Malcos

Or, just maybe, you could use an electronic keyboard. There you go, problem solved and money saved over the long term.

In terms of production, this was pretty good, although claps are a quite dry. The arrangement struck a good balance of variation and required repetition as stipulated by the unwritten genre rules. Perhaps the source melody itself could have been further expanded on - there are original elements here, and the rhythmic variations help a lot, but things were overall very simplistic. I agree with Liontamer that the genre itself contains many elements that are below the OCR bar. I'm passing this, but as a borderline. YES (borderline)

I've been playing keyboards for about 14-15 years or so (self-taught). I'm really gonna start working on my piano technique this year! Check out www.jazzpianolessons.com for a few tips, I'm sure it'll be very useful to beginners. You can always use youtube and just type in piano chords/tips/scales and see if you can glean anything - again, for beginners it's great. I wish youtube was around when I first started playing, I'd be a hell of a lot better than I am now lol.

Aha, I must be biased then! My original post is kind of redundant now that I look at it, as it was the keyboard you were interested in richter, not the sounds. My bad x2.

For me, Casios were always poor value for money. For the same price you could always get a Yamaha with MUCH better sounds. That's what I remember from my childhood! I haven't seen many Casios around recently though.

I don't really have any musical background, as I'm self taught as far as keyboard playing goes. I've been playing for 14 years now (and I should be better than I am really!). My only training is Sound Engineering training (City and Guilds 1-3).

Great mix, just a couple issues. Kick drum and bassline clash at some points making the mix sound muddy, particularly at 4.31. Perhaps rolling off the lowest frequencies of the kick and the highest frequencies of the bassline will help to give each it's own space. This mix is definitely overcompressed - this is especially noticable at 2.16, when the drums fall away for the breakdown and the pads, strings and guitar suddenly come in really loud. This needs some work in terms of the compression and balancing of volume levels. The arrangement and production is very good overall, and the level of energy is great. Just a few tweaks and this will be a pass. Please resubmit, I would really like to see this on the site. NO (Good candidate for resubmission)

The way this was recorded sounds very interesting, it gives it a unique character. I'm not sure how intentional it was, but I think it sounds great. The arrangement is great, lots of improv especially on the cello. The rhythm when this starts is a little off, however that is my only issue and not a big enough one for me to reject it. I hope this one passes, it's good to have some acoustic mixes like this one to give the site even more variety in terms of music styles. YES

The texture here is quite thin and doesn't sound as full as it could have if mixed differently. The drums are quite weak and are really low in the mix. 1.37-1.38 was very off-time - although it starts a reggae section that has loose timing consistent with the reggae genre which sounds good. Overall the mix was very short, and while that isn't in itself a reason to 'No' this by any means, coupled with the fact that it is unfocused works against it. While changing genres is good, there was not enough time to establish each section and build anticipation for the genre change, and it seemed like there was no reason to change the vibe when it had just started. It was like a promiscuous girl - a quick one with not enough time for depth. NO

Yeah getting an older Motif 8 might be a good idea too!

It's crucial that I do play the keyboards before I make the final decision. I have played around with the Yamaha Motif XS8 and the Roland fantom (only a little bit). But this was long before I though of actually buying a workstation. I'm just looking for any input that might help me with my decision. The s90es really is great, if only it had sampling so I could put my own drum kits in the machine! There should be a new version of it coming out soon (s90xs?) so I may wait till that one comes out.

Yeah I'm looking strictly at hardware, I should have mentioned that from the beginning. I'm looking for hardware because there is a good chance that I'll be doing some live gigs in the future and I'll want to be able to carry those sounds with me wherever I go. The only thing that I would say that I wouldn't really need in a workstation would be the sequencer. I'm looking for everything you said there though - vast array of hq sounds, both sampled and synth. I want it all. I also want to be able to import my own wav files ie. drum kits. Roland stuff that I've heard so far is really lacking in the realism as far as acoustic instruments go. I had considered the S90ES very seriously - it's still in contention if I can be sure that the sounds are as fantastic as the Motif XS, or close enough to it. I'm going to do a lot of research/reading around before I get down to a final 3. Then I'll go and play them all and see which one I like best. This is a huge purchase so I have to make sure I get the right synth. I know it might sound silly to some to say that I want an all in one solution, but Reason has done it for me thus far. I'll be using Sonar to sequence, record and master, (so I won't be needing that neko) but great sounds and a nice new keyboard is what I'm after. Thanks for your recommendations so far guys.

