timaeus222

I dunno, I have been able to make 4Front Bass work decently for me in the past. I don't use it now whenever possible, but it's not terrible if used correctly. I used it on an old version of this track: http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222/burning-spirit-metal-mix Now I use Trilian, actually, and contrary to what SnappleMan was saying, it does sound real to me, and it probably will sound real if it's sequenced really well or if you play live really well... like Eric Persing does. Other than that, I'm not sure what to recommend. Possibly Shreddage Bass, but I haven't used it. I think it would be the best choice though, simply because of the fact that I have Shreddage guitar and that library has worked well for me.

I tried that already, and GarageBand doesn't drag files like that, straight from the Software Instrument creation window. I can save the .cst file, but it doesn't show up with all the other .cst files in the folder that supposedly has all the presets. \~\Library\Application Support\GarageBand\Instrument Library\Track Settings\Software\

The only thing I can do is use the patches so far, but I don't know if there's a function like "Open File Location". I tried using Spotlight to search for the .cst file, but apparently it's not on "iMac". Whenever I save a patch, there isn't an option to select the location. Is that how it usually is? I've never used GarageBand at any other location, so I'm not sure.

I took a listen to it too. Ironically I also use Shreddage and Evolution Strawberry. Here are the things I'm noticing: The bass is creating some compression, most likely. From the image I'm looking at, the frequencies around 90-150Hz are overloaded with Scarbee. I also never use Soundgoodizer... ever. That usually just boosts the instrument WAY too much, and I prefer just using ParamEQ2 combined with volume sliders and all the conventional stuff. You might want to try using the mouse wheel more often; try rolling it while your cursor is in the ParamEQ2 window, but not touching any band tokens. You'll shift the entire EQ up and down. If you roll it while hovering over a band token, it changes the bandwidth. Personally, I EQ things out so only the necessary frequencies to make it sound full in the context of the mix are left in. Then I just shift the EQ up and down if I have no other choice to change the gain. It's a good idea to EQ out anything below 40Hz, according to various ocr users. I just put a high pass at Steep 8 to cut off everything below about 45Hz or something. Then, I'd scoop frequencies at around the 60-100Hz range just a little bit to leave room for the strongest frequencies in the kick. Try this: - High pass at Steep 8 above 40Hz. - Put Token 1 at about +6dB (look at the right edge of the EQ window). - Put Token 2 at about +7dB, and about 110Hz. - Decrease the bandwidth of Token 2 until you get a slight scoop between Token 1 and 2. - Then just do an incline like you had in the bass picture before, but make it less steep; similar to an e^(-x) graph. - Oh, and take out Soundgoodizer. Turn up the volume within Kontakt, or something that doesn't boost unnecessarily. On the drums, definitely remove Soundgoodizer before doing anything. Also, remove any internal effects on the drums, because I find it best to start out with dry samples, so you can mix the reverb and stuff any way you want. This is how I usually EQ my drums, assuming you'll keep all the instruments on one mixer track (which I usually have to do on FPC for a video game soundtrack I'm working on with the project leader): - Token 1 should be high passed at about 40Hz at Steep 8, lying at around -2dB. - Token 2 should be at about 90Hz, +7dB, with as low band width as possible. Hover your mouse over Token 2, and roll the mouse wheel down as much as you can, then roll it up maybe twice. - Token 3 should be at about 200Hz, +5dB, with the band width at about 2 mouse wheel rolls down. - Token 4 should just be scooped down to about -9dB, really, and at about 800Hz, from my estimate (I'm not actually at home, I'm just trying to use your Bass picture to create an EQ in my head). - Token 5 should be at about 3200Hz, +4dB, more or less, and about 1 mouse wheel roll down. - Token 6 and 7 should be at about +7dB. Token 6 should be at about 5000Hz, and Token 7 should be at about 14000Hz. I drew something up in Photoshop, so this might be easier on you: http://i49.tinypic.com/25h1xet.png Haha, kinda crappy, but you get the idea. Until you fix these things, it's hard to hear what else is going on. This is roughly how the track should sound, in terms of EQ and balance. It's a recent version of a remix I made, but it'll do. It's decently realistic too. It's kind of like the type of sound you have now. https://www.box.com/s/f624fec5d76eff707cee

I think the output is muted sometimes for some of them. I dunno, sometimes some of them just don't make any sound and I have to reopen the project. I used to use them, but there are way better free plugins, like SpicyGuitar.

