zircon

On the tech end.. "The Desktop Studio: A Guide to Computer-Based Audio Production" by Emile D. Menasche is pretty good. It's a good overview and introduction to the world of computer music. "Sound Engineering Explained" by Michael Talbot-Smith, further into the tech end. For something more in-depth, there's "Modern Recording Techniques" by David Miles Huber/Robert E. Runstein.

I did the encoding. You'll notice that many mixes, including the amazing Triforce Majeure, go FAR below 96kbps during VBR. It's not uncommon to set the minimum to something like 32kbps in fact. This was a very long mix and thus it was very difficult to encode without going over the maximum filesize, 6mb. Notice that the mix size is 5.8mb. I did everything humanly possible to maximize the quality while staying under that limit. There is also no clipping. I made absolutely sure of that and ran it through three different kinds of analysis to check.

I don't know how you only lost a few people. You have to be constantly spamming heals on the MT, you get hit with stomps constantly for 1k (sometimes 2k if he does two in a row), you have tigers that are hitting you for 500 every 1-2 seconds, and he drops aggro very quickly. It's insane.

youkai, edge of madness is not too hard. The encounters there are more fun than difficult. Hexxer, however, is really hard. It's simply a matter of gear and class composition. If you have tons of DPS (4-5 melees) and healers that can last awhile, you're good. I'm surprised you downed the Tiger boss so easily. That boss is very difficult - nearly as hard as the Hexxer - and even our ZG "A team" still has trouble with him. Way to go. The rest is downhill from here.

That's a mix that will probably get removed during the upcoming lockdown. Our policy does not explicitly disallow sampling of the original, as Larry said. You have to look at it on a case-by-case basis.

Shinji; free compared to other MMORPGs which charge you up the ass for expansions. EQ has what, like 15?

I really like the writing and the arrangement here overall, though the ending is very abrupt, and the intro is somewhat lackluster. You could probably spice things up a little bit in terms of the "texture".. eg. adding more harmonies, making things sound more full. You don't necessarily have to add more instruments to do this, it's just a matter of trial & error unless you're a master of orchestration. I would refine your production and maybe work on making the texture thicker as the arrangement goes on. I like what you have so far, some just a little improvement would go a long way. NO

Yeah, the synchronization issues are kind of a problem here.. for an acapella mix to work it's gotta be tight. With a good multitrack audio editor (FLStudio is great for this) you can definitely sync up the different tracks easily. Also, playing with the mixing would help to bring out certain parts that deserve more presence than others. As is, it's hard to differentiate between the melody and the harmony. When you bring in the 'choir' at 1:36, that helps to fill things out. This doesn't quite meet our standards in its current form. Cool concept + execution nonetheless. NO

I heard this on the WIP forums and I had mixed feelings about it.. seems like not too much was changed from that version. I think the sound design and percussive work is really cool, and there are also lots of interesting compositional ideas scattered around. Some of the variations on the theme are just awesome, around the middle of the song. However, at 2:23 (like I said in the WIP forums) things just totally lose momentum. Even with the chaotic percussion, things just seem to slow down too much, and that whole section feels empty. Though things do pick up as the song comes to a close, it's not enough. Basically, I think the structure still needs to be worked out to keep the energy going. Finally, the ending is really abrupt and doesn't do the mix justice. I don't have a problem with anything on the production end really.. Shna's stuff is similar in that area. I just think stepping up the arrangement so it's more logically laid out would improve the mix. Refine + resubmit. NO

Cool stuff. Grats on your MC progress. My guild beat Vael over the weekend after dedicating all of Saturday and Sunday to him. We've also mastered the supression room before Broodlord, but we've only given him one attempt (80%). I think our tanks are geared enough, so we should be able to take him this weekend.

Aw, don't discourage him. I submitted my first remix the day I first tried Magix Music Maker 7 Of course, it got rejected.. but I think it got a YES or two.

