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Yoozer

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Posts posted by Yoozer

  1. Just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for any solid audio plugins for the following platforms:

    I really want to know why people mess with the text sizes in their posts intead of just increasing the fontsize in their browser (try ctrl+numpad-plus or hold ctrl and scroll up). In other words, please don't do this.

    Steinberg Cubase LE

    Pro-Tools 7.2

    Since you didn't mention a budget, I'm going to take the candy store approach:

    http://www.pspaudioware.com/

    http://www.mcdsp.com/

    http://www.sonnoxplugins.com/pub/plugins/home.htm

    http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=guitarrig3se < I've got this one but don't have a guitar

    http://www.rndigital.org/inspectorXL.html

  2. Before I forget though, can you play a MIDI keyboard through the computer without one of the music creation programs?

    Controller keyboards like http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOAXIOM49 don't make any sound by themselves - they're merely remotes.

    Controller keyboards like http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOPRO88STAGE do make sound by themselves. A good rule of thumb is that they don't, unless specifically specified otherwise.

    This is why the name "controller" is used - any keyboard with its own sound source and MIDI can be called "MIDI keyboard". "Controller" implies no sounds, sliders/knobs/pads, and USB (besides the regular MIDI).

    As for FL and the manual: if the manual does not contain an actual tutorial, it's of course not of much use. You are still unfamiliar with terminology, and when something like "LFO 3 in the modulation matrix controls oscillator 1's pitch and pulsewidth at the same time" appears your eyes glaze over. Do keep in mind that the terminology has a good reason - like the aforementioned controller/MIDI keyboard - it saves you from typing out a 3-paragraph description.

    Even when someone bothers to write it out like this, there's still terminology in there that is unexplained because whoever writes this may skip the fact that you're coming from absolute rock bottom.

  3. I'm sorry about this, but I'm new to all of this, especially all the equipment and where to start in terms of music...

    Help, please? :oops:

    Don't ask to ask, don't say "HELP!" don't ask "Question..." - state your question clearly and in a concise way in the title of your topic. If you need help picking a digital piano for around $1000, ask "Which digital piano for around $1000" instead of "I'm wondering...". The former's good and gives you good answers, the latter is useless. Big load of bonus points if you've already visited a few music stores and looked at certain models, because this tells us you're not afraid to find information yourself.

    The first list of questions for anyone posting topics like "complete beginner" is:

    - show us what you already have (e.g. nothing at all, a computer, basic keyboard)

    - tell us what you already know (you know nothing, you play a little guitar, you DJ, etc.)

    - tell us what you're willing to spend (edit: AS A NUMBER of UKP, USD or EUR. NOBODY KNOWS WHAT YOU MEAN WITH "CHEAP" OR "NOT TOO EXPENSIVE".)

    - tell us which direction you want to go (e.g. playing live, sounding like artist x, how to expand studio)

    The first pieces of advice for complete beginners are:

    - MIDI is not audio, like sheet music is not a CD - one tells you what to play, but not how it sounds; the other tells you how it sounds, but not how to play it.

    - gear does not give a rat's ass about genre. There is no trance synth, no hiphop drum machine. The fact that certain pieces are iconic or often-used still doesn't mean much, actually.

    - using the same gear as your favorite artist won't give you the same results

    - it's going to take work. You won't find presets that exactly mimic that sound at 1.45 in an obscure b-side of some indie electronic artist only 6 people including their grandparents know about, so this means you have to make the sound yourself.

    - don't buy everything at once; build it up slowly so you get to know your equipment

    - get to know your equipment intimately; if you want to produce music at home, you have to turn into a jack of all trades. This takes dedication and study. The more you can squeeze out of your gear, the less you need to spend.

    - download trial/demo versions of all sequencers on the market and see if you can make a song in a week. If it feels like the software is hindering you, switch.

    - the software route has a high initial investment of a computer, soundcard, sequencing software, etc., but expansion is cheap - you can download several free softsynths and effects.

    - the best route is what works for you personally - your rig should act as an extension of your brain. You should not have to think about mundane tasks.

  4. and of course, Steinberg being the gigantic faggots they are, spewed out some error about the licensing not being verified

    Actually, that's your GC being gigantic faggots and not installing it correctly.

    This is one of the many reasons why I use Renoise. Obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Cubase, but you don't need to pay out your ass for it, sign an insurance form and stick a dongle up your ass to use it.

    You don't have to pay out of your ass for Cubase either and it'd be good if people would purge this meme.

    It's not like 90% of the people here need all the features of the big version 4 - the Studio version is more than enough in almost all cases, and even the LE version is pretty good. As for the dongle; it's a blind spot for many companies, but seeing that 4 managed to survive 1 year of the hacker community working frantically to crack it, it was worth the loss in sales of annoyed users for them (and since Cubase has been using a dongle since the Atari days, they were used to it).

