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Any program that can host VSTs will let you do that without much difficulty. Reason is a fine place to start, however, as it's not too expensive, has lots of built-in tools, and is CPU-efficient.

Audio just means the samples are unformatted. You have to create sample patches yourself.

How were Voyager's characters cookie-cutter? Janeway was nothing like Picard or Kirk. She was more geeky than both, with a greater interest in engineering and science, and often contributed to technological solutions. She also had a significant other, and dealt with moral dilemmas differently than either Kirk or Picard. Tom Paris and Harry Kim are both great. Paris' efforts to redeem himself from a pessimistic, selfish ass to someone with a real goal and purpose was cool - I can't think of any TOS or TNG character that had a really criminal history. Kim has some traits of the overeager new guy - like Wesley did - but the fact that he befriended Paris, and his relationship with a girlfriend on Earth, those things added to his interest. Enjoyable. Neelix is another fun one. He's not just comic relief ("Jetrel" anyone?) - he has some dark spots in his past as well, and has to come to grips with them. He genuinely acts like a guy who's been everywhere, a jack-of-all-trades, without seeming unrealistic or stupid. Then we have the Doctor... geez, how could anyone say something negative about him? Belana (sp) is always a fun one as she's constantly grappling with her Klingon side. It's rare in the other series to see someone constantly on the edge like that. The episode where she tries to remove the Klingon DNA from her child (and when she herself gets split into two) are both fascinating. Chakotay being Janeway's bitch? Uh, anyone remember the episode where he stole a shuttle and broke every procedure and protocol to settle a personal vendetta with Seska? Season 2. Convenient to overlook that, I'm sure. etc etc... I mean, really, I don't think you guys are being entirely fair here, for whatever reason. It's a good series.

I searched for the M-Audio and it is priced at 599? Is that right? No. Sweetwater sells the M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 for $400.

Voyager was good. If you don't get lost in pointless fandom and look at it objectively, it's a great concept with great acting. There is strong characterization, unique scenarios, a good mix of action and thought-provoking material, etc.

The Evolution seems a little pricey. I recommend an M-Audio Keystation (Pro) or an Edirol. Both have done me well.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your method. To make sure we're being clear, using your method, how would you approach analyzing the chord progression of the Final Fantasy Legend main theme? The mp3 is here. Take me through step by step. http://www.soundtempest.net/FFLTheme.mp3 Keep in mind I'm not trying to discount you simply because I feel like it, or because your opinion isn't my opinion. I just don't want a method to be used that doesn't actually work in all cases, or one that will give you incorrect information when used. That is obviously bad. And of course, I wouldn't be posting a response at all if I didn't think there was the possibility that I might be mistaken and that I might have misunderstood you.

No, it can be done, it's just more expensive. That's what Yoozer and I have been saying. For $1000, however, you are not going to get a high-end workstation. For $500 (or less), you CAN get a high end MIDI controller that will control all of your plugins - eg. the Keystation Pro 88, or the CME UF8, for example. 88 key weighted devices with tons of knobs, sliders, and buttons. If you want to go the workstation route and have built in sounds, a built in sequencer, built in effects (etc) then you have to consider offerings by Roland, Korg, Alesis, and Yamaha. The Alesis QS8.2 is 88 keys and costs $800. The Alesis QS6.2 is 61 key and costs $500, but doesn't have piano action. Their strongest contender is the flagship Alesis Fusion - the 6HD version runs $1000 and has a TON of features. For other brands, the Yamaha MO8 is 61 key and packs a lot of power, but costs $1,200. They have the less-powerful alternatives S08 ($1000) and S03 ($500) with 88 and 61 keys, respectively. Korg offers the TR61, a cut down Triton (a fantastic keyboard) that is 61 keys and $1000. Those are all the ones I can think of around your price range. I would do research on all of them; listen to sound demos, read reviews, and above all else, try to play them in a music gear store.

That doesn't work for any chord that is inverted... eg. the second chord in the progression of "Final Fantasy Legend". The bassline goes from an E to a D, while the melody continues to play back and forth between E G# and B. Can't assume the root note determines the chord. You have to look at all the notes and rearrange them.

