PrototypeRaptor
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Posts posted by PrototypeRaptor
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Just adding my $0.02 here, though zircon and dannthr have covered the point pretty comprehensively.
There's a recent 'In the Studio' session with Noisia where he explains his primary workflow, it's a fascinating watch and really makes you appreciate the lengths he will go to for a sound.
You have to buy it from Futuremusic, but I would 100% recommend it:
Anyway, I think you'll find most of these bass heavy guys will do this in some way - you split the bass up into a sub and a mid channel. The mid channel is where you'll do all the fancy tricks, the sub channel is for power and lo end.
That noisia bass is definitely based off of some of the more exotic oscs in massive, and probably layered with a saw and some of the mod fx along with some unison detune/widening. To get that really 'convoluted' sounding reese you need to modulate a ton of internal frequencies, either with a combination of band pass/reject filters or an EQ mod. Then, there is a final, sync'd filter that gives it the 1/8th note wubs. This can all be done in massive, or, more typically, through several passes. ie: one wav is rendered out of the initial bass, then that is processed through filters and rendered again, etc, etc. Then you can layer the separate waves together to get even stranger frequency cancellations... and then match the sub layer up to the end result of all this for a huge, clean sound.
Yes, it is a major pain
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this was really cool, glad this thread got bumped up!
favorites are "the dark room" and "light" at the moment... fun prog vibes from those tracks.
good work, man!
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I play occasionally as this is one of the few games that runs on my crap-top... still trying to come to grips with all the strategies, terms, etc... this game just seems needlessly complicated.
I do enjoy playing as veigar and nuking junglers, especially that master yi fellow
tag is PrototypeRaptor2
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You're looking for a progressive house/trance pluck:
In nexus, there's a pluck called PL Combined Beauty that sounds reallllly close to this right out of the box...
http://www1.zippyshare.com/v/24010478/file.html
Some eq work and you'd definitely be close enough to fool whoever.
You can also find that sound in any number of Sylenth1 and Massive "Progressive House" packs.
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my big step forward this year is purchasing a laptop and learning how to DJ
performing live is simply the only option if I want any kind of "career" out of my music :]
QFT!
Live performances are really the only way to survive in the "normal" music business model as we know it, imo.
But with the internet and its total integration with society at this point, I believe there are plenty of new entrepreneurial options out there to try if you stretch your imagination.
EX: I've been toying with/trying to work out the logistics of setting up an "edm studio" where I could have one-on-one lessons via email/skype with interested producers covering not only mixing, but composition techniques - like a hybrid of traditional classical training geared toward writing interesting electronic music aimed at developing an individual's style instead of just HOW TO WOBBLE.
gotta get creative at this point, but I'm probably just crazy
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I wanted to know some of the ways some of our more successful remixers/game composers have been able to get their music out and around - Danny B, Joshua Morse, Zircon, etc. I know I don't qualify to be in that list as I haven't earned even 1/10th of what they have with fewer remixes posted and not as many years getting work out, but certainly there were things that they did and submitted and plugged to a huge series of places in their first few years to build that fanbase - they didn't just start out popular and go from there.
First of all, congrats on your new soundtrack, I know it will be killer!
Second, to address your question of fanbase, it really boils down to how active and engaging you are, how much output you have, and how lucky you get.
If you want to build a FB fanbase, you have to keep them interested in you through conversation, updates, etc.
It's become a constant thing now through instant sites like twitter.
Having lots of QUALITY output is also important - if the track is good, it will eventually find an audience... but you'll have to have more where that's coming from, and soon.
And by good, I mean, REALLY good. You have to set the bar astronomically high and try to reach it - you're not allowed to be content with your mixing or composing to continue to be successful.
Lots of modern artists nowadays I see having releases scheduled every month, even if it's an unofficial remix or something.
Getting other kinds of attention is difficult; blogs are really scattered now and whether your stuff charts on places that matter like Hypem is basically luck of the draw. Starting out your best bet would be to try to garner a youtube following or post on forums you are respected and active in, like here.
Basically, you have to have a damn quality product and be able to do lots more like it quickly, you have to be active and entertaining, and you have to either know someone or get lucky.
Also, you have to keep trying. It's 80% about constant presence and 20% everything else haha
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The demos for LASS do sound amazing, but yeah they're way out of my current budget.
I've got a pretty good deal going for EWQLSO Gold, so I'm going to try and go that route.
Thanks everyone for your input!
Just FYI, there's a "lite" version of LASS that is significantly cheaper than the full library and would have all the features you need for the epic rock sound, though it is only strings.
From personal experience with both libraries, the amount of time you will spend trying to get EWQL to sound half-way decent is about as long as it takes to do an entire mixdown with the LASS... there's really no comparison in quality, imo.
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well I guess I'll throw this out there:
http://soundcloud.com/prototyperaptor
not too many ocremix materials as of late, but I'm always working on new stuff, including a new bootleg track when I hit 2000 followers (hopefully) pretty soon
also halc and bbriggs are awesome and totally worth following
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Yeah... I mean I have NO musical skill and I could make a dubstep mix.
