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CryojenX
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09 May 2012, 2:42 pm

Feeling really down right now, so I figured I'd upload my latest experiment and see if I can at least make somebody else smile. :(

Somewhere Between Here & Now (rough mix)



auntblabby
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10 May 2012, 5:30 am

gee, that sounds like a pretty smooth mix to these ears :thumleft: how do you do that? sure wish i had musical talent. :neutral: perfect pitch by itself doesn't get me very far outside of the one thing i use it for. there needs to be a program for the rest of us pedestrian sorts to express the music within [or coax it out of hiding]. :oops:
and i almost forgot- HIYA AND WELCOME! :mrgreen:



CryojenX
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10 May 2012, 3:22 pm

Thanks for the welcome, and the kind words =*)

I actually use logic studio for the mac, and no actual instruments were harmed in the making of my muisc XD unless you call a midi keyboard an instrument. Great samples, synths and amp/pedal simulation in that software. Thing is, i really cant play for dirt, but i just noodle out an idea or two and then just use the tools and move things around to make it sound like i know what im doing, Lol . I guess thats why i consider myself more a composer than a musician.



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11 May 2012, 2:22 am

gee, is logic studio anything like sonic foundary ACID? where you take prerecorded loops and string them together and mix and match and mash 'em up? if so, that sounds like just the thing for me :idea: i long to be creative. i can be creative in a limited way as it is, with my long-time hobby of digital audio restoration. i like to take old scratchy stuff and make it sound much newer.



CryojenX
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11 May 2012, 5:03 pm

It may have that capability, I'm not sure, i think so but i doubt it's as elegant for those purposes, i tried it once and got sof frustrated i gave up, but for actual MIDI based compositon its great. Assuming of course that you're running a mac.



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12 May 2012, 3:19 am

anything on the mac side of things has always been too much for my budget. :oops: PCs are much cheaper.



CryojenX
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12 May 2012, 9:35 pm

Ya, before i switched to a mac I was using Cakewalk, tho back then I hadn't discovered the wonders of midi, was doing all my recording through playing an instrument 5 million times till i got one take that didnt completely suck. Discovering software synth emulators was a revelation for me, especially when paired with MIDI.



auntblabby
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13 May 2012, 12:16 am

at least you can actually play an instrument. me, i can tell when somebody is in tune or not within a percentage, but i can't really play anything worth beans. that and discernment of uniform tempo are my strengths.



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13 May 2012, 6:07 am

Pretty cool.

Where'd you get the electric guitar samples? That's what I wanna know. All the electric guitar soundfonts/samples I've found are either insanely expensive (hundreds of dollars) or sound like crap.

Being something of a sound designer, myself, I couldn't help but notice there were a couple sounds in there that didn't match the rest of the mix very well; they stood out a bit too much, in my opinion. They just weren't the 'right type' of sound for what and where they were being used for, and with. I know it's a rough mix, but I thought I'd just mention it anyway.

I'm also an electronic musician, too. I'm currently bouncing back and forth between doing melodic hardcore (Rise Against) and industrial (Nine Inch Nails).


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CryojenX
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14 May 2012, 1:56 am

Zokk wrote:
Pretty cool.

Where'd you get the electric guitar samples? That's what I wanna know. All the electric guitar soundfonts/samples I've found are either insanely expensive (hundreds of dollars) or sound like crap.

Being something of a sound designer, myself, I couldn't help but notice there were a couple sounds in there that didn't match the rest of the mix very well; they stood out a bit too much, in my opinion. They just weren't the 'right type' of sound for what and where they were being used for, and with. I know it's a rough mix, but I thought I'd just mention it anyway.

I'm also an electronic musician, too. I'm currently bouncing back and forth between doing melodic hardcore (Rise Against) and industrial (Nine Inch Nails).


