Yoozer

You're the only one (except for those 4 other kings in Europe) who can afford it here.

do you have to get more instruments to be a good musician?

Here we go again: Remixes are not a musical genre on itself. A remix is a re-interpretation in whatever style you deem fitting and/or preferable of an existing piece of music. If remixes were an actual genre you wouldn't hear the diversity you can hear here. Just FYI, NOFI . Better functionality, actually. The PSRs don't have sliders, rotary knobs, or anything you need for real-time control. It's not so much that they're junk (they aren't and Yamaha or Casio is miles above the even cheaper Chinese stuff). - you pay money for built-in rhythms and accompaniment - it's got a big nice colored LCD that is absolutely useless once you look at your computer screen - the sounds in these things are usually fixed; forget 'tweaking' something a little bit if it's not to your liking. A controller is not enough. You're going to need an audio interface, too; if only to combat the latency properly, or to record your real drums in the future. I'd pick this one if I were you: http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOAXIOM61 You will love having those pads, trust me. Using the keyboard to enter drum notes sucks after using them, plus you can do proper rolls, flams, etc. As an audio interface, lots of decent cards around. E-mu 0404, M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 (you can find those secondhand for not much), etc. A good controller will serve you for a long time. A PSR will only go so far until the newest 'board with more realistic sounds and up-to-date rhythms comes out.

Synthesizers, pianos (digital or not), arranger keyboards, workstations - "keyboard" is a pretty generic term. Yamaha's weighted boards generally have pretty heavy action. Your argument does not hold up . No tool is effective enough; those which are are replaced with even more effective tools every 3 years - they're called top-of-the-line workstations . No. The catch is that most digital pianos don't have a collection of realtime controls (knobs, sliders, etc.) on board. If you ever want to control software synthesizers with more than just the notes, you'll need an extra box (or an extra keyboard if you wish). It would separate playing from tinkering with sounds. Yes, that's correct. Another option is to simply buy a sound module (a keyless synthesizer, basically) with a large collection of sounds. The P80 is older - perhaps you mean the 90? Anyway, boards with weighted keys that can get you right on your way (but not with the focus on the piano) Alesis Fusion 8HD (full workstation) Yamaha Mo-8 (stripped down Motif) Yamaha S90ES (Full Motif ES without sequencer) Korg TR88 (slightly improved Triton Le) All these have different key actions, though.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MDOMOBILEPRE - but that Behringer is cheaper. You'll have to put the audio in the G5's default sound card (which is, if it's on-board, not that awesome). Really, if you want to start making music with your computer saving up for audio interface makes sense. The Fast Track looks good, too, and it's even cheaper than that Mobile Pre. If you can get one secondhand, why not? re: the other thing: Male - sticks out Female - offers a hole It's as simple as that .

k guys just for you: http://rapidshare.de/files/18801029/sos_patchmixdsp.zip.html

E-mu 1212m . There's an article about the nuts & bolts of PatchMix DSP in Sound On Sound. I still need to read it and apply that knowledge properly, but for now, everything's been working pretty well .

I think by "odd" you mean "because they're more attractive in features-per-buck".

FLAC is very handy for archiving and taking along source files for wave-editing, recording etc. Why waste space when it's not necessary? Even 320kbps will mean a loss in fidelity. It's like working with JPGs in Photoshop; a BMP or TGA is simply clean and completely free from artifacts, no matter how indistinguishable.

And it took you 5 days to come up with that? Anyway, new additions to the gearlist: Samplitude 6.0 Numark TT1610 Numark DM950 Crates, here I come for the diggin'.

Vocaloid .

Got an onboard graphics card slurping memory? Or maybe mismatched memory? Multiple sticks with different sizes? 448 MB is 256 + 128 + 64 and it's really better to either have 2 x 256 or 1 x 512.

System Properties > General .

foobar's "Masstagger" is pretty ejeet.

Use a PC. Use a Mac. Use a wax cylinder for all I care. Linkin Park isn't better for using ProTools just as The White Stripes isn't better for using an 8-track reel-to-reel. If you sit there and spew forth how your PC is faster and cheaper than my Mac, all you're really saying is "Hey, look at me! I'm not making music tonight!"

