XPRTNovice

SM7B was my mid-range mic; I moved from the MXL 990 to the SM7B, then hung out on that for a long time before I made my next purchase which was expensive.

Hey MX, I'll do my best here. I would probably want to start with about $500 investment capital, but you can do less. You'll need a mic, a DAW, an IO interface, and, ideally, a good place to record and a way to block room reflections. You can skip the IO interface and just use a USB mic for now if you'd like. I know people that have success with that. You also need the startup capital to "pay to play" if you want to audition for jobs outside of a place like eLance or Fiverr, both of which are bottom feeding and not worth it IMO. I recommend Voices.com; I can probably get you a free month or a discount if you'd like, but the going rate is $40 per month, which gives you access to 20-50 auditions a day. DO ALL OF THEM. If you book ONE gig a month on Voices.com it pays for the membership; no job on Voices.com is worth less than $100. They also handle payment for you in an escrow system, so it's much friendlier than some of the other sites I use to generate business. As for room reflections, when I was starting out I would do most of my recording under a blanket. You can get high tech and buy some stuff - I would say you could isolate yourself for less than another $500 - but you can start with a thick blanket and sweat until you raise enough money. I'd be willing to give you some feedback on your audition takes (or I can coach you for $200 an hour ) and we can work on getting your auditions good enough for low end jobs.

I love this mix. It was one of my favorite interpretations from the album; totally unique.

ONE OF US. ONE OF US. Seriously though don't be afraid to chime in and hang around even if you don't have a musical bone in your body. People who listen to music always belong with people who make it. Unless they're jerks. Then they don't belong with anyone.

Last year I said: 1.) Get a book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble (that's only me, not an anthology) - Nope. I did get a book on the shelves at B&N, but it's part of an anthology. 2.) Level up in Parkour to a red wristband, possibly become an instructor. - Didn't get my red band, but I did become an instructor. 3.) Land at least 3 video game OST gigs - I landed 2 small time gigs and one SFX gig. 4.) Write the first draft of at least 3 more novels - I wrote 2. 5.) Win a Hugo award (bahahah) - Hahaha no. 6.) Learn a whole lot more about music production and these sample libraries I have. - I'm still a moron. 7.) Expand my voiceover business and quit my day job. - DONE AND LOVING IT. Now for 2015: 1.) Sell a novel to a major publisher 2.) Get my red band in parkour (think of it like making "advanced") 3.) Land a national TV commercial for voiceover 4.) Land a high profile video game gig as an actor 5.) Release an album of original songs. 6.) Decide where my family is going to settle 7.) Complain less, be more positive, and try to serve others more

Hi everyone. Here's a list. Nothing too sexy, but I want to get rid of these and giving them to gamestop makes me feel like a bad person. Unless otherwise stated they have cases, but probably not the manual. Shipping is $2 via media mail. PM me with offers. Yeah, I know some of these are old and crappy and nobody wants them. I'm just listing them. Payment via PayPal only and you have to eat the fees. PS2: Digital Devil Saga Digital Devil Saga 2 Dirge of Cerberus Echo: Night Beyond Enter the Matrix Final Fantasy X-2 God of War Guitar Hero III Indigo Prophecy Legacy of Kain: Defiance (no case) Metal Gear Solid 2 (no case) Metal Gear Solid 3 Odin Sphere Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within Shadow Hearts Shadow Hearts: Covenant Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness Transformers (no case) Tsugunai: Atonement PS3: Eternal Sonata Guitar Hero 5 Heavy Rain Infamous LA Noire Metal Gear Solid 4 Rock Band 2 Rock Band: Beatles PC: Baldur's Gate 2 (w/throne of Bhaal) BioShock DragonAge Origins Star Wars: Empire at War Thief: Deadly Shadows 3DS: Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

.... That is all.

beast mode engaged!

I don't think it was a tear. It just needs rest. I didn't realize what I had done when I was in the kitchen (seriously, who injures their rotator cuff reaching for a dish) and I went and worked out afterwards, which was a bad idea. Been about 10 days now and it's getting better, but it's so easy to re-injure. Edit: Here's a 10 second parkour video of me in London to depress me further at the things I cannot do right now

So after finally recovering from two foot injuries, I'm actually pretty positive I injured my rotator cuff reaching for a dish in the kitchen. Like now I can't take off T-shirts without pain. I cannot fucking stand being injured...

