Rozovian
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Posts posted by Rozovian
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Treat it like any vocals - good writing, good performance, good mixing. Words that don't fit well, in length, stress, whatever become problematic. Overacting is as bad as underacting. Place the voice at the appropriate distance from the listener.
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Actually, whatever's in the tags is the temp title.
Logic uses the project file name by default, not the name of the rendered file. iTunes, and probably most music players, consider the title tag before the file name.Not that the explanation matters, you have the name now.
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Reminder: 25th, and then stuff happens.
We should be making more headway on Usa's other track here soon. My brother's going to do some more guitar work on it, so don't open that one yet.Also, need Rozovian to hit me up since I think every other method I've tried to contact him with has failed. I have some news and he needs to get with me on Facebook chat or AIM. Thank you.
Dude, a means of communication doesn't fail just because I don't reply right away.
Also, the news is pretty kickass. You'll all see.
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What I'm envisioning is a program that has a screen where i can click on a piano key, guitar string, etc it make the correct corresponding sounding note. When I finally arrange a series of what i deem to be successful notes then be able to save their pattern. Then while the original is saved play another batch of complimentary notes, add them on top of my original set, so that the two become one. Maybe add one more set to blend together idk, then with all those done sit back and listen to my special blend. If no such program exists I'll just resign myself to someone who can only listen
Your description seems to fit the functionality of any loop/region-based sequencer, with the exception of the note input display - most wouldn't bother with graphical representations of instruments when the note data ends up similar to that of a piano anyway.
Regarding programs, Wikipedia has some links for you. I would personally recommend GarageBand or its Windows twin Mixcraft, but any software where you can make music will do, at least until you get serious about the production stuff.
If you don't have any prior music skills, you'll start out by making terrible music for at least a year. Just so you know. I think we all did that.
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You won't hear every track in the trailers, so if you don't have data caps or are really low on hard drive space or something, get everything, keep what you like. I keep discovering cool new tracks by listening to random mixes from albums or ocr by year or by game or something. In any case, enjoy the music.
As for computer problems, this help & newbies forum regularly does help with computer issues of different kinds. Check older threads for the kinds of problems ppl have asked about, and don't be afraid to ask. Just don't ask too obvious things, the kinds that a quick google search could have solved.
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Yeah, s(M) only displays one channel at a time. To check both channels at the same time, you'd need two instances of the plugin. I'd be cool if it had some other display modes, maybe amplitude for both channels (like audio files are displayed in many DAWs), M/S, mono... Still a cool tool, and I'm glad you figured it out yourself.
Others might have the same problem/question. I'll just lock the thread instead.
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A torrent file is really just a list of the files and where to look for ppl who has them, none of which you really need to know - just open it in a torrent app, like the one Chern suggested, and the program will connect to a torrent tracker and look for users who have those files available (seeders), from whom it then downloads the files from. Those files are in the usual mp3 format that you should have no problem listening to.
Now you know more.
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Everyone has their own ears. The judges you had were apparently cool with arrangement, others might object, and as I'm not a judge I ultimately have no real say. Good for your arrangement, at least.
Regarding levels, try dropping lead levels and slowly raising them until you hear them over the other tracks. It's a trick that works when balancing any kind of track, tho you might wanna even out the drums and other stuff before calling any adjustment final.
1:35 is actually a pretty cool transition. I'm not quite as fond of the one that follows, nor the part that follows. Personal preference, I guess.
edit:
By modern, I mean that unlike the source, which is tracker music without reverb, eq, compression, and other tools we take for granted in DAWs; a modern sound is more flexible. Tracks have room for each other in their frequency balance and dynamics, there's a greater variation in note sound (as opposed to single, unfiltered samples), more humanization (where appropriate), and more space/placement effects. In other words, a modern sound is one that makes use of the bigger toolbox. I don't mean to say that the source is unrefined or that the composer didn't put thought into the sound design - with trackers you kind'a had to - but that the resulting sound is, compared to modern standards, raw and direct. Visually, it's cartoons with static elements, hard shading and primary colors, as opposed to the smoother motion, greater palette and freedom to choose shading based on style. Physically, it's cast-iron tools versus those made out of laser-cut compound materials. It's not arbitrary.
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I wouldn't exactly call the source dominant, as per the standards, but it's there, and arrangement seems kosher. On the production side, I'd just want the melodic elements in the track's first half louder and thus more prominent.
(post so short I have to add that it's actually a mod review)
Kickass track.
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Well, the new Halo music is as memorable as the previous stuff, I recognize it in your mix after a single listen to the source. Beyond just recognizing it, it feels pretty conservative. It feels like a cover of the 2:08+ part of the source.
A few listens and comparisons more, and I think it's in the clear.
Feels cohesive and develops well. Might stay on the loud end of the dynamic range a little too much, but it works fine.
Production sounds pretty good. Why you're not banging away at the keys to get them to punch through the louder orchestra parts is beyond me. Alternatively, to keep the more restrained velocity sound you've got, just raise the piano level a little. It's not quite drowning, but it's up to it's neck in bigass orchestra instruments. You could also lower the overall level. I'm hearing some compression, and the track is hugging pretty close to the top. This is an orchestra, not noise.