...right...good luck with the producing aspect of it.
Successful, popular dubstep* is about like 90% how good you can make your track sound and 10% musical interest.
that being said, I'm a fan of the electro fidget step sound of people like zomboy, calvertron, porter robinson, mord fustang, some noisia, etc
I don't really like straight up 140 half-time dubstep, though a huge guilty pleasure as of late here in the studio is excision's
*obviously certain artists do more with their tracks music-wise, but most dubstep relies on its production strengths rather than modulations to the dominant
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I LOVE Steve Reich!!! Steve Reich!!!
I'm a big minimalism fan in general, though Phillip Glass tends to rub me the wrong way. But yeah. Reich, John Adams, David Lang, Joseph Schwatner, all composers I'm into right now. I'll post more when I think of them. There are a lot
grumblegrumblePERCUSSIONISTSgrumblegrumble
anyway, some favorites of mine have already been mentioned, but definitely check out (Richard) Strauss - Don Juan and Salome especially. His "tone poems" have some of the most bizarre orchestrations ever.
also debussy's nuages, erik satie, john zorn, ligeti, penderecki (earlier stuff), and schoenberg
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I've never even seen that word before and it's going to be the hottest thing in 6 months?
and probably live for about that long.
moombahton is going to die faster than skrillex-step... talk about a "one trick pony" genre
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uh... well, you shouldn't really be tailoring your music to a trend, you gotta write what's in your head...
but if you're talking about "mainstream" EDM, bro-step is fire (see: excision), electro house is a close second (feed me, gartner, mau5), and tech-house always has a rabid following.
I would wager that all "breaks" genres have taken a backseat to the 4 on the 4loor stuff at this point though, it's been awhile since the top 10 have been dominated by dnb, triphop, etc.
also, "drumstep" is a fairly new thing that combines Dnb with dubstep and people seem to be catching on to it, if that interests you.
high energy is the name of the game in the market these days
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good lord that almost made my head explode while listening in headphones... phew
the flanger + stereo widening will work, although...
you could try some HTRF (binaural) tricks if you REALLY want to mess with people's heads.
some plugs will do all the background work for you, like: http://wavearts.com/products/plugins/panorama/
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I feel like I'm going in circles and it doesn't make any sense to me.
Welcome to the wonderful world of art, my friend
The reason (IMO) no one ever agrees on a "book to learn how to write music" is simple: composition is entirely self-taught other than technique - and I say that as a senior music composition student at university.
No one can tell you what you want to write - that is the equivalent of someone knowing your thoughts before you do. Only you can pluck the sounds from your head and put them to paper, which is what orchestration books (both midi and not) help you accomplish.
No one was ever taught how to create music, and no book will ever show you how!
I would say (from having been there myself) is that your frustration is coming from a lack of having something to SAY musically... but maybe you do, and if that's the case I really don't know what else to tell you other than to read the manuals for your specific sample library and try to program them as best as you can.
A midi orchestration book will do nothing for you that the manual won't, and having a super clear image of what you want is 1000x more important to mock ups than the knobs are.
So, to try to clarify for myself and others: what exactly are you trying to get out of this book? What is the end goal?
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I can't continue this way and still expect to do competent work down the road. Now that I have some accolade and experience down, I need to focus it all on a proper way of doing things, that means starting back sort of at the beginning with a beginner-intermediate tool that I couldn't have gotten before - an expensive ass MIDI book. It may actually hold a lot of puzzle pieces I've been missing in my development in ways I can actually learn.
Studying scores and the higher up orchestration like this comes later and I'll definitely look for that Sadler book (one that comes with a CD anyway), but this is where I need to start now. That's just how my body works.
There are pretty much no tricks to midi orchestration that a book could tell you unless you are trying to make bad samples sound better - and the best solution is usually to spend more money on samples
Midi orchestration is all about emulating what normal composers do with a pencil; you can learn all you need to know about "midi orchestration" from the manual for the specific library that you are using.
ex: what is the keyswitch for stacatto, where are my legato violins, why is the bassoon as loud as 4 french horns and panned hard left, etc
But, in all of those cases, the knowledge that the midi composer uses stems from a healthy study of scores and instruments, not what a midi orchestration book would tell them.
Until you KNOW that you want the sound of a low clarinet, or a staccato flute/xylophone combo (John Williams anybody) or a gran cassa instead of a timpani, how are you going to be able to translate that not only into music, but then into a complicated series of key-switches and patch changes doing what it takes 3 seconds of notation for an actual player to do?
There is no "midi orchestration," only "normal" orchestration that uses digital instruments that reproduce sound on the spot rather than a drawing that tells human beings what to perform.
Your time would be better spent with this book:
(lots of good recordings of the techniques you are asking about)
Then with the manual of EWQLSO or Symphobia or whatever, to learn how to tell the program to do what you are hearing.
IMO, anyway... hate to see people waste their time
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True, but I have a hard time thinking labels would pick up artists like us, who do no live performance and otherwise have no "image to sell".
