timaeus222

True; I guess I should say "Master Bus Signal Chain".

There is an uncanny similarity in the chord progression. You can hum the SMW melody over the CV intro and it works, but the chord progressions are not the same. If that's what caused you to try this, nice find! They're both in an F harmonic minor scale, but CV is playing in the Aeolian mode while SMW is playing in Ionian mode. We get to source usage at 0:40 - 1:00 (CV). 1:00 - 1:20 felt plodding for me though; I thought the 'retrigger' went on for too long with no variation, and it exposed the autopilot drums. If you're using a loop at 0:40 - 1:20, you might want to glitch it up too so it doesn't feel like the drums were overlooked. Enter SMW at 1:20 - 1:30. I wouldn't count 1:30 - 1:46. The chords are being covered up by the glitching, so even if they counted, they're not audible enough. More SMW shows up at 1:46 - 1:51. Then it hangs out in the gated chord progression at 1:51 - 2:11, and comes back in a melody at 2:11 - 2:21. If you wanted to count 2:16 - 2:21 as CV's 1:07 - 1:11, I don't think it's close enough; it sounds more like SMW. That's the problem with combining sources like these---they can get so similar that you have to be more conservative in parts to give strong connections to one specific source over the other, and right there, it's definitively SMW. 2:22 - 2:42 somewhat resembles a chopped up SMW arpeggio, but I honestly wouldn't count this. It's too different. It's similar in the chord progression, but not close enough in the actual notes IMO. Nice granular effects though. 2:43 - 2:48 sounds vaguely CV-esque, but I don't recall it in the source. Nice blending of granular delay with the door creak; pretty cool. 2:58 - 3:41 becomes this huge gap with no source usage, but good glitch flow. Overt SMW at 3:41 - 4:10. Overall... Source Breakdown: 0:40 - 1:00 = CV Chords 1:20 - 1:30 = SMW Melody 1:46 - 1:51 = SMW Melody 1:51 - 2:11 = SMW Chords 2:11 - 2:21 = SMW Melody 3:41 - 4:10 = SMW Arpeggio 20 + 10 + 5 + 20 + 10 + 29 = 94 secs of acceptable source usage IMO = 37.6% source. Not nearly enough for OCR, man. Gotta have a less liberal approach. Good approach. Just needs more connection to either source tune's actual notes. Production's good enough, but I'd recommend touching up on any drum loops you may be using right now to make them less copy-pasted.

Awesome post. <3 This explains it all very well, bro. I've bolded the most important parts IMO. In fact, for me, I just say this: If you mix well enough, you don't need much of a mastering [bus signal] chain. Hell, I usually just use a simple EQ (only 2 bands used) and a limiter, and that's it, and I'm happy with the result.

Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense then.

Happy ultra-mega-joyous 27th birthday to zircon and BlackPanther, and mega-uber-super-duper 18th birthday to Anorax!

Yes, once, but I was actually thinking, "uh... why is this not working? D:", then I eventually realized I was tweaking the wrong automation clip (same color, different row =P). [/OT]

I've been in choir for about 8 years by now, I suppose. So let's see. Short and quick tips, no matter who you are: - Watch your pitch. Check with a properly tuned instrument if you think you are off. Realize that you can be off by 1/10th of a half step or even 1/20th of a half step and still be audibly off-tune. 100 cents is one half step. - Try to not develop a heavy vibrato habit. The more your pitch oscillates, the more off-tune you will seem. If anything, try to make sure your vibrato oscillates above your pitch so you don't seem flat. e.g. if you sing a C, oscillate between a C and C# or so, not C and B or so. - Watch your timbre. Try to aim somewhere between back-of-the-throat and nasal, but not near either of those. - Do not rush. If you're singing something, it's going to have a set tempo much of the time. Keep a consistent tempo or keep to the intended tempo. Try using a metronome. - Breath from the diaphragm, not your mouth. When you breathe in, your stomach should go outwards, not inwards, for singing. - Try to warm up before you sing. Do scales, tongue-twisters, and other clarity/articulation and pitch/intonation exercises. - Record yourself and watch when you breathe too loudly; are too loud or too quiet; are saying your t's, s's, and f's too loudly; and are creating bumping noises on the microphone. All of those issues would give you more to edit later. Most of all, try to keep your volume consistent if you don't have a good compressor that doesn't squash your dynamics. Other things if you're recording yourself for a song: - Have a de-esser plugin on hand. You're bound to have significant (though maybe not extreme) sibilance and fricative issues even if you control your t's, s's, and f's. You can Google search for free plugins. - Have an idea of how reverb can add spaciousness to your recording, and learn the ins and outs of your plugin of choice. - Look into absorber panels and acoustic diffusers. Style will come naturally. Try not to think about it until you get your basics down first. Pitch, timbre, breathing, and rhythm. In terms of your video performance, it sounds like you're trying too hard to "sound manly". Just sing like you normally would.

