avaris

Yo mike wats up. Nice composition in the intro. I would do some more pronounced filter automation on the synth in the intro. One the first verse comes in there needs to be some harmony. The ambient sounds are cool but there is more sonic space that needs to be filled out. Ahh the snare is louded than the kick. I'm on crap headphones so I can't pick up the full range of the lower freqs. Regardless they are almost not existant. Try boosting the bass at 400hz and around 4-5khz. Prob layer in another snare sound. If you have reverb on the FX/ambient sounds ease up on the reverb decay. It's a pretty cool concept so far but you need more ear candy. For a lo-fi jam there needs to be a lot more action in the percussion area and more dynamics in the composition. Maybe try some piano as a counter melody. Listen to some CotMM's ambient tracks and see how the subtle differences make those ambient tracks stand out. IF you are goin to go for more of an approach than lo-fi groove IMO the soundscape needs to get lusher with some really sweet textures and pads. Keep it up dude.

I'm loving the improvements. The pad in the beggining is really nice. I'd prob drop the volume down just a tiny lil bit. In the main sections things start to get a lil crowded. OK this is gonna sound generic...but 2:01 would be an awesome place for a huge taiko drum hit. There is too much a build-up to not have another dynamic element appear there. 2:12 transition is waaay too abrupt. All of the sudden it's like WHAMO! big drums. Some big Taiko drum hits would help the transition. Arrangement wise the idea is spot on. Still loving those hand drums around 2:50. WTF the ending dude haha. The only thing I can of is to have a nice 1 bar snare roll that leads into a big taiko drum hit and a cymbal crash. That last section seems like it is leading into something and then all of the sudden it dies out. Overally the mastering is def sounding better. In particular I would go back over the mid-range synths and percussion. When those areas of the sonic spectrum get goin things are a lil muddy. Try some harder panning and make some small cuts in the 250hz to 1.5khz range to see if you can't get things to come through a lil clearer. It's def nice to see the effort you are putting into this is paying off. The mix has a lot to offer.

NEVER! The lead melody sounds almost verbatim. 2:30 that counterpoint...is awesome. Really catchy and adds a lot of depth to mix. You need more elements like this all throughout the mix. The low end sounds pretty. The general arrangement is good. Although there are a few basic things this really needs. One is some harmony and more present chord structure. The other is the hats need a lot more variation. Also more ear candy please. The mix seems to rely on the lead melody waaay to much. This needs more elements coming in and out. Keep working on this what you got is solid just start adding in more and more ideas to really push this over the top. I really like the general sound structure you got going. The sounds of the leads are nice and the kick and bass sound good too.

Lufia 2 will be the mother of my children.

Great blog AS. I def agree with a lot of the points made about the WIP Boards from everyone. There are def a few people on the WIP boards who give awesome detailed feedback. #ocrwip is an awesome place...I need to get my ass back there. I think one of people's biggest problems is giving constructive criticism without fear of sounding like a complete jack ass. A lot of people are prob afraid if they say something too harsh it will create too much drama and the artist will get really pissed. The ability to say something bad in a good way is paramount to giving good feedback IMO, especially when it comes to newer artists. Blanket statements similar to "Your strings sound awful" really does not help anyone and usually just pisses off the mixer. Saying, "The strings sound too Lo-Fi for the style you are going for. Try adding some small amounts of reverb with low decay and stereo seperation to help them sit in the mix better." is def better. That sounds much more helpful and does not attack the mixer personally. Honestly after being here for around a year recieving good honest feedback on a song is one my favorite things in the entire world. In general an artist should concentrate more on getting 'better' instead of getting 'praise.' You'll end up a lot better at the end of the day. EDIT: IMO the best way to improve the situation is for people to learn how to give good critiques. You don't have to be an awesome mixer to give good feedback. The ability to communicate what you do not like about in a coherent manner is prob the best asset a good reviewer can have. The best way to end the cycle of mediocrity is for people in general to be more honest and review more wips.

Completely agree with Radiowar. A unique epic sounding lead synth would totally kick ass with this.

No prob. I do like when the dulcimer comes in during the intro. Not saying the intro bass is complete crap just wish there was something else with it. Might just be a personal preference who knows. The bass def goes well with the rest of song thoguh. Can't wait for an update!

Hey dude. Listened to the source...def a diamond in the rough. The soloeing in the second half is awesome great stuff. The mix tends to rely on the melody and the percussion. The harmony and other backing parts are waaay too queit. They are there but the snare masks all of them. I would really try pan certain elements and the hats/snare away from each other. My biggest grip with this mix is the intro. The bass line is decent but it's nothin stellar to really brinf the lisener's attention in. How compressed in the mix? 2:14 for example is suppose to be this big dynamic breakout but it sounds squished. IMO an ethnic flute solo or something with an ethnic flute would totally kick ass! The source also has some room for some really nice chords to be written under it. A soft pad playing those chords in the intro could go really well. The percussion can become a tad bit stale towards the end of the mix. Some more fills or different rhythmic patterns would do wonders for this. Congrats on the Jade Cocoon mix! I am being uber picky on this. I really liked the 2nd half with all of the synth soloes and more defined ethnic percussion. Those would have went great in small places in the first half. The arrangement and transition ideas are spot on and well executed.

