Rozovian
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Posts posted by Rozovian
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The preview has some light compression on it, which differs from track to track. it's not mastering-quality stuff, just a quickie to keep tracks in line with one another in levels. I noticed my own track is a bit thick around the mids, so I'll probably go back and fix that so there'll be less work in the mastering, but I don't think I've heard much that I'd really want a new render of. We can do a lot of balancing in the mastering, which is one of the reasons we wanted wavs. Some things are better done in the mixing phase, but we're at least gonna even out levels and frequency balance across the album.
That said, we aren't gonna say no to updated tracks... Or brand new ones if they can be finished in time.
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Prob gonna read this thread properly, just not today. Quick thoughts:
Everything depends on your definition of good. Snap's well-programmed old samples example is one definition of good, realism is another measure of good, versatility is another, some other aesthetic qualities are yet another.
But it's not just the samples, it's also your idea of what makes good music. if you're the type who'll say that old video game music sounds good, you're gonna have to qualify that with how they're good for the time, the technical limitations, or just good compositions rather than wholly good. Or the stuff that's playing on the radio, which you'd also have to qualify, albeit differently. If the music you make sounds like it came out of a crappy speaker playing retro sounds, and this actually suits the project you're making it for (game, video, whatever), then that's good because it's a good fit.
So to actually get to the question - if you're making something that'll sound all right next to other rock songs, you'll need the things that make rock sound good. Whether this is fake or real doesn't matter as long as the result is good. Whether this is top-of-the-line equipment or a shoddy practice amp or anything in between doesn't matter as long as the end result is, in context, good. Likewise if you're going for a Hollywood orchestra sound, or need to display some clear Daft Punk influences or whatever.
In practice, short of doing AAA games or scoring any serious live action stuff (regardless of scope), you should be all right grabbing older and lower-tier libraries. A decent set of drum samples can cover for a more expensive, realistic library until you're making something where you actually have to fool people that know this stuff. Likewise the orchestra. Likewise the electric guitar. Likewise pretty much anything. Cartoons, most games except the most realistic ones, less than entirely serious videos... for those you can make do with the cheaper stuff without really causing a disparity between the expected sound and what you're actually delivering.
If you're taking on projects where you don't feel that what you've got works, you probably need better samples. Getting to that point with your clientele requires a fair amount of making do with what you've got and building skills first, so I think this is a decent measure of when you need better samples. If you're just doing it for yourself, not really taking orders and delivering tracks for anything, it's just a matter of how heavy your wallet feels.
tl;dr: Definition of good, and context/use.
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I really need to get my mess of a filing system sorted out and go over all the tracks to make sure I have all the right, up to date tracks.
I mean, it's entirely intentional. It's so the album will be even better than the preview suggests.
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I hate juggling too much stuff. It makes me slow and inefficient.
That said,
.Check it out.
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I'm intrigued.
But I don't drink.
Hm...
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Hope you're happy with the music you'll be getting.
I'm gonna lock this thread. If things don't work out, or if you need a new composer for another project, start a new thread. -
There's only two good reasons to use trackers: because you want to, or because the product requires it. Tracker files are way smaller than mp3s or oggs, so that's an example for the product reason. There's plenty of single-note modulation options in trackers, which are far from as convenient to pull off in DAWs.
The chippy sound, tho, just comes from simple waveforms and simple but creative processing. Just grab your favorite synth, pick some simple waveforms, turn off/open the filter fully, and start screwing with vibrato, glide, tremolo, and write silly fast arpeggios. Stick to triangle and pulse waves of different width to get something NES-like. Look up the music from other old console and computer chips for what they could do, and do the same.
If what you're after is just the sound, use something that makes sounds. If you need a specific format, you need to use a tracker that uses that format.
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Why a preview tbh? Isn't this pretty close to being done? Hasn't there already been 1 preview?
Because it still has to go through project mod eval.
Because it won't be released for at least half a year. Album queue and things.
Because we can showcase a little more than fit into the trailer.
Because I promised.
Because.
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Preview is being delayed for some of the dumbest reasons I've ever... had. The music is laid out, just gotta do a quick mastering to make sure my track doesn't sound like dj newb mcbeginner's early stuff (also to even out levels and things in other tracks).
Once that's done, I'll throw it in with the art, adjust a few timings and it's ready to upload.
Then I just need to perfect a few NO! BAD ROZO! NO SPUMING!
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Lightning isn't a sound, it's the light thing.
The sounds you're looking for are actually the same sound, just coming to you directly or indirectly. The thunderclap is the sudden, loud, strong crash. It's the sparkle noise in static electricity, the click when any electric current starts to arc. The big difference is that there's slightly more electricity in a storm cloud than in a balloon you've rubbed on a sweater.
The booming sound is just natural reverb from the sound being muffled in the atmosphere and bouncing along the ground and all the trees and houses and things on the ground. Kind'a like waves in the water. Drop a stone in a pool and you'll start with distinct waves, but once they've bounced along the walls of the pool some, or just travelled a bit, they'll be softer, longer, and messier.
