Master Mi   Members

Since quite some time, Youtube forces ads even upon content from free content creators who don't want to be involved in the YouTube Partner Program and the shady money-making via ads. An online friend told me about a plugin called uBlock Origin which can also filter out these nasty YouTube ads. https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ I immediately tried it out - and yeah, it worked without any further settings (I've been looking for solutions like these for months). There are also uBlock Origin versions for other browsers. Might be helpful for everybody who simply wants to enjoy music playlists without annoying ads for life-threatening pharmaceutical companies and other profit-over-life companies all the time - just like in the good ol' YouTube times. ))

I've checked out some of the electric guitar VSTis of Orange Tree Samples some time ago - and they're are indeed really good. Especially the Evolution Infinity rocks hard with this pretty cool feature of whammy bar techniques like squeals (not quite sure if the player performs these squeals only via pitch wheel control or if there's a separate key switch or other function for this feature). Shreddage 3 also looks like pretty solid stuff. Maybe the sample quality is still a little bit below the Electric Sunburst Deluxe/Electric Vintage and the OTS electric guitar VSTis. But the masses of functions, playing techniques and the large number of editing features of the Shreddage 3 guitars are really astonishing - definitely one of the biggest variety of features I've ever seen at electric guitar VSTis. ... I still don't like the fact that most of these electric guitar VSTis depend on Kontakt (instead of other pretty cool samle players like the Engine sample player which supports even more functions and the newest version of the player often comes around with the bought VSTis which have been created for the Engine sample player - so, you don't have to buy the latest version of your sample player if you have already bought a new VSTi which works with this sample player). And with the free Kontakt Player version, you won't have the full set of features for the VSTis. In relation to the electric guitar VSTis which were created for Kontakt, it means that you might not be able to set the pitch range for making stronger guitar squeals when using just the free Kontakt Player as a sample player, for example.

Yep, I think it's definitely one of the best and most sophisticated electric guitar VSTis out there at the moment. Besides... Some time ago, the developers of Native Instruments have also sampled another electric guitar from the late 50s with some nice vintage vibes. It's called "Electric Vintage": It has a similar interface and similar functions 'n' articulations like the Electric Sunburst Deluxe guitar.

I just wanted to give a final feedback how the things with the content ID claims turned out on Youtube. ... And it was pretty easy-going. A few days after raising an objecting against the party who wanted to monetarize my content, I got back the full rights for my video. ... As I remember, I gave the following reasons at the raising of my objecting against the content ID claims. I think I wrote that I had never used any parts of the original soundtrack in my video and that I've recomposed my remix completely with the MIDI editor of my DAW - a remix which also contains lots of new composition elements compared to the original soundtrack. ... The second thing I remember I've written was something like the intention to keep my compositions and remixes far away from any kind of monetarization (because of the really annoying adds/commercials which will come with the monetarization of videos) to support the original creator spirit of Youtube and to keep my content freely available without any restrictions for everybody on Youtube. And yep, it seemed to work. )) For everybody who has not listened to my remix and seen the video yet, you can watch it here: >>> If you want to compare my remix to the original soundtrack (just for the case you want to get an own impression if the content ID claim was justified or not), you can listen to the original soundtrack here: >>>

Here is the youngest trailer of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade: I really love the Dirge of Cerberus vibes and the Wutai rebellion background in there. The new PS5 game seems to contain also the pretty famous Fort Condor battle mini-game from the original Final Fantasy 7.

I'm sure there will be some kind of an FF7 Remake Ultimate Complete Collection for PS7 or so (would be iconic --->> FF7 Remake - 7 Blu-ray discs full of content - after 7 years of development - kept as a company-internal secret for further 7 years - finally announced for PS 7 ;D). But they seem to work on several FF7 spin-offs these days - unfortunately announced for mobile devicesin many cases. This one here called "Final Fantasy 7 The First Soldier" doesn't seem to be received that well. But in my opinion the story behind the beginning of the Shinra empire has great potential and I really want to hear this story. The gameplay reminds me a lot of "Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy 7" - which is still a pretty interesting FF7 spin-off in my opinion.

Awesome remix with a really catchy tune and a pretty good message. )) Was the submission successful? OC Remix could definitely need some more of this kind of tracks.

