timaeus222

Well, some things I'm noticing: Something's iffy with the low-mids. It might be the low percussion. I don't know if it's a timpani or something else, but that's what it sounds like. The other thing is to quantize your notes so they don't seem so off. Offsync them later, but only by a little bit. Do it when you're done with all the other issues. That's what I got.

I finished the V3! Mod review time! The notes at 0:51 - 0:54 feel louder than they should be though. I think I missed some velocity edits there. In case any mod notices that, I've noticed it too. I'll automatically fix it in the next edit. Things to notice: - The solo has a custom finalized lead! It's based on Zebra2's HS Lafta Yoga. - Minor velocity tweaks here and there, making sure nothing sticks out. - Various EQ fixes. - Some compression edits, like on the kicks and snares. - The hi hats have a more natural rhythm and volume. The sample itself is also different. - The vocoded lead might sound different now because of the new EQ on the modulator. https://www.box.com/s/56z9dxmfxunrmikontgo - V3 https://www.box.com/s/37d1v1usjn1meiyrtf61 - V2.9 https://www.box.com/s/2ca7cd69192e4e8ccb43 - V2.8 https://www.box.com/s/3b0f7355c2e35291d612 - V2.7 https://www.box.com/s/4d5394ecc48204411b1a - V2.6 https://www.box.com/s/dcab54cace89d8bfbbbd - V2.5 https://www.box.com/s/8744fdd33600fecf3187 - V2 https://www.box.com/s/a292f4b302116d4bf027 - V1

In that case, you'll be happier in a few minutes. *nudge*

Another important thing is knowing what the basics of one really is, just in case it helps you get any new ideas on easier ways. A wobble bass is just an LFO modulating the cutoff frequency of a synth. Any textural additions are up to you. And yeah, it's also important to realize that the synth may just be not restarting on new notes because of the way it's programmed. Zebra2 is another alternative. It's half the price of Massive.

If it was only velocity-sensitive, I'd expect it to look like "synth-action" keys, the kind that is really thin. Even so, there wouldn't be any point in making a keyboard with keys looking like that if they were "synth-action". It definitely looks like it's more weighted than "synth-action". Unfortunately, after asking someone who still has it, they said it is "non-weighted", but it's not a total turnoff for me. I'm used to playing a normal sized piano, but I'm sure I can adjust. As long as it fits my station and my fingers, I'm okay with it. I'm a pretty careful person. I don't think it'd break if I play it too much. In fact, there are these headphones I have that I haven't come close to breaking yet, and it's been over 6 months. Some reviews say that they broke it in 1-3 months. Maybe some reviews you read were by people that weren't the best candidates. I'm also confused. http://www.amazon.com/Korg-MicroKey-37-Key-Midi-Controller/dp/B0043C599S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346370055&sr=8-1&keywords=korg+microKEY Here, it says Product Dimensions: 26 x 3.2 x 7.2 inches ; 2.2 pounds. http://www.amazon.com/Korg-MICROKEY37-37-Key-Midi-Controller/dp/B007VQIGPW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346370055&sr=8-2&keywords=korg+microKEY Here, it says Product Dimensions: 12 x 1 x 10 inches ; 2.2 pounds. They look exactly the same aside from one having USB in the name and one not. I've also heard that it's 56 cm wide, and its keys are 44 cm wide. Can anyone confirm what its dimensions are? EDIT: I've decided to buy it. EDIT2: I like it, btw. It fits all my needs.