I've been using Reason for 7 years now (although I still haven't got version 4 yet). I'm a keyboard player at heart so I'm looking for a workstation keyboard. I've always lusted after workstations, and now I've got a real job I'm gonna get myself one! I'm really thinking of the Yamaha Motif XS 8, which is super expensive so it'll take me a whole year of some serious saving up to get. Is there any other synths which you guys think I should also consider?

Wow that kick in the intro packs a punch. DA's vocals could have maybe been taken in a little to make it blend with the other track elements, although with so much going on in the track I can understand the reason for having them stand out at the front in the way that they do. Sections like 1.43 keep this mix constantly fresh and high energy, and the vocal effects towards the end of the mix are great. That section at 2.57 with the 'You bring me down' lyrics really sounded off time, and does bring the mix down a bit (pardon the pun). This does pass, but the off timing brings it to borderline for me. Great collab. YES(Borderline)

Thanks everyone for your comments! Thanks herograw for setting up a mirror, maybe my bandwidth is reaching it's limit or something.

I haven't updated my website yet, as the proper release is meant to be Sunday but this it: www.malcos.co.uk/BthSds.zip

Music maker! I remember the first version of that program, I was 15 at the time, before Fruityloops or Reason, which are the two programs that most people use around here.

Am I qualified? lol. Anyways... Breathing is the most important thing in singing by far. I've recently finally nailed my breathing technique and my singing has vastly improved because of it. If you know where your diaphragm is, that is where you need to sing from. Practise deep breathing techniques, like huffing, deep exhalation (breathing out) - this will help you know your lungs better, expand note sustain times and you'll know when you're running out of breath. As always, cardiovascular exercise can help you to maximise your lung power. Try to practise singing very quietly, it will improve your vocal control and you will find it saves your vocal chords in the long run. So many people take a deep breath in and force a hard to reach note through their vocal chords trying to force the note (and then wonder why their throat hurts when they sing!). By practising properly you will be able to sing loudly and softly and thus improve your dynamic range. As for pitch, practise singing in the bathroom where the slight reverb can help you to notice if you are off pitch. Another good one is to put your palms in front of your mouth at about a 2cm distance. You'll look silly, but you can hear a lot more of your voice this way. Hope you find those tips useful - I'm always looking to improve my vocals and it's the same as everything else: practice, practice, practise.

Your link is broken...

I've got a track that might fit this project perfectly that doesn't fit with anything else I'm doing at the moment! I'll pm you the track...

Ok your first question was easy to understand but I think you might have to provide an audio sample of the kind of effect you're talking about.

No this thread does not fail - I think it's a good idea to discuss production techniques and swap ideas in relation to that. 1. Don't be afraid to throw songs out/delete songs. I have a folder that I call 'fail', and I put all of my garbage into it. Some nights I will come out with something that I think sounds great, and then the following morning listen to it and realise that it was just plain rubbish - and into the fail folder it goes. However, when I feel like making something but I am out of ideas, listening through the fail folder I often find an element of one of the songs that I like. I can then take that element (perhaps a chord progression or bass groove) that I can use to make a much better piece of music. 2. Other than mixing, when making a song make sure you know what element of it you want to stand out. This also has a lot to do with what you're making the song try to convey. You can draw attention to different instruments by making them play things with a little more gusto (varying length of notes, range of melody and rhythm) without even touching the volume. 3. Don't forget the human element. You're making a song for a reason, make sure that every element goes towards achieving the message/emotion that you are looking for. When we get too technical we can lose sight of the fact that we are music artists and that music is still an art.

Thanks guys! 25! I feel kinda old. I'm releasing a new album next month btw...

I must have missed this submission - this has been in the queue for WAY too long. I apologise and hope this gets wrapped up soon. I am with BGC on this one completely. The piano note gets cut off at 1.04 which is very noticeable, easily fixed though. I must say that after 3.36 for some reason the track seems to just run out of style, the drumbeat and synths just change the feel completely and the mix would have been better shorter and without that section in it. NO (good candidate for resubmission)

Yep same here, I got sent an email with the message in it and it is as follows: BY I thought it was a spammer, but the fact that we can't access the message itself is dodgy. I hope it's not a hack or anything serious.EDIT: For safety I have changed the actual destinations of the links. Just in case!