timaeus222

I agree that the key changes are still pretty abrupt after waiting a while between listens and I personally think the textures are a little sparse. The last key change felt a little bit dissonant in a bad way (i.e. dissonance in a good way is a jazzy chord). A little bit after the left end of the time marker hits from halfway between the c and k in "Download Track" until the left edge of the k, I'm hearing two decay issue instances in the balalaika. It stopped suddenly, which can count as a click. The mixing is fine, but I really only hear one or more balalaikas and some hand drums. It's certainly fine to have only two instruments for this particular case, I believe, though having a bass would not be unwelcome and it could fit in this context. It's not entirely necessary but you could do it. The arrangement is the biggest concern here. It's pretty simplistic, yet it's 5:03. A simplistic arrangement lasting 5 minutes, albeit with three (?) key changes can be repetitive to some people. There isn't much rhythmic contrast in each section, just different tempos and key signatures. The playing style seems to stay consistent throughout, too.

I <3 this. Super solid mixing, and tight vocals. Those are all the words I got.

The new beginning pad is pretty interesting, but too high in treble (the sparkliness) to sit nicely in the mix. Also, the way it's written, it sounds like a fade-in to me, rather than just a pad sound with a slow attack envelope. In other words, the fade is unnatural. It kinda sounds like it's clipping in the intro, particularly if you listen to the cymbals. The bass is not necessarily too loud in volume, but in frequencies, yes. There's loads of low mids that could have been cut to let it sit better in the mix. I think you could benefit from looking at basic EQ tutorials and practicing how to EQ intuitively.

Billie Jean works mainly because of the non-percussive instruments, especially the filler vocals (WHOO! EEHEE! ). Sometimes good drum sample selection/layering can make something sound less repetitive because you like the sound of it, and the way you write the non-percussive elements as well as their timbres helps too. From what I've observed, I think if you like something objectively, it tends to sound less repetitive to you than to someone else who doesn't like something objectively. I put everything in by mouse, but I'm a pianist, so I naturally think about how velocities "should" be. Developing intuition like that is going to help reduce mechanical sequencing, at least, in the velocity variation aspect. Then, in some cases, mechanical rhythm in the sequencing is OK, such as a non-live performance containing piano (and it gets more OK as more elements cover up the piano, for example). Fills are things such as tom/snare/rimshot rolls, open HH usages, etc. Quantization is basically perfect rhythm in the sense of computers, as "perfect" rhythm in the sense of humans is imperfect rhythm in the sense of computers.

This is so cool! It feels reminiscent of irish folk music (reminds me of this) mixed with mideast music, and I love the dulcimer!

It's YOU, isn't it?

I think until 1:10, the arrangement doesn't really progress very obviously. The pizzicato notes are more or less looped, probably with different velocities between similar chunks. It just doesn't feel like the dynamics really changed gradually, which makes the track up to that point somewhat static with an instrument swap (oboe-like woodwind to the glock) and some new notes. You might call that terraced dynamics. At 1:14, there might be a timing issue on the glock, and at 1:26, the dynamics did another jump, but to me it feels too sudden. Perhaps if the bass frequency occupants had a slightly longer release to connect the section, or something else connected the section, it could improve how well it's working now. Dunno if it's just me, but at 2:22 the pizzicato feels behind in rhythm. A similar dynamics jump occurs at 2:22 and 2:38 as well, and each might also benefit there from a connecting sound. The trumpet at 3:02 sounds a little bit thin, IMO. The buildup to 3:26 was nice. That to the end is where the arrangement is strongest, for me (in terms of the effective choices you made, not the apparent energy). Sounds good so far, just needs some detail-oriented polish and minor fixes from what I heard.

That's awesome. I kinda understand it, though I never formally learned music theory. Still, I got the gist of it.

Very nice, it fits the intention perfectly! The acoustic bass is what really makes it work.

Yeah, I should be able to make it then.

I loled at the 8/14 mixes submitted. Now I don't feel so bad about this team.

I don't know what's up with Cosmic, but he probably won't have one either guys (I didn't get any PMs), sorry.

I'll keep this on my to-do list. I can't say I was expecting this already, but I'll take it.

It took listening to 3 songs separately before I realized this is a continuous play album. That's pretty awesome. <3

It's still a bit hard to notice that difference, but I tend to notice it more easily if I go from the better encoding to the worse encoding when comparing. Also, it doesn't hurt to make another soundcloud account.

In no relation to this actual conversation... Bandcamp streams at 128kbps, which is worse than the original track typically is at. Most people can't tell the difference between 128 and 192, but some of us here can. I can attest to Soundcloud streaming at 128kbps as well. So really, neither of them actually sounds better. It's psychological. That said, sharing is fine. Just try not to post, say, 4 in a row in less than an hour (I noticed you posted three remixes and one original in around 20 minutes). Post in moderation, and people will believe that you didn't just rush all those songs. Rushing tends to produce results with some mistakes.

Sweeps and drones. Any nuanced sweeps and drones tend to draw me in.

