Nutritious

Ok, Hoboka, you asked for a critique of one of your songs -I agree that the bass sample at the start is a bit weak. If you can find something more meaty to replace it with, that would help. I don't really think doubling it with that synth is doing the job either, though. -Wrong note? in bassline, the very last note in the phrase feels like it should be another half-step higher. -Kind've weird phrasing a bit in. At :26 you've got a fill, which leads into a new section. Now, you've only got 3 measures before your next fill - which makes it feel like you skipped a measure somewhere. Same thing at :33, you start a new section there, wait 3 measures, then do a key change. It doesn't really seem to make sense and feels jarring to this listenter. Try organizing things in 4 or 8 measure sections to give the listener some landmarks to get oriented. -I'm also not feeling the snare sound at the start. It seems to fit in better later, maybe because it's layered more? It's too exposed at the beginning, though. -Hmm, that airy lead thing isn't doing the trick here. It's too weak to use as a lead, just sounds like kind've a mess in the background, sorry . There's also a lot of brightness because you've also got a very bright pad in addition to this lead. Replace that lead and it should help. -1:02 brought a welcome change to the texture a bit. Changeups like this really help a mix out. I'd even go further and change up some pads, arps, and other stuff to make a greater contrast. -Breakdown at 1:36 is a good idea here, though transition is weak. The only thing that's hints at something new is drum break. Other instruments need to lead into it as well. -2:04 suddenly comes in (needs transition work here too), but now things are very low heavy. This whole section till 2:28 has a weird soundscape, it needs balancing IMO. The background arp is actually pretty cool and could work. -2:28 transition is a LITTLE better but still needs work. This section needs more contrast from earlier hashes. I hear you've layered the bass some more, but it needs to have more of a hook for the listener to make it worth continuing to listen to. You haven't really brought new writing to this section, just layered the instruments more. I'm not familiar with the original, so I can't really comment on OST arrangement. I think this mix suffers from some odd phrasing and some weak synths. It does have some good things going for it as well though, as mentioned above. Hope this helps. EDIT: Why would you think FL isn't suited for rearranging? It's probably more how you're using the playlist rather than program limitations. Are you writing everything into one pattern or something?

And 3 oscillators for THRICE the power! ... and good point

Not sure exactly what you're going for, maybe you could show a youtube clip or something? Anyway, you're probably hearing a lowpass filter on a synth or something. Try this: -Open up 3xOSC -Route it to mixer track 1 -Set all 3 oscillators to Noise (or static, or whatever, it should be the 2nd to last button before the question mark) -Draw a long note -Add a Fast LP effect to mixer track 1 -Put the Cutoff all the way down and the Q to maybe 6 or so -Right click the Cutoff freq knob and hit Create Automation clip -Drag the last point on the clip all the way to 100% This should give a kind've swooshing sound when you play it on the playlist. You can mess with the tension of the automation clip and the Q of the LP filter to adjust it. Also, you should try it with other synths to see what effects you can get.

Hah, I see what you did there

I've heard a couple versions of this track and am definitely hearing improvement. However, there's a lot more that needs to be done to improve this track IMO. -Intro: bass can work, but needs more meat. I see what you're doing with the panning, but it's too extreme: just don't pan it so far to the sides. It also needs some supporting instrumentation, it's way too exposed and lonely as is. Whether it be pads, or some sort of percussion pushed into the background, etc it needs support -Kit: Decent beat I think, though it's pretty close in the mix. Maybe push it back with a tad of verb or something. It's also getting hit with compression pretty hard when other instruments come in. If you listen, it sounds like the volume drops on the drums when other stuff comes in. Need to mix it so things are clashing so much. -Development: This is one of the main weaknesses here IMO. The structure you've got going is a bit strange. Drum Kit make a sudden, brief appearance and disappear in the beginnning. Then suddenly it goes to the low bass part, the back to the beat again. Parts kind've come in and out suddenly with no transitions to prepare the listener. IMO this is one of the hardest things to hear and be able to improve on. It's all about getting a bigger picture look between the parts so it sounds like a cohesive song that's telling a progressing story. As is, even though there are several parts going at a time, it still FEELS sparse as a whole. -Some of the synth choices are a bit weak, like that popcorn-ish synth IMO. Try to make your synths move or have more life. Modulation, filters, automation, anything. -Beyond that, there are some audible artifacts, which I'm not sure is due to clipping, or some overcompression or what. Sounds like when drums are hitting with other instruments at the same time. So yeah, negative crits like this kinda suck cause they're not much fun to get. Hopefully it's been helpful, though. You've obviously got some talent with remixing, though, which is why I've taken the time to write the above. It's up to you whether you want to continue on this song or move onto more material. I personally feel that when starting out, it's really beneficial to try and work on a lot of different projects rather than being stuck on one. It's easy to get bogged down trying to improve a specific song early on. A good way to get this practice is through competitions like PRC or ORC on the Competitions forum. It'll force you to work on a song in a time limit and then move on after a week. Those were a huge part of getting me started, so they may help you as well. Good luck.

