zircon

They might have changed the policies since I was in Van R... or it might be stricter, yeah. But actually, I seem to recall having to deal with getting help signing multiple people in for overnight stays. That definitely was a regulation we had to deal with at some point.

QLSO can be quite musical even in a soft setting. bustatunez (Will Roget) does some amazing stuff with it. It takes finesse, granted, but far less finesse than GPO does overall. And this really isn't a knock on you, but I know you use GPO, and I've heard your stuff, and the level of realism is definitely not as high on average as pieces I've heard other ReMixers of comparable experience do with QLSO.

Hey Spork, what dorm are you in, out of curiosity?

I wonder how many people have subbed remixes inspired by Triforce Majeure? Can't be a small number, and that's how I got my first mix passed... Anyway, I agree the beginning of this mix is kind of weak. Quiet sounds, a bit thin, a bit too much vibrato, and not enough spatial effects (eg. reverb/delay) to keep interest. 1:02 had things filling out more, which I liked, but the drums didn't really seem to fit, in my opinion. Maybe it's just the sequencing, but I thought that section on could have used more energy. At 2:06, things picked up, and the added percussion at 2:19 helped. Likewise, 2:36 bringing in the heavier beats and the arpeggio was a good move. The soundscape starting at 3:23, another improvement. I can't help but thinking that this could use a sound upgrade in general. This sounds like all default FL synths, no external plugins. Pick up some stuff from KVR Audio, get some soundfonts, hit up the ReMixing forum... boost those sounds! A lot of the synths are basically simple chip waves. The drums are weak until the heavy distorted loop comes in, but even that could be layered more, with varied rhythms. Additionally, the square lead is basically exactly the same throughout. I would have loved to hear significant changes in the texture, more layering, and/or acoustic instruments too, not just the chips + distorted drums. What you did with what you have is creative, but there's free stuff within your grasp that would allow you to expand your pallette more. I liked the arrangement, actually. Seemed to be some nice new harmonic ideas, some counterpoint additions, and original material. The execution is what could use the work. I wouldn't mind more melodic variation either, but focus on the production first. Very promising, Kevin, please resub. NO, resub

Kompakt is easy to use, but no longer supported. Ideally you need to get Kontakt, which loads any Kompakt or Kontakt based product, allows for greater editing and manipulation, and comes with great sample content of its own.

I must add that GPO is very CPU light compared to other orchestras. The sample player technology (Kontakt-based) is also used with QLSO, but the CPU strain comes from the amount of voices that are typically used, amount of articulations, and size of patches. Larger patches and more voices means more strain on the RAM and disk streaming, and disk streaming eats up CPU like nothing else. However, with proper DFD settings and an 8-10ms buffer you should be good to go with either GPO or QLSO, considering both came out years ago.

There are other options than the ones you listed, but I think QLSO Silver is your best bet, easily. It's actually cheaper than GPO, and sounds better, requiring less work.

Chord comparison: Bmaj - F#maj - G#min - D#min - Emaj - F#maj - Bmaj - F# maj I - V - vi - iii - IV - V - I - V Pachabel's Canon (transposed to : Bmaj - F#maj - G#min - D#min - Emaj - Bmaj - Emaj - F# maj I - V - vi - iii - IV - I - VI - V Of the eight chords, the sixth and seventh are different in the source. The rhythm of the source is also different, and the movement of the bassline in the source goes through passing tones to reach various chords, while Pachabel's Canon doesn't. More importantly, the melody of the source is significantly different. "Canon in D" does not have a unique enough chord progression to state that any source tune using those chords is not valid. Those chords have been used countless times for the last several centuries.

I'm genuinely baffled by this. Have you tried doing a blank project with nothing but a single 3xOsc and rendering that?

It's very unclear. Here are some of the facts: * On the Incubus WP page, it is written that The Odyssey was "left off" the band's 2004 album, "A Crow Left of Murder..." However, this info does not appear on either the Crow WP page or the Odyssey page. * The Odyssey didn't appear on any other Incubus album, though it ended up on a DVD later. It's only available in audio form on the Halo 2 soundtrack. * There is no information on when the actual song was written. * The band says the song was "inspired by" Halo.

So what is everyone entering this month? I'm doing... "Shadows" feat. Jill - Techno/Club/Dance "Nimbus" - Electronic/Electro-Pop "Throwdown" - DJ/Beats "House of Cards" - Rock Instrumental "Drum & Bossa" - Instrumental "Rainforest Majesty" - New Age/World "Flying Heaven" - Cover Bands Feeling best, based on current standings, about Shadows, Rainforest Majesty, and Drum and Bossa.

