Meteo Xavier
-
Posts
6,255 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
27
Content Type
Articles
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Meteo Xavier
-
-
Some have probably seen this already, but for those who haven't, here goes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/01/advertising.television
Basically, its John Lydon of the Sex Pistols in a mildly funny commercial about butter.
One comment stuck out to me, which I felt I wanna address (ironically mostly a quotation itself).
charlieR
Oct 01 08, 1:01pm
"Bill Hicks summed it up best: "Here's the deal, folks. You do a commercial -you're off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You're another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink."
John, while I'm sure you don't care what I think, I now no longer care what you think." - 15 recommendations.
.....Artistic roll call? What the fuck kinda pretentious item is that? Since I'm asking, what exactly is Bill Hicks' problem anyway and why is it being regurgitated and recommended? I thought the point of artistic integrity was being able to confidently do whatever you wanted to do, not to be used a measure of how much you'll suck the dick of the jaded underground. John Lydon made a career about doing what he wanted, why couldn't he do a mildly funny butter commercial if he wanted?
I guess I'm questioning the hardcore or fanboy mentality as a whole. In recent months, especially as people bitch about how Nintendo is "abandoning their core audience", I've been exploring the mentality more and more. I find it a dangerous form of fandom. When you're "hardcore" like CharlieR up there, its no longer about respecting the image of something, its about the image you've built up about something. The image has provided you years and years and years of heartfelt entertainment and somehow they still owe you.
Case in point; Nintendo again. Nintendo's finally back on top. After fighting an uphill battle against that cheeky Ken Kutaragi for over a decade, the clouds open up and Hallejulah, Nintendo's kicking ass all over the planet again. And how do we, Nintendo's loyalist of followers, thank God for this blessing? By bitching about the software. Yeah, there's a lot of shovelware. Is this new? Nintendo, for their last troubled decade+, still delivered how many awesome Marios and Zeldas and Metroids and Smash Brothers and will continue to do so for years to come.
So, no, this isn't Nintendo or John Lydon losing credibility, this is simply justice at work. They were awesome for years, why not they should get rewarded for it? Real fans would be proud at their success and cheer them on, not rant into the paranoid delusion of their hero shitting in their face. I mean, damn..... its a butter commercial for God's sakes.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Here's my commercial tagline: "Don't kiss the ass that feeds you"
-
KICK. ASS. Now thats what I'm talking about!
Greatly appreciate the very thorough review - problem is I've already experimented with many of you suggestions already and they just flat out didn't work. I did want this to be sort of a cross between an ambient overworld theme (which is why it starts so quickly), and kinda move into a more Irish counter. I'd love to bring in a backing string except I've already filled up the sound spectrum and can't fit it in anywhere.
The choral for the counter is a good suggestion and I'll definitely try it.
-
At the risk of taking on an annoyed tone, Yeah I've been doing that for years now, but it doesn't actually teach you much, even when you dissect MIDIs in FL. My question was whether there are just general rules, tricks or "dos and don'ts" that apply to transitions and the soundscape.
-
Alot of it seems to be the reverb imo. It sounds like different instruments are in different rooms which makes for a very synthetic non professional sound.
You might also add a bit of stereo separation here and there. Id just pick a reference source and go through your song layer by layer and add stuff on making them sound good together and eventually all together.
Reverb and stereo seperation for the first song? I could see that, but I've been taking your latter advice for a while and its been working only to a mixed success. What about the song parts coming together? How do you take out layers and instruments without taking out the song?
-
I've pretty much made it a second full-time job since April to drastically improve my song quality so that it they would at least sound believable, but there are a lot of things I'm trying to improve that I just can't seem to touch on and fix. I can't tell if I really need to work on it, or I'm just paranoid.
What I don't get is how a lot of songs can bring in and out a lot of additional instrumentation without making it seem awkward. I hear a lot of strings come in and additional percussion that comes in from the side and isn't too loud and really helps the emotional structure of the song, but isn't so front and center that when it gets taken out suddenly, it doesn't sound awkward. I have to rape the hell out of rolling and reverse cymbals and crashing sounds just so I can get song parts to link together. I have to layer, layer, layer just so the song sounds a little more full, but then I can't take it out or add anything else in because the sound spectrum is completely filled up.
I just hear a major difference between my songs and even inferior quality songs by others, so do they know something I don't, or am I just being paranoid? I'm trying to gauge it from the soundpoint of the listener. I know I can't produce studio quality music with just FL and some VSTs, but I still feel like I shouldn't have to go to extreme lengths to get it to sound like a real song.
Here are some examples:
http://www.savefile.com/files/1812034 - here's where I think I got most of it right, but like I said, I filled up the sound spectrum completely and raped the hell out of cymbals. I didn't add much the second time around and I worry it sounds too repetitive. I used a lot of soundfonts and only the guitar and the flute are professional VST instruments.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/19851692b9a6fa7a/ and this is me practicing. I don't think it sounds too bad, but it sounds too bare and I feel like the instruments are too stagnant in their spaces. I used mostly professional VSTs for the instruments and not much FX. Widening Delay, Stereo Enhancer, Compression and slight Reverb.