I sometimes get bored at my local library, so I go on their Macs to do stuff on GarageBand. I thought it'd be pretty nice to share the patches I made, but I have no idea how to. The patches should be in \~\Library\Application Support\GarageBand\Instrument Library\Track Settings\Software\. The files are .cst files, and I thought it'd be a good idea to try to find those files, copy them to my thumbdrive, and share as, perhaps, bonus items to go with an album download or something. For some reason, the patches I saved aren't appearing anywhere in the folder. Any ideas?

The chord work here is fantastic, especially at 1:15 - 1:22. I do kind of wish it was longer, but at this point, it has minimal repetition, so that doesn't do any harm to the track.

It turns out that condensing them down from wav files into ncw files work well enough. I also transferred them all to an external hard drive, which I've read makes it slightly less RAM intensive.

If you had Zebra2, I believe it's possible to get another variation of that sound, and it might even be better, who knows? ;D Oh, I do think the envelope actually has about a 30ms attack on the cutoff, like at 1:14.5. I also believe the LFO speed on the vibrato might change depending on the pitch. Maybe. I'm not sure what that's called, but it's "KeyFol" on Zebra2. This is actually a really cool lead. I might try to make it when I get home.

Are you using 4Front Bass? It has some interesting flourishes in it, but I'm not quite sure of the arrangement idea you have going. It seems somewhat clunky. I just have no idea what to expect next.

Well, I know of two that work; I'll PM them to you.

It wasn't my intention to hard-pan it; East West Quantum Leap Stormdrums's Metal Kit just happened to give the hats a hard-pan right in the .nki, so unfortunately I couldn't do much to fix it. I tried. I supposed I could find separate hat patches and use those instead, but I don't really feel like doing that right now.

Thanks for the tips. Here are the new changes I made: -Mixing- Lead: Refined the realism (tapping when necessary, etc.), the EQ, and the reverb. Low Rhythm: Refined the reverb, increased the stereo width, and lowered the lows a bit. Regular Rhythm: Refined the reverb, did some proper double tracking (I knew how to do it in Kontakt for a while now, but I didn't do that yet on this track), and edited the EQ to compensate (lows on the left, highs on the right, etc.). Bass: Added a compressor to make the levels less erratic, bumped up the lows, and removed the stereo width (I don't know why I had that). Drums: Refined the reverb. Strings: Fixed the balance, so now you can hear them. Pick Scrapes/Pinch Squeals: Fixed the EQ to fit better with the lead when both are playing at the same time. -Arrangement- - Replaced the arpeggio lead in the intro and similar repeats with the "Lead" rather than the "Regular Rhythm". - Lowered the levels of the pinch squeals and pick scrapes. - Refined the lead's melody and part of its notes in the solo. - Polished the breakdown section. Remix: >>The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.6<< The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.5 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.4 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.3 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.2 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V3 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V2 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V1 Source:

