zircon

It ends October 20th, so 15 days from now.

INJIN, Megaman 2 had deathtraps also. The entire end of the Quick Man stage was awful in that regard.

The standard patches include sitar plucking (x4 velocity levels, from soft strokes to hard, thumbed to picked), mordents (fast 'turns'), chikari rhythm strums, low drones, tampura drones, tremolos (w/ legato), sitar whole tone bends, glissandos (fast, slow, major, minor, etc), phrases (five @ multiple pitches, keyswitched), tabla (multiple strokes, lots of velo/rr), baya (multiple strokes/velo/rr) - there are 17 FX patches, including twisted pads, soft pads, bell and flute-type textures, and alterations of main patches.

Actually, what we're going to do is this: preorders will begin today at a rate of $20 off (so $99 for the whole thing!) for OCR forumgoers only. Group buys have more or less the same impact in the end - reducing the price, and simply lowering it for you guys until the 20th seems to make the most sense No worries about tracking or anything, and you get the discount no matter what. Before I get to the purchase info, a few updates: * The final size of the library is 2.76 gigabytes. * Will made a demo of the library used in a very traditional, improvisational style. Click here to listen - keep in mind this is ALL Sitar Nation! * We are including an assortment of percussive MIDI grooves. Just drag and drop the files into a sequencer track set to tabla, baya, or both, and you'll instantly have rhythmic loops that can sync to any tempo. Future updates will have even more grooves. * We've decided to make the product available as a download rather than a physical CD. This way, you don't need to worry about shipping & handling costs or shipping time. We'll have the file broken up into multiple archives which you can access through our secure download system once the product is released. --- To purchase Sitar Nation: Classical Instruments of India for the temporary, OCR-only preorder price of $99, just click on the button below! Feel free to post if you have any questions, comments, problems, etc. or email us at support@impactsoundworks.com.

No, I was not upset, because the GBC was two generations behind at that point. I would have been upset if the GBASP didn't have GBC support, for example, or the DS didn't have GBA support. The DSi doesn't, and now I'm pissed. I really think people are underestimating the amount of people that don't buy the latest and greatest games. It's NOT just hardcore gamers. Why would Gamestop buy used, older consoles and games if no one bought them back? That business model would have failed miserably, but it hasn't. Many people don't have the money to constantly buy new, current-gen games and instead prefer to go for the last generation. Not all of America is middle class. Darke, not sure if you're addressing me or not, but I don't feel "entitled" to GBA support... I just think it's a bad business decision on their part to remove it and it makes me an unhappy customer that won't be buying their new product as a result. Simple as that.

The GBA has the greatest handheld library. You've got FF1+2, FF4, FF5-6, three Castlevanias, the PS Collection, Golden Sun 1&2, Advance Wars 1&2, etc. just to name ones I personally have played or owned and which have received rave reviews. These are not throwaway titles, and considering some (like FF6) were released less than two years ago I hardly think abandoning backwards compatibility is a good idea. Handhelds are very useful for longer trips, NOT just 15 minutes on the bus/train, and having to bring another electronic device AND charger just to play games that, in gaming terms, JUST came out is pretty silly.

This is just infuriating. So, if I want to play GBA and DS games on the go with a DSi (or SOME DS GAMES) I need to bring TWO handheld devices. That's beyond stupid.

Right, but again the issue is that you're also paying for the redundant functionality too. It's simply not an upgrade or a supplement, in design or pricing. It's a replacement. I can understand new customers may be potentially interested, but it alienates old customers by actually reducing their current level of functionality and making them unable to play not only GBA games (which many own) but games from the DS library itself. That is really stupid no matter what way you look at it.

How is the DSi a supplement to the DS? That's like saying buying a new computer that doesn't have a CD drive is a supplement to your existing computer. They have completely redundant functionality otherwise. What a stupid decision on Nintendo's part.

But Larry, the issue is that some DS games actually use the GBA slot. For example, the new Tony Hawk game, Guitar Hero: On Tour (that's a big one), etc. A number of DS games also can access data from GBA games. By removing the GBA slot you're actually killing CURRENT generation compatibility which is flat out retarded.

They killed the GBA slot though, which IMO was a big mistake. How much space could they possibly save by doing that? The DS Lite is small as-is. Removing the GBA slot means some DS games won't work... on a DS...

I have to agree with Jimmy here. The samples sound expensive but they just seemed sequenced in a rather mechanical way. No automation or serious dynamics to speak of. The chants struck me as tacky, and the latter part of the arrangement was meandering IMO (though the concept of the track as as whole was solid in termse of interpretation.) I also thought the ending was rather weak. I'd like to see this one with further polish, ie. more expressive control of the samples, production tweaks which have been suggested, and a re-thinking of that chant part. NO, resub

Yoozer covered my response My computer actually isn't all that fast compared to the Mac Pros... though, admittedly, I'm proud of it Unfortunately FLStudio is 32-bit and does not support more than 2gb of RAM, even on a 64bit system. I have tried pushing it over 2gb but the results are not good. That's why I'm strongly considering switching to Reaper x64 or possibly Sonar 8. I just need somebody to make a VST piano roll just like FL's. If you want to take full advantage of 6gb of RAM you would need a 64bit OS for sure, and then either a 64 bit sequencer with 64 bit plugins, or a mix of apps running in standalone (such as Kontakt) with audio/midi getting routed in between programs.

