2,916 Forum Posts by "Breed"
At 12/11/13 06:27 AM, SoundChris wrote:
Hm interesting. But i dont know if they are the right monitors for me - one of my main genres will be orchestral... have you any experience with adam monitors?
He might idk but I definitely do. The adams are an ok choice. They are great for long nights mixing due to those ribbon tweeters, but the adams have a reputation much like KRK. They are used a LOT by people doing EDM. My associates and I have kind narrowed down what we think are the best options for entry level monitors. We personally all like the Yamaha HS8, Event 20/20BAS, and Dynaudio BM5A mk2. They seem to be the most truthful bunch for under a grand per speaker. The Adams definitely compete with those sets, so dont take it as an end-all listing, but also dont skip over them as they are all worth looking into.
Makin a little kids christmas. I Love my job.
At 12/9/13 02:45 AM, Knoxius wrote: inb4 musicians who refuse to work for free
but srsly, this is the wrong place to ask for free work, especially of the magnitude you require.
Not true! Yeah there's a lot of us work-for-hire guys that hang around the forums, but there are also plenty of up n comers waiting for something fun to come around and this might be that for them. This is, after all, a creative commons based publishing site forum....ya know...like everythings free haha =)
Bought Cubase 7
Shits intense. Probably gonna switch outta FL. Image-line clearly has no intent to fix their horrible video player and syncing issues, nor do they seem to care about people using multi-out VSTs...I can set up 64 tracks of orchestral instruments (all addressed properly and routed to individual mixer tracks) in cubase in literally like a few minutes, versus FL taking me upwards to 45 minutes or so with a lot of tinkering.
Seems like imagelines only goal is live and edm functionality. I spoke with gol their main dev and he pretty much confirmed this. I mean I get it, 95% or something of their customers are using FL for EDM or live shit....so it makes sense to please them first, but regardless they just lost a customer who has made imageline upwards to 40 grand in sales.
At 12/7/13 12:33 AM, Bosa wrote: What exactly was running through your head when you watched and listened as your music was being presented in a project in all its glory?
"What the fuck is this shit?" Sums it right up as I played the first game my music was featured in. The game was called dick defender, in which my trance music played in the background as you caught germs with a condom sprite trying not to let the dick at the bottom get cut off.
Luckily I feel that phrase frequently, so alas, looks like we don't have the same problem Bosa, haha.
At 12/2/13 07:24 PM, Schleif wrote: until then - is there any specific low budged equipment any of you would recommend for sfx recording?
The Zoom H1 and the Tascam DR05 are both good hundred dollar models.
I do usually recommend starting with closer to a 250 dollar budget to pick up either the H4n or DR40. You can also try going into a retail store like Guitar Center since we should all have recorders on clearance currently. In my store for example I've got Yamaha PR7 recorders for like 70 bucks when they are normally 120-150.
The key things are quality of microphone, and the ability to do line in/mic in. That gives you future potential.
At 12/2/13 06:43 PM, eatmeatleet wrote: thanks for the answers btw, I'll look into those sexy mics. They are pretty costly, on thomann like 200-250 euro for a mic.
Also if you can spare one mroe question, how does the upgrade work? You plug other mics into your main mic?
The term recorder refers to more then just a mic. The handheld ones have mics at the top, then also an A/D converter as well as storage and additional mic/line inputs. The larger ones usually just have microphone inputs and not any built in mics. When you upgrade from a handheld, the new mic will plug into the line input on the old recorder yes.
At 12/2/13 05:20 PM, eatmeatleet wrote: I wanna join in the questions
1. whats the standard equipment for recording game sfx?
2. Are portable microphones any good for the industry standarts?
Like stunkel said handheld recorders are a good starting choice. Accesories like a good windscreen are a must for outdoor recording. Zoom & Tascam have the market currently on them. The H4n and the DR40 are the two I would suggest looking at. They both allow you plug in external microphones which will give you upgrade potential. Using external mics will provide a huge advantage because handheld recorders usually have a good deal of self noise.
