New post and new secret post.

author: Chris Xiong <chirs241097@gmail.com> 2022-12-03 12:40:21 +0800
committer: Chris Xiong <chirs241097@gmail.com> 2022-12-03 12:40:21 +0800
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+<body onload="ol()" style="overflow-x:hidden;">
+	<div id="panel" class="TText">
+		<ul id="panellist">
+			<li><a href="/"><h1>Chrisoft</h1></a></li>
+			<li><a href="/blog"><h2>Blog</h2></a></li>
+			<li><a href="#"><h3 id="title">(Not really) Musical Answers &amp; Rants</h3></a></li>
+			<li><span>Tags</span>
+			<ul id="tagslist">
+			<li><a href="/blog/list/music/">music</a></li><li><a href="/blog/list/midi/">midi</a></li></ul>
+			</li>
+			<li id="tocouter">
+				<span>Table of Contents</span>
+				<ul id="tocroot">
+				<li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch0">Backgrounds</a></li><li><ul class="tocnode"><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch1">Do you play any instruments?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch2">How good are you at them?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch3">Any knowledge in musical
+theory?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch4">Anything else interesting?</a></li></ul></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch5">Backgrounds, Computer Music</a></li><li><ul class="tocnode"><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch6">How did you get into
+computer music?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch7">Any formal training on this
+stuff?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch8">How long have you been doing
+this?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch9">What
+specific skills do you have in computer music?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch10">What computer
+music projects have you worked on?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch11">Is any of this fun?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch12">How do you find joy in any
+of this?</a></li></ul></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch13">Personal Preference</a></li><li><ul class="tocnode"><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch14">Favorite genre(s)?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch15">Favorite hardware
+synth in your collection?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch16">Favorite production software?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch17">Is it “GIF” or “JIF”?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch18">Genres that you listen to
+most often?</a></li></ul></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch19">Touhou Music</a></li><li><ul class="tocnode"><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch20">The
+f**k is going on with your obsession with Touhou Music?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch21">Why don’t
+you transcribe something new from him then?</a></li></ul></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch22">Production</a></li><li><ul class="tocnode"><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch23">Do you earn money from
+your production?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch24">So why even bother?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch25">Why
+are most of your stuff remixes? Why not more originals?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch26">Ever considered
+doing Touhou-style originals?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch27">Commission? Collabs?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch28">Production Gear?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch29">Why
+stick to hardware synths when software synths nowadays are so
+powerful?</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch30">Since you don’t
+earn money from you production, …</a></li><li><a class="toctarg" href="#tocanch31">Can I use your music for X?</a></li></ul></li></ul>
+			</li>
+			<li style="margin-left:-0.5em"><a id="prevp" href="2022-07-23.html">Prev post</a></li>
+			<li style="margin-left:-0.5em"><a id="nextp" href="Privacy.html">Next post</a></li>
+		</ul>
+	</div>
+	<div id="content">
+		<h2 id="titleh" class="TText" style="font-wight:normal;">(Not really) Musical Answers &amp; Rants</h2>
+		<div id="datetags" class="TText" style="margin-bottom:1em;">2022-11-27<br>#music #midi</div>
+		<hr><div id="article" class="TText"><style>
+details {
+  border: 1px solid #888;
+  border-radius: 4px;
+  margin: .5em .5em 0;
+  padding: .5em;
+}
+</style>
+<article>
+<p>I’ve got this <a href="https://chrisoft.org/libs/music/player">pretty
+large music collection</a> on my website and sometimes I get people
+asking why is it there. This post serves as an FAQ for all those
