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timaeus222

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Posts posted by timaeus222

    "Peace Be With You", an album arranging music from my local church!

    in Post Your Original Music!

    Posted · Edited by timaeus222

    This is an album I just released which arranges music from my local church into acoustic, cinematic, and atmospheric genres! Hope you enjoy. :-)

    DistroKid Preview Page: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/timaeus2221/peace-be-with-you-2

    Bandcamp: https://timaeusproductions.bandcamp.com/album/peace-be-with-you

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/24hNLXFwOPETkSyKU5BzjA

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6cAJzwdvYg&list=OLAK5uy_n9WcCk0z04juElAwUuTn3zIf3SzSrHKxs&index=1

    Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZQ1CDMC/

    iTunes/Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/peace-be-with-you/1739281704


    PeaceBeWithYou_Cover.png

    Case studies required for MA paper: looking for contributors who feel OCR has played an important role in their musical development

    in History & Study of Video Game Music

    Posted · Edited by timaeus222

    Hello!

    I did have a lot of non-digital music experience, mainly playing piano and singing in choirs, but surprisingly I didn't have a great ear when it came to writing or listening to music, and I was a complete newbie in mixing/mastering. OCR definitely contributed a ton to developing that in only 2 years. You can find me in discord or twitter anytime!

    @JoshWiniberg

    What do you use for your transcriptions/generation of midi?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    The way I do it is fairly simple. I have a MIDI keyboard in front of me, which I recommend to anyone trying to figure out notes. I hum to figure out the melody and play it back to check, then try to put it to memory and play it out on keyboard. Humming it is easiest and is what I would recommend to figure out what is going on. If there was harmony in what you listened to, I would track and hum the bass line, then that will give me a clearer picture of what the chords might be.

    Twisted Systerz, Mara and Nara's Theme Remix

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted · Edited by timaeus222

    Hey :)

    Here's my take on this with a fresh listen, just so you have someone else on this as well. In a short summary:

    • Robotic intensities and rhythm going on in the leads (important!)
    • Add transitions to smooth out connecting sections (important!)
    • EQ the pads midrange down a bit to make room for the leads to be heard after you lower their volume too, so that the overcompression is lessened.
      (not crucial but would be nice to fix)

    ---

    ARRANGEMENT / SEQUENCING

    As a general time, when you write parts for instruments that are seen in the real world, you'll want them to have velocities (playing intensities) that vary, so that they resemble human playing.

    Currently:

    • The bells at 0:03 (probably the same ones at 0:33) are noticeably rigid because the intensities are the same all the way through
    • The bell-like lead at 0:27, 1:13, etc is also the same way. It's especially noticeable at 1:13 because there's pretty much nothing hiding it.
    • The plucky synth at 1:24, same thing with that one. Also, since it's a lead, it would help spatially, as a rule of thumb, to make it mono instead of stereo. It will give room for the bells and pads to breathe.

    So what you should do is imagine yourself playing the part on a piano, and vary the intensities (velocities) accordingly. Or, if you don't know how to play piano, then some rules of thumb to make it more human are that ascending and descending sequences tend to get louder, and every other note tends to be slightly quieter than the note to its immediate left.

    To give you something for ear training, here are 3 ways NOT to write the following piano snippet:

    https://app.box.com/s/pmwybgad4who5679p9xvuxdnnmqshas5 - Robotic rhythm and intensities

    https://app.box.com/s/lr9nxha1zbg5vfcxufqqvuiz9vjnliyu - Robotic rhythm only, with human intensities

    https://app.box.com/s/ndt9vz26mjhdul6sreqgkvf6eqlp2qfy - Robotic intensities only, with human rhythm

    This is the ideal result you want to get:

    https://app.box.com/s/jjapuupib9zfypwoew1ecr31nlq8siw4 - Fully humanized

    This feedback applies to other instruments in the remix as well, not just those bells, but those are what I picked for examples.

    One other note is to add transitions, or smooth any out, between major sections to smooth out the structure. An example is at 0:56, there could be a reverse cymbal with reverb to connect you to the lower-dynamic section after. Another example is 1:23, which you could argue has a transition, but it's clunky and I would suggest something smoother like a reverse noise fall or something of that sort, while keeping the descending bass line there. Yet another example is 2:09, which sounds like it should come close to the ending, hence a reverse cymbal there would more-clearly indicate it.

    PRODUCTION / MIXING

    • At 2:09 and on, the leads can be more tame, to go with the bass drone. As it stands, they stick out, especially the trance synth at 2:12 which is... not calm.
    • It would help if the pads have the midrange frequencies EQed down (maybe 2-3 dB), and that will give you the freedom to lower the volume of the lead sounds a bit. That will then decrease the overcompression that is going on right now.

    Other than those bits, I think the production, albeit fairly rough, is not that bad. There isn't much low midrange muddiness going on which is nice, and I can hear everything I need to hear.

    ---

    Hope that helps!

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