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TheKrow

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    How do you feel towards your own music?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    I generally try to show my work to anyone and everyone that's willing to listen. I probably don't go out of my way for feedback as much as I should, but I tend to with work I feel my best about. I believe the fastest way to improvement is through copying the greats and receiving feedback from many different kinds of sources so I try to be as open with my music as possible.

    How important is age and talent?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by TheKrow

    I think we all pick up some things a little better and a little quicker than others but if there's one thing I learned when approaching a craft, it's that talent is sort of a lie. In most cases, a lot of what we consider talent is a result of a lot of long term experience and practice. Things seem easy for others because they put the hours into it and can get to decent and maybe above average results in shorter time.

    I guess age is a bit of a factor in that the older we get, the more responsibilities we have, thus a little less time to a craft. But with that said, it's never too late to work hard at something.

    If you want to be really good at something, stay humble, know your place, connect with others doing the same thing as you, and work your ass off. Things will eventually click.

    TL;DR version > age and talent are factors but humility and hard work trump everything else

    I personally think Global Trance hit the nail on the head in his first post. In addition to time and hard-work someone puts in to something, how efficiently you learn and practice can make a world of difference. Although, certainly as you grow older, it's harder and takes longer to learn and make skills stick... simply because you're body is breaking down. The myelin proteins that form on our nerves that we use for... well basically everything, are the key.

    I think no matter how bad you think you are at something, you can still be one of the best at whatever it is. The most important thing you need is motivation and mentality of improvement. If you tell yourself you can't do something, then you can't, and vice-versa. The mind is a powerful thing.

    If you're interested, I recommend a really informative book called "The Talent Code", by Daniel Coyle. He has a good deal of stuff on his website too: http://thetalentcode.com/

    TL;DR: To briefly answer the thread topic, yes. Typically, your skills (myelin) grow faster the younger you are.

    Girls' Generation "The Boys" remix

    in Post Your Original Music!

    Posted · Edited by TheKrow

    Thanks, this small guide helps a lot. Most of what I do is electronic so I'm very new to mixing acoustic instruments and thick guitar tones, as well as vocals.

    I actually worked a bit on it this morning and I definitely got it to sound better in the lows... but listening to the track between headphones and monitors and even my car, the guitars became too hollow. I'm gonna have to see what I can do there, it's already too late for me to change my amp tone and I really don't want to rerecord lol.

    I also gotta be careful not to rely on looking at a parametric EQ too much and actually listen to what I'm changing :P

    Edit: Updated song in first post, adjusted overall frequency placement. Can't say this one is much better, just different.

    Girls' Generation "The Boys" remix

    in Post Your Original Music!

    Posted

    few years ago i thought exactly the same. Nothing changed.

    I'll back to this when I get home

    Edit:

    Overcompression. Upfront bass - borrowed drums. Overall i think if you check your kick drum you'll understand what cause overcompression.

    Too long sustain, too much lows plus compressor(master?) ruin your sound scape. Other then that it's a great stuff!!! I'm loving it!

    Thanks for the tips! How should I go about bringing the bass back a little without taking away a bit of the punch? Should I just pull out some of the 50-150 Hz range? Boost around 1k Hz? I still wanna have it stand out at least during the verses.

    I was actually thinking about the kick the other day, you're definitely right; I gotta pull some of the room sound, I think that's the problem. And I'll make sure to check my master limiter, I usually always start with a -2dB ceiling.

    Lavender Town Remix

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    Now, I don't mean for this to be demeaning or anything, but there are objective "levels" of how good a production is compared to another production. Something can be better than something else entirely objectively, while "taste" is just an observation along the way. It's very hard to ignore your own tastes and just talk about something from an objective standpoint, but that's what could help you in the future. Setting aside opinion and focusing on sound design, mixing, and so on, and then going back to opinion separately later will help people to appreciate a song for its production and separately decide whether or not they like it based on subjectivity or taste.

    Someone can love a song based on taste alone (good arrangement and/or sounds you do prefer subjectively but that could be high OR low quality objectively), but the production could be horrible (unclear, muddy, washy, etc.). Someone else could not-love a song based on taste (bad arrangement and/or sounds you don't prefer subjectively but that could be high OR low quality objectively), but the production could be amazing (clear, distinct, airy, etc.).

    So really, you can make a good amount of people "happy" production-wise for sure, but preference-wise, it's a bit harder. Essentially, there are some sounds that will be well-received by many people, and some that are a bit further away from universally positive reception. "Mixing style" essentially refers to both production choices and production quality, which are not the same thing. What *I* was actually talking about with the drums, for example, was production quality. All I said was try to make it snappier/tighter, but I left Solkrieg the decision of how he could choose to go about it if he so desires. That's production choice, the result of following production quality advice.

    production quality is opinion tho, you can only trust your ears

    Lavender Town Remix

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    Damn yo, this was pretty fantastic. Everyone is gonna have different tastes in mixing style so you can't make everyone happy. I really like how forward the bass is in the mix. It's the highlight and it's really well done; good arrangement and focus, while still keep the main melody prevalent.

