Otto Matta

Thanks, Pietones. "Cute"'s not quite what I'm going for, but so be it. How about the "sweet" in "bittersweet"? I enjoy that emotion - bittersweet.

Yeah, sometimes it's best not to be too sarcastic. But this thread is fun, I have to admit. Can't say I'm too sad to see TJMP/Mike D go. His inability to look inwardly caused him a lot of problems, including not getting along with people here. Be well, Mike.

Yes. I mixed it for headphones, though, so it might not sound all that great on speakers, to be honest.

Please report back and let me know what you think. I'm especially interested in hearing about the Thor synth.

Hell yeah. I got dibs on contra-bassoon.

Are we allowed to give suggestions?

Ooooooo, totally nasty. Maybe we could make it really easy and relatively inexpensive on ourselves and take up the harp. Or the violin. :drama:

Oh yeah, man, I made good use of the Cubase freeze option. It's necessary but a total pain in the ass, especially when you've come from a program where it wasn't necessary, where you could work in a totally temperate environment. I went beyond freezing with this first project, I actually started increasing my soundcard's latency. Nasty.

Cool, man, I look forward to your thoughts. Yeah, a powerful computer is so important if you want to use a decent program. I hope you make a good decision. When I got my DAW back in early '06 I thought it was pretty hardcore. But, a year and a half later, to keep up with Cubase I had to upgrade. My original processor was an AMD Athlon dual core 3800+. At the time the AMD top of the line was 4800+, which was totally out of my price range. Last week I bought one for a little over US$100, and installed it Friday night. Easy on the wallet. Big difference. But that's as fast as this thing can go, being stuck with the 939 socket. Projecting forward, I'll probably need a new computer in two years, no matter how well it works right now. Frightening. It's weird, this race to keep up with technology. That's one nice advantage to Reason - no race, just make the best music you can with what you're given. But yeah, Cubase is better if you're into quality, but you have to be willing to hop into the race, seems to me.

Is there such a thing as members warning mods? Like "citizen's arrest"?

Yeah, head-fi is great - I've been linking to it a few times in this thread. The truth is that devices like portables, computers and the headphone inputs on many amps usually do not have the power to make good headphones work and sound the way they're supposed to. Therefore, if one really wants their headphones to shine and to have the best listening experience, it's necessary to use a headphone amp. There are cheap and expensive ways to go about this. For portables I recommend a C-Moy style amp, which is very compact and very cheap, and good for those occasions when you've often got your portable up to 7 or 8 and it's distorting but you want your music louder. On the flipside, there are dedicated headphone amps that run in the US$10,000 area or more, which is absurd, but I wonder what that sounds like.

Yeah, man, those look nice, especially for a portable. Expensive. I'd definitely get them if portable is indeed your priority, then when you're ready you can get some big, soft lounge chairs for your ears for the home and you'll be totally covered.

Figured I'd also post my new track here along with Music Promo, since I've talked about it, and since I might get a bit more feedback. Since it was my first exploration with Cubase, I figured I'd keep things simple and concise. Still, my goal for the future is to not only achieve simplicity but also elegance, to come back down from the overthinking and "comlexifying" I felt I'd been doing with my later Reason tracks. Long way to go, in any case. If you get a chance, let me know what you think. Per Sterud - Sun Om Beach

Maybe it's obvious, then, but perhaps you could find a middle-of-the-road set that works on both, and then when you have the money and feel you really need them, buy a swank set of home headphones like the K701s . I can highly recommend the AKG K 81 DJ phones as an affordable option under US$100. They're not perfect, but you get a lot more than you pay for. The reason I bought them is to have a kickass portable sound, to bring home-listening with me in public, but without having to carry around or wear giant home headphones - and I did my research. They're totally sealed so you can totally crank them without disturbing anyone, and the sound is surprisingly thick. And that's coming from someone who practically lives in headphones and have used many of them in the past. Anyway, good luck.

Thanks so much, Billy. Yeah, it's a lot easier - well, at the very least much more convenient - to get a fuller mix in Cubase than Reason. Yes, just like Fresh Cut (Pine) (which I lost the file for by the way, sadly), I tried to keep this one simple and compact, despite all my desires to make it long-winded. Yes, the female voice is from Cantor 2, although I used it in it's most basic way. The program is CPU heavy, so I have to wait until I upgraded (tonight - totally harrowing for a comp n00b like me) to take it further, but I can't wait to get some serious stuff out of my new robot girlfriend. The abrupt end is part of the attempt to keep things tight; I imagine I'll follow it up with some interesting action. Anyway, thanks for listening and responding, and for the really nice comments. I'm looking forward to diving back in already and doing something new, now that I know my way around Cubase a tiny bit. And of course I'm looking forward to hearing some new masterpieces from you, my man.

I find it's best to have both. I consider my home headphones another component of my stereo, so they have to be good. Portable phones are a totally different beast - the best sound in a compact unit.

New track. The style is IDM-ish electronica. Mixed for headphones. I'd appreciate if you'd listen and let me know what you think. Sun Om Beach (192kbps mp3)

Very funny, as always.

I take it back about Cubase's automation being stupid. I just wasn't doing it right or well.

This is the one I told you about, Nemo. Don't know if you got the PM.

I wonder what all this says about the electronic nature of the genre. I mean, in Rock or Hip-Hop, for instance, yeah, I guess there are DJs, but the bands themselves attract all the people. Whereas the DJs who spin pop music are reserved for certain clubs, restaurants and weddings. I can't think of a superstar Rock DJ off the top of my head.

Aren't all djs djs? No, I hear you. But the other, original, point is that there are a hell of a lot of great artists who do not have the renown that DJs can achieve, which makes little sense from the artist's perspective, but makes total sense to someone who goes to a music event to get effed up and socialize (i.e., most people).

I personally feel this is the case because the vast majority of people are more interested in going to parties, getting fucked up and dancing to killer music (escaping), as opposed to the minority who go because they appreciate artistic ingenuity and are there primarily to listen (arriving). I don't know how many live acts I've been to where people are talking more than they're listening. Pan Sonic in Chicago was the worst example. They have lots of space in their music, and all the talking wrecked the experience for me. Happens a lot, and is one of the reasons I've stopped going to live shows. In a general population, there are, symbolically, far more "DJs" than "artists". That's just the way it is. If everyone were a creator our society would disintegrate.

Those were my first "nice" headphones. I liked them so much at the time I bought another pair after the first one broke. Listened with them for a few years altogether. If I'd only known what I was missing all that time. My tone knobs sure got a workout with 'em.

The one book I read on the subject was The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast. The title is misleading, because although Eno is highlighted, the book covers all major electronic genres up until about 2000. What I found most valuable was a discussion on the influences from classical music, the development and innovations in electronic music technology, and all the major artists in the 20th century who have done interesting things with it. It's not a perfect book and gets hazy with its info towards Y2K - and it totally disses psytrance. A good read though.