zircon

Well, actually, it really is pretty simple. Most colleges have their own specific application process, though there are an increasing number using something called the "common app" (Google it). This lets you submit the same template application to many colleges, and then if they require extra materials you can send those separately. When I applied for school I did 6 in one fell swoop - very easy! Of course, before applying to any school, you will want to research each one. Get the Princeton Review guide as well as the latest US News college report. Read about your school, read rankings, look online for student reviews.. take everything with a grain of salt, of course, but use these tools as a general guide. Visit all the schools you are seriously considering in person; if you can't do that, try to talk to friends/family that have already gone there, even acquaintances. Hell, ask anyone, even these forums. Take the "virtual tour" if you can and call up the school itself to get info. Once you've decided on all the schools you could see yourself in, send your application - common app, school-specific app, whatever. Then, you just hope for the best. As for financial aid... there are federal, state, and regional packages. You will need to research all of your options. EG. Your town might offer a $1000 scholarship if you write an essay and submit it to (X) by (Y) date. Different schools will also offer varying amounts of need-based (your income + family income) scholarships and merit-based (your grades etc) scholarships. Again, this all requires research. The Internet is your friend, as are the financial aid offices of all the places you're applying. Hope that helped.

rofl Happy birthday yooz!

Hmm, I just voted and listened to the actual radio show... did anyone notice that Corsten said "the next track is Vega Projekt - The First Day" AFTER he played that track? Or did I not hear him?

That's what you get for trying to woo Jill away.

Hey, we could still run this promotion...

Hey, like I said, it's not like it's gone forever $9.99 on iTunes, $11.99 for a digital on my website, and $11.99 (by next week) for a physical on CD Baby. I might drop the digital to $10.99 too, but we'll see... either way I think it's reasonable compared to most $15+ commercial CDs out there. BTW don't forget to sign up for my mailing list - send a letter with the subject "subscribe" to list@zirconstudios.com. I send previews, prerelease info, special deals, and other cool stuff to everyone on it every month or so. Considering I'm already over half done with a NEW album (a side project) you should check it out

It's still in stock as far as I can tell... www.cdbaby.com/zircon3 Though they're going fast. Edit: WOW I sold out? Awesome! If you didn't get your copy, you STILL CAN on iTunes ($9.99) or my own website, a digital WAV copy ($11.99) - no shipping on either. $12.99 for the physical at Amazon isn't bad either, especially if you buy some other tunes, because you can get that free super saver discount.

We're putting the finishing touches on a third track today. So nice being in a bigger apartment... I'm out in the living room sequencing while she's in the bedroom recording. Yay productivity!

WOW. I actually heard this track awhile back and it's been on my iPod (only on my iPod) ever since... SO good. blind/leifo deserve a deal. Plus y'all can look forward to two, possibly three, tracks from them on the upcoming FF7 project. Congrats!

I decided not to list it in the "$5 sale" section because that forces you to buy 3 CDs at $5 to get the discount. I want everyone to get the discount

Not exactly... I'm doing the sale because I want more people to have the CD. And, from a boring marketing perspective, I hope that if you like this CD you'll stay tuned for future works and perhaps buy those too. When I say I lose money I mean that the CD sells for $5 (a price that I set, temporarily), CD Baby takes $4, and I get the extra $1. However each disc took about $1.60 to make so I'm not turning a profit. On normal sales - be they iTunes, Amazon, or the standard $12.99 on CD Baby - I do make a little bit of money. All things considered through I'm still in the red from my $1,800 investment Anyway, the bottom line is, if you want the CD now is the best time to buy it. Or multiple copies. I guarantee you will not regret it!

Bump since it's now August 1st. Enjoy it while you can. ps. I actually lose money on this

I can understand criticisms of the distortion or "crunchiness" in the low end but I don't think it's an issue. The sound balance sounds fine on my headphones and there's no clipping, artifacts, or digital distortion. On the whole, this is a well-crafted and enjoyable remix that really expands on a simple and rather crappy source. Chill pads and ambience, crunchy beats, synth riffage... it all gels together swimmingly. Some might say the arrangement doesn't really go anywhere, or it's not melodic enough, but I think TO covered all the bases in his own style as best as one can when working with a source tune like this. Good job. YES

I don't have a lot to add here. I was worried about level of arrangement up until around 1:23 where things definitely got interesting. As a whole, this mix is a solid piece that sets itself apart from other piano arrangements of the 600AD theme. I feel like the low-mid freqs could be toned down a bit as the mix is just a LITTLE muddy, and some new chords or chord variations would have been nice to hear. I don't have a big problem with the ending as the cutoff isn't TOO abrupt... but I wouldn't mind a fixed version. Would have been nice to hear another minute of arrangement, but it's up to snuff. YES

Props to Matt for hooking up OCR with the under-represented psytrance genre. We hardly get any subs in this style, much less actual posted remixes. Anyway, the volume levels here are pretty hot.. in particular the intro, with the intercom-style voice clips. However, it's not a problem once more elements are added and the compressor has more material to work with. I can understand criticism of the mono leads and the slightly cluttered texture, but overall I'd say this is relatively minor. I'm glad the mixer didn't use the same kind of detuned/distorted lead throughout and varied it up instead. Guitars are used tastefully though they're a little quiet. Really cool track overall. Reminds me of the group "Infected Mushroom" - particularly when all the sound effects are used to thicken things up. The arrangement is rock solid and the production, while perhaps a little rough around the edges, easily gets the job done. Good to hear "DJ Carbunk1e" back in action. YES

Considering these are the OCR wip forums, it makes sense to talk about things in the context of OCR...

