rig1015

Yes. Another Example: I posted a WIP for some MP 3 corruption remix. It was the first pass. It was crap! It still made #3 in the charts! People will buy and want shit, as long as it is cool shit! I've made 1 update since then (today) so we'll see. And... Moseph is right.

UPDATE: Second Pass at the track. (6 more studio hours) The bass line.... yeah... 3/2 on top of 4/4 sounds weird to everyone huh? I understand because because you're getting three notes in two beats- damn dotted syncopation! Added ambiance (thunder rolls, gong washes, etc.) Worked on my drums (this will be pass 2... I normally do about 4 passes) Mixed and EQ'd "tighter" Worked on transitions. I'm still not liking the climax... it just doesn't feel explosive enough for MY DJ Trance/Dance ear... I think I should add a stinger on a 8 count hold just before the boom. HoboKa- no worries... it is still a WIP Edit: I used a 3 stage filter (MIDI controlled) on the ES2 synth.

PLZ, PLZ, PLZ, did they make the faders bigger? My biggest hang-up with Logic Studio is that faders are tiny; bigger the fader better the attenuation.

Original Topic @ post #18 It is a wonder, at least to me. Does anyone turn off their screen when listening to their mix? If some software DAW told you this, this, and this about your mix, would you have, could you have, HEARD it without the software? I use to bother talent when I would mix in ProTools on the ICON control surface WITHOUT the screen. I'm not saying that this- no monitor on ICON, is praise worthy but I am a full wonder on who is aural and who is visual. How much of a crutch is your DAW for you... in that respect?

-Your a little harsh on your hi-mids, highs they are over EQ'd (freq- 1kHz to 5kHz) -You mix is thin, meaning I boosted your 500Hz buy about 3.5dB on a wide Q (0.18) and whole "middle" of your mix came to life. Neblix if you want to become a master of the EQ you should do some learning about ELC. It stand for equal loudness contuer. Ever wonder why the bass or boom can sometimes muffle or seem louder than hi-hats? Ever wonder why your songs curve the way they do on your EQ analyzer, wonder why you get a bump in the low end a roll off on the hi end? Understanding the ELC will allow you to EQ like.... a ninja. ~1:47 clavi-tone scales down here; your delays are heavy... if it isn't delays then your MIDI tap-echo is too high a velocity after original note. You could automate the delay so the wet (delay) doesn't tap quite so fast after the original note. I like all the added items and synths that you made. It doesn't break away hype, but the arrangment and overall feel are solid. The mix has beef with the freqs but that is an easy fix.

Here is a story... sorry: I'm 27. When I was 20 on 9-10-2001 I went a gave ALL of my info to a NAVY recruiter. I got landed in the submarine fleet with a sonar technician billet. I got to the fleet before I finished school (for sonar) I had to learn my job on my feet. You think learning how sound propagates in the air is tricky... imagine trying to account salinity, density, temperature, terrain, bedding etc. I learned my job by doing my job, no room for error; in fact the watch station they had me tending was called safety of ship! I finished my tour, then wound up teaching acoustic theory at my school for sonar. I finished the NAVY and came home to SD Cali. Then went to Hollywood to go to Audio Engineering school (more for studio engineers). Worked for the technical institute that taught me for a bit, worked for NBC, Universal, WGM, and more indi artists than one should report. So I'll make the boast that I know a lot- not everything but a lot. I still am learning how synthesis works with all the layers and oscillators and what not. I'm still learning every-new-damn-DAW with their upgrades and new hot-keys. Newer better consoles are out every day and the gear... whoo! don't get me started on the gear! or the plugs! I guess my point is I don't know shit, but I know a lot. Don't try and learn everything cause you will wind up with nothing achieved. There is too much in the world today to be a Grand Maester of Everything. Learn the specifics of the something you're interested in and then move onto the next thing. Not everything in audio is relavent to everything you do, learning about RT60 hasn't made me better with using reverbs. Relax and take a vaction from audio; remember why you love it or find out why you love it. Tech is dry, try to find some analogistical way of looking at it. Learn with analogy. I dunno, trying to help.

GB is a gateway platform DAW, NOT a pro-ended-DAW. You will pay for what your software can do. If you want your software to do one thing specifically you buy that specific software. You don't due your taxes with Reason do you? GB is home-brew consumer level software don't expect to do everything with it; if you wanted it to do everything you should've bought a more pro-ended DAW. I won't argue which pen (DAW) for audio Engineers is "better" than the others; a pen is a pen, it is what / how you draw / write with it. Garage Band is consumer grade; if you can make everything you want with it you are a mighty engineer / artist, but most people perfer to use different 'pens.'