The standard pro route is to use a little bit different of a set. Usually a professional recorder like the Sound Devices 702t for example is used in a scenario like that. Others like myself continue to use their hand recorders line in option, and save face by just getting a field mixer like the Sound Devices 302. Fostex & Sound Devices are definitely the go to companies at the moment. The price for accessories is much higher for these though. You will most likely need a strapping bag harness to carry the gear. In these cases there are no built in mics being used, only external ones. In general terms, you would be using a shotgun mic for outdoor recording, and either a large diaphragm or pencil mic for indoor, preferably super or hyper cardioid. You may find that a boom pole + blimp shockmount system will suite portable outdoor recording most. These accessories can all easily cost hundreds of dollars.
Binaural recordings rigs are expensive as fuck usually.
You can get plugins that simulate that, but its kinda weird to toss into music. I definitely use the crap out of these techniques when mixing SFX or foley in a film for the stereo version.
At 12/2/13 12:40 PM, Atrius2014 wrote: explosions,
Try recording yourself kicking and hitting dirt piles, gravel, wood, and an automatic garage door if you have one, then combine them and play time and pitch stretching. You can really record yourself banging anything but those are some I've found useful....especially the garage door one (you know those metal/plastic automatic garage doors? those make awesome recordings for SFX if you kick them)
lasers,
Ben Burtt kinda invented our perception of laser noises, but his method takes some gear you might not have. I find that the use of synthesis is the most affordable method for simulating it. One important thing to remember about getting that pew sound is that the high frequencies should sound first with the lower ones tailing behind. I've also had some minor success using the warpy sound a saw makes when you jiggle it, along with the twangy sound a rubber band makes when you stretch it and pluck it.
slicing,
Grab stuff made of metal and just rub it together in a slice like sound, or if you need an organic sound do the same thing with various other materials like wood/cardboard/etc. Thinner metal will resonate more and can make for better recordings.
blood gushes,
Fruit and veggies all day my friend. Squish some tomatoes in your hands in a recording and you will make a gruesome blood gush.
power-ups,
Again, synths are gonna be your friends here. You can also try playing with scraping sounds on more dull material like cardboard or carpet or rubber mats. If you scrape slower it will be a lower pitch and faster will make a higher pitch so you can kinda speed up as you go to get that power up type of timbre.
Experimentation is key in all these. Try to break down the sounds you want in your head to both part and frequency specific components then see what you have around to record or what you can synthesize that may work.
Getting Robbed
So last night I got majorly robbed at work. The guy tore up my department and stole a couple grand of audio gear. Really not a fun experience cuz now I have to be questioned by everyone about what happened over and over and yeah....screw that guy. I was not injured but believe me I really wanted to injure that fuckhead.
Welcome to the audio forum. A few tips, before posting again do read the Audio Forum Rules.
If you are looking to show people here your audio then try the Audio Advertisements Thread. Or consider the Review Request Club for feedback.
If you want to chat about regular stuff with us, join us in the Audio Lounge.
This is a large topic, but if you're at all serious, you should really start by simply typing the name of this thread into a search engine, cuz its pretty common and I'm 100% certain you will have way more information that way rather than asking a relatively random group of people on a relatively random music forum to explain it to you.
I can get y'all pretty much anything you can think of for 15% off at Guitar Center (I can usually eat the tax too). Also, we have the following special edition gear in gold color (which other retailers dont have):
Presonus AudioBox
Native Instruments Maschine
Pioneer DDJSX
Tascam DR05
KRK Rokit 5 (G3)
Blue Spark
So yeah, come buy gear from me =P
Loudness on newgrounds is extremely variant. It's actually annoying to me. It definitely influences my opinion of the producer of whatever track I'm listening to. I know whats loud and what isnt loud at my settings and if a song cant compete or its unnaturally quiet I usually skip it. Maybe I'm losing out on hearing some good composers who just suck at mixing but getting at least somewhat close to industry levels is a must if you want to be heard. I've shat out productions with zero compression that were plenty loud compared to some of the quiet crap there is on here. Then theres the people who ruin their mix to try to get it to sound louder and thats just as annoying and often skipped.