Yeah, I mean immediate volume adjustments (I didn't know about the 3dB = twice the volume thing; are you sure? Not 10dB, or are we on different scales?), but in terms of entire song comparisons, even different songs, I think that's what the website I saw this on was referring to. In EQ though, yes, at least for me, I've been able to hear differences in 0.4 dB occasionally, but it depends on the frequency you're boosting as you know.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the guitar plugin's MIDI CC specs. Could be CC11, could be PitchWheel, could be something else. Whatever the case, you should read any manual you get with your VST or sample library and see what actually does it. Generally it makes sense for it to be the PitchWheel. If you use FL Studio, you may need to change the pitch bend range in the VST wrapper (the "2" next to the volume and panning knobs in a window that appears when you click the instrument instance should be a 12 for one octave; e.g. it is semitones, and 2 semitones is one whole step).

The extra "effects" that are supposed to "improve" your listening experience. There is most definitely an option that lowers the volume of "loud" music to "help" you, but obviously it doesn't help music producers since it badly alters the final result. I just turn it all off so what I should hear after I export is exactly what I hear; what every producer wants to hear is exactly what he/she exports with no sound alterations. It's in the Windows Control Panel in the Sound options, and I guarantee it's on by default on a brand new (factory settings) Windows computer. I'm not talking about Magix anything. Btw, 30 dB? o.o; Something at -30dB is about as audible as subtle violin harmonics, so something 30 dB louder is really loud. It takes maybe 5 dB for most people to hear a difference in perceived volume, IIRC.

Uh... Did you turn off all the audio effects from your Sound options in the Control Panel? Try that if you haven't already.

You can ask for a username change here. And Brent Wollman (Clem/Redg) has done this before, so it's fine.

I listen to other music and imitate the sound design, and that usually gives me enough ideas.

EQ is basically like chiseling out the imperfection in a sculpture. I don't avoid using EQ because everyone needs it eventually, but I try to get the sound as good as possible before equalizing, sure. The better it is before you do anything to it, the less you need to do to make it sound good enough according to your own standards. Less work = faster work. Saves me time later on whenever I design my own patches, not to mention when you make your own stuff, you are familiar with how it can be tweaked and can make good use of it.

I would not use EQ presets at all. It's highly unlikely that there are supposedly "universal" presets that actually work for everything, because every sound is distinct. Instead I would use my ears and see what changing EQ at particular frequencies does to the sound and ask for feedback, learning in the process. Using presets does not help your learning if you just use them and do not edit them.

Oh, that's what that was. I thought it was bitcrushing.

