You Technodude79 fans out there might have noticed that all of his submissions have been removed.

This should explain things. His music is stolen, and there you can find four of his tracks - Exploding Man, Cuttin Edge (named Cutting Edge Science), Search (named Search & Destroy), and Real (named Real Magic).

You can probably find the names/artists of the originals with Beatport.com's advanced search function. I found Destination that way, the original track is Toxic - Destination Known.

Just thought I'd explain things for you all.

Perhaps this belongs in this thread? It's exposure, after all, and it's zero-related too.

In any case, high-quality music does lead to more exposure. The better your tracks are, the more people will like them enough to share them with people they know, who will share them with people they know, and so on - I've done it myself.

On Newgrounds and with Newgrounds users, the closest you can get to "marketing" is putting keywords in the short 90-character description for Flash artists using the search tool, and sharing your own track with as many people you know as you possibly can. Outside of Newgrounds, considering how many different websites and services there are on the internet, it's really just finding and using the right ones. I don't know too many so I probably can't help you there.

Another thing worth considering - over 200 users who have added me as a favorite artist and I rarely get any reviews from anyone outside of a small group of people I know, unless I make the Top 5/Top 30/front page. Fan counts won't lead to more reviews until your name becomes big and well-known (ParagonX9 and B0UNC3 are good examples of this) on the Audio Portal. And typically that won't happen unless your music caters to the tastes of the general public somehow.

Personally the exposure doesn't matter that much to me, and I don't try to market my music - the "small group" I mentioned earlier is usually enough for me. And anyway, Bjra, you should be making music because you love to make music, not for the fame. ;D

I've actually seen it happen already with a few of the more popular submissions here, namely Chaoz Fantasy and Heaven Rd. 2. Great idea though, I'll have to remember to do that from now on. :D

At 8/14/08 04:49 PM, Suspended-3rd-Chord wrote:

One might suggest not to take it seriously, but in my opinion, that's not an option. There's tons of exposure at stake and it's up to luck and a number, rather than skill, talent, or effort, to decide who gets it.

So I take it the several times that you made the top 5 that was just determined by luck and a number?

Sure. A few weeks ago when Time For Morning made it, I wasn't even trying to get up there. Maybe the other times I was, but then there's always that chance that someone's going to come along and give your track a 0 or two. That's luck, isn't it? It didn't happen to Temple, which was way up at 4.70 or so until a few minutes before the Top 5 were chosen - at the moment it happened, it was still at 4.60.

Generally (but not always) the tracks that reach the top 5 are well produced and deserve there place, backed up by a mass voting fanbase, so I would say all of you guys are being too harsh, the top 30/top 5 artists deserve their spots, the majority of them.

I didn't say the majority doesn't deserve their spots (I haven't listened to enough of the Top 5/30 over the past few weeks to accurately talk majority anyway), but many of them don't. What about submissions like this, which made Weekly 5th last week? No offense to the original artist but this isn't anywhere near the quality I would like to hear in the Top 5. I think it's safe to say that every week at least one out of the Weekly Top 5 doesn't deserve its place compared to other submissions that could have made it (at least in my opinion). Often there are others that are just as bad or so-so compared to what could have gone up there... eh, I'm rambling here, but you get the idea. Like I was saying before, this is exposure that could instead be going to better tracks with less attention. That's what I'm complaining about.

At 8/14/08 01:29 PM, Bjra wrote: anyone notice how almost 95% of all of the songs in the top weekly and top 30 this week SUCK? like there's no good songs at all.

I actually have to agree here. It's not the zeroing I have problems with, it's the exposure, and who gets it. So far I've seen four submissions in the Top 5/30 this week (no doubt there are others, this week and in the past) that don't deserve their places at all and it makes you wonder how this kind of exposure could be going to the wrong people. I'm not even talking about the very popular songs you see up there every week either.

One might suggest not to take it seriously, but in my opinion, that's not an option. There's tons of exposure at stake and it's up to luck and a number, rather than skill, talent, or effort, to decide who gets it.

Though it's not like any smaller, more experienced group of people could handpick 39 (Top 30, Top 5, four on the front page) submissions from 40 (right?) genres out of hundreds submitted weekly and the 160,000+ total submissions, and then order them into their places without someone complaining as we all seem to be now.

