quite a mess of samples... get organized.

Interesting comments, although I dont necessarily agree entirely.

Music is an individual thing after all , I do have some people who actually like it the way it is.

there are some things that are not quite right, that I am not quite happy with and will eventually fix in time,

the issues are mostly due to limits in the setup I have.

There may be workarounds that you know of.

My stuff is incredibly complex, rhythms and counter-rhythms.

and upwards of 16 tracks and crossing multiple genres. I like to combine congo or african rhythms, hard  percussion with other styles. It has a certain edge to it. It will certainly strain a cheap music playback system.

I am not composing pablum for the masses........

I have noticed a distinctive difference in sound between cheap PC speakers, my 14 year old Bose  PC Speakers that need to be replaced and my higher end headphones. My stuff sounds it's best on really good headphones wityh a wide frequency range

It sounds like mud on cheap speakers. They just cant handle the range dynamics

the olde "You Get what you pay for."

The simpliest piece is Electric Crash which is only four tracks.

A friend of mine wants to use it as the background to a corporate training video

I have to get the commercial licenses in place before I can let him do that.

I am not writing to one particular genre.

I guess it is more experimental than anything

so i am not sure how to classify it.

Not all my current work is uploaded, buit will be in time so stay tuned.

But farstom - please, you really need to listen to the entire piece before judging it.

couple of comments -

1) There are some clips in the soundpools that have static for some reason. You can hear them  in my work -  We Are The Future. I take full advantage of them and some other audio tricks in the segment leading up to the vocal  "Lose Control" that came from the soundpoo. l  actually use that to my advantage to give the illusion of music gone out of control.

On other pieces, the work seems to slow down and speed up even though the BPM is the same, another trick of the mind

2) I am working with the basic out of the box Music maker and the couple of soundpools that came with it.

It is a very confining environment.. I want to add in MIDI so I can add in my own tunes to the library.

I am trying to decide on upgrading to the latest version and adding all their soundpools along with their commercial use license or switching to another package entirely - such as Avid's.

I also want to find a decent music entry package that will allow me to play a  melody on a keyboard or E-drums and then edit it on a sheet music basis. I have issues with my hands that make it difficult to play anymore. So I may have to play at a slow tempo and then fix "oops notes" and correct the tempo within the software. I would like to see magix add sheet music generation to their software. I have to do alot of research into the state of the art in hardware and software in this area.

3) I need to work with the internal controls for the clips more. I can change the tempo of the entire piece, but may want to change the tempo of an individual clip as well. admittedly I have a lot to learn about the workings of the software and how to get better results.

4) Their per clip linear volume controls are getting in the way of what I am trying to do. I would much rather see SPLINE based volume controls appled to the entire track. It would give a better flow to what I am doing.

I tend to write using a basic standard volume level and then tweak it using AVID's Pinnacle Strudio HD software when adding the composition to a  video. Avid has spline volume controls for the entire music clip.

 not what I want but better than what magix does not have.

Having spline controls and the full soundpool library would probably help to make things more interesting.

I am not trying to copy anyone's style, but create my own.

5) I have listened to some of smartsmurfs work. I wish they let you put details on the playback page of how you created it. It sounds like 3 to 5 tracks for the most part.

I also wish I knew what you were using to play my music on. It does impact the quality.

I may have to tone things down just to sound good on cheap crap audio.

What an artist has to endure for the sake on his art.... LOL

I want to feed my stuff out the line-out jack to a high end stereo receiver to a high end pair of 4 way speakers with a sub woofer. I think that is the only setup that could handle the load and the frequency range transitions properly.

I guess I am still "finding myself" in this world.

But i see myself as an orchestra and not as a four piece rock band....

However my piece INSANITY would probably drive both of you to drink

and is really a social commentary - as a IT geek, I got tired of being judged as weird and wrote that when

I was in a negative state of mind. Strong Emotions usually produce the most unusual music with the greatest impact.

its hard and edgy, probably borders on hard rock, influenced by RAMMSTEIN and DEADMAUS

and my state of mind at the time.

Might help if you listened to it all more than once. Your mind will pick up the different nuances in it with each successive play.

5) I have listened to some of smartsmurfs work. I wish they let you put details on the playback page of how you created it. It sounds like 3 to 5 tracks for the most part.