+questions that I can remember, plus some bonus rant.</p>
+<p>This post may be updated regularly to reflect any changes that might
+happen.</p>
+<h2 id="tocanch0" class="tvis">Backgrounds</h2>
+<h3 id="tocanch1" class="tvis">Do you play any instruments?</h3>
+<p>I use to play keyboard instruments, specifically arranger keyboard
+for 4 years, and the piano for 6 years. I started when I was 7.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch2" class="tvis">How good are you at them?</h3>
+<p>I’ve got certifications from the CMA (China Musicians Association)
+for amateur musicians (colloquially, they are referred to as “考级” in
+China), level 5 for arranger keyboard, and level 9 for the piano
+<a id="n1" href="#note1" class="note">[1]</a>.</p>
+<p>Do note the wording I used in the answer to the previous question:
+“use to”. I haven’t practiced seriously for quite some time (5 years at
+least).</p>
+<p>I never spent a lot of time practicing, even I was actively learning
+to play. Longest uninterrupted practice session I had was probably 4
+hours (one tenth of Lingling’s typical practice session, ugh
+<a id="n2" href="#note2" class="note">[2]</a>). Clearly I was more into
+messing with computers back then (still very much the case right
+now).</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch3" class="tvis">Any knowledge in musical
+theory?</h3>
+<p>The only “formal” lesson I had on musical theory was given by my
+piano teacher, which didn’t touch on any of the advanced topics – just
+basic intervals, chords, and progression stuff.</p>
+<p>I’ve read books on music theory, namely</p>
+<ul>
+<li>“Introduction to Basic Music Theory” (probably the most widely used
+book on this topic in China, original title 《基本乐理通用教材》,
+authored by Li Chongguang （李重光）. English title is my own
+translation and I have no idea what the official translation is.)</li>
+<li>“Music Theory for Computer Musicians”, Michael Hewitt</li>
+<li>“Composition for Computer Musicians”, Michael Hewitt</li>
+<li>“The Complete Idiots Guide to Music Theory”, Michael Miller (didn’t
+finish reading)</li>
+</ul>
+<p>But I can’t say I remembered a single thing from them.</p>
+<p>I also know a few things on acoustics and computing stuff related to
+music. See the “Backgrounds, computer music” section for more on
+this.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch4" class="tvis">Anything else interesting?</h3>
+<p>I’m quite convinced that I have (at least partial) perfect pitch.</p>
+<p>Certain part inside my head reacts very strongly to notes of some
+pitches (A and C are the most notable ones, E, G, and for some reason F#
+are also up there). I can also sing any given notes on the chromatic
+scale pretty accurately.</p>
+<p>However, since I don’t react to all notes equally, and I’m quite sure
+“partial perfect pitch” is not really a thing, I don’t know what
+condition I <em>really</em> have. But if your instrument is out of tune
+(even if the whole thing is tuned consistently), I’ll be really
+upset.</p>
+<h2 id="tocanch5" class="tvis">Backgrounds, Computer Music</h2>
+<h3 id="tocanch6" class="tvis">How did you get into
+computer music?</h3>
+<p>‘Twas a typical calm day when I was browsing around in the System32
+folder (yes I was a fulltime Windows user once upon a time). I found a
+file named “town.mid” in the Media folder, and it looked like a music
+file to me. “How could a music file be like 20KB in size?” I wondered. I
+thought it would sound like crap (low bit-rate type of crappiness, not
+MSGS-type of crappiness), but I listened to it and turned out that
+wasn’t the case. Later that day I sent the file to my parents’ cell
+phones, and to my surprise they all sounded quite different, despite all
+the devices were playing the same melody. I was deeply intrigued by this
+format, and that planted a seed in my heart.</p>
+<p>I searched the 2000s web for information on this format,
+unfortunately being a noob as I was back then, I was only able to find
+out it was a format called “MIDI”, but not any application that’s
+capable of reading or producing them. I had to set it aside.</p>
+<p>A few years later, in early 2009, when I was randomly going through
+tech magazine my parents had piled up at home, I found a software
+catalogue from the 90s. One title in the ToC read “Make your music
+production dreams come true – Cakewalk Music Software”. It didn’t quite
+caught my attention just yet, but when I got to the content, they
+mentioned its MIDI capabilities. I realized this could be the thing I’m
+looking for. And very fortunately for me, the CD that came with the
+catalogue included a trail version of Cakewalk Pro Audio 5.0. There
+began my journey.</p>