Windows? Why would we want to see anything? It's audio engineering. We listen. How visual does one need to be? ... I jest ... But I wonder if anyone else notices the increase in visual mixers / engineers verse the decrease in aural?

Some of the "fakey" sounding stuff is 100% deliberate; ie. the signature Prime-Sine (whistle), as well as the choir, those are suppose to sound that way. The sense of rhythmic errors with the choir can be attributed to the slow attack on the ADSR. As for the other time issues I used a 96bpm loops on a 135bpm track . ALL my drums were loops placed to give me sense or over-all arrangement I have NO intention on keeping them... *ponders* ... maybe the kick. I compose that way, building around the drums; helps me keep a sense of "dance" arrangement. Thanks for the crit on the reverb- totally hear it now; excellent example of listening fatigue. I'll update soon.

The way I'm using it: unable to see clearly anymore; lost; confused.

Meteo X... I feel you man, you sound so jaded, . Consider maybe that they never got around/over their obsticles all the time. I'm sure they had their problems that they just had to deal with. I'm sure if you gave Y. Mitsuda more time on CC we would have a completely different sounding game. Million dollar question is; Would we love it the same? I'm sure he didn't like the way 'this part sounded here' or the way 'that part sounded there' but he probably had to submit walk away and hope for the best. We as creative entities should know when to stop developing our creations and just let our creations be or else we hurt the creativity. In pro they are told "You are done. Hand it over 'as-is'." So another thing to consider is that in the pro world money is changing hands, that means there is going to be a shit filter somewhere down the line. You scofe at the "crap" you see get published under labels but someone paid money and thought that that sound was good enough to make their money back, so it passed their shit filter. If you find it (the "crap" published) low grade but still selling then that should show you that the market doesn't care about quality the way you do. If it doesn't sell... well you know. "IF IT SOUNDS RIGHT IT IS RIGHT" - Joe Meek

I like your crashes, they made it seem larger than life and IMO that is how any Star Fox remix should sound. I kept wanting a spacey choir on "Ah" to come in really, really subtly on the tonic to hold a ethereal presence during your build-up(s). Keep working on it. Lock your arrangement into place and give us an update.

I like the chill aspect, you could do more with a "Yazz" flute styled feel. 3 things bugged me though: -Over all the mix just sounds thin to me. I feel we are using a simple drum machine to keep time... they're just not believable IMO, humanize them, and add cymbals (like crashes and washes - subtle). -Near the end when you start having all the electronica ad-libs please consider doing a improve of the flute melody. Kinda gage your arrangement like, "I need to make each loop slightly different than the one before." No 8 count should "feel" the same. -Break down your pads and bring them back in more. The more dynamic these (the pads) are the more diverse your mix will feel, I promise. I did like what you were doing though, your foundation (arrangement wise) is solid we just have to polish it so it doesn't feel repetitive. Give us an update! Andy, you could whip Gario till he Loves your track.

MP3 - D-Corrupted (Pop-up) Trance / Dance Remix of the opening theme from Prime 3- Corruption. On my checklist of things to work on: -Transitions need love -Drums patterns need to be diversified with ad-lib's -Add cymbal washes Edit: Starts @ ~0:07

Another way to "figure out" what is wrong with your mix is turn in down (volume wise). Turn your speakers (NOT YOUR FADERS!) down to a whisper then see what stands out in the mix. If you got a "tight" mix you should hear everything kinda of evenly fall off as you turn it down. A problem I constantly have is my Hi-Hats are to shiny (*stssst* rings out) I normally find that I have my upper range EQ'd to hard, or mixed to loud (dB).

Meh... you're a smart kid, I'm sure you could google those terms to see what I'm talking about. But for the sake of it here are some rough definitions: Tonals; tones or frequencies that ring in your ear or stand out in a mix and drown out other frequencies. Notch; like a bump or a curve EQ, so you can pick a tonal (example, 4kHz) and boost or cut that tonal. Sweep; human ear hears from 20Hz to 20kHz when you sweep you start at the bottom and go up and down the whole human audible spectrum in a "sweep." This helps find or point out bad tonals (bad EQ'ing) Acoustic Hole; somewhere in the EQ where tones are not at a desired level, this is subjective to each mix. I told you some rough frequencies that you can go boost and cut throughout the various instruments / drums / samples on your mix to see if that helps. The freq's are just guidlines so be flexible for what your mix needs or what you hear it needs, somethings might not even need EQing, some things may just need a touch. If you find yourself getting into ±6dB to fix / help with what was recorded you may what to reconsider recording it or re sampling it- unless that is apart of your sound.

