timaeus222

Sounds like your problem is just a lack of sounds. In that case, I recommend you go to KVRAudio and try searching their database for instruments that you want. There are lots of free things, and if you like something that you want to buy, that's fine too. A lot of the better stuff is commercial.

That's just how I am. Whenever I try listening to orchestral music, I don't hear anything that gives me inspiration. I just like it and move on. The "I don't write orchestral stuff" being a reason is just a theory. No big deal. I tend to find more inspiration from more nuanced sounds, ones that can be synthesized with the more modern synthesizers, like some stuff that comes from Zebra or FM8 or something similar. Yes, orchestras can sound nuanced, but not in the way I'm thinking of. It most definitely is true that I can appreciate orchestral music for its harmonies, articulations, dynamics, arrangement, and all that, but it just doesn't bring any cool ideas to my mind that I find worth pursuing. That comes from my previous experiences, not hypotheticals.

Seems like a straight MIDI remix with some C+P and original drum programming to my ears. The dynamic lead synth in the beginning sounds like a low octave sync lead to me. Sounds pretty good, but slightly dry. Might also need some high passing around 100Hz to leave room for the pluck bass to play. 0:22 - when the drums came in, the cymbals seemed over compressed to me and they're probably hitting the hard knee limiter too hard. Make sure your drums are routed to a good quality compressor. Density MKIII might do the job with its M/S drums preset. Sounds somewhat muddy too, so make sure your EQs aren't clashing. 1:48 got interesting, but then the delay drums at 1:56 (the ones that sound stretched/slowed down, low passed, and heavy on the reverb) just don't work. Might be the sound you wanted to go for, but it doesn't sound all that great, personally. I think from there, you finally add some actual personalization to the remix, though. Try to do more than just that type of personalization! Make the pre-1:48 sections more personalized!

Yes, and I'm totally fine with reverb for an atmospheric feel; however, it seems you have reverb on nearly everything. I hope you didn't lower the dry mix on any of them, because that just obscures the instruments even more. Try getting rid of all the reverb and then re-applying the reverb now that you can gauge it one instrument at a time. I think from there you can have a better idea on how you should go about it. I personally just use enough to make the instruments sound like they're in a room, in most cases. It could also help to know what instruments you want to reverberate at what frequencies. For example, you would probably benefit from a low cut to about 100-150Hz on the reverb (NOT the equalizer!) for a piano. You could also benefit from a high cut on the snare at about 14000-16000Hz. It can get difficult to judge reverb simply because you, like most people, like what you did first, not what people want you to change. Totally fine, but please take the advice and give it a try. If you don't like it, then it means you might need to develop your ears a little bit more by experimenting with your reverb plugin and training your ears to prefer certain types of reverb over others (plate, room, hall, etc.). The same goes to instrument taste.

I actually just used to use noteflight.com for composing sheet music. I generally only do that before I play something in live that isn't intuitive. If it can be improvised, I just improvise it in directly. I would still find that site great though. To me it's easy to use and it can export with, at least, terraced dynamics. I pretty much always use the piano roll nowadays.

Yes, reverb can work. I'm sorry, but in this case, I'm certain it's too much.

Well, your bass waveform looks pretty close to how it looks on a more professionally produced song with that type of bass. Good sign. Definitely sounds cleaner in the low end. 1:05 has some sort of organ playing, but it's quiet. Did you want it that quiet? 1:46 sounds normal now. If you really feel like it, I would recommend automating EQ bands to lower unnecessary frequencies in the busier parts, like 1:32, 2:02, etc. Then when that section is over, you can just automate them back to where they were. That way it'll sound cleaner at that section, and then still sound normal before and after that section. I can hear the snare the whole time now too. The hard knee limiting on the master is what is making some of the stuff hitting the limiter duck a little bit much, but it's negligible at the moment. That's why I asked if you did soft knee or hard knee limiting. The ending needs a little more work, but not much is necessary. Humanization is needed on the strings if you can with what you have. If you have anything organic you feel you should add, go ahead. Remember that organic can just be non-synthetic-like, rather than real. i.e. bells can be called organic, and so can wah clavinets.

Yeah, the lead guitar, at least, is still flat by a few cents.

Wasn't really digging the flanger stuff at 0:39-0:57. Kind of a poor choice, actually, no offense. Drums and percussion felt out of place. Tambourine acting as a hi hat was pretty grating (repetitive) and mechanical (machine-gun-like). 2:24 - Organ sounded particularly dry here to me and grating as well. Needs some room reverb. I stopped listening at this point, even though I do like Mario. Sorry.

Things sound really muddy in the busier parts. Piano and other leads are buried. Everything has too much reverb and things are bleeding into each other. Clear up the clashing EQ and fix the reverb.

Yep, exactly what I was thinking of with the snares that were there before 0:28! The snares sound loud enough now, and I can hear them. The 1:15 reverse claps work great. I'm not sure what's going on at 1:46.5. The lead is un-detuning itself or something right before 1:47 and it feels weird. At this point, I feel you just need to work on humanizing your sounds and fixing little details. EQ sounds OK. It could be better, but it's getting there.

I probably won't make something more than 4 minutes long, so... I'm a little over halfway done, I think. =) FIERCELY BATTLE!