+<p>But wait, there was, in fact, a second path to this. There was a
+video (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsU3B0W3TMs">Music using
+ONLY sounds from Windows XP and 98!</a>) that went viral in China in
+2009. The look of the software shown in the video got my attention, and
+that brought me into the world of tracker modules (and later
+demoscenes).</p>
+<p>There was also the whole “black midi” shenanigans that I got myself
+into. However I think that should be considered “deep lore” and not
+really appropriate to mention here. So let’s just leave this section as
+is.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch7" class="tvis">Any formal training on this
+stuff?</h3>
+<p>Nope. I taught myself everything, just like most other stuff I know
+in computing. One major difference is that I didn’t receive any formal
+training after I’ve taught myself this topic, unlike some other topics
+in computer science. The thing is it’s quite difficult to enroll courses
+from the music department while I’m in a frankly completely unrelated
+major.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch8" class="tvis">How long have you been doing
+this?</h3>
+<p>I’ve been messing with MIDI since 2009, doing transcription since
+2011. However until 2014 I didn’t bother learning any DAWs with virtual
+instruments support (I was only using Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0 and a
+certain Japanese application called 音楽ツクールDX back then). For this
+reason everything I made until 2014 was just a bunch of MIDI files. I’ve
+been collecting (mostly pirated) software synths since then. However
+since 2017 I started replacing pirated software I used in production,
+and nowadays I’m only using software and sound libraries the I have
+legal rights to use in production, except the Unobtainium legacy
+products.</p>
+<p>I started programming music-related stuff in 2010, it was a random
+silly sequencer for PC speaker. And I’ve been doing it ever since.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch9" class="tvis">What
+specific skills do you have in computer music?</h3>
+<p>(This list includes both music production related stuff and
+programming stuff)</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Using a DAW (mostly Cakewalk of course)</li>
+<li>Make random patches for synthesizers</li>
+<li>Basic mixing and mastering</li>
+<li>MIDI and tracker module data processing (I/O, data extraction)</li>
+<li>Basic DSP knowledge, computer assisted music production</li>
+<li>High-level interfacing with musical hardware</li>
+</ul>
+<h3 id="tocanch10" class="tvis">What computer
+music projects have you worked on?</h3>
+<p>(This list also includes both music production related stuff and
+programming stuff)</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Production: see <a href="https://chrisoft.org/libs/music/player">Music Library</a></li>
+<li>Experimental GPU-powered virtual-analog synth (private project):
+CUDA only, pretty basic function wise, nothing special really.</li>
+<li><a href="https://cgit.chrisoft.org/QMidiPlayer.git/">QMidiPlayer</a>: A
+feature-rick MIDI player.</li>
+<li>Modsearch (private project): Module indexing and searching
+tool.</li>
+<li><a href="https://cgit.chrisoft.org/fifteen-thieves.git/">Fifteen
+Thieves</a>: Tools for interfacing with Roland synthesizers.</li>
+</ul>
+<h3 id="tocanch11" class="tvis">Is any of this fun?</h3>
+<p>Yes.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch12" class="tvis">How do you find joy in any
+of this?</h3>
+<p>I don’t know.</p>
+<h2 id="tocanch13" class="tvis">Personal Preference</h2>
+<h3 id="tocanch14" class="tvis">Favorite genre(s)?</h3>
+<p>Nothing specific really. However I can tell you about the genre I
+loath the most: it’s … (drum rolls) … rap.</p>
+<p>The thing that I dislike about rap is its excessive use of autotune
+and highly repetitive trap-style drum patterns. I actually kind of
+admire some rapper’s skillful rapping, but spoken words don’t really
+count as music do they?</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch15" class="tvis">Favorite hardware
+synth in your collection?</h3>
+<p>Again, nothing specific really. But I do know it’s not the Yamaha.
+It’s never the Yamaha.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch16" class="tvis">Favorite production software?</h3>
+<p>Considering I’ve pretty much used nothing but Cakewalk products, I
+can give you an actual answer to this one – Cakewalk of course.</p>
+<p>I do also find OpenMPT interesting, however I haven’t made anything
+with it really.</p>
+<p>Funny trivia: when Gibson announced they were ceasing all development
+of Cakewalk products, I wrote <a href="https://chrisoft.org/blog/post/2017-11-25.html">this rant</a>.
