Master Mi

If I need hall-like but also highly assertive sound sources - like lead guitars - in a track, I rather use echoing delay effects than reverb. It makes the sound source stronger in the mix - but it also contains some kind of room impressions, especially if there's already enough reverb from other sources in your mix. I wouldn't go so far to eliminate reverb effects completely from your tracks like some composers and audio engineers obviously do. But I would be really careful with reverb, because even a little too much of it can ruin the clarity and listening experience of the entire track. I try to use only one or two sound sources in the mix with a bigger reverb like concert hall convolution reverb (if it fits the track and the genre) while the other tracks in the mix get a more subliminal recording studio reverb (like drums or rhythmic guitars) or even no reverb (often bass in my case, or maybe even lead guitars with just some echoing delay effects). ... For separating the tracks and placing them more accurately in the room, I often use a 2-channel surround feature from my DAW Samplitude. It's a pretty cool visual tool that lets you place mono and stereo sound sources in a surround environment, and it encodes surround information into a standard stereo signal. According to the manual, it also retains surround information for real surround speaker setups (just reminded me to ask someone on OCR who uses a surround speaker setup and who might be able to verify if that's true or how the track translates between stereo and surround setups). Just to give you an imagination of the interface of the 2-channel surround feature and how I worked with this tool in my Goldfinger remix... 1) Here you can see how I used it for the kinda jazzy clean electric guitars with a great stereo width, which play just a little bit behind the front, only left and right, leaving out the center and the other channels: ... 2) Here you can see how I used it in connection with the completely dry bass, kinda centered between front and rear surround channels, almost fully mono, but I opened the signal just a little bit towards stereo width to give the already dry bass at least a little space to move, roam and articulate more differently: ... 3) For separating the bass from the drums in the mix, I placed the drums (all 3 drum tracks) a little bit behind the bass, added a little recording studio reverb and opened the stereo width up to around 50 % (if mono would be 0 % and true stereo would be 100 %). So, the drum kit with all frequencies from low to high - together with a well-separated bass - dominates the inner circle around the center, while all the other instruments with their frequencies rather dominate the outer circle of the 2-channel surround field: ... 4) And one last example... Some electric guitar power chords, only enhanced with some stereo delay effects, are placed much more in the rear field on the right side (on the mirrored left side is another powerful guitar playing some more bass-like rhythms) with a very small stereo width only affecting a little bit the right front channel and mostly the right surround channel in the back (also to avoid frequency clashes with other instruments that are playing more in the front and center field). ... I also uploaded a short video on OCR in which you can hear how the sound changes when I move a stereo sound source in the 2-channel surround field (my post from April 17, 2023): https://ocremix.org/community/topic/49135-creating-a-realistic-impression-of-depth-in-stereo-mixes/ Maybe you can give me a little feedback with your impression on this visual 2-channel surround tool. I also used an additional positioner tool as a nice feature included in a convolution reverb plugin in the uploaded demonstration video. ... I also got inspired by your idea to use plugins with different microphone settings to create a greater feeling of distance. But the probably most similar thing I could find in my huge internal plugin collection of my DAW was a plugin called Mic Modeler in my Independence Pro Premium Suite. There you can use different kinds of microphones in connection with settings like omnidirectional/directional, close, far, farer etc. But I can't really hear a real difference between the different distance settings of a specific microphone - might be a plugin for something else. ... On the other hand, I have a really nice microphone control feature within my bass and guitar amp plugin Vandal with which I can really feel an impact on the imagination of distance. ... ... But I'm not so sure if a bass and guitar amp plugin (even with undistorted, clean settings) is the optimal VST plugin for using microphone settings on usually non-amped instruments like trumpets, pianos, flutes and drums. ;D I'm not even sure if the original signal of these instruments remains so clean and untouched in a bass and guitar amp as I would hope. Even if I turn off all the other parts of the amp (except the one with the microphone feature), it still sounds a little bit different. It mainly might have to do with the fact that the microphone feature (right side) is directly connected to the cabinet simulation (left side). If you want to switch it off, then the microphone feature is turned off as well. But even if you turn off both, the audio signal with the amp plugin is still not identical to the original audio signal without the amp plugin. ... The mystical late night hours of the dead dreamer ears. Yeah... after waking up, it sometimes really feels like you were mixing like this the night before:

Visual tools for creating a realistic impression of depth in stereo mixes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some tme ago, I recorded a little video with some drum VSTi stuff in connection with some visual tools of my DAW Samplitude Pro X4 Suite with which I can create a feeling of depth in stereo mixes - not sure which one is more suitable tool, but maybe you have some ideas about this topic. Make sure to watch the video below in full screen mode: Visual Tools For Creating A Realistic Impression Of Depth In Stereo Mixes.mp4 ... 1) The first one (on the left side) is a 2-channel surround mode which uses the individually placed sound sources (mono or stereo sound sources) in connexion with 5 simulated surround channels - but it writes all the surround information into a standard 2-channel signal. So, you can set up a virtual surround stage with some impression of depth on a normal 2-channel studio setup. And - according to the manual - the surround information encoded in the stereo signal of the exported track should always be fully compatible to pursuant surround speaker setups. I'm not fully sure, what it exactly does to the important parameters for the impression of depth. But I think it does at least a solid gain staging and a pretty nice and visually comprehensible 5-channel separation (left, right, center, left surround, right surround) to create a cleaner and more tiered mix (with a really precise visual presentation of the stereo width in the context of the channels) within a more three-dimensional audio environment. Maybe it is based on some quite realistic microphone algorithms or on EQ adaptation which change with the movement of the sound sources in the simulated surround field. But I'm not sure if this tool makes any changes on reverb and delay - at least I can't hear too much changes on these two parameters there. And what I also don't really understand is the phenomenon of the small left and right volume changes if you go with your sound source parallelly to or vertically on the center channel up (to the front) and down (to the back) - so, even if you go perfectly vertically down with your sound sources from the center more into the lower surround channel field, the volume seems to go more to the left side. I don't know if there are some particularities with the pan law in a 2-channel surround configuration - but maybe somebody of you has an idea on this phenomenon. At the moment, I just use the separate channel settings feature in the top right corner to balance the volume of the left/right channels with a few dB if the sound sources I placed more in the surround background tend to get louder or more silent at one side. I use this 2-channel surround feature since my last Goldfinger remix and I also want to work with it in the future as a major part of my new mixing concept. Although it's a rather dry mix with rather small-sized recording studio reverb settings than with huge, cathedral-like reverbs in direct comparison to my previous remixes, I think that the 2-channel surround mode made some really decent results for my ambition to create an imagination of depth in there - almost as if you are standing right in front of a street band. (Edit: Unfortunately, this pretty amazing 2-channel surround feature was only in my DAW Samplitude until version Samplitude Pro X4 (Suite). I, along with another person, asked the developer why they did not keep this feature in later versions of this DAW. They answered that this feature is not supposed to be compatible with newer surround formats. But they have already started working on a new version of this feature, which should also include a modern solution for binaural listening. However, the guy couldn't tell me why the developers just removed this feature in the newer DAW versions, even though the latest development of this 2-channel surround feature hasn't even been developed and implemented yet. Until this problem is solved, I will probably continue to work with Samplitude Pro X4 Suite for the time being, in order to establish my new mixing concept, which also uses this promising 2-channel surround feature as a precise visual audio tool for even more clarity and accuracy in the mix.) ... 2) The second tool I just found some time ago in the origami convolution reverb section of my Independence Pro Premium Suite as a part of my DAW Samplitude Pro X4 Suite (which can be easily overseen on the complex interface) is a positioner feature on the interface of this reverb plugin (on the right side around the second half of the drum recording video). With this tool you might not be able to create a nice channel separation for the single tracks (sound sources) of your music project. But you can get some pretty realistic impressions of depth for the reverb by placing the sound source (or maybe the listener) at different positions in some sort of a virtual room with individual characteristics like room size. I even think that the impression of depth with this second tool is even bigger or more realistic than with the first tool. But I'm not sure how this one would work out in the whole mix - I'm kinda afraid that it creates too much subtle sound information which might clutter up your mix and kill the definition (like reverb effects in general do pretty fast in a complex mix with a huge number of tracks). And I'm also not really sure if it makes sense to use both tools simultaneously for the same VSTi, synth, instrument etc. - because in this case you would have to work with two different visual tools at the same time, begin to calculate two visual interfaces into one you can't see in order to make the next steps for the next tracks, an annoying, time-comsuming and less accurate procedure I want to avoid if I already have a decent visual tool for creating an imagination of depth in a stereo mix. ... But what's your opinion about these visual tools in the context of creating a realistic feeling of depth in a soundtrack or another kind of an audio program?

