Rozovian

I keep hearing some weird note clashes, probably between the bass and the rest. I'm gonna be lazy and not listen to the original, but I wanna say something to contrast GLL's feedback. While appropriate for a mix intended for ocremix, his feedback doesn't take into account that you might have other goals for the track. He does have a point, tho. The chiptune instrumentation does get old fast, and the non-chip saw lead isn't that much better. While chip sounds can be used to great effect in a lot of types of music, it tends to be balanced with more complex sounds (or be from a more advanced chip than that of the NES), just check out halc and protodome (and the aforementioned virt's chip stuff). If you're still gonna do just chip and drums, you should utilize the many different techniques to make sounds interesting while still keeping the sound simple and chippy, whether that means old-school tracker-style 96th note arpeggios or fm synthesis or whatever.

A more elaborate hiphop-themed remix of the prelude would be pretty cool. atm, this isn't very elaborate. The first drum loop you use doesn't hold up well, certainly not for that length without muchvariation to it (second one is pretty good, but could also use some more variation, fills, and stuff). Some chordal variations could set this mix apart from a lot of other Prelude mixes, some altered rhythms might also help (tho it's easier to screw up the source with those). Giving it more dynamics, more loud parts and more soft parts, would also help. The instrumentation is pretty minimal (bass, strings arpeggio, piano lead, drums), some variation in the instrumentation would help keep the mix interesting. The strings are currently in a kind of blurry state, more clearly defined attacks would help them not fall into the background as they do now (tho then you'd have to eq them further back to keep them from getting in the way of the piano and other lead parts). With or without vocals, this could be better. Good luck with it.

Chiming in on time sigs... you learn lots from studying certain vgm songs, like the windmill hut (zelda oot) and kraid (metroid 1) and 3/4, half the tracks on the halo OST and 6/8, etc.. Play along with those to get a feel for them, then write a basic drum track in one of those sigs, loop it, play along with it. DOn't worry about recording it or anything, just play for the sake of getting a feel for the time sig. As for quantization, most DAWs with quantization let you set the time sig it quantizes to, and whether or not there's any swing in the notes. This is all, as already covered in neblix' reply, to keep your recorded performances from sounding sloppy, tho relying too heavily on full* quantization will make them sound mechanical instead. I quantize pads, bass and drums if I record them, and sometimes do some manual edits on those. Leads I edit manually to make sure to keep as much of the human performance as possible and still making it sound less sloppy. I haven't finished a lot of music lately, so you have no idea if it sounds any good. * apparently, Cubase let you set how quantized the notes get. Logic apparently doesn't.

The problem with moving threads.

Compression problems from kick and the vox replacemernt. While the rhythm currently has more drive than before, it now suffers a problem with being repetitive. The kick at 1:28 is louder than the others, keeping the overall volume down after normalization. The sounds are still spectrally wide and ought to be EQd to keep each of them in their respective place. The vox replacement isn't a great sound anyway. Nah, still stuff to improve on.

While there's more variation in the drums, there's not really more energy. The hihat is trying to drive a far slower kick and snare, which just makes it sound too fast in a slow song. You need to put more drive, more forward momemtum in the other tracks. Figure out which parts have drive, and which ones don't, and change stuff. Find the rhythm that make it seem slow, and change them. Mute them and try to think up something better. At 0:14 there's a noticeable change in energy levels. Why? The driving rhythm goes from the distorted lead to the kick-snare combo, which just doesn't drive enough. Another transition is at 0:44 when the kick-snare rhythm changes to something slower. At 0:59 the lead comes in again, and the track has forward momentum again, despite the even bass drum rhythm. At 1:28 you go into the breakdown part, but notice what happens at 1:36 when you start introducing stops in the bassline. Take a listen to your track, listen for the parts that make it fast or slow. It still needs a lot of cleaning up. Cut excess lows from everything that don't need them, and give the kick and bass different space in the lows (basically, decide that frequency x is for one, boost that slightly in one and cut fromthe other - likewise with frequency y, and both should be in the 50-200Hz range). Do similar things to the rest of the instrumentation to push stuff into their respective places in the frequency range. Cut excess release tails and decrease the amount of reverb. The mix needs more clarity to be more upfront and energetic. Also, the kick is not weak. The whole track ought to be louder, and the kick needs to be more balanced.

That is some sweet looking cover art.

