Samples! [the good ones]

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53mph
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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by 53mph » Sat Dec 02, 2006 5:02 am

Sleepy Beef (is Beef your first or last name?),Master Quality means good enough to go on TV or radio.If you can get your mixes to sound as good as a CD you buy then you're on the way.If your mixes sound like compressed MP3s once they're mixed down or muddy then that's not a good Master.It's fine to read books on the subject but the best thing you can do is use your ears.Sit down one night with some coffee and your CD collection and listen to how they are mixed.I sometimes draw a semi-circle on a page to represent the stereo field and mark where each instrument is in the stereo field and where they come in and out on a linear chart.Over time you will see some patterns emerge in music Ie: bass and bass drum centre, guitars often panned hard left and right etc...) It's fine to read about this stuff but if you don't hear how it works in practice it would be like me describing how Pointilist colour theory works...don't mean FA if you can't see the picture.Just my humble opinion.

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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by arkjack » Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:17 am

I listened to a couple of your tracks.... they sound pretty clean....my office system here doesn't have a great speaker system for hearing the pan issues. I am laboring with the same problems in my studio... I think 53mph is right about the book learning, theres only so much it can teach you. Like you, I've made a list of some engineer friends that I'll invite over to rework a mix and see what my ears need to be hearing in my room.... as well as which buttons and knobs to turn and which way to turn them on my equipment..... I tried going to a big protools studio and work with a mix, but the ability to know what is going on in my space is critical. Afterall, I can't just get up at 3 am and go out to the other studios to work out a mix idea.

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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by shawnstonesifer » Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:53 pm

So I have made appropriate adjustments as recommended, and uploaded to broadjam the appropriate listing song for my current interest. Does it really take them 0-48 hours to post my song? That would make Dispatch listings hard unless you were already fully invested in the broadjam.

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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by zircon » Thu Dec 07, 2006 1:28 pm

In my experience it rarely takes more than a few hours, even at a lower membership.

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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by shawnstonesifer » Thu Dec 07, 2006 4:58 pm

That would be nice. I hope this gets easier as I get more used to it.

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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by hummingbird » Thu Dec 07, 2006 9:02 pm

Hey - as an MOB member I'd allow around 8ish hours for Broadjam to do it's thing. I try to do an overnight thing - if it's due Tuesday, I upload it Monday night and do the submission Tuesday morning.H
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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by shawnstonesifer » Fri Dec 15, 2006 10:43 am

I just picked up East West Symphonic Choir for $75. That seems like a big deal. Is anyone using that? And what about Colossus? Is that pretty special?

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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by zircon » Fri Dec 15, 2006 11:38 am

Er.... $75? Where did you buy that from? I've never seen it for less than $450. If you got it for $75 - assuming there's no typo - you probably got an illegitimate version. If you didn't, then link me to where you bought it! Colossus is a pretty cool library. It's massive - about 32gb - and spans the full spectrum of sounds. The goal of it is to have a wide range of realistic and usable sounds. About half of it is culled from other East/West products, such as VoTA, Ra, Stormdrum, Vapor, and QL Symphonic Orchestra. If you really need a one-stop workstation that sounds good, that would be your one. Personally, I feel it is better to go for individual sounds you need, one at a time. I would be happy to provide recommendations on libraries oriented towards one instrument type.The other thing is that, frankly, I don't think these massive software workstations are as PLAYABLE as hardware ones - for the most part. The other day I sat down at a Fantom and just lost track of time having fun with all the beautiful presets. Really, it's a great machine. I was inspired just by fooling around. Try it with something like Colossus or SampleTank... I don't know, those just don't do it for me. Yeah, if you want to do the most realistic mockup of something possible, maybe a Fantom or Triton won't be your best bet compared to cutting-edge sample libraries, but I think there is something to be said for stuff that just sounds good. Maybe that acoustic guitar patch doesn't perfectly imitate an acoustic guitar, but maybe it doesn't have to, you know?The closest I have found is Cakewalk's "Dimension Pro" which runs about $200-$250. It is a combo synth/sampler and designed VERY much like hardware workstations. Lots of creative programming in the factory bank (which is 7gb) and there have been two free expansion packs for registered users. The electric pianos are a dream, and it's got some nice ethnic/world stuff, as well as pianos and saxes. However I think its strong suit is the synth patches. If you're not much of a synth programmer you'll really love this one. It's very reminiscent of synth-heavy keyboards like the Korg M1, where the best patches weren't necessarily realistic, but sounded beautiful nonetheless.

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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by shawnstonesifer » Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:03 pm

I have already weighed the risk and determined it a worthy gamble. I'm either an idiot or a genius, depending on what comes in the mail. I'm definitely a little uncertain. Should something favorable appear in the mail, you'll hear about it. Last bargain gamble got me legit Logic Express to my house for $30, so if this is bogus, I'm still winning, but suddenly out $75

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Re: Samples! [the good ones]

Post by matto » Fri Dec 15, 2006 6:34 pm

Quote:I just picked up East West Symphonic Choir for $75.Chances that that's a legitimate copy are quite small; it would seem to be either outright piracy or a clueless seller who doesn't realize what the product is worth and that it can't legally be resold. Either way you're in extremely dangerous territory...stay away from illegitimate software at any cost!!

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