Rellik

Everything I've read has indicated that TP is harder than OoT, MM, or WW - there could be other information out there, though. Personally, I'm perfectly happy that they're sticking with a MIDI system over redbook. I agree that for certain settings/scenes a realistic orchestral sound is called for and therefore redbook should be employed, but as a general proposition I don't think the whole "full symphonic" thing really applies to Zelda. At least not Zelda as we know it - it all depends on style. From what I know of the game (and basing it on previous iterations of 3-D Zelda), I believe a synthesized soundtrack suits it perfectly, as long as the soundset is up to the task. A Zelda that departs more from previous ones might be better suited to an audio soundtrack - still not the "Lord of the Rings" or "Metal Gear Solid" type of stuff, that's just not Zelda (except for very specific kinds of situations), but I think it could work out great for a next generation of Zelda "feel". Also, if redbook has ever been successfully employed in a seamless, dynamic musical context-sensitive system (as was indicated in the thread), then that's very impressive, and it'd be cool to see a link/hear an audio example. ---- Oh yeah, and here's a thought I want to put out there: I've seen comments all around that the Gamespot review should "bring us to our senses" - fundamentally, why would we want to be brought to our senses? Isn't it more fun to ride the hype? Twilight Princess is going to be the greatest thing ever. You get out of hype what you put into it - if you don't believe the game is the best thing ever, you won't have the same blissful experience (both pre, during, and post-game) as someone who is steadfast in their faith. A lot of games I've played I consider "OMG BEST GAME EVER" - when I think about the time I put into them it makes me happy - it's a harmless self-deception, so why not give in to it? Twilight Princess will rule the world!

I really love the trailer (the second video), but the opening doesn't seem quite right... It's obviously an OoT reference, but it doesn't need to have an OoT-style level of detail, does it? All just a bunch of low-poly rocks and flat grass-texture, besides the horse and Link themselves. Hopefully riding around the field there will be more to look at than is indicated from the trailer. That, and I was surprised at the really low-quality music - especially the choir part (I'm no expert, but those samples sound just as bad as the poorly-used wonky portato female choir syllable and vowel sounds from Miroslav). However, the second video (the trailer)... it uses that fantastic music from the previous trailer, and is much prettier to look at. I really hope they'll change the intro video (and the intro music - who wrote it, some noob?), but it doesn't exactly affect anything - as long as it doesn't indicate what we should expect from the in-game terrain (and the soundtrack).

Additionally, hard chords don't really matter - they're generally equivalent to more friendly chords, just with added or subtracted notes for "flavor", so if you pick out a note or two, you can still form an equivalent chord that isn't exactly the same but has the same function. Once you've got a basic representation of the chord progression, if you want a more accurate rendition, then you can listen back and see what's different.

Well, the way I've always done it seems to work pretty well, so let me explain it: If you can pick out even just one note from the chord (i.e. any note that sounds significant in the current context of the harmony), then you can find the chord - there are only so many possibilities, and (a) most often you're hearing the bass note ( after a while you kind of get a sense for the function of a note in a chord just by hearing it. If two significant-sounding notes are present and easily pick-out-able, even better - and if you've got three or four, well, it's not exactly a problem to figure out the chord from there, is it? In most cases this process will get you to an accurate chord progression quickly (although it can be easy to mistake functional equivalents, especially relative majors/minors). I guess that's all pretty intuitive for anyone once they've actually worked at it for a bit, but I just wanted to make the point that you don't have to pick out all the notes to form your chord, because it's more of an informed guess-and-check process - so that even if you're not good at picking out notes, you still can figure out chord progressions by yourself, and over time you'll probably get a better sense for what you're hearing.