After taking some time off from making music to develop 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 faithful studio monitors in the world, and definitely professional tools for mixing and sound engineering), I'm back on track with a nice remix of the "Superman" soundtrack originally composed by the punk rock and ska punk band Goldfinger. 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. Since this remix is basically my first major music project mixed on my new Yamaha MSP 3 studio monitors, and I think it's one of my best tracks with a much more advanced and professional mixing style, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 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. For more information about the creation of my remix, check out the upload description of the YouTube link. And here is the content. Original soundtrack: >>> ------------------------------------------------------- Newest version of my remix: 1.1 >>> or >>> https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm41413951 >>> https://soundcloud.com/master-mi/goldfinger-feat-thps-safe-n-sane-skater-heaven-superman-master-mi-remix-1 ... Enjoy this one and don't forget give me some feedback on how you like the composition for the remix, especially my new mixing style based on mixing with my new Yamaha MSP 3 studio monitors and the use of the 2-channel surround feature in my DAW for creating a cleaner and more spatial mix with a greater imagination of depth. ))

Besides, you were kinda right with the audio copyright. I just uploaded the remix a few hours ago and there was marked a big part of this track 'cause of the copyright stuff. The remix seems to be still on Youtube and it's nothing severe as they wrote - but they want to monetarize my track (and I don't like that monetarizing feature because of the commercial interruptions). I raised an objection against that and I hope they'll recognize my own compositional work within the remix, my passionate non-profit motive and my intention to keep my remix free from commercial breaks for all listeners. I just don't get it how their content ID software can already find original melodies in a remix which is quite different enough from the original to be a different music genre. If they continue with this, it might be the death of the whole non-profit remixing scene within less than a decade or so. In the worst case scenario they might even forbid own compositions in the future if there are just 3 notes similar to a composition of another dude. And the more compositions are written in the world, the bigger the chance will be that several tracks will become more similar to each other. It's really annoying that individual musical expression and compositional variation of soundtracks might become illegal because of dull money interests. I mean, music is still art and it should be liberated instead of getting more and more criminalized and prosecuted. If only the rich people have the rights and the financial possibilities to get their licenses and make music, how poor will this world and the musical landscape be in the future? Just a few thoughts that brought me a little bit off topic. ... But, contary to my fears, the video cutting of the game trailer material was obviously okay. And since the Youtube video is still on, I guess I'll post it later (or tomorrow) in the video game remix section - so, everbody can form an opinion about the remix.

Thanks for the response and the useful information. )) The soundtrack itself is finally done and I'm really satisfied with the final results - it's pretty fire in the composition and very clean in the mixing I'd say. And I'm really looking forward to post a Youtube link of the final video version. Since the remix is quite different from the original and there seem to be also some other obviously unpunished remixes of this song "Superman" out there, the audio part shouldn't be the big problem. The video stuff I began to start cutting today could be a different thing. So, I hope they'll accept my own work as well as my non-profit & just-for-fun motive or even see it as a good commercial for the remake of the game. If it doesn't work (contrary to my hopes), I could still try to ask someone if I can use real gameplay scenes from within the game. As far as I know, using self-played video game scenes are pretty safe against copyright issues, right? ... But I have another question which might be a bit more difficult to answer. Maybe you know the real footage of skaters, their greatest tricks, falls and crashs etc. within the THPS series. What do you think - are they easy-going with it if I also use some of the original sakter footage or is it rather a pretty unsafe decision like my intuition tries to warn me about this undertaking?

Very unique style and amazing sound quality - mixing sounds like a professional mastering engineer has done the work. You should do video game remixes as well!

Nice one - music style radically fits the track. )) Decent mixing as well.

Yo, girls 'n' dudes from OCReMix. ... I'm working on an instrumental remix of the soundtrack "Superman" made by the band Goldfinger - a track which was also used in the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game, which got quite famous with this game and which I still love to hear nowadays. ... My remix is almost done (maybe one or two more weeks). But I want to get some nice video material to visually enhance this track and bring in some nice iconic memories. ... So, now my question. Is it possible and fair use, if I use some (completely muted!) video material from the latest trailers of the new Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 remaster? So, something like this one - but as a muted version and my remix as the audio layer instead: I would probably cut some trailers into a few pieces and set them together in a way that would fit my remix. What do you say - is it legal, copyright-conform or fair use?

Time for a few new official trailer updates concerning the Final Fantasy 7 remake & compilation. 1) Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis (obviously a straight and faithful remake of the whole Final Fantasy 7 compilation with a more original graphics style, including the original game Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy 7 - unfortunately only announced as a mobile game for iOS/Android by now) 2) Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade (the coming enhanced Playstation 5 version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake containing a whole new episode with Yuffie and a few other dudes in Midgar who are obviously working together with a special unit from Avalanche) I already love the funny scene where the super secret ninja girl gets discovered and radically trolled by curious pigeons (o^_v_^o) and I was also pretty amazed to see a scene with Weiss and the Deepground soldiers in that new episode in reference to the later Dirge of Cerberus content within the FF7 compilation.

