timaeus222   Members

You got fantastic drums going on there. xD

In the beginning until 1:02, the kick, IMO, is too loud. Try to lower the volume, but boost the most powerful frequencies it has by about 1.5 dB. 1:48 - 1:58 is begging for a proper chord progression. If you try, I think you can make what is expected from the melody you put there. If you do it correctly, it'll sound very cool. At 2:12, the wub takes too long to fade out. Try doubling the LFO speed at that spot only, using MIDI CC perhaps, and automating a fade out yourself. Fade it out faster, because it's blocking out the keys instrument playing that arpeggio. The breakdown at 2:12 also feels somewhat bare. Maybe increase the wet on the reverb a bit for the keys instrument? It needs some spacial presence. The kick that comes in at 2:40 also seems to have unnecessary frequencies. It might be in the middle between the low mids and mids (I have no reference considering I'm not home). Try adding a band notch filter in that range and seeing how it works out for you. Also, you should replace the snare there, if that's a snare. It sounds so similar to the kick. Definitely add some more high end punch to it. At 3:09, things start to really get muddy. It's usually because there's too much in the low mids, so try checking that out, as well as everywhere else. Just this section first, though. If you do it correctly, it should work decently enough anywhere else. Play each instrument individually and draw out the ranges somewhere, and compare them to decide what frequencies to drop out and how much. It could just be because since the snare would create a good amount of the highs, without a good snare it only "feels" like it's low passed. That just means you should bring back in some higher frequencies in the main backing instruments. Right now it feels like the kick is the main problem, followed by the snare, then the dubstep wobbles that come in to hog the soundscape (of course, it only feels that way because of the overcompression). At 4:04, you definitely don't want THAT much of a low pass on the drums like you have now. Instead of reducing a low pass on the drums for a transition, try reducing a high pass for a transition. The last thing is to really bring out the lead and work more on the ending. The lead sounds pretty good though. You don't have to do everything, but the majority of this is quite necessary to fix up the production. Good luck!

I usually add a LOT of modulation to my leads. I generally use Zebra for some kickass leads, considering I love to make patches on it. Some well-thought-out modulation would make even the worst synth sound decent. I also believe square wave based patches sound the most powerful and give the most to work with. For example, check this out: https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Legacy%20Files/Random%20Stuff/Sound%20Demos/Zebra%20Patch%20Demos/BN1ACDC%20-%20Zebra%20Recreation.mp3?w=c15cce17 This track is an OST's original MIDI with the instruments completely recreated with Zebra2. No notes were really touched, nor has there been any external processing (or any manual modulation, really). All reverb, delay, vibrato, etc. are just internal effects of Zebra2 that I put in each patch. Take a close listen to the lead and you'll see why square waves are extremely useful to start off with. This GBA game uses square leads AND basses on nearly all its songs because it's so easy for it to punch through mixes, and vibrato can really sound intense on a square wave. EQ really does help a bunch, though. Sometimes I add intense vibrato that comes in about 50ms in. Other times, I actually link the LFO amplitude to an X/Y controller, edit the MIDI CC events in the piano roll, and add vibrato in like that. That way, it won't be vibrato all the time and it'll sound more "live". Note though, that editing MIDI CC with X/Y controllers might not be the best way to do it, but I started doing that naturally, so I like to keep it consistent. The main thing I do, though, is add some reverb to it. I usually have the wet only slightly less than the dry, and I keep the feedback rather low; around 40%. I put just enough so that it feels like it's in a really spacious area, but not too much so that it doesn't feel too much like a cathedral or something. Another important thing is to test out VST effects you normally wouldn't use on a certain type of lead. For example, I occasionally use Guitar Rig on E. Pianos to give them a wah pedal effect. I also find it better to have a larger frequency range than you need, so you can just EQ out what you don't need. That way, you aren't just limited to the sound that you have. Sometimes, you might want add in more frequencies you're "missing" when you're actually content with the amount of instruments you have already. Modus also has the right idea with layering. Whenever you don't have the sound you want, layer in another sound that has the timbres you want, and EQ out any unnecessary frequencies. Then you can get a much better sound without having to search for hours on end for ONE patch that gives you ONE layer for a good sound. That's probably never going to happen.

Definitely record it raw. And contrary to what most might call "raw", I define raw as "without reverb or delay". If you have some sort of distortion, chorus, phaser, etc. on the keyboard parts that change the tone of the sound, then keep those for sure. What I mean is that you should record the parts without any spacial adjustment effects. Keep that in mind if you know they'll have some excellent VSTs.

I looked within this folder, originally: \~\Library\Application Support\GarageBand\Instrument Library\Track Settings\Software\ Considering you have a MAC IIRC, can you try saving a patch and telling me relatively where it goes? Just so I can see if the library itself is filtering out the files or something. EDIT: I FOUND THEM! =DDD They're in the "\~\Library\Application Support\GarageBand\Instrument Library\Track Settings\Software\" folder in specifically my own account's apparently separate directory. It is NOT in iMac.

Surprisingly long intro there, but it didn't wander off for no reason. It seemed to have a logical structure to me. Loved the bit crushed percussion made to build it up at 1:18 - 1:26. Perhaps some more filler notes could have been used to flesh out the piano in the intro some more, though, considering the pattern in the chord technique was somewhat simple, but it's not overbearing. The snare afterwards could have a tad more low end punch, but it's sufficient nonetheless. The gated poly saw was interesting, but it went on for quite a long time. Maybe it could have faded out at about 4:15, but that's alright. At 4:35, perhaps you could have added some new elements to the mix (considering it feels like the climax), as you kept a lot of them from earlier, but the mix still works well there. Overall, great work!

This Mac is letting me search through using the option "This Mac", so I'm assuming it does let me search outside of the current user account folders, though I could be wrong. I did try searching on the "Shared > All" option too, and they didn't show up. What you said might be what's happening, though, maybe.

Yeah, the patch files can be and are actually saved correctly, as far as I know. I can easily open a new project and use them, but I can't find the files themselves to copy and paste somewhere else, and neither can the Mac search function.

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.