I like the mix too, but I couldn't just leave this here without objecting - have you even heard some of his other work?! It's all a matter of opinion. And, apparently, objecting to other people's ability to have one For what it's worth, of my 67 mixes, yeah, I'd put this in the top fifteen, possibly higher. So in my *own* opinion it's at least some of my "better" work yet. I guess maybe it's instrumentally similar to some of Gray's stuff, or more recently Andy's Fei Long mix, but I think the arrangement sounds like one of mine, and I'm personally happy with it. Oh no! I've been misinterpreted! - or at least have fallen victim to the ambiguity of facetiousness (a wink can be just a wink or an extra-spiteful :"roll": depending on context). I don't have a problem if Kyle (or anyone else) regards Koan in such a manner - at the time of my posting, Kyle's comment seemed to me unbelievable, and I asked (and found out) whether he truly meant it. Is there such a problem with being curious enough and regarding djp's work seriously enough to engage in conversation with someone of a different opinion regarding its comparative merits? I went to great lengths not to be misinterpreted, but I realize that I may have implied something erroneously, so I'll apologize for that. Better to not post at all than to engage in conversation and run the risk of being misinterpreted or offending on an internet forum, right?

I like the mix too, but I couldn't just leave this here without objecting - have you even heard some of his other work?! It's a very catchy mix with a few especially awesome sections (although it's hurt a bit by sample quality, and I agree with some of the comments I've read on the mixing earlier in the thread), I don't see how you can compare it to some of the more truely outstanding tunes djp has showered upon us (both electronica and non-electronica). It's great stuff, very GrayLightning-esque (not only in terms of the Asian and stringed instruments but also the unusually simplistic electronica elements and the heavy reverb and high frequencies), but I guess I'm just wondering whether you were serious when you said it's some of his best work yet, or maybe you just kind of said it without thinking - there's no rule that says you're a failure if you create a mix that might not be quite on the same level as one(s) you've created before... there would be no music, since everyone would be too scared to make what they want, and not just what they know they can do well already. I seem to be going off on a tangent in regards to what I quoted, but I think it may be relevant to this thread/this mix.

Pretty sure they're all ok except SimSynth, which doesn't come free with FL. I was going to participate when I saw the title - I'm at college now which means I don't have as much free time, and even if I did I couldn't spend it doing so much solitary stuff like I used to, but I've found that I go crazy if I just hang out 95% of the time - but unfortunately I don't really have an interest in remixing games/songs I've never heard of and others are equally unlikely to have heard of Very much looking forward to the next one, though!

Well, if that's the case, I guess you should just continue to advocate against it, while I continue to recommend it! It works out, that way, doesn't it? If you had mentioned earlier that you knew someone who was forced to format because of ASIO4All, I would have agreed that there must be some risk involved in trying it out (I'd never heard of such a case before). I'm not sure if I'd advocate trying ASIO4All anymore if you have money to burn, but I'd still say to definitely try it if you would benefit from the savings - just back up first. Additionally, my experiences with so-called "bootleg" "3rd party shit" have been much less laden with disasters and blue screens and incompatibilities than my experiences with my E-Mu 0404, its drivers, and all the other expensive "1st party" software I've decided to buy over the years. Additionally additionally, I don't know what you mean by "spanky" so I'll assume it's funny and post a nice emoticon

Frankly, SnappleMan, I don't recall enough about WTF we were all talking about to be able to make an adequate reply to something like that (as I was otherwise intending). I still hold the belief that inflammatory remarks should be used only rarely, if at all, especially if they directly reference the quality of peoples' work. It would be stupid to make such a comment and NOT expect people to come running to (a) defend the merits of their tool/instrument of choice and ( defend their own work! Obviously I don't personally fault you for your comments or hold it against you - but you should realize by now that it's natural to argue over and defend one's instrument of choice, or else you would quickly forget your own opinion in favor of those of others and end up drifting from sequencer to sequencer or hardware to hardware or instrument to instrument and wasting money, time, and angst. The sentiments expressed in your posts really add up to something quite similar to a Troll Manifesto - and while I really think we've had some very important and useful trolls (e.g. Prot), just be sure you wouldn't rather engage in normal, non-inflammatory discussion instead, because it's hard to go back. EDIT: I don't know about Beatdrop, or the rest who felt personally insulted by your "unless you're zircon" comment, but I'm personally quite chillaxed. If you are going the troll route, you're better at explaining yourself than any other one I can think of.

