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zircon

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Posts posted by zircon

    Will a microphone work with non-electrical instruments?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    iMic's are horrible. So much noise.

    Whoever sends me vocals recorded with iMic or a built in mic from a Macintosh or an other Laptop again, will die a painful death (and you can mix your stuff for yourself!).

    *cough* er... just had to express how much I like "built in" microphones and 10$ mics from Radioshack or something like that.

    You know, I'm kinda getting sick of everyone on this site bashing me for the equipment I use. I'm on a budget. A very, very tight budget, and iMic may not be AWESOME OMFG FTW microphone pre-amp, but its enough for the amount I paid for it. If you're trying to give me advice on what equipment to use, there are much more civil ways of doing it. I'm not proclaiming that my equipment is the best and I'm such an awesome remixer because I'm not. But for the people who visit here and wonder "How the hell am I going to start remixing with only $200?", I'm an example of remixing on low cash. Would you like to challenge the quality of my work? Would you like a fellow Audio Engineer to come into your studio, take a look around and say, "Pfft. I wouldn't be caught dead using that piece of crap!"

    No one is bashing YOU personally. They're expressing their opinions about your GEAR. There's a huge difference. Just because someone says "Logic rules, FLStudio sucks", I'm not going to be offended. I'm not even going to care. It's an opinion. Now, if they said "FLStudio sucks and everyone who uses it is terrible and should quit music" that would be a different story. But no one is saying that here, so please, be a little less sensitive.

    On a related note, I'm working on a guide to ReMixing on a budget. Sort of a basics to home recording/computer music, tailored to this community. I'd be happy to take suggestions.

    OCR01449 - EarthBound "Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Scientist Boy (and the Magical Monkey)"

    in ReMix Reviews & Comments

    Posted

    I really need to make a habit of reviewing mixes...

    Anyway, I just had to comment on this one. Talk about vibe 8O:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen: fantastic piece of music!

    I can't stop listening to it - I think it's the way the drum rhythms mix with the melody and harmony. The only thing I didn't like was the ending - I think a fadeout would have been much more appropriate than the abrupt cut off.

    Overall, I really don't know what to say other than... ingenious.

    EDIT: I feel my commendation wasn't strong enough. EXTRA-SUPERB or something

    EDEDIT:

    Experimental. Which means that it doesn't have to sound pleasant. Which it really doesn't.

    I don't think it's experimental OR unpleasant, for the record.

    Regardless of whether you think it's good or not, I think this is most certainly 'experimental'. Your average song does not have this sort of extreme contrast, ultra-loud and supercompressed drums, etc.

    Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream - History

    in Projects

    Posted

    Actually there's a huge difference between 30-50 and 90 tracks. That's potentially 20 more people. That's a LOT of people considering the level of quality we're going for.

    Some tracks in the PSF are arrangements in and of themselves. Others are variations, instrument changes. Of course the short jingles can't really be remixed either..

    Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream - History

    in Projects

    Posted

    This is the official discussion thread for Voices of the Lifestream, the FINAL FANTASY 7 ReMix project, which has been underway since January 2006. Feel free to leave any comments, suggestions, or questions here.

    ------

    FAQ

    ------

    What can we expect to hear in "Voices of the Lifestream"?

    We're shooting for about 38 tracks from the Final Fantasy 7 soundtrack in a WIDE variety of styles. Tons of genres will be represented here, thanks to the varied list of ReMixers involved. Jazz, orchestra, rock, new age, trance, breakbeat, drum n' bass, solo piano... you name it, we're probably going to have it on here.

    Who's involved?

    AnotherSoundscape, big giant circles, bLiNd, blizihizake, bustatunez (Will Roget), Daniel Baranowsky, Darangen, Darkesword, Dhsu, djpretzel, Carbunk1e, GeoffreyTaucer, Hemophiliac, Jeremy Robson, JigginJonT, Jovette Rivera (DJ Crono), JigginJonT, Leifo, LuiZa, Mustin, pot hocket, pixietricks, Red Tailed Fox, Rellik, sephfire, Shnabubula, Sixto, sgx, SnappleMan, Star Salzman, Steffan Andrews (Spekkosaurus), Suzumebachi, tefnek, tweek, The Orichalcon, Tepid, Trenthian, Vigilante, and zircon.

    I emphasize that this list is not necessarily finalized. Over the last 15 months, people have come in and out for various reasons. I, for one, was hoping Wingless and GrayLightning would be able to contribute, but due to work obligations they withdrew. However, I still think the list is pretty solid. ;)

    Can I be involved?

    Possibly. There are a limited number of tracks remaining to be mixed, and many of them are already claimed. However, if you're interested, either post here or PM me with samples of your work. I might be able to find a place for you somewhere.

    What's the current status of the project?

    It is nearly completion. 34 tracks are entirely finished and we have about 4-5 more in progress.

    When will VotL be released?

