Help spending money!

[brindabella]

Ok, it's Income Tax Refund money time and I'm thinking of spending it, ha ha. This is what I have: a Korg, in a few days more a Yamaha DX7, silver EWQL, sonar home 6, wavelab. Thinking of upgrading to the gold EWQL, havent decided between NI Akoustik piano or Ivory ( have to think of CPU).What else do you guys suggest? Drums? Interface? Upgrade to Sonar producer? What?! Need input! Looove spending money on music! Yipeee!!

[ibanez468]

Quote:Ok, it's Income Tax Refund money time and I'm thinking of spending it, ha ha. brinda, Here's my .02. You've already got silver, and I realize the upgrade is better and all, plus it's been a monster to deal with along with sonar thus far, but at least you have it. O.K. You've expressed great interest in getting Ivory, from what I recall, and your piano tunes have been excellent. Wouldn't it be better to go for Ivory now? Drums might be next, depending on what you have in mind as far as what you're gonna' be workin' on next. I would think to get drums next only if you know they're gonna' be necessary for upcoming listings. A far as an interface and an upgrade to sonar producer, that's a personal decision. I mean, only you know what you need, and what's important for you to have NOW. Maybe Stylus RMX? Possibly Reason 4.0? Both of these are fairly easy to use, and would give you some powerful, awesome flexibility. Kontakt 3? I think that'll be my next purchase. I don't know. Just throwin' some choices out there. There are so many, sometimes it's hard to pinpoint what one should get next. Good luck! ibanez468

[hummingbird]

Quote:Ok, it's Income Tax Refund money time and I'm thinking of spending it, ha ha. This is what I have: a Korg, in a few days more a Yamaha DX7, silver EWQL, sonar home 6, wavelab. Thinking of upgrading to the gold EWQL, havent decided between NI Akoustik piano or Ivory ( have to think of CPU).What else do you guys suggest? Drums? Interface? Upgrade to Sonar producer? What?! Need input! Looove spending money on music! Yipeee!! Just one thought - it was my understanding that the Steinburg that comes with EWQLSO Silver & Gold was top of the line... so perhaps you can spend that money elsewhere...

[brindabella]

Quote:Quote:Ok, it's Income Tax Refund money time and I'm thinking of spending it, ha ha. This is what I have: a Korg, in a few days more a Yamaha DX7, silver EWQL, sonar home 6, wavelab. Thinking of upgrading to the gold EWQL, havent decided between NI Akoustik piano or Ivory ( have to think of CPU).What else do you guys suggest? Drums? Interface? Upgrade to Sonar producer? What?! Need input! Looove spending money on music! Yipeee!! Just one thought - it was my understanding that the Steinburg that comes with EWQLSO Silver & Gold was top of the line... so perhaps you can spend that money elsewhere...You are right Vikki! Maybe I should wait until I upgrade to Gold and see how their piano sounds.Truthfully, Im having issues with the piano in silver. I got a free trial of Truepiano and Im happier with that than the one in silver.Hey Ibanez! What's up! I know what you mean, I still dont know all the stuff in the Sonar I have, so maybe I should wait on that. But I need drums! I'm Cuban. Have you seen how much they ask for Cuban music and I can't submit anything because I've got no drums!Der Llama, Im gonna take a look at that. Maybe I should get the whole thing.Arkjack: I can't even sing in the shower! Trust me, if I just hum it rains, so I won't be doing anything with voice or acoustics. It's only software here: me, myself and the puter.

[ibanez468]

Hey brinda,Oh, sorry. Didn't realize the upgrade came with EZ Drummer. Well, I suppose you'd be able to kill 2 birds with one stone then, if you went that route. ibanez468

[brindabella]

Duh! Yes, it is session drummer, not EZ drummer.Ok,Sonar upgrade!

[ibanez468]

brinda,I don't think I did anything special with EWQL, but get lucky (if I did at all)! I didn't really even have to do too much of anything. I composed the tune with a completely different piece of equipment, and when it was time, I recorded the MIDI tracks in Sonar, and just plugged-in EWQL, and tried to find the right sounds. My problems with the screeners have been my string sounds. They've been too "synthy" sounding for their tastes. So I'm really tryin' to address that this time around. It sucks to hear that that was really the only thing holding your piece back from being forwarded.

[hummingbird]

Quote:But I think, really, what's the use of upgrading to Gold if I cant master the Silver yet?#1 - if you have the Silver Bundle, you can upgrade to the Gold Bundle for $199#2 - you will have more variety to choose from in Gold and your work will sound just that much better#3 - the difficulty with all of this stuff is a) you need to compose well (write stuff specific instruments would typically play & have it work well together)b) you need to have excellent sounds (sounds that sound authentic & real, have quality)c) you need to work with the sounds to 'humanize' them so they sound like real people are playing them and so they sound like that instrument would sound if a real person was phrasing that partd) you need to mix the final result well so that the instruments sit in the right place in the mix (Silver & Gold are panned already, but still...), etcso no matter what VSTs or VIs you have, you will have to spend the time to understand controllers, etc. For someone like you who already composes well, the next step is to have a library of good sounds.... and then be willing to spend the time to work with them. It's not impossible. I was thinking yesterday, that about 3 years ago I didn't even know what a mic preamp was. Now I'm producing near broadcast quality stuff. I've outlined what I had to learn to do it. You can do it too.warmlyHummin'bird

[arkjack]

BTW.... congratulations on your victory!!! I like hearing when people win.... even Wesley.... ArkJack

[brindabella]

Quote:BTW.... congratulations on your victory!!! I like hearing when people win.... even Wesley.... ArkJackYou have no idea what they put me thru! I called them the Infernal Revenue Service. And it was just because they were lazy! It was my ex's mess, but he works for himself so I was easier to prey on. Just a single woman working hard and they froze every penny I had, even my checking account. When they returned my money I had enough to put a down payment and pay closing costs on my condo! So good for Wesley too!