There is also a direct upload way for your art at OCR. You can attach several files (like pictures) below the field together with a message you want to submit - by the "Drag files here to attach, or choose files..." option. It might look like this: ...or maybe like that: Just write the complete text, upload the picture files you want to implement, place the cursor at the preferred points and click on the uploaded pictures in the lower corner you want to insert at this point. You can also double-click the inserted picture files in the text field to make some additional settings for the pictures. Hope I could help you with your issue. )) ... PS: Another interesting way of sharing artwork (since you posted this topic on an international composer and remixer platform and lots of people really like the audiovisual way) could be in connection with famous video streaming platforms like YouTube. There, you could use one picture (or maybe a whole slideshow) of your artworks, compose an own soundtrack for the visual content and upload it as a high-quality video file. I myself have done this with some of my remixes when I didn't have video footage for my tracks, or when entire (muted) videos of movie intros somehow seem to violate the terms of the streaming platform - so I just used a slideshow of pictures created from the video material. I recently saw a pretty nice drawing from DeviantArt on YouTube in connection with an atmospheric Terranigma remix, which got quite some very positive feedback:

Really good ambition. I always wanted to bring my whole MP3 collection on a uniform level with an audio bitrate of 192 kbit/s, which might offer the best relation between sound quality and lost disk space. At least I can often hear clear differences between 128 kbit/s and 192kbit/s - but no more clear differences between 192 kbit/s and 320 kbit/s or even lossless audio formats. I wondered that I had quite a lot of remixes from a high-quality platform like OCR with audio bitrates of just 128 kbit/s in my MP3 collections. But I guess these MP3s were direct downloads from OCR from times where they might have had to save some space, bandwidth and costs back then (don't really know how this stuff works when creating such a large platform). But my big question is (since I had also converted some YouTube streams of newer OCR remixes to MP3s with audio bitrates of 192 kbit/s): Do the official OCR remixes uploaded on Youtube have been uploaded with a higher bitrate than 128 kbit/s (just because they mostly sounded better than just the 128 kbit/s direct downloads on OCR)?

If you already own a certain DAW which runs smooth and stable and to which you are used to for several years, I'd stick with it. If you manage to get more into your DAW, figure out all the functions by studying your manual and trying out a lot of things, you might be able to compose, arrange, mix and master great soundtracks with nearly any DAW on the market out there. The last thing I would do is changing your DAW regularly after a few years just because of some brand-new features by other DAW developers. There are some general features you may have in all DAWs, and there are often some unique features in several DAWs. But you can also see that some those unique features tend to become general DAW features over the years. And you don't have to go for every upgrade of your DAW if you don't like or need the new content - I'm sure there will also be coming upgrades and developments of your DAW you will like again. If not - don't hesitate to write your DAW developers about the new things you like, you don't like and things you want to see improved (I also do it sometimes). I wouldn't go for 365 days or monthly offers from DAW companies because you are always kinda forced to get the newest content, the newest operating system and the newest hardware (if necessary). And I don't always want to set up a new PC with a new operating system after just a few years. If you don't mind to live several years in the technological past and rather making huge jumps after 10 to 15 years, you won't miss too much. But you can save lots of time, money and nerves. And in case of being a Windows user, you will have a lot more information of the private customer "Windows test subjects" who have made their early experiences with the latest program versions. ... But back to the DAW topic... So, if you already own Reason and you are used to it, stick with it. If you have questions on this DAW software, you could also ask the composer Thomas Mende. He works with Reason and he also composes some really good electronic video game remixes with this DAW made by the Swedish developers Propellerhead/Reason Studios: If you own Cubase and you are already used to it, stick with it. This famous DAW software was originally developed by Steinberg, a German developer which is in the hands of the well-known Japanese Yamaha corporation since around 2004. And these Japanese companies - especially Yamaha - develop lots of highly sophisticated technological products for musical purposes and they aim to improve their results continuously with their (for the Japanese society pretty famous) Kaizen concept over time. Even if you own FL Studio (Fruity Loops in the past - a DAW I really don't like because of the less intuitive access to the main functions) and you are already used to it, stick with it. When I tried this DAW for the first time without any manual, I really hated this DAW because of the kinda annoying pattern system and because I couldn't even manage to create a single empty MIDI object for hours. But if I remember correctly, even famous video game music composers like Zircon work with FL studio - and they compose outstanding soundtracks with this DAW in combination with some further 3rd-party VSTis, synths and VST plugins. ... But if you are a newcomer and still not bound to any DAW, you might have also a closer look a Samplitude Pro X Suite (definitely the Pro X Suite version because of the hugely enhanced content). For me, it was a really close race between Cubase and Samplitude back then - but in the end, Samplitude won my heart because of the really intuitive access to the main functions, the complexity and really huge content of the DAW (which you can use for quite every common music genre), the clarity and flexibilty of the interface and the really stylish black Carbon design you can choose in the settings: There is still a good video of this DAW which shows some of the content and functions of Samplitude Pro X (the first version of the Samplitude Pro X series) from around 10 years ago. And even back then, it already had an amazing content of high-quality metering devices, VST plugins, VST instruments and synths - even a sophisticated guitar and bass amp was (and still is) part of the enhanced Suite content: With the current Pro X7 Suite version, it got even more content. And I am still fine with Samplitude Pro X4 Suite. Many years ago, Samplitude Pro X Suite was around 1000 bucks for the first buy. But over the years, it went down to around 600 bucks, sometimes it's already around 400 bucks and during several special offers during the year it can be around 200 to 300 bucks, while upgrades are around 200 to 250 bucks. For the case you want to check out the features in detail, have a look at these links: https://www.magix.com/int/music/samplitude/pro-x/functions/ https://www.magix.com/int/music/samplitude/pro-x/version-comparison/#c1574623 ... If want to build up your studio environment, really take your time and inform yourself well about the stuff you want to go for before buying it. Never be in a hurry, because a huge amount of information and experiences can save a lot of money, time and nerves in the long term. Rather buy a drop of a product after bathing in an ocean of information than the other way around. I have built my home studio within a time of around 10 years, and aside from my electric guitar of choice, I'd say it was complete around two years ago, hardware-wise. If you save up some money for 1 or 2 two studio gear elements per year, it might not stress you too much in times of permanent financial crises and geopolitical changes. If you don't have any studio gear yet, I would buy the stuff in the following order: 1 - a good ergonomic office chair with adjustable headrest (a healthy and upright sitting position is a really good start before composing and mixing for several hours at once) 2 - a good DAW of your choice 3 - professional studio headphones like the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro (with these you can compose and mix in a really accurate way) 4 - professional audio interface (increases your DAW performance and stability - especially when composing bigger tracks) 5 - a good allrounder MIDI keyboard with at least 49 synth action keys (synth action keys should not make any annoying noises compared to some MIDI keyboards with weighted/hammered keys), 8 drum pads, pitch wheel and mod wheel, a good amount of faders, buttons, knobs and editing/programming functions, together with some fitting pedals for your MIDI keyboard 6 - a professional studio microphone with a low noise floor like the Rode NT1 (if you want to use singing voices or instrumental microphone recordings in your musical projects), together with a good and stable microphone stand 7 - professional studio monitor speakers, which harmonize with your room conditions (speakers should rather be a little bit smaller than too big for your room), together with some fitting isolating studio monitor stands 8 - maybe a good compact studio subwoofer to enhance the frequency range of your speakers into the deeper bass range 9 - professional headphone amp (which will drive even high-impedance studio headphones in the best possible way to unleash their full potential) 10 - additional instruments, VST instruments, synths and VST plugins

