big giant circles

I like how you left out my next sentence. Let me quote it in big ass letter The difference between guys like me and guys like you and Scott, is that 1) I'm not hating on free stuff. and 2) I'm only pointing out what is (usually) a much easier and more direct option that provides a larger template of available sounds without having to tweak for minutes/hours. And speaking for myself here, I have not missed the point at all, but I think you may have. Perhaps you should reread my long post? It covered everything you just said (and seemed to overlook). You're the ones drawing conclusions. I'm only making suggestions like you are. Once again, let the final choice remain up to the end user, not you. These "what if" scenarios are great speculation, but they could also just be farting in the wind. *edit* Meteo, you don't need to throw the PWNED crap in there. The point of this whole discussion is not to pwn anybody, but rather enlighten the DIY'ers as to why presets/commercial plugins don't need to be avoided just because they're for sale.

I understand you weren't directing that towards me, but I maintain man, you need to lighten up and allow your perspective to be changed a little. I'd say that exactly what it sounds like, and unfortunately it's to your discredit. You have to be careful when flaunting opinions that are based solely on ONLY YOUR perspective. Maybe money is not an issue to the "newbie", maybe it is; either way it doesn't matter. It still doesn't mean that you're in charge of dictating that he absolutely does not need to buy Omnisphere, or any other piece of gear. Let it be his choice. Let us make suggestions, but let him do his homework and make the final call. It's fine to say "well, I'm on a limited budget, and so far these things have worked for me" but that's all you have the right to say in all fairness. I mean, I started out using nothing but FL default sounds, and free samples/synths that I had scavenged from all the 5 corners of the internet. And while I'm happy with my past work, I wish to hell I had some of my current plugins when I made those earlier songs. Here's another thing. How do you know that you can do everything with a free synth that you can with a commercial one? You don't. You can probably draw conclusions that there are free VSTi's out there that seem to be able to do what some of the commercial ones do, but in many cases, the free ones also CANNOT do what many of the commercial ones do. And you know what, as my collection has expanded, $500 doesn't seem like all that much to me, especially considering the content that something like Omnisphere contains. I know I don't have to explain the difference in hardware vs. software (costwise), but just as a clear example, let's take, say, the Fantom G. You're looking at going on $4,000, and it doesn't have NEARLY the quality or quantity of sounds that Omni has. And considering that Omni will probably be usable for the next 20 years (or more), $500 is not too shabby. Heck, buy an Xbox, a controller and a couple games and an XBL subscription, that's easily $500 right there. And quality music plugins these days are likely to have far more staying power to a composer than an Xbox has to a gamer. So the moral of this paragraph is - cost is relative and subjective to different people's perspective/priorities. You'll also notice that generally, most professionals in the music industry own high-end plugins. Is this because they're rich and snobby? Doubtful. Rather, there's a good chance it's that these high quality plugins save them time as well as provide them with access to sounds that are immediately playable and inspirational right out of the box. I'm pretty sure that Hans Zimmer or John Powell (etc etc etc) Don't exactly have time to sit around and find an obscure sample and tweak it and retweak it and tweak it some more until it sounds close enough to what they want. They don't have time for that shit man. Especially when they have a deadline fast approaching, and an hour or two's worth of music to produce. All this venting out now, I will say that I do not think there is anything AT ALL wrong with DIY music. It's completely fine with me if guys like you and CotMM and analoq want to make your biscuits from scratch. But you simply can't go around doing nothing but put down plugins just because you say you're too cheap to buy them (your words, remember?). You're only making yourself look bitter and resentful ON TOP OF elitist. I will also say that I personally feel like presets should generally be used as a tool/template, and that it can definitely come across as lazy/cheap to do nothing but construct a song with them. Hearing a song that's just a bunch of default Garageband loops is definitely a turn off for me. However, that doesn't mean that every song I hear that uses a Garageband loop deserves to be shat on and ridiculed. I know this rant has come across as SERIOUSBUSINESS and I know you have a bit of jest in you when you talk about this stuff, but once again man, lighten up a bit. Save the condescension for when it's really merited and not simply because someone wants to buy a synth that you don't like/don't need/can't afford. I like you a lot man, but you need to hear this. [TL:DR - BGC rants about people who think commercial plugins are evil, and why they are not.]

what's that, talking out your ass? Also, there's nothing wrong with Meteo recommending Omnisphere. It might have more than the OP needs, but who's to say he wouldn't benefit from it, or that it's outside his budget? It's got plenty of other stuff as well. Seriously man, just because you like making music a certain way doesn't mean you have to talk down on everyone who doesn't adhere to *your* system. No hate, I'm just being level/fair.

Scott, I owe you a square kick in the gonads at MAGFest, you hater. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PRESETS. OC JUST HATES THEM BECAUSE HE THINKS THEY MURDERED HIS PUPPY OR SOMETHING. *edit* Also, the $15 VA-1 deal at audiomidi.com has some nice ambient pads. AND YES THEY ARE PRESETS ZOMG.

