boo hoo.

At 11/8/09 05:02 PM, nathanallenpinard wrote: Also, you should know that studios use Shure SM57's to mic drums quite a bit, and they are hooked into pre's that costs 1000's.

This is also a very good point to consider...

I'd use a site like audiojungle/audiomicro/bigstocksound instead to be a little more on the safe side of things. That's just a safer plan overall really for any possibly commercial venture for music usage.

At 11/8/09 09:04 AM, sorohanro wrote:

At 11/8/09 01:50 AM, joshhunsaker wrote: a pre is about as much of an accessory for a recording setup as an engine is an accessory for a car.

For this answer you deserve cookies :)
Actually I tried an Avalon mic preamp and the sound was blowing me away compared with my Art Tube MP.

People really don't understand sometimes until they hook they simply moderate $150 mic up to a thousand dollar pre for the first time. Then it's usually quite eye-opening where the real difference is coming from. Avalon is a pre type I wouldn't mind having at all...kind of like the BWM of pres...

NG's license states that anything used in a commercial application (meaning "commerce" or causing money to be made) is not covered by NG license:

"You may not use this work for commercial purposes unless you make specific arrangements with the artist under another license."

Commercial is pretty cut and dried - if you are receiving revenue based on the product, that is commercial use by simple definition.

a pre is about as much of an accessory for a recording setup as an engine is an accessory for a car.

Nathan's right on all counts. The pre is often worth spending much more money on than the mic itself TBH.

Here Comes the Hurt (loop), by joshhunsaker Type: LoopGenre: Dance

yep.

Whoopie-doo. Another bloated daw that probably handles multi-core like crap and then costs $250 for a base version that doesn't even support 3rd party plugins?? WTF? Is this like 1985 or something?

For god's sake Presonus, don't pull this "this is the DAW to kill all DAWs" bullcrap and then offer some crippled entry level version for 3 times what a comparable product sells for (FL Studio) which already has tons more support and built-in plugins. Really, did someone forget to do their market research? Oooo, I bet they did...

It's going to have about the same life span as say Project 5, which was born amid some oblique and abstract claim to brilliance due to a slightly different way it handled workflow without actually having any defining changes to general DAW funtion and then die amid a lack of continued drive and general public apathy for yet "another generic pretty looking 64 bit DAW". Has no-one learned their lesson?

I wonder if they realize they have to compete against reaper which is going to make their job pretty tough to begin with. At least it won't take them more than a year or two to realize that they made a mistake staking the big bucks on "comprehensive undo" (OMG!! undo!! holy SH*T!! is that even possible!?!?) and "Native Plugins and More" and their own hardware integration for midi controllers. Holy crap, how amazingly mediocre.

Here's where I insert the facepalm emoticon and post some quippy remark about Presonus being conceited.

Nice work!

I thought at first you were saying "East/West" and my eyes got wide...but any commercial entry is a good one...

turn the channel/vst plug gain down and your monitor gain/amp gain up.

as long as your general levels are around the same db with each channel, you should be fine.

You may have more 'instruments' pushed in one direction with more sound energy (from low-frequency activity) in the other channel so the balance between the levels can still be even.

During composition of a song, try switching your output cables to opposite channels and see if it mirrors what you tend to do. It could just be the spectra of the song you are making per channel makes instruments come through better in one channel opposed to the other. A big part of mixing is that whole "blend" idea.

There was tremendously handy free vst called "panature" from mb-plugins that appears not to be available anymore that I use pretty exclusively for panning instruments because it includes intensity and haas delay compensation for shifting signals in the stereo field. Makes for a much more natural panorama control.

Lost Universe, by joshhunsaker Type: SongGenre: Miscellaneous

Latest thing.

I used to pay for software until I realized that bootsie's vst plugs + SIR 1 for convolution reverb just kinda rule everything else. Those are free.

It Don't Matter, by joshhunsaker Type: SongGenre: Ambient

stuff

At 10/26/09 08:29 PM, Trancik wrote: Any graphics card will work. This isn't a CUDA only vsti. But be aware, you won't be able to handle many vsti's if you have a weak GPU. Geforce 7xxx or higher should be fine to run around 60 vsti's.

That's all fine and dandy. Even if I can run just 20 instances I'll be doing fantastic.

