ectogemia
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Thanks for the feedback
Which VST are you referring to?
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So I picked up Katamari Forever the other day, and fell in love with the village music.
Throughout the song, there's a harpsichord-sounding instrument that plays a few chords, sustains the last one, then it sounds like the sequence is played in reverse to get a cool, melodic swoopy effect. You'll notice it right away.
How is this done? My only guess is they made an audio clip and reversed it and overlaid the original and the reversal 'til it sounded right, kind of like how reverse cymbals can be done.
Is there a way to do this in a more streamlined, sequencer-only (i.e. no audio clips) manner? Other ways to do it?
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Ouch... few things stab my nostalgia spot harder than Earthbound.
I was screwing with FreeAlpha, and I made Earthbound's LEVEL UP!! instrument... then I decided I'd make a ton more Earthbound instruments.. then I decided to make a remix medley. Since I'm kind of a mixing newb, I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice my arranging, transcribing, and synthesis skills.
The mp3 begins with the level-up song which will be a fadeout ending once the song is finished, but for now, I have it at the front of my project file for no particular reason at all, so pay it no mind. Unless you really like the level-up music.
I'd really like your feedback on how I did reproducing the Earthbound sounds and how my arranging is. Anything else is appreciated, too!
So far, I've packed parts from 12 different Earthbound songs into this medley with a few more in the pipeline. See if you can collect 'em all!
It's not too flashy, but I hope it gets your nostalgia going like it does mine
... and if you're not too busy, please listen to and comment on my much higher-fi and first-ever mix recently posted here: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=35177.
Thanks!
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EDIT: Turns out that when I exported this most recent mp3, I had the snares muted... uploading a corrected version now.
EDIT: okay, it now can ^^I don't know what that genre is either (I never really know how to differentiate dance music), but that's stellar. I have a crush on those dreamy synths at 1:08-1:35, they send me away to an abstract scene with violet flashing lights that play around ;P. I love everything that you've done here, really!
On the bad side there's overcompression (some instruments are eating one another pretty much at times, look at the bass at 1:07!), dry sounds (clap, synths, arpeggio, the looks-like-guitar thing), a break that could use of something else besides that pad. Still, this is a beautiful, pretty, shiny tune.
I can tell you've had fun with this ;D
My first compliments!! Thanks so much!
Not my first criticisms, but thanks for those, too!
Overcompression -- THAT'S what that problem is at 1:08! I just learned what compression is the day I started this song (thanks, zircon!), and you may be able to intuit that I learned sidechaining right after that (see pads once the kick comes in). I couldn't figure out what was wrong at 1:08, but you gave me the word for it, so now I can google a solution! Sweet.
Now that you mention it, maybe I should add a little more to that filtered pad interlude after the bell-ody. I'll definitely give that some thought.
I'm not sure how to address the "dry" synths/claps/arps/guitar since, eh, I don't know what all I can do. I'm still pretty inexperienced. Any suggestions for those?
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Very cool vibe to this one. It reminds me so much of some Mega Man or Sonic song I can't quite place at the moment. I'm not sure if I like the first synth arpeggio where it is. Kinda feels naked without any other synths going on, just hanging out among the guitar samples. I'm not experienced enough to comment on mastering or anything like that, but that aspect sounded good to me for what it's worth. This definitely has a good foundation, can't wait to hear the rest.
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You're twelve kinds of badass, man. That's every kind. Love your old stuff, love your new stuff. Awesome work!!
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EDIT 2: I extended the solo and added a fill that channeled my inner THX, followed by an brief orgasm of NES samples. I added an ending, too, because I might be done with it. It definitely could use a ton of work on the production front, and around 1:50 there's suddenly some weird peaking that emerged out of nowhere that I can't figure out how to fix. And it has 1 measure of Mario samples, so it's really a ReMix! Cool! Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I have so far.
EDIT: Just added a fun solo! Yeah! And sorry, guifrog, you caught me between uploads.
Hey there. I've been away from OCR and electronic music for a while, maybe like 8+ months. I was kind of spinning my wheels for a while there, so I took a step back and focused on improv'ing music and learning more theory. It paid off.
I decided to give FL Studio another shot and try to finally produce my first full-length piece of music. WELL... I failed at that! So far! Instead, I created this half-song over the past couple of days that I'll work on finishing up within the next week or so.
I'd love to hear what you think, good and bad. I'm still a newb, so there's probably some pretty big fundamental errors that I'm not experienced enough to pick up on. Hopefully, you'll catch those; more hopefully, there aren't any.
