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Everything posted by Garpocalypse
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How has your process evolved?
Garpocalypse replied to mickomoo's topic in Music Composition & Production
You have no idea how much I agree with you on this. No wait, you probably do. -
How has your process evolved?
Garpocalypse replied to mickomoo's topic in Music Composition & Production
I divide my works into pre and post Temporal Duality periods now. In my pre-Temporal Duality period the way I worked was crap. Usually I would try to settle on the notes first and get to mixing only when I was satisfied with the arrangement. It ended up giving me one of the worst cases of writer's block I've ever had in my life. Now I write and mix in the same session. If I have an hour at least 15 minutes of that will be spent voluming and EQ'ing so that I can get a clear picture of what I am actually working with. Last year I also had an epiphany when I realized I was using waaaayyy too much sound in my mixes. I thought I knew why I was layering pads on top of pads and using 4 or 5 different bass instruments but I didn't. It was pretty common for me to go over 100 audio tracks and struggle to mix that garbage. Now i'm using roughly half of what I used to and limiting how many vst's I load into a given mix. So far it seems to have helped alot. Now I feel like I can actually get some work in and my projects don't get so overwhelming to work on like they used to. -
Happy Birthday!
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"Has Video Game Music Lost Its Way?"
Garpocalypse replied to Liontamer's topic in General Discussion
Some of the most memorable video game themes appeared when music was at least half of the experience of the whole game and much was left up to the player's imagination. The sound of a character's voice, some unexplained holes in a game's plot, what the level to the right of the character looked like. Players used to have to think more when they played a game because there were far fewer elements. Now that everything is being handed to them the music is getting pushed back just as it happened to cinema. While I agree with his points on Mass Effect (sorry BGC but I don't recognize any character themes)Medal of Honor and Tom Clancy games, I have to question why he thinks "better" is more memorable. To this article "better" is Pop-ier sounding apparently. The art of videogames is in the combination of sight, sound and interaction. If there is so much going on that a poppy sounding tune from Masato Nakamura would be distracting to the player then why would it be written for it? I may not recognize anything from Mass Effect's OST other than a few short works that played when there was nothing else happening... the ship flying out of a hangar, I think I remember that one. But I don't think I would enjoy anything more than that as Mass Effect was still my favorite trilogy of this generation. Mentioning Shenmue was a great example as that game was really the start of the AAA game, player pandering, and tons of voice work. But there really wasn't that much going on in the game but long periods of walking with little ambient sound. No NPC's having conversations with other NPC's. Certainly no explosions or gunshots. So the music was there to fill a huge void. It had to be more than your generic sounding filmscore. While it is disappointing that music is taking a back seat to the entire experience in some ways, music is coming back in importance in indie games where limitations are once again forced on developers, players must rely more on their imagination and music is a much bigger part of the whole experience. One thing I really wish this article would have addressed is why "Classic Sonic" music from Generations meant "Dance Sonic"?? What sense does that make?! How is that classic?! And why are people doing "Classic Sonic" remixes all over youtube?! Somewhere Nakamura must be ragin'... "You mean I lost my job to Michael Jackson's sound team and now this?!" -
I've been there loads of times with DoD and subbing to the OCR judges. I keep thinking i'll skip the competition and make it better within a week or two then post it somewhere but it rarely ever happens. Now i'm regretting a lot of the time I lost. Even if it's unfinished throw it in and enjoy the rush of competing. Even if you tank, which doesn't really matter, the motivation you get may just get your skills up to that next tier. Good luck! ...and sub that thing! EDIT: check that out!! Three posts at 3:13pm!
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Metal Mixing - A General Approach
Garpocalypse replied to timaeus222's topic in Music Composition & Production
waste of freakin' money!! AND THERE's a picture of Skrillex on the freaking Ohmicide plugin!! Protector of all that is good and holy!! please save me from everything that Skrillex has his face on!!! I mean, hey! that's a cool idea! I didn't know about that! But check this article out for a quick workaround that might save some you money! http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug11/articles/sonar-tech-0811.htm Basically take your favorite multiband and make 4 clones of what you are working on. Use a multiband to quickly isolate the freqs and then bus it all back together and saturate as you see fit. Thanks for saying that ecto though I wouldn't have found that article otherwise. -
I'm overhauling my knowledge of reverb. Which has never been great. But what you described would be more blending reverb used to make it sound like different instruments are being played in a similar space. Kinda like if you and a bunch of friends all played a different instrument in your house. They would all have their unique sound but the sound of the room would sort of blend everything together a little. EQ'ing the reverb is usually a good idea to keep things from getting uncontrolled. Though most reverb plugins have their own filters to shape the reverb and that might be enough if you use it well. Congrats on the win!
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Earphones - What are your reccomendations?
Garpocalypse replied to Flaglore's topic in General Discussion
If it's for casual listening I've had this pair of Sennheiser CX150's that are the best earbuds I've ever owned. They sound great and have lasted me over three years and counting! -
Metal Mixing - A General Approach
Garpocalypse replied to timaeus222's topic in Music Composition & Production
You could try this pretty common practice of making two bass tracks (assuming DI or single mic) and splitting them up with an EQ. Cut one track to be sub 500hz and the other track over 500hz. Between the two tracks there should be a good dip right at 500hz or wherever the offending freqs are that you don't like on that particular bass. Saturate the top track, keep the bottom track clean. Or whatever you find that works for you. -
Happy Birthday KJC!
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finished Skyrim 'Dovahkin' Orchestral Remix
Garpocalypse replied to Pl511's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
Tindeck seems to be adding a ton of distortion to your remix. I downloaded the remix from the site and there seemed to be no problem. I recommend moving to Soundcloud as most people critiquing your work will opt to not download and go with what they hear from the stream. For the remix itself I really enjoyed it. Everything sounds pretty good. The piano being the highlight. There seems to be an insane dynamic range to this which is great but it doesn't come off as energetic as it could. Probably because there is so much being taken up by the low end. If you thin that out and gradually bring in some instruments that have more information in the mids/upper mids I think you will achieve the effect you seem to be going for. Just so long as you don't let it get abrasive which is easy to do. If you listen to this when things get loud they don't get overwhelming in bass freqs. Clarity is maintained throughout the entire piece. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbvU02mK1IM#t=28m13s Good luck! -
Happy Birthday!
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finished Mega Man 7-The Underwater Adventures of Shadedog
Garpocalypse replied to Garpocalypse's topic in Post Your Game ReMixes!
Thanks tim! I share some of your concerns about the sound of the piano. DimensionPro patches don't sound very bright and I was thinking about going with my Korg M1 but I thought it kinda fits the underwater vibe I was going for as it is though i was never really 100% satisfied with it. For the record the piano was played live and certain sections were fixed for time. I'll take a look at your other tips but the flute at 3:37 gradually getting buried was intentional. Just not pulled off too well.