Haha, you're going to hate me for this, but at the spot where it says, "Note that there are also so called "modes" besides just major and minor. The intervals are the same, but they begin from different notes. There are also additional scales (like harmonic and melodic minor) that use different intervals. Look it up later.", that foreshadows a short paragraph on modes. "Look it up later" isn't fun. You might as well write about them, since I couldn't find anything about ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, or locrian modes in what you wrote currently, and as I am with my sense of character, I expected to see that. It's not too hard to explain, right? You already did, except without the official names. Besides, you can't expect "newbs" to just know when what they find is what they are supposed to find. xD Where you wrote, "so every note will contain tones higher than the note pitch. As does our voice.", a good example is the tines in an E. Piano. In the section after where it says, "the blues note, and microtonal music. Learn the basics first, tho.", it'd be awesome if you included this definition I developed for the word "melody": "A memorable sequence of notes that flow in a logical manner while lying within the same key of the current section of the song." That might help people write reasonable melodies. ;D Can I also request a small section on chordal feel? It probably belongs in the "direction" section, sometime after "Much like stories, music can be written with changes out of the blue or with changes foreshadowed". If you can do this, that would be badass. If you end up having trouble with it, zircon might be able to give some insight on it, from what I know about his experience. This is what I mean: Each chord, when placed after a chord, foreshadows a specific chord. Sometimes, you'll have to nail a specific chord to get exactly the feel that you want. Some chord progressions are present in certain styles of songs, but sometimes are meant only for those styles. Some chord progressions work so well that they actually give the listener the feeling that this is a specific section of the song and they'll know more about what to expect next. It'd be epic if you could include a section about what chord progressions, or at least, what diad progressions create what type of feel or foreshadow what diads. ------- I did really like the idea of EQ being a chisel, though. That section is dead on. Sweet controlling metaphor

Sounds pretty good. What you could improve on is probably just the sound quality for now. Try gathering better supplies, and I believe that'll help a ton.

Looking forward to hear any other remixes from Elzferno. This is one of my favorite tracks. xD If only.

Wow, this mix gives such a happy-go-lucky feel. xD The change-up at 0:46 felt a bit strange to me in terms of the flute, but everything else seemed to flow nicely. I like the panning "duel" type section at about 1:16. That is a cool transition. The breakdown at about 1:32 works great when the bass comes back in (well, it probably just gets louder for a moment as a lead in) at 1:45. Aw, a fade ending. I kinda wish there was a real ending. Or at least, a slower fade. Oh well, the song still sounded great overall.

The vocals didn't really seem to fit in my perspective, but everything else was really well done. Omnisphere is fun. It's one of the reasons I go to Guitar Center. xD Great job on this piece!

I don't really have much I can say on this, but one thing that really stands out to me is the final hit. It seems to create an overload. Try to fix that. When the left edge of the time slider reaches the right edge of the word "as" (lol, I had no good idea on how to say that), the piano sequencing or playing could be refined. I figure you want a buildup type sound. Try creating a greater difference in the velocities of each note. For example, in the fast arpeggios when the left edge of the time slider is halfway between "as" and "Favorite", everything "sounds" like it's nearly the same velocity, so that's something you should look at. Other than that, I think other people are giving the right critique.

Cool, good luck! Also, I wanted to clarify what I meant by action toms and a layered clap-snare hit. http://zirconstudios.bandcamp.com/track/coccoon-altitude Take a listen to that at 2:20, and something similar to that type of percussion is what I mean. Maybe not quite that powerful in my depiction, but you get the idea.

@mak: The ~500Hz is my mid range. The rhythm guitars deserve some mid-range power. I'll drop it a bit but not too much. The drums are panned because... it was East West Quantum Leap producers' fault? They wanted the stereo feel of a real drum set I guess. @Argle: The low end should be from the bass, not from the guitar. You're the only person to have said "boost the lows on the rhythm guitar". ---------------------- Changes: - Changed the EQ on the low riff channel, decreased decay and release for faster mutes. - Some EQ stuff suggested by mak. - I changed the lead. Now that I got Strawberry Evolution Electric Guitar, I put in a much better lead that cuts through much more effectively. It also has the full range of an electric guitar, yay. - Breakdown section is slightly different due to the lead change. The original lead played the rhythm guitar so now I have both and the new lead plays the non-chords in that section. The dive bomb was a whammy bar effect. Both leads are still under the same amp settings so they'll sound as similar as possible. Remix: >>The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.5<< The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.4 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.3 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4.2 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V4 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V3 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V2 The Death of King Desmond (Metal Mix) V1 Source: Author's Note: Please, only advise me to do something if it's going to be: - Worthwhile - Valid - Effective (Bumped once since June 27, 2012) (Bumped once since July 27, 2012)

This is sounding really cool! Some things: The E. piano would benefit a lot from some variation. Instead of simply long sustains most of the time, try adding some staccato chords, like at 0:21.5 - 0:22.5 and other similar places that make sense. You could even try a different EP library if you have one. There's probably a better one out there somewhere. At 0:48, the lead that comes in would greatly benefit from slightly louder delay. The choir aahs at 1:36 and 3:12 appear to be pulsing in and out, probably from some sort of panning LFO or something. Try it without that and see how it sounds to you. The sax that comes in at 2:24 might sound better an octave up as a solo-type instrument, without a doubled up octave below. Good take on the Bossa Nova, though. Keep working on it! Sounding great.

