XPRTNovice

Posting in response to your PM: You took care of all of the issues I had cited in the previous version. The noise at the beginning still sounds a bit more like pink noise than water to me, but the fact that it's so much shorter makes it easier to get in there and start enjoying the music. I'm not totally sold on the way you edited the splash sound effect, but that's artistic. The first version I could tell what you were trying to do - dive under water, and the music EQ changes to reflect that. This doesn't sound like a splash, so I didn't "get the joke." That's it. The ending is vastly better and smoother, and overall the mixing has tightened up considerably. This is definitely an example on how to take feedback and get better

I quoted that guy a large amount of money that will be easily undercut by anyone bidding competitively. So, no. Not even close. There's a big difference between doing something for nothing or next to nothing and bidding competitively. EDIT: Nase, somehow in my moderator fatfingering I've deleted your follow up post and can't seem to recover it. Sorry about that I do want to apologize for coming off hot-tempered, and I appreciate your second post saying you understood where I was coming from.

I dropped the 3 "work for free" posts into this forum, where it is more appropriate to discuss. I was out of line, I think, in starting it in his thread. Now that we are here, though, Composers have a hard time paying for things in enthusiasm. The guy was offering money on a game concept that was deeper into development than most games we see posted on OCR. I don't know what you do for a living, but I'm not sure you would be saying money ain't your currency if someone who does your job as a hobby offered to do one of your projects for free. OCR isn't exactly a fount of employment, but the jobs that do come through here are still jobs. Maybe I'm in the clouds, but I expected OCR to be a sort of "safe zone" for musicians, where we support each other's art and getting what we deserve for that art when people want to use our art - not saying "I'll do it for free" after several musicians say that they're interested in being hired.

Don't go there yet. Do yourself a favor and go to Voices.com, get a free guest membership that allows you to browse jobs, and just start reading copy out loud to yourself. Go to the top favorites and listen to demos of the top booking talent. Just listen and read and eventually you'll pick up a rhythm. Then when you're confident, buy yourself a month for $40 and audition for every single job every single day....see if you book. If you want to test out some reads before you start paying for membership, email me some mock auditions and I'll let you know how you're doing.

I do not understand at all why you would make this post publicly after all of the discussions we've had about how musicians offering to do work for free hurts the industry for everyone involved. EDIT: Further discussions about working for free should not be in this thread. If you want to undercut musicians, do it privately.

I do not understand at all why you would make this post publicly after all of the discussions we've had about how musicians offering to do work for free hurts the industry for everyone involved. EDIT: Further discussions about working for free should not be in this thread. If you want to undercut musicians, do it privately.

Neblix did a great job coming in at the last minute like that.

You're joking. He's joking, right? Ha, ha, ha. Oh, man. Wait, you're joking, right?

I'm trying to get there as soon as I can today guys. Lots of work stuff getting in the way

REVIEW OF THE MOD KIND - The kick drum seems panned to the right? That's a little distracting for me. I kept wanting to turn my head to get it centered. - I could stand to have a stronger melody at :35 in the mix. It seems buried, especially by the arpy-thingie going on up top. It's nice and strong at :52 though. - Again at 1:09, the melody could come out just a touch. I'm being nitpicky, but that's my job. - The transition sound at 2:19 is a little strange. I see what you're trying to do there, and I appreciate it, but it's not quite working. I might try to fade out that noise a little quicker or pick a different sweep. - The whole piano section feels out of place with the rest of the piece to me, like we've transitioned to another song entirely. I can't decide if I personally like the electronic/new age piano mix. And that idea doesn't really continue, it just seems more like an out of place interlude that, if you dropped it, might not harm the track very much. - Aurally, there seems to be something not very full about it. It feels like it's not complete to me, and doesn't really draw me in as a listener. - the ending from 4:00 on was just too empty for me, and the cymbal swell that closed it out seemed sort of tacked on. For such a bombastic piece, I felt like it needed more of a balsy ending. In general, the mixing seems pretty solid, aside from the melody issues and the kick drum thing that I mentioned at the beginning. It's some of your arrangement choices that had me scratching my head, and the overall lack of oomph that I think comes from the way you filled out the parts. Good luck! MOD REVIEW IT IS OVER

Please get some feedback from the community before switching to mod review. 24 hours is probably not enough time. I've switched this back for you - thanks!

Not doing my job if I don't keep you on your toes...

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]