Still work with Windows Movie Maker just for video editing. If you don't need more tools for cutting several video parts with a bunch of different cross-fade and special effects together and if you still use Windows (just have read it only works till Windows 8), you'll be fine with this one. In this case, I'd look for the free and updated version Windows Movie Maker 2012.

Of course - your mixing and mastering skills are radically important for the clarity and definition of your soundtracks. For example, with my new/actual studio equipment (Yamaha MSP 3 studio monitors + Fostex PM-SUBmini 2 subwoofer and Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro headphones + Lake People G109-P headphone amp) I can hear much more the unclean passages and acoustic problems in my tracks and see much more the potencial to improve my previous tracks just with a better mixing and mastering. But if you also use free accounts on Soundcloud and Youtube just like me, the reasons why your soundtracks might sound better or cleaner on Soundcloud than on Youtube (which is kinda the opposite of my experience with both platforms) could be probably the video export settings and the quality (bitrate) of your audio file you use in your video program. I only use uncompressed WAV audio files of my DAW music project for further processing in my video editing program to avoid unnecessary data compression chains (for example one of the worst case scenarios: first bigger audio compression process during the export of your audio file in your DAW project - maybe at a bitrate of 192 kbit/s or even lower >>> second audio compression process after video editing with your video editing program >>> third audio compression process with the upload on the online platform at which you finally share your track). I also avoid the use of compressors/limiters in my DAW because these tools also lower/degrade your sample quality by destroying or even radically cutting the signal peaks right in the DAW project file. ... All those kinds of compression in multiple process chains might decrease all the exciting information in your music stepwise and in an accumulative way into something with less definition, clarity and "life" (dynamics) within - so, I'd try to avoid as much of it as possible.

In the meantime, I've found another really good video and audio streaming platform where free accounts are possible and very useful. It's a Japanese platform called Nico Nico Douga (or simply called Niconico after 2012). It might not have the big and useful interaction and commenting features (allows only pretty short comments) like Youtube has to offer. But you can still navigate through an English interface for your account and the main features of the platform in English language. And - this is important - you might be able to upload and stream files in a much bigger quality than Youtube allows (possibly files with around 192 kbit/s, 320 kbit/s or maybe even lossless audio files) with a free account. The funny and for Japanese developments pretty iconic thing is that your account develops like a RPG character - with specific points and level ups, depending on your feedback of the community and things like that. I still haven't made it past LV 2 there - but I won't give up so easily. ^__^ Definitely a platform with very great potencial - so, feel free to check it out: https://www.nicovideo.jp/ ... And just for hearing the differences in the stream from the worst to the best audio quality at Soundcloud, Youtube and Niconico, check out my Star Tropics remix I've uploaded on all three platforms (watch out for the point after 1:25 in the remix where the drum parts - especially the hi hats and cymbals - kick in): 3) Soundcloud (kinda sloppy sounding hi-hats and cymbals - streaming quality of the audio might be around 128 kbit/s...) 2) Youtube (pretty good-sounding hi-hats and cymbals - streaming quality of the audio in the video might be somewhere around or just a little bit below 192 kbit/s...) 1) Niconico https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm34221065 (maybe just my imagination, but I think the hi-hats and cymbals are just a little bit cleaner than in the Youtube stream (make sure to choose the best settings in the video options) - so, the streaming quality of the audio in the video might be really at 192 kbit/s... but just because it's the maximum audio bitrate my video editing program can export, since I still use the Windows Movie Maker for video editing...)