Try rendering the problem projects with ALL FX bypassed. Are there still pops? If not, enable FX one by one and rerender to see if it's a particular plugin that is causing problems. I also suggest bypassing all instruments/samples except a simple kick pattern as well. Also, try rendering as 16-bit WAV instead and see if that changes anything. You need to narrow down the problem and remove as many variables as possible. What processor do you have, by the way? This could be a problem with SSE/SSE2.

Jill actually came in 2nd overall with "Avalon", in the finals, and Audix nabbed 6th with "Rising Impact". Very impressive showing, and it's an excellent reminder that the finals are ANYONE'S game. The OCR peeps didn't show up in the top 10 until the last hour or so. Most importantly, THANK YOU to everyone here that voted, at any stage, any number of times. I mean that sincerely. You're making a big difference in the lives of the people that participate in this competition and we really appreciate that deeply.

It's cool, Falchion, you've been a big help in the past and this month as well. Keep them coming, guys. We're in the top 20 at the moment!

I didn't edit the thread title. Also, it's a discussion thread, after all I liken it to the Nippon Ichi games. La Pucelle, Disgaea, Disgaea 2, Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, etc. They churn them out constantly. If you played all of them you'd get tired of the gameplay pretty quick (IMO) so if you just play every *other* one it's more fresh.

Yeah unfortunately the gameplay is getting tiring for me too. I played SotN, all three GBA Castlevanias (well, didn't beat CotM) plus Portrait of Ruin. The improvements from game to game are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and while I greatly appreciate all the attention to detail, side quests, and gameplay modes, I'll skip this and wait for a future one.

I'm pretty sure eStarland can ship anywhere, but how else would you pay if not credit card or Paypal...?

I agree, I don't see 5.1 becoming the standard. Music listening has really gone downhill in terms of consumer setups and care for fidelity. We saw a move from vinyl to cassette to CD, with CD being (more or less) the pinnacle of fidelity for the average consumer. Then it went downhill with MP3, ringtones, lo-fi computer speakers and earbuds. It seems to me that people are listening to music on fancy home stereo systems less, not more, and they prefer the portability of music over maximum fidelity. Before we worry about surround I would say we should worry about getting "listening standards" back up to where they were before.

This doesn't sound familiar. What makes you think it's from a game?

We'll be in our new apartment in Ardmore. This also means that if you park in Philly you'll have to drive to Ardmore to park overnight. Luckily it's a safe neighborhood, and we do have a parking lot in back (how baller is that?)

Guys, please preface your posts with SPOILERS or write spoiler text in white.

Awesome! I'm glad there's lots of interest here. Best way to get from NJ to Philly is via NJ Transit to 30th Street Station; should be <$20 round trip. Bus will work too, though it will probably take you into Center City in which case you gotta take a 5 minute, $2 subway ride to get to us.

You're good to go.

ENTER THE SEMIFINALS!!! Congrats to Jill and Audix for getting a combined three tracks in. Let's shoot for the finals again this month. Thanks everyone and keep voting! There are only 45 rounds per category now.

I mix almost exclusively on headphones. My first pair was a set of eh2200s from Sennheiser that my parents got me for my... 16th or 17th birthday (can't remember which.) They cost about $50 and are now out of production, but I loved them. The only issue was that they hurt my ears after awhile. In late 2006 I upgraded to a pair of ~$200 Beyerdynamic DT880s (2003 model - the newest one is $300 though supposedly it is a bit more balanced) which I absolutely adore. They have a very clean, true sound. They do emphasize the highs a little bit but that is easy to get used to. They're also the pinnacle of comfort; I've never gotten tired wearing them, ever. One "problem" is that they are semi-open. In other words, they do a poor job of canceling outside noise. To some people, this would be a dealbreaker. However, IMO, closed headphones are less accurate and tend to way overemphasize bass. There are not any tricks to headphone mixing that I am aware of. Considering you simply need to place them over your ears there is no need to worry about monitor placement, angle, height, relative distance, where your head is, and so on. My primary advice is simply to use them all the time and listen to tons and tons of reference material so you get an idea of what they "sound" like, and so you know what a proper mix is supposed to sound like on them. The only caveat is that you absolutely must get a decent pair of headphones to begin with. There are a lot of crappy consumer headphones that do a poor job of telling you what your mix sounds like. I find a lot of Senns and "DJ Headphones" simply have WAY too much bass. I've had to mix on such headphones for school projects and my mixes/masters always sounded awful.