Rayman: Revenge of the Dark

[TeensieKing]

Yeah, yeah, I've played all Rayman 1,2,3 and Origins. Yeah, I'd like it to be like R2.

[Decidetto]

I bet that all of us can't agree more!

[Robotic Teensie]

Yeah, I agree with that too

[saerleiya]

Time to agree again ...

[Shrooblord]

What are those eerie chimes you used? Wind chimes?

They're actually sculpted synths. I believe it's the same one I used in Part 27's "Lead-Based Cavern."

Ah. What do you mean by sculpted? Do you mean you tweaked their values to change the sound, or is a sculpted synth a particular type of synth, like a saw synth is?

I like the instrument used that plays the main melody near the end - what is it, some kind of fiddle? It sounds a bit like a type of instrument related to a trumpet, maybe?

It's a shehnai, which is the Indian ancestor of the oboe. It's only about six to eight inches long, and it's much simpler in structure.

Ooooh interesting. And this came with your set of VSTs, or is it another one of the countless instruments you can play yourself?

If you're asking about what I think you're asking, I used an extremely heavy compresser with a tiny attack, to give it a really 'booming' sound, and I also cranked up some of the 8-10khz range a lot to really emphasise the drum's presence.

Oh that's a neat trick. So the tuning up of the low range also affected your synths, making them sound even lower.

Hahah, I would really enjoy that, I like showing people things. And you seem like a quick learner, so I think it would work great. Just make sure your accent isn't horrid!

Haha I have a neutral accent. People from England can't tell where it's from, but it certainly isn't Dutch. I guess it's my own version of English. I do tend to pronounce some sounds in a really British way sometimes though, such as the 'o' in "ore".

[Adsolution]

Ah. What do you mean by sculpted? Do you mean you tweaked their values to change the sound, or is a sculpted synth a particular type of synth, like a saw synth is?

None, I mean I literally made the synth. That's called Sculpting.

Ooooh interesting. And this came with your set of VSTs, or is it another one of the countless instruments you can play yourself?

Nah, it's a VST. My old oboe teacher whom I still see however does have a Shehnai.

Oh that's a neat trick. So the tuning up of the low range also affected your synths, making them sound even lower.

Nono. Firstly, these are samples, not synths, and secondly, 8-10khz is a very high range, probably around two or three octaves off the top of the keyboard if you want a reference. Still easily audible, that range is what gives a sound its sharpness. If you cut off those frequencies on a sound, it sounds noticeably muffled. Adding those to a bass drum doesn't just make it sound like a deep bassy hit, but it also gives it sharp cutting power.

[Decidetto]

Hey RayFan, while trying to run the Stresstest, I get this dialog box telling me that "d3dx9_42.dll" is missing. This is something DirectX 9 related, while I most definitely have DX11 installed. (I'm running the 64-bit version and I used all three packages while extracting.)

Now that I think of it, I think that one of the new members in this thread had the same problem. I'll have a look to see if I can solve it using that info. In this case, don't bother responding, but if the problem is different, please tell me what to do!

EDIT: While it appears to be the same problem, the extracting all went correctly and I do not get any black screens when attempting to run it, it immediately goes to the error message.

[Adsolution]

Did you do the troubleshooting in the Readme about downloading the August 2009 DX thingy?

[Decidetto]

Ohmygawdwhydidimissthis

But can I install this DX9 package without damaging my DX11 installation?

[Shrooblord]

None, I mean I literally made the synth. That's called Sculpting.

Oh, I have a synthesizer myself that I could use for all kinds of things. Big ol' box of joy, but I have to make room to be able to even hook it up.

Nono. Firstly, these are samples, not synths, and secondly, 8-10khz is a very high range, probably around two or three octaves off the top of the keyboard if you want a reference. Still easily audible, that range is what gives a sound its sharpness. If you cut off those frequencies on a sound, it sounds noticeably muffled. Adding those to a bass drum doesn't just make it sound like a deep bassy hit, but it also gives it sharp cutting power.

Oh god that's stupid of me. Of course that's a high range... why didn't I think about it?
Maybe I was thinking 50 Hz for no reason at all. Also, samples? Out of how many tones are your samples comprised? Do you have one for every note, or do you have only one - or a few - and pitch them up or down to your desire?

[Adsolution]

But can I install this DX9 package without damaging my DX11 installation?

Of course.

Oh god that's stupid of me. Of course that's a high range... why didn't I think about it?
Maybe I was thinking 50 Hz for no reason at all. Also, samples? Out of how many tones are your samples comprised? Do you have one for every note, or do you have only one - or a few - and pitch them up or down to your desire?

