chummer

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by chummer

  1. Posted

    This is an episode that only works as setup for the next ones. It is the straight man for the goofiness to ensue, without which the goofy shit wouldn't be as good as it is going to be. 

     

    (it is going to take forever for them to work it out, and it's going to be so incredibly rewarding when they do.)

     

    yup. i don't know why they didn't stress the parts where Manley is really knowledgable more. the most entertaining parts were where he described how space stuff works (you need to boost backwards to move faster) or the history of space projects (the M.O.O.S.E. tool). the fact that he was able to do it easily wasn't surprising or suspenseful, but it was worth watching just for all those good little tidbits.

  4. Posted

    Really appreciate of the theory stuff folks have posted on here. Been playing and trying to write music purely on intuition for years now but having no real method's made it difficult to see ideas through to completion.

     

    Couple of questions:

    1. I'm not a drummer and am pretty hopeless when it comes to laying down patterns that aren't total snore fests. Any tips?
    2. What makes a good bass line?

    Guess a lot depends on the genre your working in but I reckon there's got to be some shared principles

     

    if i were speaking in general terms, try to figure out what kind of sound you like from drums and bass and then attempt to imitate. for instance i really like closed drumming that feels like it was made in a machine. i also like swing in my rhythms, so boom bap hip hop with its small kits really appeal to me:

     

     

    New Order's drummer does a straight rhythm style of this that i really enjoy:

     

     

    that said, Timbaland has this great, syncopated, manic style that is infectious:

     

     

    bass is interesting in how many roles it can play even in one song. you can just the play the root note of whatever chord you're on every 4th or 8th note and it works as a rhythm instrument. you can give it more motion and counterpoint the melody. you can even play it as a lead instrument. i think an interesting bass line does at least a couple of these things in a song and makes room for other sounds because of how easy it can overpower a mix/song.

     

    this New Order song has the bass doing all of those things:

     

     

    i think the bass in this track from the Lisa: The Painful OST is incredibly good because it dips into lead melody without being one, and how the rhythm of it interacts with the drums. it does the same thing the whole way through, but it's not boring;

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1a_LxEW2bU

     

    so there's a lot of examples of things that i find good and why, but i think you need to break down stuff you like first.

  5. Posted

    Just finished this up and I'll list a similar complaint to the one I posted in the non-spoiler thread. Right after you find the axe, Delilah suggests that you're being overheard on the radio. In the next scene, she hints for you to go to Cottonwood Creek (Cove?) but I instead headed for the fence. I didn't radio anything in because I felt that would fit Henry's motivation, but when I picked up the observation documents, Delilah didn't act surprised at all that I was suddenly beyond the fence and at this strange site. Felt very vidoegamey and I did not like it at all. Felt like I rushed through the game after that.

     

    Aside from that last hour though, I really liked everything. The exploration, in-world maps/books/notes, the art, music, and voice acting were all top notch. I'm still half-confused on what was happening with Ned's equipment at the monitoring station, but I really liked that it went for a believable ending.

  12. Posted

    I guess so, yeah. And is better for sampling than Audacity.

     

    I tried out Nano Studio and KRISTAL Audio Engine. They're both freeware and have annoying limits, but are easy to work with.

    I think I need to give FL Studio another try before I can tell you what bugs me about it. Since I just found out that my MIDI interface works after all, I might even do that. Reaper looks interesting, thanks for the recommendation!

     

    i'm an ableton Live user and that's mostly because of how good Live does sample manipulation(warping and chopping are a breeze). were it not for that, i just need something that does VSTs well as i do a lot of midi synth stuff.

     

    with your FL hangups, if i were watching you record- from plugging stuff in to exporting a track- at what part would i see you start to get frustrated?

     

    Ended up ordering a Nektar Impact XL49. Package sent today, really looking forward to getting it.

     

    exciting! my keyboard is an older M-Audio 49, so it doesn't have the feature of even newer ones and i sometimes wonder about getting a board with knobs, sliders and pads so i'm not always futzing around with mouse. tell us how it works out for you.

  13. Posted

    So, I already bounced off of FL Studio/Fruity Loops twice. I guess it's hard for me to wrap my head around its interface, and I'm still too intimidated by it to give it a third try. Maybe it isn't the right tool for me anyway.