    There were a just couple random things that stood out to me as awkward:

    1. At 0:36 or so when the drums come in and 2:40 when they chill, that 1,2,3,4 crash cymbal just seems like a bit too much. Feels kinda harsh before the main chords/melody comes in. It's not something that would make me not wanna listen to the song, but I'd probably cringe a little bit during those parts.

    2. The reverb/room sound for the music box (including the wind-up fx) felt a little out a place compared to everything else in the mix. It's probably just my ears being naggy, not really a big deal. Maybe that's what you were going for, but I think it wouldn't hurt to mess around with the wetness level.

    Really minor things, but it never hurts to aim for the best! Again, really solid, keep up the great work!

    Girls' Generation "The Boys" remix

    in Post Your Original Music!

    Posted · Edited by TheKrow

    So uh yeah. Not really an original, but not really a game remix either, so I guess I'll post this here.

    Apparently I missed the train when there was an official remix competition for this song like over 2 years ago, so that kinda sucks. But hey, I still like it and wanted to do something.

    I'm just looking for some feedback, mainly on mixing, but if you have something else to say then go for it. I can get it to sound pretty good on certain headphones/speakers, but I don't think it's quite there yet. A second set of ears would be greatly appreciated!

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    FF Mystic Quest - City of Forests

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    Thank you guys for the feedback, I appreciate it :)

    Man, talk about the failure of the community here. Sorry it's taken so long for anyone to talk to you about this piece. I'm listening now, though admittedly it's not in the best environment.

    First, kudos for doing a FFMQ arrangement. This album has so many great tracks. I've wanted to dig my teeth into it for a while.

    The core of it is really nice and chill. I like it. I think a live flute and violin would take this to new places, but the flute isn't as jarring as the violin. The violin took me out of the mood because the sample sound is so harsh. I could offer to do the flute for you if you like, but I can't make any guarantees as to the quality of my playing.

    You're right in that it lacked a bit of movement before the violin came in, so yes, I agree that there's somtehing you need to do to the last bit of the piece to keep it feelign like it's moving forward, but I can't think of any suggestions off the top of my head. Maybe add some padding? I actually think of water while I'm listening to this...maybe some water sound effects? I'm just shooting from the hip. The track does feel a liiiiittle empty, as chill pieces tend to do.

    I probably won't end up adding any sound effects. I agree it would help give it more padding, but I still wanna keep that sort of indoor tavern feel. Live recordings would be awesome, I know the violin sample sucks haha. If you're genuinely interested in playing flute, I will happily accept that offer. If there's any issues, I'm sure we can work out an arrangement to accommodate your skill. I'm definitely not in love with it or anything haha.

    I kind of like the room reverb, because it gives everything a sort of hand made feel, but it also sounds like it's somehow applied unevenly, like some instruments aren't affected by it. For example the flute and harmonica have a lot sharper high end than the bass and percussions, which makes them stand out in a bit awkward way.

    Can I ask how this track is made? Live recording or virtual instruments?

    Edit: the harmonica is a violin? Daaaamn...

    I see what you mean about the reverb. I didn't really notice it before, thanks! And yeah the violin sample really sucks lol. These are all samples from the standard Kontakt library. A lot of them are pretty decent, but I'm still figuring out the best way to dress some of the poorer ones up :P

    Pretty mix, very chill as you said.

    The arrangement is nice but there's one section near the ending (I don't think there's a timer in tindeck so I can't point the exact moment) where you have some chords that are potentially out of tune.

    I don't get tired of the arrangement when listening to it but I could see some people saying it's repetitive. The drums don't change at all since they are introduced, you could add more movement there. A synth pad could also help you there.

    Regarding production, the harp sample sounds a bit saturated. Is it clipping? Anyway, most samples aren't really good, but I like how they are sequenced. Bass is the best IMO.

    I think what you're hearing near the end are major seconds between the instruments, so that can sometimes be jarring if there's almost none throughout the rest of the song. I'll check that again to make sure I didn't screw something up, but I THINK that was it. The percussion could definitely be a bit more varied, but I almost want to keep it as simple as possible to keep the listener's attention on the other instruments. I suppose I'll just have to be subtle about it ;)

    I might at some chromatic percussion like bells or something, I don't want to use synths so I can keep it feeling more natural. I don't think the harp is clipping, but I'll have to make sure. I think it's a bit "buzzy" from the lower frequencies. I was mixing sort of bass-heavy to compensate for my hardware, but definitely the low frequencies need to be cut a bit.

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