Loudness is just part of production quality and low quality means low attention. At least from this guy it does. I'm not saying it needs to be hyper loud or anything. I can jive with plenty of headroom, but given the extremely dynamic skillsets on newgrounds, anything that doesnt pop out with 10-15 seconds of skimming quickly gets moved on.
At 11/24/13 10:40 PM, deadlyfishes wrote: I have that one, as well as the Akai MPK49. I much prefer the Akai, but if price and desk space is an issue, the Axiom is great!
MPK and Axiom are the best as far as action goes. The MPK has the most resistance which means the most control, but that comes at the price of not being able to hit the inner/upper part of the keys because the tension is weird there. If you do a lot of jazz or harmonies based on black notes, you can run into issues, which is why I suggest the axiom over the MPK mosta the time. The axiom has lighter action but still it feels more responsive then other semi weighted keys, and I think its due to it having full block size keys.
I think a lot of people fail to realize that they can make money on ANY track they make, whether it was commissioned or for fun or exposure or whatever.
Yeah there's a ton of people who want free work and maybe you take some, thinking it will look good on a portfolio or something. I've done this with Machinima directors before, dropping 70-80 hours of work pro bono. And despite a couple million hits on that series, it got me zero other commissions. But did I make nothing? Nope! Someone wants you to work for free just make sure you arent agreeing to exclusivity. License that shit on audiojungle and other sites. Sell it on your own site. Create looped versions of broken up scores and license multiple tracks from it if you can. Request marketing share percentages on things like monetized youtube videos. Post up the tracks yourself and fuckin monetize them.
And lets not also forgot you can use your own library to your advantage. Somebody wants a track made for free? Well you might be able to just salvage a track already in your library for that.
All content is profitable. Use, license, sell, re-use, break up, whatever.
And yeah, you still should try to get paid directly too, but that all depends on if you're even at a level where demanding pay for every gig would actually turn a profit. You need a client base before you can sit there saying you're worth money, and that takes time, so in the mean time just make money anyway you can with every piece of music you make regardless of how that came to be made.
Yeah the main concern with MIDI rips is people copy pasting video game MIDI and just tossing in their own instruments, exporting, and calling it their own track. It used to be like a couple times a day that we would have to ban someone for that.
The point of the ban is that usually they were popular tracks being stolen and butchered by people who just figured out what MIDI is and that they could make a song sound different (usually in a bad way). While this isnt illegal or anything (unless they arent crediting the original) it does fill the AP with smut, and thats just no good for anyone.
If you're doing something even the slightest bit creative or that has even a little bit of production value with someone elses MIDI or you're using royalty free stuff, then go for it, have fun, and post it. That MIDI rip rule is subjective, strange, and you kinda need to either be a culprate or a mod to fully understand it, so just dont worry about it.
I hate to be the guy who says spend more money, but maybe you should consider spending more money.
There's a ton of kickass deals usually floating between 800-1000 bucks and I think that range is about the low end for music production. A 500 dollar computer will get you by for starting out but you're gonna want to upgrade if you get at all serious.
Since people are talking about computers, here's my next planned computer purchase. Some stuff might be replaced or price may change since I'm not doin this for 5-6 months but yeah. Tell me what you guys think:
$430 - Intel Rampage IV Extreme
$580 - Intel Core i7-4930k
$500 - GeForce GTX780
$600 - Samsung 840 Evo 1TB SSD
$600 - Samsung 840 Evo 1TB SSD
$900 - Corsair Dominator Platinum 64GB RAM
$200 - Rosewill TACHYON1000 PSU
$300 - Cooler Master Cosmos II
$120 - NZXT Kraken X60 Water Cooled Dual Fan
Well the issue arises in having to do this live. Since melody usually has lots of moment to moment changes in timing to go contrary to the beat, something that affects the backing track in real time is likely to do one of two things. Either change tempo too slowly to accommodate offsets from melody rhythmic variance, or jump around too much trying to keep up with moment to moment changes. But its not about finding a balance of those two, because anywhere in between will sound bad as well.
So in short, best you can do is to get an expression pedal or midi pedal and sync it to tempo so you can adjust with your left foot while you play, and still have your right foot available for sustain. It will take some getting used to, but often learning additional skills has its rewards in other ways too. Most keyboard players dont have this skill so its a plus. Organists are all laughing at me calling this a skill right now though.
