zircon

QLSO Silver sounds perfect for your purposes. It's basically pre-mixed for a Hollywood kind of sound, which is exactly what you want for symphonic metal. By far the best option you have. Kidd is not correct about the reverb. Yes, it has built-in reverb, but the recordings are done w/ stage mics, not far mics. Silver actually doesn't even have release tails meaning it sounds less roomy than QLSO Gold.

Cobian backup seems cool, but... I can't schedule for shutdown? :/ How are my Windows settings going to get backed up properly? Also it's confusing as to how to use the program. The help file kind of sucks. For example, it seems like it's creating backups with a specific date and time. I don't want that. I want ONE backup that is synchronized daily, but there are so many options that I don't understand how to do that. Edit: Tried a few more, including graphical frontends for Rsync. They all suck. Seriously, all I want is a program that does this: 1. Select a source folder. 2. Select a destination folder. 3. Repeat 1 and 2 for all my drives. 4. Check for changes in source folder and back up any changes to the destination folder. 5. Run this on shutdown.

As for Did I just dream up all the firmware updates Sony did? Obviously they were working toward security. Once again, 5 year record w/ no breaches, most Internet companies experience problems like this at least once.

Warned? When, and by whom? Attacked? When, and by whom? The only thing I remember is them releasing constant firmware updates to try to deal with PS3 unblocking which most of the people whining here were ALL IN FAVOR OF.

1. PSN went unhacked for what, 5 years? If the security were that bad, it would have gotten hacked sooner. Think about all the services you know that were started 5 years (or more) ago and how many times they've been breached, hacked or compromised. It happens even to the biggest banks and financial services companies. 2. How do you know Sony knew the extent of the breach the day it happened? Maybe they saw some evidence, and shut it down at the first sign of trouble. If I were a multimillion dollar company, I probably wouldn't go shooting off press releases before I actually knew what was going on. 3. Can we not forget there is a group of people (or even one person) that caused all this? Caused millions of dollars in damages to Sony, which will no doubt not affect anyone at the top, but ruin the lives of people lower on the chain? You know, there are actual 'bad guys' involved here.

Again I would emphasize that learning simply recording tech is not the best idea. Anybody can learn how to use a console and EQ. That's a technical skill and not much more. Some programs out there are very specific to recording tech and don't include a more comprehensive music/business education, which is very important. The other thing is that if you actually want to WORK in the industry then a program with a co-op (like Drexel or Northeastern) is very important too.

Nah, of course not. But overall, on the Internet, I'm seeing way more rage about Sony than about GE (or the other tax-evading giant corporations). Yeah, I get it, we're all gamers, we're passionate about gaming, blah blah. I get mad at game companies too for various reasons. But it's kind of absurd that Sony is being treated like the antichrist across the board, being subjected to hacks, etc., meanwhile there are these far bigger companies doing far worse things, and I don't see any internet protests or hacktivism directed at them. You'd think, especially given how strongly so many people on the Internet feel about their rights being infringed on, they would care way more about giant corporations trampling all over them.

Don't look at it as "digital composing" - what you are probably looking for is a degree in something like: * Music technology * Film scoring * Music business/industry (usually comprehensive) I have a degree in Music Industry from Drexel University, which I highly recommend. I don't believe in getting a really specialized education. If you go to Full Sail or a 'recording tech' school you might learn specific modern techniques, but you won't have a well-rounded education. With Drexel's MI degree, you'll learn traditional theory, ear training, arrangement, songwriting, business, statistics, recording tech, DAWs, etc. - all the tools you will need. You can then specialize and take electives to go deeper into various disciplines, taking advanced theory/composition, audio for video and scoring to picture, music law, and so forth. Northeastern has a similar curriculum, but most people I know would say Drexel has the upper hand there.

RAHHH SONY IS SO EVIL AND THE WORST COMPANY EVER! Meanwhile, General Electric (a way bigger company) made billions of dollars and paid absolutely no taxes at a time when the U.S. is facing a crippling deficits and our lawmakers are slashing union rights, public services and education in the name of deficit reduction. Can we keep things in perspective?

WOW. Very cool. Please continue!

I gave it a shot, but I would prefer something with more control... any other options?

I've been using some form of Rsync for awhile, but for some reason it doesn't work anymore (says it is now for online backup only? Weird, it wasn't saying that before.) Basically, I have about 1-1.5tb of files that need to be backed up/synced to a machine on my local network. What's the best free solution for this? Preferably something with smart synchronization and that runs on a schedule.

Detuning and distortion/overdrive.

Updates: * Items on the ground which can be picked up, including money * "Talk", "Look" and "Get" buttons, hotkeys * Inventory/equipment screen * Equipping, dropping or trashing items * Resolution-independent rendering (game will dynamically resize the gameplay area whether you're at 1024x768 or 1650x10580) including windows * Standardized 'choice' overlays allowing you to specify which items/objects in a stack you want to look at * Tilesize-independent game map (currently 32x32 tiles but could be adapted to any other size) * Map objects like doors * Opening and closing doors on move * Modularity overhaul allowing me to change location of visual elements easily * XML serialization - items, mobs, objects and maps are stored in editable XML files that can be read from or written to. No need to hardcode! Overall, coming along quite well! Next immediate priorities: * More door interaction (locking a door, picking a lock, kicking a door down) * Saving/loading your character * Using items (potions, etc.)