+Soon after that rant was posted, a couple of vendors annouced discounted
+pricing for former SONAR users, one of which was Steinberg (their
+so-called “competitive crossgrade”). So I got my copy of Cubase 9 Pro at
+50% off (but they did not provide an e-licenser with the purchase, which
+was still bundled with a normal purchase back then, which was frankly
+dumb). But … before I could get used to the workflow of Cubase, Cakewalk
+was resurrected by Bandlab.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch17" class="tvis">Is it “GIF” or “JIF”?</h3>
+<p>Of course it’s “Graphics Interchange Format”! Wait, why is this
+here…</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch18" class="tvis">Genres that you listen to
+most often?</h3>
+<p>Okay you got me. I’ll just warn you that the list could be quite
+shocking to some people…</p>
+<p>Recent notable trend for me is folk music. The rest includes
+classical, heavy metal, and ambient music. Also sometimes I randomly
+browse through various module hosting websites where the vast majority
+of the uploads are just pure turds, but occasionally I come across
+hidden gems in those giant turd piles.</p>
+<p>Also don’t forget about the dreaded: Touhou music…</p>
+<h2 id="tocanch19" class="tvis">Touhou Music</h2>
+<h3 id="tocanch20" class="tvis">The
+f**k is going on with your obsession with Touhou Music?</h3>
+<p>… literally 18 of 21 tabs in your music library contain only Touhou
+Music!</p>
+<p>Well, this has to start with how I got myself into the thing known as
+“Touhou Project”. (There should’ve been an entire post written on this,
+but I’m too lazy, so let me just recap here.)</p>
+<p>A friend of mine was playing <em>Imperishable Night</em> one day in
+2009. I sat there and watched him play for a while. He paused the game
+and asked, “Interested?”, to which I replied “eh…” (Do note that I’ve
+never been interested in Japanese anime or manga before, or since, for
+that matter. But I did play similar shoot-’em-up before.) He offered me
+a copy anyway. Not really interested in the game itself, I just left it
+sitting in my hard drive for quite a while.</p>
+<p>Nothing really happened until some day in 2010 when I was sorting
+through files on my disk. I found the game and noted that the biggest
+file inside is called <code>thbgm.dat</code>. “Must have a lot of
+tracks,” I thought. And I went ahead and chose the most logical next
+step – not to play the game (because I did notice the game itself was
+quite intense when I watched my friend play), but to find some Touhou
+track player and listen to the music. Any my first impression was
+something like “holy f****** sh** this is horrible”, which was
+reasonable now that I thought about it, considering ZUN’s “unique” style
+(which I’ll touch on later) and his unsalvageable mixing in those early
+works.</p>
+<p>After that I just occasionally opened up the player, listened to
+random tracks and ended up quickly closing it off. Unbeknownst to me,
+ZUN’s “magic” worked on me and finally in 2012 I decided to play the
+game. Unfortunately I made another critical error to play his very first
+release on Windows instead (<em>Embodiment of Scarlet Devil</em>)
+because I had the stupid assumption that the first one could be
+easier.</p>
+<p>Of course I couldn’t be more wrong about that assumption. It took me
+over a year of playing off and on to clear normal difficulty, during
+which I listened to the tracks hundreds of times. And my comment on the
+music of that release was “interesting ideas but somehow made to sound
+‘thit’ (a blend of thick and sh*t, probably because I realized he had
+overdone the effects)“.</p>
+<p>Being an ultra nerd myself, I extracted the game files and found the
+MIDI files inside. And that’s where everything went downhill.</p>
+<p>The magical aspect of ZUN’s music is that it probably sounds quite
+twisted and weird on first listen. However after a few loops the charm
+in the track becomes apparent. Certain easily memorizable riffs could
+also played a part. But I did notice that the most highly acclaimed