I think part of the fakeness of the guitar can be lessened by double-tracking it; have one instance panned hard left, and another instance of a distinctly different "recording take" (though in your case it's not a recording) panned hard right. Something you could try instead (since it's not a recording) is to just clone the VST and give it a slightly different guitar amp tone. Then, slightly offset the position of the notes backwards to add a "delay" to the playing and lessen the rigidity that is not present in actual double-tracking. That aside, to me the biggest indicator of fakeness is the lack of sympathetic resonance. Playing more than one note at once with this particular VST you're using sounds a little bit like an unending unison bend on an actual guitar; that's what I'm hearing. Remember that WAV just takes what you had in your project file and combines it all together. Whatever you had in the project file is what comes out, and in this case, based on the partwriting and EQ, whether it's WAV or a 192 kbps MP3, it'll sound very similar, so you might as well render MP3's to save hard drive space. I almost always render WAV when I'm completely done with everything and ready to finalize. The overcompression is gone. A few examples of sampled electric guitar just for reference: https://soundcloud.com/isworks/shreddage-2-subterrenea-by-ian (has lots of mutes and staccato) https://soundcloud.com/isworks/shreddage-2-wing-it-by-magnic (has a little bit of everything) https://soundcloud.com/isworks/shreddage-2-corridors-of-time (has exposed lead guitar with plenty of articulations) https://soundcloud.com/isworks/shreddage-2-nuclear-dubstep-by (has lots of mutes, staccato, and tapping) Try listening closely to those and noting what makes the guitar realistic (though these are not actually live recordings). Things you could look for: - Mutes --- Palm Mutes, Fast Mutes, Full Chokes, etc. - Expression --- Vibrato, Pitch Bend (LFO-like), Portamento (up or down but not oscillating) - Articulations --- Tapping, Pinch Harmonics, Hammer-Ons/Pull-Offs (slur/grace notes upwards vs. downwards), Sustains, Staccato EDIT: No, you don't need a mix shorter than 7 minutes, but it's recommended. Unless you are really good at writing a remix that develops very well over the course of a long time without getting stagnant and maintains substantial source usage, below 7 minutes is recommended.

Nah, the reason I wanted to do a collab was because I wouldn't have the time to do a solo mix (I have like 5 other WIPs to finish).

In this case, though, at least to me, it seems like he's going for rock/metal. Unless he wants to change genres, traditional rock/metal does call for actual guitars.

Pretty much. So far the only guitar sample library I would recommend is Shreddage II, which would require Kontakt 5. You could also post in the Recruit & Collaborate forums for a live guitarist if you want, and it would be cheaper.

The portamento in many DAWs is just glided pitch shifting, but an actual pitch bend on a guitar is distinctly different from a manual pitch bend in that the tone of the guitar changes a little as the pitch rises since there are other strings surrounding it, but in a DAW portamento, it just glides the pitch without changing the tone. It's more obvious what I mean if you try it and bend the note really low. It's almost the same idea with the vibrato; the tone changes a little, and the guitar's other strings react in what's called sympathetic resonance and contribute to altering the resultant tone of the currently played string, occasionally making it sound significantly different than just a DAW LFO vibrato, especially after adding an amp sim with distortion. Also, the DAW LFO would then have to be recorded manually to simulate the human timing, because no human bends a guitar string at a perfectly constant rate of oscillation or even a constant max amplitude of the pitch shift.

Hm... sometimes the bass notes kinda bleed into each other since it's in a polyphonic mode, and the age shows a little in the high end, but otherwise, this is perfect. =) Fantastic development on a seemingly short source. How do you come up with these writeups, Dave? o_O

Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's clipping right now; I'm saying it would be if there was no limiter. At times, the drums make the whole track pump (EX: 2:52), so if the limiter wasn't there, stuff would be over 0 dB. Now, it's not like SoundCloud's waveform viewer is quite accurate, but looking at that, it seems louder than other songs. I don't really know what guitar VST you're using, but it's missing the sampled feel. With the bass being louder than the guitar, it covers up the frequencies that could have been occupied by the guitar chugs, and that also hinders the realism of the guitars. Lastly, the lead guitar seems like it has little diversity in articulations, as I can only hear the sustains (see 3:29); where's the vibrato, hammer-ons, pull-offs, staccato, tremolo, etc.? Now I use this as my electric guitar standard (bass starts at 0:48, drums start at 1:18, guitars start at 2:16). Hope this helps.

This is very loud and overcompressed. The guitar sounds quite fake. Not much I can say other than try taking the limiter off, lowering the volumes of everything until it doesn't clip, raising the volumes until just before it clips, and put the limiter back on.

Happy birthday, Jarel!