Well, I, for one, do not condone masking the lack of musical talent through virtual studio edits if the artist is going to have to play live at some point. If the song or album is intentionally electronic, i.e. cannot be replicated using real instruments, then, that's fine. However, if there are real instruments mixed in with synthesized ones, I'd prefer the BPM to make it at least sound playable. As for autotune, I only like it if it's used tastefully. Fixing occasionally off notes is not okay, IMO, if it's noticeable. If you're going to perform vocals for your song, then either do as many takes as necessary or ask someone else with a fitting voice to perform for you. I'd much prefer it if autotune is not used. Vocoding is similar, but a more flexible alternative. Autotune is merely for correcting pitch, adding kind of fake-sounding harmonies, and possibly (but should not be for) for any timbre shifts between genders. Vocoding tunes the vocal part to a carrier, and is a staple of electro music. If vocoding is used tastefully to gel in a song for which it makes enough sense, then sure. However, the limitations and inferiority of autotune's algorithm to vocoding make it a turnoff for me most of the time. And about Dragonforce... well, to be honest, if they did truly speed up their guitars, wouldn't it be noticeable for raw recordings? If it wasn't, then they would have had to work with MIDIs and use some pretty freakin' good guitar VSTi's to get a natural tone and playable sequences after a BPM change. I might or might not be mistaken, but generally when changing the speed of audio clips, they tend to sound pretty obvious and bad. Anyways, that's my 1000 cents (typed from an iPad 2 keyboard, lol).

I love the chord progression at 3:24 - 3:34! =D The rest is typical Will.

Whoo, I finished the arrangement! Things to notice: - Polished the "bubbles" sound. - Notched the lead at certain spots in the EQ. - Made the 3o3 arp more noticeable. - There was a different bass pattern earlier at the 1:12 transition; I ended up swapping that to a later variation of that transition, so now the 0:17 and 1:12 sections generally have a legato bass line, and the 2:26 section has more of a staccato bass line. - 1:34 - 1:51 is definitely new and needs work. - 1:51 - 2:08 has a new lead. - 2:08 - 2:25 is the solo. - The 2:26 transition has some overtones to lead in to the final climax variation. - Then of course, the final climax leads to the ending. In the meantime, for V3, I've finished editing 1:34 - 1:51. I'm currently polishing the solo lead timbre, miscellaneous velocities, and the hi hats rhythm/humanization for the V3. https://www.box.com/s/37d1v1usjn1meiyrtf61 - V2.9 https://www.box.com/s/2ca7cd69192e4e8ccb43 - V2.8 https://www.box.com/s/3b0f7355c2e35291d612 - V2.7 https://www.box.com/s/4d5394ecc48204411b1a - V2.6 https://www.box.com/s/dcab54cace89d8bfbbbd - V2.5 https://www.box.com/s/8744fdd33600fecf3187 - V2 https://www.box.com/s/a292f4b302116d4bf027 - V1

I'm not the person to ask for this, but it seems that this gives the expectation that the sound would be routed to mixer tracks 3 and 4, and in this, it's routed into mixer tracks 4 and 5. Were you wondering about that? Go to the gear in the fruity wrapper and make sure the one that goes into mixer track 3 is "--", not "1". Then change the next "2" to a "1" for the sound currently going into mixer track 4.

I refined volumes, velocities, and EQ some more, and I got an even cleaner sound. Like I said, though, the arrangement itself isn't done. I do currently feel like I can continue with the arrangement on my free time, though. This first week of college is killing me. Dx Things to notice: - 1:12 sounds different now in the bass sequencing. More staccato. - Velocities are cleaner, so the things that should be heard are heard correctly. - Hi hat sample changed; the brushed open hi hat, not the hi hat paired with the kick. - Harmonies are taken back a bit at points where they are too loud. i.e. the breakdown section. - Lead in the intro is softer and crescendos. It also starts low passed and then the low pass is automated out. That way it is more of a band passed intro. - The organ-style section is fixed up a bit. The saw lead used in the first half is now 4 voices instead of 11, so it's less prone to excessive detune and is more clear. https://www.box.com/s/2ca7cd69192e4e8ccb43 - V2.8 https://www.box.com/s/3b0f7355c2e35291d612 - V2.7 https://www.box.com/s/4d5394ecc48204411b1a - V2.6 https://www.box.com/s/dcab54cace89d8bfbbbd - V2.5 https://www.box.com/s/8744fdd33600fecf3187 - V2 https://www.box.com/s/a292f4b302116d4bf027 - V1

What do you mean by "I'm not hearing the chords properly"? Are you having trouble finding the right chords to use for a certain section? I'm hoping it's this, because you should try to use different chords than those from the OST.

