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Damn, I'd post a Wild Arms remix of mine that could fit the bill, but I'm not allowed to show it to the public until the album is released sometime late this year. If you can wait until October/November then perhaps I'll be able to help you out :P

Reason 3.0 and Audacity. Sometimes Sibelius, if I'm scoring something.

At 5/22/11 12:46 PM, poxpower wrote: (can't let a guy giving religious advice go unnoticed)

Alright, why? This isn't the Atheist vs Theist thread, and I don't think that was the intention of the post. For that reason I'm not going to argue past an initial response. I am not trying to make a logically sound post rather than a personal one that addresses only the OP's issue.

Well that's pretty convincing. May I interest you in my penis growth pills?

Oh hey, it wasn't directed at you. If it was directed toward atheists I could see it being a ridiculous thing to say, but as a simple reassurance from one Christian to another it's perfectly fine. Believe it or not, it's the equivalent to you telling another atheist 'From my personal experience I assure you there is no god'. It is nothing other than a friendly gesture.

Well what would be the point of life if he didn't?

Clever. Also is a non-sequitur, so I don't need to answer.

Why do you think the meaning of life is to be tested by God?

What's the point of that?

It's simply to let people have the choice to chose Him willingly. I don't want to get into the details on the theology behind it on an internet thread.

What about when babies die at birth. What does that accomplish for the babies?

If you're asking what the people believe, it's called the rule of innocence - basically, no one under the age of 10 (I think) will go anywhere but Heaven, due to not being able to make a reasonable choice for or against God. Other than that, nothing, really - maybe the babies came into existence to help realize the path of someone else. Who knows, I won't speculate past that.

Or are you saying those babies are not real people worthy of being "tested" and are only accessories for the other, "real" humans to experience pain and suffering?

Oh I see wat u did thar.

Can't say, don't know, and don't care, in all honesty.

Wouldn't it just be like Heaven?

Nope, because the Christian heaven by definition is a place with God, and supposedly that's better than any earthly comfort can provide. That's more important than comfort. You can try to argue against that, but frankly arguing against dogma is fruitless.

Why would he care if people love him? Is he insane?

...? That's the whole purpose of our existence, according to the Christian religion. If you made a sandwich and it tasted horrible, wouldn't you be disappointed? Again, there is more to this than I'm presenting here, but this isn't the proper forum for that.

What kind of person creates others for the express purpose of them living FOR him? That sounds right to you?

It sounds perfectly fine to me. That's like asking me if the Bible sounded right to me - of course it does, otherwise I wouldn't be a Christian. You can take that however you'd like.

Maybe you haven't noticed, but over the last 400 years science has been steadily decreasing the number of hardships people have to deal with.

Despite the quality of life increasing for most people, people still feel the pressures of life, which can be a hardship as well. I don't think that's going to go away for a long, long time (though I'm personally glad we're living life better than ever).

Red Herring

No, it's not against Christianity.

Well Superman saved my dog once.

Good for you. Again, I'm not talking to an atheist, or is it that on this board Christians are simply 'not allowed' to speak about personal revelation... to another Christian? That's the vibe I'm getting from you as a moderator, which isn't healthy for a forum that should have open discussions. If I wanted to talk Theism with an atheist then there's a place for that, which isn't here.

So why..make laws? Why invent things? Why be good?

... Oh I see where you're going with this. He made laws to prevent suffering. That's what He wants. He did not completely abolish all evil from the planet, because He wanted people to make these choices themselves. Without choice there can't possibly be any love between creator and creations. The bad choices from others can be (and often are) used to point those that are in question toward God again, in particular those that are not baptized.

(a lot of stuff we've all heard before.)
Well I guess you have a lot to think about now.

Yeah, I would if I haven't had every atheist and their mother say the exact same thing. In poker, they'd call your mode of thinking 'first level'. You present your argument as if no one's ever heard it before. I've heard it before and I've answered the question before. Again, though, I have better things to do than argue in any depth on the subject, else I'd spend my time in the Theism vs Atheism thread. For the sake of the OP (and only for the sake of the OP) I felt I should answer your questions at a rudimentary level.

