Nase

http://olremix.org/remixes/774

you really just have to train your ears. learn how the different intervals sound. once you know that, recognising a scale is easy. you can learn about commonly used scales/modes, but just knowing about the theory won't get you anywhere unless you can link that knowledge to what you're hearing/ what you want to hear. once you can safely recognise intervals, you can go on to practice in your head anytime. that's what i did (and still do) anyway. think of a melody you know, try to determine the root key, and work your way through the notes. imagining the notes being played on e.g. a keyboard, a guitar fretboard or a piano roll might help, whatever works best for you. i find myself switching between those 3 images. singing helps a lot! it's the most portable instrument you have. try stuff like singing/humming a root note, then its minor second, root note again, major second, root note, minor third, root note, major third etc etc. if you have problems with recognising semitones in your head, practice on your computer or an instrument first. program arpeggios, scales, melodies in the piano roll, understand the intervals and try to sing them. this will help to burn them into your memory. at some point, if you keep practicing, you will be able to hear what you just programmed before you even hit the play button. these are just some techniques that worked for me, you will probably invent some of your own on the way. some of my suggestions might sound a little dry and annoying, but once you have some basic understanding of intervals, it can get quite fun. your brain will grow so accustomed to recognising pitch that it'll start analyzing tunes without you even asking for it; any commercial or movie soundtrack you listen to can become a lesson in theory. by the way, scales are overrated. they're helpful in a theoretic context, but when making music, i'd rather focus on the individual relation between notes. it's true of course that different scales have some inherent quality to them, but the scale a melody is in alone doesn't really tell you all that much about its mood. there's no reason why it shouldn't use three different scales either hope that helped a bit.

paulstretch rules. i remember not having a birthday present for my mom, making a load of unbearable gabber/hardcore loops and throwing them into paulstretch. tadaa, instant ambient album (after selecting the best results of course). she's really into the ethereal newage stuff so it was perfect. i chose not to tell her how it was conceived tho :>

weird, the negative opinions i read mostly state that it's too cluttered and convoluted, as in bloatware. people who claim it's too simple probably have a warezed copy of FL 3 on their hd. OP, do you just want to use the general midi sounds? there's other potentially better stuff available in FL, you know

yup, kaiyoti's the man. i wouldn't have spent nearly as much time programming synth1 if i hadn't listened to his stuff.

do mess with it, it's extremely easy to get started with. for the lulz: little orchestral cheese demo using the brass and flute patches, along with some percussion patches by kaiyoti and a few older ones i made. http://tindeck.com/listen/hckt Synth 1 x 26, nothing else. Goodbye multisamples? i think not :B still, i'm often surprised by what this little unassuming synth can do.

one ping only! http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=11 totally craps over everything else. get it and never look back.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289469&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 it's the most well-rounded Synth1 bank i've heard to date. hardly any patches that i didn't like. the bread and butter patches are tweaked to perfection imo, but there also are some fairly complex pads (for synth1 anyway), some nice pseudo-PM sounds (approximations of acoustic sounds), and a few FX patches i'd actually use in a tune... some are really fun to play as well. currently jamming on KYS Vybres honestly, these sounds are more usable to me than 80% of the stuff that my few commercial plugins come with. they're also a great testament to the timelessness of synth1 (which recently got a nice update, btw).

I'll pass on this. I'm sure the sounds are nice and the deal couldn't be better, but i'm not very fond of these 'player' editions of vsts. seems like more and more companies are trying to jump on NI's bandwagon. I got Acoustic Refractions for Kore Player for a voucher a while ago, and while the sounds are nice, it just uses way too much cpu to be of any use for me. Seems like the patch designer went apeshit over all the different synth/fx/sampling engines at his fingertips and just didn't care about making somewhat economic patches. maxing out a quad core with ~8 polyphonic instances of an instrument warrants a deinstall for me. Regarding Alchemy, I know that it's state of the art as far as sample manipulation/resynthesis goes, so it stands within reason to sacrifice some cpu % to have access to its unique possibilities. Running this huge synth engine though just to play some presets with very basic editing functions and that lame morphing pad from Kore? Meh. It's even worse when the presets mostly consist of these complex showoff soundscapes. you might use em once, but they are so instantly recognisable and hard-wired that you can pretty much throw em away after that. granted, i haven't listened to the soundbank, but these 'WOW!' presets are just a very common thing with synths like Alchemy. I view them as added incentive to customise/make your own patches, not something i'd use in a tune as is. But hey, maybe i'm wrong and you get a great mix of b'n'b and more esoteric but still usable patches. tweakability might be good depending on how much care was put into choosing the editable parameters. hope you have fun with it.

