Scrap McNapps

Hey guys, I have been using my Shure SRH840 recently for mixing and they have been working well for me but I feel monitors would help me do a better job mixing. I plan on getting some monitors but I am got some issues in regards to the room I am putting them in. Basically the design sucks. It's pretty assymetrical and after doing more research I found that active speakers are gonna difficult to use in my room. I can't treat my room because of the bed that is in there and the weird ass corners and an area that sections off that has the family computer there so it is pretty crowded. I plan on changing up my current home theatre setup and I thought, if I were to buy a receiver with the Audessy MultiEQ with enough power to drive the passive speakers I was interested in (Tannoy Precision , that it would allow for a more suitable monitoring environment for me. I also feel like it would work out for me in two ways, 1) I have my monitors to help with mixing and 2) I have my home speakers to see how well said mixes translate. Of course this all theory. What do you guys think? Also the lowest the Precision 8 can go is 54Hz. If I plan on doing occasional rap music, is that gonna be low enough, or would I have to get a 8" sub? My "workspace area" is 11' x 11.5' x 8'. smh Don't forget I could use the Audessy if that even makes a difference.

Cubase is capable of 5.1 surround sound mixing and has a pretty decent notation component to it.

Yes you are supposed to get a reply when you submit it.

The flute as mentioned before has a too much breathing in it. Other than that, this sounds beautiful. Good luck on your project!

Latest one -Panned the drum kit. -Added bells to the melody @ 3:08 and altered 3:18-3:28. Not sure it fits though. Feedback is welcome.

I was gonna comment yesterday but by the time I finished writing my thoughts the forum was shut down for maintenance. lol. Well I can post about the new one. This is an improvement of the last one you made. Everything sounds less distant and more upfront and less reverb drowned. I like the melody of the synth you put in there @ 1:45, but not sure about the synth itself though. lol. I imagine a horn section for that part though, or strings of some type but that's just me. Oh yeah I like the arrangement. As well. =) Hope you find this a bit helpful.

I'm still new at critiquing so take these thoughts with a grain of salt. The drums and the bass are a problem with this track as was previously mentioned. -The toms sound shy. Trying bringing them upfront a bit more. -The hi-hat sounds dry to me. Try adding some some reverb. -It's probably me but the bass feels a bit too upfront and kinda fills up a lot of the soundscape and takes away from the other instruments. Try adjusting the level of the bass. You got a lot of good stuff on here though. I like the intro (the heartbeat sound was cool). The choir was nice (sounded real to me). I like ominous tracks in general and this one definitely had that feeling. For a first mix this is good. Keep at it! And good luck!

The guitar work is awesome. I like the solo. The drum sequencing was dope. The energy... oh man the energy. Makes me want to start a fight. lol. You did a great job on this.

Thank you very much Rozovian! The ramblings were of help. lol. And you were right about the bass being a synth. I am actually using three different synths in the song. I took a look at the notes that I have for the majority of the song and compared it the parts that were of concerned to you. The bassline for sure had some notes that were a semi-tone off. Other "odd" notes I found as well (not sure I found all of them though). I also attempted to rearrange some of the parts to see if I might be able to come up with something but I fared no better than you. XD Anyways, here is the update. -I was able to cut down some of the repetition. I was able cut through about 30 secs or so. Mostly around the beginning and 3/4 into the song. So it is around 5 mins max (Cause in retrospect a nearly 6 min song to be much =\) -Changed the ending. I took out the drums and played with some notes. As a result it ended up softer and "dreamy" compared to the one I had in the beginning. I kinda like it compared to what I had before. (I just hope it works). -I increased the volume of the drums and readjusted everything accordingly. Used a different compressor preset for the Tom and boosted the bass frequency. I ditched the hi-hat and replaced it with the cabasa. -Amended a couple of notes. -Tried out a different bass synth to see if it works better. -Adjusted the bell levels. The "big" part is still pending.

DAMN. I like this a lot.

Thank you for the feedback Defend! Glad you liked it for the most of it. I am in the process of rendering the file now and I took in what you suggested. -I didn't change the key for the flute part or the bells @ 2:28. It's the same notes. The flute sounds a bit peculiar with certain notes though I will admit. I changed that in the revision I'm about to post. -The intro... I saw what you meant. I made the amendment. -I experimented with the first chorus. The first flute chorus is gone and instead I put in a choir. I find it sounds a bit more ominous on the second run. -Man that damned flute solo is gonna be the end of me. I kept the first half of the second verse cause I liked the energy, but the second half of that same verse has been changed. I used a piccolo instead of the lead flute for the later. I also added a choir to that part as well. It should sound less boring now (I HOPE). -I THOUGHT about doing the fading out of the chours for the end, but I am trying to avoid that since it's been done on another arrangement based on this. I don't want to be seen as copping out or biting. I repeated the intro in the ending but added a final note to make it feel more complete compared to the interruption that happened. EDIT: Here is the latest one

Kontakt 4 has some pretty decent choir sounds.

Each DAW does the same thing, though some do a bit better in other areas than others. For example, Ableton Live is great for Live performances and loop based production. Cubase is very good for MIDI. Pro Tools is excellent for recording and editing audio. Studio One has a very good setup for mastering. Not to say that they won't do well in everything else, but they may approach it differently and might not be as elegant or easy. (ex. Sonar 8.5 Matrix View vs. Live 8 Session View) It really depends on the person. I tried FL Studio and I didn't get it though it is probably one of the most user friendly DAWs out there. When I demoed Live, I was able to get into it and it was always a pleasure using it. I may try Sonar again and Studio One again as well cause I didn't give them full out assessment. Anyways, the best software is one that works with your workflow. Just demo.

Listening to a different variety of systems is good as you mentioned, but also making adjustments according to those differences. Like finding a happy medium. At least that's what I read in Mastering Audio.

Here is the latest one. -Readjusted a few of the levels. -EQ'd the bells. -Threw in a variation of the act 2 bass line in the flute -Re-wrote the flute solo and shortened the drum solo (also changed it slightly) -Fixed the chord progression and that harp note near the end.

This looks interesting. The content looks good. I'm gonna give it a read later on.

Echo Audiofire Series Edirol FA Series RME Fireface Series Most of Presonus stuff is working Steinberg's audio interfaces are working as well.

Thanks Escargot for the feedback. -It took me a bit but hear the cut offs you are complaining about. I think something went wrong with the rendering at the time. Hopefully this won't be a problem next time. -The notes you described @ the 0:17, 0:21, 0:24, I used those notes for the flute and bell parts of the chours at 1:29-1:58. Are those wrong as well? I compared them to a MIDI version of the song I got from VGMusic (thanks for directing me to that site). I think the note is A#. When I do a comparison, the flute and bells sound right, but for some reason the harp doesn't. Maybe it's just me? -The 0:38 part and forward, I was going for dynamic contrast... perhaps I made it a little TOO dynamic?. I will lower that part so that it isn't as loud. I'll also try readjusting the other levels that were of concern. -the flute and harp part @ 3:55 I wanted to calm down the energy for a little bit. This may sound like a weird question, but you said 1:58-2:57 went nowhere. It seems to a common problem I have. How can I make a section that has bit more meaning? I was even thinking of picking up a for Dummies book to see if it might help. lol Again thanks for taking the time to listen and give me some hints.

Here is the newer one. I THINK I fixed the note (and related notes).

Man I haven't crate digged in a long while. I need to set a date to do it up.

I think you might be right. I just listened to the original now and even the bass satir on the first verse sounded a bit different. I'll try to amend them.