You know I gotta say Oink-i-ness, sounds like you can audibly hear the difference between VU acoustical energy and SPL acoustical energy, you should go into mastering.

Do you know how to make a notch EQ? Make one with a narrow Q and sweep across the freq spectrum (20Hz - 20kHz) and listen how the tonals (the frequencies you sweep across) change. Do that for a bit a find the areas (in the freq.spec.) that ring out in your ear, those are resonant tonals. Push those areas down a little with EQ and then bring up the other areas that have acoustic holes; I normally find these in the sweep. This is a good "I have no idea what the hell I'm doing" strategy, it forces you to LISTEN rather than follow a preset. But if you want some preset ideas: Some rought tonals that might just help "as is" are- 200Hz - warmth and most acoustical energy 1kHz - one octave down from resonant ear canal tonal 2kHz - resonant ear canal tonal 5kHz - Mid-Hi shine (the polish ) Try pushing these up and down on an EQ plug on your drums; there rough areas but they should help. Hope it helps you find your sound better.

FL is awesome gateway software but it has limits; granted those limits are diminishing but they keep it out of professional studios. It is not bad software, at all, it is just something that started at consumer grade and now is stepping into pro-grade. It probably doesn't have the foundation that AVID does; but it is coming up. Like when we stopped using RCA connections and moved on to XLR/TRS connections; or when we stop monitoring on our 9" Sanyo home stereo speakers and move onto Mackie HR824mk2 monitors. I give FL ~ three more years and then we'll probably see more of it in professional studios; as more artists use it the more the artist will want that tool in the studio.

Mmm tasty chorus, frosted with EQ.

Thanks for the insight judges. I think I'll submit it and let the case-by-case roll on out.

I had a question about DJ Friendly Remixes. I'm an old school electronic composer in a sense that I gear my mix towards the DJ / Live performance of it all and I know (have read) how stern the judging can be on a pieces source material; my question- Lets say a remix is about 6:30 long, and approx 1:45 of that is "DJ friendly" time, is there any leniency on the track for arrangement like this? I ask because I'm on the fence for a submission due to this fact and would love to get a judges opinion. Most forum members who listened said source wasn't enough, which started the argument of "DJ Friendly" mixes. If the judges get an off the chain trance / house / electronica remix with DJ friendly time but breaks a huge source standard what is the word? ... Make a Radio Edit? Thanks.

Seriously Neblixsaber? 13! Two things; Wow! & Chill . Dude it is awesome that you can sequence / remix / rearrange audio the way you do! No joke. When I was 13 I had NO interest in audio what-so-ever. So you already kick-that-ass outta so many by that one fact alone. Don't let anyone let you feel otherwise. Now that you feel awesome- Chill; on the sense that these post are going to make you a ninja, or your track ninja. Seriously dude... a ninja. Metroid mixes are tough around here (or so I've read) yours is still better than the trance remix I'm putting together, and is probably better than most that will come to the judges. You got your shit together, we just gotta polish it. Next: how are your drums? are they "fatter" in the mix? When I click the link I d/L the same song I already have. How are you compressing / EQ each part of the drums? Can we tighten those up? Just pitching ideas.

EXS24 is another fully functional sampler / synth that comes with Logic Pro and it comes with some well liked orchestral samples. I've stumped some of the older engineers with those think that is was a real piano / string section etc. I'm sure you'll love'm.

So I went and listened; I mean I really listened. Your mixing is heavy (hot), this not a bad thing but some engineers I've worked with get pissy when talent does mixng like that. One thing that kept frustrating me as I tried to play with various EQ mastering settings, compressor mastering, etc. was that your pads or 'sustained chordial notes' (synth, not guitar) are to loud in the mix. Can you try dropping them about ... -3dB, -6dB, or -10dB? See which ones work depending (I don't have your session file here so I don't know). I would recommend -10dB, cause my pads are normally hot at that magic dB reduction helps 9 times outta 10. Another thing I noticed is your stereo imagery is offest +1.5dB to +3dB to the left channel, if this is deliberate for artistic stereo imagery cool, if not, here's a heads up. If anything squeeze (compress) the lead guitar so it dominates everything clearly. And I would EQ after compression. Electric guitars have a natural overtone at 5KHz so be mindful of that when mixing. IMExp: EQ- 220Hz - 260Hz for fullness on a E.guitar, 400Hz for warmth, and for more string sound 2.5kHz. Compression- Threshold -17 dB, Ratio 5.5:1, Attack 10-19ms, Release 100-200ms, (if available) Knee 1.0 or Full, Gain ... use your ears its always different each mix. Most standard compressors have these so these are sort of my default settings. I usually tweek and adjust from here.