Meteo Xavier

I don't know what really spurred this off for me, but I'd like to get it out. I think it would be pretty beneficial for the beginners and maybe even some of the veterans if ocremix had its own page for instruments and sounds. A lot of soundfont pages have awful instruments and awful servers IF the pages event exist anymore and the only thing we really have to help out those who are frustrated with their instruments is to send them links to the same pages. I don't know, doesn't it seem pretty natural that this site would or should have its own instrument page? The only real downsides I can see would probably be a lot of bandwidth for the site and a lot of shitty remixes using those same instruments. Do you its a possibility? (I kinda feel a little silly now)

Ahh, NOW we're getting somewhere! I've been experimenting with doing that but it's not worked out well just yet. Lately I've been taking it in more of a direction like the rest of SOE's soundtrack, slow difficult drones for ambience and minimal jungle sounds. The biggest problem is finding something that sounds like this so I know what I should be doing to fix it. I wish I could find my copy of Peter Gabriel's PASSION. I'm fixing it, its just taking a while to do so. Thanks again!

Ok, I've got some sort of idea of what I want to do next and I'm working on updating it. I'll post an update when I can get to it. Also, I'd still like to know what "interpretation" means in this context so I can fix it properly.

That sounds about right - and I've been working on that, but I haven't found the right chords or keys to work in just yet. If I had some similar examples I'd get a better idea what to do.

You could be more specific? Like at what point does it get too repetitive (1:28 or such)? What exactly does one mean, in this context by "interpreting" it further? Is there any examples I could look at? I'm actually not using any strings just yet in that WIP, and I'm trying to refrain from using heavy beats and a lot of jungle influence, I'm not trying to make it sound angry or put too much emphasis on the jungle aspect, I'm focusing more on making it dark and kinda melancholy. btw, you guys are doing a great job and I really appreciate it.

Ahhhh fuck

Oh it definitely needs to pick up, I just haven't found a way to really do it and have it work yet. The only things I have to go on are somewhat empirical sounding jungle drums and some angry flute and drone bits, but I feel if I take it in that direction it will chastise the overall goal of the song. if I had some stuff that sounded like this I'd have a better idea what to do, right now, I'm just fucking around in the dark.

I'm trying another one. In this case, I'm trying to imagine Elizabeth's (Fire Eyes) little motif as a sad piano song with atmospherics and flutes to keep in line with Jeremy Soule's overall soundtrack. Basically, the image I'm trying to sonically portray is Elizabeth, still a child trapped in a dangerous surreal world beyond her control, sitting alone in her hut some night with a storm brewing outside, and wondering if she'll ever get home. I'm really proud of this up until it gets to about 1:30 or so, and then I'm not sure it sounds really good. The song itself is only about 1:50 because I really don't know what else to do to it (I do have some ideas but it doesn't seem to be working out naturally) and I don't have and can't find anything that really sounds like it so I know what to do. Here is the WIP: http://www.savefile.com/files/1171972

Maybe I need a better idea of what a humanizer is exactly. I got the impression it was a function that randomly dipped the volume level of a channel so make it sound more realistic.

But there's no other alternative...... Where is the damn HUMANIZER function and how do I use it effectively?

I'm having a problem where my piano instrument shows up in all of my MIDI out tracks. It shows up in my strings, my pad, my harp, etc. and I really can;t figure how its doing it, so this MIDI out business is a lot trickier than it seems.

You can edit the volume without the volume knob. If the VST, like the one I'm using (Kompakt), lets you edit volume and panning in there, just use that. If not, you can edit the volume in the piano roll with the intensity window below it. Its a cheap method, but it works. I haven't figured out how I could do that with panning yet.

Yeah, I'm afraid to do a factory reset - I don't know if I'm going to lose the sounds that are in there now (course I barely really need them, I'm just afraid to fuck it up). You think that will happen?

Awesome, do you know more about that?

I bought one used a long time ago and some of the pianos that are on this particular item seemed to be tuned way too low. Middle C sounds like the C below it. Does anyone know if I can edit this or where I could point me in the direction of a manual? EDIT: Nevermind, I found a "manual" but it doesn't tell me any such thing. Is there still a way I can edit it?