Damn I always enjoy a good minimalist piece now and then. Can't wait to see this develop. For the current version this really brings about the mood of what the Metroid games is all about. Good stuff dude.

OMFG POCKETMAN!!! Cool dudes can't wait to here some new and updated tracks.

Update too, have the basic rhythms all done for the 1st half. Just gotta add in some variations and change up some of the instruments in the 2nd half. I should have a near finished version in the next week or two. After that it's just tweaking based on feedback I get.

update posted

Great rendition of the main theme dude. 1:56 was a great part when the chords kicked in more full swing. Liked the part at 3:58. Overall the mix has lots of good parts sometimes it takes a lil too long IMO while to get the really catchy/developed parts. The overally progressions are nice and well thought out though. You might want to sub this to anime remix. You'll prob enjoy analoq's version of the same theme. http://www.animeremix.org/remix/33/

Yup this is just for reason. This whole refill is about flipping the rack around and being really creative with the routings to make lots of really crazy and useful FX combis. For instance the guitar in the demo song I put together is actually a harp run through one of the combi patches.

Goooooood Lucckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!

It's hard to pinpoint places bc myspace doesn't allow you to rewind. IMO the rhythm guitar is too dominant. Turn the volume down when you got all of the ethnic instruments going on. Maybe add a touch of saturation and reverb (with a very minimal decay setting) to add a lil polish to the guitar. The guitars come in too suddenly in the beggining. Some pretty good orchestral writing. Overall some of the transitions feel a lil dull IMO. The crashes lack presence. Some more EQ'ing and pannning are in order as not everything is coming through the mix clearly. Def a good mix, but it needs more. The writing in the intro is sooo much more interesting than the second half where it's just distorted guitars. Vary up the velocity on the snare a lil bit too. I'm on crappy headphones and can barely hear the bass. Try giving the bass a 2db boost at 400-500 with a very high Q rating.

This was awesome. Refreshing to hear too. Eat your heart out William Shatner. The thing I liked the most from a technical perspective is how all the voices were grouped together to give the piece a realistic feel. Def painted an image also.

Haha sweet Pat Benatar! We got another finished track from myself and Blue Magic. Keep those updates coming in. Updated Available Tracklist: My Village is #1 In A Dark Sleep The Blue Traveler The Jaws of Ice The Sky, The Clouds, And You Solaris: Eden of Heaven Pray For The People's Joy The Beginning And The End Tamusa Man of the Sea

There are demos for just about every program out there except Cubase. Try all the demos multiple times until you find a program that fits. You'll eventually create your own approach to making music. You'll want to find a program that takes a similar approach. Also whichever program who have the most fun with is prob the right for you IMO. IMO here are the cheaper $100 programs that would be great. It's prob not a good idea to drop tons of cash unless you are sure making music is something you spent a lot of time doing and are at least half-way serious about. $99 Project5 from Cakewalk. $75 EnergyXT $40 Cockos Reaper I'd completely agree with OverCoat about Reason too. You can get it for $200 on an academic discount if you are a student or teacher. www.academicsuperstore.com Are you on a MAC or PC?

Forgot to include it. Demo Song RNS (hopefully this will open) http://hosting.thasauce.net/users/avaris/Fallen%20Angels%20SW.rns Demo Song mp3 http://hosting.thasauce.net/users/avaris/Fallen%20Angels.mp3 The only instruments I used were: Harp 8va (2 times) VNS/VCS strings combination Bass/VCS strings combination Old Grand

yeah WTF guys

Sweet. There was some old thread in the FL Remixing Forum that had some ways to try and fix corrupted flp files but I can't find it. The Graaf theme is all yours.

Updated Available Tracklist: My Village is #1 In A Dark Sleep The Blue Traveler The Jaws of Ice The Sky, The Clouds, And You Solaris: Eden of Heaven Pray For The People's Joy The Beginning And The End Star of Tears Graaf, Emperor of Darkness Tyler had to drop Graaf so that song is now available again. Good news is we got two new wips on the private forums.

Squidfont and Cadenza Strings. http://www.sf2midi.com/index.php?page=sdet&id=7109 http://www.sf2midi.com/index.php?page=sdet&id=2400 Two great free reverbs IMO. http://www.kvraudio.com/get/2802.html http://www.kvraudio.com/get/707.html Also try to find midi files of different movie scores or famous orchestral songs for some nice compositional references. Also I second OA and Wiesty on some type of monitors.

For the Naruto song. http://www.animeremix.org/