Ah - so the reason for the bitching is not the content of the bitching, but the statement you make through the bitching itself? Because I wouldn't disagree with your point (although I don't really see the behavior you're pointing out as much here at OCR as I do in other places), but the fact of the matter is that unless you say something to that effect along with your post, then it's indistinguishable from the bitching of the ignorant and generally cantankerous. Anyway, back to the amp sims yeah, if I were "confronted" by a guitarist about the guitar tones I'm getting, I guess I might lose that "battle". I think the positioning of the quotation marks I've deposited there will give you a good enough idea of what I think on that subject EDIT: to be clear, my argument isn't that free amp sims are better or as good as expensive ones, it's that they're not, as you put it, "garbage"

You're right, I am not (well, barely) a guitarist. I realize that guitarists are very concerned about their amps, and that amps have very detailed and intricate characteristics at different dynamic levels and frequency contents, etc. etc.. However, do such concerns dictate the usefulness of an amp sim? To put it simply, the only thing I personally need in an amp sim (and I'm sure this goes for other non-guitarists as well) is the ability to create high quality, believable guitar tones - no nuance or fine detail required! Especially given the fact that I'm using it with sampled guitar in the first place you should really check out FreeAmp2 if you haven't yet, though - lots of different amp and cabinet options and I need to go look up WTF "Variac" is but it sounds great on the "A" setting and there are lots of stomp boxes and some pretty awesome presets and you can switch between open back and closed back - I can't believe I didn't know about them before, but open backed amps rule! No - generally people only want to listen to people who are saying useful things. And most of your bitching isn't worth bitching about! Saying "FL will always be a poor way to create music" isn't going to convince anyone, and "I think that recommending FL to someone is pretty much a death sentance when it comes to quality music. Unless you're Zircon, and there's only one of him." is a lie readily apparent to anyone who checks up on it. "it looks like FL will never be something I can find useful to me" was good - maybe someone will learn something from that if you explain a bit more (like Doomsday did, for example - although it seems you don't have as much experience with it as he). If your bitching isn't helping people, then why are you doing it?

Actually, that's very different from what I experienced, as well as from the general consensus of experiences that I've heard - Asio4All got me below 10ms latency (on reasonably low loads), which is just about fine (compared to ~30-40ms without ASIO at all). My hardware ASIO drivers get me 5ms latency at the same loads, but cause more problems and tend to crash things more often. Additionally, this has been my experience on other machines, and this is what I've generally heard from users of ASIO4All. And even if you've heard differently, that's not really a justification to say it's "garbage". Or "I don't see any reason for anyone to use this." How about this: if you're not picky about output quality (i.e. are not doing mastering or fine mixing tasks on your workstation), and you don't need audio inputs, it's pretty much a waste of money to get a dedicated audio interface, IF YOU CAN GET THE LATENCIES YOU WANT with Asio4All. Therefore, try it before you spend that $50.00USD-$100.00USD - makes sense, right?

The only thing amazing about those is how many people decieve themselves into thinking that they sound good. There's a reason good guitar amp modeling costs a shitload of money. Guitar Suite is free because it's crap. I disagree. - vehemently in the case of FreeAmp2, and really only slightly in the case of Guitar Suite, but just because it doesn't sound quite so great doesn't mean it's not amazing and highly useful. It's not free because it's crap - it's free, and its usefulness depends on how you use it. Also, Cerrax: I had a long post earlier where I posted numbers from KVR's database, but I decided it was really kind of getting away from the point. We're both right - it's true that you can find basically everything you need for free on the Mac platform (if you say so), and that there are far greater numbers and varieties of free synths and effects available on the Windows platform (as I assert, and which I found to be the case from my quick research).

