Fray

Unfortunately the manuals for VST's, etc., aren't linked from the main Sonar documentation. If you go into Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins\SFZ, there's a sfz.chm in there -- that explains how to use it. I'm pointing you to the manual instead of telling you myself because I haven't actually used SFZ. Just didn't want to sound like one of those self-righteous types who throw a book at you when you ask a question ^.^

I think it's one of those things where you can download it for free, and then when you run it, it says "OMG LICENSE NUMBER PLZ?"

That's a really good question. You can do some things with drums (fills, cymbal hits) to signal a change, but there are really no set rules as to what makes a good transition. You've at least got a good ear for when something does work -- Tonight, Tonight has some fantastic transitions in it Can you post some examples of things you're doing that don't seem to work? Maybe we could help you on a case-by-case basis. Edit: oh, I forgot to mention, chord and/or key changes play a big role in how a transition sounds too. In fact they're probably the most important thing -- and there are general guidelines for what will sound good. Are you familiar with the circle of fifths and such?

Admittedly I'm not familiar with Cubase, but I'd think FL would have slightly more extensive loop/pattern tricks than what Cubase would offer. Things like step sequencers, etc.. But I'd also bet Cubase's piano roll is better

No prob, I know what you mean I just love reading some of the mix rescue articles in Sound on Sound, they usually go something like this: "The guitar track sounded was balanced well, but sounded boring and lifeless. So I ran it through <insert the author's favorite $20,000 hardware effect custom built by Rupert Neve> and it really sparkles now!" Don't let that kind of stuff discourage you ^.^ For one thing, the judges on this site are, on average, pretty well acquainted with what can and can't be done on a shoestring budget -- they aren't going to dock you because your violins don't sound TOTALLY convincing, just so long as you made the best use of what was available to you.

Miku pretty much said everything I wanted to. I imagine buffer underruns would show up as clicks, pops, or short silences in your playback. That's more of an annoyance, but a similar thing can happen when you're recording audio (it's more a buffer overrun in that case). You'll get a nasty, permanent glitch in whatever audio tracks you're recording when the overrun happens. And depending on the software, it may just quit recording entirely. Also, if you're ever going to burn your stuff to a CD, it has to be at a sample rate of 44.1kHz. I'm not sure if FLStudio has a high quality sample rate converter in it -- I think it's got the same "Windowed Sinc" method that Sonar uses. Anyway, make sure that's on if you decide to export to a 44.1k file, otherwise it'll sound nasty. But yeah, set your latency pretty high (I use like 50ms or more) unless you're recording live MIDI of yourself playing a soft synth, in which case you need to get your CPU usage as low as possible. Not sure if FLStudio has a one button freeze for tracks -- if so, use it! If not you can bounce everything to an audio track before recording to get the CPU time to the minimum.

I'm surprised no one has jumped on this before, but you can make a high enough quality remix with free and/or cheap stuff. Lots of people have done it. Check the mixing for free guide if you haven't: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1468 That being said you could definitely learn a lot from doing a collab like this, so don't let me discourage you from that.

But you could theoretically recreate any mix with sine waves! ... *shoots self to save others the trouble*

Hotness. Thanks for the links, Sixto!

I honestly have no idea But it is a common mistake to try to fix things with processing that should be fixed by changing the arrangement. I've done it myself, and I've seen a lot of other people do it.

Two reasons you're probably having trouble: 1. EQ and compression are just plain difficult to master (ok I haven't mastered it, but it's difficult to get to even where I am ). It takes practice, and often help from a more experienced ear when you're stuck. 2. You're probably being bitten by problems in the arrangement itself. It's great to say "only arrangement and musical ideas should matter", but is your arrangement *really* that airtight? Because good arrangement is even harder to master than compression or EQ You won't get a full sound by EQ'ing if your arrangement is lacking in certain registers. You won't get a clean, sparkly sound if you've crammed in too many instruments.

The DAW you select will have no impact on whether or not your remix sounds unique. I think Yoozer was on to you before the rest of us The quality of your acoustic sounds will have more to do with what samples you dig up. I don't know that FL comes with much in this department, but you can always hunt down soundfonts. Or buy one of the packages like GPO. Some of the physically modelled VST's coming out are pretty good too. Pro Tools isn't useable only for multitrack recording -- it's more like it only justifies its cost if that's what you're doing.