A Tesla coil doesn't have much of this sound, but it does have the sound of electric current, which can be used for other fun musical things. The main difference, except the amount of power, is that natural lightning is super fast, while a Tesla coil is typically sustained.
General booming thunder sfx shouldn't be hard to find, there should be in your DAW's midi suite, otherwise you can probably use the OS' midi suite. It's not a great sound, but with some creative effects you can make it work. The sharp thunderclap however... I don't know about that one.
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Looking at the tracklist, it seems I'm the one holding things back. Thankfully, I have Archangel sitting on his tracks as well, so I'm not alone. (Thankfully!?) I thought I'd have more time, but apparently, _suddenly_ not having a job takes a while to recover from. I think I'm back to my normal rate of procrast... I mean progress. Everyone else has made progress, so why can't I?
So now my perfectionism is kicking in. Don't you love it when you look at what you've made and start thinking "hm, I could have done this better" and stuff like that. here's the thing: I will not have my own tracks holding back the project, so my priorities right now are preview > Frenzy > screwing with my other tracks.
On the topic of perfectionism, this of course gets in the way of the preview vid as well, but I'm getting tired of delaying it myself. It's not the trailer, so it's not that big a deal right? Well, I wanna do a good job with it, cuz we've got some cool artworks, and the preview art is... well, gonna be in the preview and not the trailer.
Anyone wanna fiddle with their track some more? There's still some time. Updated version are welcome.
Sign consent eat vitamins learn to juggle preview coming asap blah blah.
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The rule is there so ppl don't just call it "my remix" or "rozo dark world" or something like that. I don't think there'd be a problem with your name. I could probably get away with an FFXII remix named "Rozo... something", as my artist name resembles a character's name in the game. That's the idea behind the rule anyway.
See all the accepted tracks in the "to be posted" thread in the Decisions forum? Generally, those would get posted first, tho exceptions are made when something is topical. OCR meetup in France, post Broken Sword mix. Remix band releases album, a submitted track of theirs gets posted. Composer dies, remix of a source of his is posted. OCR folks meet a composer at a con, post something relevant. Not always true, but generally applicable.
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Germany's copyright enforcers are fairly powerful... in Germany.
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My input into this thread:
Annoying elements. It's not like the old games didn't have them, or didn't force them on us. We've got slow and silly cutscenes, bad "acting", and all kinds of things. The new games haven't really improved (albeit with some interesting attempts) on the FF formula, so a lot of it it still just a nicer looking version of the same.
It's not like I have a nostalgia bias either. I didn't really play the old FFs until the snes emulation era, and I've barely even looked at the nes ones. So that's where I'm coming from, a jump from snes ffs to ps2 ffs.
You're still grinding to the next area and the next cutscene, you're still juggling a gazillion items, you're still playing the same elemental rock paper scissors, you're still working with a mix of cool and stupid characters. So what's changed? The pacing.
That's the most tangible difference. The old games had a faster pace. They loaded things faster, their cutscenes didn't bog down the game as much or break immersion by changing perspective, they didn't have long fight animations, and they weren't showing off huge environments. They were tighter.
I don't principally mind cutscenes, but I dowhen there's a gazillion small ones breaking up the gameplay. The gameplay is a "press a button, watch something happen". Sure, there's still the same strategic choices you make, you just have to wait longer between choices. I can read faster than I can listen, so talking to npcs is slow and annoying. The menus are slow and clunky. Actually....
TL;DR: Rozo say new ffs are slow and clunky.
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Oh that's great news! Then it'll be just Rozo, Blaine and Archangel
Yeah, and one of these is slower than the others and hasn't updated the tracklist. Stupid life taking up time.
I have a few tracks to blue, just gotta do a final check on them.
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Usa turned in a "working-finished" version of FAITH TOTAL MACHINE - in that its at a state where we could consider it finished, but he still wants to fix some of the guitar mixing in it and improve it from there.
That version will probably come later, but at least now it's pretty much in a finished condition and we have that one just in case something happens.
I consider all "finished" tracks "working-finished".
I'm still screwing with my own, finding ways to subtly improve things I didn't hear before.You hear that, folks? You can still improve your tracks.
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3-4 minutes. That's the vid, unlooped. Haven't put the audio together yet. Things are slow. Life's at fault.
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Did you want me to contact that video artist I told you about a couple weeks ago? Would that help any progress?
Nope. Already talked about this.
Now I have the pics for the vid picked. Still gotta figure out track preview lengths, transitions, how much I'm gonna screw with getting the video to sync with the audio probably not much, it's just a preview()... yeah, and continue figuring out the tracks for the preview. The _first_ preview.
Albeit technically the second or third. But whatever.
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Some games that work in chiptunes actually want/need the tracker files to work - so I'm told.
