zircon

Looks like the draw is unique offerings - I don't recognize most of these games.

DS -> DS Lite was purely a size thing. Cosmetic. DS Lite -> DSi added what, a camera? Again, not a big deal. DSi -> DSXL, size again, cosmetic. New iterations of the PS3 are simply smaller. Only the first run of PS3s had backwards compatibility. Yeah, that was a pretty big loss, but generally speaking, not a big deal. None of the 360 iterations are particularly amazing. Just differences in HD size and maybe RROD reliability. Minor stuff. The upgraded PSPs have been cosmetic, except for the PSP Go, but even that was more of a form factor change than anything else (and emphasis on downloadable games over physical media.) None of these hardware upgrades are at all big deals and nobody should feel at all bad or cheated because an upgrade was released. Just look at the list above. Overall it's really minor stuff. The most important thing (and again, what separates these devices from PCs) is that even if you have a 1st run DS, PSP, PS3 or 360, you can play every game in the respective libraries, including ones being released today. The same CANNOT be said of a PC purchased 5 years ago. You can't compare the two like that. I have a DS Lite and a 2nd gen PSP and I don't feel cheated at all at the new iterations, nor do I feel like I should have waited. The only thing that gets me are the price drops. For example, paying full price for a game only for Amazon to sell it at a discount 3 weeks later.

Fantastic mix with WONDERFUL orchestral sounds. Brandon: This isn't QLSO. As the writeup says, the artist used WIVI physically modeled brass and LA Scoring Strings, both of which sound way better than QLSO. This mix in particular sounds fantastic and pretty damn close to real. Also, EWQL is not for "pop", it's a library specifically designed for cinematic/Hollywood-esque music... about as far from pop as you can get. This is not the first time you've posted in a review thread making incorrect (and insulting) assumptions about the technical aspects of gear used in a mix. Knock it off.

The BIG difference though is that computers get obsolete due to faster processors, better RAM, new operating systems, etc. The new console and handheld hardware upgrades and redesigns have been largely cosmetic or adding some very basic additional functionality. You're still able to play all your games just as well, and it's not like there were different games for newer PSPs than older ones. It's all minor stuff. The only system I can think of that really had a MAJOR change was GBA -> GBASP. You absolutely *needed* that backlight.

Congrats man! Looking good.

I vote: 1. Heroes of Newerth Owl (Zephyr) 2. Heavy (TF2) 3. LeChuck

Hey man, please do NOT worry about being negative - it's a new site so if stuff isn't working, I want to know! Regarding the catalog browsing, I actually wasn't able to duplicate that problem on my end, but I did experience a bit of wonkiness where it would jump pages sometimes. This is of course the downside to using a 3rd party solution, I don't control the code for that. I'll let them know that the page browsing is a little glitchy and see what they say. Brian Curtin's tracks are fixed now - sometimes there is a discrepancy in the system between display name and full name. I was really impressed with this guy, having never heard of him before. He has a number of live orchestral tracks. Feel free to share any other feedback!

Thanks guys - and thank you Shaltif for the feedback on the licensing matrix. Admittedly because there are a million options, percentage modifiers and multipliers, some stuff might come out wonky. That is of course why there is also a counter-bid option and the option of simply emailing us for an adjusted quote. I'll be making some tweaks based on this.

Though it has already been in my sig for about a week now, I'd like to formally announce the launch of ZirconTrax, a production music library with a growing catalog of over 200 original instrumental and vocal tracks in a huge variety of genres. The roster of composers and producers is comprised primarily of OC ReMixers: myself, Big Giant Circles (whose idea this whole thing was to begin with!), pixietricks, SGX, bustatunez, Joshua Morse and, coming soon, bLiNd, Mazedude and virt. We also have a number of other pro composers on board such as Mike Worth, who is a good friend of mine and founder of the Videogame Growth Initiative in Philadelphia. The idea of this library is to provide a boutique, elite alternative to mainstream production music libraries. For example, it's not hard to find websites offering literally hundreds of thousands of tracks at bargain basement prices (eg. $9 for an unlimited license), but they're generally terrible, use outdated sounds, tons of recognizable loops, etc. On the other hand, major libraries from companies like Universal Music can be insanely expensive as some of the best-known composers and producers work for them, and they have massive overhead. In comparison, ZirconTrax has an excellent pool of talent (most of whom you all already know!) that is, by and large, not elsewhere in the library world. Pricing is also highly flexible, with an automated system that can produce an estimate based on a wide number of factors. For example, you can license a track from SGX's Chroma album for a very inexpensive rate if you're just using it for a student project, indie game, podcast or non-profit use. There are even extensive customization options for big-budget productions like theatrical films and TV ads. So, if you or anyone you know has any need for original, ready-made music with killer production values and unique sounds, drop by www.zircontrax.com and check out the catalog. To hear a sampling of what we have, here's a little demo reel: http://zircontrax.com/demos/ZirconTrax_Demo_Montage.mp3 (artist and track info in the comments)

That means there is tempo information in the WAV and FL is trying to stretch the samples to the project. In the Sampler channel window just right click "Time" and click "None".

