zircon

I have to recommend against Edirol HQ. As you said, the samples in HQ are relatively low quality - in fact, it's only a few hundred MB of saamples derived from old Roland keyboard expansions. Considering that it's $200, there is little reason NOT to get GPO which is also $200, or QLSO Silver which is only about $125. Both have more samples and better recorded samples.

I'm a big fan of TRacks, but it's a specific type of sound. It's "colored", not transparent. I also have the Waves Rennaisance compressor (part of the Rennaisance plugin pack) which I've found is a more sterile sound. I also use the FL Compressor a lot which is pretty surgical too. There's also "Dominion", a free VST plugin that can create some more saturated/crunchy sounds, though I'm not sure if it would be good for vocals.

I have to disagree with the excessive use of EQ, and frequency rolloff. I've tried this method a number of times and I've found that minimal EQ is almost always preferable. really "sculpting" a sound is OK for purely synthetic stuff (leads, pads), and I do encourage that, but for anything else I think it's a bad idea. Excellent points otherwise. Reverb on the master track is a terrible idea. Typically this is my final signal path for the master; * Parametric EQ (only making very small modifications, +/-3db, and usually only to the lows/highs) * TRacks compressor (I love the sound of this, and I set it so that I get a nice, saturated mix given the type of music I do) * TRacks limiter (some colored limiting to keep my levels in check)

So if I understand you, your entire vote boiled down to not liking his guitar sample?

I've been following this since it's inception and giving my own advice on it throughout, so it's cool to hear it in its final form. I really like the soundscape overall, and the drumwork + synths are particularly good. Lots of effects going on all over the place to spice it up. The guitar was made a lot more fluid since the last time I had heard it, and though the "chugs" could be better, I can't fault the ReMixer's samples. The arrangement is good overall. Nice intro, ending, original material - if I had to pick one beef it would be the transition section at 1:27-1:55, which has some notes/chords that don't sit too well with me, but that's basically it. Great mix with no substantial flaws. Easy; YES

Paladins are, by far, the most effective combat healers in all of WoW. In AB in particular, they are a serious force to be reckoned with. I cannot tell you how many times a Paladin has completely turned the tide of an encounter in a PVP match.

In terms of other things Shamans can do, I've found a few things. * If you go the support route, a 1h/shield Shaman with appropriate Enhancement talents is very hard to kill, having more armor than any other healing class besides a Paladin (possibly MORE than a Paladin if they're using 2h). Survivability is key in PVP, and you guys have Nature's Swiftness to back you up. What's nice is that as opposed to a Holy/Disc Priest, a Druid, or a Paladin, you can ALSO push out a game winning burst of DPS with a shock or Chain Lightning, possibly augmented by things like TOEP/ZHC. * If you go the Elemental route, I've seen and played with Shamans absolutely tear it up with massive CL/Shock damage. "Why not roll a Mage? Mages do it better." Because you guys ALSO can heal yourselves and others, as well as do melee damage when you're out of mana, and support your team at the same time. * Regardless of what route you go, and even though you have some useless totems, you still have some really good ones. Windfury totem is amazingly powerful when you have Warriors using tier 1.5-2 epics like Bonereaver's Edge, Spinal Reaper, Drake Talon Cleaver, and Untamed Blade. One of my favorite AB tactics is to send 3 Warriors with such weapons, a Shaman, and one other person to the Blacksmith and just overpower them with massive melee dps. Grounding totem can make the difference if you only have one dispeller of sheeps, Earthbind owns WSG, your fire totems can break node capping (incredibly annoying in AB) OR bring Rogues/Druids out of stealth, and so on and so forth.

Keep in mind you can't look at EVERYTHING from the 40-man raid perspective. But if you do, Shamans are still pretty nice. Threat reduction, +agility, mana regeneration, nature's swiftness, non-timer rez, reincarnation, efficient 1.5 second heal that's on-par with the Priest flash heal, chain heal, an assortment of other useful totems, and of course, Windfury (more importantly, Windfury totem). If you look across the board there are as many Horde guilds dominating AQ as there are Alliance guilds.

Yes, they do. With 1.10, that will be the case. Resto druids are very efficient, have the biggest heals in the game (come 1.10 since GHeal will be weakened), the best heal-over-time spells, combat rez, innervate, and Nature's Swiftness, all of which are lifesavers. Then that would be useless for PVP AND PVE. Right now, Shamans are pretty balanced, believe it or not. I've done all content except AQ in the game and PVPed for hundreds of hours. Shamans have a good role as a support class. With 1.10, they will be weaker than Priests overall in terms of healing, though they will make up for it in other areas. That avoids my point. Priests didn't have any mana restoration abilities, other classes did. Shouldn't a MAIN healer have more staying power than a HYBRID? I'm not proposing giving Priest's lifetap. I was pointing out, once again, that all other casting classes had mana regeneration, and we did not. We actually still aren't gaining anything, but our efficiency changes make up for it. Innervate can be cast on yourself, too. As I've said repeatedly, now, they ARE quite balanced. Perhaps a few tweaks to Rogues, but that's about it.

