I always imagined the dynamics would be "nuclear bomb" not "FFF"

I would say it's bullshit that it's bullshit that you don't need connections to be successful, BUT It's not about "who you know", as they say — it's about who knows you. Anyway, while posting on forums isn't inherently bad and doesn't hurt to do it, just don't become one of these people who just spam those forums over and over — it's the laziest way that people take to make themselves feel like they're chasing their dreams. Try to find a IGDA or other indie game dev community that has meetups near you as well. In the one near me, they used to host the meetups at Bioware and a lot of people from that company still attend the meetups. You never know who you might meet at these things.

Avatar: The Last Airbender happens to be my favourite TV show (and only the greatest animated series of all time =P) but I also really love East-Asian instruments, and so this seemed like a perfect excuse to use both those instruments — koto, bansuri, dizi, shamisen, shakuhachi, sarangi — and some elemental sounds.

I've seen a number of posts from you over the last couple years where you're stressing over this stuff and IMO, I really think you're just taking it all waaay to seriously, man. One thing that might help you with the "half-finished" thing is realize that there is no objective definition of "finished". Who cares if it's 30 minutes or 30 seconds? If you've run out of ideas on it. Maybe just call it finished there and move on to the next piece?

Why would I take offense to that? Those a great soundtracks to be compared to. I fought with that and and the synth pad for a very long time. I knew I wanted that particular synth pad, which was broken up into three different segments, but it sounded too narrow. Tried panning, reverbing, delaying, etc. but for whatever reason, I guess that's as wide as I could make it. The duduk is basically my homage to the Battlestar: Galactica score.

The ending of Voltron Season 6, and this picture of Tracy Caldwell Dyson inspired me to compose something that sounds like an epic journey back home through outer space. Let me know what you think, and thanks for listening!

I stand by it: There is no "sacrifice" necessary for music or really any other art and what you're describing in the first half is just hardwork and persistence. You don't have to "give up" anything. This is purely a myth perpetuated by the survival bias that the public has placed upon famous musicians, actors, etc. "See! Tommy Tallarico moved to California at 22 with no job or place to live and slept on the beach! But he got a job at a music store and a game producer offered him a testing job at Virgin mobile after seeing Tom's video game shirt and the rest is history! Being homeless was a necessary sacrifice to become one of the most successful game composers!" Nope lol. It really all just comes down to what T-Shirt he was wearing that day; sleeping on beaches not required, but I see reasoning like this all the time. One of my game composing gigs happened because I went to this bar that it turned out held local game dev meetups. A co-worker at a former dayjob wound up in the film industry with some of his friends and they hired me to write music, etc. Any job with music I've ever had, happened by being in the right place at the right time and being "the music guy". If, one day, I really luck out and hit it big, it will happened just the same, just like it has for everyone else — I don't have to forfeit anything. Surely, you must see the contradiction here: You argue that being a freelance musician in the business of providing custom soundtracks is nothing like a restaurant owner because of the capital and risk required. Well, a new restaurant owner will likely go into debt and that will be seen as a necessary risk, but this doesn't happen in music. So why do you still you have to "pay dues" with it? IMO, this kind of thing is a dangerous way of thinking about something like music, and has lead to many people making really bad life decisions that were totally unnecessary. I'll never forget about 4 years ago, when the vocalist for the Acacia Strain announced his departure. He was quitting because he was turning 30, getting married the following year, and tired of playing over a hundred shows a year just to live on 200 dollars a month. Fans in the comments said stuff like "He's just not dedicated enough!" or "Yeah? Well that's what it takes!". Madness. Living below the poverty line for your entire adult life is plenty dedicated and a complete waste for a band that obviously never became lucrative anyway. First, this entire rant has no relevance to anything I said. Second, plenty of people over-estimate the value of music, but you my friend definitely undervalue it and by extension, yourself. You can't sell yourself short, either — people will exploit that. The point I'm trying to get across here is simple: Being successful as a career musician, is no different than success in any other business. You're a successful business if business is good. We've both seen it: Some person announces they're quitting their job to become a musician, and then months later they still haven't had any gig or income from it (I've even seen some turn to kickstarter when times get tough), but hey — at least their new album is killer and has 50 likes on soundcloud! Success, right?

It absolutely is. Just because the logistics involved may be different doesn't mean the entrepreneurial goals are any different. You could say "Becoming a successful doctor is NOTHING like becoming a successful shop owner" for the same reasons, and still be missing the mark. There is no point in pursuing a career in something if the financial returns, expanding operations, and bigger and better things are not the goal. It's all about growth. Successful musicians have exactly that aim, and very much understand it as a "business". Bands want to play to more and more people, composers want to score bigger and better movies/games/tv shows, etc. and these also come with bigger paychecks. Just as a police officer wants to make detective, or a lawyer wants wants to take on wealthier clients, etc. There is just no other type of business or business person who thinks this way; that positive response or "artistic" goals alone make them "successful". Everyone works to hit a point where it is both personally satisfying and allows them to live comfortably. That can depend on the person's needs, but the reality of whether or not one is in that situation is undeniable. You later contradict this point by saying you "love" your job. No, it's completely untrue that "no one likes work". Musicians tend to act like every other job in the universe is horrible, corporate enslavement or something, but that is far and away from the truth. There are plenty of fulfilling, good careers out there. Plenty of people love their jobs. You don't, though. This is one of the things that among "artists" of any kind contributes to the rising levels of depression: The idea that you HAVE to give up things to be successful and that the greater your sacrifice, the better your odds. It's not true. You don't have to eat nothing but cheap noodles and live under the stairs at your day job (Axl Rose), to make it in music. You just have to put some time in learning how to compose and use your virtual instruments (which is really a lifelong study anyway) and meet some people; the rest is up to fate. The better you are, and more people you know, you just have somewhat better odds, but still no guarantee. You don't have to quit your job or even cut down your hours, you don't have to give up other hobbies or social lives, you don't have to hold off on some other career for fear that it will interfere with your music dreams because the truth is: if you're good, and you're going to be lucky, it's either going to work out for you or it's not. You also don't have to sacrifice music should you wind up in another career or whatever. Appreciating what you have doesn't mean jack if you're about to have nothing when your landlord is going to evict you. If you've chosen to try and provide for yourself by being a musician, but are unable to do so...you're not succeeding as a career musician. Doesn't mean you haven't done anything cool, that you're not good, or that it's not worthwhile. It means that it is still a hobby or a side-job at best.