DZComposer

One Up's source works well with mine. I can't wait to hear the submissions.

Aww, thanks guys. I honestly didn't think I was going to win this one. Also thanks to Bundeslang for editing my vote comment. I'll try to avoid that in the future. I think I have a source in mind, but I need to check on it. I'm also not sure if a MIDI exists for it so we'll see.

I made a comment about my musical taste in my vote that I now kind of wish I hadn't. I don't think it was offensive, but my apologies if it was. I was moving this week and made the vote quickly and without enough thought.

I got mine in.

Wow. I want in on this one big time. Of course the challenge is what do I pick, seeing as there are no restrictions on source.

Hmm... I just may need to give this one a shot. These two almost sound like they could be poly-melodically combined without much alteration.

I got mine in, so there are now two entries! There's an actual competition now!

Thanks, guys. This is exactly the kind of help I was looking for. Looks like I've got some work to do.

Wow, I was a bit skeptical about that. I actually wrote it in Cubase, using the Kontakt 5 library's choir as a mockup instrument. It didn't sound better in Cubase with the K5 really, but I just ran this section through EWQL Symphonic Choirs instead of the K5 and did some quick-and-dirty phrase shaping on it and it almost sounds like a different piece! The shaping really put a damper on the muddiness. http://www.dzcomposer.com/helpfiles/chordhelp.mp3 Now if only I had access to a real choir... I think there are still a few issues I need to iron out, but you are right, it is actually not as bad as I had originally thought! I'm no longer bummed about this piece. Thanks a bunch!

Can you explain that further? I don't necessarily think that minor chords with 7ths or 11th chords sound bad. Also, I'm, not a guitarist so tablature really doesn't help me see things better than standard notation. To clarify, I don't think there is something inherently wrong with those chords on their own. Obviously I made an error in their use, and I'm trying to understand what that error is.

I'm working on a choral work. It's a standard 4-part SATB, which is something I haven't really done a lot of. I have a vision for what I want it to sound like, but I'm having trouble getting there. I like the chords I have chosen when I play them individually, but together they sound like ass and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I want these smooth chords, a touch of dissonance here and there, but instead of something nice and flowing I get a freaking muddy sounding mess. Obviously something is wrong with the leading and voicing (or perhaps even my choice of chords to begin with). Chord theory has always been one of my weaknesses, and in this case it is preventing me from achieving desired results. Here are four bars of the piece both in score and in MIDI format: GIF: MP3 Mockup: http://www.dzcomposer.com/helpfiles/chordhelp.mp3 MIDI (Don't just listen to this, the MP3 sounds a lot better despite being the same chords): http://www.dzcomposer.com/helpfiles/chordhelp.mid I have a melody in the Soprano, countermelody in the Alto, and the Tenor and Bass harmonize with the soprano. In case you don't recognize it, the source is the Aquas BGM from Star Fox 64. ( ) I'm trying to do a proper choral arrangement of it instead of the terrible parallel 5th-based harmony in the original.Anyone have any suggestions and pointers for working with complex chords?

Hmm... It's been ages since I did a PRC. I think I need to get back into this.

So, I have decided to come back to OCR after a few years of hiatus. Not sure if I will end up submitting this, but I do know that my jazz writing could use some improvement, so the feedback will be valuable regardless. Also, there could be some rules issues given that the original BGM is comprised of a few well-known non-game tunes. The idea is start start off like the original and then change-it-up a little as the song progresses. That said, I'm not really going for a total-conversion here, thus I'm being a little bit conservative (perhaps another reason not to submit this). I'm also hoping the feedback can help me with some writer's block on this as I am currently unsure where I want to go with it from here, though I think I like the idea referencing songs that have a humorous connotation. I have already started down that path with the sax solo... I based the instrumentation off of the Stan Kenton Orchestra: Trumpets Trombones Saxes/Woodwinds Mellophones Guitar Bass Drums Piano Vibraphone Link to original game version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cDDCXPuaUc Link to my WIP: http://dzcomposer.com/betamusic/slotswip002.mp3 One thing for the checklist I know already: [X] Too Quiet I haven't used any compression on this WIP yet(still focusing on the composition), so to keep it from clipping I had to nudge the gain down.

EDIT: Nevermind...

If what you are doing will be write-intensive, then stay away from them. Flash memory can't handle nearly as many writes as a magnetic disk can. Though if you just keep samples on it and only really read off of it, lifespan shouldn't be too much of an issue. I hear the high-end SSDs are great, but the ones I've had experience with (the lower-end ones used in HP laptops) actually underperform the regular-old HDDs. I'd say at this point you're better off spending that kind of money on SAS (serial attached SCSI) drives with RAID (the current enterprise standard for high-performance storage) as you'll get greater capacity and higher-quality for your buck. But adding a decent SAS RAID card to your comp will run you a few hundred bucks on top of HDD costs. Probably enough to make the cost pretty much the same (albeit you get more space and reliability for it).