Nase

it's ichitootah! how are you man? regarding your question, if your friend is a keyboardist and needs 88 keys, it's all about the key action of course. first and foremost, he has to go to a store, ask a salesman to hook the keyboards up with a motif rack or something, and play both of them for a good while. personally, i found the keys of the MPK ridiculously hard to push down. weighted keys by M-Audio on the other hand usually feel more flimsy/synthy (i've never tried that pro edition though). it's a matter of personal preference really. the drumpads of the akai are a nice bonus, and i expect them to be atleast decent coming from that company. automating stuff with knobs and faders is fun and good for experimentation, but the amount of controls on either keyboards are probably overkill for the average musician unless you're into creating complex performance setups for live use. i'd imagine the last thing your friend wants is to buy a gadget-ridden monster controller and then find out a while later that the keyboard itself isn't really to his liking, so that should be the decisive factor. myself, i've had an x-station 25 for a long while and really regret not having gotten the 61 keys version right away. i recently bought an Axiom 61, and while it's decent enough, playing a piano sound on that little synth action keyboard of my x-station still feels more convincing to me! so all i can say is, play both keyboards extensively before purchase. if you don't feel sure about either of them after a day of demoing, don't purchase. or keep on testing one keyboard at home, as most music stores allow you to return it within 2 weeks or so (guessing it's the same in the US).

yeah, but why? it's all about the the games. there's nothing wrong at all with taking up remix requests or arranging tracks you've never even heard ingame, but personally, i wouldn't start an album dedicated to the output of a company without having a good idea of what i want to do with it. the 'nintendo fan album' thing is generic enough as is. now add a democratised, impersonal tracklist to that...can't say i'm too thrilled about that prospect. i'm not saying everything needs a super elaborate concept, but i'd like to get a feeling of heartfelt appreciation for the music. it doesn't matter if it's the umpteenth nintendo tribute. if you put your heart into it, it's all good. and for that, choosing the tracks yourself just seems like a good start to me. peace.

um. why would you want to make, like, a tribute album without knowing what exactly you want to pay tribute to? can't you figure out that part for yourself?

sunsoft dpcm bass. yummy.

oh my, sorta depressing. seems like i witnessed the golden era of PRC/ORC come and go?

7.8 mb didnt work, but 6.3 did.

cause apparently the filesize limit isn't 8 but 6 mb and i couldn't be arsed to reencode it yet. i'll get around to it.

also, 1 entry rule sucks.

anyone doing anything? i got something started and currently am in the process of utterly destroying it, but it should be pretty fun in the end. EDIT:done. gimme some competition.

you actually remember it. thanks man! gonna have a look at the new source now. wonder how well i'll be able to mix with one hand (had carpal tunnel op yesterday). typing is still a bitch...

liebster katzenfrosch! höre niemals auf, den übertakt remix zu rocken. kuuuuuuuuuuuuchen!

ahh, an analoq midi. i still have fond memories of the last analoq ORC i took part in. must've been 5 years ago... hope i don't forget about this, for old times' sake!

txai, you're so goddamn cute!

hahaha, we're all really just a bunch of nerds trying to distinguish ourselves with our opinions and knowledge. no hard feelings from me towards anyone. this is just what you get with heated debate, a whole lot of tangential stuff and misunderstandings.

agreed. the pythagorean stuff and all is fascinating for sure, but it shouldn't be more than an interesting side note when you're learning to compose. just focus on your own perception and find out what you like. theory can be helpful in providing you with tried and true options, and the terminology makes it easier to memorise things. just don't take composition for a hard science.

good post. let me backpedal somewhat: if you want to understand harmony, just relying on a chord generator is a bad idea. i still think it can be helpful if you make the effort to abstract from it. but yeah, if you just keep on doing what the generator tells you it will hinder your progress. for now, you really have to see for yourself if it makes you lazy or inspires you to try new things.

ha, you do like your analogies. guess i was feeling like ranting today. i just don't like the notion of music being this deep science you have to devote a huge part of your life to if you wanna reap any benefits. some people just want to throw some loops together, that's cool. you still need your ears for that. it's still a musical process. they do compose music. extremely forgettable music probably, yeah. but 'composing' really just means putting something together. i dunno, i guess i just don't see the point in telling someone on the net i don't know to, like, take it do the next level or stop tryin. pretty much everyone fools around with music soft at some point in his life these days. most people are gonna drop it again sooner or later. just let em be as involved as they choose to be says i. don't tell em 'you're out of the club if you don't xyz' imo. ok, speaking for myself, i too think the OP is missing out on a lot because getting down a good chord progression is AWZOMM. but if you keep on making music, those generators will become boring at some point and you'll probably have developed some harmony skills by then. i just don't see any problem.

bullshit. you can make music on a frying pan. music just boils down to organised noise; whatever system or approach you use or don't use to organise it is up to you. as long as the sound is controlled by atleast some decisions, conscious or not, it's music to me. really man, this site is about taking a theme by someone else as foundation and taking it somewhere. there's a fair amount of remixers who don't really make their own tunes, either because they think they can't or because they're not interested. they decide to not deal with what you could arguably call the gist of composing music: finding a central theme to build onto. are they not making music? i constantly try to take as much control over my music as i can handle because i think it's worth it, but who the fuck am i to tell others that they either have to do the same or refrain from calling their stuff music?

I think it's alright to learn from it. coming up with chord progressions isn't necessarily that much work. making them work in a tune is. i might actually give it a try later on. might teach me something new.

either that or just have fun with the samples. if you want or have to make a fake orchestra or whatever sound authentic, then sure, you need some reference. when i'm just doing music for me (most of the time), i find myself not caring much quite often. sometimes a completely unrealistic guitar lick just works best. a lot of people seem to create this mental gap between sounds that were made to sound like physical instruments and original, more synthetic sounds (no matter if sample based or not). there's not much middle ground in the common musician's mind. usually, when a sound is pretty close to the 'real instrument' domain but kinda off, the 'fake' issue is brought up. the thing is, i've grown to like a lot of things that others would dismiss as 'fake' over the years. maybe i have to thank the SNES for that. well, i could go on but i just realised how tangential i'm being. in short, deliberately fake sounds used in a creative context need some love too i still have this 'duet for fake and electric guitar' concept lying around, actually...

here's some oontz chock full of world music cliches. enjoy! http://tindeck.com/listen/lrka

HAHAHA this is like Sonic Shreds

or as oontzy as it gets for me, at least. http://www.tindeck.com/listen/ebxk http://www.tindeck.com/listen/xmfl soundfonts/cheap synths ftw. enjoy

wheee, still at 20k-ish. suppose i lost 1k or so over the last couple years, but i thought it'd be worse with all the headphone mixing.

reason is just insanely cpu efficient - that's what i hear every reason user saying. The cpu usage of FL plugins might be modest compared to what's coming out these days in VST land, but that doesn't mean much when you're running it on an ancient pc like yours. Also, the newer IL stuff can easily compete with 3rd party cpu hogs. ever tried the sawer demo? kinda ridiculous. you'll probably manage to max out your cpu with one polyphonically played instance.