I certainly like Sonar's piano roll Don't have too much to compare it to. Producer edition comes mostly with better instrument and effects plugins; I don't think it has anything special for sequencing purposes except for maybe the drum patterns that come with Session Drummer. Don't get me wrong though -- the plugins that come with Producer edition are WELL worth the extra money. From my understanding Pro Tools isn't all that hot in the sequencer department, unless they really beefed it up in a recent version. I believe its strengths have more to do with stability and exclusive high-end hardware and plugins. Someone's going to get mad at me for saying this, but: it's really more for the recording studio fat cats -- they don't need to sequence because they can hire musicians ^.^

Yeah, the general idea is two saw oscillators, one of them tuned a fifth higher. It's a pretty common preset on synths. The sound you linked has some additional "fatness" to it that you might not get from just firing up your favorite VST and dialing in a saw wave. You could try slapping a chorus on it or fiddle with the fine tuning so the oscillators aren't quite in sync with each other. It's got some reverb on it too, I think

I'm not quite sure I understand the question. You definately do NOT want to sum a stereo output into mono. For one thing you're losing the stereo output of your module, and for another you could run into trouble with phasing. So are you worried that you won't be able to hear the sound module in your monitors if you're running it into the audio interface? Most audio interfaces are going to let you monitor the inputs (at least the audiophile 2496 does) by sending them directly to the output. This gives you very low-latency monitoring of whatever's coming out of the sound module at the moment...

Yes, if your d/a is crappy, that will color the sound and reduce the quality of your monitoring. Simple enough? Point: don't sink $500 into monitors if you have a crappy builtin soundcard. If you have a dedicated audio soundcard, or a good consumer one like the Audigy 2 ZS, you're probably fine.

As Hy and Kanthos said -- the only way you'll change the final product is by getting better plugins or doing a better job of using the ones you have. The soundcard will have NO direct effect on the sound quality of your mix. Basically your soundcard is only being used to convert digital audio into analog so it can be heard on your speakers or headphones. Everything else is done on the CPU -- if you had a given reason project and exported it to .wav with one soundcard, it will be the exact same .wav you'd get on another soundcard. However, the crappy soundcard can effect the quality of your monitoring. Laptop audio outputs tend to pick up noise from all the other electronics crammed in there. This noise ONLY goes to your headphones and speakers, it does not get end up in your mix -- but it could cause you to miss details that would allow you to make better mixing/mastering decisions. You might need a good pair of headphones before you can tell any difference though, so you should probably upgrade those first. Unfortunately the importance of good quality monitoring is very subjective And theoretically the only thing good monitoring buys you is the ability to make your mix transport well -- i.e. 8it sounds good on other people's computers, or in their cars, not just on your setup.

Well, the MO8 is a more expensive board, but not by that much. At that point I think it's really a matter of preference -- I strongly prefer Roland's keyboard feel and sound sets over Yamaha's. Some people feel exactly the opposite.

I've never been terribly impressed with Alesis' ergonomics, in terms of keys or buttons/knobs/etc.. But I can't swear I've played an 8.2. So definately try that one before you buy it I heartily agree with po! about the Roland RD's. I've had an RD-600 for about 5 years now and totally love it. The only thing I can complain about is that the rebound isn't the greatest. It's hammer action, but not graded like the new ones. At any rate, if you see a used one from the series (as you said, new ones will be too expensive), it's definately worth trying out. Also, broken keys are pretty cheap and easy to replace on them, so if one or two keys are banged up on a used model it's not necessarily worthless.

Yeah I'd go so far as to say BT borderline overused it in his latest album And other than the damn baby crying noise on track 2, it's the only thing remotely wrong with the album. Go get it if you haven't heard it yet, incredible stuff!

Pezman -- you probably need to go into the Asio4all settings and decrease the buffer size. This is what controls the latency - more buffer = longer latency, but you're less likely to get dropouts. So turn it low but hopefully keep your CPU usage down while you're trying to play a soft synth, and when you're doing other things turn it back up. Hy Bound -- what kind of soundcard do you have? It could be a really crappy one that doesn't support full duplex (i.e. input and output at the same time).

Yes, it'll be fine for that.

Doesn't the Xenyx come with a USB audio interface? If it's decent you could skip the Audiophile entirely.

I understand rugs or blankets from a thrift store make a cheap if slightly nasty replacement for studio foam. Just spray some Lysol on 'em first

Ah ok. Very nice link, thanks for it! I can see one advantage over how I'm doing things already in what tweak suggested -- the ability to plug in phones and have it mute the speakers. I'll play with it some more when I get home.