timaeus222   Members

I agree, the rhythm guitar is too loud, but not by much. Maybe lower the gain by about 2 dB?

The guitar sounds good, but the lead synth is pretty terrible. It's on a bad octave, and it's very shrill. Other than that, it's an alright remix of this theme. It's tied pretty closely to the source, so it kind of sounds like a cover.

The lead is overpowering the drums quite a bit. Notice how whenever the lead plays, you can't really hear the kick or snare. The hi hats somehow seep through. I think aside from that, the production is sufficient, for the sounds you're using now. If you want it on OCR, though, you'll need to think about how to broaden your sounds and find more sounds to add to your pool of instruments and use more than just a few instruments throughout the entire song. I think I counted a kick, snare, cymbal, hi hats, 3o3 acid arp, saw arp, white noise with an automated thin-Q bandpass sweep, pluck arp, saw lead, bass drop, and a pitch bended poly saw (drop transition). From there, you stopped introducing new things. I think if you put in more instruments and rotate them to give your song a certain progression, it'll keep more people's attention than it could now. When I write remixes, I tend to have more than 10 instruments or sounds. Usually I land around 30-50. I know that's a lot, but about 1/3 of them are usually drum samples, and those are usually layered as one drum sample instance, at least for me.

I agree, the chiptune sounds don't fit this at all. You need to upgrade your sounds, and get a better mix balance too. Right now, those chiptune sounds are too loud as well. I can't really say anything else, because it sounds the same almost the entire time.

Oh, cool, that's a pretty sweet purchase! xD I don't use Massive as much, though, because it keeps glitching up on me and muting in the middle of a song until I delete NIMassiveDataBase_ul and reload the database. Okay, this is sounding a whole lot better. I really love the transition you put in leading towards 1:08. It's an early enough heads-up, and it works really well. At 1:22, I think I know what you're going for. Try sequencing in a real "bell glissando" (made up that phrase lol) for that bass, and using a resonant filter sweep on a square wave. I remember that type of sound from here: at 14:04That main bass also sounds great! I haven't said this yet, so I liked that vibraslap at 1:27. I see what you were going for at 2:22. Perhaps a triplet leadin to that key change? It works otherwise. At 2:41, when it changes back, I think from there, you need some more notes in your lead to lead back to the original key. I like the little filler snare rolls Synplant is very interesting, btw, I took a look. Good stuff so far, keep it up!

Sounding good so far. I like the resonant sweeps in between sections. The snare is a bit weaksauce though. I'm thinking near the end of the WIP, a transition that starts a bit earlier than 1:13 (i.e. 9 snare hits instead of 4 snare hits, in another context) would help.

Well, it looks like after some experimentation, I'll be going with a castlevania-like big beat/electronica remix.

You know, I think I might do the Final Boss theme. I'll see if I can think of something for it later. For now, this is something that shows what I can do (though not necessarily the same genre I would intend for this theme): http://timaeusproductions.bandcamp.com/track/expansive-networking-network-is-spreading

What you're saying has to do with the attack and the release. If the attack is really early (like 0.01-0.20ms), and the release is rather short (like 0.10-5.00ms), it'll just make the snare punchy, and not overcompressed in the wrong spots. ---------------- The first instrument that plays until 0:20 is pretty irritating. It's suffering from excess distortion and bitcrushing, and poor quality distortion, at that. You need to replace that. Yeah, the compression on the snare has too long of a release, so it's compressed for too long. As a result it sounds duller. The sub bass is also too high. Lower it a bit, and lower the kick a bit too. The kick is adding extra overcompression to the track. The majority of the instruments could use a major upgrade. It's fine to have chiptune instruments, but don't have them be nearly that simple. It'd be great to give them expressiveness, like vibrato and dynamic filters. Some good ideas here and there, but overall you need to cut out what doesn't contribute to the song.

I'm not by any means an orchestral expert, but I agree on that, I do hear a little bit of overcompression.

Well, here's what I can really say right now. It sounds too quiet at 0:54 - 1:36 and after 2:21. It would be great to turn up the volume there by about 10 dB. There are times when it's not even registering on my audio editor (2:27-2:29). The piano sounds good. I think there's reverb, but it might be a little subtle. Maybe increase the wet mix just a little.

There isn't too much necessarily wrong with that. This remix has lots of really low bass, and it was accepted.

Oh hell no. You did it! xD I've been trying to figure that out since I first got Kontakt, lol. I managed to get separate MIDI Outs before, but not Sends. Thanks from me too.

Haha, I liked both of those tracks. Neurobazaar was my favorite off that album. Interesting mashup. xD

The "best" ones aren't cheap, and the cheap ones aren't always good. "Best" isn't a good way to define "good" either. There isn't a "best", just a "more preferred" or "easier to work with". I personally love FL Studio, but it isn't cheap. The Producer Version is $199. I'd still recommend it. Unlike what some people might say, it's not just for techno. I've used it for Jazz Fusion before. You will have to find other instruments to put into it, unless you'll be able to do really well with the defaults and synthesize your own stuff. There are lots of free instruments out there though.