There are plenty of free resources for the Mac musician. You just don't know where to look. VersionTracker, Mac Update, Macworld, Apple.com (and a few others I can't think of off the top of my head). They all feature a ton freeware stuff for Garage Band and Logic. I'm not saying there aren't any - but I don't think it's arguable that you can find as many or as good free synths and effects that run under Mac OSX. Or maybe you can, but if so, people don't talk about them. The only one I hear about is Automat - and if I recall correctly, ZynAdSubbFX runs on Mac OSX as well (although I've always found ZynAdSubbFX kind of flaky). I don't really need to name all the amazing and famous free synths available for Windows. And sfz is Windows only, so is there even a free SF2 player that runs on Mac OSX?! I'm sure there has to be, just that I haven't heard of it. And I believe a subset of the mda effects have been ported to Mac, but the Kjaerhus series, and gems like FreeAmp2, as well as the amazing Simulanalog Guitar Suite, etc. etc. are Windows only - I'm sure the numbers are in the thousands, although maybe only hundreds are worthwhile. The numbers are likely similar on the synths end. That said, I haven't looked into free synths or effects for Mac, so if there are many that I haven't heard of then my opinion could change.

I would agree with you on several points, but I still love FL Different people prefer different ways of working, so yes, FL isn't best for everyone - but a n00b isn't going to know how they like to work for a loooong itme, at least until they know what kind of work they're DOING. As such, I think FL is also the best option. It's not the least expensive option, but something like energyXT is no place for a n00b to be venturing. I know that when I was at that stage FL was wondeful because it was really easy to just get going and just MAKE SOUND, right from the beginning. Once you can make a noise the rest follows - and you never know, once he's up and running he may grow to like it on a more serious level or he may end up finding an option that better suits his personal style. I don't know much about Garage Band but my personal opinion is that Mac is not the optimal platform for the practical musician - namely because the freeware music software/synths/effects scene is focused squarely in Windows (and Linux to some extent), and as we all know, free synths and effects are the mana of the desert that is the life of a musician who's saving his money.

I really... I really ought to pick this up! Too bad I don't really need any of it enough to justify $600.00, but it's definitely a great deal on a few quite excellent pieces of software that you would definitely use on an almost every-song basis. But there's no indication the price is temporary

dude... awesome!... that better be worked on and submitted to www.animeremix.org But make up your mind; hiphop or DnB Actually, it's a Chrono Trigger mix I only mention Samurai Champloo because it inspired me (the wonderful thing I noticed about the music was that it wasn't meticulous or detailed or especially musical or non-repetetive, but it was all the better for it...) Hatsuden Ki, I don't think MagixMusicMaker is an "I R NOOB TOOL" nowadays (never used it, but heard that it is in fact rather meritous) - maybe back in the year 2000 it was different, though!

Well, uh, happy birthday EDIT: I guess I should probably be on topic in addition... lemme check my join date: I was 13 when I started remixing. Thinking back, that's a lot of memories - the WIP board era, the VGMix noob era, the VGMix not noob, era, the OCR era, the #OCReMix era... cool stuff. Hey want a wip http://www.tjhsst.edu/~alederer/Music/Rellik_-_Samurai_Lullaby.mp3 yeah I've been watching Samurai Champloo, yeah I can't do hip hop... although I bet it's much easier if you don't have to create from scratch the material you want to sample. Synth, I didn't realize we had anyone of that age around here, much less remixing - I'll bet you have a lot of peer pressure pushing you towards other interests and activities, and just want you to know you have my respect, at least, for "going against the current" so to speak.

Yeah, as was mentioned, AFAIK FL has only a single audio thread, but everything else is separate. Really, name a sequencer/host and it's probably coded to make good use of two cores at once... Sonar, Cubase, energyXT, Live, Project5, Logic, Podium... most if not all of those split up audio processing so that they can take advantage of dual-core CPUs. FL's something of an exception.