If you listened... you might give feed back as well. Write what you like or don't like... I'm open to all kinds of comments. And if you want to know something in particular... you can always ask via private message.

take it easy man.
we are all here not professional.
it is a academice site and we want to learn something from each other.
nice that you learned so much with Magix. let us learn too .
You may also listen to my music and give opinion.
I am open for any sort criticism.
We must be honest with each other .

RE: "take it easy man."

I am not sure where this response is coming from - I was just trying to explain where I am coming from and the limitations I am under so you can better understand what I am about. I am hoping to get Magix to make some improvements to their software, such as SPLINE Volume controls, and would like to see INFO change the way you submit your music. A full artist profile page and a really detailed page on each tune. I will have to suggest that stuff under the forum I guess. My comments re smartsmurf were more directed toward INFO than him.

To evaluate his music, I need to understand his thought processes and how the piece was constructed.

That info should be on the web pages for his account and tunes.

The more information you have on the artist and how he/she created the tune, the better off you will be in being able to critique it on a reasonable, knowledgable basis. That will be of more value to the artist.

I am more than willing to critique your work, as long as you are really up to the challenge.

I tend to be very verbose (can you tell? LOL)

I am a hyper-critical person, especially about my own work which is my passion.

So I wont be looking to pat you on the back, tell you what a good job you are doing and bolster your self-esteem.

I will tell you what I like, what I dont like, and how I think you might do it differently so you can try new things on your next piece and expand your horizons. I may inadvertently hurt your feelings......

I have mentored young guys in the IT industry for years, pushing them towards excellence.

At first they tend to think that I am a mean dirty "SOB" out to get them, within a few weeks they start to realize what I am saying about them and their work is true and they start to change in the right direction.

I wish I got 20% of their earnings at this point, since most of them now earn more money than me.....

I may not do so well in this forum since my expertise is not as great in this area.

It is hard to critique here as there as so many works up already - for example - smartsmurf has several pages from what I saw, perhaps 60 or so tunes ???

It may take a while to go through all of them and I may not be able to do that in chronological order if the web site does not sort them that way. I can evaluate each individual piece on its own, or ther body of work as a whole, or both.

There is also a language barrier here to overcome and you may not be correctly translating/interpreting what I am saying because of it. Farstom's reaction cause me a bit of concern since it shows such a misinterpretation present.

I guess the ground rules are -

1) remain calm

2) Dont rush to assume offensive intentions

3) Ask for clarification on anything you dontr understand or are offended by.

4) Listen to each piece fully and hopefully more than once before making a comment.

and smartsmurf, i would really like your guidance on the hardware side of computer - instrument  midi interfaces - web sites to look at etc. since you seem to be dealing with that already.

nice to meet you
Now I can understand you better.
any case welcome in this community.
we're all friends here.
some of us might not be together under one roof but to in a neighborhood.
and if we criticize each other. we have not bad intention.
just  peace

As for my tracks... you can write whatever you want. As long as it's not against the community rules... you're not able to hurt my feelings.

Here's my equipment: computer, headphones, Magix Music Maker 2013 Premium, various soundpools...

There won't be any language barriers... only language confusion on my side. On the one hand you talk about me in 3rd person... but also directly to me. Only the latter is acceptable.

Then there is this fact... that your concerns about your music are only of technical nature. Where is the creative aspect? That's what I am talking about in this comm... as I learn the secrets of musical composition (showing and discussing helps a lot here...).

As long as there is creative energy... it will find it's way. The (technical) equipment... hardware, software...etc. is just the means to an end.

re - "that your concerns about your music are only of technical nature"

only because the creative side of my nature is currently being hampered by the limitations of the technical side.

sigh......

"I want to soar like an Eagle, but some damn fool has clipped my wings........"

I am listening to the "collective comments" and am currently working  on mods to Electric Crash as time permits

and the muse allows.......

Pushed the bass line to 4 tracks (multi-tracking) to up the intensity, pull it forward to the front more and work around the volume distortion issue with the clips. Playing around with the drum section to give it punch i hope, a bigger soundclip library would help especially with  the Acoustic drum kit i am using, but that is for the future.

My wide variety of work - crossing and merging multi genres is all part of my exploration of this "universe" and the expression of my creative side as I try to create my unique sound

I am listening to the work that is on here. Went through Farstom's media library this morning in fact.

Will comment on things in time, but right now trying to get a sense of where "you all" are at so I can understand the differences between your music style and mine and maybe be able to reach a common ground of understanding.