well, the no water part does sound somewhat unhealthy. it's okay for a day i guess, but i don't see the benefit of it. no food for a day isn't a big problem for me, i do it several times a year, especially when i've overeaten the day before. it can increase body awareness and make you feel centered, for lack of a better description. just feels right sometimes. dunno if i want to execute it ritually on a specific day, but i'll ask my bowels how they feel about it on saturday nice idea anyway. anyone here ever experienced fasting for a longer period of time? supposedly, you have about 3 days of increasingly intense cold turkey (no pun intended), and after that the body starts to adapt. it's not for everyone i'm sure, but i want to give it a try eventually.

big congrats. 600 comments on the first one, seems like it's taking off well! have to say that i never liked the pitched up voice, but if it makes the delivery easier for you, i can accept it. i realise that not everyone has a mesmerizing narrative voice, and it's better to keep the team small for this kind of personal format. as far as the content goes, always been a fan. it's great edutainment, no unnecessary bells and whistles to distract. i think the main thing that differentiates your series from almost everything else is the idealist notion that always shines through. that's a rare sight on the net, as riding on a wave of sarcasm/cynicism seems to be the easier way to go for most, ultimately. there's an art to that as well of course, and not many do it well. it's funny though how i can't think of a single format similar to yours dealing with video games, and it's not like it's that esoteric at all. poking fun at the cliches and shortcomings of game development isn't anything new, but evaluating what led to these developments and providing commentary&ideas, all with the superior motive of helping with the progress of the medium, feels genuinely refreshing, even though it sounds like such an obvious thing to do. i'm a bit worried about you doing one of these per week now. bi-weekly seems more doable considering the amount of thought that went into each episode so far. hope you don't burn out too fast!

battlecake's version is pretty rad. the keyboardist is rellik btw

just dropping by to say that while i forgot to vote, i enjoyed both entries; still, my vote probably would've resolved the draw to gario's advantage. i'm just a sucker for chip stuff, especially liked the arpeggiated madness bits in there. the jazzy chillness of divinewrath's offering still was a welcome departure. bots tunes felt more like a jam than a completely realised song, but that didn't stifle my enjoyment too much. i think a common problem with my tunes is that they're not too open for reinterpretation as they often rely on other things than a strong basic motif. very different to analoq's old midis, for example, which are also excellent tutorials for basic song construction. very easy to work with. anyway, well done to both contestants! let the next round commence!

I think he just prefered to call you that over 'Sonic', cause frankly, what kinda name is that. That's like calling yourself 'Jimi Hendrix' on a guitar forum. also, the 'simon' bit was hilarious :B

resuscitation successful! stay tuned for next week when ORC escapes the brink of death one more time! thanks for making it happen guys. ;D

for the first time ever, mediafire won't let me download something. any chance for a mirror? i'd love to give these sounds a spin. also reminds me that i should dig through my old song files and save some of my synth1 patches. maybe some of them are worth sharing as well.

sure they are, they just aren't arrangements.

thing is, back in the day there always was some kind of feedback, even if it just amounted to 'tune sucks' or 'can't come up with any idea'. this however...

wheeee do i get an 'i killed ORC' badge?

all DAWs suck. neural interface, what's keeping you so long??

chromaticism is neat. i've used a lot of chord progressions that i found while building around a chromatic line. i can't say that i always understand the function of each chord (ie how western music theory would interpret it), but who cares when it sounds good. if it works and i can use it in future tunes from then on, i'm most happy. i also think that it's possible to have almost any chord progression make sense with a good melodic counterpart. just made a short midi for fun, trying to stick to chromatic basslines most of the time. i'm sure there are better pieces out there to analyse, but maybe it can help illustrate the concept. http://www.mediafire.com/?ynq3wzzgjzz

haven't gotten such a sweet review in a while. thanks man. the poem by dylan thomas was the first thing i found through a random youtube search. one of those happy accidents, heh

if nexus is all you could ever want in a rom sampler, i'm guessing you're mostly interested in electronic/dance music? lots of free options in the synth and sample department there, however if you want to spend money Stylus RMX is probably your best bet. it's very comprehensive. if you want free stuff i can give you a list later.

cheers and all! glad mine wasn't the only entry in the end. i really wish for ORC to become more popular again, it's just a simple and fun concept. i hope my song choice works out for you guys...i tried to pick something not too adventurous.

heh, that's a weird title, copy-pasta'd from my description blurb. granted, the tune was lacking a proper name... how about 'Saccharine Delirium' or something anyway, the tune is part of a failed OST for a cellphone game. thought i'd provide you with the 2.6 mb sample set i made the tracks with (in sf2 format): http://www.mediafire.com/?dikmommwnet have fun!