I'm not quite sure when the pretty cool trend of remixing video game soundtracks really started. But I remember listening to some video game remixes while I was still in high school about 20 years ago, and I had some music files on my mom's notebook and later on my first MP3 players. Some years later I noticed more and more of these really sophisticated remixes with "OC Remix" in the title. If I remember correctly... After scouring the internet to find out who this amazing "OC" was, I came across a platform where you could download these pretty cool video game remixes - for FREE! I mean, a platform that combined the two great passions of video games and music - how cool was that at the time? And I really loved listening to a lot of those remixes back then, whether I was doing my workout, riding my bike around town, or taking a break from studying away from my hometown by taking a walk in a calm forest nearby, for example. So, OCR was already a small part of my life before I knew what OCR actually was. And I'm really sure that over the years it fed my desire to start remixing and composing soundtracks even before I knew what DAWs, VSTis and VST plugins were. But then, around 2013, I got much more into it, I finally had the chance to buy my first little DAW software, I had no idea about working with DAWs - and I managed to share my first remix on OCR. It was really terrible, uncreative, kind of deafeningly loud, hyper-compressed, the track radically clipped - but I was kind of numb to those "little sound artifacts" and totally loved it. Back then, music was some kind of magic for me. It still is - but with the help of the OCR community and several other platforms, some subject-specific literature, blogs and videos, I've also learned a few lvl.1 and lvl.2 magic spells over the years... ... yeah, after learning the basics like working with a DAW (almost took me over 2 whole years to figure out the main functions of my DAW by trying out a few things and reading through huge parts of the over 1000 pages within the digital manual), creating the first arrangements with VSTis, synths and VST plugins, learning music theory from the very beginning, making my first steps towards own composition ideas later on, improving my listening and mixing skills over the years and finding my own style. That's a really exciting process of self-development which may never fully stop in a healthy lifetime. You might quit weightlifting and full contact martial arts when you're around 90 years old, but you can still compose 'n' cast an atmospheric Star Tropics remix at such a magic wizard age when you are already the second-oldest rock on the southern islands. To cherish that soulful opportunity, you should watch your diet, also take your physical training behind your magical composer desk seriously, never go to any wars (if somebody asks, you might answer that you learned from legendary soldier Solid Snake that there are no real heroes in wars - if even this fails, you have to become something like a Saiyan-like master composer wizard who can touch the hearts and feelings of living beings so deeply with just one charming composition that they will give up any desires of greed, war and destruction within a few seconds)... ... and, of course, you should praise the serene gods who have created and who still maintain OC Remix. ))

I'm not firm with the music of the Golden Sun series, but if that's the OST, you have really made a lot out of this one: You've got quite a hand for epic, dynamic and orchestral compositions. )) Really good composition ideas, clean mixing, really good staging and use of the 3 dimensions. As I remember correctly, you use a VST plugin with digital microphone settings for each instrument track to create a spatial mix with lots of depth? I remember that I posted a thread on how creating a realistic imagination of depth in mixes some time ago and I also mentioned the method of using different microphone positions in order to achieve this, but I never really thought about using VST plugins with different microphone settings at this point - it seems to work fine. Do you have to set the pre-delay in addition to the microphone VST plugin or does the virtual distance setting of the microphone include the pre-delay in the same step with the distance value?

I would defintely go for the really sophisticated ERA VSTi stuff from Eduardo Tarilonte, especially for Celtic ERA 2. And good news for you - there's a also free version with a few VST instruments from different collections like Celtic ERA, Forest Kingdom II, ERA II: Medieval Legends, NADA, Gu Zheng, Titan 2 and other ones (contains a few VSTi presets with full functions, lots of VSTis with limited playing range or other ones with limited articulations, limited features or just a few VSTi presets as demo versions). The collection is created for the (also completely free) Engine 2 sample player, which is one of my favourite external sample players, and it is called "Engine Artists Library". It contains around 2,5 GB of chosen content. It might be just a tiny piece of the full collections, but it should be MUCH better than most VSTi freeware and it might help you a lot with your remix projects for The Legend of Zelda series. ... You can check it out and download it for free at Best Service: https://www.bestservice.com/engine_artists_library.html Good luck with that. ))

If you already bought the NI VSTi years before, I guess you won't make any changes with this ancient stuff in these days. I'll keep and use my Native Instrument VSTis from the time before the strange boycott message and won't buy further NI stuff as long as they keep doing this boycott against the people from the Russian Federation and Belarus (or the people of countries that might be on their sanctions list in the future). I'm still not fully sure what the real motivation of a mere VSTi company can be to get so deeply involved into politics. I wouldn't say that they are part of a dark political agenda just because of that (as long as they don't demand weapon deliveries towards the war countries and be part of the stern beard fraction yearning for the next Generalplan Ost). But if you really want to end war, there are much better and more diplomatic ways - first, not to get involved in the war and not to put extra energy into the war. I'm sure there will be not much more peace in a war if more and more people, organizations and countries from all over the world get involved into the trouble - it will rather end up in a "world war" I guess. But if less people participate in a war-like conflict, there might be peace much faster and the greedy people behind those wars have to put themselves into the line of fire if they still think that all the money, ressources and treasures have a so much bigger value than life itself. They might try to impress people with their nationalist and hyper-patriotic gunshot mentality, try to force people to fight their wars or even torture and kill them if they defy the high rollers. But if the stubborn horse really wants to kick its owner, it really kicks its owner. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.“ ----------------------------------------------------------------- And some people did exactly that. They - obviously a smaller and still intact village community of Ukrainians - came together and just burnt their instruction orders in front of the military guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rRjJWx4j1s That's a really effective way to take the energy out of a war or a beginning conflict and end it from the perspective of the common people. Focus on life, the down-home interests of the community and the whole humankind, instead of being mentally dragged into nationalist, over-patriotic bullshit war propaganda lies with lots of capitalistic cockroaches behind the theatrical stage. I know, it might be a little bit more complex than that. But even in modern times within the age of large private companies and private banks, there are much more of the common people (those who would only suffer from wars) than those greedy monsters, who rather invest in wars to make profits from those money-bloated conflicts - just like in some sort of a war as a business model for companies, banks and investors. The common people only need to understand that they would only ever suffer from wars, and so the common people would have a great common interest - a thought that may already be somewhat difficult to think for people who have grown up in capitalist systems, when it is often hammered into their brains that their neighbours and work colleagues are their greatest competitors and rivals in this life destined to boot each other out and to be the same selfish, worthless and destructive assholes like those who claim to own them with their money and "power". Maybe, sometimes you already have to imagine your life after a war, when a war already ruined everyone and everything that was dear to your heart. I guess it should help to appoach those who want to send you to war in a completely different way. And I'm really sure that one of those profit-over-life businessmen wouldn't feel too much like almighty gods after they feel the first hard knee-strike into the face and seeing their own blood in the streets instead of just seeing the blood of others from far away in their daily newspapers. Those kind of businessmen might always have had the deep feeling of owning your life just with their money and that they can just buy the world. But it's not exactly money that rules and shapes the world - it's rather energy. So, if the stubborn horse really wants to kick its owner, it really kicks its owner. ... But getting a little bit back to the VSTi and home studio content.. The fact is that the guys at NI develop really good, high quality VSTis and are therefore in a sort of superior position of power (like many other companies) to spread their political message. But the customer as well has some power with his choices of consumption (there are also other good VSTi developing companies) or with nonconsumption (strategy of self-sufficiency and austerity). I mean, I'm quite happy with spending my money mostly on good organic food from an organic cooperative (gives me vital energy, health and joy by really affordable, raw organic food), my housing organisation (nice and affordable flat with green environment with an old village centre of my hometown, far away from the busy downtown area) or - if neccessary - on clothes, my bike, some stuff for my flat and home technology, my computer and DAW environment and that's probably it. So, from my side there's hardly any bigger cashflow towards harmful profit-over-life companies, private banks, insurance companies or nasty organisations like that. What the government does with the taxes (weapon deliveries towards Ukraine) might be still a different thing - but even there, they can't squeeze too much out of me 'cause I only work 4 days (30 hours) a week for a construction and landscaping company. So, I can enjoy lots of free fresh air, long weekends, more free time in exchange for (just a little bit) less money, much less taxes - and maybe also less weapons of mass destruction. At least for things like these, I kinda love my rather uncomplicated new life. My homestudio (just from the hardware technology) is also pretty complete - besides my desired Yamaha Pacifia 212 electric guitar (I really want to learn to play at least one string instrument - and an electric guitar is a pretty cool and versatile one), I don't need more gear 'n' hardware stuff because I'm fully satisfied with it. And since I've spent over 5000 bucks on my DAW environment in the last 10 years (about the half of the money for DAW-based hardware - about the other half for software), i also have a really decent amount of good quality VSTis and synths for various music genres, VST plugins and sound designing software tools. I'm still looking for VSTis from time to time, but these tend to be unprocessed high quality VST instruments or quite rare and exotic ones that I don't have in my libraries yet, for example some really well sampled Caribbean steel drums like the promising Steel Drum VSTi from 8Dio, a good Handpan VSTi like the one from Wolfgang Ohmer or the excellent stuff from Eduardo Tarilonte like Forest Kingdom 3 and NADA that might be very useful for my own composition "Paradise" in the future. But for now, I'm pretty happy with the VSTi libraries I have so far. For a longer moment, I really thought I might need a better drum library. And now I'm not even sure if the NI VSTi library or other drum libraries are really much better than my Independence VSTi library, which also contains a lot of raw and unprocessed VSTis. And I've never been a big fan of being forced into the Kontakt concept, where you have to pay for Kontakt Instruments (which is perfectly fine, of course), the Kontakt Sampler (for using instruments that don't work with the free Kontakt Player), and the latest upgrades for Kontakt (for using the latest VSTi content that only works with the latest version of Kontakt). I think I really have to work much more with the content I already have (saves a lot of money and gives wings to creativity and compositional skills). ... Finally, perhaps something that might help you with your Scarbee MM Bass, which is obviously a great sounding bass VSTi with lots of useful features and 13 keyswitch articulations. I have a similar set of electric bass VSTis in my Independence Pro Premium Suite (Electric J-Bass, M-Bass, P-Bass, S-Bass and different alternative electric bass combi presets resembling specific music genres - like "American Ballad 3 combi", "Berlin Ghost combi KS A-1", "Reggae 1 combi KS A-1", "German Punk combi KS A-1" or "Rock Aggressive combi KS A-1") with some really good electric bass sounds and electric bass presets, which can have just a few up to 14 keyswitch articulations. The Independence Pro Premium Suite also has a huge set of high-quality VST plugins you can not only use within the Independence sampler but also with other instruments in your DAW. It's twice the price of the Scarbee MM Bass - but it also contains an acoustic bass in addition to the electric bass. Maybe just listen to the two audio demonstrations at "Acoustic & Electric Basses" on the internet page: https://www.magix.com/de/musik-bearbeiten/independence/libraries/ If you're interested I can also show you some pictures of the interface, the presets and stuff like that. If you should insist to buy the whole Independence Pro Premium Suite library for the 300 bucks, I would rather recommend to get the whole DAW Samplitude Pro X7 Suite for the same price (they got a special offer until the January 14): https://www.magix.com/int/music/samplitude/suite/ In the Pro X Suite version, the full version of the whole Independence library is always included. But not only that - in addition to that you get around 47 well-sampled VSTis called "Vita Solo Instruments" with some common and some really exotic instruments and some really nice electronic synths (you can also listen to some audio demos of the specific VSTis and some electronic synths here): https://www.magix.com/int/music/samplitude/pro-x/functions/instruments/#c1588614 Not enough... The Suite version also contains the full version an awesome, realistic and pretty complex electric guitar and bass amp plugin called "Vandal" (with which you can shape the sound of your electric guitars and bass into kinda any direction of your imagination), lots of professional metering functions (like loudness metering, vectorscope, many other sound analyzing devices or even a spectral editing function) and a huge set of additional VST plugins, of course. If you want to look up the whole content, check out this link: https://www.magix.com/int/music/samplitude/pro-x/version-comparison/#c1574623 Samplitude was (and still is) also developed in Germany, a part of the company is also active in Berlin - but they don't seem to care too much about politics (unlike NI). Maybe it also has to do with the roots of the company behind Samplitude, which was created in times of GDR (when East Germany was under the guidance of the Soviet Union) at the SEK'D (Studio für elektronische Klangerzeugung Dresden) in connection with the technical university of my hometown.

