timaeus222

Thanks for temporarily removing the lead, it helps. I believe part of the weak power of the rhythm guitars has to do with the sequencing, mainly the velocities and articulations used. For example, 0:48 would be much more effective if you had riffed on the low E string rather than an actual low chord. The low E string creates a raw-sounding chug tone that is really what makes Shreddage special. I think that aspect of the tone usually shows up near 2400Hz. Of course, the real challenge is getting the lead AND that chug tone to be audible at the same time and finding a middle ground for the volumes. Oh, and I meant that my mids are usually at 45, not 90. 90 is the decay I usually put. The bass happens to be unusually lacking the lower bass frequencies (20~150Hz), not to mention there isn't much bite in the articulations either. Here are two demos I cooked up that you could listen to for tone-crafting practice (0:12 is the important timestamp). You can decide for yourself which kind of sound you believe is more fitting to what you want to do---clear/strong, or just insanely strong. I would personally try to go for something in the middle, but leaning towards the low end clarity of the second one. The first one is the one I just formulated, and the second one is one I've used and was satisfied with for my Gunstar Heroes remix. Keep going on this! Once the guitar/bass tone mix is sufficient, it feels really good, knowing the rest of the song will sound the same, provided the sequencing is also up to par.

The formant lead is super awesome. Vocoded?

Synth1 is confusing to me too, but only because I never did try using it for too long, once I found Zebra2. If you ever get the money ($200) and your parent's consent ($200 for electronic content...), GET IT! It does have an awesome comb filter, and it's practically all-purpose.

Yeah, definitely too much treble on the bass. The kick is probably getting overpowered by the bass in particular. The kick also has a little too much decay. Rhythm guitars need more power. You might have cut the mids and low end a bit too much. I usually put it at 86~98 on the mids scooping in Shreddage. I also wouldn't cut out the low end entirely. I would only do notch filters where the bass lies. You want the tones to meld, not the bass to be all the low end power.

Hehe, I just got the email bulletin yesterday telling me about the remix contest (the contest was introduced on May THIRD)... so I did a remix of my own in about 8 hours. I think you'd still have time to write something if you feel up to it. Phoenix - 'Trying To Be Cool' (90's Retro Electro ReMix) by Timaeus

Is it private? No access.

The remixer has been gone for quite a while; last login was 2010. The bass sounds like a saw wave with some detuning, and an envelope on a kind of low cutoff. The envelope has no attack or sustain, and little decay. I think the string instrument could be a 12-string acoustic sitar, and it was probably synthesized with, I agree, comb filters or FM oscillators (probably comb filters).

A good philosophy is to keep old stuff in case you want to reuse it later. ~ zircon (paraphrase)

You can still just keep what you wrote for later.

If you want to get to 0dB, just use a soft knee limiter like TLs-Pocket Limiter and do compression on your drums.

Had a little too much low end reverb for my tastes, but otherwise well-executed.

I would actually work on fixing the string sequencing first, and only using reverb for ambience, not hiding mechanical sequencing.

Either the beginning strings are mechanically sequenced or the samples you have are missing velocity response. 0:27 feels boomy for some reason. Sounds like you had some sort of low-passed dance kick? It's really quiet and ends suddenly at 0:31. The kick and snare are also quite weak and soft. 0:44 - The lead choices here and in other places are not actually the best choice tonally, IMO. They're also missing some reverb to make them 'sit nicely in the mix', and they're only playing simple sustains with a few pitch drops. 1:10 got really muddy due to that sub bass drop, so you should think about EQing that further and sidechaining the kick if you haven't already. 2:00 is an odd break that makes the remix lose quite a bit of energy since there's nothing much to lead in to the "breakdown". You need more than just a sub bass drop. 2:25 can lose that sub bass drop. It's just taking up space where you could be putting a really strong kick drum. The lead is also really simple and generic here. Square wave? Good start, but lots of production to work on.

1:18 - do I recognize the lead you used in Bleets of Lightning? : D

Relatively sure the 'yah-yah' stuff is from oscillator sync and some mild bitcrushing.

Any chance you have a bookshelf you can empty out? That could work. Might raise some questions for visitors, but it could work.

I didn't play Mega Man 9. I was gonna say, I couldn't find Cold Man in the Mega Man 9 OST, and I was a bit confused. I did at first write "By any chance, did you go up against zircon?".

I half agree with that. I think the chord at 1:58 is not fitting, and there is some slight misharmonization between the left and right hand of the piano only. The dissonance is fine as long as it matches the chord progression followed by the lead.

Funny, zircon did the same thing, except with Mega Man 9's Cold Man Stage theme. Singing has room for improvement. Feels strained or shaky sometimes. Occasional wrong notes. "Needs" a falsetto YEAHHHHHHHHH. Nice guitar tone. 3:28 pads/bells are noticeably dry. Needs reverb & delay. Sources seem integrated pretty well, in the vocals.

Yeah, the referencing of non-game tunes could be a problem. I can hear When The Saints Go Marching In (0:30 of the source), and something that sounds a tiny bit like Sonata in C Major 3rd movement (0:41 of the source)

It seems Gates to Infinity is also PG. And apparently, Pokemon Ruby has 'mild gambling references', whereas Pokemon Yellow doesn't. I sense an adjustment happened starting at Gen III. My psychic senses are tingling.

https://twitter.com/timaeus222/status/337414010804789249

You haven't updated to FL 10? Free lifetime updates. -------------------------------------- Well, the drums are somewhat generic, to me. Club kicks/claps/hi hats. They aren't exactly cutting through the mix very well, either. The hi hats seem to be too loud; I usually don't notice them, but I heard them when they first came in. You're also using a lot of polyphonic saw waves as leads and as backup instruments, so it's very hard to hear any distinctive separation of sounds or unique textures. It also makes it hard to do any complex sequencing since all the notes just bleed into each other.

The bells have quite a bit of weird harmonics that are extremely piercing. Gotta lower that treble and adjust that ring modulation. The toms or pseudo-cinematic drums at 1:40 are too quiet. There isn't as much impact as could be expected. They need be louder and wider with tighter transients.

I'm sorry, but this song drove me BONKERS. That's a good thing. DAT RECORD SCRATCH.