+tracks from him (e.g.&nbsp;上海紅茶館　～ Chinese Tea and 神々が恋した幻想郷)
+usually have less of the twisted part, or none at all.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch21" class="tvis">Why don’t
+you transcribe something new from him then?</h3>
+<p>Nice observation. I haven’t transcribed anything beyond <em>Wily
+Beast and Weakest Creature</em> because I found ZUN’s magic has stopped
+working on me – I have listened to the tracks enough times that should
+have already worked if it’s some earlier works of him, but up till now I
+find most of the newer tracks just plain weird and uninteresting. (There
+are a couple of ones that clears my bar, but that makes it like the
+modarchive situation – picking out the gems in a pile of turds. And if I
+have to go through the turds, I’d rather look for gems from a more
+diverse set of composers).</p>
+<p>It’s not just me either – I’ve heard from other people who commented
+that ZUN’s composition went downhill since <em>Hidden Star in Four
+Seasons</em>. I have to agree with them.</p>
+<h2 id="tocanch22" class="tvis">Production</h2>
+<h3 id="tocanch23" class="tvis">Do you earn money from
+your production?</h3>
+<p>No.&nbsp;I’ve earned a grand total of $0/¥0 from my production so far. But
+I did earn a few complimentary remarks (either genuine or satirical, I
+don’t know) from my friends.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch24" class="tvis">So why even bother?</h3>
+<p>It’s fun. I’ve explained it in a previous question (not really). But
+I find the process therapeutic and I really enjoy tweaking the knobs (no
+pun intended I swear).</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch25" class="tvis">Why
+are most of your stuff remixes? Why not more originals?</h3>
+<p>Because remixes are much lower effort, and no creativity
+required.</p>
+<p>I’m not the type of person oozing creativity. I don’t even think the
+vast majority of my stuff should be called “remix” (despite I do name
+the files that way) – I refer to them as “reinstrumentation” privately –
+no changes to the music itself whatsoever, only with different mixing
+and instruments.</p>
+<p>When I do create originals, I want to be serious about it. I don’t
+want them to sound crappy of course (just like most other people I’d
+imagine). However it’s fairly hard for me to get inspired. The most
+frequent way I get inspired is a random riff just gotten stuck in my
+head for a while, usually after a solid 10 hours of rest or a shower.
+Unfortunately for me, there are two things that prevent me from
+transforming these ideas into productions: <strong>a)</strong> The only
+keyboard that I have right now is a 32-key controller that had to be
+stowed in a drawer due to space constraints, and I’m usually too lazy to
+bust it out. Attempts of concretizing the ideas to handwritten notations
+mostly failed miserably. So for now the only way for me to solidify an
+idea is to let it stuck in there for long enough that I can memorize it.
+<strong>b)</strong> Recently I’ve discovered a tendency that melodies
+that get stuck in my head could just be me regurgitating stuff that I’ve
+listened to but could not name (the most recent example is an “original”
+I did a year ago called “Spoolka” which turns out to be just a rendition
+of Säkkijärven polkka). For these reasons I’m currently refraining from
+doing OCs unless I’m absolutely sure it’s really an original.</p>
+<p>However there are indeed a few unfinished originals sitting in my
+hard disk, snubbed to death…</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch26" class="tvis">Ever considered
+doing Touhou-style originals?</h3>
+<p>No, not really. There are already plenty of creative people in this
+space.</p>
+<p>In fact I did make attempts to create Touhou-style originals quite a
+while ago, but the results were deemed “too formulaic and mediocre” by
+myself and never got released.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch27" class="tvis">Commission? Collabs?</h3>
+<p>Commission? No.&nbsp;I won’t further burden myself with obligated content
+creation.</p>
+<p>Collabs? Maybe. Although I’m not sure who’s ever willing to do it