Okay, I'm gonna try and give a *pseudo* mod review and pretend I never heard this before. Just something someone else suggested I try. Pseudo-Mod Review: Nice phaser bass. Good subs here. Some elements sound like they're a bit buried behind the bass, though, perhaps due to the overboost near its fundamental (such as a sine wave's 64Hz fundamental on a C4 pitch). This particular kind of loudness has a very distinct way to tame. You see, every instrument occupies very specific frequency ranges for each particular note you play on it. Basses act similarly, shifting the range by ~10Hz per octave (from what I observed), and because of that, merely scooping the offending frequency on an EQ plugin from your effects rack won't fix any strange overboosts, as external EQ is statically locked into wherever the edits are, but the internal EQ ranges will move with each bass note (i.e. EQ with keytracking/keyfollow). Depending on the synth you're using, you might be able to put in an internal EQ module or a voltage-controlled filter (VCF) and put a little scoop near the fundamental. It's just too loud in comparison to the subs, though in my opinion the subs are at a great volume. I dig the processing on the wobbles; it's not too resonant, and it pulls off the dubsteppish nature of this track fairly well, though they could stand to be less high-passed. As they are now, they sound pretty thin. This sounds like an issue with a decision on where to allocate the low bass frequencies. "Should I focus the low bass on some sustained layer or should I low pass the sustained layer and bring in some low bass presence to the wobbles?" Something to that effect. The glitching was welcome. The electric piano usage is quite unique. It really works from what I hear, and is a great juxtaposition between lightness/airiness and dark wobbles. For some reason, 0:34 - 0:47 sounds a little bare in the midrange to me. Maybe you could include the bells you put in at 0:47, an arp, or something else accomplishing a similar purpose, to fill that in. Something that suddenly stands out a little bit at 1:14 is the strange piercing resonance at about 12900~13300Hz. If you put a narrow band stop or deep thin notch there (-12~-14dB), that should help fix it. Other than that, perhaps polish the kick, snare, and bass synth timbre some more. It's still coming off as not quite there, but the subs on the bass are great! Try looking back at the example I showed you (this one, which actually isn't using any extra sub bass layers), and if you do an AB comparison, there should be a noticeable difference in the bass, kick, and snare, even if you don't have sub woofers (I don't). The snare generally sounds good, then when the new bass layer comes in, it suddenly feels a bit quieter/more buried than before. The kick is pretty good. With some parallel compression, you could add some more glue to it and it can sound even stronger without overpowering the bass subs. I have no major issues with the arrangement itself. This is almost there, keep it up!

I highly recommend zircon's tutorials. If you love to use FL, definitely buy this.

The bass is too loud near 95Hz or so, but the tone is good. A bit too much low end ambience on the reverb in the background instruments, and your vocals have a lot of distortion artifacts as well as some remaining sibilance. 1:06 is especially an issue and you should look for more rough instances like that. The rest of the percussive stuff was pretty OK in my book, but the mastering leaves the non-percussive material with room for improvement. The kick is great, it would be fine as-is. The snare could use more thwap with some layering.

Haha, sounds exactly like that one mix we submitted on Mar. 17, 2013, sound-for-sound. *coughgamestartswithPcough*

I like music for its complexities, harmonic interplay, and sound design. Anytime there's a cool chord progression, harmonious sounds (atmospheric pads and rich FM basses, electric rhythm guitars and wubs, etc.), cool sounds (certain dubstep wobbles, nuanced leads, 'ear-candy' filler sounds, etc.), interesting note exchanges, or anything of that sort, I'm probably going to dig it. In particular, I love E. Pianos with a lot of grit, distorted pulse leads, FM basses, well-designed wobbles, etc.; anything with all its textural details polished, performed, sequenced, and/or modulated with care and effort. I definitely compose my music with qualities I like to hear, but I choose my sounds very carefully so that as many people could like it as possible. I select them such that there aren't displeasing aspects to the extent that even people who don't like the atmosphere subjectively would still say something to the effect of, "it's not my genre but it probably sounds good for whomever likes it". However, even thinking about that, it doesn't really limit what I choose to do, which is a plus. There's so many different types of sounds and so many ways to tweak them to sound unique, so it usually ends up pretty crowd-pleasing in the end without sounding strained.

I agree that the pad in the beginning is off-time, and it's due to the sequencing and its amp envelope attack. The clap is thin in this context. The sounds are still pretty basic, and only two are actually at a decently high level of quality (1:01 bells, 0:29 sweep), objectively speaking. The bass is OK, but it's definitely fake in sections where it's supposed to be a bass guitar, and better in tonal quality on the lower notes in sections such as 0:51. There is in fact dissonance, at 0:38, 0:45 and 0:48-0:49 for example. It would help to audition chords prior to writing a section to avoid these dissonances.

Alright then, thanks for trying anyways!

I would never have known if he had it. Honestly, Trilian is "very highly acclaimed", as it seems to be on the reviews on the Spectrasonics site, so I would have been happy with whatever sound came out of it (and I tend to always be). The WAV I sent back was a little off at the slowdown, but Argle could have easily sliced the WAV if it was off there. If I could do it, and I can, then he could do it. The only reason it was off was because of the last tempo change. I had to automate the tempo myself to get it perfect, but even then it got off after rendering. I also did very specific EQ on the bass to give it the low end power and polish.