For some reason, the sub bass that goes up until 0:39 bugs me. It might be because I just listened to someone else's Jungle-style remix, but anyways, that's how it appears to be. At 0:45, I do agree with Rozo. The kick has a crazy amount of low end, and the decay on it is kind of irritating, no offense. Try using a different kick, one that's not so heavy on the subs or has so wide a frequency range in the lows. At 0:49 - 0:52, the arp starts to get out of tune. I don't know if you wanted that, but it feels awkward to me. Otherwise, definitely try something like a constant timbre change. That would help a lot on its repetitive tone. For some reason, the trance lead seems a tad over-detuned. Try reducing the detune on that just a bit, maybe about 2%, and that might help. I hear some rapid LFO on it sometimes, and it doesn't work that well with such a detuned lead. Overall, add some more progressive elements and ideas in. It feels really repetitive most of the time. Good luck.

The intro until 0:25 sounds a bit too much like it would fit in the actual game's engine. Maybe you could add some vibrato or other articulations on the lead that make it seem less like it was a direct rip from the game. ;D I do like how you increased the reverb at 0:18 for some contrast through. At 0:26 - 0:52, the percussion has the same kick rhythm the entire time. Maybe you could change that up starting here, and put the kick at the earlier logical rhythmic place (I believe it's half a beat left). The delayed cymbal (delayed or fade-sequenced? Kind of the same, but not completely) at 0:26 doesn't seem to work that well there. I think that a high decay, 70-30 wet-dry ratio reverb might work a lot better in that spot and at 0:49. The transition SFX at 0:51 is a bit awkward. Maybe you can try some modulation effects, like a low bandwidth band pass shift, or a low pass frequency increase, or maybe even a resonance increase AND low pass frequency increase. At 0:53 and 1:44, that section's snare could use some more high-end. Right now the low end is somewhat interfering with the low pad. Don't get rid of the low end, but reduce it a bit, and layer on a snare with some more high end punch. A good compressor I love to use is "endorphin". Try it, it's free, and great on drums. Also at 0:53 and 1:44, you should definitely change the lead to a MUCH more dynamic one. Try creating a PWM lead with a late attack vibrato (maybe 40 ms), and maybe even a high pass effect routed to an envelope with a late attack, (maybe about 50 ms). I don't know if your plugins can do that, but there are some that can. Definitely add some reverb on it to give it presence. At 1:18, it seems like a pseudo-breakdown is what you were going for. Maybe you could low pass the percussion a bit so that it seems "lo-fi", for a great contrast. At 2:10, there is no lead in sound to the breakdown section. Try something. Maybe a cymbal with high decay reverb and a low pass frequency decrease? The bass pitch envelope at 2:21 is good, but it's covering only the bass. Try adding on a reverse cymbal to cover more frequencies in that lead in; that might work better than just the bass. At 2:24, you could start bringing in some action toms, along with strong layered claps and high end snares. That would be really cool. They could even carry onto the end of the song. Think of 2:24 to the end as the long, triumphant outtro. Somehow, I believe a reverse cymbal with delay at 3:15 would be more effective; try that! The piano at 3:27 and anywhere else should be played live if possible, for more realism. Right now it seems the hard timbre of the piano is heard in almost every note, giving it more of an artificial feel. It's fine if you're playing forte, but don't do that the whole time. Maybe increase the velocity response? Also, try to go for more of a realistic room reverb on the piano; that would really make it great. Kind of like this video I made: Good luck!

I'm still in the library at the moment with a terrible sound system, so I can't really give any feedback yet, but I'll probably do that when I get home.