You're comparing apples to oranges. Reason is an all-in-one virtual studio that cannot load external plugins or record/multitrack audio. If you are ONLY planning on doing sample-based music, Reason MIGHT be a better bet simply because it has a ton of built-in content. On the other hand, REAPER comes with relatively few samples/synths and is designed more like a typical DAW (like Cubase or Sonar.) However, it has more flexible options, multitrack audio editing and recording, and it can load VST plugins. So, they're really two very different applications. If you use Reason you will hit a ceiling at some point in terms of your ability to record/edit and load powerful external synths, FX and samples. On the other hand, REAPER doesn't offer as many built-in tools.

This isn't really a trailer, per se. It's a short film made to pitch a film idea, so if the pitch gets picked up, a full movie may or may not be made in this style, by the same director.

Using Torzelan's remix, no less! Awesome!

Yeah, I'd concede that TuneCore is a better deal depending on your sales volume. But 9% per sale isn't very much, and if he's already doing physical distro through CD Baby (which I do encourage - both myself and Jill started doing our own distro, and it just becomes a major, MAJOR pain IMO) it just makes sense.

Bandcamp doesn't actually sell your physical CDs though, does it? I was under the impression they handle payment but you have to do the physical shipping. They also don't have the same kind of genre sorting/browsing system that CD Baby does, which is really a neat feature. Nor are they a digital aggregator, so your music wouldn't be on iTunes, Napster (etc) unless you use a second service. As for Tunecore vs. CD Baby for digital aggregation... it's not as clear-cut as you might think. I wrote up an article about this awhile back: So, the short answer is that as you get more albums (or have albums with lots of songs), Tunecore's annual fees will really start eating away at your money, and will in fact make it a worse deal overall if your sales start to dip.

Happy birthday halc! Whatcha doing for it?

The new Electrician build is way too good. Went 15-0-6 just now and almost singlehandedly forced the other team to concede. They tried to kill me 4v1 and I ended up hat-tricking them. For the record, the new Electrician build involves maxing Energy Absorption/Shield first. Get Grip LAST after you've maxed those two. Solo mid and get a bottle fast, then get every rune possible (your ult will help with this.) Ghost Marchers and your Ult enable you to have extremely high map mobility. Energy Shield/Absorption do a ton of damage all throughout the game, and you can, with momentum, easily farm up Puzzlebox and eventually Nullstone to make you basically invincible, outputting tons of damage all the time.

Absolutely dope!

My personal opinion on this is that you need to try mastering/mixing plugins for yourself. It takes a trained ear to really hear the difference between one digital plugin EQ and another, so a lot of it boils down to the actual featureset, the UI, presets (if you use them) etc. For me, I've never really been able to hear a big difference between one EQ and another. Even 2 software compressors can be hard to tell apart sometimes. That's why I really recommend just trying them all. You will find tons of people that swear by any given FX plugin set.

Oh man, good times. When I was a kid I had all of those early D&D games; Pool of Radiance, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, that kind of stuff. One of my fondest memories is looking at an ad for the ORIGINAL Neverwinter Nights, which had this kind of graphical style. I believe NWN was one of the first online multiplayer RPGs, and boy did I want it. But my parents weren't quite ready to pay the fee, which was something like $6/hour, on top of your normal dialup charges (which were also hourly.) Kinda makes WoW look cheap in comparison. The best part of the ad, however, was the coupon at the end which advertised a "blazing" 2400 baud modem for "only $200".

Have you checked your master volume meter and master mix track volume? Volume automation? Is it possible the device that is playing back in FL is not the same device as in other media players?

My song comes in at 10:45. They just used the intro though - there's so much more cool stuff in it, IMO

I'm very excited to announce the release of Spacesynth Revolutions, a compilation CD of spacesynth (aka Italo Disco) music on the Alpha Centauri record label. I was invited to participate on this project by the CD's executive producer, OC ReMixer and electronic artist Mark Vera, a prolific spacesynth artist with tons of catchy ReMixes and great original songs. Mark himself has music on the compilation, as well as a number of other top artists in the genre. You can listen to an album megamix here: http://www.centaurimusic.com/catalogue/catacen/ac0009cd/assets/srm.mp3 If you're not familiar with this particular style of instrumental dance music, it's basically disco-inspired with lots of analog synths, drum machines, glistening pads, soaring bells and catchy hooks. If you like C64-era music by artists like Chris Huelsbeck you will certainly like this. There are a number of spacesynth ReMixes on OCR, too. My track on this album is #9, "Solar Revolution". It was my first attempt at spacesynth music but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Enjoy the music!

What chad is saying is that if the game were $50, the used version would probably be $25, not $35.

VoP doesn't have many competitors. However, if you really want ethnic vocals, I highly recommend you also check out Tonehammer's "Forgotten Voices" series. They have several ethnic soloists for KONTAKT if you have that sampler. So, check out demos of them too (each one is <$100).