+with me – but I’m pretty damn sure there will not be any Touhou-style
+collab from me any time soon.</p>
+<p>I’d be happy to write music-related code for you though. Contact me
+if you think I can do something for you in that regard.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch28" class="tvis">Production Gear?</h3>
+<p>Current main production computer:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Framework Laptop</li>
+<li>First generation, 4th batch</li>
+<li>i7-1185G7</li>
+<li>64 GB DDR4-3200 RAM</li>
+<li>1 TB SSD</li>
+</ul>
+<p>(Click on the following categories to expand them)</p>
+<details>
+<summary>
+Production software
+</summary>
+<ul>
+<li>Cakewalk by Bandlab</li>
+<li>Cubase Pro 12</li>
+<li>SONAR Platinum</li>
+<li>Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0</li>
+<li>OpenMPT</li>
+</ul>
+</details>
+<details>
+<summary>
+Audio Interfaces
+</summary>
+<ul>
+<li>Focusrite Scarlett Solo 2nd Generation</li>
+<li>Terratec Aureon 7.1 USB</li>
+<li>Edirol UA-25</li>
+<li>Roland UA-101 * 2 (one Edirol-branded, one Cakewalk-branded)</li>
+<li>Edirol SD-90</li>
+</ul>
+</details>
+<details>
+<summary>
+Hardware synths
+</summary>
+<ul>
+<li>Edirol SD-80</li>
+<li>Edirol SD-20</li>
+<li>Roland XV-5080
+<ul>
+<li>SR-JV80-17 “Country Collection”</li>
+<li>SR-JV80-09 “Session”</li>
+<li>SR-JV80-08 “Keyboards of ’60s &amp; ’70s”</li>
+<li>SR-JV80-07 “Super Sound Set”</li>
+<li>SRX-09 “World Collection”</li>
+<li>SRX-07 “Ultimate Keys”</li>
+<li>SRX-06 “Complete Orchestra”</li>
+<li>SRX-03 “Studio SRX”</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Roland Fantom-XR
+<ul>
+<li>SRX-08 “Platinum Trax”</li>
+<li>SRX-07 “Ultimate Keys” (Yes I have two physical SRX-07 boards)</li>
+<li>SRX-05 “Supreme Dance”</li>
+<li>SRX-04 “Symphonique Strings”</li>
+<li>SRX-02 “Concert Piano”</li>
+<li>SRX-01 “Dynamic Drum Kits”</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Edirol SD-90</li>
+<li>Roland SC-8850</li>
+<li>Yamaha Motif Rack ES
+<ul>
+<li>PLG-150 DX “Advanced DX/TX Plug-in Board”</li>
+</ul></li>
+</ul>
+</details>
+<details>
+<summary>
+Keyboards / Controllers
+</summary>
+<ul>
+<li>Yamaha PSR-275</li>
+<li>Edirol PCR-300</li>
+</ul>
+</details>
+<details>
+<summary>
+Software synths
+</summary>
+<ul>
+<li>Steinberg Absolute 5
+<ul>
+<li>HALion 6</li>
+<li>HALion Sonic 3
+<ul>
+<li>Skylab</li>
+<li>Anima</li>
+<li>Voltage</li>
+<li>Auron</li>
+<li>Triebwerk</li>
+<li>Hypnotic Dance</li>
+<li>Trium</li>
+<li>HALiotron</li>
+<li>Hot Brass</li>
+<li>Model C</li>
+<li>Eagle</li>
+<li>Raven</li>
+<li>Amped Elektra</li>
+<li>World Percussion</li>
+<li>B-Box</li>
+<li>Electric Bass</li>
+<li>World Instruments</li>
+<li>Dark Planet</li>
+<li>Studio Strings</li>
+<li>HALion Symphonic Orchestra</li>
+<li>Olympus Choir Micro</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Groove Agent 5
+<ul>
+<li>Future Past Perfect</li>
+<li>Prime Cuts</li>
+<li>Rock Essentials</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Backbone</li>
+<li>The Grand 3</li>
+<li>Retrologue 2
+<ul>
+<li>Sounds of Soul</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Padshop 2
+<ul>
+<li>Polarities</li>
+<li>Granular Guitars</li>
+</ul></li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>HALion Expansions
+<ul>
+<li>4Knob PopD</li>
+<li>Iconica Opus</li>
+<li>Cinematique Instruments Lute</li>
+<li>Realsamples German Harpsichord 1738</li>
+<li>e-instruments Vibrant</li>
+<li>Cinematique Instruments Alto Glockenspiel</li>
+<li>Olympus Choir Elements</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Groove Agent Expansions
+<ul>
+<li>ElekDrums</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Trilian</li>
+<li>Omnisphere 2</li>
+<li>Roland Cloud
+<ul>
+<li>TR-909</li>
+<li>XV-5080</li>
+<li>SRX World</li>
+<li>SRX Studio</li>
+<li>Zenology</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Groove Agent 2</li>
+<li>Groove Agent ONE</li>
+<li>HALion 3</li>
+<li>LM4 Mark II</li>
+<li>Edirol Super Quartet</li>
+<li>Edirol Orchestral</li>
+<li>Addictive Drums 2</li>
+<li>Addictive Keys</li>
+<li>EZDrummer 3