Unless, instead of all-time best, we have a list of one good song out of every genre updated daily or weekly, and mods selecting tracks for those spots, each mod being assigned a few genres to choose for?

I don't know, just throwing ideas out there.

At 8/13/08 01:47 PM, ShinRok wrote: Okay i have a problem with tempo, ill have the main tempo say at like 170 but when i play my syth or w/e the tempo will drop to say like 130 is it possible to fix this?
Thanks

Try right-clicking on the Tempo when it's set to 170, and then choose, "Init song with this position." Keep in mind though, if you want to change your mind about the tempo, you'll have to do it again.

Well, I've got a fairly new hardware synth/MIDI Keyboard (look up Novation's X-Station 61) - I haven't had the chance to use it much but it compares well to most similar software synths I have on my computer.

As for advantages, I hear things about "analog warmth" from time to time, but it's nice to have physical knobs and sliders to move. That and, like you said, there's the plug-and-play simplicity. When recording, I record to a WAV file, so it (or at least my X-Station, I don't know about other hardware synths) takes up virtually no CPU. I can make as many different WAV files of as many different patches as I want to, and it's got several onboard effects (compressor, reverb, delay, EQ, distortion, chorus) - so, again, CPU efficient. Maybe a bit less convenient, as I'd have to make a new recording for every significant tweak I make to a patch, but I think it's worth it. :)

Personally I think using raw presets and sounds (keyword is raw, i.e. untweaked, unchanged) usually only gives a generic, even if slightly better, feel to your tracks. The sounds aren't yours, and depending on said sounds, are heard in plenty of other tracks, hence the generic feel. It often kills the track (at least for me), especially if the composition (both melodies and drumwork) is great.

It's important to focus on both sounds and composition. You can take it easy in either area if you're starting out and want to take smaller steps, but by the time your standards go up, you can't leave either one out, or else you'll either get a very boring but well-produced track, or a moving track that's a pain to listen to.

Rawmin - true enough. Thing is, in rock (I'm not a big rock listener so I might be wrong on this), it's often not what sounds you use, but how you use them - for example, there are plenty of different amps/amp settings and playing techniques for a guitar. This is my philosophy as well. My favorite (and only :P) VSTi I use is ReFX Nexus, which is entirely presets that often sound really generic due to being used time and again in multiple tracks. I don't use them raw, instead, I tweak them beyond recognition, layer them, or use them creatively - I've used synths out of the Bass section for leads, for example. ;D

At 8/6/08 09:17 PM, BasicsOfEDM wrote:

Most EDM is written in 4/4 time. If you're unfamiliar with time signatures, this basically means that each measure, or bar, has four beats in it, and each beat takes up the time of one quarter note. A quarter note is worth...

Don't get the wrong idea, though, the article includes a lot more than just quarter notes and beginners' rhythm stuff. This article could potentially help you in making a good drumline. ;)

Next article will be on layering, unless someone has a better suggestion...

Back here again about this X-Station of mine, hopefully someone can actually answer this time? :P

So I'm trying to record the sound from the X-Station (which is a synthesizer, just to be sure) by arming the disk for recording, and then recording to an audio clip on the Playlist. However, to select the X-Station for recording, I have to first go to Audio Settings and select the X-Station ASIO driver under Input/Output. This pretty much means I'm sending the audio from the X-Station, to the X-Station (though sound does get saved on my computer), which causes some really weird and unwanted effects... is there any way to get around them? Or am I doing something wrong?

Right, so I just got an X-Station, which is a MIDI keyboard and hardware synth... the MIDI part works fine but with the synth I can't:

1) Get the output to my computer for recording
2) Sequence notes (i.e. lay them down on the piano roll) for the synth to play
- I tried MIDI Out already, it didn't work.

Can I get some help here? :\

Sound Barrier (Original Mix) is one of the better Trance songs I've seen around the AP lately, it's got some really great moments to it too. More than deserving of front page in my opinion. ;)

I say yes, even though I hardly said anything at all! ;D

I should post in the lounge more often, shouldn't I? Last time I did was at least a year ago...

At 7/30/08 01:37 AM, Los-Illuminados wrote: not trying to be pushy but i cant find a WOO yell anywhere (like the "i feel good" song) and i have the song finished. all i need is the woo yell and vocals and im done.

