Sorry I didn\'t read your first message carefully!  Thanks for answering even if it can\'t fix my problem.  I should try this game on my older machine...

Nick

Lag seems like a generic word for what happens when the machine gets locked up when playing an online game-- I thought lag was the time it took info packets to go from my computer to the server and back again.  My experience with PS doesn\'t seem like lag at all, because when my PS game freezes, my CPU slams the roof and won\'t come down.  I can close PS no problem, but this seems like a rendering issue to me, especially because I notice the problem is worse in areas with more polygons.  In my experience, I get \"lag\" whether there are 4 clients running or 30.  Is it really \"lag\"?  I\'ve got a 1.6GHz machine, intel board, lots of memory-- so, I don\'t think this is a machine issue either.  

Does anyone with some technical knowledge want to try to explain this to me?

Nick

I believe whemy and daryuu were talking about lyrics, too.  I think lyrics would be ok as long as they were incomprehensible and only in certain parts of the game like the tavern or the temple.  If the game is to give the impression of other worldliness, I don\'t think an actual, living language can be used without sounding a little comical.  But I could be wrong...

Nick

Hey guys, don\'t worry about me-- say what comes to mind.  I never take offense and I learn not only about my piece but about you, too  Don\'t you agree that people say more in their posts than they sometimes know themselves?

I have a pretty good sense of what I can do and can\'t (I don\'t write lyrics or sing).  Like anybody, I enjoy compliments, but I appreciate criticism more because I have to think a bit.  If someone offers a simple thumbs up or thumbs down on a piece of mine, I don\'t have to think much about that and I\'ve only learned a little bit of information: I\'ve heard someone\'s first impression, a thing I cannot possibly experience with my own music.  It isn\'t a lot, but it is interesting and I\'m glad to know it.   However, I appreciate even more, and agree with completely, Galendan\'s critique-- the melody is lost in a couple of places, especially in the second half, because of the heavy reverb.  I have already been tinkering with that the last couple of days-- trying to keep the sense of a huge space but allowing the melody to sing clearly.

Nick

But they are sampled, alas.  This track works well in the Laanx temple.  Try it out and tell me what you think.


http://www.nicholaspalmer.com/audio/temple_music.wma

It won\'t work in the temple unless you turn off the game music and play this track in Windows Media player.

Nick

You\'re right, I should have read more carefully allof the posts-- Karyuu is recording live.  Got it.  (I still say get Sibelius if you can afford Finale because the learning curve is much gentler.)  I was responding more than anything to Dalec\'s comment:

It [Finale] is perfect for theme music, especially games, since it plays back the music with each instrument sounding like they should...

I know I\'m going on and on, but...There are four different skills involved here: composition, notation (for printing), sequencing, and recording.  Finale and Sibelius are tools for composition and notation.  The other two skills require different software/hardware, a good bit of time, practice, and guidance to make something that sounds right.  

I hear a variety in the quality of tracks playing in PS right now which has more to do with the quality of the sounds being used rather than the style of composition (though that is apparent, too).  The title music uses low quality (i.e., low sampling rate) instruments, but the track works because the composition and sequencing are good.  The temple music uses much higher quality instruments and so, even though the composition and sequencing is roughly the same quality as the other tracks, the pure sound is much more enjoyable to me.  

The much-maligned cavern track is supposed to sound disjointed and disorienting.  I think it works pretty well because the first time you\'re there, you are lost in a maze for a while.  I think the track would work better if the cello sound were of higher quality.

Anyway, all the music on PS was produced on a computer and it sounds to me like very little if any of it was actually played in freely because of the metrical exactness.  A track with some live music would really be cool, but it is not cheap (money or time) to pull off a good-sounding live recording.

Done.

Nick

Hey, Dalec,

I shouldn\'t have come down so hard on Finale.  It is still the industry standard in American music publishing and Sibelius is not available in a scaled down version, whereas with Finale you can get Finale Allegro ($200ish), PrintMusic ($50ish), and Notepad (used to be free, not sure what it is now).   If you are a college student, you can get deep discounts on almost all software of any kind, so all these things become pretty affordable.

You mentioned that you have a digital recorder-- what do you use to sequence?  I gather from your posts that you use Finale to play the synthesizer and that you record that performance with a digital recorder of some kind.  If I\'m wrong, tell me, but I want to steer musicians away from Finale as a sequencer because it has very limited functionality.  There are several programs ranging from cheap to expensive that do sequencing much better and handle digital recording besides.  As you and I agree, I think, Finale produces a nice looking page of printed music because that is what it is designed to do, but other, much easier to use  software can be found for handling sequencing.  If you haven\'t discovered some of the great software out there, you\'re in for a wonderful surprise.

Nick