I'm not going to argue past this point, and if you have respect for keeping the Newgrounds Politics forum clean from a bunch of atheism vs Theism argument threads (when there's a thread obviously dedicated to that) I'd suggest you do the same. If you really, really want to discuss this (rather than show off your atheism for everyone to see) then feel free to PM me. That would be the appropriate way to handle this without dragging this thread to hell.

I can assure you that God is real through my experiences, though I can't give a conclusive argument, as that's physically impossible. Perhaps I can help relieve some of your questions, though.

To start it off, there's no way that the rapture could ever occur if you believe in a God that loves all humanity. Some sects of Christianity believe in 'Limited Atonement' (I don't know if that was a part of your doctrine), but that seems to just arbitrarily limit God's ability to Love so I tend to discard that notion. There is one passage in the Bible that talks about all sorts of people being taken to Heaven next to those that are not, and many people took that as literally being whisked away, ignoring the fact that God is impartial to humanity until after their lives are over. If this rapture business is shaking your faith then don't let it - it's not an important point to get hung on, simply because there's a very good chance that it's not even real.

Why does God allow people to suffer, and why doesn't be just 'fix everything'? Well, what would the point of life be if He did? Without the hardships of life there is no test of desire for God, and thus life becomes meaningless. It is not a good thing when evil things happen in life, but at the same time He allows bad things to happen as to strengthen their bond with Him 'through fire' (I forget the biblical passage about this - perhaps it was Daniel?).

Here's a thought experiment you can do on your own - think about your religious goal in life, not your physical one. I assume it is to spend eternity with God, as a Christian. Now imagine what would happen if God 'fixed everything' on the planet. Due to Original Sin (which is the natural inclination not to be with God) there would be no reason to love Him. There'd be no reason to live for Him. There'd be no reason to pray, nothing to thank Him for (save the initial wiping of evil, if we were aware of it). Without hardships in the world, God would naturally be removed from the equation. In this life, hardship is what reminds us that there is a God to turn to, in the first place.

That's not to say God doesn't help when you ask. No, God answers prayers for those that ask - that's the whole point of life's troubles. He has helped my family through impossible situations before, so I can personally attest to this, but it's something that you can't take at face value. It's something you need to experience yourself to understand, ultimately.

tl;dr, God wants people to willingly spend their time with Him, but due to humanity's natural aversion to Him the only way to initiate people and keep them at His side is by allowing hardships in their lives. Take that as you will, but I hope that helps you make a decision on this matter in your life.

I think you're forgetting the most basic argument - cost. It costs the state significantly more money to put a prisoner to death than to hold them indefinitely.

In all honesty, that's the only factor that turns me away from the death penalty.

Yeah... why don't you just get the Lame.dll?

In fact, here' a link to it. Just put that in your Audacity folder and you should be all set for Mp3 extraction.

At 5/21/11 03:39 AM, Kwing wrote: Why is it so often that people who distrust anything get shot down? Typical cases include 'those nutjobs' who think GMOs are dangerous, that our vaccines are causing problems in consumers, that use homeopathy and have criticisms of traditional western medicine, etc. I've seen these people regarded with skepticism, rolled eyes, and undue hatred, anger, annoyance, and frustration.

In all honesty, it's generally due to the polarity of their opinions and their condescending attitude of others that don't accept their opinions at face value. If everyone else around them accepts something as fact and a lone individual does a full 180 on society then at best it's very rash to assume that everyone will follow suit without resistance, yet that's exactly what many of these 'nutjobs' expect.

I have a question for every single one of these ticked off jerks. Several, actually.
1. Do you think these people are good-intentioned?

Context is important, here. Some people are, some are not.

2. Do you think they would vouch for their positions if they didn't have personal experiences relating to their stances?

No. People don't turn away from what society teaches them without a strong reason to do so. It goes against all social psychological schema for a person to do so without any influence.

3. Do you think that every human being reacts the same way to any given stimuli?

Nope - people have different experiences in their lives, and they have different genetic makeup to interpret these experiences. Even in the case where two people share the exact same experiences, their genetics will influence their interpretation significantly.

4. Does this person's freedom of speech matter to you?

Meh... yeah, I suppose so. There's always someone that doesn't like what you have to say, so if you start to remove a despised speaker from the podium simply because you didn't like it you can expect the same thing to happen to you when you speak out. No one wants to be silenced, so frankly we should just let people have their say.