That sort of question wouldn't really go in the FL thread - you're looking for samples, nothing FL-specific. Maybe you should make your own thread (if this post doesn't help) to see if the rest of the AF can help you?

Anyway, if you just need a clip of somone yelling "woo," you can just record it yourself, or have someone else record it for you... no need to look around. If you're looking for a specific sample and can't find it, the most I can do is suggest searching for MP3 searchers and FX databases as well... I don't typically use them often so soundsnap.com is the only one I know.

I've got my own X-Station 61 (MIDI Keyboard/Hardware Synth) coming in this week, I'll have to give this a shot once I get the hang of it.

What kind of deadline are we looking at? I didn't see any mention of one so far...

New song up, submitted it earlier than I thought I would. Give it a look if you like uplifting trance. :D

It might not be FL7 XXL or your hardware, it ran fine for me on my computer with the soundcard that came with it and 2GB RAM... not sure about those other things though. Your synths and effects might be the problem, as some are particular CPU hogs. There was a thread about this recently, look through it and see if anything you find helps.

At 7/23/08 08:14 PM, Nav wrote: I'm up for judging, if anyone cares.

I was wondering about helping with the judging as well, I sent a PM to MaestroRage about it but never got a reply or anything. Too many other unread messages, maybe?

New song I made with a friend of mine for fun! Give it a listen. ;)

You can keep them both, but if you want to change or a setting, add new VST(s) or sample(s), etc., you'll have to do it separately for both versions. Just remember to make a new, separate folder for FL8. ;)

At 7/15/08 01:23 PM, ShoalinMonk wrote:

At 7/15/08 12:51 AM, Gloudas wrote: Cool, I found it. But uh, whats supposed to happen when i adjust the things? I just set up some quarter notes and then tried all the options under portamento and nothing changed the sound of the notes. I'm sure I'm just missing something really obvious again, so sorry for being so oblivious.

Set it to Ply, then in Piano Roll, overlap some notes. Not like a chord, but let one note slightly overlap at the end of another note.

Ply slides the notes to each other, whether or not they overlap.

Lgt slides overlapping notes only. ;)

I'm not sure what Trg does, as far as I can tell it's the same as Lgt.

Also note that you can change the time the synth spends sliding - 1/8 is an eighth note, T in the second column stands for triplet (1/8 is a third of a quarter note and 1/4 is double that, I belive, though I don't work with T often), and the third column works with odd numbers (I'm not sure what D stands for) - so 1/8D is three eighth notes, 1/4 D is three quarter notes, etc. (I think).

At 7/14/08 08:52 PM, Gloudas wrote: Bah, it would have been much nicer to find out I was doing something wrong. Ah well. I are a bit of a nub, so where is the Mod tab you are talking about?

In the central section of Nexus, there's a panel that "pops out" of the board, and on its sides are eight tabs. I've attached a quick screenshot to this post, perhaps it'll help you...

Yep, caps lock was the problem.

Thanks for the help Karco :D

No problem, glad I helped. ;D

Nice try. :P

At 7/14/08 07:11 PM, Gloudas wrote: So I have Nexus (the VST) installed on my FL 7, and I'm experiencing a few problems with it.

1: Firstly, the slide tool doesn't work; putting in one of the slide notes has no effect on the original note whatsoever My guess is that this is not so much a problem but simply how FL works, that some of the piano roll features don't function unless the VST installed has been built to utilize it, and in this case I'm assuming Nexus simply wasn't made with the slide tool in mind. However, since I'm not sure about this, I thought I'd ask in case the slide tool wasn't working because of something I had done.

The slide tool only works (I believe) on VSTis native to FL. So, the Slide Tool won't do anything. You'll have to go to the Mod tab, (second on the left) and go to the bottom left section, Portamento. There are a few different settings there, you can choose the slide type and the slide length. Not as flexible as the Slide tool but it does the job most of the time. ;)

2: The velocity in piano roll has very little effect on each note's volume (when using nexus). I could have a note at the highest possible velocity and one at the lowest possible velocity that still makes sound, and there is very little difference between the volume of the two. This is obnoxious because I need to use the volume control to have any real control of the notes volume, which can become quite tedious. Is there some way to adjust the effectiveness of the velocity of notes, or is this simply the way nexus is made?

