zircon

Hey guys, just as a heads up, we're planning a meetup in Philadelphia on May 20th to celebrate VGDJ's one year anniversary (technically May 22nd). I made a separate thread about it here; http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=82644 I hope to see at least some of you there! It would be great to meet the fans

I still have TONS of fun in BGs. As long as you don't turn it into a grind, then you can have fun with it. I pull 75-125k a week - nothing special - but I have a blast.

Also there's something to be said for being on a server where saying someone's name inspires fear into the opposing faction. There are times in the BGs where your average horde pug will see a single name on the opposing list, pee their pants, and AFK out. My guild is a guild that inspires terror into Alliance teams - even the very best. And that's a GREAT feeling.

AVs are usually going all day starting at 10AM EST. By prime time you can expect 2 AVs. On holidays there are way more. Both AB and WSG run all day, pretty much; as Horde, we bitch if the queue time is more than 3 minutes. Most times you get in almost instantly. 5-7 instances of AB and 2-3 of WSG is not uncommon in prime time, and on holidays you see sometimes 10 or more of the holiday instance (AV aside). Gorefiend is a very competitive server overall; it's lots of fun. For example there is a Horde guild called "No Quarter" EXCLUSIVELY devoted to PVP. They basically don't PVE at all. Once in awhile they *might* run a 20 man but that's it. All of their members are geared out in basically pure PVP gear and despite the fact that some alliance guilds like SiNister and excessive are deep into AQ, NQ is so good at PVP that they often win against guilds with far better gear. Also there are usually at least a handful of Horde grinding to rank 14 at any given time (I know 3 people who are offhand) and even more going to rank 12-13. These people will often form all-day pickup BG groups so they can get fast honor.

Just as a slight update, I've been fooling around with it and I'm definitely impressed overall. The features and option set is certainly superior to anything I've used, and I like it a HELL of a lot more than Logic. Now, I haven't gotten to editing MIDI w/ it but I never really planned to use it like that to begin with. Nothing beats FL in that department, as far as I'm concerned.. but I suppose I'll have to see.

You can play with me on Gorefiend. I'm in a really cool guild where I'm an officer; it's been around for about a year now, we do all sorts of content, and we have a <60 division too.

It's that time again... VGDJ Episode 037 is now available at WWW.VGDJ.NET! You best be downloading it on our brand new site!

I didn't say that there wasn't anything that cheap; simply that there is a sacrifice in quality when you go that low.

Here, check a couple of these things out. http://my.mackie.com/profile/rgp_trk_nfra.asp?t=tnfra This is a link to register + download (legally) "Tracktion" which is sort of similar to Fruityloops. You can use different plugins or samples in this program, which will give you a wider variety of sounds to choose from. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows This one is "Audacity" as I mentioned earlier. You can use this to edit audio, add effects, layer different MP3s or WAV files, lots of good stuff. It's totally free also. http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/composer/download.htm This is called "Noteworthy Composer". If you are used to looking at traditional sheet music, this program lets you write music in that format. It can produce MIDIs, which you can then load into something like Fruityloops or Tracktion if you want to upgrade the sound quality. http://www.finalemusic.com/store/login.asp?target=notepad&npv=06&npp=win Finally, this is another traditional notation program, like Noteworthy Composer. Try it if you don't like NWC's interface etc.

I'm in your guild, that's how I know I'm Arendor, 60 Priest. Yeah, I know, it's kind of annoying. But here's what you can try. Let's say you wrote 15 seconds of a song and it sounds really good. What you can do is export the song as a WAV, and then, using a free program like Audacity, you can put the WAV in there and save it. You can also do this on a per-pattern basis. So you can make a drum loop, export that alone as a WAV, a string part, a guitar part, all of those can be exported (rendered) separately and then you can put 'em into an audio editor. Just hop on SL vent sometime when I'm on man, I'll tell you more

Yo man. Just in case you didn't see my other post, do you by any chance play on Gorefiend in World of Warcraft? I think you actually know me on there.. hop on vent sometime Anyway I'm going to go ahead and move this to the ReMixing forum. You will get some more help there.

This one isn't too interpretive. I do like the groove element - smooth drums and bass, except for the fact that the drumloop is just an unaltered one from Reason. That's kind of lame. You usually want to at least chop up the loop a bit, use layering, variations, that kind of thing to make it more your own. You did do that a little later but you repeated the same variations over and over. For the most part, the texture here is pretty minimal even compared to the original. There's not a whole lot going on at all. Just bass, drums, pizz. strings, maybe a synth or two. You need more than that for a really full remix, or at the very least the individual parts have to be doing a lot more. Right now they're just sort of playing the melody/harmony unaltered. You can vary up the progression, changes rhythms, keys, the time signature.. a whole BUNCH of stuff to really make the ReMix your own. On the production end, the strings are a little too loud compared to the lead instrument(s) usually, and the synths are very simplistic. However, this isn't as big of a deal as the arrangement and the overall execution. Needs a lot more work all around, but if this is an early effort, it's not too bad. NO