+<ul>
+<li>Pop/Rock EZX</li>
+<li>Electronic EZX</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Kontakt 5
+<ul>
+<li>Vir Electri6ity</li>
+</ul></li>
+<li>Music Lab Real Guitar</li>
+<li>Music Lab Real LPC</li>
+<li>Music Lab Real Strat</li>
+<li>Virtual Guitarist</li>
+<li>Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition</li>
+<li>Z3TA+</li>
+<li>Z3TA+ 2</li>
+<li>DropZone</li>
+<li>SFZ</li>
+<li>True Piano</li>
+<li>Square I</li>
+<li>Triangle II</li>
+<li>Pentagon I</li>
+<li>Ultra Analog Session 2</li>
+<li>Lounge Lizard Session</li>
+<li>Session Drummer 2</li>
+<li>Session Drummer 3</li>
+<li>Strum Acoustic Session</li>
+<li>SI Studio Instruments</li>
+<li>P5antom / Roland GrooveSynth</li>
+<li>Roland TTS-1</li>
+</ul>
+</details>
+<h3 id="tocanch29" class="tvis">Why
+stick to hardware synths when software synths nowadays are so
+powerful?</h3>
+<p>There are pros and cons to this.</p>
+<p>Pros:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Unique architecture allows for exclusive sounds and sound shaping
+techniques</li>
+<li>Unique sound libraries that are not found elsewhere</li>
+<li>While software recreations of certain hardware synths are decently
+accurate, authenticity is still often sacrificed</li>
+<li>Offload sound generation from the production computer</li>
+</ul>
+<p>Cons:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Sometimes recording hardware synths can be a pain in the a**</li>
+<li>They often have seemingly arbitrary limitations on the synth engine
+that are no longer an issue for modern software synths</li>
+<li>Aging hardware synth can become a liability, or even fire hazard
+<a id="n3" href="#note3" class="note">[3]</a></li>
+</ul>
+<p>Of course there’s the sunk costs fallacy – why stop using them since
+the money is already spent?</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch30" class="tvis">Since you don’t
+earn money from you production, …</h3>
+<p>where’s the money that fuels your gear addiction from?</p>
+<p>I have a decently stable income that covers all my daily expenses,
+plus some extra that can go straight into buying more crap.</p>
+<h3 id="tocanch31" class="tvis">Can I use your music for X?</h3>
+<p>Maybe.</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Unless otherwise noted, everything in the “Original” folder are
+released under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode">CC BY-SA
+4.0 license</a>. MIDI data and project files will be available on
+request.</li>
+<li>Unless otherwise noted, everything else in my music library are
+released under the same terms as their originals. This means:
+<ul>
+<li>For my remixes of original Touhou sound tracks, you can use them in
+accordance to the <a href="https://touhou-project.news/guideline/">Touhou Project guidelines
+on derivative works</a>.</li>
+<li>For other works, it is suggested to refer to their original license
+(would be inside its notes if there is one), or contact their original
+author before using them.</li>
+</ul></li>
+</ul>
+</article>
+</div><br><hr>
+		<div class="TText" id="notediv" style="font-size:80%;"><span class="TText"><a id="note1" href="#n1">[1]</a>: The max level one can obtain is level 10 for both
+instruments<br></span><span class="TText"><a id="note2" href="#n2">[2]</a>: TwoSetViolin reference<br></span><span class="TText"><a id="note3" href="#n3">[3]</a>: <a href="https://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic.php?t=56539">cough
+cough</a>, Roland SR-JV80 boards, <a href="https://gearspace.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1112520-exploding-jv2080-expansion-card.html">cough
+cough</a><br></span></div>
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author	Chris Xiong <chirs241097@gmail.com>	2022-12-03 12:40:21 +0800
committer	Chris Xiong <chirs241097@gmail.com>	2022-12-03 12:40:21 +0800
commit	e80dacaef7399e509f3c49db187c62928cf74851 (patch)
tree	2aa0a4f107e19520d0c1fd68517859c7977525ce /blog/post/2022-11-27.html
parent	9b144169b6ffb75bdcb421fade591016dcd7c58e (diff)
download	web-e80dacaef7399e509f3c49db187c62928cf74851.tar.xz