timaeus222

FL doesn't have an MP3 encoder built in, but you can still use WinLAME to accomplish that. And cool, I didn't realize Box.com had a .net URL too.

Working on a couple tracks at a time; one for the Goemon album, one for the Satoru Iwata tribute album, and one standalone. Finished two SFRG compo tracks and subbed two standalone tracks. I was programming for computational chemistry over the summer, and got through about 1000 lines of (efficient) coding to calculate energies, generate matrices, etc. Built a pull-up bar with my dad for my room. Playing Plants vs. Zombies 2, Two Dots, and Threes (recent high score was 3522).

This is surprisingly good for 2000. The electric lead guitar solo was a bit plainly played and lacked some fluidity to the note connections, but otherwise the soundscape was pretty well-developed for that age and time!

I think it actually sounds louder now, too. So, actual non-encoding critique: - It's actually too loud. I'm surprised it's not clipping (until about 1/4th of the way through, where there's some static on the edges of the stereo field). Try turning down the volume of every instrument by about 4 dB, and using a limiter if you aren't using one right now. - Pay attention to the instruments you have going on at the same time. The most prominent issue I keep hearing whenever I mix someone else's music for them is that they try to layer too many instruments at once, whether in the densest parts of the track or everywhere in the track. Isolate groups of instruments and make notes of which instruments are playing when. You have too many bass instruments playing at once. If you disable an instrument and hear no difference, that instrument might as well not be there; know what I mean? - The sequencing of every instrument is mechanical, but it's not an easy fix; if you have some sort of MIDI keyboard, I think you could learn how to play simple piano and from that, figure out how to put emphases on certain notes where it makes sense, and it'll make for more realistic partwriting.

I used the first descent and the melody in Final Weapon (a perfect fourth down), and the first melody of Cyber Peacock. Lots of rhythmic fun in there.

For me: 1. Wrote the hook 2. Wrote the intro in the wrong key with a mismatched transition 3. Fixed the key 4. Fixed the transition 5. Wrote what came after, got to the solo part 6. Reworked the solo for like 5 hours 7. Wrote the rest 8. Face =

I've never tried it, but there seems to be a LAME encoder for MAC: http://download.cnet.com/LAME-Audio-Encoder/3000-2140_4-51042.html

Submitted!

I took all the time I could get this week. This track is one of the most challenging ones I've had to finish in such a short time!

It's satire =p

You don't have to link the youtube video; you can download WinLAME and encode like this.

It just sounds so lossy and garbled. Why in the world is it 32 kbps?

Haven't written a geetar solo in a long time, but I'm so pumped up for you guys to hear this one!

I think it's mainly your idea of structure and your intuition in sound selection. Your "Thing Scrap" sounds like it could be a Drum & Bass track with jazz chords, if your sound choices were more cohesive. That sound at 0:24 just sticks out too much (lacking reverb), and same with the one that came in at 0:36; they're both very basic saw or square waves as well, and lack the interesting expression your chordal synth suggests that you need. The bass at 1:00 doesn't really fit though, timbrally or compositionally IMO, and feels randomly placed. Try finding time to learn how to synthesize your own sounds and learn how to decide what sounds go with what. Build up your sound library and have sounds you keep going back to, and you'll eventually find "your sound". Also, study the structure of music you like and see what kind of structures you naturally gravitate towards. "Thing Scrap" doesn't have much structure, and having structure would have helped you decide what to do next.

The Wrap Remainder file actually takes the tail of the track and pastes it onto the beginning. Even if you do a small fade and remove the click, the actual pasted part is still there, so if you have a compositional issue, you should check that first. Ironically, if you imitate the Wrap Remainder algorithm manually, it's less prominent of an issue.

Done with my first batch (ready for the next 20)!

If a song is definitively orchestral, would we check any orchestral instruments under "Extra Instrumentation", or is that not necessary? I figure if it's "extra", it means instruments significantly used other than those in a typical orchestra. Also, would you be willing to put some sort of comments box in the form so someone could, for example, write a short overall description if words that they expect to find on the form aren't there, and their synonyms aren't available? (like "pleasant", "heroic", "yearning", or "evocative")

Why is there so much phaser on the violin? Phaser is sometimes OK, but using it for so long makes it feel overprocessed to me. Why not just play a clean tone on the violin and every now and then do something with the phaser? If it's a stylistic choice, I don't really get it. I guess my other confusion is, why are you a silhouette the whole time?

Sorry to say, but I would keep working on both of these. The Mega Man track had a lot of copy+paste, but the Metroid track had more textural development. The Metroid track can also use more arrangement development, variation, and dynamics; it feels like it doesn't really change gears past 4:04. The Metroid track is overall a bit better, but on both tracks, there seems to be a weird phaser effect on the violin, which felt like a muffled recording as a result. Both tracks had a strange, strained, overprocessed feel IMO. Dial back the effects and let the instruments breathe more.

Well, it still has a lot of odd bass writing decisions but there isn't pervasive clipping on loud parts anymore (see 1:40).

Mine is about 1:36 long so far. I've sort of done this glitch metal style before, but haven't really embraced it fully until now. Currently at the crazy part.

The drums don't have to feel real, but I think the sequencing should be less machine-gun-like to at least be more realistic. I say this because you do have the resources to do so. I did hear velocity variation in the strings, hi hat, and clean guitar, but it didn't come off as realistic to me; if you do vary the velocities, try doing it manually, rather than using some sort of pre-programmed humanization function in your DAW. You could add a few portamento notes here and there, pitch bends, filter motion, more intricate sequencing, or any combination of these. Vibrato really helps at the bare minimum though.

Yeah, I was doing some chemistry programming today and now I have an idea of what to do next on a track for the SFRG compo. =P

Try listening to new music and seeing what suddenly makes you smile. Maybe some of the following? https://soundcloud.com/isworks/plectra-series-2-highland-3 https://soundcloud.com/tonydickinson/mighty-wings-with-connor-engstrom-aaron-petersen https://soundcloud.com/isworks/juggernaut-alash-kala-dressed https://soundcloud.com/zircon-1/no-regret-ft-chris-gordon http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02939