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Yes, you are saving tons of money. A digital piano with speakers and built in sounds would cost several times the Keystation. $400 might get you a crappy keyboard in terms of feel, maybe not even 88 keys, bad sensitivity, etc. Possibly no MIDI capability, certainly no USB. My sister just picked up a middle-of-the-line digital piano w/ 88 weighted keys, MIDI, speakers, and built in sounds. $1100.

Try an M-Audio Keystation 88. Runs $200, full range, nice keys. Pick up an MP-2 sustain pedal while you're at it ($25). It doesn't have any built in sounds, but you can just hook it up to your computer (and reason) to practice via USB.

Some additions to my setup... M-Audio Keystation Pro 88, Sonic Reality's "RAW" Universal Groove Kit, Dimension Pro, Wusikstation 3, and Gigastudio 3 ensemble.

There's always #vgdj, bro. You talk to me when I'm there and I'll respond

A Shure SM57 or SM58 will be your best bet for that wide range of purposes, but you are really better off specializing and getting multiple mics - ESPECIALLY if you plan on using it as a boom mic...

We don't care about style or genre. If you read the sub standards we are very clear about what we look for in a ReMix. It boils down to creative interpretation of the original, good production, and general musicality.

Nah, it includes the Large Bodhran (a big ethnic drum) and the Heavy Kit (a GM acoustic drumkit). I have Ultimate Pianos but I haven't used it yet... sorry!

No, I haven't gotten it myself. I have several of the component libraries to begin with.

Life Stream is not taken, and yes, you can integrate that into your arrangement.

DZComposer; this isn't the same sample disc as the one they were mailing before, it's a new one.

Man, the source tune for this is one of my favorites. You took it in an interesting direction melodically speaking; lots of changes to pitches and rhythms. Definitely not a cover by any stretch of the imagination. Impressive sound design too. As a fellow synthesist I can really appreciate all the stuff that was going on here. I think some of the melodic & harmonic elements might have been overshadowed by the ambience and effects at times. Also, the percussion tended to be a little plodding. Doing some double or even triple tempo fills would have really made it more interesting. Additionally I thought the perc was overly repetitive. You could have done a lot more with all the sfx being used to make it more engaging by the second half. Arrangement-wise... nice Kefka quotes there. I caught 'em all. The arrangement in the first 3/4 probably could have been more interesting, like TO pointed out. But towards the end you start doing some more fun stuff to fill things out. That percussion pattern is really killing me and making this lose out on its full potential, but that's not really a good reason to NO it. YES

You can use the opening theme only, the "bombing mission" theme, or both.

People on KVRaudio recommended using FlashGet.

http://www.soundsonline.com/Free-Virtual-Instruments-Sampler-Disc-pr-EW-D2.html 12 instruments total. The instruments are not stripped down from their normal form and there are some good ones in there. It comes with its own sampler so you don't have to worry about getting Kontakt or Gigastudio or anything like that. Enjoy! EDIT: IT'S DOWNLOADABLE BTW!

I'm pretty sure the lyrics don't have to directly tie in with the game, much like lyrics for OCReMixes don't have to.

OH SHIT!!!!

What full name would you have used on the address part? I can search for it.

It's not going to be soon. We have a little over half the tracks done, plus we haven't even started on a website of any kind.

They're music gear shops. Live jams, anyone?

Well, the reward for people that did a track for the project is... being on the project You don't need me to tell you how big it's gonna be. Ayres; sadly, no, we're not close. There are people who haven't given me updates on their tracks for upwards of 6 months. It's incredibly frustrating. That being said, we have about.. 20 or 21 final WAVs sitting on my hard drive. Shooting for another 15 or so.

Jose - looks good to me! I'm down for that as our gameplan. For overnight stuff, people are welcome to spend a night over at scenic Zircon Studios (well... former Zircon Studios) - aka, my parents' house in Pleasantville. It's got a luxurious basement replete with a foldout couch. We can probably find some sleeping bags, too. Getting there isn't terribly hard; trains run from Grand Central to P'ville on the Harlem Line to Southeast until nearly 2am. The trip itself is about 45 minutes. Tickets cost about $7.40 one way, but hey, $14.80 round trip isn't much compared to a night at a hotel in the area. There are plenty of places to eat in Pleasantville for breakfast/lunch too, such as a 24/7 diner, a French bakery/pastry place, a cheap but incredibly good Chinese place, several authentic NY-style pizza joints, and so on and so forth. So... yeah, it'll be fun, if anyone wants to come At the very least, pixietricks, myself, and Taucer will be there afterwards.

I do dig the arrangement here, but I kind of agree with Larry. Something here is not quite clicking. I think the beats are off a little, in some way... they don't have a good groove to them, and they're really electronic-sounding compared to everything else. Maybe doing more with 16th notes in the drums would help. Also, decreasing the volume and high end on some of the pads would help. Perhaps double the melody instrument(s) with some sustained synth pads so it's more audible and cuts through more? Just spend a little more time here tweaking levels & effects and I think you'll be in good stead. Structurally, I do kind of feel like this isn't quite varied enough. I guess the word is "meandering". The beats change, the instruments change, but I don't think it really goes anywhere. More dynamics would be cool. Maybe some kind of breakdown or significant instrumental change. This is pretty close to the bar, but I feel like it needs a little reworking before I can pass it. Please resub. NO

Yeah, WIPs can be public, but I'd prefer if you didn't post the final entry publically.

What VSTs?

We covered Anxious Heart and a little bit of the main theme. She wrote the lyrics and the melody/harmony (it's original!)