Looking at it again. At 0:27, the sidechained saw wave that comes in has a really high resonance level. Try reducing the resonance and detuning it a little. The synth that pops in at 0:54 and 1:12 is a little treble heavy. Try low passing it slightly. There should be a lead in to 1:12; at least, that's how I interpreted the direction of your remix. Then you should beef up those drums. Go for a big beat type of sound, considering a more obvious lead comes in there and ups the expected energy. 1:38 sounds like a breakdown section, or it sounds like it could be one. Try creating a lead in to it, and putting a long decay cymbal or something to that effect. The sidechained saw wave should be gone by now; keeping it for that long makes the piece sound more repetitive. The sine lead at 1:38 sounds a bit shrill. Try layering in a square wave and having the sine wave only create the tone, not actually noticeably playing the pitches. The sparkly pad that comes in at 1:56 has lots of high end. Try tapering off the EQ with a mild low pass. 2:10 - 2:12 is bare, and should have some notes leading into the next section, which sounds like the first part of the outtro to me. Aside from that, I don't notice much else.

I'd say the lead at 1:15 should be more legato, and only retrigger when needed. Try thinking of a smooth way to implement legato while taking that out at specific times. You could look at at 1:39 for the idea I'm talking about.2:17 could have a different mallet lead. I think the mallet impact there on those samples are a bit hard, so try out some other ones. I also agree on the ending. It could end at around 2:50 or something. Looking good so far though. Keep it up!

Is the Korg microKEY any good? It's 37 keys, and it looks like it's exactly what I need. I think it's semi-weighted from looking at the second preview picture, and it's only $80. http://www.amazon.com/Korg-MicroKey-37-Key-Midi-Controller/dp/B0043C599S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346370055&sr=8-1&keywords=korg+microKEY http://www.amazon.com/Korg-MICROKEY37-37-Key-Midi-Controller/dp/B007VQIGPW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346370055&sr=8-2&keywords=korg+microKEY

Oh, so it's basically using the MIDI Out as a way to bypass the pitch bend limits and allow a MIDI CC edit? Alright then.

Currently, the "intro" is only 2 seconds, until 0:02. Try tripling the length to make it more natural, at least, to the listener's perspective. It seems like you have a quarter-pattern before the pick scrape, and with the pick scrape it's another quarter. This way you'll have three quarters of the pattern with just the orchestral samples and the bass, and then the last quarter has the pick scrape. I can barely hear the kick. Try notching the EQ of the bass where the kick is. Maybe even a band stop notch instead of just a peaking notch. The bass sounds kind of high in the bass frequencies. It should be lowered to about 80% of how it is now. That might be making the bass too loud right now, since at 1:30, it doesn't sound like how the waveform looks. Watch the levels on every instrument. Make sure the guitars don't overpower the orchestral element. Make sure the trebles on the bass guitar aren't heard. etc. At 2:21, the rhythm of the hi hats is weird. It feels syncopated. That doesn't seem to work too well. Try the regular rhythm. The last thing is to try to go for a good breakdown section. So far it's just the "breathing" section. Try incorporating some new instruments in the breakdown, like an acoustic guitar or something. As of right now, you have no breakdown section in my book. I'm sure you'll be able to think of something, though. Good luck!

Yeah, me neither until I took a listen to a bunch of guitar tracks. The bass is what gives guitars the "melt your face off" kind of feel, if done right. It might help more if you organize yourself and look at what frequency ranges you want to use for the guitar and bass. Save a few templates for specific tones, if you want. I haven't done that yet, but it might help you get the same tone each time.

I haven't been able to hear this at all yet, nor can I right now, but I think the sequencing could be more simple, simply because I've encountered something similar to this before. Don't have so many notes in the melody that it seems unnatural.

Oh, that corresponds to the pitch wheel for Kontakt-only instances? That works out great.

The bass is extremely high right now, and it's making the track sound muddy even though it might not be in any other sense. Bring up the guitars just a bit, and bring the bass down a lot. You really only want the bass to give presence, not actually be heard while the guitars are playing. I'm also thinking the bass has too much treble, so lower that too. Check the mids level as well on the bass mix.