I wasn't going to comment on this, but... I'm just enjoying it too much not to! I just keep LISTENING to it, sometimes playing along with the melody and the riffs, sometimes just letting it play alone... I like it. A lot. Fun music indeed ! At first the strings kind of bothered me, but then I realized I was just projecting what I expected onto it, and I realized there was nothing wrong with them as they were (i.e. significantly dry). And I love the phrasing and articulation of the strings during the aptly-described "Beatles" section. Normally I comment only on mixes that "stand out" to me for some reason (although by no means have I commented on every mix I love greatly), but really I just came to give thanks for such an enjoyable piece of music! I don't really remember the source material, but it's got a fantastic melody, and the chord progression is wonderful - really fun to play along with, because it's very easily disectable, not only instrumentation-wise, but arrangement-wise (i.e. it's an excellent piece to study for "How to fill 4 minutes on the strength of a good melody") Maybe it's just me but I found the little F#major chord at 2:29 stood out as being really irksome - what are you, Midee+Prozax, a pair of music theory majors with Post-Traumatic Stress syndrome? Stupid comment, since obviously you didn't use it the first time you made that transition (and since I'd make a fool of myself trying to talk theory), but I just kind of cringe at that spot, since it annoys me every time I listen to it, for no real reason maybe you can release a version without it?

I don't really know what to say here, but I had to say something... It's not just that it's so creative, or that the execution is so pristine - but it's so much FUN! The opening makes you think "clever", the progression with the trade-off makes you think "cool", and then 0:49 comes and it blows your mind... and then it just keeps going. What I'm most speechless with is the way this manages to keep the listener's attention with so much MATERIAL. The variety of sounds, textures, and the sheer number of notes and the disparate patterns and articulations they happen to be arranged in... the high tempo coupled with the 5 and a half minute running time... I can barely imagine working up the gumption to write all this material and arrange it in such an ingenius way without giving up in anticipation of the frustration. I think maybe it has to do with confidence - if you simply have confidence that you can write harmony to the melody you are writing, that the final mix will turn out as you envision it no matter how complex you make it, that it won't be too boring or too short, then you can just write without second-guessing, and simply slide along... Or maybe that's what "planning" is for... well, uh, either one probably works Just plain awesome... immensely fun to listen to, fantastically impressive in execution and especially in scope, and rather more easily digested than I seem to recall most of Shnabubula's work being.

I'm pretty sure I've heard that the audio interface and the preamps on the Novation X-Station are more than decent! Not sure how that stacks up price-wise against the Ozone (with equivalent number of keys)

Wow! You're right! The makers of CDXtract apparently don't understand the concept of "demo" "limitations" but hey, it's legal, or close enough! Thanks for the tip to make it a little bit clearer for others, click the blue "Files" drop-down in the upper left below the menu-bar, then select "Convert batch..." - you would think that they would have disabled batch conversion, but it works fine, as far as I can tell. I transferred all of the AKAI S-5000 files to HD first, just so I have them, and ran CDXtract on the folder on the HD rather than on the individual CD's, but it should work either way... EDIT: anybody else find QLBrass's 3B SUSFF to be... strangely non-FF?

With the exception of a massive amount of stuff.

Given the huge team working on SSBB, and the increased size of the storage capacity of Wii media over GC media, I'm curious as to the quantity of characters/levels. I mean, sure, there were PLENTY of characters and PLENTY of arenas in SSBM - but why not MORE why not overwhelm us with sheer vastness of content - take the endlessness of SSBM's trophy mode and apply it to creating dozens of secret characters and secret stages, and who knows where you could end up. From the looks of it, Snake won't be the only 3rd party participant (as indicated from the interviews - plus it would be REALLY silly if he was what was it, a celebrity endorsement?), so that could be a great way to expand the universe, as long as the 1st-party to 3rd-party ratio stays at a good 4:1 or higher. The whole style seems radically different - not really sure how to take it, but I'm sure it'll be great. The brash title, the over-the-top super-moves, the dramatic arenas, the cinematic trailor, the heavy Nobuo music, the uncharacteristic fan-service, the addition of 3rd-party characters... none of these things are bad not at all - but they are definitely different. I think going WAY overboard on quantity of characters and arenas would be perfectly well in keeping with that paradigm shift - so bring it on