What do you think? Am I right or just paranoid?
-
he's not dead
Then he hasn't seen the movie yet.
-
Oh Chr*st. Toriyama is spinning in his grave right now.
-
If I wasn't inbetween things at the moment, I'd give you a better appraisal - of the three I listened to, THE REVIVAL was actually pretty decent and in need of the least improvement. The song itself doesn't do much for me, its like something you hear between levels that have the best music, but the instruments and the mixing and its overall effect on me, the listener are pretty good.
I'd kinda like to hear more cool pads, sound effects, and maybe some cymbal rolling inbetween parts myself, I think that would round it out better.
-
Its a decent start at best, but there's a LOT of room for improvement. I won't bitch too much because my sound quality isn't a lot better and I bet you can only really afford FL and soundfonts.
Still, the piano sample you're using is just awful, especially as it makes hard low chords. The acoustic guitar is too front and center and there's no velocity in it. I'd move it further to the left and drop some volume on it. The drums aren't too bad, but they're also too loud and attention getting, especially the kick. The part of the song that really sticks out to me is 2:13 when it starts getting faster and frenetic - I'd take that part out entirely and keep it a slow, melancholy tune and even solo a couple instruments.
As far as EQing it, if you have Winamp, you can experiment with the EQ presets on it and see if you can find a sound that makes it work better. Less bass in the EQ is usually better.
Tell you what, if you want to make the effort, I could trade you some better soundfonts to give you a better boost if you'll critique the one or two songs I have up here so I can polish them up.
-
I got into music because at the age of 18, I had the insane idea that my little bit of acting talent would get somewhere, so I wanted to get into music first as a way of breaking into acting.
6 years of time, money and life wasted plus autism later, I'm still barely able to complete a song competently, but I'm too far in to give up now, so I'm looking forward to a lifetime of failure and obsession ahead of me. I envy the deaf (and the dead).
-
Not that anyone would care, but I'm going to give it another shot with this update:
http://www.savefile.com/files/1812034
I added an acoustic guitar and fixed a few things.
-
....better than nothing I guess. Thanks for the comment, whatever it was.
-
Well, I can give you a more thorough appraisal if you'll appraise my WIP. It should be just below this one, until this is posted, that is, then you'll look for the one beneath it.
-
What virtual synths did you use was my question, I like the way they sounded, I might try to find some.
-
What instruments did you use besides the voices and the Amiga?
-
http://www.zshare.net/audio/1942428816331366/ - Key of D Minor.
So I'm trying a new method of composing to get more actual SONG done without having to work within a Fruity Loops file that takes up 70% of my computer resources, and this is what I have. I'm just building a song blueprint at this point and I'm doing it with basic sounds and no fx.
Basically what I'm looking for here is whether or not the current arrangement works. This is a song for my first record, and many songs come before it with off-center arrangements and lots of improvising on top, so I wanted to try something a little more basic - something that had an epic sound but kept repeating main themes. The theme for this song is KluYa walking the road to certain death knowing there is no alternative and accepting graciously his fate.
The song is going to be more electronic and trance-like when (if) I finish it and it already has a minute ahead of it, so this section would come in after the first minute. The piano line at 2:12 is actually the introduction theme, but I sabotage it with the other main theme throughout the song, just to play with the structure. Thats all I'm doing right now is playing with structure and seeing what works.
-
Well, it has a clean production sound, other than that, its hard to judge right because there's just not that much there.
-
Yeah, I'd call this one good from here and start on another one.
-
I'll make a judgement for yours if you make a judgement for mine.
-
http://www.savefile.com/files/1782611
This is a song I started in April and spent all day today working on so its makes a decent overworld-ish type song. It's halfway inspired by FFIX and CREID.
I'm not very confident with this version as of yet. Its got some ideas but I'm having a hell of a time linking them together and making them believable and workable. About 99% of the instruments are soundfonts and, well, the short end of it is I don't have a clue what I'm doing here, in any aspect of the song.
I'm already aware of the major problems, but feel free to really tear into whats wrong here and how I can fix it. Thanks.
-
Its a bit meh for me. I think they pretty much peaked at Mega Man 7 and everything naturally goes downhill from there.
EDIT: You thought I was going to fix it so it said Mega Man 2, didn't you? No, I really mean Mega Man 7 is the best soundtrack in the series.
-
Ok, I think I get it. You're totally right to mock my topic title too, I don't know why I wrote it that way.
-
I want to sell a bunch of my rarer games that I'll never get to play and I'm considering using that function, but I'm not very good at those things and can't manage very well. I'm wondering if someone can give me a basic gist of what all I have to know. Like what are their rules on trade? Do I wait until they send me a check before I send the game out? Do I have to send it a certain way? Do I have to pay a percentage to Amazon.com?
I feel stupid asking, but this is the best way for me to learn.
-
Makes me want to play Actraiser
Original Album In The Works! update
in Post Your Original Music!
Posted
Sounds a bit too filtered, and some of the hard deep bass notes are a little too hard, otherwise I'm pleasantly surprised. Am I an ass to ask for sheet music or a MIDI?