The 50 Shades Of The Beyerdynamic DT 880 (Edition/Pro) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yo, guys - after finding a former studio headphones topic which I started some years ago, I wanted to share some of my newest information and experiences I got over the years in my next comments. I also updated the main text for this topic. My favourite studio headphones for mixing are still the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro and I guess this won't change in the next years because they gave me the best mixing results as well as the most balanced, the most analytical and most detailed listening experience of music and movies. But I want to try out some more headphones within the next years, for example the closed Japanese studio headphones Audio-Technica ATH-M50X. My first useful studio headphones were the Sony MDR-7506 studio headphones, which are really good (except for the somewhat overemphasized 10000 Hz range, which can make the sound a bit harsh). They have a high resolution sound as well as a more or less acceptable stereo reproduction and they are not too uncomfortable to wear (wouldn't recommend them for those people with bigger ears). The only problem might be that the frequency response drops off dramatically in the range above 15000 Hz - but I don't think that will be critical to the listening experience and accurate mixing. Some time later, I got the semi-open Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro Black Edition (be sure to use the silver earcups instead of the black ones - it makes a huge difference, for example, in terms of a smoother frequency response) and a high-end headphone amplifier, the Lake People G109-P (to drive the DT-880 Pro much better and get the most out of these high-impedance studio headphones). With my first audio interface, the Steinberg UR22 (just had a USB-2.0 power suply), the DT 880 Pro sounded already really good but it felt that there was something like a little curtain over the bass and mid frequencies where the lower frequencies seemed to be presented a little bit more muddy and with less definition than the DT 880 Pro had to offer. As soon as I got an advanced version of my audio interface with a separate power supply, the Steinberg UR44, the phenomenon with the cloudy bass and mid presentation was finally history. Since the built-in technology of transducers in the UR22 and UR44 is considered to be equivalent, I think it really has to do with the much better power supply of the UR44. So, in connection with the UR44 the bass and mid frequencies of the DT 880 Pro sounded much cleaner, more balanced and they had a higher definition in my opinion. But the best results of the DT 880 Pro I've experienced in connection with an high-end headphone amp (Lake People G109-P in my case). With this combination I got the cleanest sound, best audio definition (audio resolution), the mids and even the trebles seemed to be cleaner and more detailed. The bass also had the best definition and it seemed that it got extended much more into the deeper bass frequency range. So, you really seem to need a good headphone amp or at least an high-end audio interface with some really good headphone outputs to unleash the full potential of the Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro high-impedance studio headphones. The Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro is still my absolute favorite when it comes to important points like: - a natural, faithful and very analytical sound - a very even frequency response - a wide frequency range (5-35000 Hz) - really accurate stereo and depth imaging (when I watch movies with these headphones, I feel like I'm in a small modern Dolby Surround cinema and get sucked right into the action) - a really pleasant wearing comfort And - what's really important with these studio headphones - they gave me the best mixing results when listening to my mixes on other monitoring devices like other studio monitors, stereos, car stereos, MP3 players, etc.afterwards. Nabeel Ansari mentioned some "incredibly shrill spikes in the treble range" at the DT 880 - not sure if the normal DT 880 are much more different in the sound and frequency response that the DT 880 Pro. But I have never experienced some harsh trebles at the DT 880 Pro. The trebles of the Sony MDR-7506 are a little bit harsh and the trebles of the DT 990 Pro are really annoyingly harsh - but the DT 880 Pro have a really relaxed sound (can listen to music with these headphones for many hours without getting bothered). Maybe there are really some bigger sound differences between the standard edition and pro version or between the 32-ohms model, the 250-ohms model and the 600-ohms models of the DT 880. ... I've just checked some sources for the frequency responses of the different DT 880 (Edition/Pro) versions. And here's what I got: DT 880 Edition - 32 Ohms --------------------------------- (I guess these are the harsh peaks, Nabeel Ansari experienced - maybe he got the 32-ohms model of the DT 880 Edition.) DT 880 Edition - 250 Ohms ---------------------------------- DT 880 Edition - 600 Ohms ---------------------------------- DT 880 Pro - 250 Ohms ------------------------------ I also got different frequency response measurement for the DT 880 Pro from a another source (not sure which one is the more accurate measurement): DT 880 Pro Black Edition - 250 Ohms ----------------------------------------------- (The DT 880 Pro Black Edition is considered to be technologically identical to the silver DT 880 Pro - just the dark earcups seem to make these huge differences at the frequency responses. I'll get more into detail on this topic in a further comment. But for now, it should be more than enough new information about the different DT 880 (Edition/Pro) models.)

