Meteo Xavier

Ok, so here's my review: No ass-kissing, just honest feedback. The only thing I could really see this music being used is if it were playing during a Wario Ware or some other Nintendo Wii game. It kinda makes me want to play Pilotwings 64, which is awesome because the more reasons I need to play that game, the better. My problem here is, this just sounds like a lot of filler music, stuff that plays inbetween major songs to give the listener a break. None of them grabbed me and few seemed like they had a definite melody or direction. The instruments, well being modest, were used decently and believably and I appreciate the song structure and sound design, but instruments and sound design a song does not make. This is a decent album to start with, but what I would do is take this collection, break it up, and use like 3 of them in 4 other albums that have stronger songs and use these to break them up. 5.8/10 Btw, can I ask you what instruments you used for this?

It says the link is bad.

My tribute to George Sanger. http://www.savefile.com/files/1759411

I'm sick of rock music altogether. Right now, its either Motoi Sakuraba or OCremix. Nothing else matters.

Samurai Champloo? I don't know, thats not really a song you can just hear and pick up.

The reverb is a possibility, but I hand did all the reverb so I'll need to know what specifically needs to be toned down. I also want to avoid doing any further work on the kick drum because I think its way too easy to overdo that. Thanks for giving me an idea of how I'm doing.

I finally got a start on a decent trance sound, but I'm worried I've completely screwed up the sound production and that it just sounds bad. I'm trying to achieve an icy, celestial sound that sounds like someone struggling to up a crystal path and this is how far I've gotten. I just want to know if the sound quality is as bad as I fear, I definitely need to clean it up. Part of the problem is processing, even though 80% of the instruments are soundfonts, I'm running a lot of processing power to get this song in operation. I think it sounds believable, but thats just my opinion. http://www.savefile.com/files/1706415

I think I'll not overreact to this..

http://www.savefile.com/files/1644474 This is another fragment of a song I intend to work on. My aim for this bit was to practice strumming guitar on Fruity Loops (in that I take Kompakt Guitar samples and simulate strumming) and practice my sound production, with EQ and not relying so heavily on reverb and crashing sounds. I think I got it so it sounds full, but it also sounds to me like it comes off really dull and lifeless. I have randomized the instrument velocity and maybe even the panning (can't remember though) but it still sounds really static and lifeless. Any thoughts or ideas on what I can do to improve? http://www.savefile.com/files/1644474

I didn't respond because I couldn't remember where I got it from. I don't kiss ass when it comes to art, so believe me when I tell you I was quite blown away with your production. Holy shit. I'm going to be studying your free album as a marker of quality for me to attain. Thats exactly the technique I need to learn and I'd love to.

I've never used a spectrum analyzer before. I got the one you're referring to, but what do I do with it to make the mix work?

Name says it all. I'm trying to do some trance music and I need help with a couple things. 1. I can't seem to find a good way to insert ambient pads into the mix. I want to be able to do it right where its not standing out in front of the melody and the sharp synth lines, but it still creates the mood. Whats a good way to insert them in? 2. What are some good Reverb and EQ settings for trance music? I know its better not to overdo both, but I'm looking for a place to start.

Umm, is Pac-Man a form of currency? I don't understand.

No, you're right. I wonder if I can pull that off now.....

Really? Shit, "I" don't even remember the Castlevania remix.

I think if you were doing a remix for a Japanese compilation disc, I would say this fits right at home. Not so much as an ocremix. The re-arrangement itself is impressive (although by the third minute it starts to wander around too much), whats really wrong here is the instrumentation. Most particularly that lead square or whatever it is. Put some more mixing into it, and get some better instruments and buddy, you got a winner.

As someone who's bitched about the wasting of time that the WIP boards often does far better than fetch any real progress, what I've found is that the board was designed to do so. It was never meant to be designed as a panacea for n00bs like you and me to get good quick, it was only meant to give you, at best, an idea of the reality of your project. Here's how it works: You're basically a nobody posting part of a song with a random level of quality to other nobodies who rarely exceed a quality of music critique other than knowing how to press play on Winamp. They have no real attachment to you and you have no real attachment to them. What else can you expect out of it? The problem here is realistic expectations. You can't really expect to show up in a flooded market with half a song that sucks and expect a throng of John Q. Pubics to surround you and be able to identify the mixing/mastering/composition problems just by listening to it. So how do you get better if you can't get any help? The WIP boards are a Catch 22, no doubt. But at least with an idea like "it's too muddy" "fix the whatever at 1:26", you can see there is something wrong with the bass and at 1:26. You'll have to fix it yourself, and thats how you really learn how to arrange and compose. My advice is to keep trying, but be realistic. Post it, wait a few days while you do something else, and see what you get.