    I don't have big demands. Mostly I've used Audacity so far, and what it lacks for me is a proper support for sampling (you can do sampling in Audacity, of course, but it's clunky) and real time effects (in Audacity you can apply effects on tracks, but not in real-time, instead it processes the selection and bakes the desired effect in). Maybe synthesizer/MIDI stuff would be fine, too, but I don't think I need it.

    Does anyone know the right tool to recommend to me?

     

    so are you looking for something that just does multiple tracks and live effects? also, in which part of the process do you get hung up in FL Studio? i think clarifying that will help give a good recommendation. what other desktop recording tools besides Audacity and FL have you tried out? if you're looking for a low-investment solution, maybe reaper?

  14. Posted

    okay, so both of ya'll use tilt. i have my controller set up as you've described, clyde, but i don't use tilt at all. i'm pretty good about lighting up the GHOST letters so it's usually center where i'm failing. i'll try out these ideas and switch my view around.

     

    i can complete the cogwheel puzzle and the ghost attack scene pretty reliably. the portal one i have trouble with because i haven't figured my shot angle to get into the Whisper pit or even into the bumpers. feel like a lot of my time is spent mucking around the runes that brings up the spiral ramp. also, i'm terrible at the lower table where the Arachnid Attack and trap scene play out. i consistently hit the bumper too early and the ball just rolls over it into the center hole.

  15. Posted

    my highest table score is 44.47 million for Sorcerer's Lair. so i'm curious about strategy. do ya'll use the tilt much? what table view do you use and why? i've been using view 2 because it lets me see all the table without moving.

  16. Posted

    Been looking at MIDI-keyboards lately and I'm finding myself wondering about the necessity of having a full set of keys (88?) or if a half-length i just fine.

    How much do you who use these keyboards use their full length? Or are you, as Clyde notes, just modulating whenever you need to?

     

    i've got a 49 key and that's perfect for my use with both hands. i'll note that i've only one semester of keyboard from community college as training though, so there may be an advantage that i don't recognize in having a full 88.

  20. Posted

    Hmm. So it's 4 AM and I may regret this later, but who would be down to join me this early evening for a game or two of Sundered Land? For those who don't know, The Sundered Land is a set of collaborative story telling mini-games set in a post-apocalyptic future. Low on dice-rolling, high on imagination. Each mini game lasts from 20-60 minutes so you don't have to worry about a big time investment.

     

    Hoping to start around 4-5pm PST. Looking for anywhere between 1 and 3 people. We can use Skype, G-Chat, Discord, or Roll20. PM your interest and preferred VOIP service; I'll be vigilant about checking and responding. If today is too soon, mention that you'd be willing to do one on Friday.

  21. Posted

    It made me buy and play Invisible, Inc. It still intimidates me in the same way that XCOM does, in that I can't stand that sort of failure, but it has a structure that shows me there's an ending (plus rewinds).

     

    ditto on everything here. the anxiety of imperfect knowledge is heightened in Invisible Inc. for me because it's explicitly a stealth game, whereas XCom i played stealthily but always knew i had the tools for confrontations.

  23. Posted

    I don't know how they end up voting but it is KILLING me that Brad just fucking refuses to play music from anything other than level 1 from Crypt of the Necrodancer trying to make his case. He didn't bring up the hot/cold swap on level 3, or that the bosses all have music gimmicks that give it so much more variety than just "Danny B Club". He should be fighting for it to win the category (because they didn't even nominate Nuclear Throne somehow) and it's on the verge of being dropped for motherfucking Metal Gear. He's telling instead of showing in the BEST MUSIC CATEGORY.

     

    Still salty for them failing to even nominate Dustforce's OST back in '12 (a game they quicklooked and even noted how good the music was during).

  25. Posted

    Good debut, I really like the intro song.

     

    oh yeah! great tune, ya'll.

     

    Great start to the new cast!

    Regarding The Game Awards... The Spike Awards were pretty terrible, but their new Game Awards incarnation, while undeniably commercial, seems on balance a sincere celebration of games.

     

    is it better/worse or merely different awards shows like the grammys and oscars are voting on their peers while the game awards have critics choosing winners?

     

    Play Shadow of Chernobyl, it's a masterpiece

     

    went to download this after i posted and it turns out i already had it installed!