I second that. Usually sounds that inspire me work out pretty well, but putting restrictions without really knowing it actually works most of the time.

Hm, you've got something nice in the works! 0:19 - That lead is a bit simple at the moment. See if you can add some more expressiveness on it. vibrato, filters, chorus, waveshaping, etc. Anything to give it more bite, presence, and uniqueness. 1:04 - I see the transition now, but it can be even better! Maybe if you try out dBlue Glitch, you can get some ideas. 1:07 - 1:25 - It might be a bit bare without hi hats or some filler percussion; just the kick and snare as the percussion there leaves too much unused room. It might help to add some slight reverb to the snare to fill out the soundscape a bit more. I like the variations you have on the bass. It would be great if you can work on the tone a bit more. It's tough to describe it, but I think it can sound even better. Maybe you just need to find a better synth to make those with, I dunno. Massive is a good choice, but it's $199.00. If you can afford it, it would beef up this song a lot. Overall, some more interesting filler sounds would do this lots of justice. Same with some more compression on the drums to give them more power.

Demos at: http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222/sets/thermophilus Purchase at: http://timaeusproductions.bandcamp.com/album/thermophilus Price: $5.00 The focus of this album was making songs that had an organic instrument in there somewhere, like a piano, guitar, trombone, and so on. Each particular song was polished as much as could be. I've been working on this for nearly a year now, and it's finally released! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it! The full album download comes with all tracks, along with bonus items! You'll get the album cover, tracklist, THREE bonus tracks, and official hi-res album art! released 03 January 2013 Songs and art by Timaeus

I just tried something new with automation, and it's kind of interesting. It would be cool if you could somehow use automation to make a sound go from panned center to panned stereo, or vice versa. I've tried it with Stereo Enhancer (the knob you get when you use wide tracks, not the old Fruity Stereo Enhancer tool) and it worked pretty well. Stereo Shaper... not so much.

0:53 - When that bass comes in, I think it's too loud, and it's grabbing the attention the C64 arpeggio should be getting. Think about what sounds should be louder than others and edit accordingly. The panning phasered lead is nice. At 2:31, it seems to meander quite a bit. It would be great if you could turn that into a glitch section with glitched drums too. And while you're at it, use new, stronger drums at that part to really emphasize it. Chop up the leads with some automation (even on the volume it might work out) and don't be afraid to create some glitchy stuff! You might get some ideas from zircon's "Identity Sequence" (the track specifically, not the entire album).

That's pretty good. It's actually inspired me to make my own remix of MMBN3's Network is Spreading, and it's hard for me to get inspired.

The kick drum doesn't match the other instrumentation. The kick is too bassy without much punch, and the other TR-808 percussion doesn't exactly match either. Everything else is good.

Cool, that's good. I just noticed something else that is pretty important. The low choir you have at the beginning sounds like something else default from FL, because I think I've used it before back when I first started remixing. If you can find a better VST for that, do it! It's a good idea, but it sounds fake right now, as you might have already considered. Also, don't be afraid to glitch up the drums some more after 0:58. You said it's "Glitch-Hop", so glitching is totally expected. I'd suggest iZotope Stutter Edit or dBlue Glitch.

That dulcimer sounds pretty fake at the moment. It's sorta machine-gun-like. I'd suggest you find some sample libraries if you can, or ask someone to collaborate. At 0:58, the bass is too sudden, as you probably knew. You need a transition there. Regardless, the bass itself is insufficient in quality. You need to modify it a bit more. I'd suggest some detuning on it, with more than one voice. Four, perhaps? Something kind of like this: https://www.box.com/s/zkczd0oxmragbr47261t That's Pulse-Width Modulation with a detuned quad-voice saw wave. As for the drums there, you should get a new kick, because it's currently too bassy and I only feel an impact, without knowing what it really is. It'll also help to add some more punchy compression on the snare. You could also layer on a more hissy layer, lower that layer's volume a bit, and let that create a longer decay on the overall snare tail. The rest is good so far.

Hey, what's up? I'm finding it a bit too quiet up until about 0:37.283. Maybe you should make the fade-in faster. I'm sure you can also add some more interesting sounds, as well. At 0:29.048-1:14.333, the chiptune synth should be more dynamic, for example. Maybe a bit more reverb, some small delay, and an LFO on the cutoff? 1:15 - The saw lead should have some more expression. I actually can't hear any vibrato on it, just a slow LFO modifying something, possibly the pulse width. 2:00 would be a good time to start varying the textures in the song. Maybe some chiptune arpeggios? C64 style 2:23.057 - Same with the flute, needs more expressiveness. It might also be a bit quiet. The whole song somehow feels slightly slow, too. Maybe increase the BPM by about 8-16? Sounding pretty good!