Jump to content
Banner by ~ Kyoshi Frost Wolf
Guidelines

DJ_Bonebraker

User
 View Profile  See their content

  • Posts

    156

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by DJ_Bonebraker

  1. DJ_Bonebraker
    I'd like to add that once you have a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that is compatible with Virtual Studio Tools (VST) plug-ins, you can pretty much infinitely expand it. Like for instance, Acid Music Studio (which I use) is one of the lowest-cost DAWs out there, but while it has a very easy & intuitive UI, it's somewhat lacking in the pre-installed effects & midi libraries (it comes with a ton of beat-mapped loops & samples though). It is, however, fully compatible with VST plug-ins that allow you to add additional (and better) equalizers, special effects suites (speaking from a strictly technical standpoint, AutoTune is a BIG VST plug-in that you can use with most compatible DAWs like Acid, Pro Tools, FL Studio, etc) and even virtual instruments, such as emulators for various synthesizers (including an awesome FREE Roland Juno 60 emulator that I use a lot) or virtual horns/strings that range from reasonably decent (for lower cost/free ones) to virtually indistinguishable from the actual instruments (those tend to be a bit salty, price-wise) One of my friends who does audio production gave me this link to a bunch of free and legal VST plug-ins, which is where I got my TAL U-No 62 (the aforementioned Roland Juno 60 synth emulator) and the Mono Fury synth that I've been using a lot lately (Some of the links are dead and/or the downloads are no longer available, but what's still there is generally worth it): http://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/ Here is a short, but to the point tutorial on how to install VST plug-ins into the Windows Global VST library: YouTube Tutorial on Installing VST plug-ins The best part is, once you install into that global folder, you can access it with any DAW that uses VST plug-ins, even if you decide to upgrade your DAW or even switch to a completely different program.... You can also find some decent free plug-ins by either searching Google or YouTube for "Free VST _____ Plugin" (where blank can be Instrument, Horns, Parametric Equalizer, etc). I generally search YouTube because they usually have a demo video showing how it actually works/sounds so you can determine if it suits your needs before downloading & installing it. Some of the commercial plug-ins that aren't too horribly expensive can be totally worth the money though, like this one Moog Synthesizer plug-in I'm planning on getting that costs almost 3x as much as I paid for Acid Studio 10, but it is licensed by the original Moog Synth manufacturer, so it sounds just like the real thing.... I hope this helped out a bit, and I can post some screenshots of some of my projects if you'd like.
  2. DJ_Bonebraker
    That would be interesting. More likely cousins than sisters, though (I'd still like to know more about Starlight's past between the time Sunburst left for school & when she founded Our Town). In addition to having a few good laughs at Ember's inability to differentiate between Starlight & Twilight, I rather enjoyed this episode. Thorax was adorkable as ever, Ember is still a tsundere & when they finally got to talk with each other, they tended to play well off each other. I also like how this episode (and Season 7 in general) has adapted Starlight to a good supporting role as Twilight's OTHER assistant as well as a foil for both Twilight & Spike. While there were some rather cringe-worthy bits with the main plot of Spike trying to keep Ember & Thorax from meeting (but that's to be expected for this kind of "Fawlty Towers" type of plot), there was enough pure comedy gold with the interactions between characters and their various quirks, like Ember deciding to snack on Twilight's castle (which, funny enough, Agrol Channel made a joke about not long after the end of Season 4 with his "How Ponies Made the Season 4" animation) and Thorax being attracted to the Flame of Eternal Friendship like a bug to a lamp. Not one of my favorite episodes this season, but a very enjoyable one. I also like the foreshadowing about the renegade faction of changelings, and I'm willing to bet that the map calling Spike in this episode is to set up the map calling him along with Trixie and Starlight for that episode, but this is just edu-ma-cated guessing on my part. EDIT: I also wonder if I was the only one here who immediately thought of a certain Monty Python sketch when Twilight started talking about her Comfy Chair?
  3. DJ_Bonebraker
    Well, let's just say that you could consider it a fair warning that I'm a few apples short of a bushel.
  4. DJ_Bonebraker
    Ok, I realize I'm a bit late to the party, but since this post is what brought me to the forums in the first place, I thought I might as well weigh in with some of my own observations. First of all, I was at almost Pinkie Pie levels of excitement when I found out that we'd FINALLY get to see Sunset Shimmer's home. I mean that was one thing that had been kinda bugging me in the back of my head since the first Equestria Girls came out: Where in the wide world of Equestria was Sunset Shimmer staying in the Human world?! That fact also was part of why I also was kind of starting to lose my enthusiasm for Sunset as a character since, unlike the other girls, we had absolutely no information about her background between when she left Equestria & when she stole Twilight's crown and got nothing more about it (aside from 1 or two comics, which I consider to be loose canon at best) until now. It was kind of what I expected: I always kind of figured, as resourceful as Sunset seems to be, she probably loaded up her saddle bags with gems & bits (which an earlier poster pointed out she could easily pawn for quite a bit of money), and since the initial Equestria Girls Canterlot map was leaked on Equestria Daily a while back, it seems that she's living in one of the "low rent" areas of