We just got the changes that were coming to us. Play a Priest and you'd see how we really needed these changes. For example, we are designated by Blizzard to be the premiere healing class. However (pre-1.10), a Disc/Holy Priest was only on the level with resto Shamans/Druids and Paladins. However, in terms of efficiency, Shaman's Lesser Healing Wave was actually MORE efficient than our Flash Heal. So was the lower rank Druid Healing Touch spells, and the Paladin's Flash of Light. Not to mention Priests were the only class not to get the full HP/S benefit from +healing, and the only casting class without any sort of mana regeneration talent or ability (Mages - Evocate, Warlocks - Lifetap, Shamans - Mana Tide/Spring, Druids - Innervate, Paladins - Blessing of Wisdom). It was an insult. The classes now are pretty much balanced.

It can't? I make my own loops out of singles hits in RMX all the time. Maybe I just don't understand what you're saying or I'm just a super RMX haxxor. You can take single hits and sequence them in YOUR sequencer, but RMX itself doesn't have a sequencer.

pixietricks actually speaks Japanese and has been studying it on a University level. I don't think it was an "attempt".

Well, statistically, the majority of WoW players are 60.. so, yeah, I'd expect that.

Well, you'd be surprised how deep the sample tweaking goes in Guru. They're both really good products.

It's true that Stylus RMX can't take individual hits and create loops out of them, but the massive core library and the fact that it can import loops makes it the most powerful drum machine around. Also, Battery is NOT like Guru. Battery is purely a drum machine - it loads a variety of drum samples and plays them back one at a time. It is not a loop machine.

Oh look who's in here again, our board sheriff. You know what? Find your own resources, do your own researches from now on... maybe somebody else will help you... but you don't have to expect it from me anymore. No one asked for your help. We don't need it. Don't expect anyone to beg you not to leave. In regards to the comment "board sheriff", well gee, I am a moderator after all. It's my job to police these forums - this one in particular - and keep it as a helpful resource for both inexperienced and experienced ReMixers alike. Everyone who has followed this forum for the last few months KNOWS that you post in literally every single thread Argitoth makes. You stalk the guy. It's not a conspiracy theory, it's easily verifiable with a forum search. I don't write complaints. You do. As always, future off-topic posts will be deleted.

It's very true that you do seem to go out of your way to reply to Argitoth in ANY of his threads, and often you keep replying to him constantly despite the fact that you say he "wastes our time" etc. You don't have to respond if you don't want to. So far, nothing he has really said here merits any kind of moderation. He's basically saying that Podium looks cool, and has a good amount of features.

No, I'm not.

Yeah, new Priest talents made me cry irl. edit: with joy

To be fair, AU, DXi, and RTAS were all created independently of Steinberg and have similar functionality.

Well.. in regards to the drums, I think the sequencing is fine but I really don't like the tone of the snare. It's kind of flat and hollow where the rest of the soundscape is dense and thick. I would really change that. The bassdrum is also mixed in such a way that you can hardly hear it over the rhythm guitar and bass. Overall though they're definitely at least "solid". Arrangement is pretty cool. I would have liked to hear more of the harmony synth stuff and perhaps more changes to the soundscape. After the brief intro (which I liked a lot) the sounds are basically the same throughout and it begins to grate on the ear as everything is at the same dynamic level. I guess that's par for the course but I know you can more creative stuff, and that's what I was expecting here. In addition, some of the chords that played with the melody seemed off to me. On the production end, the panning choices seem a bit over-exaggerated (some stuff panned HARD left, HARD right, etc). Stereo delay/reverb and a more centered panning would be my personal preference. Also the lead guitar probably could have been treated differently from the rhythm guitars to stand out more, as is it didn't really cut through the mix that much. The lead synth is way too thin/bright and doesn't really move enough to be interesting. I would change it to something else. Finally, the guitar playing here, in terms of timing, seems a little more sloppy than usual. Overall, there are some pluses here but a lot of minuses. No ONE thing is particularly major, but they do add up. My main suggestions: tighten up the guitar playing, be a little more conservative with panning, change the synths, change the snare. NO

Production here needs a lot of work all around. Very basic and generic drums, synths, guitars. Mixing between the different parts is not logical in what parts are brought out (eg. pads over lead + drums?). There's not a lot of variation in the percussion or in the synth textures. Arrangement is really basic and it loses all of the energy that the original has. This might have been accepted a few years ago on OCR but right now it just needs work in every area. Keep at it. NO

He didn't insult you. He asked for good free string samples. You told him to BUY string samples. He politely responded that it was not within his budget to do so, and you flew off the handle. Do not derail this topic further or your post will be deleted. ps. Yes, you ARE becoming a troll of this forum.

Shut up, Compyfox. It's not against the rules to ask for free stuff. The OP was not "whining" about not having enough money. In other words: if you have nothing constructive to say, STFU. In response to the original poster: Hammersound.net has a variety of good free string soundfonts. I recommend 5-strings, Cadenza Strings, and Tron Strings for starters.

It's one thing to incorporate a few dated SID sounds. However, this is almost ENTIRELY SID/chiptune sounds. 1:27 is the first time I hear an actual sample (the bd/drum pattern), and it's a pretty "bleh" one at that. From that point on, there are a few cameos of slightly more advanced synth and drum sounds but just about everything is very, very basic in tone.