timaeus222

Haha, well, I appreciate your open mind to it! It's a good trait to have. Yeah, the trumpet placement in the stereo field is kinda hard for me to describe. It feels "small", having less reverb than the elements around it, and as if someone took a stereo enhancer and used it to sum the left and right channels. It's not a huge deal, but I guess @Smooth4lyfe1987 might have thought that was a sequencing quirk. I'm not sure what's currently in the mixer for it, but you might be able to help it by adding some subtle ping-pong delay at a low feedback time (less than 15 ms) to widen it (that would echo it to the left and right, and 15 ms is the limit for the human being to be able to hear left/right channels distinctly from each other). The critiques I had earlier were just for improvement though; I did enjoy this overall, and it's a neat style I don't hear often.

I don't hear realism issues with the trumpet. Actually, it's more an issue that its stereo placement is oddly narrow. I thought the section at 1:46 with the lush pads was a much needed breakdown. I do think that the drums sound fine, though the bass seems a bit too heavy (I would make sure the kick is sidechained with the bass). Maybe the overhead drums (cymbals + ride + hi hat) get overly phase-y and a bit abrasive, like at 0:55, but they're clearly, well, present. Especially at 4:20 though, there is overcompression in the loud parts. Btw, the video has 38 seconds of silence at the end.

Happy New Year everybody! To celebrate, I'm releasing a brand new ReMix of the Naruto main theme: I will give a heads-up that this contains significant elements of DUBSTEP, but definitely not anything like dubstep you are probably familiar with. Whatever your tastes are, it's the new year, so let's try to keep an open mind to any and all music! As a background, I wrote a Naruto ReMix before, in 2012: I look back on it, and I really do still like what I did in 2012. The production wasn't particularly impactful, and the dubstep execution was only half-decent, but the composition was surprisingly good on the guitar. However, I realized that I could do *much* better today on the general production polish, as well as on the execution of dubstep. So, I wrote this while in my first semester of grad school, in three months, using mainly u-he Zebra2, Xfer Records Serum, 4Front TruePianos, Impact Soundworks' Juggernaut and Resonance libraries, and various commercial drum samples. This combines cinematic and dubstep aesthetics to create a nuanced, tasteful feel on the low-energy sections, and an aggressive, all-out soundscape on the drops. There was particularly special attention to detail on the dynamics, the "size" of the sound design, and just trying to get every aspect of this mix to be as polished as possible. As usual, I accept any and all opinions, but please keep them civil.

Possible titles: Indivisible Drop the Facade Push Your Limits ----- Hilarious vocals as usual! Yeah, it's pretty conservative (the melodies are almost note-for-note, except for some parts humans can't sing fast enough to do), but I do hear some differences. Your 1:00 - 1:13 is definitely not in the original, but it sounds like the original, so I'd count that as a plus. The solo break at 2:13 - 3:18 was a great addition, and makes up 25% of the track. This follows the source notes pretty closely, while adding semi-original transitions and an original solo section. Hard to say, but I think this is a bit over the fence? It's a mix of fairly conservative and fairly original, rather than all evenly interpreted. Small nitpicks: I think 3:15 - 3:18 was kinda out of place, and I think that 3:15 and 3:18 would still connect with that piano bit taken out. Or, what if you let the guitar note ring out at 3:15 - 3:18? I would also go back through and check your pitch, such as at 0:30 - 0:32 (pretty noticeable) and 0:41 ("set", very slight). The production's a bit raw but even in the guitars, and oddly clean (un-punchy) in the drums. I think the kick is acceptably audible, but the snare could be stronger; the rest of the drums work for me. I wonder if the bass guitar could be EQed to get a bit heavier? I might use this as a reference. Clutch ending though.

Agreed with previous posters. To improve in your musical writing ability, you *can* look to others for inspiration. But, a good artist knows the limits of his/her resources, and needs to learn how to expand those limits, whether it's the VSTs owned, or one's ability to use them, or the headphones, or one's ability to construct a good composition, or whatever else. If someone else's piece makes you feel inferior, it's probably not something you should try to exactly emulate. If you still want to try to make something similar, try it, but don't treat it as, "oh, it's not the same so clearly I failed". Treat it as, "mine doesn't sound as big or tight, but I think otherwise I'm kind of getting the idea." Track down what it is that differentiates the original from your try. Is it more compressed? Is there more reverb? Is the stereo field more spacious? Are the sounds more layered? Is there filter motion I don't have? etc. These are the types of questions you should ask, not "how do I make this, but not crappy?".

I have to say, I appreciated the personalized contour on the e. piano partwriting. It takes good effort to take a well-known source and use your own chord progressions. For me, the soundscape could have been a bit more filled, but aside from that, this certainly stands out in a good way.