Thanks for the detailed response, dude. )) Besides, I've listened to your composition "Temple of the Dragon" to understand your musical way a bit better - really impressive stuff. But coming back to my remix. 1) What do you mean with "... in my opinion you could give your track more substance by filling in the complete sonic space. At the moment it feels like it's just panning." Do you think it's lacking a greater impression of depth? That could be because I wanted to mix this ska-punk-like track rather dry, except for the little intro, because I flooded most of my previous mixes with reverb (I couldn't hear and adjust the right amount of reverb due to my previous equipment and my lack of understanding how to mix better and more precisely). ... 2) I'm not sure which brass that could be more in the front you mean. There's a trumpet (more on the left side, starting at 0:43 the first time) and a sax (more on the right side, kicking in at around 0:47 the first time) directly at the front. And there are trombones playing a bit behind the front and slightly left from the center (starting at 0:33, for example). ... 3) The dynamics of the brass element were kinda tricky in this track because just 1 dB more could make especially the trumpet too loud and dominant for my taste - especially in the heavier guitar parts (where the brass should not dominate the electric guitars too much). My intention was to let the brass elements (especially the trumpet) shine more in the less rockin' and more relaxed parts - for example at 0:53. But even there - just one single dB more for the trumpet at this part could make the trumpet unpleasantly loud. So, I decided to handle the brass elements just with the MIDI velocity dynamics and different articulations to give 'em a little bit more realism and dynamics without letting them dominate the track too much nor letting them drown in the mix - they shall have their shining parts in the track just like the electric guitars shall have theirs. ... 4) Hm, you think the electric bass deserves more low end in this track? I just had this deeper electric bass setting before - but then I decided to let the kick drum have most of the low end frequency range for a cleaner mix and use a small low-cut filter on the bass instead to turn the electric bass a bit more into one of those funky radio-rock electric bass presets. I really had the intention to cut even more of the low end of the electric bass and rather raise the volume of the bass afterwards - it sounded really nice at some parts but I guess I didn't want to exaggerate the stuff too much and push my luck in the end - because at mixing my ears can tell me different sounds to the same story of composition each day. Some of the bigger questions for me are often "Will I still like it the next day?" and "Does it significantly improves the previous version?". If there's a definitive yes to both questions, I consider to implement the changes. If there's just one single no, I discard the changes in most cases and keep the old setting, which I have liked for a longer time.

Maybe it's a little bit late for a helpful reply... But after searching for a similar topic and reading your comment, I thought of something that would really fit your needs - as I was in a similar situation years ago. Ever heard of the Yamaha MSP studio monitor series? They are the flagship of the Yamaha company as far as studio monitors go, and arguably some of the world's best studio monitors you can get right now. The MSP series is even better (better audio resolution and flatter frequency response) and also a bit more expensive than the Yamaha HS series - here are a few official links from Yamaha to compare the two series: https://de.yamaha.com/de/products/contents/proaudio/musicianspa/products_studio_monitor.html https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/proaudio/speakers/msp_studio_series/index.html The MSP studio monitors have been hard to get in stores for a few years now (especially the MSP 5 and MSP 7 - more recently the MSP 3) - this may have to do with the MSP series designer retiring (but it appears they are opening a new line of the MSP series, starting with the Yamaha MSP 3A). The MSP 7 and MSP 5 got a younger brother, the MSP 3, a few years ago (followed by a newer model, the MSP 3A) that would be great for your needs (I own the MSP 3): https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/proaudio/speakers/msp3/index.html https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/proaudio/speakers/msp3a/index.html I use the MSP 3 (65 - 22000 Hz) in connection with a small Japanese subwoofer, the Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 (enhances the frequency range in the lower bass section down to 40 Hz and is only turned up just a little with the lowest crossover setting - so, it's really just a very subtl deep bass support for the MSP 3 to have a good impression of a kick drum or the bass right between your feet). I've placed them on the desk in my living room, which is about 6 meters (length) * 4 meters (width) * 2,50 meters (height) in size. I don't use any kind of professional acoustic treatment in this room because I really like the cozy, bright and sunlit Mediterranean atmosphere of my living room. There is only more or less unintentional acoustic treatment like wallpaper on the walls and the ceiling, two thick carpets filling almost the whole floor, a bigger couch and a wall unit on the sides, a standing model of a punching bag in the back corner and some smaller wooden furniture - that's all. And because I got problems with bigger (and even slightly bass-boosted) 5-inch studio monitors like the Adam T5V flooding my room with nasty bass reflections and making it impossible for me to mix my tracks accurately or even enjoy listening to music, I decided to look for a smaller version of studio monitors. After this, I got the Presonus Eris E3.5 as kinda useful entry-level reference studio monitor speakers (where I really enjoyed listening to music on a higher quality level without annoying room reflections - though, for accurate mixing they are not optimal because they sound a bit overpolished, so the mixings often sound too good too quickly before they are actually finished). A few years later, after already owning a professional studio headphone solution, I also wanted to get professional studio monitors in a similar size like the Presonus Eris E3.5. And after researching for a long time and getting a nice tip from an employee of a music store, I got more and more into the Yamaha MSP series, especially the smaller MSP 3 model. After ordering a few MSP 3s for a friend, I didn't like them at first because my mixes with them sounded kind of fuzzy and less clean. But the amazing audio resolution of these studio monitors was some of the best (along with the Neumann studio monitors) I've ever experienced with any type of speaker. Right after borrowing those studio monitors from that friend and doing a first mix on them, I was impressed how much better the track sounded later on all the studio monitors in the music store and all the other sound systems - even though the MSP 3 still showed me some weaknesses of that mix, the track sounded really fantastic and clean on the other studio monitors compared to my earlier mixes. And then I kinda fell in love with the MSP 3 and bought them for myself a few years ago. Since then, I've never wanted other studio monitors. ... And the good thing is - the MSP 3 (as well as the newer model MSP 3A) are pretty close to your budget. A pair of them costs around 400 to 500 bucks. And of course, with the MSP 3 or MSP 3A, you don't have to worry too much about the acoustic treatment of your room. The design of these speakers is really nice, and the fairly low wattage of about 20 to 30 W per speaker makes them a really energy-efficient and sustainable professional studio and sound engineering tool these days. If you can't find a dealer near you for the still available Yamaha MSP 3A, maybe try the Thomann online store for professional audio equipment: https://www.thomann.de/gb/yamaha_msp3_a.htm If you want to get an idea of the sound and audio resolution of the Yamaha MSP series, put on some professional studio headphones and check out the links below (there are also some frequency response measurements of the MSP studio monitors in some videos): MSP 3 -------- MSP 3 vs MSP 3A ----------------------- MSP 5 -------- MSP 7 -------- MSP 7 vs Tannoy Reveal Active MK1 vs Presonus Eris E8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I hope I could help you or someone else with my information and experience about studio monitors. ))

Yeah, I've seen some pretty funny parodies of the FF7 universe too. Another parodic side story just popped into my head. It goes like this: ------------------- After several months of dooming and conquering the world, Sephiroth wanted to visit his hometown with his supposed mother Jenova to take a nice picture for the family album with the help of a professional photographer. When he posed for the photo with his - somehow different looking - "mom", a small urban legend was created by the incredulous looking people around him. The legend tells of an apple that fell quite far from the tree, rolled down a long hill and splashed into a raging river, where the apple was swept along through several countries and realms, but then one day was eaten by a fluffy horse on the riverbank and pooped out several thousand miles away on a haunted graveyard. Sephiroth - still brainwashed by the Shinra corporation's secret files and believing that Jenova is his biological mother - tries to defend his mother to the crowd, telling them: "What would your mothers look like if they were several thousand years old? It's... It's just my special shampoo combination that keeps me young, fresh and beautiful - one whole bottle per shower should already be enough." (based on a really serious Crisis Core background story >>> https://www.thegamer.com/crisis-core-reunion-sephiroth-hair-care-routine/ ) The crowd: "Ahhhh - we want that shampoo too." ... And so, the evil Sephiroth turned into a capitalistic salesman and started a huge business with his still-favorite mother Jenova. His goal was to build even a more powerful and influential megacorporation than the Shinra company - to destroy Shinra economically by returning natural beauty to the mako-infested people.... ... and dominate the world with love, joy and natural beauty to fully counter Shinra's policy. )) (just some thoughts that came into my mind during the night time when eating one of my famous seven-course meals and preparing for the kinda annoying snow-plowing service)

