zircon

http://www.zirconstudios.com/redxiii.mp3

A reviewer in my school newspaper said it's a great movie for jocks and for quotes to put in your AIM profile. I thought that was kinda funny, since based on the trailers, it seems like that's what it is...

As with Daragen's FF7 sub "Collision", WARNING: BIAS!!! But nah, in all seriousness, this is an obvious YES; * Very creative instrumentation and sound design. There's automatic, changeups, and a total shift in the sound at the last part of the song. * Good amount of variation on the source tune, copious amounts of original material. * Cohesive production + mastering. * Phat breaks I heard the first version of this months ago. I spent weeks giving AnotherSoundscape some tips on improving it and he did a GREAT job of fixing basically every problem I had. This is the result.

My groove bias has kicked in and is operating at maximum capacity. I really like the way the rhythms here and the synth design. Very energetic and full of life. I wasn't feeling the lead though, which is really dry for some reason... why not put some verb/delay on it? It would sound a lot better and fit in with the rest of the mix, which is "wet" for the most part. The use of SFX was cool. I do have two problems. The arrangement is pretty close to the original, as Larry pointed out, with the same riff(s) repeating quite a few times. Also, the instrumental texture stays pretty static. Neither of these would be too big of a deal on their own, like if you were constantly switching up the instruments and doing some crazy synthwork, it could make up for a more conservative arrangement. Likewise, not having as much variation in the sounds would be OK if the arrangement was in-depth in creative. Ideally you want both. But right now you don't have enough of either. This is a very cool song right now and I like your style. Just polish it up a little bit and it will be an easy YES. Looking forward to the album! NO

I agree, arrangement, concept, and production here are all quite good. It boils down to the vocals. The performance isn't any worse than on DragonAvenger's FFX mix. However, that one had more processing on top. Because the vocals carry the mix on top, adding just some stereo widening, reverb, and maybe a bit of delay would make it easily passable. Really simple change and it'll be a YES. NO, resubmit

I think the groove is kind of low-energy here. Nothing really wrong with the production of it, but the tempo is chilled and there isn't a lot of direction. While the original felt highly dynamic and always moving, the remix felt pretty static. A lot of the instrumental parts were also sequenced in a somewhat mechanical manner. The rhythms are simple and a lot of the samples are just on the dull side. I would have appreciated more changes to the texture too. Larry hit the nail on the head. If this was more expansive and less loopy/repetitive it would be much stronger. Do more with the arrangement. NO

As Larry said, pretty interesting texture here and not quite what you'd expect. Your drums this time around are processed better than in previous subs. That kit is becoming your signature thing When things pick up at 1:15, I was feeling it. Reminds me of C.Pacaud and K.Praslowicz stylistically... sort of dark and moody. The guitar mixing strikes me as a bit weird but it works well. Solos + original material are great as usual, and overall the arrangement is very good. I like the different styles you used here. Nice work, Mike! YES

You need to buy the full version of the FL Soundfont Player. Alternatively get the free VST "sfz" which will load them.

Final should be about 35.

Err I already suggested all that to the OP - that it could be an HD issue. And he did say he runs at ~45ms latency which is pretty high.

Yeah, I agree that a processor upgrade from a 3.2ghz to a C2D will be amazing. I just basically did that myself and I love it. But then again, I was constantly hitting 99% CPU on all my projects. If you're not even using half yet, you have tons of room to grow. Not to mention when you DO hit 99% you can do optimizations like freezing + bouncing for at least a little while.

Hmm... if your CPU usage is at 30% and you're getting crackling, that sounds like a BIG driver problem. You should be able to push to 90%+ before you even start. So I suggest upgrading your interface *first* (eg. don't use onboard audio) - perhaps to an EMU 0404 PCI card. Then you'll also want to take a look at your disk streaming settings and hard drive speed. Even a fast computer w/ good drivers might choke on plugins that rely on disk streaming (QLSO might, depending on configuration). For example, dense QLSO Gold setups in FL7 for me, even at <20% CPU usage with good drivers, can cause some crackling for me because of heavy disk streaming. Anyway, I want to emphasize... it sounds like you are doing OK with your current CPU because your % usage is low. No need to upgrade that yet. Just get a new interface.

Speaking of, I need a Sol rune and a 4 socket Polearm myself - trying to buff up Mr. Merc.

Great idea. I'll be putting some items on it.

Stereo expanders can work in different ways. A lot of them simply delay the signal on one side, pan the delay 100% in one direction, and then pan the original signal 100% in the other direction. Though the delay is miniscule (usually no more than 10ms, and even that is excessive), your brain easily perceives and processes it and thus it sounds far wider. If you simply took the same track, duplicated it, and then panned the two in opposite directions, you would not hear any differece. Your brain needs some sort of time information to help process stereo image. The problem with this method is that if your mix is compressed to mono, you will get LOTS of phase cancellation and it will sound awful. This is the main method I am familiar with. Other expanders use different, more advanced mechanics that involve changing frequencies and phases to achieve the same expansion effect without sacrificing mono-compatibility. I don't know how, though.

Nope, I haven't seen or used that... sorry!

Well... there's that, but even a single core on a 2.4ghz e6600 can outperform a 3ghz P4. FLStudio for example only uses one core for VST effects processing. I can load 13 instances of Garritan Ambiance before encountering pops/crackles. Compare that to 4 instances on my 3ghz P4. Other users report ~26 instances in Cubase - which DOES support multicore processing for VSTs. So really, it's like you have a 6ghz P4, or something like that.

Haha. Marcus Henderson rules. He's a nice guy in person.

Can you provide more info up front first?

Actually there is an advantage to upgrading your interface, even if you do work entirely "in the box"; that advantage would be superior ASIO drivers. I used to use an EMU 0404 PCI sound card. With it's onboard EMU ASIO drivers, I was able to get more out of my CPU (read: more plugins at the same latencies without crackling) as compared with asio4all and non-ASIO devices on my system. Then, when I upgraded to a Presonus Firebox, I got even better results. In the end I think it was a very worthwhile investment.

They are similar in construction, but not quite the same. The Lover Reef pad is from Pro-53; it's two oscs, a filter, delay, and reverb. The oscs are pulses, somewhat detuned, with the first osc having its pulse width modulated. The filter is a heavy lowpass. The synth in the tutorial is from Synth1 and uses saws instead of pulses.

No, that one is not on the project. PS. 28 tracks done!

DSP cards are cool, but expensive. If you're going to spend $700 on a Powercore MK II you might as well just save up for a Core 2 Duo processor... upgrading to one of those from a P4 like you have will let you run at least 4-6x as many plugins.

Happy birthday fishybean!!!

Y'all hatin' on my title! BTW Jon's original title was "Koopaclysm". pixietricks suggested "Kill the Beast!" (Beauty & the Beast reference) as well as "Mario Means Business!", the latter of which I liked, but ultimately I decided to go with something stupid that no one would like. LoL~!! Anyway, thanks everyone for all the feedback! It makes me warm and fuzzy inside. Mustin; I did take your advice on using guitar. Thanks man! Swordbreaker/OA; The guitar is sampled. It's from the library "Lyrical Distortion" run through some FL effects. I would have used real guitar, but I can't play well enough just yet. I didn't ask someone to because I prefer having immediate control over what I'm doing. I'm OK with sacrificing a little realism if it means being able to adjust timing, pitches, articulation, and tone instantly. I'd feel bad asking a guitarist to keep re-recording every time! I also appreciate the comparison to Protricity's style by Dave and others. Along with Disco Dan and Starblast, he's one of my top ReMixers and I've modeled some of my stuff with him in mind.