Came across this today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyD6hcFA34Y&feature=rec-HM-r2 It's Rayza's Club Del Toro mix.

Final wav posted on forum for School House Harmony

Speaking of this, I may have the opportunity to pick up an old school reel to reel tape machine for free from a relative's old home studio (he's since gone digital - actually designed and built digital multi-track recorders). I'm trying to decide if it's worth it, though, based on the possible musical applications. Thing is, there is some work invovled in upkeep. Namely "baking" the tapes in a special type of oven a couple times a year or so to keep them in working order. I've heard great things about tape saturation, but I guess I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the trouble to achieve the effect.

So, entry time is over. Did anyone else end up entering this?

Well, Garageband is mac only, so that wouldn't be an option for a PC user. There are several other options you could look at, but there are other factors that will play into the decision: -How much are you willing to spend? -What kind of music would he be making? etc. It's hard to buy something like this as a gift, because you don't know which program he'll feel most comfortable using (workflow-wise). That's why I always recommend people try demo's before purchasing. Kind've difficult given the situation here, though. If you can answer the above two questions, we can list out the programs that are within reach. PS.If you do end up deciding on FL Studio, I could give you my referral link for 10% off (and also a kickback to me admittedly), so you can PM me if you'd like it.

I would use it if they offered VBR encoding

I'm trying several scenarios: FL with TRacks limiting, leaving final output at -.1 dB -Export to wav is fine -Export to mp3 causes clipping Sound Forge importing FL's wav shows -.1 dB -Export to mp3 VBR causes clipping Audacity, same as Sound Forge I'm rendering via LAME, which maybe is the common thread here. EDIT: Starting to this this is the detection on these audio applications, based on amount of compression. I threw a few songs into sound forge & Audacity like Monstrous Turtles and Nuclear Flash and they're also detecting clipping in various amounts. Perhaps these apps can accurately chart wav levels, but not mp3's.

Ok, so this may be normal, but it's been bugging me and I want to understand it. Usually I will export my mixes to wav first so I can import to Sound Forge for VBR mp3 encoding. However, whenever I export to mp3 and check the mp3, it shows that the mp3 has occasional clipping. Checking the wav file there is no clipping detected. So I tried normalizing to -.3 db then rendering, still some clipping areas but not as bad. Tried it in Sound Forge, Audacity, & FL studio to see if any would allow non-clipped mp3's (when the original wav is -.1dB) and they all spit out mp3's with clipping detected (not audible though). Is this a normal part of the mp3 compression process? I can't understand why the conversion would cause clipping, unless some sort of bad normalization is taking place or something on the back end. I'm just trying to understand to see if there's any way around this problem.

Shazbot! 10

Yeah, it didn't really spell it out that clearly. Since they've provided music clips along with the SFX, though, and it's billed as a Street Fighter Remix competition, it's probably safe to assume you'd have to remix a SF2 song. EDIT: Ok, while it does say on the page "Street Fighter 2 Remix Competition) I went back and looked at one of their banners for the competition and it just said remix the street fighter 2 sound effects into any electronic musical style. Very ambiguous. Don't know what to tell you. Personally, I'd assumed that an SF2 song had to be remixed.