Snare is too distant, add a snare with more snap and presence - cut if short if you have to, Kick could be a little softer so it's not too powerful. You want energy more than weight, right? You should probably edit the kick's rhythm for more drive. The second kick in the rhythm currently serves as a stop. Going for a different snare rhythm in part of the mix could also give it more drive. If double time isn't right for it, try some less regular rhythms that fit with the lead's rhythm. Currently, the drum writing isn't doing much to push the track forward. See what you can do about that. Your synth playing the synthtalk/vox thingy's part is way too loud compared to the other parts. The bass is gonna need some work. Have you tried some form of distortion on it? That, in combination with some drastic velocity edits, could get you a more driving sound. Don't think an amp sim is the right thing, but a standard distprtion effect should do it. Are you making this for ocr? You're gonna have to start deviating from source at some point if you are. Can't show you my lead until I get my server space back up and running.

Well, the bass is too loud, so fixing that should give you more room for the kick. The snare is weak, you could layer it with a snare with more snap for a harder sound. The hihat idunno about, you could probably get something out of messing with velocity and rhythm, but you could just as well get a more aggressive sound out of different samples. Overall, you should clean it up, frequency-wise. When you add guitars and stuff to this, you'll just get a muddy mess, as if there's not already stuff bleeding into the other sounds' frequency range. On a related note, this mix made me make a sync lead like the one used in the source. Should be useful.

This thread is attracting more non-swedes than swedes.

Yay, GX. Not sure what you're going for here, but it sounds way too weak, as if you're trying to get the drive and energy without actually using driving, energetic sounds... which wouldn't be easy. Not an easy track to remix, it's repetitive, doesn't have a lot of melodies or chords to work with. It helps to understand oscillator sync when you analyze the source. Hard to say much more without spending half the time just guessing what you're trying to do with it.

I've done it before. The first time I forgot to unmute the tracks when I exported it.

I could combine this with a trip to visit my grandma... if I can leave work and stuff for long enough. I know we had a thread for something like this before...

But you guys are staff, that makes you big, important, famous, busy and scary...!! PMs or IMs. It's always worked for me.

Would be a little expensive for me to just show up for a beer and then go back home*... And a little silly, since I don't drink. Still, I'm interested. Stockholm is probably the best place for any Nordic meetup (except for Icelanders). *Maybe I should get a boat instead of a car? When I can afford my own transportation, I mean.

I just pick almost anything that'll sound good with the rest of the instrumentation... so it takes some trial and error to find/make one that'll work in particular set of sounds.

This is on my invisible list of tracks I wanna remix some day. Two days time, hm...

I should have Mozzaratti's and zyko's emails somewhere, but they weren't included in this sendout. reminder: this is for everyone on the project - tracks done, wips, whatever.

Put it in recruit/collab. If you're paying, someone will do it. We all like money. Do mention whether you're talking about an ocr-type arrangement incorporating both tracks, or just a transition, as seamless as possible, from one original audio file to another. (and pay accordingly )

Who should have gotten it and didn't? Speak up!

If i hear a song and recognize it as a "cool song with a country sound", I'd say it's a good song. If I recognize it as country... well, not so much. As with everything, there's the good and the bad, but I find myself quickly tiring of the often whiny sound and the boring writing. Worked for my lyrics hate thread. Which wasn't hating on lyrics much at all. At least there's some symmetry.

Sent out an email just a few minute ago, to everyone on the project - track finished or not; remixers, artists, staff; everyone I had an email of. If you didn't get it, I either couldn't find your email or have and old/wrong one. PM me your email. Important info and stuff gonna start coming by email. edit: and the internal preview.

lol, I haven't actually been on AIM much, lately. hit me up if you do see me, I want thing thing checked before I start turning it into a pdf. btw, I might need screenshots from other DAWs. Logic, GarageBand, Reason, FL, and REAPER shouldn't be a problem, but if you use a different DAW and want to help with that, hit me up. ...when I'm online again, such as right now. Stupid other stuff getting in my way. So, pros or semipros to beta read it, and ppl willing to contribute screenshots wanted.

Gating it is just side-chain compression taken to the extreme... unless you manually automating the gate. /nitpick

Someone that uses FL can probably help you with exactly how to side-chain it in FL, but the process is basically this: you use a compressor on the bass, but the compressor is controlled by the kick so the bass always makes room whenever the kick hits. Another technique to clear up this conflict involve giving the kick and the bass different room in the frequency range. It's much easier than side-chaining, but you gotta figure out what part of the sounds you wanna keep and which ones you're willing to reduce. Basically, you cut frequency X from instrument A (and maybe boost it in instr and cut frequency Y from instrument B (and maybe boost it in instr A). X and Y are different frequencies in the 80-150Hz range. It's usually a good idea to make sure your other instruments don't bleed too much into the lows either.