Unfortunately, the VSTi developer Native Instruments seems to follow a political-economical way of pressure and double standards against the people of the Russian Federation and Belarus because of the war with the government of the Ukraine - a way which I don't want to support as long as they continue with that: I'm not even really sure if the creation of music should be polticized and economized that much at all. Music should rather come from the minds, hearts and souls of people, instead of being just a tool within an unjust political and economic morality. I mean... Did Native Instruments make such an outcry back then, when the US government, based on private companies, waged a huge war against many Arab nations, in which many civilians - including women and children - were shot and bombed to pieces? And did they equally exclude the entire population of the USA from their client list to put (a hypothetical) pressure on the US government back then? So, what do the developers of Native Instruments even think they will achieve with their customer poltics against (mostly) the common people of the Russian Federation and Belarus. I guess their leaders won't have the big urge and time to compose soundtracks in these days of war between their countries and the continuously expanding NATO getting closer and closer to their borders - so, they might not bother too much with some joyful hours of DAW pleasure at the moment. And the common people of these countries are not likely to write a nice letter like this to their leaders: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Dear leaders of our nation, I know we get more and more surrounded by US and NATO bases. But as a musician I want to beg you. Please give up your ambitions and let the western forces take over our country until everything gets so peaceful, joyful and just like in the western coun... (Wait - that's not the truth. After the fall of the Soviet Union and with growing influence of the western political and economical forces the common people of our country suffered from severe poverty, corruption, political and economical crimes. And even lots of the workers and the common people of the USA today can barely afford housing in this life-hostile swimming pool full of real estate sharks - just for food and clothing they might need to get a second job during the night time to avoid hunger or just living in a mere tent. I'm not sure if they even have the money, time or even the inclination for VSTis and composing music in this situation. And if they lauch a big wave of fascism like in the Ukraine and many other countries controlled by the western forces, just to destroy and reshape the society with fear and terror, even the ordinary life will be a completely different game than just working all day and night for room and board.)" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ... So, I won't support VSTi developers like Native Instruments and buy their (indeed really good) VSTi products as long as they continue excluding the common people from the Russian Federation, Belarus and other countries from their customer list. If they were doing a big action against the global arms industry under a slogan like "More common metal 'n' mithril for brass, amps and the biggest fucking drums instead of loveless bombs, ammo and guns", it might be a totally different one. But the way it's being handled right now, I'll be on the lookout for other VSTi horizons. I'm pretty sure there are also some really sophisticated VSTis from Japanese developers (like Yamaha/Steinberg or Roland) that I've completely overlooked in my musical journey so far, and that may also still be some of the best the world has to offer, as I've come to expect from Japanese developments. ... But on the other hand, I think I'll stick with my 70 GB large Independence Pro Premium suite full of well-sampled VSTis that won't even clutter up my hard drive space with unnecessary loops and pre-made stuff I don't want to use for compositions and remixes either. Since the drum VSTis in this library are really excellent stuff, I kinda feel the urge to create a new and very realistic VSTi-based solo drum composition to show what I can do with this stuff. Yeah, guess it will probably be my next music project. Look forward to my upcoming drum solo track "Drum Grooves Lvl. 3", which will be created entirely with my Independence Pro Premium Suite and maybe some other good drum VSTis from my good ol' DAW Samplitude Pro X4 Suite from MAGIX. )) This could also be a nice step to take my drum programming skills to the next level.

Crisis Core is the spin-off of the Final Fantasy 7 compilation which is the closest one to the original Final Fantasy 7. If you like the original Final Fantasy 7, you will love Crisis Core because: - of an excellent storytelling. - you will get a lot more background information about some important characters and organisations like Zack Fair, Aerith, Cloud, Tifa, the Turks, the Shinra company, the 1st class soldiers Angeal Hewley (Zack's mentor), Genesis Rhapsodos (a kind of poetic guy who, driven by the famous epic "Loveless", also seeks to be a great hero in the world - knowing also the story of Dirge of Cerberus, I'm sure he will play a bigger role in the future of Final Fantasy 7) and Sephiroth (especially about his former strong friendship with Angeal and Genesis and his incisive - maybe kinda accidental - shift from a rather mindful and caring man into a cruel monster seeking vengeance and leaving a trail of destruction and death). - lots of optional side quests and Soldier missions, which may keep you busy for around hundred hours aside from the main story and which become really hard challenges as you progress. - because of really beautiful soundtrack compositions - new ones as well as well-done arrangements of beloved original Final Fantasy 7 soundtracks (just the awesome soundtracks are worth playing the game!). Let me show you a new track within the game which describes the atmosphere of Crisis Core really well: ... and an old track you might know because it has been beaten into your head when you played the original Final Fantasy 7: Not convinced yet? No problem - I'm staying tough like a heroic golden retriever in full persistent mode. ... In this game here are also famous scenes and places many of you might already experienced in the original game - but with much more background information and details. I want to show you a famous scene in Crisis Core (PSP version), which also appears in the original Final Fantasy 7 (so... no big spoilers), but which also contains some new information about the deeper backgrounds in the FF7 universe... If you don't want to be inundated with information beyond the original Final Fantasy 7, just stop the video at exactly 4:50. And there's lot more interesting stuff going on in the story of Crisis Core. ))

There are already a few Let's Play videos of the new Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion out there. Since I know the story and don't want to spoiler too much of the story of Crisis Core, here is a nice video that gives some impressions of the first 20 minutes of the Crisis Core remaster: Here are some of my personal first thoughts on the PS5 remaster compared to the PSP original of Crisis Core: 1) I'm not entirely sure I'll like the new voices (at least they're not extremely different) and the slightly more adult, realistic character animations in the PS5 remaster as much as the damn well fitting and very passionate voicesl and the more anime-like character animations from the PSP original. Perhaps these points are just a matter of getting used to. 2) But really outstanding improvements in the remaster can be found especially in the much higher graphics resolution with much more detail, the visual special effects, the really powerful sound effects, the newly arranged soundtracks, the motion animations and the even more dynamic and rousing combat action - which doesn't even have to hide from a Final Fantasy 7 remake. 3) As it seems, they have adopted the FMV cutscenes of the PSP original almost 1:1 (just added the new voices and probably a higher graphics resolution) - which might have been a very good choice. 4) Another very nice feature is the public dubbing of all conversations and all speaking characters in the game - whereas in the PSP original the side dialogs were only presented in text form. I'm really curious if there will be some interesting extras for players of the PSP original in the coming PS5 remaster - like small story expansions (maybe with segues to the FF7 remake), new SOLDAT side missions, more (of the already extremely many) Materia fusion options, DMW-based Limit Breaks, Summons, etc. ... But I'm sure we'll soon find out.

It has definititely to do with the platform - but I'm not sure if that's the only problem why the hi-hats and cymbals, which should originally rather sound like "tss", sound more like "shhh" with less defintion and less sharpness (as if a PS5 game would remastered for the NES or so) in the Soundcloud stream. You can perceive to this phenomenon very well at 0:53 in this track if you compare the Soundcloud upload with the Youtube or Niconico upload. But it could also have to do with the samples, because in tracks by other composers and remixers who use different drum samples, this problem doesn't seem to occur (at least not in such a bad way). ... And apart from a rather unimpressive reverb effect with a recording studio preset, there are no other big effect plug-ins on the drum tracks - no delay, no bitcrusher (although it sounds a bit like it), no compressors/limiter and a small EQ reduction is only present on the bass drum in the frequency band around 350 Hz. There don't seem to be any clipping issues throughout the frequency band (measured from about 40 Hz to 20000 Hz - the highest signal peak seems to be in the bass section at about -5dB). The highest master track peaks (around -5dB) and the highest peaks of the individual tracks (around -10dB due to my individual mixing method, where I set the volume of the loudest/strongest instrument to a level where the peaks don't really go above -10dB, and all other instruments/synths are below that) show similar results. Perhaps the most accurate measurement of my metering devices shows a "Max. True Peak in dBTP" value of -4.3 dB. So, I think the clipping factor can be ruled out. ... What was interesting, however, was uploading the same remix composition at different audio bitrates to Soundcloud and taking a Snipping Tool screenshot of the slightly different visual displays of these versions (I'm not entirely sure what the displays actually show - but I suspect they are alternative representations of the waveform measurement). Although the WAV upload (as well as my regular 320 kbit/s upload) obviously sounded better than the 192 kbit/s and 128 kbit/s uploads on the 128 kbit/s Soundcloud stream, it seems that Soundcloud limits the dynamics somewhat on uploads at higher audio bitrates (according to the waveform displays in the screenshot image below): Maybe you can't rely on these waveform displays because they are not accurate enough. But who knows - it could also be that the uploaded audio files are processed with compressors or peak limiters on Soundcloud. In case the problem is also caused by the quality of the drum samples, I will try to use higher quality drum samples and upload a single drum track in the future. What do you guys think of Native Instruments' Abbey Road Drum Collection - one of the best drum VSTi stuff out there? (quick reply, please - because if I remember correctly, the Black Friday special ends around December 14 this year).