town. Furthermore, since, taking certain liberties with scale into consideration, Canterlot seems to be about the same size as the town I live in, it would be entirely possible to buy a semi-attached house the size in such an area for under $20K, even under $15K for a "fixer-upper" (this is based on when I was looking to buy a house 5 years ago). I also really like the other small hints that point to her house being such a project (e.g. the thrift store furniture, DIY plumbing mods, etc) and other little details, like the bottle of Mane 'n' Tail shampoo (probably the one familiar thing from Equestria that she could still get in this world). Finally, I'd like to add that Sunset is TOTALLY me when I had to get up for school, or when I get up for work now (although my alarm clock is a Timex & can handle the abuse better than hers can, lol). Heck, I even would wear an old Vietnam-era Army jacket with a stow-able hood when it rained, and I'd even do the exact same "tighten the drawstrings on the hood" thing Sunset did in the video. All in all, an excellent short and very enjoyable. I hope we get to see the girls spend some time at Sunset's place in the near future.
  5. DJ_Bonebraker
    I'm a bit of an odd duck, but I use Acid Music Studio 10. Part of the reason is that not only is it one of the least expensive semi-professional grade DaW's out there, but it can do pretty much everything FL studio can, and has a much more user-friendly UI (IMO), and from what I've seen, the few things that FL studio has built-in that Acid doesn't can easily be acquired through the use of VST plug-ins (which, to be perfectly honest, from what I've seen on YouTube, most people running FL Studio also tend to prefer to use the same plug-ins over the equivalent native FL Studio features) and Acid, again, based on my own experience, is pretty much second-to-none for using random audio samples to create beats & such as well as beat-mapping songs for use in remixes. Finally, one of the other reasons why I stick with Acid Studio is that I also use Vegas Pro for video editing, and I can just directly import my Acid Studio project files into Vegas. Still, as generally powerful as current generation DAWs are, it mostly comes down to a matter of price & personal preference.
  6. DJ_Bonebraker
    Hello, everyone! DJ Bonebraker, a.k.a. Laura or Ben (I'm Bi-gender), here. I got into MLP last January, when my marriage of just over 3 years was finally completely unravelling (long story short, I basically married the RL counterpart of Queen Chrysalis), and since my soon to be ex-wife was spending less and less time at home, not to mention that over the previous years she'd managed to drive away all my friends (except those in my FF XIV guild since I they were only a log-in away), which meant that I was spending a lot of time by myself in my house (well aside from the cats & her rabbits), so I decided to finally give this pony show I'd been hearing about a fair go, so I started watching the first two episodes on Netflix, and next thing I knew, it was like 3 AM on a work day and I was halfway through season 1. The show was a real life saver, particularly 3 episodes from Season 2: "Hurricane Fluttershy" made me finally admit that I needed professional help to deal with issues I had as a result of being constantly & horribly bullied throughout my entire public school career, mainly due to the fact that every time Fluttershy started having flash-backs to being bullied at flight camp, I started having flash-backs to being bullied in school, and it had been almost 20 years since I graduated at that point. Then, I saw "A Canterlot Wedding" and realized that my wife had been acting like Fake Cadance the entire time we'd been married (well at least since like 3 months after the wedding, when she pretty much dropped any pretense of being nice or actually loving me unless I got her expensive toys). So as a result, I started seeing a therapist, partially for my own issues (due to bullying in school and PTSD from my military service in Afghanistan & Iraq) as well as couples counselling to try and save the marriage. Unfortunately, much like when Starlight Glimmer offered a chance for Queen Chrysalis to mend her ways at the end of Season 6, my wife refused to see that she was in any way at fault, and ended up leaving a month later (and good riddance, I say!) Since then, thanks to not only being free of my ex's toxic influence & my therapist's help, but also due to my new-found love for MLP and Equestria Girls, I've started rebuilding relationships that my ex's words & actions had damaged as well as making new friends (several of whom are also bronies/pegasisters). In addition, I've started to cut back on the time I've been spending playing FF XIV (which, TBH, was the only place I could interact with people who weren't part of my ex's family for a good part of our marriage, due to my ex throwing literal temper-tantrums anytime I wanted to visit with my family or friends) and get back into doing things I used to enjoy before getting trapped into that emotionally abusive train-wreak of a marriage. Things like my music (I'd come up with the "DJ Bonebraker" name when I started making random Electronic Dance Music mixes back when I was still in the Navy & picked up a copy of Acid Music Studio 2 when I was stationed in Yokosuka Japan) and art. Hopefully I'll have some MLP-related art & music to post in the near-ish future, but I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things (not to mention learning all the cool new features that Acid Music Studio 10 has, since I finally upgraded to the latest version earlier this year). Also, while Twilight might be my favorite Mane6 pony, Starlight Glimmer is my favorite pony in the show, mainly because she's so much like me in so many ways, not the least of which is I can definitely sympathize with her in the whole "having to pretty much start over from square 1" situation.... Anyways, I hope that wasn't too long of a post, and I hope to see you all around in the future! -Laura
×
×
  • Create New...