Conceptually this is pretty cool. I could see this being developed into something fuller. At the moment however there are sound quality issues, and the arrangement is sort of one of two things; either a simplified, straight-up cover of the original, or unrelated entirely. There is not a lot linking the Chrono Trigger stuff with the glitchy/ambient stuff. Not to mention the texture overall is pretty sparse, and not in a good way either. On the production end, I just have to say that it's too glitchy. The ambiance is a nice thought but it's not executed well - it comes across more like noise. It's not pleasant or really musical. The drums are also grating. They aren't interesting in either their timbre or their rhythm. Other synths + instruments used are also basic. Again, good ideas but needs a lot more polish NO

The source tune here is really pretty basic and simplistic, but there's lots of material to build off of. Let's see what Roe did with it.. Alright, pretty cool groove going on; the combination of the keys, drums, and guitar is good. I like the part interaction there. In terms of production values this is cleaner than a lot of Roe's previous stuff. I appreciate that aspect. The percussive sequencing is also markedly better. However everything seems a little tilted towards the mids-highs. There's not a lot of bass presence, even from the string pads. In fact it's difficult to discern much bass at all. This unfortunately makes the whole thing sound somewhat thin and lower fi than it should. Not sure what happened to the low-end here but try to work on that. That issue aside I did not really hear any problems with the mixing. No other production problems at all as a matter of fact. The arrangement is a really tough call for me. To me it's JUST about there. It doesn't have all that much movement, but it does have a good amount of interpretation, and the structure isn't really all that bad either (there is a definite intro, middle, end, etc). While I think it sits right on the border, I think it's barely enough to pass our bar. Given that I have no major production complaints I'm going to go ahead and give this a YES

Just include it in the submission email and request that djp use that in his writeup.

There's too much polyphony and there are sampled drums in there that don't sound 8bit. If a C64 could actually do everything in this song with no modifications I'd be shocked.

Keep in mind this is not technically a chiptune. It does not adhere to any chiptune standards I'm aware of. That is what made the decision harder for us.

www.sweetwater.com ! They have an absolutely massive stock of pretty much every music-related item you can imagine, and the prices are generally good (you can use froogle once you find an item you like and see if you can get it for a bit cheaper, but I don't mind paying a little bit more for the service). They are also knowledgable, for the most part, so if you have questions about specific items - or just questions in general - they are good about answering them. Calling them is toll free too so you have noting to lose. In regards to actually micing the piano itself, a technique you might try is X/Y micing with two condenser microphones. This will give you a good stereo image and minimize phase problems. Here's how you would set up the mics. I don't think you would need more than two mics. In fact, you don't even really NEED two, it's just nice to get the full stereo picture. In terms of how you position the mics in relation to the piano itself, this is really trial and error. It also depends on how much of a room sound you want, or if you want a really close sound. Your best bet is to just experiment until you find the sound you want.

Guitar doubling is a very common technique among guitarists for getting a wider sound. The usage here was a bit unconventional because usually the doubled track is played nearly exactly the same, whereas here, the tracks were somewhat different. I don't think it's a big deal though. Also, the lead is only slightly panned left as far as I can hear. It's definitely not hard left.

VGDJ Episode 036 is now available at WWW.VGDJ.NET! We hope you all enjoy it! Also, please vote for us at podcastalley, we really could use it. Thanks, and again, enjoy the show!

This is all bunk. Compy, simply put, you don't use FLstudio. I do. No, it's not as fully featured as, say, Pro Tools in terms of customizing your options. But it's pretty damn good at what it does. I've done numerous songs with recordings in them and I've found FLStudio to be more than adequate; conversely I've also used sequencers like Cubase and Logic and I didn't like them nearly as much. Automation is very fully featured as well (there are multiple ways of doing it). There are three different ways of doing it, as a matter of fact! Don't give this guy the wrong impressions please. Independent artists all around the world have put out professional releases with a wide range of sequencers, from things like Garageband, to FLStudio, to Tracktion.

Haha.. lemme just tell you a couple things real quick about unusual specs 1. When I was specced shadow with about MC level gear, I topped the damage meters. Shadow priests own.. HARD. 2. There's a guild on my server that has a Feral druid tank the Broodlord in Blackwing Lair, one of the more difficult bosses in the game. 3. All warriors in my guild save one (who is only the tertiary main tank) are Arms/Fury/Prot, all the way down to 31 in Arms. I'm on a PVP server so almost all warriors are specced this way.

Yeah, a lot of that sound is in the sample you use. You could try to reproduce the effect with lots of tweaking, compression, etc.. but you're better off just getting a nice "splash" clap sound. It's not the punch that gives it the unique sound. It's the really hot sustain; it doesn't just have a short transient, it holds for a bit.

Ah, another convert FLStudio users unite!

Unfortunately mods can't make you a better PVPer, or better at high end raid content. There are decisions that HAVE to be made by a human. Not in most of the guilds I have seen. Taking decisions often mean "not following the walkthrough linked 25 times on the forum." I have seriously seen some guild leaders complain about someone making decisions during a battle... There is a plan and we must follow it. If we die, we are not following it enough. These macros are more often than not used in high end PVE gaming to be sure that no one makes the wrong decision. The leaders say which macros you need and which settings you should have. You're talking to someone who does MC, BWL, AQ40, and outdoor encounters. I know the endgame. Macros cannot win difficult battles. You need to be able to adapt in the middle of a fight; that's how the hard encounters work.