Man, I hate to see someone take as much time to write up a detailed classified and get nothing. I can tell you with pretty good confidence this likely will not work out for you. Most of the higher-up OCRemixers are pretty busy people and are rarely interested in working on projects unless they themselves started it, or its started by one of their close associates. Its kinda clique-ish (which, to their credit, is just kinda how it works in this field of entertainment). Most of the guys who would get responses from would probably not be worth the time and energy anyway since their remixing and collaborative management skills are barely up to snuff in the first place. I hope you get at least some of response, but the reality is you're probably better off putting your time and energy into something else.

What IS appropriate good music for something like this?

Much as I hate Ebay, you could try getting a copy from there for quite a bit less. I've seen lots of great deals on VSTs on Ebay.

I'm mainly just coasting off of stuff I've picked up over countless hours of musical observation, thats why my terminology and songwriting ability has is spotty at best. I've not been able to find a correct way to learn it properly (though its not from lack of trying) so its all been DIY. I'm just wondering if there was some obvious thing to do or remember when switching song parts that I just haven't found out about yet or if its genuinely a frustrating part of songwriting that all songwriters fight with. Its not a question of chords or notes (except perhaps the drums), its more a question of the sound execution. Although Dann's comment seems awfully vague to be helpful, he might have the right answer - maybe I'm just not studying it hard enough.

Yeah, I'm just kinda making up my own phrases because I don't actually know what to call them. In this case, I'm calling it a sound drop when a song goes from lots of instruments swelling up the sound and then almost instantly cutting them off and just playing a few instruments. The example of this I posted is that Smashing Pumpkins video. I want to know how they pulled that off.

Ok, so here's what I have. The first list is excerpts that I felt I did correctly. with the other being ones I'm having trouble with. http://www.savefile.com/files/898897 This one I changed the rhythm and had a proper sound drop and it sounded fine. http://www.savefile.com/files/898896 This was basically just an exercise for changing rhythms that I felt I did correctly (the sound drop was an extraction error) http://www.savefile.com/files/898892 This one I changed the sound right at :10 without it feeling like it was missing something, but then at :31 I mess up and something's missing. This list is more my common mistakes. http://www.savefile.com/files/898894 I like this change, but I can't complete the sound drop correctly. http://www.savefile.com/files/898898 This one is a good example of me fudging up a drum change. http://www.savefile.com/files/898900 And here I mess up the sound drop again. I just don't understand what I did correct in the first three and messed up in the second. I don't think its a matter of samples, but as we know from our favorite SNES soundtracks, that really doesn't matter too much. I don't want to keep relying on bass piano and reverse/crash cymbals to let me change parts and instruments out. I need to learn how to do this properly.

I don't quite understand what that means. I'll try to find some examples of what I felt I did right and what I KNOW I did wrong. (excerpts, not the whole song)

I think phrasing is the right word - my problem consists of moving from one part of a song to another and changing up rhythms and drum patterns. For now, I've mostly been able to coast by on building a decent beat and structure and using it throughout the whole of my song(s) and using crash and reverse cymbals to change parts, but thats all I really know how to do and I'm sick of it. I have been able to change up song parts decently before, but most of the time it just comes off very awkwardly and I really don't know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. Here are some examples of what it is I'm curious about (say what you want about the songs themselves, I'm just using them as examples): Smashing Pumpkin's TONIGHT TONIGHT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_f7LF3IiKI This song uses a lot of rhythm changes that I'm curious about. At :43 and 2:36 especially, the sound almost completely drops from full strings and fast drumming to almost nothing. I keep trying to do this and it just comes off awkwardly, like there's something missing, yet when I listen to Smashing Pumpkins doing it, it seems to come off correctly. Motoi Sakuraba's INCARNATION OF THE DEVIL http://208.53.158.138/soundtracks/valkyrie-profile-original-sound-version/fpyvmzytes/239-incarnation-of-the-devil.mp3 Motoi knows how to change up his rhythms and song parts better than anyone I know, and he does it frequently in this song. There is also a sound "drop" here at 1:12 that he pulls off pretty well. I'm wanting to know what the general rules, if any, about changing drums and sound structures so they come off well, or just what I need to or can do to get better at it and know what I'm doing. Any thoughts?

Can we do a Jack Johnson LOL thread next? That guy's a joke, seriously.

Thats a good idea. There was definitely something like that used, but there aren't 1800 pieces of song to download.