This has been brought up numerous times. I actually tried to plan stuff like this a while back, but you'd be surprised how difficult it is to make a reality unfortunately. Even for the state-side judges.

I just noticed, you have your Axiom plugged in? Why not just use the bus power? Also, what's to become of your Fast Track?

that is beautiful man. I think I just cried a little.

Well, not EVERY vote takes that long, I'd even say that it's not really all that common for a vote to take that long. It's usually because of songs that are remixing a very obscure or unfamiliar source tune, especially if the submitter hasn't provided any assistance in exactly what the connections to their remix are. In those cases, one or more of us will usually just have to sit down and do the dirty work of finding out which parts of the remix are referencing which parts of the source, or if the section we're hearing is completely original material. This is also further complicated when a remix is in a different key, meter, genre, etc. We really want the music to pass, but we have to be fair first, and sometimes that just takes time. Try it sometime. Find a handful of remixes on here that are from a game or soundtrack that you are 100% unfamiliar with, and then download their soundtracks and see if you can figure out which remixes are of which themes. You may notice that some are pretty obvious, while others don't really sound anything like the original songs, at least until you have listened to the original enough to become actively familiar with the theme and evaluated their remixes over a few listens. That's just how it is on the panel. It's just part of the deal. Even Shariq will tell you that some mixes are harder to analyze than others. If he tells you he can tell if every remix is OCR worthy on the first listen, he's lying Lately, though, I've adopted a more "go with your gut, and err on the side of sympathy" approach. So if after a few good listens back and forth from remix to source it's just not at all obvious, I might be inclined to vote NO. But examples like this are precisely why we have a panel. There have been times where we all made mistakes and said we couldn't hear an arrangement clearly, only to have another Judge point out that we had merely overlooked it. Moreover, if all we really needed to say was "YES" or "NO", then that would save a lot of time as well. But in some cases, there might be many things that we feel compelled to address in a remix so that the submitter can understand precisely why their remix was rejected and/or what they need to fix for the resub. And going back and relistening and timestamping just takes a little time, and it can add up. Hope that helps you (or anyone else with the same question) understand. If I didn't want to give a mix a chance to prove it's adherence of the guidelines, I'd just NO it in 5 minutes and move on It's also worth noting that voting generally moves much quicker when it's being done in real-time-chat with other judges, because you can both point out things to each other and come to conclusions much much quicker. Which is why I wish we would do it more.

Sweet mercy I wish the forces of... whatever would sympathize with me for once. No, it's not the twins that are screwing up my schedule, actually. Rather, I just got off the phone with a lady who was referred to me and just offered me work, and she needs it done by Monday. I generally try to sound enthusiastic and professional when discussing work with people, but I don't think I managed to hide my frustration and general annoyance too well in this instance. As much as I have been looking forward to this meetup, I really can't say no to the money at the moment... I hate being an adult. So that makes me 0/2 on recent OCR road trips. Me and mother nature are going to square off come MAGFest time. She's had her fun, she better not obstruct me again. Sorry guys

well, regardless of all this, I can only hope that I get to hear a review of it on ZP

Well, I didn't say I sympathize with him, I was only saying that I find whatever has driven him to be Princess Emo-Thief is worth noting as unfortunate. By all means, light his hair on fire. I'm not THAT tender about it *EDIT* haha, Also worth noting that he specifically says in the intro of that video that "People should support the Dev's of Trine by buying their game" How's that for irony? Also, why am I not seeing more flaming on his Youtube channel/video comment?

I feel sorry for this kid anyway. Looking at his myspace, he looks like a little emo muppet anyway, and probably has self esteem issues. I'm torn, because on one hand, I (like many of you) would like to roast him, but on the other, I just shake my head and think it's sad.

so far I THINK I'm still good for this, but I'll be leaving here around noon-1pm-ish, which should put me there around 6-7pm. And I'll probably have to take off early the next day, maybe around lunch or so. But hey, still plenty of time to make some noise and eat some food and have fun.

shame, because I have no doubt all the other albums were stolen as well.

well, shouldn't the support be for audiomidi.com? they're the reseller, after all.

I cannot for the life of me find an email address to contact them at anyway. And it's too late to call. Gah.

I agree. Those screenshots just put a damper in my enthusiasm.

Ah well, it's only $15. That doesn't cover the charge for consistent speediness

Awesome, who can say no to that? Just snagged one.

I have to know what the "push it" button does.

Sweet man. Once again, I had an opportunity to pick up the DSM1's OR the DSM3's for INSANELY cheap before I left GC, and I am just murdering myself for not doing it. I'm highly impressed with your gear lineup, mang! I rarely edit velocities on synth solos. Organic instrument, yes, but not synths. (Also, what are you talking about, the last note is clearly quieter than the rest) Very very nice. One of these days, I'm going to pull a Yoozer and start buying as much hardware as I can get my hands on. ...When I can afford it. Haha, let the band of Casio-brothers unite!