I turned down the reverb (which I'm not happy with and need to turn it back up just slightly), but I also EQ'd it to take out some of the bass nonsense. Yeah, I noticed the voice thing too, I wonder why turning down the reverb turned up the volume on that. String seperation might work, I'll try that.

So here's the Third version, the one Darkesword recommended. http://www.savefile.com/files/1600211 Its still not my choice, but who knows, maybe I'm just really reverb happy. Lets try this one and see where it goes.

I'm trying to desperately update my level of Fruity Looping, so this is what I've been using as a compositional punching bag. At first I was going for a Ys kinda sound, now its drifting off into something else. Basically what I'm trying to work on here is my stiff instrumentation and transitional weakness. I'm trying to see how bad my instrumentation skills really are so I know how much I need to fix them, and I'm also trying to see if I can get to the point where I don't need a crashing sound like a cymbal or timpani to be able to change the instruments without making it sound like something's missing. So go nuts here. Tell me how bad it is and what's missing. Thats what it's there for. http://www.savefile.com/files/1593101

Anyway, here's some of the things I've done to improve my sound structure. In the actual building of a song, depending on if your DAW lets you upload MIDIs, go get a shitload of them, of your preferred genres, and just study the notes that are written. See what instruments produce what effect and how they contribute to the song. Solo a channel, like the drums or bass, and see how they sound alone because thats likely how you will be building your instrument channels (it also takes away a lot of that "well my bass lines suck but this guy's is real" mentality. When you hear it by itself, it doesn't sound much different than yours), then slowly add the channels back in and see how they sound and react with one another. See what similarities they share, if any, in what notes are being used. Next thing to do is try your hand at it with the MIDI right above you. Try to write a rhythm or chord pattern like the one being used in the MIDI. See how it sounds. If you want, take portions of that MIDI and make your own stuff on top of it. Take a drums and bass and make your own string chords on top of it, see what happens. Just don't use it and call it your own. In the sound mixing, I don't know if Zircon said it yet, but don't use Reverb in the master effects channel. In fact, I wouldn't use the effects master channel until your finishing up the song. What I've tried doing to some success is just modeling the sound channels as I'm going along. My best advice in your overall mindset and method is just to start at the beginning and painstakingly get everything working right away before you create the next section. Its a longer process, but 30 seconds of awesome music is better than 4 minutes of mediocre.

The problem with this is that the level of "criticism" that comes back often leaves a lot to be desired. As a professional amateur on the WIP circuit, I've seen no end to useless, vague, ideas of what I need to do to fix a song. "Make it sound more dramatic on the second part." is an example. Ok, how do I do that? What chords or instruments should I use to create that effect? Also, which second part? What level of drama? Do you have an example? No, of course not. "Its too muddy and you need to transition better!", Yes, because I intentionally made this song too muddy and didn't transition enough when CLEARLY I have more than enough talent to do so. One person even told me to "give it a story and make it sound like you're romping through a garden". .....What? I think perhaps posting it on and expecting real results on the WIP board is a waste of time. They never tell you what you need to do to fix it, they just tell you to fix it. My suggestion would be to seek out a professional songwriter/composer (hell, every 2nd rate town has one) and see if you can mentor under him/her for a fee. Its more of a pain in the ass and costs something, but be much more worthwhile in the long run.

Its all very well and good to suggest reading up on production, but where do I find decent tutorials that aren't completely imposing to read is my question. The only one I found so far is Zircon's instruction bits. I've seen a few videos on youtube, but they are very basic or very advanced and I haven't found the level that I'm at yet. Did anyone try those bits I made?

Well yeah....... naturally....

I rarely go to KVRAudio, but I was roaming around this morning in the Free section and found a VST called Mini DiZi that is only a demo of the program it stems from, but still delivers a GORGEOUS flute sound for very low CPU usage. It would be great if you're trying to do some Yasunori Mitsuda kinda music. Here's the demo I made using it http://www.savefile.com/files/1569352 Tiny Grains Sweep the Southern Sky by Meteo X And here is the link to get to it. http://www.chineekong.com/free.htm