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Keith R. Starkey

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Posts posted by Keith R. Starkey

  1. Jeremy Soule...is a god! The John Williams of video game music!

    I have several short works of is pinned to my browser, which I play when I'm vegging. Truly an amazing artist.

    The minimalism of his style at times in Guild Wars 1, namely, during the tutorial when you are leaving the main gate and heading off a bit to the right, just running through the country side, is not only memorable but stunningly captivating. You are there, in that country, fall colors and all. It is emersion and gripping.

  2. Yeah, rsinger, I'm researching the hek out of the subject of DAWs right now, which involves getting familar at the same time with the language, terminology and general overall concept and use of them. It's a workout, for sure. 

    I'm just a bit unsure as to trying out several DAWs. The work that goes into learning how each works is going to be, perhaps, a bit too much for me, as opposed to finding one and sticking with it for some time. I'm just trying to figure out what will work with my brain, not being a techie and such. We'll see.

    Thanks.

  3. Hey Michael,

    Yes, Musescore has come a long way, very long. It's a great program; however, it still suffers from no VST Support, using soundfonts and sfz, I think it is. At any rate, the MIDI output is not enjoyable; the program wasn't written for sound but for composing, so there's the give-and-take of it all.

    I will definitely keep Cakewalk's built-in multitymbral DX synth in mind! Thanks for the tip.

    I'm not after "realistic" sound in the sense of "Gee, is this a real orchestra?" I just want something that can be enjoyable to listen to. Classical and jazz don't do well with strictly MIDI! We'll see!

    Thanks much.

  4. Hey Craig_a_h,

    Perhaps we should stay in contact on this journey and share the glory when all is said and done! Ha!

    As it stands right now, I've got four DAWs I'm considering, all of which, I'm pretty sure, support VSTis, which is a must for me: Reaper, Cakewalk (totally free and well developed), Mixcraft and Mulab. 

    Reaper's probably the top dog of these, but it's quite techie, and I am not a techie; however, there's a ton of videos and other kinds of support for it, so one can always find answers. 

    Cakewalk used to cost several hundreds of dollars, but it died under its then current developer (Sonar, I believe), and was then picked up by Bandlab. They decided to continue the develpment and, to boot, not charge for it. It's quite the program, as I understand it. 

    Mixcraft and Mulab are underdogs but apparently very good programs. Mulab is quite simple and easy to use, so I'm told, which is attractive to me, but still quite powerful and able to do all I want to do. I'll be doing more research on it down the road. It's my second choice so far, that and Cakewalk.

    When I used to play video games, I would research the game for as many days as I need to in order to not have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak; I'd learn the ins and outs, the dos and don'ts, the this, that and the other before I'd ever play. So too it's the same here for learining about DAWs: study, watch videos (learning about DAWs in general as I go, reading articles and reviews, etc. Right now I'm spending my time watching a series of great, great tutorial videos by Kenny Gioria, one of the most respected YouTubers on Reaper. I'm not watching to remember, I'm watching to observe the using of Reaper, asking myself as I watch if this is a layout and style for me? As it stands, I think it's a bit too much for me, but it's still early on. We'll see.

    I'll do the same, but probably to a lesser extent with the other three programs. Depending on the wealth (or lack thereof) of videos and support options, I'll narrow things down. (Oh, and I'm still doing a refresher through Marc Sabellius's course for Musescore...got brush up!) After all is said and done, I'll pick one and see how it goes.

    Finally, the last area of study will be which VSTis to get (free first!).

    As for Cakewalk, here are two reviews to which I'm giving a lot of attention: 1) https://www.slant.co/options/26342/~cakewalk-by-bandlab-review and https://www.slant.co/options/26342/~cakewalk-by-bandlab-review.  The first review seems more balanced, and I'm giving it a lot of thought.

    Well, good luck.

     

     

  5. 4 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

    I have only ever used Cakewalk software so I can't comment on the abilities of other DAWs except that I have read that many folks here have used and still use other DAWs and like them.
    But, Cakewalk by Bandlab is an incredibly powerful program that once cost many hundreds of dollars (SONAR Platinum) and is now free, which makes it the best in my view.
     

    Thanks Greg. Yeah, the program is very appealing from what I've read. Trying to narrow down what will work best for me among Reaper (a monster), Cakewalk, Mixcraft and Mulab. 

  6. Greetings all,

    I write orchestral, jazz band and some choir music using Musescore notation software, and all I want to do is bring that work into a DAW and get a good, realistic sound. My purpose is namely for my own listening enjoyment and maybe sharing with others. Note: I will never be recording or writing through a DAW. All I need to do is learn how to mix so I can get the VSTs (and whatever else is needed ) to sound good. (I realize I'll probalby have to obtain VSTs elewhere, and that's fine.)

    In that I'm new to DAWs, Reaper has come to the top of my list; however, it is a monster of a program, and I imagine the learning curve alone to do what I want to do will be a task of its own. But I've also come across Cakewalk and Mixcraft, and Cakewalk sounds very attractive.

    So is Cakewalk a good choice for me or would another DAW be better? Is Cakewalk going to be limited for what I want to do? These are the types of questions I have, so I would appreciate any input you might have.

    Thanks much!  

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