Ok.. you contradicted yourself. You said you wanted to use the keyboard to control things, and that you would use plugins and sfz, but then you said you want to record sounds and music from the keyboard. Do you want a MIDI CONTROLLER (NO sounds at all) or a workstation/synthesizer? The latter doubles as a controller, but is typically heavier and more expensive. Please be clear.

PHANTASY STAR 4!!!!!

The pad that comes in towards the end is actually Dimension Pro. I do use Absynth periodically but I don't like the interface, and I also don't like most of the presets - too "experimental". The supersaw-style lead is a custom Pro-53 patch and a Dimension Pro one. I've been working on an update for a bit. It's coming soon.

Yep. As a matter of fact every Spectrasonics product is unbelievably good. They were behind "Distorted Reality" which is the #1 selling sample library of all time, and something you probably hear like 50 times a day.

Stuff to do at my place? Well, we'll be getting back late. But I have a TV downstairs with a Gamecube, and I'm sure we'll have a Wii. Plus there's always messing around under my nick in the judge chat (or seeing the SECRET FORUMS), busting out some tunes w/ FL, etc. Should be fun - it was last year!

Symphony of Voices, by Spectrasonics. It has multisampled solo soprano, multisampled ahh/ooh choirs (male/female) as well as boy's choir, solo boy, solo tenor, and pop choirs. Plus some sampled phrases. It's probably the most useful library ever and it's like... 10 years old.

Yeah, I probably will add a lot more to it. Once again, just a sketch that I did in less than a day. What I was really thinking of was some of their remix work, such as their LA Blackout remix of TCM's "Name of the Game", or their Moby Bodyrock mix, or their remix of BT's "Godspeed". The beat will get more interesting throughout this particular mix, as you might hear towards the end I'm building up the layers As for being analogue-sounding, I take that as a HUGE compliment!!! Thanks. Miszou; I'm working on more stuff for the intro now. I agree it's pretty sparse right now.

Good point - it's such a small section of the original I wasn't thinking about it. I would encourage you to use more of the source. There are a lot of riffs you could integrate into your arrangement.

Err you know that Flying Heaven track is an OC ReMix, right? http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01480/ You can enjoy it in all its glory here. Thanks for the feedback so far, guys.

http://www.zirconstudios.com/sketch.mp3 Pretty early on as I started it today, but I'm working hard on it and I think it's coming out well. Don't really have more to say

Basically starting at 1:15. The D -> F -> E -> Eb bassline progression. That has nothing to do with the source tune here, but it sounds similar to AC.

Most of this remix is not connected to Bombing Mission. Sounds like you were taking a lot of inspiration from the Advent Children soundtrack, however.

Last time, the meetup pretty much ended after dinner. We only wandered around for a short time after that. Generally speaking people can stay over at my place for as long as necessary (within reason), it's not like there's a particular rule about it.

Yeah, I have Komplete 4, actually. You can't beat that package in terms of value for money. I'm using Akoustik Piano and Elektrik Piano regularly, for sure; Guitar Rig 2 is fantastic (even though I'm a novice guitar player). FM8 is an upgrade over FM7 in terms of easy editing features, but especially in terms of preset browsing. They added literally thousands of presets and you can now search via the KORE browser even without having KORE. So, if you want warm pad sounds... you can simply highlight "Pad" "Warm" "Sustained" "Analog" for example, and it will narrow down the list of presets for you. I haven't used Absynth 4 much, but then again, I was never a big fan of Absynth. A little too experimental for me, I think. Battery 3 is cool though!

Hey, can I go ahead and ask who exactly will be staying over at my place? I'll need to plan ahead a bit for lodging arrangements. Ideally if you plan on staying over you should bring a sleeping bag. I'll have some spare stuff - definitely sheets, blankets, and pillows - but I don't think I have more than one or two sleeping bags. So far, there's me, pixietricks, and GeoffreyTaucer for sure.

Just because a judge votes NO, that doesn't mean he or she is "turning up their nose". That's ridiculous. For example, I voted NO. I thought it was a cool mix with some great ideas. I liked the guitar performance, the instrumentation, and especially the arrangement and the overall atmosphere. I just felt that the tuning detracted from the mix, and the pan flute/tambourine could have been tweaked a little bit, and that those things made it fall slightly below our production bar. As far as I'm concerned, it's cool that it got posted. I don't think it was a mistake to put it up here. That's why we have a panel of multiple people, after all.