This is the newest version of my Goldfinger remix "Safe 'N' Sane Skater Heaven Superman". Besides a few new composition elements, the new version of this remix comes up with a brand-new mixing concept, which I'll explain in the text below the links. But first, here are the links for the new remix version 1.1: >>> >>> >>> https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm41413951 ------------------------------------------------------------- After taking some time off from making new music in order to finalize my concept of a new mixing style and get used to my new Yamaha MSP 3 professional studio monitors (which are perhaps some of the most accurate and truthful studio monitors in the world, and definitely professional tools for mixing and sound engineering), I am now back with the latest version of my remix for the "Superman" soundtrack, originally composed by the punk rock and ska punk band Goldfinger, to demonstrate the progress of my new mixing concept. The big goal of my new mixing concept is the production of very clean and dynamic soundtracks without the use of compressors and limiters for the best possible sound quality within a soundtrack which feels much more alive, moving and natural. In my opinion, the mixings of modern soundtracks should be similar like the really good and highly dynamic mixings of the early 80s and the decades before, long time before the loudness war of the modern music industry kicked in and provoked a kinda nasty and dull trend of producing louder and louder records (just to get noticed like an intrusive but mindless commercial) to the disadvantage of dynamics, the natural behaviour of transients, sound quality and the pleasure of the listening experience. In the future, I want to prove that this kind of dynamic mixing concept works with all kinds of music genres, even electronic music and metal. With the EBU R 128 loudness standards, developed by truly farsighted audio engineers to counteract the loudness war phenomenon, I got a solid foundation for my ambition to create clean and dynamic soundtracks without using signal-degrading compressors or limiters. Even without using compressors and limiters, I don't have to worry about the signal peaks in the master track, as they barely scratch the -5 dB mark. Soundtrack productions mastered at EBU R 128 loudness standards may be produced just half as loud (much like the soundtracks of the early 80s) as most modern soundtracks (still, remember: "The listener owns the volume knob."). But they have the great potential to sound much better than their compressed versions, which often contain more elements of bloody sound surgery than sophisticated sound design. And... You won't have these nasty loudness jumps between different tracks, different music genres oder different audio programs in general if you master your tracks at EBU R 128 standards. ... In combination with: - some professional and really neutral tuned monitoring equipment like the Yamaha MSP 3 studio monitor speakers (gently supported by a small Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 subwoofer) and the good ol' Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro studio headphones (driven by a Lake People G109-P high-end headphone amp connected to my Steinberg UR 44 audio interface) - more or less bold but fitting EQ editing decisions - my deep relaxation in leaving out unnecessary effects and effect chains which you will barely hear on less dominant tracks in the mix (but which might clutter up and cloud your mix kinda fast) - and with the help of a really useful 2-channel surround editing feature (which allows me to visually place the instruments and audio signals any old in the stereo and surround field for even better separation of frequencies, and to create a more accurate imagination of depth in my mixes - finally, all the audio information is converted into a stereo signal which should also be fully compatible with surround speakers), ... ... my mixing concept seems to pay off more and more. Feel free to compare this new mixing with the first version of my remix, which you can still find here (I guess I'll keep the old version for a few months) - that way you might be able to hear some of the things I'm talking about: https://soundcloud.com/master-mi/goldfinger-feat-thps-safe-n-sane-skater-heaven-superman-master-mi-remix ... The original track, on which I based this remix, became quite famous with the Playstation game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (also called "Tony Hawk's Skateboarding" in some countries). And since I really digged this song when I played the game as a teenager, I decided to use my new mixing skills and my new professional studio tools to create a kinda worthy remix of this track. So, I put a lot of time, effort, passion and inner fire into the new composition of this remix, and I really had a lot of fun creating it with my own musical style, which in this case consists of a nice alternation of ambient soundscapes, heavy rock parts and some casual jazzy lines. … I'm not fully sure what kind of compositions or remixes I will do next. But no matter what the future holds - let's mosey. )) … If you are a socially just skater, always make sure to skate 'n' destroy rather lavish private property than communal property.

There are a few news for the coming Crisis Core Version for PS5 and PS4. No matter how much more than just a remaster the game will be in the end, the new arrangements made by the original composer Takeharu Ishimoto already kinda got me straight into stellar listening mode (though, I hope they'll leave the players the option to choose between the original soundtracks from Crisis Core for PSP and the new arrangements in the option menu within the game). If they don't mess up the voices and animations of the characters (which would deeply affect the game's atmosphere) and bring in some further extras, it might become a serious title once again. ... For all Final Fantasy 7 fans who might have missed out Crisis Core on the PSP: Definitely play this game! It has a really interesting and deeply touching story with some funny, but also lots of serious, sad, heroic, tragic and magic moments - similar like in Final Fantasy 7 for the first Playstation console.

Heya, musical maestros. I'm looking for the sophisticated stuff in the title. At the moment, I'm still working with the drum samples of my Independence Pro Premium Suite - which are really good in my opinion. But I guess, they are just around 1 GB in total - so, either they are highly compressed in size or they just lack some crucial audio information of realistic acoustic drums played by a rock-solid drummer (I think so, mainly because of a problem that occurs after I upload my tracks to Soundcloud, which is mentioned a few lines below). Or what 's your opinion if you check the sample preview of the "Acoustic & Electronic Drums" of this library (just click on the speaker symbol)? https://www.magix.com/de/musik-bearbeiten/independence/libraries/ In this video there's also a small MIDI passage with some of these acoustic drum samples (at 3:27): So, they don't sound really bad in the music project or in audio files at or above an audio bitrate of 192 kbit/s. But whenever I upload a remix on Soundcloud (just happens at this platform) these drum samples tend to degrade (especially the cymbals and hi-hats) - as you might hear in the newest version of my Goldfinger remix I uploaded some days ago: If you check the same upload at Youtube (better quality) and Niconico (best quality), this problem won't occur: https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm41413951 In the first place, I thought it must have to do just with the Soundcloud platform. But if you check some other drum recordings and drum sample demonstrations on Soundcloud, you won't perceive such problems with the cymbals and hi-hats: So, the problem must have must to do with the sample quality as well. Maybe it's also the audio bitrate of the upload - but if I upload a track on Soundcloud usually as MP3 file with an audio bitrate of 320 kbit/s (WAV file doesn't make a perceivable difference for the stream since the audio bitrates of streams at Soundcloud are just around 128 kbit/s - and with 320 kbit/s it has at least a proper size for possible downloads I might activate sooner or later when I'm fully satisfied with my tracks) it still sounds worse than my video version I upload at Youtube and Niconico (there, I always upload the WAV in my Movie Maker program, but the highest audio bitrate I can set for the export of the movie file as WMV is an audio bitrate of 192 kbit/s - and even then, it sounds much better than the upload on Soundcloud with 320 kbit/s). ... Since mostly the drums are affected by this issue, I might solve this problem with some better drum samples... maybe. An online friend tried to convince me to get some stuff from Toontrack like Superior Drummer 3 - but with around 300 GB in size (obviously contains lots of loops, grooves and repeating stuff I don't use - I just want the raw samples for composing via MIDI editor), I don't want to clutter my 2TB big hard disk drive just for better drums. I guess, the many possibilities of settings in Superior Drummer 3 are far too complex for me and my needs. And I'm not sure. The bass and snare drums or the toms sound really good - but the cymbals and hi-hats don't sound too convincing for my ears (at least not for this big library size): ... So, I'm really looking for a not tooooooo complex drum VSTi software - but still one with excellent raw, unprocessed (no compressors, limiters or other effects - which you can't deactivate - used on the presets) high quality acoustic drum samples with lots of different drum units as well as many articulations, velocity layers, round robins, drum variations and possibilities to play. Maybe you know some good drum VSTis which may satisfy my needs. ... Some days ago, I also got a newsletter of different Black Friday special offers with various VSTis from different developers. And from there, I also got to a drum collection of the Abbey Road series from Native Instruments. Since I'm quite a big fan of the high-quality VSTi stuff from Eduardo Tarilonte and from the developers of Native Instruments, I got dragged into the collection much deeper, checked some audio demos and videos of the virtual interface, the content and the settings - and I kinda fell a bit in love with the stuff: - 6 different drum kits from important times of drum-based music since the 30s to the modern times (quite useful for compositions of different music genres as well) - obviously really raw, unprocessed and natural sound (or what's your opinion about this?) - over 200.000 professionally recorded high-quality samples - useful settings and an overseeable interface that isn't bloated with too many things - different, interchangeable drum units - library size of around 43 GB compressed and around 105 GB uncompressed data content (somebody knows if there 's an option to install the uncompressed data content as well?) might be totally okay (still, I hope you can leave out all the unnecessary grooves, loops and MIDI patterns for installation - because you can always perform much better and go more into detail with the real single samples in a way you really need it for your composition via MIDI editor) - reduced price from almost 600 bucks to around 100 bucks (which is quite an offer for an ordinary worker) And for the sound... If you check out only the first raw preset in this video (at 0:14), you might be also blown away of how greatly deep-sampled and velocity-sensitive these libaries are: Even the hi-hats and cymbals of these libraries sound really good and not so stiff, lifeless and indifferent like in Superior Drummer 3, for example. There also seems to be a feature of choking the cymbals like this video shows (after 4:30): I think I've nearly made my decision of going for the Abbey Road Drummer Collection. ... But first I wanted to hear your opions as highly critical composers, remixers and listeners. Maybe there's also a professional drummer around who could give some additional tips on this topic?

