Leaderboard

Submitted. Very experimental with 5 different time signatures just because.

count me in!

A little over 9 hours left. I uploaded Dewey Newt's track. No extension this time.

The people above me gave you great pointers. I just have a few things to add or reiterate, and I'll use this mix of mine as an example of both compositional and textural transitions. If you already know what the sound design in section B is going to be like, in transitioning from A to B, you could use some tonal instruments from B as a lead-in component. I've been trying to do this all the time now, and you can see it many times here. EX: 0:58 - 1:00, 1:13 - 1:15, 2:36 - 2:37, etc. Something as simple as a reverse can connect the dynamics (or at least, contribute to it). Experiment with reversing things like cymbals, white noise hits, fingerbells, and so on. I don't think I've had a good mix where I haven't done this... but this usually needs other accompanying techniques. EX: 0:28 - 0:30, 1:29 - 1:31, etc. Pretty much everywhere in this mix! You can explicitly write a part that introduces the rhythmic contrast that you'll write in the next section. EX: 1:55 - 1:59 Drums should always be considered as a signaling tool, particularly if you go from a section with no drums to heavy drums or vice versa. EX: 2:25 - 2:26, 2:37 - 2:38 Try to match up the frequency spectra of the two sections. This is kinda difficult to pull off, and is not necessarily the first thing you think of, but sometimes you're not sure why it's not quite working, and there's just a small disconnect in the frequency spectrum that works out when it's all matched up. EX: 1:29 - 1:30, 1:57 - 1:59 (1:29 in particular has something interesting; the drone is swapped out for a sustained bass with almost no attack. They have similar frequency spectra, which can make it feel like nothing actually changed in the bass... and that's what I actually wanted!)

Got my entry in with 12 hours to spare!

@GXAPlayer Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate your feedback very much!! I'll revisit the lead trumpet and figure out a way (perhaps EQ like you suggested) to tone it down a bit. Thank you for listening!

I was initially envisioning a bank robbery XD

Nice. I always wanted to check out some Let's Plays from old school games. I'll be checking your channel out!

Super general rule of thumb: Contrast. Contrast is everything in making an effective transition between parts. The more different the sections, the more likely it'll be considered a new section to the listener's mind. if you're having trouble making something sound like a transition, drop out more elements, change more items until things sound very different from what came prior (yet has enough motivic elements to keep the track sounding relevant to your arrangement). It's a tricky balance, but contrast is the one big item that makes one section sound different from another. A really cheap trick? At the end of one section, drop everything out, then have the next section come in at full strength again. There's really no greater amount of contrast than from going from nothing to everything. Don't overuse it or else the track sounds repetitive, but it's a nifty tool to have under your belt. You probably know this intuitively, since you use it in your latest posted track (yout Lemmings remix, at 3:15), but perhaps hearing it spelled out can help you understand how to use it in the future, as well. There's a whole study on this particular element of music theory, called Temporal Gestalt Perception (or musical segmentation). It's some heavy reading, but if you get through it there's some useful insight on how to parse music into defineable segments. For the super technical among us the theory has issues in it's applicability (since there's no way to properly weigh how much an individual count things like timbre, dynamics and harmony as 'different enough'), but the concept is pretty sound: we hear contrast as something that separates the music into sections. Hope that helps!

Yup, I totally agree, edited quote that you didn't actually say.

This does look pretty &%@*ing good. Just creamed my panties cuz #lolhypes.

All I hope is they include "Vampire Killer" in there somewhere.