Look up "Safwan Matni plugins"

Download the following:

Prova
Jazz Baby
Le Piano
General (acoustic piano)

The look up 4front Piano and download that. If you are okay with a short amount of use - get the demo for True Pianos (expires after 30 days).

Then look up mda piano and download that. Those are all the best currently free piano vsts you'll find on the net. Each significantly better than the POS piano that comes with FL Studio.

Don't forget the fact that there are oodles of free soundfonts available that will do better however. I'd try those and a free soundfont player first.

Sounds very impressive...I remember such a graphic card-oriented convolution reverb being piloted at kvr.com at a point, but it required a specific card type (certain kind of Nvidia - never could get it to work)

I'd also like to test. Nvidia FX 5200 so it's a decent card but nothing new or crazy. I have put off getting a computer for a while so CPU usage is a huge concern for me.

OKAY. I finally made a decent song. It took long enough...

- Lullabye -, by joshhunsaker Type: SongGenre: Ambient

Keep in mind that the best mixes require the least mastering.

Buzz Joy, by joshhunsaker Type: SongGenre: Ambient

A little older one that I never posted...

those are all good choices TBH. I would pick whatever suits you aesthetically the best at this point and run with it. If there is a pro audio shop close by (guitar center maybe) see if you can go in and audition each of them if possible (even if at different stores) and get an idea what your personal preference will be.

Don't underestimate the route of using passives with a good second-hand convection-cooled pro audio amp (like a entry-level hafler) either. That may work for you as well and offer more open upgrade possibilities...

Keeping Track of Time, by joshhunsaker Type: SongGenre: Ambient

Shower me with your praise as always. Thanks again.

Sadly - sometimes FL Studio (and really any DAW I've used except Reason) is on very rare occasion (not so rare with FL) prone to corrupting the original source file so that the file is either irreparable, unopenable, unrecognizable or significantly altered. It can happen with really any activity - usually involves however adding certain vsts/dx plugs or even trying to delete them in a certain fashion.

The only thing you can do is save multiple copies (think "songname1", "songname2", "songname3", etc.) simultaneously (save at least 2 identical copies by renaming) so that it would unlikely that both could become corrupted at the same time. This is really the only workaround. Sometimes data on the computer can just become corrupted for no good reason. It happens, electronics fail and can be very odd at times - just the nature of the beast.

I started this practice a number of years ago after having a number of such occurances on my own computer (they happen still from time to time but I'm very good about backing stuff up now).

Weary Traveller, by joshhunsaker Type: SongGenre: Video Game

Made this too. Instrumental/movie theme/video game.

I think if you're happy, you're successful regardless of how much money you make or what your job title is.

At 10/20/09 09:30 PM, TMM43 wrote:

At 10/20/09 09:24 PM, Rig wrote:
Plz don't do that, kthx

LOCK IT DOWN RIG!

LOL. Mod power. hehe

Here's how to solve your problem:

Cheap midi controller from craigslist (think 61-key yamaha psr or something for $40) + cheap midi interface (ebay) + Reaper (DAW) + free vsts = cheapest MIDI based-studio you can swing.

Then go ahead and do yourself a massive favor and dink around on the piano until you get the hang of inputting simple melodies/patters/notes/rhythms etc and try your hand at synthesis. Buy a second-hand copy of an old version of Reason and then your on your way. Way easy, way cheap, way more fun than splicing/dicing loops. Seriously, it is.

Sadly, I do not have a halloween entry. Though - it is still a decent song:

Intonation, by joshhunsaker Type: SongGenre: Techno

a touch of convolution reverb goes a long way.

A nice DAC always helps editing I've found. You just tend to make better editing decisions (eq/comp/otherwise). The mic and pre stage are most likely your limiting factor in the equation though. There's a reason why Neumann U87s and AKG C12s are so sought after...

The mic/pre/ad combo is almost always the reason for "flat" vocal - that, and how you are attempting to record the vocals (what type of room, surroundings, environ, proximity to mic, angle, breath control, timbre of the voice, etc.)

You can compensate for a poor mic/pre/ad setup with a really powerful and rich voice quality (timbre). You can compensate for a poor voice quality with a really nice mic/pre/ad setup. You can compensate for both with some really masterful editing and choice of accompanying instrumentation but that part takes just as much skill as the vocals...