What makes our demographics so separated that we feel so alienated from people that disagree with us?

See the top. It's a combination of the polarity of the opinion and the self-righteousness/stuborness that tends to drive people crazy.

Intriguing thoughts, interesting idea. If you have any ideas for the collab color me interested.

Most people who like to write music don't stop. The only one I can think of that did stop was Charles Ives, and that was because the pressures of being a lawyer simultaneously caused him to have a mental breakdown, which after that he couldn't ever write again. That wasn't by choice, either - he tried to write music, but be physically couldn't make anything that sounded good to him anymore, so he was forced to stop. A damn shame, too, considering he was one of the greatest American composers.

*ahem* Yeah, no. Most people don't just quit because they feel too much time has passed, or something. Most people continue to write unless something actually stops them.

You'll also lose those options if your music is used in any flash movie, no matter the view count. Seriously, I had a track that have about 15 views that I couldn't edit for a while because someone used it in a spam flash. When the flash was deleted I was able to edit the track again.

So did anyone give you credit for your music on NG?

Audacity is perfect to record music, and it's free. Go get it for recording.

FL Studio is great for synth work, as well as Reason (possibly both - ReWiring Reason's synths to FL's DAW is something a lot of people do). Reaper is nifty because it's an unlimited free demo (and pretty cheap to purchase).

At 5/13/11 11:44 PM, Cleod-9 wrote: Does anyone else here notate their music first?

Sometimes - it depends on the song, really. Hey, some songs I write entirely for score and they don't ever get generated by the computer.

And yes, I'm Mozart, suckas. My secret is revealed.

There's two ways I approach writing computer music, as of late. Either I open a template that I've already set up in the past and just generate some effects, beats, etc., and try to make it work or I make a new template and then do the above. It's awesome.

In reality, you can figure out the timing of any combination of rhythms by taking the common denominator and placing the beats up side by side.

For example, for 3 against 2, 3x2=6, so we divide 6 by 3 & 2 to get...

x o o x o o
x o x o x o

5 against 7 would be 5x7=35, so divide 35 by 5 & 7 to get...

x o o o o x o o o o x o o o o x o o o o x o o o o x o o o o x o o o o
x o o o o o o x o o o o o o x o o o o o o x o o o o o o x o o o o o o

With a little practice any polyrhythm can be solved in this manner. Go experiment and have fun with it :)

Yes it is possible. It can be as simple as the drums on the Mario theme playing in swing against a straight melody to Bone Alphabet. Fucking... Bone... Alphabet.

If you don't know what that is, by the way, go find some sheet music for it. You will shit bricks.

At 5/10/11 01:59 PM, Kirbyfemur wrote: I would love you to join, just make sure that in the future you actually read ALL of the rules, or you might not have the niceness that you're getting from us

*takes a bow*

Will do, for future references.

tl;dr. Sorry for missing that.

Don't worry, I'm not submitting anything of the sort - for one, even if I were tempted to do so, I wouldn't be able to submit any VG remixes due to them not being written FOR this competition, time stamps, etc. My post on submitting it was entirely tongue in cheek, so sorry for giving the wrong impression (though I authentically did miss your non-remix clause in this particular remix).

In short, I'm blind. Urgh, after all the confusion I seemed to cause I almost feel obligated to sign up just to make things better... if only I had the time to do sooooooo... :(

Really? I didn't see that in the general rules, but you'd know best in that case (for those less familiar with this compo like myself perhaps make that point clear in the rules...?). I can make an argument that this particular NAC specifically opens itself to all genres, but it'd be a moot point since even if I did join (I still might, you never know) I wouldn't submit a VG remix, anyway.

All that aside, I wish the participants the best. Go knock em' out with your mixed meter madness.

Haaaa, why couldn't you have this compo back in November when I was all over submitting Crystal Snail remixes? Yeah, when it comes to time signature changes that would've dominated you all (13/16 mixed in with 3/4 & 4/4, oh yeah).

Sounds like fun. Unfortunately I don't think I'll have the time for this one, but I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone comes up with.

At 5/8/11 04:20 PM, Yorik wrote:
I regret to inform both of you that people can and DO hunt VERY large game effectively with bows and crossbows, and if you need evidence all you need to do is a 3 second google search. I've even seen hunters take alligators and crocodiles with bows. Just because you would be too afraid to do something doesn't mean nobody else participates in it.

