ectogemia

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

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!! Mix

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 ...

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.

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.

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.

No, I'd really like to have you along, Modus. I don't really care where you stand. I've been a musician for twelve years, since I was 9, but only by hobby. I know a fair amount of theory, I can play piano very well, and I used to be a scary guitar shredder. That said, I know shit-all about DAWs. I listened to some of your remixes in your sig, and you're ahead of me in terms of using DAWs, or so it seems. We've both got strengths it seems where the other has weaknesses. Sounds like a recipe for growth, if you ask me... Thanks for the input, Rozovian. I've never really done this before, so any advice is much appreciated. Oh, and skype ID: Ectogemia

Great! I'm glad there's interest. I'm not expecting miracles. I'm not expecting to get posted. I'm positive we'll make something that will make us proud, at least in some way. Either we'll learn a lot and make something shitty, or we'll learn a lot and make something not quite as shitty as we'd expected. Either way, I think we win, even if we do divide by zero and end up with a musical stillborn. OK, wow, so what's step 2? I guess we need to figure out how to coordinate communication between us the most convenient way possible. I have a few ideas. A mIRC channel? Scheduled skype conferences? How do people do these internet collabs anyway? Deciding on a song and style and the division of labor should follow us deciding on a quick way to communicate. edit: I'm also not wanting to impose any limits on the size or scope of the collab effort. It could be an album effort (unoffical, of course), different takes on the same single source, several people working on one track, etc. I suppose we'll just see how much interest there is, how capable we are, and where it takes us. I'm excited If this newb + ... + newb system works well for learning, I think the learning process could be expedited with a newb + expert + ... + newb system. Exploring that avenue is a bit of a ways off the path we're on now, though...

I've got a lot of experience in music, but not so much in remixing, arranging, or DAWs. I'm sure a lot of us are in the same boat. I'm looking for anyone who is sort of in a similar position that I am to take the journey with me and try to climb this endless god damn learning curve. Among us, we probably have the knowledge to make something quality, the tricks that the other would lack to really form the sound we're looking for, and the theoretical knowledge to answer questions the other might have. Alone, we're probably just spinning our wheels a lot of the time. If anyone is interested in doing a "DAW retard" collab just for fun and self-education, let me know! We'll decide on a song and style whenever we form our pooper-group.

I'm loving that chippy lead synth near the beginning. As a newb myself, could you maybe throw some insider info my way? How'd you make it? The volume and frequency balance sound fantastic to me. I like the bridge with the choir pad a lot. It builds the tension quite well to the filter swept part at about 2:30, but I think you could build some more tension and tug at the listener a little harder at the transition between these two parts. As it is, you have the chord progression ending on the leading tone -- great, this adds tons of tension. The only other suspenseful element is the crash symbol bridging the two parts. I think you could do a little more here to really shock the listener and make the transition a little more "harsh", but in a good way. Again, though, it's fine as it is, but I think it could use some more juice. Overall, I like this! I love the source too; god, that song has been stuck in my head for over a decade. I don't think it's quite at OCR acceptance level, but I don't see any reason why it couldn't get there with some lengthening and a bit more pizazz tossed in the mix.

This totally works... ... once you've honed your chops to the point where it isn't hard to translate what's in your mind to the sequencer/staff paper/keyboard/whatever. A lot of us aren't there yet. I'm at the point where I can hear a melody or chord progression and play it and improvise over it literally for hours on the piano. This took me quite a while to develop, and I can apply those 3 steps to it NOW, but a year or more ago, it was more like superjoe's method. Not surprisingly being that this particular skill is confined to playing a piano, this barely helps at all when arranging or remixing or using a DAW or understanding how in the living fuck all you ReMixers managed to create such awesome synths and soundscapes... and so forth. So I'm back to square one in a sense with music, yet again. Honestly, I'm finding this DAW and arranging business WAY harder to do than learn an instrument and the fundamentals of music. Anyone else sort of share my experience?

I think the high-end or volume in general could be brought down a bit on the intro acoustic guitar, but I like the effects on it. The brass at 1:40 sounds very, very mechanical. The section that begins at 1:40 has, in my opinion, all the melodic and harmonic components it needs, and the lead synth sounds pretty sweet. It's lacking seriously in percussion, though. Add a more complex "metal" or just general fast-rock type rhythm line that really drives this part along. The downbeat kicks aren't doing it for me. The transition at 2:38 is too harsh, and I suppose the one at 1:40 is, too, but to a much lesser degree. Again, percussion might be the answer here. A tom or crash fill or maybe a brief, measure-long drum solo transition would bring these two parts together. The percussion is also lacking at 3:52. It almost sounds like a polka here. Again, just make a more sweeping, more driving rhythm line here, and it'll sound fantastic. The driving bassline works well with the downbeat kicks well, but only for a phrase or two. Aaaand, once more: add more complex rhythms and some more percussion instruments. All in all, I like it. I'd let it sneak onto my playlist if it had a more complete and fitting drum track. I'd really like to hear it if you add one.

Sounds about right. I'm languishing in Modus's #3 right now, but I haven't reached my first plateau yet, which I would define as Modus's #4. Hopefully that's waaaaay the hell down the road, but being that everyone in my family is a musical gimp except for me, I have a feeling I'm not going to get much further. I'm at least to the point where I can impress my friends... cool, I guess? Mkay, bye. Time to bury myself in this book chapter about limiters. Fuck yeah????