Usually, muddiness occurs near the low-mids (~300 Hz or so), and most instruments are going to overlap there. So generally, I would suggest that you high pass your leads around there, and check which instruments don't need that frequency range heard. In a way, it's kind of like sculpting the sound. Using a MIDI is fine for practice, but sometimes note velocities, which usually correspond to their loudness, can affect the way the sound's frequencies are distributed, if your sounds have "velocity layers" (different samples for different intensities of playing). That's why I tend to simply try to write by ear so that I have a better idea of how what I write is supposed to sound.

Not bad. Actually, I think the one spot where you happened upon some cohesive and apt sound design was the breakdown at 1:05 - 1:26, in particular the transition sweep and the choir pad. However, I would say the "hey!" cheer sounds were overused, to the point where this feels like a joke track - as in, it sounds as if it's supposed to be a parody. It's nice if you're aiming to make fun of trap music, but in treating it as a serious effort to write a VGM remix, I think it's pretty rough right now, since the lead and bass synths are rather simply designed, and the soundscape may feel somewhat bare on some systems.

Man, this has some amazing dynamics! It's definitely giving a peaceful, natural feel. If VGM is still coming off as blips and bloops, well... show the people this!

Awesome! Glad you finished this!

The mixing on this is pretty fuzzy. Somewhat reminds me of @goat's bass chops on VVIII. Cool for a few listens, but I dunno; for me, it's just a little too weird. What the heck is a Mastertronic tho? xP

Really liked that middle passage. That's more like where the complextro came in - as a "solo", but that was the highlight for me. Oh, and I see you're integrating Juggernaut in your mixes lately

Dang, this is excellent. Anytime a trance mix doesn't feel long, it's successful to me.

I like the composition. Theoretically, it proceeds pretty well. However, the dynamics are a bit too same-y. I would look at the rhythm guitar and drums, since the note emphases on the rhythm guitar are kind of awkward. It kind of sounds like you bumped up the volume on specific chord strikes. It makes the rhythm guitar's peaks inconsistent, and interferes with the lead. The lead consequently gets buried under the rhythm guitar, so you should try adding some light compression on the rhythm guitar to even out the peaks, and scoop the midrange a bit to let the lead come through. The rhythm guitar pattern is repeated all the way through, so the dynamics don't seem to change, as rhythm instruments pretty much define the dynamic range while they're playing. You may want to have a softer dynamic variation of the chord strumming pattern when the lead comes in, for example. I can kind of hear the bass, but it can be a bit more prominent. The drums are pretty light (the kick is barely audible, and the kit overall is quiet). The whole kit can use some compression to make it punch through more, and that can happen more easily once the rhythm guitar is evened out to avoid overcompression. Here's an example reference track for mixing:

I use the algorithmic ArtsAcoustic Reverb. It's about $180 or so. Plenty of presets to get you started, as well. Here's me doing a demo of it:

Yeah, I think the ReMixes sidebar could be condensed; maybe a show/hide kind of deal? Or "Latest ReMixes"?

What specifically are you having trouble with? When you ask questions, you should know what to ask. Take the time to actually figure out what is giving you trouble, and maybe then we can actually know what to help you with.

You can always rely on Mak to deliver a heavy chugfest. It was a pleasure to work with him on the album!

It's right in the first google search result. http://www.metroid-database.com/harmonyofahunter101.php It's also right on OCR's album search: http://ocremix.org/quicksearch/album/?qs_query=harmony+of+a+hunter

You use the main CV riff for a good long while, and put off the main melody until around 2:20. I think that does differentiate it from other CV remixes. I do think the drums feel separate from the other instrumentation though. They're very simple and repeat without much variation, and if you listen to the piece as a whole, the dynamics stay fairly constant. I like the solo at 1:55 - 2:20 though.

https://www.kvraudio.com/news/4front-truepianos-40-off-35312 A physically-modeled piano VST I've been using for years, on genres like cinematic, jazz fusion, and classical. Includes six piano models with over 8 distinct presets each. I think 40% off is a pretty good deal for this---it would be for most VSTs. Available through December 31, 2016.

I really just mean move the setting once, try it out, and once you like it, leave it there. It dampens your note dynamics a certain amount, depending on how large the value is. More negative = harder, and more positive = softer. TruePianos isn't a VST that is meant to be automated per se.

You could also try moving the Keyboard Dynamics slider value further to the right to soften the notes themselves, even without adjusting the velocities.

I usually only use those on drums. For example, sometimes I want a snare to have the resonating characteristic to a room, but maybe I want the reverb to cut off so that it's not a long decay tail. I could lower the decay time, but it doesn't always achieve the same effect as noise gating the reverb itself. An example of a plugin that does noise gating is FLOORFISH.

Jorito got you covered, but you might see "sound gates" called "noise gates" out on google, I think.