I had a ton of fun making this, and I've learned so much about FL Studio in the past two days that it puts the past two years to shame. If anyone wants to dissect the actual project file and analyze my methods of doing things (organization, how I automated, how I "mastered" it if you can even call it that), I'd really appreciate the input! Just let me know if you're interested.
Anyway, here it is: http://soundcloud.com/ectogemia/sunspotting-1
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I'm finally getting a handle on how FLStudio works.
Now I'm trying to get a handle on how the mixing and composing process should work.
When you get an idea, how do you approach sequencing it? Do you physically write out a sketch of your ideas? Do you make a rough piano roll sketch? What is your typical approach and process from thinking of a mix to actually producing the mix?
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Good question. I find that as I'm getting more comfortable with how to use a DAW (FLStudio in my case), I'm becoming more aware of how long it takes me to do a lot of things. I have EXACTLY the same problem with listening to my mix too much to make sure I arranged things properly. Since I'm so early in the learning process, I really don't have much advice to offer, sorry! At this point, I'm focusing on how to speed up event editing and automation, learning keyboard shortcuts, and honing my ear so I do less fiddling to get the sound I want.
My big question -- relevant mostly to FLStudio -- that I think would be helpful in addition to yours:
How do you arrange your arrangement? Do you tend to rely heavily on patterns or do you more just create one big pattern containing your whole song that you plop in the playlist?
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awesome
i look forward to hearing it...
i recently began playing
(replica of the verant server and world conditions as they were in 1999)
Haha, that's awesome.
My aunt has been playing EQ1 since it came up up until now (or whenever they shut off the servers). That's commitment. Commitment that I don't quite admire, but commitment nonetheless. Good for her.
Yeah, so request ANY song from EQ because they're all worthy. Like I said, I don't even have a clue where to begin picking a song to remix.
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Yes, sir. This mix here is a winner.
It's MUCH clearer. I can definitely hear the difference All the right parts are cutting through when they should. The square-ish lead you have throughout has some really sweet pitch bending going on and some fantastic drive to it.
At this point, it'll take a pair of ears much more experienced than my own to find anything negative to say. My ONLY complaint was that possibly you snipped too much low end at points (check that bouncing bassline about midway through; could perhaps use some low amplification). Also, depending upon what you were going for at the very end with the chime-y thing. maybe you could work on that a bit to make the ending a little more "epic"?? It was fine as it was, but it was a "fizzle" type of ending that I don't think was the best fit for such a pumped-up mix.
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If you didn't make it to the part where they pretend to choke a bitch while team-screaming in her ear, then you missed out.
Also, welcome to over two years ago.
That was easily the best part. You could tell by the lack of reaction on her face that they weren't paying her nearly enough for her to pretend she enjoyed that abortion.
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Here's my first attempt at a solo mix.
The concept:
Guy goes to sleep in haunted house. Guy starts having a creepy dream. Dream becomes nightmare. Nightmare fills with all his greatest fears. Oh, and monsters. Guy can't wake up. Guy is trapped in nightmare. Eternal terror and torment forever.
It's a bit rough around the edges, but the motifs are in place, and since I'm so new to all of this, I don't want to finish it and have it unsalvageable due to crappy mixing, mastering, or arrangement. So I've uploaded it in a fairly raw form with the hope that any of you more experienced people can hear things I'm totally overlooking before I get too far in.
I know the samples are bad, but I'm working with free samples exclusively at the moment. There's a couple of peaks in there, too, that I haven't been able to work out yet.
Also, the source and mix are both in 7/8, so yes, it sounds weird/awesome.
Thanks!!
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Wow, you may have just picked my next remix project. I played EQ so much about 10 years ago. It forced my brother and I to buy a Voodoo 3 graphics card just to play it. That pretty much cleaned us out since we were like 11 and 13 at the time. So many good memories with this game.
So much good music.
I have no idea where to even begin picking a song.
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I really enjoyed this mix. The string pads flowed in and out of the mix seamlessly and contributed a lot to the atmosphere of the piece.
For what it's worth, me being new to this and all, I have to agree with Rozovian about the bass and bass drum. One, the other, or both need to have their low end snipped a bit. I love the movement of the bassline. Its bounciness in the middle of the mix was especially cool.
Also, I'm a sucker for delayed piano, string sections, and square waves. You had all three going on at the end. It warms my heart to know you were thinking of me when you wrote that.
Overall, I don't see why this shouldn't be posted with some EQing. I can't think of anything to add or take away.
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i've got a terrible acoustic bass, too. they're tons of fun! =)
Agreed. I didn't play enough acoustic bass back in my bass days.