My rig is pretty high-end... Intel Q9450 (45nm quad core, 2.66ghz) with 6GB RAM and a new mobo. 10k RPM hard drive for all my apps/plugins, too. FL doesn't play that well with Omnisphere though compared to REAPER.

Well, a number of things... 1. The synthesis engine itself - eg. waveforms being generated using mathematical algorithms and processed thereafter - is incredibly powerful. You've got simple subtractive, FM, various types of unison, hard sync, ring modulation, granular, etc. There is a veritable arsenal of editing features including tons of envelopes and modulation envelopes, dual filters, and over 34 effects. Here's an example of a song created 100% using Omnisphere as a synth, NO samples loaded, no external effects, no external percussion. http://temp-stuff.spectrasonics.net/ubr/ubr_uploads/RuUuUuUdeBoooyy.mp3 2. The bundled sample content is absolutely outstanding. The Spectrasonics team put years and years into creating it, clearly. The sound sources range from vintage to modern synthesizers (Moog, Arp, Kurzweil, Roland, Korg, Oberheim, Virus, and everything in between) to various choirs (male, female, boys, jazz), ethnic instruments, guitars, keyboards, and more. But what is most interesting is the "psychoacoustic" instruments, which are essentially incredibly interesting and playable sounds that have never been heard before. For example, an upright piano... recorded on fire. An acoustic guitar played using rubber bands as strings. A drying rack bowed with a violin bow and amplified through two acoustic guitar bodies. A 20,000 volt tesla coil hooked up to a MIDI controller. TONS and tons of stuff like this that is really out of this world. 3. The ability to load aforementioned sample content INTO the synth engine. So, you can actually apply FM synthesis to a Gregorian choir, or granular synthesis to Tibetan peace bowls, big trance unison to an electric guitar... really, just about anything you could think of. The possibilities with the samples and synth abilities of Omnisphere alone would be enough for years of study, but THIS feature is what sends it through the roof./ 4. Phenomenal patch design and patch organization. The developers at Spectrasonics, namely Eric Persing, are THE best in the business. I rate them better than anyone else around because they program their virtual instruments like a hardware workstation... they really push the envelope. No lazy programming here. The patch browser is very powerful and allows for dozens of customizable sorting methods. It is perhaps even better than the new Native Instruments browser used in Kore. 5. Killer built-in effects, 8-part multitimbrality, an awesome live/stack mode. 6. It's EASY to use. The whole interface was crafted with the design philosophy that the user can go deeper into the synth only when they want to. So, if you just look at the filter control on the basic "Edit" page of the patch, you see familiar controls like Cutoff, Resonance, Env depth, Filter Type. But if you click on the magnifying glass in this section, the entire interface fills up with additional options that you can tweak, route, and modulate. Basically, the whole synth is like this. You can very easily mess with existing patches without getting into the nitty gritty, or you can craft your own stuff from scratch once you've learned a few things and you want to go deep.

Most fun I've had on my Xbox 360. This game is ridiculously great.

Grats Audix & Siamey on making it this far... I've been voting, let's hope we get into the finals again this time.

Excuse me? Using synthesizers means you don't have technical ability?

An exemplary resub... this really addressed the issues I had with the mix volume and production. The only issue I have now is at 2:46 or so the pads cause a little bit of clipping. A bit of EQ to remove some of the low-mid freqs that are building up, and/or the lows, would almost definitely help. Also, easing up on the volume of the drums like everyone else suggested would be a good idea too (~2db or so maybe.) I think these are easy enough fixes that a cond YES is all we need here. YES conditional

I absolutely love the vibe here. Dark, whispering/speaking/growling vocals that aren't corny?! Awesome! You really pulled that off well. The head-skinning/decapitation thing is over the top, but in a good way (stylistically.) Also, I'm glad you didn't rely on just standard metal instrumentation for this, but skillfully filled out the texture. My only complaint is that the guitar tends to be too loud. Simply turning it down ~2db or scooping the mids a little bit would probably balance it out. However, I don't have a problem with the drums, even the machine gun part, though my personal preference would have been to layer more electronic elements a la Nine Inch Nails to beef 'em up even more. Overall, though the mixing is slightly off (IMO) this is a fantastic mix. The arrangement is very well-done, concept/structure are superb, and all performances are outstanding. YES

Dragon Armor is being developed and manufactured, AFAIK, it's just that the Army itself doesn't want to pick it up.

Voted for ya. Looks like a very promising technology.

We'll have some new demos + info coming up very soon. Slightly off-topic, but: http://www.zirconstudios.com/pics/EMusician_ISW_Impact_Steel.jpg Our first product, Impact: Steel (which was basically all Will) got written up in Electronic Musician this month!

I have nothing to do with server operations outside of in-game admin stuff... I didn't discuss the stats reset at all (even though I agree with it.) There's not some big conspiracy Also, I was under the impression that as an Engy you do lose points when your buildings are destroyed. Was that my imagination?

It IS the same song, just mastered differently. And with some Engrish.