@Harlem Heat360: Wouldn't bother too much with premade phrases and rather get a VSTi with a wide variety of key switch articulations with which you can create phrases from scratch on your own - that's where the real magic happens. That's why I think that this new tremolo bar feature of Electric Mint is kinda sick. I kinda tried to emulate some whammy bar techniques via pitch wheel and my electric guitar VSTis of my Independence Pro Premium Suite before - but I never got these really authentic results. Maybe I'm just too dumb to use it properly in the best possible way. Does anyone know around how many semitones you can bend a single electric guitar note up and down with the whammy bar of a real electric guitar? (My feeling says, it could be around one full octave downwards and around one full octave upwards - but I'm not really sure about this.) ... @Xaleph Do you have a soundtrack or remix in which you use one of your guitar VSTis (or even a simple synth) with that guitar rig software amp and form the whole stuff into some realistic guitar sounds? I use a similar combination of clean electric guitar VSTis + Vandal: Virtual bass and guitar amplifier (my own guitar amp plugin) with which you can tweak the guitar sounds into nearly all kinds of directions and other electric guitar sounds. (I also tried it in combination with an electric piano and some synths a few times and it also works really well - you just have to send the VSTis and synths completely dry into the amp and use the effects within or after the chain of the amp to avoid nasty distortion effects.) If you use this highly complex software amp with a real electric guitar, it might sound like this (made by somebody else): If I use the Vandal software amp in combination with my clean electric guitar VSTis from my Independence Pro Premium Suite, it might sound like in the newest version of my THPS Goldfinger remix: I would be very interested to know what a professional electric guitarist might think of it.

Yo, dudes 'n' dudines... A new masterpiece of an amazing electric guitar VSTi from Native Instruments has finally reached the surface of this planet. It's called "Electric Mint" and it is another serious part of the Session Guitarist series. What makes electric Mint kinda special and what I really like about this one, are the really well-sampled high quality features like: 1) the amazing raw sound and tonal configuration of this electric guitar VSTi 2) the comprehensive and separately controllable wah-wah effect with which you can compose some highly realistic jazz-like lines with some nice 70s vibes (just reminds me of some of the videogame soundtracks of the Driver series) 3) the awesome emulation of a tremolo bar feature you can control via the vibrato function and the mod wheel of your MIDI keyboard (I kinda wished for such a cool and pretty realistic feature for electric guitar VSTis) For just around 100 bucks, it seems to be a really low price for such a VSTi masterpiece which needs around 15 GB of hard disk space. Maybe an option would be nice where you could install just the melody instrument without the many patterns/loops (which I won't use for compositions and which you could also compose note by note in the melody mode) to save some hard disk space for other VSTi stuff. I still don't understand why Electric Mint is cheaper than the first electric guitar VSTi installment of the Session Guitarist series called "Electric Sunburst Deluxe" - because Electric Vintage and Electric Mint seem to be much more comprehensive further developments with much more cool functions than the first one. But yeah, I won't complain. I guess I'll save up some money for Electric Mint after leaving out Electric Vintage completely (Electric Mint is much more the one I was looking in things like jazzy 70s electric guitar vibes) and I'll look forward to possibles further developments of the Session Guitarist series. Enjoy. ))

Free time, energy (both almost impossible or at least kinda rare conditions in modern working class jobs) and passion (the bliss of being able to do it fully with the heart) are indeed some of the most important factors to enhance musical skills with joy and without haste. But I'm sure you will also need ambition or a higher working spirit (the sheer willpower and perseverance to finish a soundtrack, even if you are not in the perfect mood for doing it) and maybe some lucky connections in order to become a much more successful musician. But for myself, I still want to keep it all the joyful way, although I already made some connections with a kinda famous local pop singer I coincidentally met during my job as a landscape gardener (and who asked me to be his driver and PA system dude for his live performances on the weekends after we talked about music production several times). But I'm sure that this won't be the way I want to pursue in the long term - and doing it just for money doesn't give me the kind of motivation I'm looking for. A much more promiseful arrangement of life for me was the change of my job around nearly two months ago. I never thought that I would feel less exhausted and less focussed on the job at the building sector as a landscape gardener. But the new boss seems to be a kinda social dude who offered me the wage and the 4-working-days-per-week conditions I demanded. So, Im sure that the free time and energy problem is solved so far after leaving my previous, more and more profit-minded company (where just a highly compressed six-hours working day could feel like a 10-hours working day at the building sites of my momentary company) behind me. So, I'm sure I'll come back with some new and improved old remix content in the next time after gathering quite some musical knowledge, solving some musical problems and silently bringing my new mixing method into a clear form and much closer towards perfection for over one year now.

There is some new trailer content for two next-generation game titles of the Final Fantasy 7 compilation... 1) "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth" for PS5 (obviously the coming second part of the Final Fantasy 7 remake): 2) "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion" for PS5 (a coming remaster or maybe even a little remake of the famous PSP game "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7") Enjoy. ))

Three-finger technique seems to be the most effective and most comfortable way of holding a mouse... ... whereby you don't have to spread your index and middle finger in an unhealthy-looking way and where you can get a good and fast control over your mouse - especially when browsing through the internet or working with your DAW. But don't ask me this question when I'm digging some tasty sticky fruits and pounds of fatty sashimi - then I'm suddenly able to control the mouse with just one single finger and the mere palm! ... But the two-finger technique as the main mouse controlling technique seems to be radically retro to me. They say that in ancient times people had to work with mouses which only had two buttons - a left and a right button - without a mouse wheel between them. And in this new Flintstone Age, you really had to push some force in those things like those ancient mouse buttons in order to move something. So, the only three fingers which could easily manage to control such a Neolithic computer device were the thumb, the index finger and the middle finger. But the thumb, the strongest of all fingers, was the fat short kid the two longer and less stronger fingers couldn't longer play with (at least up to those glorious reunion days when the mouse side buttons were invented). But back at the Neolithic days, the thumb became the tragic outsider in the mouse business. So, just the index finger and the middle finger remained for this strength-sapping task. I guess, that's how the two-finger technique in the ancient computer age was born. And many children of this pioneer era learned moving the mouse this way. ********************************************************************************************************** * And they all lived happily and used their legendary two-finger techique ever after. * **********************************************************************************************************