Heh. Vengeance Essential Club Sounds is actually coming my way soon . Anyhoo - "wide" and "punchy" usually don't mesh that well. Do your percussion in mono; the rest in stereo. For the claps, get a compander; compressor/expander combined. Gate the reverb and expand it, let it duck in volume a bit after what would be the initial 'dry' clap sound. Use claps from different sources; the regular 808 or 909 clap on itself is usually not the one you're looking for. Combine it with synth noise, bandpass or highpass filtered. Throw a little bit distortion over it to up the high frequencies; not too much.

Another way to get a D-50 is to get a Roland Vari-OS with a D-50 card. It'll be more than the original, however - but cheaper than a V-synth .

No. But the treshold to get something like FL Studio is ridiculously low if you compare it with what stuff costed in the 80's or even the early 90's. http://www.xt-hq.com/ is also an option. Thing is, they never were much to start with . The GUS could eat it raw but failed because Gravis didn't take up with the wavetable stuff and had a ridiculous 1 meg memory limit.

A good composer does not depend on software. When you want to use multi-layered and very realistic orchestral sounds, soundfonts and mods pretty much are out of the question - not in the last place because stuff like Sziedlacek or Garritan simply does not come in another format. Which one of those can handle VSTs? (cue default warning for Soundblasters). What you are talking about does not make the song better; it alters individual parts to enhance realism or suggest depth. The overall song won't get better, but the part where you apply it to might. Yeah, not only is it impossible to summarize, I think you're better off with instructional DVDs or tutorials for the (more) popular sequencers.

It boils indeed down to separating the basic "body" waveform and the attack transient; which is for instance the "breath" part with wind instruments, or the "growl" from a trumpet, or the sound of the mallet on the piano. It's got 4 'partials' - 2 of 'm are sample-based without filters, the other 2 are what reasonably can be called the first virtual analog; generated waveforms and digital filters. Partials have looping waveforms, one-shot waveforms, and complete loops (like the "Clockwork" loop) - not just the attack waves . All terms for synthesis are fluff; once you get down to it . Yamaha's AWM is the same as Korg's AI², ACCESS or HI, is the same as Roland's RPCM or JV/XP or SRX. The difference is that AWM sometimes got augmented with FM (like on the SY-35) and that AI² didn't have digital resonant filters for an awfully long time, and Roland only caught up with that a while later, too (the U-series does not have digital resonant filters). None. See, if you have Kontakt (or any softsampler) and an analog-like VST (Synth1) and layer them, you already have more than both of these could ever give you. It's just the choice you make that you choose to use very short or lo-fi sample-snippets instead of several-gigabyte pianos, acquiring/constructing/sampling these snippets and the craft and skill of the sounddesign of both companies; work with an absolute minimum of memory space and still squeeze out as much as possible. I wouldn't waste money or time on both, but for the Korgs, it's pretty much a given that they carry a lot of their older wave ROM over to newer models. An 05/RW or something would serve you well. See, both the D50 and the M1 suffer from being hard to program and in the end, they aren't all that spectacular; plus, they're "legendary" which drives up the price for no good reason. Forget the fact that a 01/W has all the M1 ROM and more. The D50 is harder to find in that sense; all D-related models don't have what the D50 has (the 20-series misses a lot, the 70 series has a CPU that is so slow that if too many LFOs are triggered at the same time it'll slow down their collective frequencies.). To get something current you either have to improvise by combining a sampler/synth and completely homebrewing everything, or you have to get the genuine article, or you have to get a V-synth with the card in there. Compy's suggestion about wavetables is also good; while the system employed is rather radically different (as you're interpolating between waveforms instead of playing 'm back like samples), it does allow for very synthetic yet almost-real sounds in some cases. Do check out Synthmania's entries on both machines: http://www.synthmania.com/m1.htm http://www.synthmania.com/d-50.htm What's great is that Paolo also has some of the later Korg models there; you sort of hear how the evolution of sample-based synths went there. $150 for Legacy Digital is indeed a steal. If you had to get both of them in hardware, you'd lose out at least 3-4 times as much. Hm.. must look into it .