I may enter this one, see if I come up with anything. Not sure how much original sampling vs remixed stuff they want, but it should be interesting.

You're right in that this wouldn't be accepted on OCR because it's originally from a movie soundtrack. There are some big issues with production (and arrangement, but first things first) that you should consider nonetheless. As soon as your beat comes in, things start clipping horribly. If you're not familiar with that term, it's when the audio exceeds 0.0dB. Any time this occurs, it will cause distortion of the signal. I took a quick screenshot of the waveform in Sound Forge to show you what I mean: Notice how it just becomes a block of sound as soon as the drums come in. Technically, that could occur if you compressed a song heavily, but in this case, it's caused by clipping. First of all, bring down the levels of the various instruments/synths, don't even worry about general "loudness" yet, you can work on that later. Then, balance things out without hitting the 0dB mark. Later, you can add some compression on the master track (as a basic starting point, there's much more that can be said here) to bring the general volume levels up without exceeding 0dB.

... Ok, if this is true, i'm REALLY glad I gave up after a single encounter with the flan things. And I'm pretty sure Abadoss is right, there was no siren on snes, so you could probably spend a month or more trying for it. I'm curious, did they add any sort of epic, optional bosses in the DS version? Seems to be too much trouble to go for some nice gear if you don't have any really difficult fiends to use them against.

Just wanted to point out that Sony does offer a free version of Acid called Acid Xpress (though it's nothing to write home about). Great article, Zirc, I'm looking forward to more.

Agreed, Vengeance (were there others? I've been out of it for a while) was fun during the beta, but it lacked some of the feel and fun that T2 had. And seriously, how can you leave out "need a bombadier/tailgunner"? That seriously irritated me back when I played it.

Yeah, it's an AWESOME game. I used to play multi in its heyday. I'll be looking into this maybe in the next couple weeks.

Yeah, I gave up on this back in the day on the snes. I think it was something like 1/64 of getting the encounter, and then 1/64 change they'll drop the tail.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Answers: 1. No, my home desktop is xp SP3 with all updates, the laptop is only up to SP2. 2. It's true that there is a vast difference in the number of processes running. IIRC my desktop is running somewhwere in the 20's while my laptop is in the 60's. It is lopsided, but AGAINST the better performing computer. 4. Desktop is running PC3200 ram, but I have no idea on the laptop. Yes, I'm using ASIO4ALL. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the sound card, I got it years ago before I was even into mixing. Kinda sad that an integrated card in my laptop could be outperforming the Audigy (yeah, I know it's apples to oranges, but still). Anyway, I guess my next steps are to look into a new soundcard and possibly a faster RPM hard drive, perhaps a SATA? (I have the mobo links and a new power supply that supports it). Getting faster RAM isn't an option, I believe, since I doubt the motherboard could support it. If that's the bottleneck, though, I'll be really disappointed.

So since I've setup my home studio, I've been bouncing projects between my laptop and home desktop. Problem is, I'm not gettin nearly as good performance from my home desktop as my laptop. Before I go further, here are the specs: Laptop: Intel Dual Core T5600 @ 1.83 GHz 2 Gigs of Ram Integrated Sound Card Way loaded down with background processes (no control there) Desktop: AMD Dual Core 4600+ 2.5 Gigs of Ram Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Very few processes going, especially compared to laptop From what I've read, the CPU's on both machines are pretty comparable in speed, however, the laptop is outperforming the desktop to the point where a song that I can stream fine (with high CPU utilization) on the laptop will cause terrible stuttering on the desktop. Anyone have any idea why the desktop is struggling so much? Anything I can do to help it out? More (probably useless) information: Running FL Studio with ASIO drivers on both machines and latency set to highest in ASIO panel. Running quite a few different VST generators & effects in the project. For example, EWQLSO Silver with around 20 patches open via 4 instances, Sampletank 2L with 3 patches, Addictive Drums, a few VST synths and effects, and stock FL effects.

Whoah, I totally missed this, thanks for the tip.