The guitars are actually a combination of a modeling synth creating a half-decent clean string sound, a little reverb added, then run through some effect pedal sims and an amp sim, with some compressions and a bit more reverb.... not necessarily in that order, but close to it. Electric guitar samples are garbage, you gotta do it the hard way if you want decent results.

I tried to do the Nine Inch Nails industrial thing but kept frustrating myself with how crappy it sounded. I can do some cool dark ambient kinda stuff that is NIN influenced, but nowhere near the quality.



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15 May 2012, 4:32 pm

CryojenX wrote:
The guitars are actually a combination of a modeling synth creating a half-decent clean string sound, a little reverb added, then run through some effect pedal sims and an amp sim, with some compressions and a bit more reverb.... not necessarily in that order, but close to it. Electric guitar samples are garbage, you gotta do it the hard way if you want decent results.


I've tried that before, with less-than-satisfactory results. Even tried running a pro-recorded clean Strat through a similar effect chain to yours, but it still didn't sound quite right... I dunno...

CryojenX wrote:
I tried to do the Nine Inch Nails industrial thing but kept frustrating myself with how crappy it sounded. I can do some cool dark ambient kinda stuff that is NIN influenced, but nowhere near the quality.


What midi keyboard/VST are you using? That's the key. There are some truly great (and some of them even free) VSTs out there that can produce some exceptional industrial-type sounds, if you have the patience to play around with them enough.


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CryojenX
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15 May 2012, 10:35 pm

Zokk wrote:
CryojenX wrote:
The guitars are actually a combination of a modeling synth creating a half-decent clean string sound, a little reverb added, then run through some effect pedal sims and an amp sim, with some compressions and a bit more reverb.... not necessarily in that order, but close to it. Electric guitar samples are garbage, you gotta do it the hard way if you want decent results.


I've tried that before, with less-than-satisfactory results. Even tried running a pro-recorded clean Strat through a similar effect chain to yours, but it still didn't sound quite right... I dunno...

CryojenX wrote:
I tried to do the Nine Inch Nails industrial thing but kept frustrating myself with how crappy it sounded. I can do some cool dark ambient kinda stuff that is NIN influenced, but nowhere near the quality.


What midi keyboard/VST are you using? That's the key. There are some truly great (and some of them even free) VSTs out there that can produce some exceptional industrial-type sounds, if you have the patience to play around with them enough.


I should also mention that it took a lot of layering and shaping of the sound with EQ. I'm a bit of an anal perfectionist about the sound of synthetically produced guitars because I always wanted to be a guitarist but couldn't, so I'm not satisfied with anything but the best. I guess it's like you mention with the industrial sounds, you have to be driven to find just the right combo. As for the Industrial stuff, that's the thing, I'm not using a VST at all. I'm on a Mac using Logic pro and it uses its own format, for which there aren't as many of I suppose. They're called AU or Audio Unit files.



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16 May 2012, 2:01 am

CryojenX wrote:
As for the Industrial stuff, that's the thing, I'm not using a VST at all. I'm on a Mac using Logic pro and it uses its own format, for which there aren't as many of I suppose. They're called AU or Audio Unit files.

I just looked that up, looks like the only way to get Logic to use VSTs is through a wrapper, and pretty much the only one available is one you have to pay for. That's a drag... So many good VSTs out there. I can certainly vouch for the awesomeness that is Omnisphere.


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CryojenX
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17 May 2012, 10:32 am

Bummer. How much are we talking for the wrapper?



Zokk
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17 May 2012, 5:48 pm

CryojenX wrote:
Bummer. How much are we talking for the wrapper?

Actually, I forgot: I'm pretty sure Native Instruments' Kore 2 Player can be installed and loaded into Logic and used as an independent VST wrapper. It's been discontinued, but it looks like you can still download it for free from that link.

If that doesn't work for you, another (more expensive) option might be FXpansion VST to AU Adapter, which is $100.


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CryojenX
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18 May 2012, 2:24 pm

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into them. ^_^