What do you think - could this be the future of three-dimensional panning for stereo and surround mixes? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some days ago, I've seen a pretty interesting VST plugin for kinda realistic three-dimensional panning which obviously works for stereo mixes as well (seems to be similar like the 2-channel surround mode I use in my DAW for quite some time now): I know, the plugin might use only the well-known parameters from classic audio productions for creating an image of depth or certain positions in a virtual room - just those parameters I've mentioned before, like volume (sound pressure) level (gain staging), frequencies (EQ adaptation), time difference between perceived (or received) direct sound and its first stronger audible reflections (initial time delay gap - or simply the pre-delay settings) or the proportion between direct sound (dry signal) volume and reflections/reverberation (wet signal) volume. But with the help of those tools you might set a specific room position of a sound source much faster, much more precisely and in a much more visual and intuitive way than just with cold numeric values within the oldschool way of music production. And - of course - the three-dimensional panorama automations could be done with much less effort, calculating, in far less time - and with much better results for realistic three-dimensional staging and without the need of being the supernatural professor of physics who has already internalized even the finest aspects of sound propagation of sound sources in relation to the position and the whole constitution of the listener. The interesting fact about this plugin is, that you can not only set a sound source between left and right (width) or front and rear (depth) positions. You can also set the height of a sound source (up and down) - which might be also useful for the surround formats of the future where speaker units might be completely around the listener as if the listener was inside a sphere full of speakers surrounding him alongside all three axes. I don't know where those panaroma plugins might go in the future - but I'm sure that they'll also add another component of specific sound directions and spherical angles for sound propagation in relation to the position of the listener. But just the momentary possibilities of sound creation and separation of sound sources in a three-dimensional room within a normal stereo recording already seem to be gigantic, as you can hear in the following sound example obviosly created with this plugin: So, what do you think - is it worth to go for such kind of a three-dimensional panning plugin or is it rather redundant for audio productions?

Just a little final notice... This free VSTi seems to remain free further on for everybody who got it within the time limit until January 31st. I've just checked it out - and it still seems to work completely without restrictions or things like that. So, good luck and lots of creative fun with Yangqin for all the early birds who caught the big 'n' tasty worm. ))

VSL or Vienna Instruments also contains some of the best high-quality VSTis out there - although the VSTi interface couldn't look much more boring and loveless. But it also seems to have a pretty nice virtual room editor where you can obviously place your VSTis and other sound sources directly on a stage with precise directions, distances and sound propagation - which is quite an amazing expert tool as it seems. Some time ago, I also bought VIENNA WHISTLER - which is a very good and professional whistling VSTi from VSL... But, what is really annoying about VSL and what me keeps from buying more stuff from VSL... ... is the fact that you are forced to use an USB dongle and you always have to connect this USB stick to your PC in order to use the instruments from VSL. But I always want to have all the stuff I need for composing directly on my internal harddrive. If every VSTi developer company comes with its own USB dongle, your PC might soon look like a jenga tower which you could crush easily with any false movement. And if you have a dog, a cat or a hungry bunny at home, your VSTis might get kidnapped or eaten alive within the blink of an eye without even noticing it. So, I admire the high quality of the stuff they create as well as the useful information for music production they provide. But in the end, I'll definitely stick with the much more user-friendly content from Native Instruments, Kontakt-based VSTis, the great collections from Eduardo Tarilonte and all the nice stuff for the Engine 2 sample player.

I just have read that this VSTi is "available for free until January 31st". But I'm not quite sure what this exactly means and if it remains free stuff for everybody who got Yangqin within this time limit - so, also for the time after January 31st for everybody who got this VSTi in the time before. Or if it's rather free use until January 31st - and after this time, everybody has to buy it (no matter if he/she got this VSTi in the time limit or not) if he/she wants to use Yangqin any longer. Maybe somebody knows which variant is correct or maybe somebody has got some experience with the marketing of VSTi developers, why they would put out such a professional VSTi for free for a certain amount of time.

Good news for all fans of tradional Far Eastern (virtual) instruments. )) Since I've bought my first VSTi from Native Instruments some weeks ago (a very good electric guitar VSTi called Electric Sunburst Deluxe - will definitely write a little feedback about this one in the topic I've already started some time ago) and I was pretty satisfied with this great stuff, I read their newsletter much more carefully. And just a few weeks after, they pulled another big one out of their deep waters - a Chinese hammered dulcimer VSTi called "Yangqin". And it's completely free - with a size of around 1 GB. After reading that it's free stuff, I just thought that it can't be that great, it won't have lots of articulations and that I probably won't waste my time with free stuff. But... WAYYYY off the mark, dudes! It's another professional and very sophisticatedly sampled high quality VSTi from Native Instruments which offers a really beautiful sound, some useful interface settings (one-click automations of parameters also possible), different presets, a nice velocity range and lots of articulations (many key switches for short and long played notes, different kinds of tremolos, octave, resonance and varied playing techniques, glissando up & down and stuff like that). Here's a little introduction video for this really awesome free VSTi: I always wanted some ancient Far Eastern stuff like this - maybe for movies score compositions... but definitely for a Breath of Fire 4 remix in the future. But before talkin' ya straight into your beds, here's the direct download link for this VSTi: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/celebrate-the-holidays-with-us/ If this is your first VSTi from Native Instruments or your first instrument for Kontakt or Kontakt Player, you have to install Native Access (it's free and it just registers and maintains your Native Instruments & Kontakt/Kontakt Player VSTis) and at least the newest version of the free Kontakt Player before. Here are the links in the correct order of installation: 1) Native Access >>> https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/native-access/ 2) Free Kontakt 6 Player >>> https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-6-player/ 3) Yangqin VSTi >>> https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/celebrate-the-holidays-with-us/ 4) Don't forget to set the correct VST path in your DAW to use Native Intruments/Kontakt VSTis - (for the Windows version) you should find the correct path for using the Kontakt Player under >>> C:\Programm Files\Native Instruments\VSTPlugins 64 bit And then, it should work after opening the Kontakt Player in your DAW. Merry Christmas & some recreative 'n' creative holidays. ))