Really weird whistling sound at 2:26, might wanna get rid of that.
My biggest concern is actually the use of a stem of the original, dunno what ocr policy is on remix-friendly stems released, as 343 Industries clearly support ppl to remix it.
I like what you've done here. btw, it'd be great if you wanna do a track in this style for the sd3 project, I don't think we have big epic orchestra combined with a piano with a prominent role like here.
ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION
~ Too conservative - sticks too close to the source - I think it's in the clear, but it's still quite close to source
~ Too much direct sampling from original game audio - the stem question
PRODUCTION
- Too loud
- Overcompressed (pumping/no dynamics)
STRUCTURE
~ Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough) - builds up to a level and just stays there for half the track, and those high strings aren't helping
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This is ambient?
Production sounds as good as the original - which is dated. While your sounds are higher quality, the mixing is a loud mess. While it's good to have leads louder than backing, they don't need to be this loud. Likewise bass and a lot of other stuff. Just listen to how everything else disappears under the clap.
The dynamics are different, but the track follows the source a bit too closely to be a clean pass by my idea of an ocr arrangement.
Definitely a track you can do stuff with, you just gotta get out of the idea of redoing the source over a more modern backing and instead find a new idea, a new thing to do with it. You've got a good base to build on here, with the melodies already in there, as well as a slew of cool sounds to work with. Just find the idea.
ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION
- Too conservative - sticks too close to the source
PRODUCTION
- Too loud
~ Low-quality samples - you can keep the oldschool stuff, it's cool, but you gotta process those sounds to fit with the more modern ones
- Overcompressed (pumping/no dynamics)
~ Mixing is muddy (eg. too many sounds in the same range) - could be cleaner rather than just have everything amped up
STRUCTURE
- Too repetitive - it feels like a repeat of the source, which already reused some melodies between parts. it doesn't really need to change up all the time, it just gotta change enough to let our ears breathe new air, if that analogy makes any sense.
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"killer cuts" is not a remix album
it is simply the title of killer instinct's original soundtrack
No wonder they sounded similar.
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You might be mistaken about the kind of remixes ocr is about. We write our own arrangements and produce them ourselves, and typically don't use any of the original audio, the same goes for a lot of vgm remixers in the scene. I could be mistaken, but a quick listen to the example you linked didn't reveal anything drastically different from the original, so there's no reason to remix the remix. Can't speak for the entire remixing scene, but that's how I see it.
To turn your question around, why would anyone remix a remix when they can remix the original?
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There's a lot more to a good club hit that those four bars. Aside from the whole production side of it, those four bars need to be memorable, and you gotta build up to them and structure the whole track around a dynamic experience. Anyway...
I can think of three very different questions or types of questions you could be asking here.
1. The question neblix answered: "how do I make music?"
2. Specifics about these particular mixes, eg "how do I get Avicii's piano/stab sound", "which tracks are side-chained, and how much?", questions like that.
3. How do I turn originals into this kind of remixes? I'll focus on this one:
Get stems, if possible. Otherwise, get high-quality versions of the track(s) you wanna mix. Find parts of them you can use. Craft your own arrangement based on those parts, be they looped <1second-slices or 32-bar choruses. Make use of dynamics and create build-ups and breakdowns. Apply effects to alter the sound the way you want it, just know the sound you want and change what you need to. Add your own instrumentation where needed, probably starting with drums. Mix everything well. Practice for a few years. Compare your old attempts to your new ones. Decide if it's still worth pursuing. Keep working.
In other words, learn the toolbox, learn the material, learn the process, make stuff.
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I was planning on sitting this one out, but figured I'll at least have time and energy to listen and crit a track and give some pointers on stuff.
I'm in.
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You can also modulate other things with LFOs, like pulse width or the pitch of a synced oscillator, but just as well filter, pan, or anything else you can route the lfo to.
There are other effects that also use pitch modulation, like chorus and flanger. If you actually can't find a vibrato effect for audio, you might be able to use a flanger as a substitute, depending on its parameters. A pitch-modulated-only signal without feedback is really just a vibrato. Mix it in with the original (signal feedback optional) and you've got a flanger.
Stupidly fast vibrato is used in synths. You might have heard of frequency modulation synths by the abbreviated term FM synth.
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Raising your track above 0db is the job of your stereo amplifier (home music system, car stereo, boom box, etc), not your mixing setup!
Hm, I just want to clear this up. I believe when you increase the volume of a stereo system, it only multiplies the volume, and doesn't add to the dB. e.g. -0.2dB peaks will always be -0.2dB peaks, but you'll hear it at a louder volume.
Or were you saying something different?
Tho Kristina's point was to say that raising the listening level of your speaker setup is better than trying to squash your audio into something excessively loud, I'll clarify this for you all.