Here's my original point.

[it's the] state trying to protect people from injuring themselves from hunting bigger game with possibly inadequate tools (imagine shooting a bear with a crossbow... yeah, goodnight hunter, unless you're really, REALLY good with that fucking crossbow).

Some people can do it. Believe me, though, there are some people that can't, but they think they can when they see it on the internet. That's not the sort of mistake that you can learn from, since you'll probably be dead when you make it once. That would most likely be who the laws are directed at.

At 5/8/11 04:06 AM, Magic-Mushroom wrote:
You don't use a bow to kill a bear, you don't use a BB gun to kill a pissed off badger, common sense. They are best used for hunting deer and medium to small game,

I know that. Don't assume everyone does. There's more than enough proof on the internet alone to show that people can be (and probably are) that stupid. Just saying that some laws might be to prevent some natural selection occurring.

My, there really is no bass, is there?

I'd suggest buying a mic, do what you can to your room to soundproof it (blankets, mattresses, something - if you think recording equipment is too expensive don't even look at the price of soundproof foam :| ), download Audacity and re-record the bass. I don't see much else you can do to bring it out via post-production - it's just not mixed correctly, right now. It's a whole lot of work, but it's pretty cheap and it'll give you the option to take care of the base.

Hell, that technically gives you the option to record your whole band via multi-tracking, but I can't guarantee the best results using this method, especially with timing elements (maybe use a free online metronome for this?). Best of luck with your situation.

Ahaaaa, almost forgot about this. Pick from this list and see if there's anything to your liking. Some of it will be a bit advanced (such as the FF Piano Collection music) but there's other stuff on there that you might enjoy trying out.

Yeah, check out some of that sheet music. It's awesome.

Have you checked out Bartok's Microcosmos? It's a piano book that starts from the very beginning to a pretty advanced level, moving one song at a time. It also covers some pretty neat soundscapes (not all tonal), so it's also a great exercise for the ear. Check it out.

Hmm... it's a strange issue. Part of it may be due to the fact that the constitution does not protect anyone's right to use a crossbow (as it does with the use of firearms), part of it may be due to the state trying to protect people from injuring themselves from hunting bigger game with possibly inadequate tools (imagine shooting a bear with a crossbow... yeah, goodnight hunter, unless you're really, REALLY good with that fucking crossbow). There's no way to really know, though, since there's so much variance from state to state on the crossbow laws.

Everyone here seems to have nailed it pretty hard - go find a bunch of music to simply play through, practicing Hanon/Brahms technical exercises is a godsend (be sure to transpose the exercises at least to 'Dd', or else you'll only be good at playing in the key of 'C' major), always read bare minimum two measures ahead of what you're playing. Otherwise it's simply a skill that takes a whole lot of practice to get right - there's no magical formula that'll 'make you get good' at sightreading. Oh well, at least (for the most part) it's free, if you know where tofind an ample supply of sheet music.

Have fun practicing.

At 5/5/11 09:47 PM, midimachine wrote:

At 5/5/11 09:12 PM, Gario wrote: Ich, I really hope people aren't zero-bombing him for this.

I gave the song I listened to 0 because, frankly, that's what it was worth.

Alright, fair enough :P

Ich, I really hope people aren't zero-bombing him for this. Honestly, that's the wrong way to approach it. Just ignore him (or in the case of crapatflash, report him) and move on - the merit of his mixing alone will do enough damage. I was going to send him a nice, helpful PM after he sent an unhappy PM to me (it wasn't quite as spiteful as anything sent to crapatflash) but he blocked me.

Oh well, I guess he'll learn about his misgivings the hard way. Really a shame.

how daaaaare you act liek you know.

Oh well, I'm not an administrator but I can at least get your back in the reviews. Wonder how much flak I'll get for responding like that... :P

Just saying that they're still looking for a couple more artists to participate in this. It's almost a full 32 person tournament to look forward to and it's going to be amazing. I want to see a couple NGers get involved in this - I know there's more than enough talent in here to have at least one representative.

Happy Pico day! Glad I was able to contribute this time - normally I miss out for one reason or another :)

And happy birthday, Tom.