Hm. The new snare sounds good. I would have introduced it starting at 0:28, though, not earlier. It didn't feel right to me, at least. Maybe hi hats to replace those before 0:28? I don't get it, the snare is still buried in the busier parts. Are you using hard knee limiting? Are your volume knobs in the step sequencer window at 100% for your drums? Those knobs control the dominance of your instruments.

Both, but the strings were more obvious. Hm... The snare sounds a bit too vinyl for this mix. It has a short tail, too. When it plays rolls, it sounds especially bad. Try to go for more low end punch with some layering. The second snare sound from a bit over halfway was okay, but it sounded kind of acoustic. You're at that fine line between too vinyl and too acoustic. Both are sounding buried, still. The kick is a little better, but you can do even better. It's still buried as well. At this point, the lead with the most vibrato sounds too loud, and it's pushing every other instrument back.

goldbaby.co.nz has some great drum samples, and definitely some for electronic music. They all cost around $30, but you can get free sample packs with about 1/8 the size, which is still a good amount. When you say "effects to modify their sound", it makes me think of external plugins for effects. By "change the sound", I mean go into the VST UI and edit the sound from in there, via synthesis techniques. Turning knobs and such. I sure hope that's a typo, because you should be sidechaining the kick to the bass. Otherwise it's backwards at this particular moment.

I AM EXCITED. SEE MY EXCITED FAIC. =DDDD I'll see if I can make something for this since I got Monday off (I plan to do something to the effect of electronica/glitch/rock). Good luck to others. By the way, what if not all the source tunes are chosen? Another contest? Last-minute remixer joins in? You take a shot at it? xD

That's true---I was primarily talking about how it is on Zebra; there isn't a resonance knob for formant filters on Zebra, last I recalled.

I've never reached 50 MB for a 2:50 song. I have a 3:05 song that's 31MB as a WAV and 5MB as a VBR1 MP3. Yeah, it's probably just the sample rate that's making it that large. Check the export settings.

Haha, that's fine. I'm on a 6-year old computer too. xD

Protip: HD! 'nuff said. ;D And lol, I love Breakbeat Paradise too.

I have to admit, the phasered supersaw kinda threw me off when the piano came in with it as well. It seemed louder than the piano. Nice kick. Not much of a fan of the sub bass though. 1:13 felt oddly abrupt to me, because it sounded somewhat off rhythm. Nice glitching at 2:01. Loved the retrigger and delay on the hi hat and kick. 2:48 - the drums seemed disconnected with the feel there. I would have made the drums softer there, but oh well. 3:17 felt a little bare without a cymbal, but it's OK. Solid enough, agreed about borderline pass.

The percussion in general is a bit quiet, but especially your kick. It's buried. Sidechain the kick to the bass if you haven't already. There's a guide on youtube about sidechaining by zirconst if you need it. The 8-bit (square?) lead (the kind you typically hear doing really old school synth arps) and the square/saw hybrid bass in the beginning are really that generic. There's nothing interesting that can be appreciated about those particular sounds, as nothing was really done to modify them more dramatically from the basic 8-bit quality synth sounds. Not to mention a lot of them are really similar in timbre. It's not nearly as bad as a whole bunch of detuned saw waves trying to harmonize though. After I finished listening, I heard the first song in Bits n' Bobz by Case Portman. You might find that inspiring for your style on this particular song. Like what Skrypnyk said, it sounds like you're still using an acoustic drum kit with electronic instruments. Try vinyl or Roland TR samples, or something to that effect.

lol, it's not all that dominant, it just happened to pop in my head when I heard this. I'm still noticing the fake-y sound of the strings, especially at 0:27. Maybe someone can collab to replace that, or maybe you can somehow find some better sounding ones, or maybe you can adjust the attack on some sort of internal amplitude envelope? I think the snare is still being obscured a little by the non-percussive instruments. Don't be afraid of maxing out the volume on the kick and snare, and then compressing them using a nice punchy compressor VST. The kick itself is a bit bassy still, as you might have noticed. I heard When Alien Drum Robots Attack and Platinum Percussion could have some good drum samples (Platinum Percussion does have some stuff for world music that I love to use). A lot of the instruments you're currently using could benefit greatly from more reverb. Not so they will have a longer decays necessarily, but just so they sound like they're in a room that's a little more ambient than how it sounds now. 1:46 - I'm not sure if you meant that arp to be that loud, but it sounds like you meant it to be softer than that, because it's an arp lead at 2:04. Maybe you could lower the velocities until it becomes a lead? Velocity response is crucial for humanized music! So... a lot of your sound design choices are good, but it still feels like you could have more variety in them. I think there's about 8 instruments, but it would be interesting with even more, even just filler effects or something to make the soundscape a little richer. The arrangement could also use a little more creativity; a lot of the song sounds a little similar throughout in terms of the energy. My general rule of thumb is if I were to scroll through the song, say, 15 seconds at a time, I should be able to distinguish where I am in the song without looking at the time stamp. If that is true, then it means your song is dynamic enough to retain people's attention.

I figured I'd show you what I thought your mix first sounded like: http://zirconstudios.bandcamp.com/track/shadows-feat-jillian-aversa

I would say a little of both, actually. I create or reuse some of my own bass sounds, craft it, etc. In mixing the song I naturally adjust the EQ on the bass mixer track as I go, with a subtle high pass on the Master at about 35Hz. I don't touch EQ on the master, otherwise. I consider mastering to be both what Dan said and the processing you do on the Master track to finalize a song.