6
You can make it work with that kit list if your mixer has a power amp.
But realistically you should plan for the following at gigs:
MacBook and Thinkpad (always prepare for a computer to die - which is very embarrassing if you don't have backup)
Software
Soundcard (you can get away without it, but a soundcard gives better quality)
Amplifier
Speakers
Audio ...
5
Warning: this is perhaps not the answer you are looking for :)
You have already got enough gear. What you really need is time, patience, perseverance.
Experiment with what you already have, whatever it is that you own, use your imagination and creativity. A typical style of music was not only 'invented' because of the sound or purpose of the gear; it was ...
5
If you are on a budget you might want to give the Blue Microphones Yeti a try. It has switchable pick up patterns on it one of with it polar which will pick up 360 degrees around the mic. It's USB so it should be able to interface with Skype with no problem at all.
4
As for the horse, you can watch a top artist doing it here.
The dryer, why not record a real dryer drum. Just open one up and spin by hand. I've done this before. Sweeten it with the metal box idea. Usually the simplest idea is the best.
Laser beam...you should probably do something that no one suggests...that way it's original :) Old school method would ...
4
The only thing that really stands out to me about your setup is the lack of FX. You can safely disregard any effects built in to your mixer. There are a ton of great rack units out there from the '90s that can be found for peanuts on eBay and your local version of Craigslist.
Start with Alesis - take a look at the Wedge, QuadraVerb, MidiVerb and Ineko/Akira....
4
The two products are pretty different. Cubase is a DAW whose primary purpose is to sequence MIDI and manage digital audio. Max/MSP, meanwhile, is a modular programming environment for audio. DAWs like Cubase tend to arrange things on tracks with a timeline, and offer the ability to effect, modify, and edit those tracks. Max has everything in little modules ...
3
First off, to be pedantic, you can "DJ" any way you can figure out how - even something simple like just playing track after track in iTunes. Now, most people (myself included) don't think this is nearly as interesting as cutting or blending tracks and keeping continuous music going, so I'm going to explain the common ways this is done.
The basic setup is ...
3
The first thing is, don't make it totally gone at any point. Listen to the audio of medical dramas like Grey's Anatomy; the sound never really leaves the soundtrack completely. Fade it down and up, but not completely out.
Second, use viewpoint changes in the camera editing to adjust the level of the sound; take the opportunities when the camera moves ...
3
For the 'hovering': maybe try adding just a touch of low end wave beating? Just enough to 'feel' it rather than being obviously machine-like (like a UFO).
Two low freq waveforms [sine, square, miss-matched?] slightly out of sync to create a slow oscillation.
The oscillation beat could than be ramped-up or down, by increasing/decreasing this difference in ...
3
This is a really old question now but I thought I would add to the list. Rene Coronado (Dallas), Dustin Camilleri (Chicago) and myself (Toronto) have just released a new podcast that is all about sound design and audio post. Its called Tonebenders. If you want to take a listen to the first episode you can go to www.tonebenders.net and download it or grab ...
3
You're not going to find anything worth using that you can buy for that budget. My suggestion would be to find a local shop that rents gear out and talk to them about what you'll be shooting and how. They'll be able to give you advice on what to use and how, and you'll likely get better equipment for the money you'll be spending. Granted, you won't own the ...
3
I second Mike Rinehart's suggestion of the Blue Yeti. Although I haven't used one personally, it is one of the most popular budget mics on the market. Its switchable pickup pattern means you can set it to capture sound from all directions equally. Interestingly, it actually has three condenser capsules, which allows it to be used in a wide range of ...
3
Built-in laptop speakers are largely useless. A cheap headphone already has a much better chance at reproducing lower frequencies. Its stereo representation is rather different from that of a pair of loudspeakers, so the latter certainly worthwhile getting.
Previously high-end vintage headphones and active speakers tend to be sold for prices that are ...
2
VER (Video Equipment Rentals) has a location in South San Francisco.
I highly recommend this company.
2
http://www.soundeffectsbible.com/ Book is excellent choice.
2
I would try some "whoosh" sounds, like playing a sword fight with an open PVC pipe. then altering the speed and pitch to something more 'natural' and maybe creating a loop from it.
It does not need to be loud in the mix, a little subtlety to it should do the trick... I imagine.
2
If you want to synt the laser:
If it is a shooting laser:
Get a mettalic, somewhat dissonant soundsource with fm or wavetable synth. Use a pitch envelope the get the piuuu. Then use a filter lp/bp with another decaying envelope. experiemnt with resoanze till you get a pleasant piuuu.
Try to layer it with some textures out of Omnisphere or whatever if it ...
2
Hey JM,
The horse is a classic! If you've not seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail then I highly recommend it. For many reasons, but the constant gag of using coconut shells as horse hooves is brilliant. And for us foley folk, practical.
Like Justin says the dryer seems like a no brainer, record a real one and perhaps layer it with the ideas you've ...
2
I think I was reasonably lucky when I bought my Mackie HR624 speakers - I just trawled the net and these seemed to be recommended the most (for my budget back in 2009 of about £500 a pair).
Now I know what to look for because what follows was the first (and most important) lesson I learnt when I plugged them in: -
So, I plugged them in and went straight ...
2
VirtualDJ also does all this, and comes in a free addition as well.
From the website:
Designed for home DJs, VirtualDJ Home includes nearly all the features
of VirtualDJ Pro, with only a few limitations. If you don't own or
don't plan to use any additional DJ hardware (mixer, turntable, DJ
controller or video projector), then VirtualDJ Home will ...
2
Two resources to try:
Ann Krober at Sound Mountain. She oversees a vast library of sounds that may or may not include playful elephants.
The Macaulay Library. From their site:
The Macaulay Library is the world's largest and oldest scientific
archive of biodiversity audio and video recordings. Our mission is to
collect and preserve recordings of each ...
2
There's a database of elephant sounds at http://www.elephantvoices.org/ and you could try The Elephant Listening Project: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BRP/elephant/
2
Quality of recorded audio (in the digital realm) is measured by captured frequencies (sample rate) and dynamic accuracy (Bit Depth). Once recorded, changing those wont improve the signal, only increase the file size. If your noise floor is too loud when compared to your voice then you need to reduce the noise. There are expensive programs that do this quite ...
2
You should check out Sonic Visualiser. It's free, has image export built in and is generally designed for this sort of thing.
2
Many manufacturers make microphones specifically for conferencing that have purpose-designed coverage patterns and low profiles.
An example is a Shure MX396, which can be obtained with several polar patterns, and speaking from experience, works quite well.
2
From what I can tell your sources sound just fine! You should definitely not record "hotter", i.e. with more gain. And the mixes are in general balanced - I'd be a little harder with compressors here and there.
You should not raise the volume on each track in Cubase either, as that will just lead to channel or bus clipping.
That "professional sound" you ...
2
No "standards" that I'm aware of, but what I've seen most often in film post-production is:
Production
Dialog
ADR
Group
FX
Design
BG
Foley
Music
2
Most USB devices use the standard USB audio device driver, as they all conform to the USB Audio standard. Behringer has a cohort of haters out there that spend all their time not making music and just bagging hardware vendors they don't like. Behringer actually make some pretty good and affordable gear. RME is also definitely worth a look - their devices are ...
1
I think these guys have provided some great answers, but one answer I'm not seeing is to morph the sound. The idea being, the beeping monitor sound changes to something else over a period of time. Slowly morph the sound using filters, distortion, oscillators or other sound fx.
You could also morph the sound into another sound, and since a heartbeat is ...
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