Hey Winifred,
It's great to see that you're reaching out to us here; I thank you for that. We don't ever really get artists of your stature around these parts.
I like the way you talk about the worldizing effect of game audio and the relation to emotions created by the music to truly experience the content. I can definitely relate. Many of the same principles apply in film music which is where I've been gravitating ever since I got into multi-media, but my goals and passions are more aimed towards the game industry. I've run into the hump of trying to break into the AAA world, and I find one of the biggest battles is lack of programming skills (i.e. implementation). These days, seems like everyone needs a do-it-all guy.
So my question to you is, did you find yourself at a similar crossroad or speed bump when making that transition? Did you have to study into audio implementation to get past those need-it-all gigs and onward to the larger more compartmentalized compositions/production gigs?
I only ask because I personally have trouble breaking into implementation, and as a result I end up taking on more and more scores for film/animation, and less games (the direction I'd prefer).
Thank you for your time, I'll be pre-ordering your book. Looks to be a good read.
All the best,
- Mike Breed
At 11/15/13 02:21 AM, MetalRenard wrote: Guys, you're definitely recommending I buy Spaces despite already owning Guitar Rig Pro including Reflektor, a convolution reverb? I haven't seen anyone say anything about it so I feel you missed that bit.
Spaces will sound a lot better than Reflektor in orchestra. Goliath is good if you need a lot of generic sounds like organ or upright bass but in general If I could go back to when I bought CCC I'd get spaces instead. I use goliath like 1 outta ten tracks but spaces I'd use every damn time.
At 11/16/13 07:57 AM, LichLordMusic wrote:At 11/13/13 04:28 PM, LichLordMusic wrote: Just order a pair of ADAM A5X's for a Saturday delivery, So exited!Guess what turned up everyone.
Nice man!
You running a sub with those? If you arent and need one, I'd suggest either the yamaha hs10w for 400 bucks, or the better of the two adam subs for like 1250 bucks.
Either way I love the Adams, they are workhorses. Good for long nights in the studio with those ribbon tweeters.
I came here for sugarsimon. Definitely dissapointed that he actually made sense today.
also i third spaces. For orchestra its definitely easy and has impressive results.
3 Months No Studio Comp Coming to an END
Its been weird and crazy but after 3 months I've finally mustard up the funds to fix the fucking computer. The PSU went out and took the mobo with it. Funny part is I've been offered enough gigs in these last 3 months to pay for my comp repair like 5 times over....but catch 22 on that motherfucker. Cant do the gigs without the computer.
At 11/10/13 02:41 PM, 8-bitheroes wrote: when i route them to a sub bus which do i choose 1. route to this track only 2. sidechain to this track or 3. sidechain to this track only. these are the options that come up when i right click my bus.
Just left click it. That way you are just adding that routing without removing the master routing.
At 11/9/13 08:14 AM, Yoshiii343 wrote: Man, I love the Hoover bass/lead. IT'S JUST FEELS SO GRITTY (not as gritty as the shit you hear in today's dubstep, and that's a good thing) AND FULL OF EDGE
But its so distinctive. I find it hard to do anything with it and come out feeling original.
At 11/4/13 04:24 PM, 8-bitheroes wrote:thanks that seems to be doing the trick! But im back with another question...
try a decent master compressor. endorphin is a really good free one, i used to use it to "master" speedcore stuff so it's definitely capable of loud haha (it's actually really nuanced and a great plugin, so yeah!)
I have a drum loop which i want to sidechain to my kick and snare, how do i do this?
Route the kick and snare to a sub buss without removing their master routing. Asign the loop to a buss. Add fruity peak controller to that sub buss (it will mute the sub buss which is good in this case cuz the originals will not be muted in their master routing). Right click the volume of the loop, and select Link to Controller. Select the sub buss peak in the dropdown menu in the middle of the link-to-controller settings. Then, set the graph to inverted using its drop down menu, then click accept. You can now adjust the peak controller settings to effectively side chain to both the kick and snare without touching the originals.