Digital audio uses dBFS - dB Full Scale, with 0dB being the max level of the stored file. -6dB is half the max amplitude. Real world audio is measured in dBSPL - Sound Pressure Level. It's defined with the audio threshold at 1kHz being 0dB. As an example, wikipedia lists conversation-level voices at 40-60dB.
So no, a file peaking at 0dBFS will not be played out of your speakers at 0dB, it'd probably be played at around 40-60dB, depending on your listening level. When that level (the amplitude of the sound waves) is doubled, we're dealing with 46-66dB audio. 6dB is double the amplitude.
I've added a section on decibel to my guide. It's in the next update, whenever I get around to uploading that.
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Not to say you can't recruit for someone to give you a hand with the mix / hand over the mix to, a quick look at the the votes on this makes me think you're giving up. Really, you had half the judges being ok, or at least borderline with it. What you need is time away from it to refresh your ears, then a fresh attempt at fixing stuff. Not having bothered to read too much of the votes, my ears say you should lower the bass level and stop trying to make this stupid loud, also soften the flute performance and sort out the instrument placement.
ACO, I think you could do this yourself, at least up to ocr's level, but if you'd rather have someone else take a stab at it, go ahead. Good luck either way.
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Some really cool ideas in here, and you've obviously got the ears to find flaws in your own work. That's great.
The original touches you've got, like the 0:30 guitar, complement the source well. If I were you, 'd see how I could break from the source more - screw with the melody and rhythm of the source to create new things akin to what your original bits are. I'd also try to break from the structure of the source, and it'd probably end up a meandering mess as most of my tracks.
If you're concerned about frequency balance, import some well-mixed tracks into FL and compare their frequency balance to your with the same analyzers. If you've got too much bass when played at the same level, mix it down. Learn how well-mixed stuff sounds like and copy it.
The drums are so minimal here that they don't need much variation. For more drum-intensive tracks, just pretend to be a drummer and have fun with rhythms and stuff.
Automation of filters and other effects are a nice way to inject some motion into build-ups and other repetitive parts, but you can also just copy the writing you have there and make small edits to the melodies. While you should definitely focus on the notes in the underlying chords, just sticking to the same scale should keep the melodies from sounding bad. This source actually contains several examples of this repetition with variation. Study the source.
You've got a lot of dynamics in this track. Just figure out where you want to change the dynamics and put more thought into the structure and arrangement of your tracks and you should do just fine.
About time you started posting. Welcome to the feedback board.
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Pretty cool track. Feels a bit rushed and rush-y at times, but flows quite well. Not sure about the source, but the rest seems to be on a level that could get on ocr, given some fixes here and there.
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The best way to create space is really a combination of a lot of techniques, each applied subtly. Track level, timing, reverb, and eq all work together to create the idea of space. We expect instruments closer to us to be louder, have more lows and more distinct highs, hit our ears before instruments further away, and to have a greater separation between their reverb than instruments further away. iirc, you've mostly only got their level separating them. A touch of eq and reverb can, do a lot for the track.
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Seems like the challenge paid off, this is a pretty cool sounding mix.
Biggest problem I hear in the mix is that the re's too great a difference between loud and soft instruments. Needs more levels mixing. Sound design is fine. Bass and snare are pretty loud, as are some of the lead plucks and things, while crashes and some backing things are too soft by comparison. There might be a need to do some eq work to soften or separate some instruments, I'm not sure it's actually necessary (tho it might help). Best to do the levels first and then see if you need to separate or muffle anything.
I think I hear source stuff throughout, tho it's heavily modified at times. I like it. Flows ok, nice adaptation, good stuff.
So yeah, levels mixing is the main concern I have for this, still needs some work on that. I would expect to see this thing posted tho, once fixed up. Nice work, dude.
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Where's this at, still want a mod review?
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Bass is a bit too loud in the intro. The acoustic guitar is still pretty loud, and really clean and upfront compared to the instrumentation of the unts part. You might wanna automate a push further back or something. It doesn't have to be that loud if it's just an intro thing anyway. How about some delay on it?
Leads are pretty loud compared to drums, you might wanna adjust that. Ending is a bit too abrupt and the track feels like it ends too soon. perhaps a different take on the source could be worked in as a kind of verse, or a breakdown-buildup thing based on the unts version? Just suggesting, not sure it'd work as it's a pretty short source and a pretty repetitive mix as-is, tho not horribly so, imo. if you can come up with a different take on the source - new chords, new feel, new mode, something - you'll have a much easier time working with it.
PRODUCTION
~ Drums have no energy - not bad, but they need more compared to the leads
~ Mixing is muddy (eg. too many sounds in the same range) - you could clean it up a bit
STRUCTURE
- Too repetitive
- Too short - the unts part could be longer and end feeling more complete
- Abrupt ending - more like ends too soon
Getting there...
LooneyTunerIan's Musical Challenges
in Recruit & Collaborate!
Posted
If you wanna lock the thread, ask a mod to do it, don't bump it. Now it's on the first page of R&C, taking up space that a more productive thread could use. Now you know.
I'm locking it now. If you wanna unlock it or something, hit me up, or talk to another mod.