If it's an instrument, that depends. a piano I would probably sample once for each octave. If it's a wind instrument, I might sample one for each octave. If it's a small percussion instrument like a xylophone, I might sample one for each note in their octave or two, since they only really play within said range, and it gives a very nice varied sound. I don't do this for wind instruments because if you have a different sound for each note, it might sound choppy. As for velocities, I usually make four or five different levels, so in the instance of the bass drum, I would record twenty hits: five on each of the four different velocities. I record five on each velocity for the sake of natural variety in the sound; I wouldn't normally do this on a pitched instrument.

[Shrooblord]

OK, thanks. It's cool to learn about this stuff. Now, how do you handle the samples? Is there a way you assign them to a general MIDI controller so you can easily recall them and tell your music program to play them on the right notes at the right velocity based on MIDI input, or do you manually insert them each time (obviously you wouldn't be doing this exactly - that would be hell - but is it something similar)? In other words, do you create a custom VST with your samples? If so, how? If you don't mind telling me, of course; I'd hate to be a nosy bothering twit. I'd love to be a studious and interested 'apprentice', if you will.

[Decidetto]

I just ran the stresstest, and with my specs, which I'll be editing into this post shortly, I'm proud to say that I get a very consistent 30 fps at high quality, about 50 fps at medium and over 60 at low (Finally, a computer that runs things properly! Though Minecraft runs at a measly (and inconsistent) 20 fps; I must be missing something here.)

EDIT: Specs:
CPU: Intel I7-3610QM @2.3GHz
RAM: 8GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX660M (you were right RayFan, it's the exact type you so wildly guessed)

EDIT AGAIN:
I want to add that the graphics and lighting effects (with those little fireflies) are absolutely great and that that one spot where the light shines through the trees is environmentally awesome.
Also, I suspect that one of the ways to escape the map boundaries has to do with some upright pillars and the sprint key...

[Shrooblord]

Though Minecraft runs at a measly (and inconsistent) 20 fps; I must be missing something here.)

You may need to allocate more memory to Java. To do so, you must head over to your Control Panel, find the Java Control panel (it's got a seperate icon somewhere under 'Programs', I believe it's called in the newer versions of Windows) and head over to the Java tab when you've opened it. Click 'View...' and pray there's an entry for Java version 1.6; MC runs best on this version and may crash sometimes if it's attempting to use 1.7, but 1.7 will work. Double-click the Runtime Parameters entry for the Java version that MC runs and enter "Xincgc -Xmx1024M". Replace '1024M' with the amount of memory to allocate. I use 1024Megabytes (which is 1 GB) because my PC only has 2GB of RAM, but yours has a whopping 8GB, so you could easily give it 3GB of RAM and Minecraft would be very happy.

[TeensieKing]

Does Music Mountain have orchestral tracks?

[Decidetto]

Yay, I did it, thanks Shrooblord! The new Windows 7 Control Panel, though it is more "organized", confuses me, because I am used to the Windows XP (and before) way of things. But now that I've allocated 3072 MB to Java (version 1.7 sadly), MC runs at 200 fps. Wow!

[Shrooblord]

With your computer, you're probably able to put it in its highest graphical settings and still be able to run it at 100 FPS.
I wish I had more RAM... my computer already stresses out when I hook up the microphone so I can sing some songs...

[Adsolution]

Yay, I did it, thanks Shrooblord! The new Windows 7 Control Panel, though it is more "organized", confuses me, because I am used to the Windows XP (and before) way of things. But now that I've allocated 3072 MB to Java (version 1.7 sadly), MC runs at 200 fps. Wow!

You can go back to the original icon view by going to View -> Small/Large Icons at the top right.

Does Music Mountain have orchestral tracks?

Well you just read my mind. I'm working on one of those right now.

I'm also recreating Music Mountain to my current standards (that old stuff from 2009/2010 looks quite bad compared to what I'm doing now).

[BzzitTheMoskito]

Hey rayfan i've just seen or heard the soundtrack part 29. Isn't the Windmill track a remake/redux of a Rayman 3 track?

Anyways, the tracks is amazing as always

[Decidetto]

Yay, I did it, thanks Shrooblord! The new Windows 7 Control Panel, though it is more "organized", confuses me, because I am used to the Windows XP (and before) way of things. But now that I've allocated 3072 MB to Java (version 1.7 sadly), MC runs at 200 fps. Wow!

You can go back to the original icon view by going to View -> Small/Large Icons at the top right.

Does Music Mountain have orchestral tracks?

Well you just read my mind. I'm working on one of those right now.

I'm also recreating Music Mountain to my current standards (that old stuff from 2009/2010 looks quite bad compared to what I'm doing now).

Well, I never knew that those options restored the original layout. I thought they were just to enlarge or shrink the icons in categorized mode. Thanks for the tip

Also, I'm super pumped for the remakes of your old music tracks!