Pretty close to the original tracks - but nice chiptune tracks with a decent amount of swing. )) Cool stuff for which I'd radically take the Bananas outta my ears.

Never really heard from the Evolution Strawberry electric guitar VSTi by Orange Tree Samples before (at least I can't remember). But to tell straight from the sound of the samples, this one seems to be also pretty great stuff - in my opinion, it leaves the other two electric guitar VSTis in the video completely behind.

I guess, many people (including me some days before) haven't noticed this VSTi since it's kinda new on the market (march 2020, I think). ... The newer Shreddage versions are definitely some of the better electric guitar VSTis with which you can create some pretty realistic guitar sounds with lots of articulations, effects and many tuning options/settings. But for me, one of the most important thing is the raw sample quality of the sound (the recorded samples without any further effects) with which you can evaluate the realism of the VSTi in a much better way. Delay and reverb effects or articulations can improve the realism of the VSTi pretty much - but with well-recorded raw samples and articulations the additional effects will bring ya much closer to guitar heaven. So, if the raw samples already sound realistic because they have been recorded with real electric guitars, you can do pretty anything with that VSTi stuff. And especially when it comes to things like this, Native Instruments with their Electric Sunburst Deluxe VSTi seem to be some of the toughest rocks on the coast at the moment. What also really impresses me, is the complex real-time control of the articulations in this VSTi - like you can see in this in-depth-demo at minute 13:00 (besides a really good demo for getting most of the functions and interface settings explained): That seems to be really advanced stuff I've barely seen anywhere in VSTis before. ... And no - you don't need an additional upgrade for Kontakt to use this VSTi. As the description says, it's fully compatible with fee-based Kontakt AND with the free Kontakt Player - just look at the system requirements down below: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/guitar/session-guitarist-electric-sunburst-deluxe/ The description only says that you will at least need version 6.2.2 in both cases (fee-based Kontakt or free Kontakt Player) to make the VSTi work with your system. So, if you decide to download the newest version of the free Kontakt player, it will be fine, too - and you will be able to use this VSTi after buying and installing it without further restrictions or additional costs for Kontakt stuff. I also work with the free Kontakt Player for using VSTis like Shevannai, created by Eduardo Tarilonte - and it fully works in free Kontakt Player without restrictions. But you always have to read the descriptions of the VSTis carefully - because some VSTis work fully with free Kontakt Player, others will only work with the fee-based Kontakt without restrictions and just work in some kind of a demo mode in the free Kontakt Player (as I remember, there is some kind of a time restriction of the maximum music project length in demo mode). If you want to read more about the difference between fee-based Kontakt & free Kontakt Player, check out this link: https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2020/04/23/kontakt-demo-mode/ If you mean the upgrade option for the VSTi itself after clicking on the Buy button, it's not for you - it's only for those who already own the previous version of "Electric Sunburst Deluxe" called "Electric Sunburst". In this case, you have to buy the full version of the VSTi (which also contains the presets of first version as I remember correctly seeing this in a walkthrough video). The full version of Electric Sunburst Deluxe normally costs around 145 euros (around 173 US dollars) - but at the momentary Black Friday Cyber Season Sale special offer (which ends on December 7th) it's only half the price around 73 euros (or about 86 US dollars). For this kind of quality stuff, I think it's not anywhere near expensive. Since you already seem to have a quite decent electric guitar VSTi, it might be a much more difficult choice for you. But for me, it would really be some kind of an upgrade when it comes to VSTi-based electric guitars. I'm just waiting for some more feedbacks or suggestions for other outstanding electric guitar VSTis before striking the Buy button.