    Unfortunately, I can't really give anything close to a specific date. It'll be done when it's done. I've been setting and enforcing deadlines throughout the project's life, but I hesitate very much to be too strict here. I would rather give people more time to make a great mix then kick them off and get a mediocre mix from a less talented musician, or have no mix at all.

    What formats will VotL be released in?

    I would like to do a release of MP3 (uniformly encoded in VBR) and FLAC or WAV. Feel free to leave your thoughts about what you would prefer.

    What about album art and a website?

    djpretzel has volunteered to do this for us. Given that he designed OCR, I'm pretty confident he'll do a good job. But, if he decides that he needs help, or that he doesn't have time to do it, I will let you all know so we can find someone else.

    How about a preview?

    No.

    Uneven MP3 encoding quality

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    Ok, I, personally, don't like overcompressing my music either, but let me ask you something.

    Did you ever remix a song for more than two months?

    Do you realize that by the time it is released/submitted, some people are so sick of hearing it over and over and over again that you just encode it so it is under 6 megs at a good quality and don't care because half the people on the site don't care either?

    You get so sick of your own song, you just make sure it sounds good and nothing more. I've gotten sick of working on songs before, and I hate to hear it more than I need to. You want a set bitrate? You start a site that accpets only the top remixes at a sampled rate. The rest of the world doesn't really care, as long as it's not a horribly bad compression.

    Well if you encode it at a good quality with the proper command line that's enough. You won't have to check if the encoding is good since you will know that it's already the best possible.

    One commandline can't be assigned to everything. For instance, some of my mixes play nicely with VBR. Others I have worked with (like TheWingless') don't. You can to encode on a song-by-song basis.

    Uneven MP3 encoding quality

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    To be fair, 128kbps vs uncompressed is very clear. Even 192kbps vs uncompressed on a set of headphones is pretty noticeable. I'd say ABOVE 256kbps is roughly the upper limit.
    It's not only a matter of bitrate. Using the proper encoder with the proper settings can make you save a lot of quality. If you find that 128kbps vs uncompressed is very clear, you probably didn't encode it the best possible way. The latest listening test from HydrogenAudio has shown that LAME can produce near-transparent (un-noticeable) sounding MP3 at this bitrate, if used with the best settings. Sorry to sound so boring with these listening tests, but that's the only way I know to show concrete facts. I don't say "I prefer LAME", I say "people in general prefer LAME". That's what listening tests are for.

    I use LAME for everything, no need to convince me.

    128kbps is still a massive difference for my ears. I do a lot of testing when I'm encoding my own music, and I found (like I said) that 256kbps seems to be the minimum for me to not hear a difference.

    edit; keep in mind I'm talking about CBR not VBR.

    What did Santa get you? (Remixing Version!)

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    I'm digging. Effects within the syntheziser are the main thing to creating the sound because all those effects can be controlled by lots of LFOs and envelopes. Absynth all by itself can create awesome sounds. Of course outside could change the sound completely.

    When I say spacey I mean heavily ambient with little musical content. Lots of slow evolving pads, sound effects going in and out, sprinkled with heavily destructed percussion and a cherry on top. Also, when I think of spacey music I think of emotion. This music I am thinking of should be very emotional. When it is dark, make it VERY dark. When it is mysterious, make it VERY mysterious.

    Are you asking about sound design or writing ambient music? Or what? It sounds like you don't even know what you want, or how to ask it. You have to give more thought to this kind of thing before you start looking for answers.

    slicing

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    It was cool when it pioneered the concept, but running a whole extra application for slicing I think is lame.

    Nonetheless, ReCycle is used on a regular basis, particularly in the sampling industry. It is the ideal program for taking raw WAV data and turning it into usable grooves which can then be sold. If you already HAVE a loop or a groove, and it's just for your own personal use, then chances are no, ReCycle will probably not be just what you need because often times you will be doing more with the groove then just chopping it. But for purely doing that (and for doing it well), ReCycle comes out on top.

    Prophet; it's only $200, actually, and it's as low as $100 with an educational discount.

    slicing

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    I'm still not sure what you are trying to do with sliced audio or what you expect to get from a standalone slicer. The only app that fits the description of both standalone and has to do with slicing is ReCycle which is mostly just a utitlity that lets you convert your wav loop into a .rx2 loop that is readable by software instruments such as Dr Rex in Reason which is then used for rearranging the slices inside of the song.

    I don't know of any other 'standalone' apps that slice unless you consider programs that can Acidize wav files (Acid Pro, Project5, probably some other host apps). Acidized wavs are most often used just for timestretching though.

    (btw, you do know about how you can right click Dr Rex and select 'sent to track' to send the midi pattern of the rex loop to the Reason sequencer track, right?)

    Well, ReCycle is basically THE slicing tool. It has the widest range of features around and very good algorithms for detecting the different transients. I'd say it's a lot more than a WAV -> REX2 converter. :)

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