I can see where you're coming from there, I tried playing a note at max and minimum velocity on several synths, and I wouldn't call the change dramatic. Not much you can do about this except complain on ReFX's support forums perhaps... :P

3: This isn't really nexus related, but somehow in my piano roll when I try to move notes right or left, instead of changing their position it changes the length of the note. Is there some way to switch it back to simply moving the note around?

Click from the middle of the note, not the edges. If you're doing that already, hit Caps Lock and try again.

Thanks in advance for any help, and sorry if I ought to have posted this in the FL questions thread, I just felt it didn't belong there because it's about a VST which is seperate from FL. Thanks again

No problem. Yeah, this probably would have belonged in the FL Questions thread but at least you got your questions answered. ;)

Another Paradise on E remix? :O

Don't judge too soon...

genee's remix of Lost in Her Eyes (another song here, though not nearly as good) is really awesome, especially some parts of it (1:32, for example).

At 6/21/08 11:08 PM, MaestroRage wrote: There will be a system where judges will be allowed to enter for the prize as well. I've always wanted to make this work. This would allow regulars to help out while still earning their salt... just gotta think of a foolproof method first.

Hmm, here's a system I came up with. Once the deadline is reached, the songs are passed out in groups, alphabetically, to the judges (also alphabetically) who are split up into groups. Each group of judges gets a proportionate amount of entries. Let's say there are 8 judges, and 40 entries. Entries 1-20 get passed to judges 1-4 (and all four judges rate all 20 entries out of 10, the average is taken for each one to get their final score), and entries 21-40 get passed to judges 5-8 (same deal here). In the case a song is supposed to be passed to its creator, it gets bumped to the other group of judges.

The good thing about this system is its flexibility - you can decide beforehand the number of judges to a group (though I'd recommend no less than three to a group, for accuracy), or the number of groups if there are a lot of judges but also a lot of entries. Also note the only way a judge could help their own song to winning this way is by rating low on the songs they're given, though once they send the ratings back to you it'd be easy to notice they're pulling something. If they rate slightly lower on their given entries to give their song(s) a better chance without making it obvious, their influence will be minimal and they probably won't change much at all.

Dunno if that's how it works already but that's how I'd do it. :P

Like I thought.

Now, how about you tell us which of your other submissions are stolen? I've got hard proof for one of them (as well as screenshots and the MP3 in case you remove it) and I'm also not so sure some of the others are yours...

Songs are eligible for Best of the Week if they were submitted between 12:00 AM the previous Wednesday and 11:59 PM the next Tuesday (though it's unlikely a song would get 20 votes in the space of one minute), Eastern Daylight Time (Newgrounds Time).

Your song Backroom Poker was submitted on the 11th (last Wednesday) according to the submission page.

I'm not sure what time zone you live in but there's a chance you might have submitted on your Tuesday, but after 12:00 AM on Wednesday, Newgrounds time.

Now, according to the submission page, your song Someday... was submitted on the 16th (before today, Wednesday the 18th), so it's not eligible for Best of the Week next Tuesday. ;)

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/8 4745

Really not much more than a mash-up of various copyrighted songs.

I've also found hard proof that two of his other songs are stolen - the first one, which I found several months ago and reviewed giving a link to the original, he removed when the edit and remove functions were added, so I'm not going to put the other one here where he can see it and risk him removing it before any action can be taken (I did PM an audio mod about it though).

But judging by the quality of his most recent submissions (and the rate he's been submitting them at), I'm not sure these are the only ones he stole... especially because of this song, which is probably original content, and this one, which he submitted a month earlier, but is a lot better - either he got a whole lot worse in the space of a month or he's been stealing stuff... :\ (Thanks to Nav for these examples.)

Thoughts?

At 6/17/08 09:09 PM, Nav wrote: Well, I've always seen EDM as a personalized genre. Of course, it helps to know the basics of your DAW and of production in general, but can't articles get a little... in depth? Almost to the point where, stylistically, you're copying the person who wrote the article, and not using experimentation to develop your own music?

We started this whole thing to educate the NG user with facts, not opinions. There's no changing what a major third or a sawtooth wave is, for example. ;)

There is some truth there, though - if we write articles about the more genre-specific stuff it might get a bit tougher to avoid opinions. We'll see.