He seemed pretty adamant... "Well, it's not from a game. It's from a game system."

As I'm helping to produce/master some of the tracks, I can say all of the ones I've heard so far are great. Even if you don't like some of pixie's remixes, you'll no doubt find something you like here as there are a lot of styles involved.

I think the instrumentation and a lot of the ideas here are quite creative. The little details, like the pitch bends in the leads, and the varied percussive rhythms, add to the piece as a whole. However, the production is definitely weak in a few spots. The drum samples are just not very good, and are mixed quitely. The mastering is high-frequency heavy, and needs a little bit of compression and limiting to smooth over spikes here and there. In general, more effects would be really nice, such as reverb and delay, or at least longer release times for some instruments so things don't sound as dry. Another idea is to add more backing pads and harmony arpeggios or rhythms to fill out some of the empty space. The arrangement itself is decent; it sticks somewhat close to the original for a lot of the time, and while I think it's probably hovering around our bar, you might seal the deal by adding some solos or significant variations over the original chord progression. Keep up on the ReMixing forum, as well as #ocrwip on IRC, for more tech help. NO

I have to agree with Larry, this certainly has some nice energy, and a lot of the ideas are good in terms of instrumentation. However, the mixing/mastering is definitely off - pumping compression and weird balance that under-emphasizes melody and over-emphasizes mid freqs. Because the mix is so crowded it's hard for you to add anything more harmonically or rhythmically interesting... you know, like additional percussive parts, more synths, etc. Production is the real problem here, so tune that up first. Once that's done (visit the ReMixing forum if you need help) work on an arrangement that incorporates more variation on the source tunes, and original material that connects to them. For example, soloing over a chord progression. Good luck! NO

For one day only, starting 12:01 AM on August 1st and ending 11:59 PM, you will be able to purchase my newest album Antigravity for a mere $5 at CD Baby. This isn't a digital download or a 'damaged' copy or promo; it's the shrink-wrapped physical deal. $5! http://www.cdbaby.com/zircon3 In case you haven't seen me post about it before (or you've simply missed my sig), it's a breakbeat/electronic album featuring 13 songs and guest performers like pixietricks, Fishy, big giant circles, and GeoffreyTaucer. Numerous tracks have been "Track of the Day" and "Track of the Week" on garageband.com and many people in the community have already picked up one (or more) copies and enjoyed 'em. So if you've been on the fence before, now it's really a no brainer You'll also be able to pick up tons of other great CDs at $5, and believe me, there is a lot of good independent music on that site you WON'T find anywhere else. Mark your calendar!

Kicks are really hard to get right. I have a lot of trouble with it myself. The key is to find a good sample to begin with. You want something TIGHT that isn't too "flabby" (eg. really low tuned) and that has rich harmonics. For rock songs these days, generally the kick is emphasized more in the upper frequencies than the lower. It's ok to have it be a little clicky. Compression - low threshold (like -20db), fast attack (~10ms), high gain, and high ratio (4:1 or higher) can really increase the punch there. You may also try layering other kick samples together to sculpt the exact sound you are looking for. Don't forget to roll off the bass on other instruments to leave room in that low range. Unfortunately there is no easy answer to drum mixing when using samples (that would be the proper term btw - mixing, not mastering). As someone like Sixto will tell you, you can have dozens of gigabytes of samples and still not be able to mix the kick "just right". Overdriven guitar is another story. It really depends on your exact tone, but typically I skim on the bass and keep most of the 'chunk' in the low-mids to mids. If guitar is really in the forefront, the highs can be kept also, but if not they should be dulled so you don't get a lot of that high end buzz and noise.

1. I use EQ at least as much as you do. I do a lot of heavy sculpting and, especially if you're doing electronic music, it's pretty much par for the course. You should only be worried if you're doing major EQ on live instrument tracks (guitars, vocals, drums etc). If the recordings are that bad that they need to be heavily EQed, you might want to record them better. 2. Compression is a great tool, but it really depends on the genre of music you're working in. What kind of guitar? What kind of drums? If you could be a little more specific, I could give you specific advice and examples

Comcast, $33/mo for 6 Mb/s, bundled with $33 digital cable TV. Rates will go up to $50-55 after 12 months. America is not much better :/

I have to agree with Larry. The guitar at the beginning is really thin and fake. Try adding some effects to it and writing out more interesting rhythms to make it fit a little better. The synths are pretty good overall; very "new age" in style, airy and ethereal. However they could use some additional stereo width for the most part, which can be accomplished with delay or a 'stereo enhancer' plugin. The guitar that comes in around 2:07 (Slayer) is really fake and mechanical. Don't even really bother with this instrument unless you are an absolute master of sequencing electric guitar, because it's an overused and unrealistic sound to begin with. I see where you were going up to 2:25 - the buildup to a more climactic section. However, it doesn't really work because the drums and new bassline are very weak and provide little energy. If the rhythms were more bombastic, it would have been much more effective. In general, you have some good ideas throughout the arrangement (like a lot of the original material and variation past 3:20), and you have a sense of dynamics which is good. What you need to work on most is your execution and implementation. Visit the ReMixing forum often to get help on specific elements of production, such as guitar/drum sequencing. Additionally, the last few minutes of the arrangement needs some filling out; more instrumental parts, more harmonies, more percussion, whatever it takes. You might also reconsider how you want to transition between the rather laid-back, new age style of the first 2:25 and the dramatic latter part of the song. As it is, the change is a bit abrupt. Keep at it. NO