Back when I played guitar, it was mostly crazy speed metal. That said, after paying homage to the devil with 180 bpm minor scale runs on my electric, I'd brainlessly strum out "Closing Time" on my acoustic much to my friends' delight. Sad that they're impressed by some vanilla rock progression and not soulrending metal. Regardless, I loved my acoustic and thought it was a lot of fun to be as "pretty" as I could with it after thrashing around with my electric. I just sold it though to fund my new MIDI controller. No regrets yet.
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Ah, I see now about the balancing. I'd never really considered that before. I'll have to see what I can do about that.
Well, shit. And I thought for a fleeting second that we were being original with our concept. Oops.
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I've got a long way to go with understanding how synths work. I'll definitely check out PWM and FM.
I'll also give it a shot spicing it up and making it a little more my own. Our initial thought was to have a chippy, minimal intro that explodes into a much more complicated modern section right around where the WIP ends now. For my own development with arranging, I'll try complicating things a bit, though we may end up keeping what's here for the final mix to realize our concept.
This may be a stupid question, but what do you mean by balancing the panning? I assume that you're referring to the cross-panning trill. I can't think of anything wrong with it.
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I think a more thwacky snare would serve this mix better. The bass, leads, groove, and gated things near the end scream "SOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAAAAAAAAMMMNNNN QUIIIIIIIIICCCCKKKK" but the drums samples as a whole mutter something about just being sorta fast, like "white guy fast" or something. Find some harsher drums and convince me that this man is QUICK. Also, I'll have to agree with Rozovian. Fiddle with the EQ and/or volume of the opening filter-swept synth. I had to turn down my volume for that. Overall, though, I'm loving it. Great job!
Edit: I just noticed that in the cross-panning square lead you have right about at 0:08, there's some awkward loss in the consistency of the lead. I have no idea what's causing it, but I'm guessing it's a result of the panning?? Give it a listen, you'll hear what I mean.
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Speeeven, Modus, and I are working on this remix. We're all new to this, and we're learning a lot from one another. It's been a fun collab so far
Speeeven is working on his orchestral segment, and Modus is having crippling computer problems. As such, this is all we have so far: my chippy, "part A" intro. This will lead into a totally modern, electro-orchestral sort of thing, if all goes well.
This is basically my first crack at remixing, and I think it went pretty well. Let me know what you think, where I can improve, and anything else. Thanks!
Remix
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I. Love. It. I remember playing this so much as a kid. My childhood memories of this game will forever be infused from now on with this pumped-up jam. The amount of reverb is perfect -- PERFECT! -- and the organ and bass interact perfectly with the melody.
5/5 stars on my completely arbitrary rating system. I think I'm going to go play SDB with my roommate now ...
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I bought the Axiom 61 Pro's competition: the Novation 61 SL MkII. I'm mostly quite pleased with it. it has far better control than the Axiom, but (I'm no keyboardist/pianist, but) the keys action feel a little funny to me. I tried a regular Axiom before, I liked the keys better on that one, though they stick from time to time.
Actually, I just noticed this just yesterday. There are some keys that stick. Not as in they remain down and you have to pull them up, but more that they take a bit longer than other keys to spring back up -- still a very brief amount of time, though. It isn't much of a bother in fast passages, but when I'm playing slow things, it's a little distracting and throws me off rhythm or makes my fingers fumble a bit. Oh well, I guess that's what quantization and the piano roll are for. I still love the Axiom 61 Pro.
Maybe I'm lame because a lot of people complain about this, but I actually really like the way it looks, too.
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I have to agree. I have the Axiom 61 Pro, and it's great. Works fine with FLStudio9. I'm a pianist, too, and while the action isn't hammer-like, it's actually pretty good -- at least better than all comparably priced controllers I've played on. I SUCK playing on synth action, but I didn't notice any loss of playing ability when using my Axiom 61 Pro. That really sold it for me. I also can't imagine a situation in which I'd need every knob and fader, but I'm fairly new to this as well. It seems sufficiently featured to me, as well.
It auto maps to about every other DAW than FLStudio, too. I haven't found that to be a hindrance, even though I use FLStudio with it. Just takes a bit of time to configure on your own.
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I'm using FLStudio exclusively, and I don't have much experience with it, but I'm making some big strides every day.
I also don't have any commercial samples or VSTs, so that may hinder the process. I'm not averse to buying any if they go on sale, though.
I added both of you on skype. Now talk to me, and stuff.
Sunspotting -- no idea what genre! melodic dance?
in Post Your Original Music!
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Thanks, man! Any feedback is appreciated. I'm inexperienced, too, so even just a "good job!" is really encouraging and makes me feel like I'm on the right track with my skills.
If you're feeling like listening to some more budding Ectogemia crap, please head on over here and let me know what you think of my Earthbound medley! Again, any feedback is welcome.