I know, I said I wasn't done with it. I'm glad you're liking it so far, though. EDIT: Wow, I checked the waveform and compared it with the previous version... I really need to boost some instruments now that they have less reverb. It seems to be a bit too quiet or bare sometimes on the v2.6. I'll add back a small amount of reverb to actually give some presence. v2.7 is more similar to v2.5 than v2.6 in instrument volumes, but has less reverb and seems way less muddy. https://www.box.com/s/3b0f7355c2e35291d612 - V2.7 https://www.box.com/s/4d5394ecc48204411b1a - V2.6 https://www.box.com/s/dcab54cace89d8bfbbbd - V2.5 https://www.box.com/s/8744fdd33600fecf3187 - V2 https://www.box.com/s/a292f4b302116d4bf027 - V1

Okay, well, I thought about how it could still be muddy somehow, and I tried reducing the reverb on some instruments. I also refined the overall sequencing and EQ work some more. It seems cleaner now. There's also a new lead for the first half of the organ-style section. https://www.box.com/s/4d5394ecc48204411b1a - V2.6 https://www.box.com/s/dcab54cace89d8bfbbbd - V2.5 https://www.box.com/s/8744fdd33600fecf3187 - V2 https://www.box.com/s/a292f4b302116d4bf027 - V1

Actually, I thought it was a good intro. I made sure everything was somewhat band passed overall so that it felt a bit empty, leaving people to wait for more to happen. All the timings I have are completely intentional. The first lead is, by convention, supposed to be a large part of this genre. Read up on wikipedia's definition of Electro. For the bass, I spent hours on end perfecting that bass. I really don't see anything wrong with it, and I've actually remade it several times. As for the "muddiness" that you hear, I've actually gone through and refined the EQ at least 20 times, so I don't think it's muddiness. I already do know that each instrument has to and does have their own area in the spectrum. It's probably just not the overall timbre you expected. The saw arpeggios might fade out a bit too quickly, maybe, but those are intentional, and are definitely introduced about 10 seconds beforehand, so there shouldn't be any surprise. Of course this needs to be longer. I wasn't done making it, as I said in the first post. I also like my transition into Heart of Fire. Personally the chord progression I had there seems to be a good indication that a new section is coming. I will try to find a better kick sample, though. I can kind of hear the kick better now, but I have already known that I would need to find a better one later, or at least increase the volume on it later. I just haven't thoroughly tested my new vinyl kicks yet. The 3o3 arp actually wasn't intended to be a real backup synth, but more like a filler to give a breakdown type of feel. I couldn't just have a bass, a lead, harmony, and TR-808 drums and immediately call that good. Personally, I don't think I have very many problems with overlapping EQ at all. I've already established that to myself for several months now. I think it's just mainly the timbre of the sounds overall.

Until 0:15, there's a saw arpeggio playing. Try shifting that up an octave and seeing how that sounds. When the guitar comes in at 0:15, it seems too ambient. It's lost in the mix and feels like it's far away in a separate auditorium, or something. Kind of sounds like a PRS guitar from Omnisphere somehow at 0:28 on the gliss up, though. xD Not a bad thing on the tone. Try bringing it out more, decreasing the reverb wet mix, and increasing the dry mix. At 1:01, it sounds like a low string instrument is coming in and cluttering the low mids. Maybe you could bring it up some octaves and use it as a countermelody or harmony instead? At 1:33, the piano or some sort of keys instrument has way too much reverb on it. It's just making it hard to hear anything there. Take it down to about 60%. The strings there also hit a really high frequency, so it might give you trouble later with the lead guitar. Try low passing that very slightly. Good luck!

After getting some feedback from a friend of mine, I lowered the high end on the snare just a bit and added a bit of low end. Then I notched the EQ of the bass right at the kick so it would be easier to hear the kick. I also raised the bass frequencies in the bass a bit and increased the volume of the 808 snare in the breakdown, because it was still too quiet in the V2. https://www.box.com/s/dcab54cace89d8bfbbbd - V2.5 https://www.box.com/s/8744fdd33600fecf3187 - V2 https://www.box.com/s/a292f4b302116d4bf027 - V1