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Posts posted by melody
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hey sorry for the grossly late reply my man, life has been going full throttle lately. that's a good thing! i'd definitely like to contribute a couple bars of guitar solo, just gimme the where and when
edit: here is an example of some of my playing so you can get an idea of where you want to throw me in. the link shows some improvisation over one of tensei's original tracks
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i better see you all at otakon
edit: i feel like some mystical benign force is compelling me to go to the distant worlds concert
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hahaha thank you man
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ah man this begs for an e. piano solo
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i was responding to this, my mistake
One last question in this post: while you brought up the EQ and considering my previous mastering issues, should I keep the high pass detailed in the EQ screencap? Or would it sound more natural without it?
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i would not touch your eq at all except for a gentle, very slight mid-ranged boost. the only reason i'd hi-pass a piano is if i had to accommodate a kick or bass with lots of sub-bass frequencies, which you definitely do not. also, i didn't mean to imply that you ought to personally sample idle chatter, just pull a sample from http://freesound.org/
best of luck and hope to see this on the site soon
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i actually think the unrealistic sound of your piano sample actually unintentionally helps to shape the experience into a more immersive one. the attack and tone quality are pretty reminiscent of tin piano/honkey-tonk, which for me really emphasizes that old salon jazz solo piano feel that's present here. which, especially at the end, is accented by some of your chord voicings and ragtime-esque rhythms. as big of a fan of alicia's keys as i am, i think that using that as your piano sample would effectively trample the great foundation you've laid out here.
the writing and general progression of the piece strikes me with that sort of nostalgic sunday afternoon feel you get from pieces like final fantasy 8's balamb garden, and is something i can really get into. sections like the triumphant fanfare and following somber section naturally flow into each other and make this piece dynamic while never straying entirely from the core feel of the song. purely compositionally i feel like you did a great job, but for me, the execution isn't quite there yet. the velocities on your notes seem to be on full blast for a significant portion of your mix, which downplays the contrast between the more plodding portions of your song against sections like the buildup at the end, and the climactic finish. the timing constantly seems to meander, not in the rubato sense which is such a hallmark of solo piano performances, but in a way that sounds like you automated cubase's metronome to randomly fluctuate from measure to measure. the relative placements of your notes seem off by a small enough margin to seem virtually negligible while being awkward at the same time. if you are inputting all these notes in with a mouse, i would advise quantizing everything to your grid and creatively automating your tempo parameter to sculpt a believable performance. if you are performing this piece in real time i would suggest practicing to a metronome until you get very comfortable with it and then start incorporating rubatos once you have a more total sense of the arrangement and note placement.
as for the production, i honestly think you don't need to mess around with too much. this is a solo piece after all, and you aren't making eq cuts to accommodate another samples, so leave the piano alone and really let it shine. if anything you should be boosting it in its mid ranges, where the piano is most distinctive. i would really ease up on your compressor, a -20db threshold is totally unnecessary for a piece where dynamics are especially important. subtlety will be the key in coaxing out the most of your performance here. your reverb has a bit of a realistically-impossible aqueous quality which i'm not totally sure is working for your mix. i think you should embrace the inherently live nature of solo piano performance and run with that. go with a small jazz hall reverb or a light concert hall reverb. a very subdued dining room/idle chatter sample that plays throughout the mix coupled with courtesy applause samples to bookend your mix could potentially make this even more immersive than it already is.
just my two cents~
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this sounds absolutely amazing man, you definitely have a good grasp on mixing already. the windchimes are a great touch that really set a sort of nostalgic lazing-around-on-a-sunday-afternoon tone for me. the only sore spot is the piano, which sounds kinda thin in places. i'm not so sure it's a lack of sample quality since it does sound pretty great in some places, so i want to blame your eq haha. i also feel like the mechanical sequencing needs a little more humanization with regards to the tight rhythm and repetitious velocities. try undoing all your eq and applying a gentle boost to around the 950 - 1000 hz frequencies. that should be sufficient in letting it sit in the mix with some distinctive quality without flushing out the violins.
other than that, the layers of acoustic guitar and violin fill up the soundscape in a pleasant and fulfilling way. the resonating, plucked quality of the guitars compliments the airiness of the bowed violins to create a beautiful and rich harmonic layer without being dense. this piece is totally enjoyable on its own and i'm definitely downloading this when it's done, but if you're trying to get it posted here i'm a little worried that the arrangement might come off as too conservative. if that's your end goal, try to take the arrangement into your hands a little more and structure it in a way that lets it stand on its own as a piece rather than incidental music designed for endless looping.
if you ever want mixing help or maybe live piano, feel free to give me a shout
edit: on second listen i actually feel like the violin comes in a little too soon. i think you could spend another two bars setting the tone for the piece by repeating the first two chords before going into the a section with the violin. just my two cents
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hey proph, got another item for ya.
saitek gaming keyboard for 35$, http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Saitek+-+Eclipse+II+Illuminated+Keyboard/8022891.p;jsessionid=C9A8CF780B15C0122C0BA18417C862AA.bbolsp-app05-18?id=1156607399961&skuId=8022891&st=saitek&cp=1&lp=1
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this is ridiculously top dude, great work!
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when is the con
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hahaha get outta here sam
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solid suggestions. i definitely would find some live players if this song had any hope of being posted here. that's a little too much work for my own personal enjoyment haha
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haha thank you guys
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almost, can you tell me how many bars you need?
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sure
just rap over it how you would and i'll fix the arrangement to fit
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hey, what kind of style are you looking for so i can link something appropriate?
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hey you definitely wanna use asio over your primary sound driver to minimize the input latency on your midi controller. asio4all, as far as i know, can only commit to one program at a time, so make sure you have internet browsers and that jazz closed before you open fl. otherwise you'll end up like you said
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i second the nujabes notion
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hey proph, if it's not too much to ask can you mention that the keyboard/mouse set is wireless? thanks
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massive update with live violin. chris wants me to tell you all he has no idea what he's doing but the results clearly beg to differ. keep in mind he's only had the music for the last two days. can't wait to see what a week will do.
op updated~
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