  5. Ive been looking at the big timers around here in OCR and with all their remixes that they have out, and i noticed that some of them were able to spew out remixes in matters of weeks

    http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001160.html

    im just wondering if it just comes that naturally/easily to some people to hear the tune, replicate and elaborate...

    Yes and no. Yes, it helps if you can hear melody, it helps even more if you have a large set of licks/grooves/ideas to use as a basis. Being able to play (piano, any other instrument) and knowing music theory helps because you're not spending time to guess for the right notes.

  6. So here's the thing. I've been looking at either FL studio or Kontakt 3.

    If you would've said "FL Studio and Kontakt 3", I could've understood, but you're comparing apples and rhinos.

    Is FL studio easier to navigate around in?

    Can you even record things in Kontakt, or is it just a big sample library?

    Both have a demo. Try these first.

    In short:

    FL Studio is a complete environment where you can compose songs.

    Kontakt is not a library, but a software sampler. The fact that it comes with a bunch of DVDs stuffed to the brim does not mean anything. It won't record what you make, it won't do things with audio tracks. If you want to play burps or farts or dog barking like on toy keyboards, you first have to record this sound, then save it as a .wav file (using a program such as Audacity), and after that you can load it into Kontakt. That's it.

    I'm also looking for a keyboard. Nothing fancy really, just a good, modestly priced, solid keyboard that I can use with a Dell computer.

    Keyboards do not care what kind of computer you have, as long as (in the case of those with USB) there are drivers (for either Windows or OS X). Keyboards which only have MIDI on the back do not know anything about your computer at all - there's no drivers to install them, and whatever you're going to use will have no idea what you just hooked up to it.

    Speaking of, do I need some kind of output jack installed to be able to plug in a midi keyboard?

    MIDI is not audio. MIDI is to audio as sheet music is to a CD - MIDI will tell you what to play, but does not dictate what it should sound like. A CD tells you what it sounds like, but not how you should play it.

    Keyboards like these here:

    http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOAXIOM61

    do not have any sounds built in. They connect using USB. All this does is that it tells your computer that you've played a certain note - it's up to the software on the computer (for instance, FL Studio or the shell around Kontakt 3 when it's run in standalone mode) to do anything with this.

    Keyboards like these here:

    http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMPSRE213

    do have sounds built in; they don't have USB, so you need something extra like this:

    http://www.zzounds.com/item--EMUXMIDI1X1

    that connects them to the computer. This little box here is already built inside the Axiom. The sounds of that Yamaha PSR by the way can not be "uploaded" to your computer - neither can you "download" sounds from your computer in there. In fact, it's safe to forget terms like that for pretty much any synthesizer.

    My budget is around $500 by the way.

    For everything?

    Have you read all the FAQs and sticky threads? If not, do so first. Get the demo versions of FL Studio and Kontakt 3 and you'll find out really fast what the difference is between them.

  7. Ah, it said "not available" so I didn't bother to click any further. Anyway.

    This is a Mellotron string patch but it's pitched up - there are however some double strings (2 playing, one octave higher) presets for it if I'm not mistaken. Required software : G-Media M-Tron, or one of the presets in the free Proteus VX (preset 003:077 MeltroniKnbD - play the C4 and C5 notes).

    The sound stops suddenly because a Mellotron is an analog sampler - it plays back 8-second tapes, and when you release the key, it has to rewind so you can play again.

  8. Can I make that Factions Theme Arrangement with the guitar?

    Better yet - you can suck at an instrument and still rock at arrangements and composition, because what you write down / click in is music theory, not instrument proficiency.

    The reason piano works better is because it's the chosen interface for a controller, and because the (relatively) wide keyboard spans ranges of several instruments - which means you don't have to switch to jump from violin to cello and you can do both with a sampling library.

    The "interface" of a guitar differs from a piano - notes are not spread out (the idea of "tabs" for keyboard is rather pointless, anyone with an alternative system of notation still has to beat the existing one in conciseness and expression - and they had centuries to debug and append that standard, so you might as well just give up), the note range is not as big, notes do not automatically stop playing (muting is not the default), and all that. This makes you approach arrangements differently by default. It's good to have the knowledge of both (and more) since what is trivial for a computer can be impossible for a human being and vice-versa.

    Get those lessons and keep up your guitar playing and study (contemporary) composition and arrangement. It's all knowledge, and you won't be worse off because of it.

    Do you get this post? I don't - lol -

    It'd really help if you'd use a sensible topictitle, ask what you want to ask directly (and explain later) ;) .

  9. but I was wondering if Rosegarden for Linux would be aright for the remixing(Ubuntu Linux User).

    Why wouldn't it be? :)

    Checklist:

    - does it play nicely with your soundcard, MIDI interface and/or USB controller? Do the drivers work, will the application recognize your hardware?

    - does it run the plugins you want to use/need?

    - do you enjoy the way the user interface works?

    If these answers are yes then you've answered your question.

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