Not going to bother responding to Argitoth point-by-point, but I will say this; Kontakt 2 (which essentially costs $100 with Komplete 3) will get you the most bang for your buck out of any sampler today. First of all, it can import virtually any format known to man. Gigastudio cannot, Independence cannot, VSampler cannot, Mach5 cannot, and sadly (as Compy will tell you), Halion cannot. Kontakt 2 is the only thing that opens libraries locked into the Kontakt/Kompakt player, which would be a great majority of them since that's all people release now. In addition, K2 comes with the biggest library of samples right out of the box. Gigastudio 3 costs more than K2, yet it comes with less material, in comparison. K2 runs as a plugin - VST, AU, RTAS, DXI. Or it can run as standalone with up to 64 channels. GS3 doesn't do that. Finally, K2 has a scripting engine which is unique and proprietary. NOTHING else matches the things you can do with it, and already users have created brilliant free scripts to greatly enhance the realism of various samples.

Argitoth.. once again, you don't own ANY of the stuff you listed so I don't see how you can be advising Zoola on any of it. NI Komplete is an amazing library of products. There's no debate about it, it's the best deal around today in the music software world. 25gb+ of samples, arguably the most powerful instrument sampler on the market (as well as 3 other samplers), high-quality synths, and THE most versatile musical program on earth, Reaktor. You can't go wrong.

Unfortunately, Larry is right about the volume. Before you had it too loud, now it's too soft! I would put a limiter on the whole thing, a free DB meter plugin and gently increase the overall volume so the maximum is -3 or -4db (above 0db is clipping). I still love this mix a LOT! Really brilliant arrangement, the soundscape is great, and the vocals are well-done. I want to emphasize that this production is WAY better than your first submission. Great job. You could probably change the mixing a bit more by reducing the volume of all the other stuff going on in the main chorus and increasing the vocals a bit, but honestly, it's not that big of a deal. Even in it's current form I would say this should pass. If you want, you can send me a WAV version of this track and I can do some quick mixing+mastering for you, if you don't want to go through the submission process again. Of course, this won't address relative volume levels between parts.. but that's not a big deal to me to begin with. YES

I've discussed this at length in the IRC channel and it looks like all the views have been laid out. After a lot of consideration, I agree with Gray on this. Our standards that we've laid out and forged over the last few years should hold that this mix doesn't pass. This is a brilliant arrangement. If this was done in any other style except "chiptune" I think it would easily pass. NO

All legitimate users have access to the forums.

Change the browser snapshot, it's in the options menu there.

Just the CPU? Any old pentium 4 will get the job done. I always go for one step below the newest tech, since the newest stuff is typically buggy and overpriced. For instance, when 3.6ghz processors were hot, I picked a 3ghz processor for about $200. 3.2-3.6ghz processors were much more expensive. Why blow the extra cash?

You don't need a ridiculous computer to make good music. I was just visiting a good friend of mine (a songwriter + composer) that uses a simple iMac G5 with Garageband 2. He's brilliant.

Yes, "a guy on KVR" saying something is awesome is clearly proof of something. Native Instruments (among other developers) specifically says hyperthreading causes problems in their sampling line, including Kontakt/Kompakt players. Let me explain something briefly. The speed advantage of hyperthreading, dual core, and dual processors comes from the processing of multiple "threads" at the same time. Hyperthreading does this by creating a 'virtual' second processor so that multiple threads to be handled. Dual core processors are like dual processors, except you just don't have two physical, separate chips; the dual 'cores' are on one chip. Thus, any application that is not compatible with hyperthreading (because of incompatibility with multiple thread processing) will have the same problems with dual core and dual processors.

I'm skeptical of dual core processors for audio stuff, given that some manufacturers like Native Instruments specifically say you shouldn't use hyperthreading (which is essentially the same as dual core, except it's a virtual processor core).

Tempo automation, an FM synth, a sampler built for "mangling" (or an update of Malstrom making it closer to a sampler, as sgx mentioned), more kinds of effects.. Reason could still use a lot of stuff.

If you can do it really tastefully, I suppose so. There's no rule against it, so it's case-by-case.

Oh, go screw yourselves I don't get what's being asked. He's saying, directly sample the original.. but with your own instrumentation? Then it's not direct sampling, it's covering. Can you be more specific?

Yes, I constantly integrate original material into my remixes. It's part of making a unique arrangement. However, typically, it should be material that's related in SOME way to the source material.