I'm recording to another hard drive, but the issue isn't the recording FPS... it's the game FPS. Capture res is 1280x720 (can't be any smaller.) The HD is a fairly new WD 640gb Caviar Black drive. Nonetheless, I don't think it's the hD.

I've been using Camtasia for various screen recording things (tutorials, game footage, etc.) but I've noticed that even with my monster processor, video card and RAM, I often get low FPS in games - even simple ones like Return All Robots!, which I'm trying to capture now. Is there some sort of way to do screen capture recording without making the framerate of whatever you're recording drop? Also the *recording fps* is set to 60, so it's not that I'm recording choppy... it's the game itself that's choppy. Related question: if anyone has better video capture equipment than me, or a way of recording TV output plus an Xbox 360, let me know...

I will buy physical CDs if the total cost is about $13-14 for the CD, counting shipping. I will almost always buy from Amazon since I can combine with other stuff. If I have to pay more than $13-14 (inc. shipping) then I prefer digital.

I am not sure about the copyright laws of Brazil. In the U.S., when you create a work, it is automatically copyrighted under your name. However, if you do not register your work with the government (for us, www.copyright.gov) then PROVING it is yours is more difficult in court, plus it limits how much monetary compensation you can get if someone rips you off. Nonetheless, I believe that if someone is going to rip you off, they won't care whether you are registered or not. It takes time and money to go to court and unless you have a lot of both, you probably won't be able to do anything anyway (but obviously if you make a hit song I would register that ASAP!) As for UPC bar code, you do need one if you plan on distributing through CD Baby. Even though they're just one store, they distribute your music to places like iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, etc. and these retailers typically require UPC codes. So, just think of it as an annoying but necessary fee.

Believe me, I'm not going to pick a really challenging visual style... JRPG is probably out for that reason The HUD will be WAY better than Nethack though. Closer to TES/Fallout/Diablo etc with submenus/dialogs and stuff. Edit: Also, while I certainly am going to work on making the game as appealing as possible, I don't have any aspirations of this being ultra-popular. It's a niche thing. You need to appreciate RPGs.

Interesting, I've gotten a pretty wide response from people here and on IRC. A lot of people think style 1 is really ugly and only 3-5 are any good. On the other hand, some think 1 or 3 are the only good options. This is going to be tough.

Thanks for the opinions so far, guys. Keep them coming! SuperSlacker: Yes, I'm the only one working on this for now. Space Whale (as as group) might decide to pick up development, but I want to get it quite a bit further along first. The offer is definitely appreciated though and in the near future I may be in touch. New stuff done: * Basic AI for NPCs (right now, they just move around) * Turn system w/ initiative. Basically the game moves forward a turn once the player does something. However the order of actions that occur at that point depend on the initiative of each actor. So, if you're slow, trying to run away from a fast enemy will make you get hit with every step. If you're fast, you may well be able to outrun them without getting hit. * Basic attacking. * Pop-up options/menus. Eg. "Are you sure you want to attack this target?" I'd like to keep dialog to popup overlays, as opposed to restricting it to the little text box (which really should just be for primarily combat stuff, short messages.) Thus, when you enter a dialog, it's going to be more like, say, TES or Fallout3 where it's almost a different interface.

OK, need an opinion. I feel like I should try to set the graphical style now as it might be hard to change down the line. Let me know which of the following you would like to see in a game like this. Here's the graphical Nethack style - 32x32 tiles, very simple. Here's something else in the same style, but with scaled-up tiles, reminiscent of old-school CRPGs: A bit more cartoony: JRPG style (height of characters goes above the actual tile, things often take up multiple spaces) - this would take a LOT more resources to pull off and be insanely difficult. Plus, would it fit the gameplay? 8-bit pixel style, scaled up: Any thoughts? Any other suggestions?

Ooook. Enough meta-discussion, guys...

Update! I now have the following features. * Very basic menu system. * Map editor w/ rendering. I can create a map and give properties like 'obstructive', 'door', 'water' to individual tiles. * UI display. The game shows your current stats, your name, etc. * Player + enemy sprite rendering, player movement. Simple as that. Plus, checks for moving through various materials (like water), going through doors/walls, etc. * Map scrolling. The map can be bigger than the screen, but as you get toward the edges, it scrolls. * Text log. Shows about 8 lines at a time (right now, nothing of importance, but in the future it will show combat events etc.) You can scroll it up and down, and it stores up to 32 lines total (I can expand this easily.) * Various behind-the-scenes stuff like storable names, stats, conditions, healing and so forth. Not comfortable showing it off yet since it looks awful (just using open source graphics + MS Paint right now) but hopefully within a week it will actually have gameplay, as opposed to being just movement and UI right now.

Haha, you mean how often I post remixes, or post on the forums? Most times if I'm posting on the forums, it's because I CAN'T work on music. If you check out my YouTube channel and video walkthroughs, behind-the-scenes, etc. you'll see how I approach things. Some projects, I spend an entire day crafting a single sound. Other projects, I'm so inspired by a preset that I can roll with that without modifying it too much.