Actually, that's more about how the music is implemented. This guy wants a chiptune - as in a chiptune format, hence the famitracker file. Doing it that way means the file with be so much smaller than an audio file, and still sound the same.
And he probably also wants an mp3 to listen to, as it's more convenient when most OSs have some kind of shortcut for listening to mp3, while a .nsf or whatever is more of a niche format.
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Thread moved to recruit&collab.
Guys, stop trolling the guy. If you don't have anything reasonable to offer, get out of the thread.
SJSOFT, provide some screenshots or something. A lot of developers drop by with little more than a concept, and most don't get off the ground. Is there a game, or is there just "gonna be" a game?
You need to provide more information.
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How to make a preview:
Pick songs. In my case, pick from a set of 59 tracks.
Eliminate tracks the artists have requested we not include in previews and things.
Eliminate legacy tracks. We do wanna keep them on the album, but maybe they needn't be on the preview.
Eliminate similar tracks. Yes, we have a lot of big epic orchestra. Yes we have a fair amount of metal. We only have one waltz and one ska track. We don't wanna reveal everything just yet. We also don't want to make the preview too monotonous.
Pick one track per artist. Yes, Archangel, The Dual Dragons, and Meteo Xavier all have plenty of tracks. They're also awesome. No, it's not just their project. No more than one track per artist.
Eliminate source overlap. Medleys, cameos, the source itself using another source... That stuff.
Frivolously reduce the number of remaining tracks arbitrarily. In my case, that leaves 24 tracks left.
Make up a playlist of how to show tracks in the preview. Make it long. End up with 10 tracks. Consider making 6-7 preview vids. Reject that idea.
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So that's my progress on the preview. I'll keep screwing with the tracklist for the preview some more. The plan is to end up with something like 15 tracks that sound good together, and save the rest for subsequent previews. That'll give our amazing artists a bit more time for the preview art, and will keep me from trying to do an all-nighter while it's still Sunday in some time zone to stick to my promise.
I need to learn to phrase my promises more ambiguously.
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Hey! Super-lazy mega-unproductive ppl ultra-delaying the music side of the project... like Rozovian, Archangel, Usa... Whatevs, you know who you are and whether your track is blue or not. Get your tracks done! We're so close, it's silly to not get this thing finished now.
Reminders coming to your inboxes soon.
btw, hakstock... did you send a wav? I don't think I have it.
Preview is coming. I'll do it this week with whatever art we have. Promise.
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Thank you!
I don't really understand what you mean about the bass being too loud. I listened to it in 2 different headphones, and it sounded fine to me.
Maybe if I EQ away some of the higher frequencies?
I'm also not entirely sure what dynamics is but I'll work it out.
No, compare it to other tracks, other music in similar styles. Is their bass as loud in the mix as yours is in your mix? Are their guitars as loud in the mix as yours? This isn't about headphones or listening gear, this is about how the sounds fit together.
I think the best explanation for dynamics is intensity. To the audio engineer, it simply means how much the loudness varies over the course of the track. Classical music is very dynamic. Dance-y pop music and plenty of electronica isn't very dynamic at all. A track should have both softer parts and louder parts, less intense and more intense parts. And this applies to the smaller parts of the mix, too. A drum loop can be very flat, dynamically, which means it doesn't have much change in loudness and every note is the same level; or it can have a natural groove, where some notes are softer than others to make the rhythm more alive.
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Compare. Find something in a style similar to what you wanna do, something mixed and produced well, and compare. Don't expect to be able to match everything, just focus on the general sound. Is your bass too bassy, or not bassy enough? Is it too loud or too soft? Is the background stuff too far in the background, or not far enough? Is the lead too loud and upfront, or is it too far back or too soft? Do your drums punch through enough, or too much?
There's clearly a few effects here, it's all about using them to put everything in their place. You won't necessarily know where that place is, so listening to other ppl's work and figuring out their mix helps a lot in figuring out what works and what doesn't, and how everything should sit well... Or possibly, what they did wrong that you can avoid.
Here I hear the drums lacking processing, they don't have enough power. Guitars are loud. Bass is loud. Then there's dynamics, humanization and all kinds of other things that'd improve the track, but there's a start.
Hope that's helpful.
Drums separately or in the same pattern? (FL)
in Music Composition & Production
Posted
While I don't use FL, some of what I do in Logic might apply.
Patterns that don't change can be looped. I can have my bass drum on a separate midi track most of the time, just looped. It can feed into the same drum instrument as my other drums... or not. I can either have them all in the same instrument to save some processing power and reduce the number of tracks I'm working with, or keep them completely separate to have full control over them without having to add half a dozen midi tracks and outputs (something Logic isn't particularly good at anyway).
That's for electronic music. For stuff that's supposed to sound more live, I wouldn't be looping the note data, so I'd probably use single long midi region instead. That'd feed into a single drum instrument, and I'd either mix the drums in the instrument itself and only output the combined sound and any source for sidechaining, or I'd output groups onto different audio tracks and mix in the DAW instead.