It's basically CoolEdit Pro rebranded and from what I've heard it didn't get a lot better after that.

A video game music remix is not a genre on its own. You'll hear all kinds of stuff coming by here; you don't want to make remixes, you want to make music. Go to your local Guitar Center or order a book from Amazon on the subject you want to explore. But "music" on itself is well - vague. What do you want to learn? How to play? How to compose? How to use a certain program? How to mix? (this means taking a load of instruments and correctly balancing out their volume, or adding effects) How to master? (to make the recording or piece of music ready to be put on CD). There is no "how to remix" because as I said earlier, remixing is a re-interpretation of existing music, and it allows you to do this in a different style. re: your music: it seems that you have to learn how to compose, and how notes and rhythm work. The default samples of FL are already bad enough as it is, but it almost sounds if you have placed 'm randomly, without much regard for how they're used in a musical context. Solution: learn how to play an instrument (any); for computers, a keyboard is usually the most effective because it can send out controller signals. It's easy enough to learn chords (and harder to read and memorize them), but if you don't have anything to play 'm on (and a mouse can't trigger 3 notes at the same time plus it won't learn you how to work with a piano roll) the buck kind of stops. Thing is, this can't be done in cookie cutter format. There's www.chordmaps.com which is nice but useless if you can't play them anywhere. Just putting 'm after eachother won't help much either; they are played with different or similar lengths for a certain effect. Personally, I'd do this: Pick up a keyboard or synth or controller somewhere. Dial up a piano sound. Buy a book for lessons and a metronome. Once you can play in tune and on time, pick up FL again. Then you'll notice things start to mesh together and it all clicks.

Aaaand thanks Compy. Well, my Messe wasn't much of acting like a shutterbug (I took my camera but didn't make much pictures or movies) but I met up with some people I used to speak to online, only. One of them was Compy, who was counting on me to get him in if the people at the door would ask tricky questions - turns out they don't and they'll let you in if you have the ticket. Re: Waldorf - they're coming back, apparently, because the company has re-formed. No news of them on the Messe yet, but a promising start that they are up again after the insolvency. Most impressive machine on the Messe was, to me, the Little Phatty. I had a good long chat with the senior engineer who designed and built the thing together with Dr. Moog, and it's a really nice piece of gear. Also, if you shout loud enough they'll think about making a rack version of it; finally a good "box of bass"! It sounds great. Also, Compy's love for the AKG stuff has convinced me to look in one of their headphones if my trusty old Philips SBC HP890 ever breaks down. I also had a chance to play with the Alesis Fusion. Guys, this is your best chance to get some awesome hardware synth for a low budget. With the recent price drop, the Mo6 and Fantom Xa and I dare even say the Korg TR pale in comparison, because the thing's an incredible bang for the buck. Roland presented the SH-201 as one of the new machines; I checked it out and it's a nice VA. Not exceptional (albeit that I'd want it just for the looks, I'm a gearjunkie like that) but solid, easy to work with, and a good sound that doesn't care if it's vintage or not. For the rest, nothing really new; the V-synth and the V-synth XT were already released earlier. Korg has the OASYS, Radias and X-50/Micro-X on display. I already knew about the first two, but the Micro-X is also something; besides a controller you get a complete Triton Le stuffed in there. Getting a great sound source rarely has been easier. Yamaha had nothing new that I thought to be really exciting. Too bad. It's about time that they one-up the ES with a bigger screen like the Fantom or Triton has. I had a totally disastrous trip home; I left Frankfurt at 18.26 (missed my first 2 ICE connections) and arrived at home (finally!) around 23.30.

You don't "convert" the MIDI. You use it and load up this here : http://www.refx.net/pro_quadrasid.htm and then play it.

120bpm = 1 beat per 0.5 seconds (60 seconds, 120 beats, divide, = 0.5). 140bpm is faster, so the time should be less; and it is; 0.428 seconds per beat. Use a wave editor. Select 4 beats. See how long they take. Divide by 4. You now have the number of seconds on how long a single beat lasts. 60 / BPM = duration of beat. If you don't know how to calculate back from that, I give up on today's youth.