Scrap McNapps

I personally check the mix to see if it will sound good in mono. If it's mixed fine it shouldn't make a difference.

ASIO4ALL has always been hit and miss.... More miss for me and my friends. You're better off buying an audio interface rather than wasting your time troubleshooting.

It's all good. I didn't really specifiy when I made the list. The X79 is the high-end/extreme/workstation "eff it, I got the money to blow", type thing. The Z77 is definately cheaper and still gives very good performance is what most people should go for. All that extra money can go into extra SSDs, HDDs, replacing the stock fans if you are a noise freak, and getting a better audio interface.

The reason I suggested a video card is because there are some motherboards that DON'T have integrated graphics (ie the X79 based motherboards) and if it does it usually shares it with the RAM. I also recommended a fanless card is because one they are usually cheaper no frills video cards and it reduces noise in case the OP needs to record in the same room. The Z77 on the other hand DOES have integrated graphics so a video card is not needed if it's just for music production.

What's good? Here are my suggestions. CASE: Antec, NZXT, Silverstone, Fractal Design, a few other companies I know of make some decent cases with noise reduction. Look into those. CPU: Get an Intel i5 or i7 processor. CPU FAN: Noctua or GLED MOTHERBOARD: Currently there are two platforms that I know of right now: Z77 and X79. The Z77 is the mainstream and more cheaper platform and the X79 is more on the power user side of things. Go for either or depending on budget. The important thing is to match the CPU socket with the motherboard socket. POWER SUPPLY: 600W minimum. Depending on how many video cards and peripherals you add you may need more. RAM: Get at least 8GB of RAM. That should be plenty. GSkill, Crucial, and Cosair are good. DISK DRIVES: I say have two minimum, but I recommend 3 disk drives. One for your Operating System (Windows) and programs; one for samples (ie. Kontakt libraries, drum samples, orchestra samples, etc.) and another for just your straight up recordings. As for SSD vs HDD, it's more economically sound to go for the HDD. That said, SSD are signifcantly faster in terms of loading. What you could do is get a SSD for your OS and programs and HDD for the rest of your samples and recordings. I had good experiences with Seagate for HDD as well as Western Digital. Crucial makes good SSD. VIDEO CARD: Umm... if there is not gonna be any gaming or video editing, get a video card that is simple and fanless to reduce noise. SOUND CARD: I had good experiences with RME. Focusrite is good too. Avid actually as some pretty good audio interfaces right now as well.

This is an interpolation of a theme from a wrestler from the video game Power Move Pro Wrestling for the PS1. Since it is an interpolation most of the stuff here is pretty close to the original. What I wanted to to really was revamp it and make it more creepy sounding if anything. Here is the original. And here is my interpolation Any comments are appreciated.

ZOMBIE THREAD This is my latest version of my Volcano Valley Zone Remix -I junked the synths and the cabasa and replaced them with orchestral instrument samples. -I used drums that sounded a bit more epic. -Rather than layering bells, I have like two different types of bells in total. -Made some minor changes to the arrangement. Still some mixing issues I need to work on (I did this on headphones), but this one sounds closer to how I had originally envisioned it. Has a bit more "power" to it you could say. Feedback is appreciated.

The guitars sound good to me. The choir is setting nicely in the mix. The sax sounds okay in the beginning, but doesn’t sound right when it is thrown in with the guitars. That can be fixed either with some panning, surgical eqing, or a combo of both. Or it could be some simple volume adjustments via automation around that particular area. IMO it shouldn’t be necessary to use a compressor to raise the volume of the song in Audacity after you supposedly mastered the track. The compressing and limiting via T-Racks should do that for you. I guess that particular preset is not the one that works the best but then again presets in a couple of these mastering programs (ESPECIALLY OZONE) don’t cut it. If anything, the “Do My Own Damn” setting approach to these programs is the most effective. The first step is to make the mix sound as good as it possibly can. When you do that you will find that there is generally less to do in the mastering stage. One thing to avoid when using those types of programs is to use presets. Also avoid using every component of the program. Use what is neccessary. What was it that was necessary? Well for that you had to listen with unbiased ears (which is difficult if it is your own work). This is what I usually what I do with my self-mastering. I start with EQing. Not surgical EQing where you do mad cutting and boosting at a very specific frequency ranges like you would with instruments, but more broader and subtle boosts and cuts. You shouldn’t have to do more than maybe +/- 3-6dB to notice a difference. Multiband Compression is like regular compression but at specific frequencies. I don’t really use it because I don’t know how to use it properly and even from what I read it is really used most of the time if it is not possible to redo the mix. Since you are capable of redoing the mix, you may not need it and probably better off without it (IMO anyways). Regular compression is fine I guess. To boost the overall volume, I set the limiting threshold to -0.1dB and just boost until I get a satisfactory volume that doesn’t squash the mix. There is a free mastering guide on isotope that is a REALLY good resource. Find the link below. http://izotope.fileburst.com/guides/Mastering_With_Ozone.pdf This is specific to Ozone but the concepts for the most part still apply. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck with your track!

Komplete 8. Just with Kontakt alone you can be set because of the librarys available for it. Vir2 SONiVOX Sample Logic Heavyocity They all got something for Kontakt and they are just dope.

Steinberg MR816 series. Echo Audiofirepre8 Though this is a USB interface, the M-Audio Fast Track Ultra8R is actually a good interface.

Kurzweil, Roland, Yamaha, and Kawai make good keyboards/stage pianos. You might want to take a look at thoses. EDIT: Opps... didn't peep the budget. Umm.. Casio makes good keyboards that are around that price I believe.

Coming from Guitar Rig 4, is it worth upgrading to 5 Pro?

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback I'll what I can do about the 808 kick. Got some listening to do. The scratching I'll see if there is a way to make them more interesting.

This is a cool track. Nice and relaxing. I dig.