[MODREVIEW] Hey there, nice mix. - Right away the mixing doesn't seem full enough to me. Your life instruments are way in the background and you have a beat way up front. - I appreciate the American Patrol reference - The live performances are fantastic. There's some intonation issues when you're doubling the saxes - I might also suggest separating them by panning them a bit differently to add dimension to the mix. Right now they sound both dead center, creating a strange wave effect that might not be a problem if you panned them. - In general, the live stuff needs to come forward and the synthetic stuff needs to go back. With more nuanced mixing, this could sound really, really nice. - There's also a "flat" sound to the mix. You might want to try some EQing on the master while listening to a reference track to see if you can't get it to develop a little more. - I would have appreciated a little more variation in the drums. With as slow as it was, I kind of felt like I was being dragged along rather than moved along. All in all, this is a great mix, fresh take on a cool source. I think the mixing needs some work before it'll pass, though, and I think that you can help yourself learn by using reference tracks. I might suggest Caravan Palace, but that's a little bit too much electro for this, so I'm not sure where to suggest you turn. Great job! [/MODREVIEW]

This kind of creative and flexible budgeting will get you gigs AND create a good image for yourself as a businessman/woman and just not being a douche. The last couple projects I've done for $$, I've done for less than my "rate" (which I list as $300/min but also make clear it's flexible) but I retained the rights and plan on compiling an album. With music you have a lot more options other than buyout, which is great. That being said, if someone is like "dude I'm a student I can only pay you x" and then you find out they're an indie developer with a dozen properties, etc, then you call them on it (professionally). But, by and large, I find that most people are honest.

HAVE ALL THE HAPPIES! ALL of them.

I think this is some of the most important advice. I hit it in the voiceover world (not music, but still pretty elusive career-wise) but I did it by working 16 hours a day for about half a year as I built up one career and still kept my day job so that I wasn't going to bury my family if I didn't make it in VO. Now I've quit my day job, am supporting myself solely with voiceover work, and can begin to expand my music business as well.

Thanks! Dylan really added some spice to this track.

Argle save me!!

Dylan Wiest (Wiesty) and I collabed for this track like a year ago and I never mastered it. Now I mastered it and thought I'd throw it up here. Unfortunately the project files are trashed so I can't make any changes. Feel free to throw out critiques, but I can't actually make changes. Me: Live sax and arrangement Wiesty: Live keys and drums https://soundcloud.com/xprtnovice/how-many-heavens-are-there

Don't think I'm available for creating my own track here but please let me know if you want collab for live flute, clarinet, saxophones, trumpet, guitar, mandolin, or farting noises.

[ModReview] I'll give you your MR on this one, but I also like to encourage new folks to comment on other people's tracks. You've got 4 posts to your name total, so maybe some more interaction would have inspired some discussion before you had to use the ModReview card. - First, err, have you listened to smooth jazz? This is like hyper techno samba! Smooth jazz is like...Kenny G. - You are seriously missing some low end action to support what's going on in the beginning. I thought it was an intro, and was willing to let it go, but it continued for a long time into the mix. I hear it come in later in the tune, but by the time the beat drops, my tweeters are tired. - The drum stuff going on at the 1:30 drop is a little on the muddy side, and it almost sounds like you have all of those elements in mono right in the center. You have those great bongo things going - by 2:04 there's just too much going on and not enough mixing to taper it. I get some relief at 2:14, but between 1:30-2:14 it's messy. - The concept of the ending is really cool. Something really weird happens in my right ear at 3:19...like something just drops out. Take a listen to that. You did a nice job of making a relatively repetitive source sound fairly diverse. But you've got some work to do on the mixing end, in my opinion, particularly in that section in the middle. the 80s drums are cool, but they're muddy. I'm not sure you could find something comparable to reference, but try listening to some other stuff in this style and hear how it's all put together. Good luck! [/ModReview]

