MaestroRage 2009-02-21 00:26:30

Yes, yes I was. I stepped down temporarily so I could focus on some more important matters.

I'll return to modding in a few months.

MaestroRage 2009-02-21 19:38:42

aw dawg, dun b lyk dat yo! I swear I wuz just sukin on sum heliam, or sum shiz. I dunno, sum nobody gave me lyk, fiddy gallons of dis shit right? So I inhalez it and sound lyk sum kind of girl!!!!

I tutelly got complete control over my vocal strings and sings me sum voxes!

Dis Mandi is sum girl I know. I stalk her but in secret I think she's stalkin me brah...

i'm scared brah, call me?

MaestroRage 2009-02-22 12:11:40

it depends entirely on how your skills have developed over those 6 months. Listening to your material i'd say you're definitely ready for an upgrade. I would recommend Garritan's Person Orchestra or Edirol Orchestral HQ VST. Both of those are phenomenal stepping stone programs (if you go to my old old account over at maestrosorrow nearly every song was made purely from that VST).

When I was making the transition to these big libraries it was because I decided realism was important. However I made the mistake of switching a bit too early and was overwhelmed with all these patches and what they meant and how to properly orchestrate them. My best advice is don't rush into it. It's might tempting to pick up the big toys everybody else is using but if you can't swim and dive into the deep end, nothing good happens.

Also keep your ears and mind open to free tools. A lot of great sounds are free, don't get sucked into the mentality that if you don't pay 500 bucks for it, it's not useful. It's a pain to search and find good free stuff, but usually worth it.

I see you use DSK's Saxaphone, DSK has good stuff. Try Kong Audio's free Erhu and Dizi flute VST's. Both are excellent.

Hope that helped.

MaestroRage 2009-02-22 13:17:25 (Updated 2009-02-22 13:32:47)

=) You know, Lamplighter, I started out with some hideous instruments too and had to work with them for about 4 years. That's when Selcuk snapped and threw a bunch of free soundfonts my way. I actually got a really nice free soundfont called Symphony. Anyway, trust me, once you get better equipment, you will feel like a brand new composer. Good luck!

With love,
Mandi <3

Here are 2 sites which are going to make your search a lot easier.

http://www.audiomastermind.com/
http://www.dontcrack.com/

loads of good free stuff there, including effects, processors, even sequencers, samples, and so forth. Have at it!

~ Selcuk

MaestroRage 2009-02-23 09:20:20

I've been testing it out myself to be honest, and though I agree that it's overpriced I would not be so quick to shoo it away. There are definitely loads of very emotional and powerful feel behind this library *the chord patches make me melt all over*, and I firmly believe a lot of the libraries potential is wasted if the user (such as myself) doesn't use a keyboard with a mod wheel. The modwheel makes a world of difference.

I'm going to give it another month, use it on and off on practice songs and see how I feel with it then. I will replace EW Gold, the more i use it the more I see flaws in it and it irks me. Sonic Implants Orchestral is a bit out of my price range for a long while yet but i'm hoping if I get good enough with Symphobia, I can use it as my prime orchestral library.

There are other pretty snazzy string libraries, maybe i'll get some specialized strings and Project Sam's brass, which is without a doubt, still a monster package.

Thanks for sharing your input.

MaestroRage 2009-02-27 18:09:46

You could but I couldn't tell you, as i'm not running the next MAC :P. I think it's going to be something fast and furious though so something high in energy? Don't quote me on it.

Symphony VST's are hard to find, DSK has some good ones, look them up on Google, but you're better off blending and mixing various soundfonts to be honest.

MaestroRage 2009-02-28 13:29:21 (Updated 2009-02-28 13:42:50)

I'd be happy to help! From watching your first episode is that the type of music you'd want for the series? pm me with further details about what you're looking for and i'll see what can be done to get you what you want.

also btw, freaking epic episode XD! Looking forward to the next installments :D!

MaestroRage 2009-03-01 20:37:12

MAC stands for "Monthly Audio Contest", however due to the incredible strain it takes to keep them running monthly the named changed to "Musical Audio Contest".

Silk is in fact a beauty. I hope to get it sometime, I'm doing just fine with RA for now, but sometime in the future... *sigh*

Vienna is very expensive, great stuff, but mad expensive. Much later in the future.

MaestroRage 2009-03-10 02:25:36

I wouldn't get Ministry of Suck, i'm not at all pleased with it. Not worth $500 imo. Get LPC's Distortion Guitar. It's only one guitar, but it's been sampled and recorded infinitely better. If I had known about LPC when I got Ministry I would have bought LPC.

MaestroRage 2009-03-16 17:40:03

sadly I don't deal with garageband, but if garageband or any mac application is capable of using the standard .sf2 format (which it should since every digital keyboard back in the day and still today largely use soundfont technology), I would recommend getting squidfont orchestral for some pretty amazing strings.

MaestroRage 2009-03-20 11:12:01

what if I use more then one ;D!?