timaeus222

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. It isn't a big deal though, just something I thought I should bring to your attention.

Hey, when you've got it, you've got it.

This is one of zircon's layerings.

Heavy stuff, bro.

Happy early Burger Day, rex!

Sounds fine to me. The orchestral written as it was would have sounded pretty much the same even if the mastering was a smidge quieter. In fact, I don't have substantial complaints about the mastering at all. I can hear the bells at 1:32 clearly, and the arp remained distinct beneath the lead at 2:17. Someone musta dropped the bass too hard on your speakers, bro.

I like everything except the shrill/grating portamento lead sound. Can you try finding a different one? That aside, this gets pretty loud, and could be mixed more cleanly above 16000Hz, especially at 1:04-1:24 and 2:58-3:30. 3:19-3:30 also gets kind of muddy in the low end. I think you can do it.

Yep. Your drums don't have to be complex. They just have to match the mood. https://soundcloud.com/zircon-1/ashes-to-ashes-super-metroid @ 2:38 ~ These drums are just Kick. Snare. Kick. Snare. And then later on an off-beat hi hat with 2 kicks and a snare. That's it, and it works, because who can focus on those in that section if they were more detailed than that? Loooootta Izotope SE in thar.

It's a good idea, but I think sometimes the dancing could match the music more (Tal Tal Heights made it seem like you were moving too quickly too often).

wat Too awesome for OCR

At 0:47, I think the lead you have there is good in timbre, but the piano is a bit hard to hear. I would suggest bumping up the volume on the piano a bit, and partially summing the lead to mono (if possible in Logic; a Stereo "Enhancement" plugin might be able to do it, and if so, it would be just the reverse of that). That way, there would be more literal room, and anyone can hear the piano if they focused on it. Hm... that snare processing is a little bit weird right now (1:16). It sounds like there might have been some transient shaping on it to lengthen its sustain, or maybe a longer snare sample layered on, but the sustain feels detached from the dominant/prominent timbre. Maybe it's just an odd sample, and it could just be me. Also, at 1:29, the mixing gets pretty stuffy, partially due to the snare's sustaining tail being rather long. It sounds better overall though, so keep it up!

Sometimes I just know what I'm going to use because I'm imitating a particular style, but most of the time, if one sound is inspiring enough, I just pick them as I go, as long as they go together, even in unconventional ways. For example, a normal combination is santoor + sitar + dulcimer + duduk + saz + zourna (not necessarily at the same time/rhythm), though that can be thought of before writing any song simply because of the natural middle-eastern match. A different, much more complex and eclectic, but working combination is this set of 12 layers (without melodic components so that what this came from isn't so obvious). Maybe it'll give you ideas on what might go together, especially the trebly components. Sometimes what you think up isn't exactly what you write out though. At times I have a whole section planned out in my head, and then maybe it turns out that I made use of about 80% of it by the time I'm done. There are times where what you actually wrote works, or maybe it just doesn't. It'll take a while, but eventually your intuition will just work for you.

Happy birthday, Ben "chthonic" Briggs!

Hm... I'm still hearing that piercing resonance at ~13000Hz (medium), ~13600Hz (strong) and ~16800Hz (weak) at 1:01 - 1:14 and in other places where it shows up. Those can be addressed by using as-thin-as-possible peaking EQs to boost them more to confirm that they're there, and then notching there. Even if you don't hear it at first, you may feel a ringing in your ear, perhaps. https://app.box.com/s/nfd7j9ztkcb6ctxl20tg --- How it was https://app.box.com/s/8t91uvvpnzgdizq210bq --- How it could be with tamed resonances This sounds better overall though.

Yeah, the choir sounds like the sample is fine, but the handling of the sample makes it sound fake. I wouldn't say it's the sample quality, but the notes you chose to write and the rhythm and length for those notes. 0:08 is cut out unnaturally. 0:21 has a note that overwrites the release envelope of the previous note and makes it sound choppy. Same at 0:29, 1:07, 1:22, 1:26, 1:28, 1:30, 1:31 (first one), 1:31 (second one), and 1:32. You should be able to fix it by either increasing the release time enough or overlapping those note lengths. Other than that, this sounds great. Just the choir stuff.

You creative SOB

Depends on what limiter you're using, but I use TLs-Pocket Limiter, which is pretty lenient on the compression. (The more lenient the compression, the more overcrowding can occur instead, but at least it doesn't sound pumpy!) I'm not actually implying that I thought those two sections (2:20 and 3:05) were supposed to be similar in arrangement, but I meant those as the two sections I compared in production that caused me to hear the odd, slight "deficiency" in treble. In that case, it feels like what you intended to be the leads aren't sounding like leads to me. Might be because of their (reverb-based) positioning in the mix, but to me they don't feel as upfront as the brass. As a result, I'm perceiving the backup brass to be subdued, which is fine since you wanted the legato mid strings to be the focus, but I'm also perceiving the leads to be subdued. These are minor things though, and this actually is sounding very cool. Technically, I think you have the chops to get posted by now.

Yeah, come to think of it, this does have the potential to be mastered louder, but I'm not gonna press you on that. However, I *will* refer you to a few references that I consider at a loudness I really like. When I listened to this, and then tried re-listening to my own stuff, suddenly it felt louder, maaaaybe by about 2 dB, so there's that for a very minor FYI. https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/i-am-the-sentinel-credits https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/orc-wars-opening-sequence https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/the-black-flag Things sound more balanced now. The melody at 2:48 - 2:52 sounds a tad strange to me though. I dunno if it's just because it's a little sparse at that textural level or if the notes are just weird. Maybe both. Though this isn't a big deal. Hm. The mix at 3:05 immediately sounds different from previous sections. If you A/B 2:20 and 3:05, 3:05 sounds like the instrument balance is shifted towards the legato instruments, at least until 3:16. 3:16 sounds more normal to me, but 3:05 sounds odd---something's off. The dynamics there feel flatter than at 3:16, maybe due to the sequencing of the staccato articulations, or maybe due to the timing of the legato articulations. I don't think this is that big a deal, but maybe one or two judges might point it out. That aside, I think this sounds post-able. =)

okay man.

Yeah, I was just pointing something out. =p Guess the 2D just meant "normal" rather than "DPPt-level" 3D. This is why I should get a 3DS already.

Fine print: So then less effort put in, or wat? o.o

I can confirm that I got that randomly with a different normal-lengthed post earlier today (which I emailed to Larry).

Seriously, why has no one made a hip hop theme song for dropbox?

lolmeme sounds like a Gematria high

Yeah, that does sound like a theremin more than a pure sine wave, though I still stick by that portamento suggestion. It's a little minor, but the bell-like polyphonic sound at 2:20 seems a tad imbalanced with the right side (500~800Hz). At 2:43, I think the contrabasses are supposed to be doing something, but it's hard to hear (200~500Hz). Could be because you meant them to be quieter than the mallet instrument. Lastly, at 3:17, if you turn up the volume enough (though not much more than 'normal'), stuff below about 300Hz seems slightly subdued and could use more clarity, but I don't think it's technically problematic to the point where the clarity actually obscures instruments too much, IMO. I wasn't really on my good headphones until now, though I still hear about the same things as I did earlier today. So, I guess it's more like bass and low-mids.