[HoboKa]

Originally Posted by Pl511

Version 3.2. I'm starting to get bored of the soundfont as the initial awesomeness wears off. Does this actually sound any good?
I fixed some of the crappy distortion in the melody, some of the distortion and crackling, and more humanisation on a few of the tracks.

Seriously, is this soundfont any good?

I consider this finished. I really can't tell if it sounds any good any more because of how many times I've heard it over and over.

You *could* use other instruments to mask the faky performance - I know it wouldn't really be a piano solo, but meh, might be worth a shot

[Pl511]

Seriously, does anyone have any idea why the soundfont sounds so distorted? I'm thinking about submitting version 3.0 because 3.1 and 3.2 so so stupidly off-key.

[avaris]

What are you using for processing? Compressors/EQ's/Reverbs etc...

What is the RMS of your track? What is the peak volume?

What do you use in Mixcraft to load and play sound fonts?

[Pl511]

Originally Posted by avaris

What are you using for processing? Compressors/EQ's/Reverbs etc...

What is the RMS of your track? What is the peak volume?

What do you use in Mixcraft to load and play sound fonts?

At the moment I'm using no compressors and no equalisers. I am using Acoustica Reverb on the 'Room (Medium)' setting, although that doesn't seem to make a difference whether I turn that on or off.

I'm actually using the VST 'Piano One'. It's in the default Mixcraft VSTi loader (not sure if that's how I would say that, but essentially I'm accessing it through Mixcraft's VSTi Instruments folder after I placed the .vst file into the 3rd party VST folder in the Mixcraft application file).

As for the RMS and peak volume, to be honest I have no idea how to check those in Mixcraft. The track is currently set at 1.7db under the default, 34% right.

EDIT: I've actually chosen a different soundfont for this now - the trial version of Pianissimo. If this sounds pretty good, I could be preparing for a final version with this now.

[Pl511]

Final version before submitting - ever! Unless a judge or mod points out anything too obvious.



Version 4.0!

Updates are basically HUGE amounts of humanisation, I fixed every single audio, distortion, bad mixing, and cracking issue I could hear, the amazing soundfont Pianissimo (in the trial version) is being used, and I redid several sections' parts as well. I also moved it down a single semitone to avoid issues with Pianissimo (let's just say it has problems with high 'B' notes...).

If this isn't enough, at this point I really don't care. XD This - in my opinion - is the best quality I'm ever going to get. Thoughts before I submit? :D

[Kuolema]

Personally I prefer the old key but that's probably just because I'm used to it.
The humanization and stuff sounds really nice in this version though .
The only distortion related thing I'm hearing is a pop in my left ear at 2:38. You might want to fix that before you submit it.
Good luck on the panel!

[Gario]

MOD REVIEW:

Lowering the song a semi-tone actually makes it sound a bit richer, in my opinion. I like that change, and it's not like people will notice if this gets posted, eh?

The piano does sound considerably more human in this version (I'm hearing more variation in the one particular part that I mentioned earlier, so nice work). For the sake of OCR, I think it's humanized enough. I could still imagine it better, but that's just the pianist in me speaking - you've done well bringing it up.

A small point about the last section of the track, though; it's a touch too repetitive, for my tastes. You do change it up from the first section a little bit, but there are a few melodic parts that repeat the first section note-for-note that stand out in a monotonous way, for me. It'd really just be a matter of adding trills and maybe some grace notes (and perhaps an improvised line rather than the source melody, too) to fix that issue in the last section, though. I'd recommend adding a few of these flourishes to it before submitting. Fortunately, that's all cosmetics and generally quite easy to do, so that shouldn't be too much trouble (in comparison to more humanization, at least).

Other than that, I'd give it a pass for OCR. Add some fun little piano decorations to the last section and send this one off. Nice work, and I hope to see this one on the front page.

[Pl511]

Originally Posted by Kuolema

Personally I prefer the old key but that's probably just because I'm used to it.
The humanization and stuff sounds really nice in this version though .
The only distortion related thing I'm hearing is a pop in my left ear at 2:38. You might want to fix that before you submit it.
Good luck on the panel!

Thanks for telling me about that pop. I didn't hear that in the few times I listened to it, so it's great to know that. :D

Originally Posted by Gario

Lowering the song a semi-tone actually makes it sound a bit richer, in my opinion. I like that change, and it's not like people will notice if this gets posted, eh?

The piano does sound considerably more human in this version (I'm hearing more variation in the one particular part that I mentioned earlier, so nice work). For the sake of OCR, I think it's humanized enough. I could still imagine it better, but that's just the pianist in me speaking - you've done well bringing it up.

A small point about the last section of the track, though; it's a touch too repetitive, for my tastes. You do change it up from the first section a little bit, but there are a few melodic parts that repeat the first section note-for-note that stand out in a monotonous way, for me. It'd really just be a matter of adding trills and maybe some grace notes (and perhaps an improvised line rather than the source melody, too) to fix that issue in the last section, though. I'd recommend adding a few of these flourishes to it before submitting. Fortunately, that's all cosmetics and generally quite easy to do, so that shouldn't be too much trouble (in comparison to more humanization, at least).

Other than that, I'd give it a pass for OCR. Add some fun little piano decorations to the last section and send this one off. Nice work, and I hope to see this one on the front page.

Thanks for all the advice! :D I really appreciate it. I'll see what I can do about the last section. On the subject of trills and grace notes, would that be in the main melody line? The introduction of an improvised line could be a nice touch, actually, although improvisation isn't exactly my strong point.

[avaris]

Hey dude this sounds much better! You did awesome sticking with the track and really making some really good improvements the past few days.

[Gario]

Yeah, I was thinking of adding the flourishes to the melodic line. Grace notes, a trill here and there and some additional passing motion would be enough, I think.