You'd be surprised - there are tons of smaller "indie" labels that are constantly looking for new music to publish regardless.
You're not going to make it to Ultra without a mousehead or something equivalent, but getting a release is not impossible.
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I'm not sure any labels wanna pick up 15 year old kids (I'm no Justin Bieber, I concentrate on music, not image). 0_o But I'll give that a shot too. Never thought of that, I was always on the assumption that DIY is best as far as easy management.
it IS. labels add a whole new dimension of pain and suffering to the process of music making.
but they have all the money, and until you're NiN or Radiohead, you don't have the resources or skill necessary to press your own stuff and have thousands of people even know it's been released.
as far as age goes, good music is good music. if you think it's good enough
*and other people agree with you (that are non-biased)*
then get on beatport and start doing research on breaks labels that have a similar sound to what you are working on
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try to get it picked up by a genre affiliated label if you can, having a release through beatport/juno/trackitdown is pretty important to being considered "legit" as far as electronic acts go.
lots of promotion comes through the blog world, if you do your research and send stuff off to the right people.
either way, it's a long, slow process. don't expect one album to make you suddenly known, it's all about the long haul, especially if you're not playing live.
keep releasing stuff anyway
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Not anything recent Pendulum. Too loud.
no, they're perfectly acceptable for new EDM... they're just scooped way too much in the lo mids so it's ouch-BRIGHT
anyway, I would say that objectively, "the best" mastering is one where all elements are heard loud and clear, in their own space, with some of the mixing artistry preserved.
to that end, here's some of the albums/artists I'd recommend checking out:
(well balanced and punchy, but soft)
Michael Jackson - Thriller/Bad (quincy jones = master producer)
Royksopp - Melody AM
Crystal Method - Tweekend
(loud stuff - clipping)
Wolfgang Gartner - Undertaker EP
Skrillex - Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites (this is the most ridiculous RMS ever, -5.5 on average)
Feed Me - Feed Me's Big Adventure
Justice - Cross (no subbass, keep that in mind)
SebAstian - Ross Ross Ross/anything (the best french house imo)
(exceptionally clean + loud)
deadmau5 - random album title/for lack of a better name
pendulum - hold your color
nero - welcome reality
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I also have a soft spot for Alphazone (a bit old, but still sounds alright to me):
wow alphazone's "revelations" was like my theme song for awhile... I didn't know they were old
here's my favorite "old hands up" track:
dat chord stabs at 1:40
I sometimes miss the good ol days of TI Virus supersaw domination
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http://www.vir2.com/instruments/electri6ity
pretty much everything you could possibly want in a guitar vst
http://www.prominy.com/LPC_LE.htm
an older, but still one of the best, guitar libraries
it's only a les paul, though, electri6ity has a bunch of different guitars
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You could say I'm intermediate with synthesis...I rarely use presets because I find it much easier and satisfying to find a way to make the sound I'm looking for.
I would recommend massive for synthesis... Personally, I like the workflow a bit more than zebra2.
Between the two you mentioned in OP: sylenth is very limited, but it sounds really good at what it does: typical bread n butter sounds.
It is better at this than vanguard, easily.
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I still worry most of my stuff sounds too stiff and doesn't move correctly as other recorded music does.
you won't get the same level of performance out of samples, period. even the really, really good demos aren't convincing, imo.
we just can't emulate the sound of a performer + instrument + space well enough yet, though you can get close with products like SampleModelling and a wind controller. but even then, it just won't sound "right"
you can do things to help, though:
For me, the most common problem with unrealistic sequencing is actually the way you are orchestrating parts.
If it is counter-intuitive to real-life playing, it will sound wrong just because, well, it IS wrong and real people couldn't play it, but your vst can.
to fix this, check out orchestration books to learn exactly what you can and can't do with instruments. I recommend this book, it's as standard as it gets:
you can also use something more directly pointed at the problem of using samples:
but, it's an uphill battle anyway you look at it - don't get discouraged and just keep playing around with samples; your ear will develop no matter the outcome of a project.
also, if it sounds good, it is good, no matter how weird the process is to get there. you'll probably end up doing some crazy things.
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Things I'm most proud of:
-beating sephiroth in kingdom hearts I (seriously epic boss fight, too bad in KH2 he was a pushover)
-finishing ninja gaiden I/II (xbox) on the hardest difficulty
-getting through all halo game campaigns on legendary with a friend (halo reach = OMGWTFHAX)
Things I'm not so proud of:
-failing the tutorial mission of MSG2
-losing first time duel in red dead redemption to some nobody
-getting raped by Lu Bu in every dynasty warriors so hard every time
-never legitimately beating a mario game...
OCRA-0038 - Milky Way Wishes: A Kirby Super Star Tribute
in Album Reviews & Comments
Posted
Oh my... I didn't think this was ever going to see the light of day.
Well, in my defense, 2 years ago it seemed like a good idea.
...just kidding it was a bad idea then too haha
Congratulations on finally getting the album released, though! It's been a long, crazy journey, hasn't it