[ModReview] I'm a little disappointed that this spent a couple of weeks on the forums with no comments, and I'm sorry you didn't get a lot of community feedback before the mod review. Regardless, here goes: - The bass feels a touch dry/in my face at the beginning. Perhaps consider adding a TOUCH of verb to see if you can't get it to blend better with the plinky plinkies at the beginning; or maybe just turn it down. - That bass in your face problem continues for me at :55. Still seems to forward to me, and the melody takes a back seat. I'm not a back seat melody guy. - I was starting to get pretty tired of that bass riff by 2:00, even though you were adding in other elements. - By 3:23 on my first listen, when it finally gave me a break from the 8 measure thing, I was starting to feel like this was an exercise in looping. From an arrangement standpoint, 3 minutes of the same progression is a bit much, especially when there aren't VARIATIONS, there are only ADDITIONS. - The little ethereal break at 3:30 ish is nice, but by 4:00 we're back to the beginning. At least it makes me think we're back to the beginning. So I'm noticing immediately that my major beef with this piece is going to be the arrangement side. - The mixing, in general, with the exception of my comments about maybe the bass being a little too flat/dry, is actually quite good. Things are panned nicely and everything is in its right place, so to speak. I never feel like it gets overloaded or muddy. - Another similar woooooshhh break at 5:30 to the one at 3:30, though I have to say I like this one a lot. - Buuut then we're right back at the beginning at 6:00. And it kind of goes out the same way. - The repetition is made worse by the fade out at the end. With how much you leaned on the source, you could compose an ending completely from scratch and still be well within OCR's requirements for source. So, my final word on this is that the arrangement is far, far too repetitive. I won't rehash what I've said above, but you basically have 7 minutes of the same 8 measures with different layers. The good news is, you have 7 minutes of material. Cut this song in half and mix it up a bit, and the repetition problem will largely be solved, perhaps. I won't try to tell you what to do artistically, but you might consider writing some kind of chorus/bridge using another Halo source. The source itself is kind of repetitive, so I can see how you'd fall into that trap. Good luck! [/ModReview]

I'm curious...did you sit down at a synth and try different stuff until you replicated it, or did you seriously just jot down those settings by ear?

All links to remixes are broken.

[MODREVIEW] - SFX at the beginning is really full of all the frequency spectrum in not my favorite way and heavily weighted to the right side in the panning, which makes it really disconcerting to listen to. And it doesn't go away until almost 1:00 in to the song. Definitely needs to fade out way sooner. - In general, the first 38 seconds could be compressed so that you get to the actual music quicker. - The drums sound very...flat to me. Like there's just not a lot of dimension to them. I can't really hear if you applied really heavy compression or the drum patch you used just doesn't have enough oomph. Try layering different samples to get a drum sound. - The vibe is cool; I like the washed away feeling that you get. But you have to be careful with how much you've got going on at once. At 1:50 it starts to get really saturated in the mids...and again, panned way too hard to the right. My ear was very tired after this section. - The "dive" at 2:29 is really interesting. A great idea, actually, and very cleverly done; but I think you can do it better. The "splash" noise needs to come back in the mix a bit, either by volume or adding a touch of reverb (but with an effect that wide in the EQ spectrum that could be dangerous). Right now it feels too abrupt, and I might even choose a different splash...something that resonates for a minute, and then leaves behind the feeling of being underwater, rather than BAM transition. - Again, the reintroduction of that SFX at 3:33 just doesn't work IMO...and it drops off way too suddenly. The piece itself could use a much smoother fadeout. You've got some really cool ideas in here, very unique take on the source that I really like. It just needs some cleaning, I think. Best of luck. [/MODREVIEW] __________________

[ModReview] - The beginning 3-4 guitar notes sound a bit out of tune. - The bass in general could use some EQ trimming at the extreme low end to make it fit with the rest of the mix a bit, but it's a taste thing, too. - You blended the flute thing and the steel drums very nicely to create a pretty nice texture during melody lines. - The flute gets a little shrill at 1:40 ish doing those turns on top; careful with that. I couldn't tell if you added a doubling instrument or not, but it got significantly more piercing to the ear. - Arrangement wise, I would say at 2:19 I kind of felt like I was just hearing the beginning again. By 2:42 I was getting really tired of hearing that introductory melodic line on the flute. If I were to make a suggestion, I would say cut the part from 2:20-2:42. You would prevent the feeling of being dragged back to the beginning and driving more energy toward the end. The ending is nice. Really I would say my major problem with this is the arrangement; it's a shorter piece and we hear that main line an awful lot. The mixing is pretty solid, and so is the instrumentation. I can't really give you a good gauge on whether the judges will hit on it or not, since arrangement is a little more subjective than you having a bunch of mud in the mix, etc. [/Modreview]