timaeus222

c'mon dude hurry up c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon

I read this as "Worlds Coming Apart, Summer 2015!"

I did read it, but without it, it doesn't make as much sense. I think if it depends on the story too much, it's not so much an independent song as it is background music. Irrespective of the story being there, the computer sounds aren't accompanied by anything else, so they're bare. It's like taking a movie and turning it into a blank screen with the sound intact.

This is really coming along. Keep it up.

In general I think it succeeds in arranging the source recognizably, but what was the point of the random computer sounds at 3:02 towards the end? At that point you've basically given up on arranging anything. This needs more sophistication to the arrangement. You just have this ambient track that stops 3/4 of the way through to throw sound effects at people. There needs to be a more substantial way that your computer sounds contribute to the arrangement. Otherwise, it's just tacked on at the end for no reason. The arrangement itself though, stays in one or two gears the whole time. It just doesn't do much. Maybe integrating another VGM can make it more interesting.

Very carefully.

Sounds like a multi-voiced, slightly detuned legato saw wave with some resonance, glide/portamento, and a filter envelope that starts closing after about a second (decreasing cutoff frequency but not resonance). To get that vibrato, try linking an LFO to the pitch with a depth of about 1 semitone. The right choice of filter, and the right amount of resonance and vibrato would probably help too.

Listen to music on speakers earlier and turn it up?

Yeah, I realize this track isn't supposed to be attention-grabbing and crazy and whatnot, but intricate details to fill in the soundscape would take you a long way. Even a more complex layering to the pads would help.

What do you mean by surround? The instruments here do sound too wide still. The max panning I would do for an orchestra is about 50% wide. You usually don't hear one this wide unless you're front-row or something. Try imagining being in about the 10th row instead. Did you do any additional panning aside from default panning positions? I also think the latin vocals seem a bit unnecessary, and also too far left. Again, the writing sounds good, but the panning and volumes sound off.

Just edit the first post in the Full Editor and add a Mod Review tag to the beginning.

The intro to me sounds pretty bare. Mainly, the pad you have is pretty thin and lacking motion, and since it seems like it's supposed to be ambient/atmospheric, the lead brassy sound seems missing some reverb. Maybe some Valhalla-like reverb could work. Also, at 0:29 - 0:54, I'm pretty sure the arp is harmonically clashing with the pad (a bit). The intro, I wouldn't say is boring per se, but it's not particularly elaborate of a soundscape and feels rather empty at the moment. It starts getting more interesting at 0:58 though, but not until 1:27 does the soundscape actually seem to change that much from the first seconds. The sine-wave-like sound at 2:47 is the type of detail I would be looking for; fill in that soundscape, because based on the arrangement, this feels like it's supposed to be atmospheric overall. 3:23 was a nice shift to a darker mood. I think a smooth, deep analog bass could work pretty well there, and it's also a place where you could really bring on the sweeping pads, glockenspiel/bells, tubular bells, etc. At 4:00 - 4:28, it's a bit personal preference, but maybe the kick could start fading in instead of starting loud, just to ease the listener back in gradually. You may find these as something to be inspired by.

With the tempo comment, what I mean is that sudden tempo switches can throw people off guard. It takes time to ease into a new tempo, and I personally don't do many tempo changes because I think it's hard to make it work without raising eyebrows. With timings, YMMV; with nonphysical instruments I don't mind as much, but with realistic instruments, stiff timing highlights how sampled they are, and even slightly random timing in either direction (a few ms) helps. Besides what I mentioned, I don't have anything else to mention; maybe it doesn't seem like much, but I think it's enough to last you if you keep referring back to this list and seeing if any of these still are issues.

You can download it and load it into an audio editor. It should display the waveform amplitude vs. time.

Just edit the first post and add a Mod Review tag to the first tag on the list. Use the Full Editor and you'll see it.

Here's a summary of the main things I would look at: - Multiple different tempos (I didn't mention this earlier, but it sounded like you switched tempos a few times without signaling it first) - Clashing harmonies (again, didn't mention earlier but it's there; it sounds like your backing instrumentation has chords in a different key to the leading instrumentation) - Loudness of certain instruments (like your synth lead playing the Chemical Plant Zone melody and the slap bass VST) - Checking reverb amounts - Minimizing the amount of EQ overboosts - Checking velocity magnitudes and timing offsets to reduce stiffness and improve realism

No problem! Stitched sequencing is when you use multiple instances of an instrument, each sourcing from different sets of samples, and you spread out your notes over the set of instrument instances so that some MIDI channels play sustain, some play vibrato, etc. But maybe you're not doing that. Variation in tone is a bit subtle; there's something called Round Robins in sample libraries, which basically means a set of samples of the same note is rotated so that not the same sample is played every single time. If the same sample is played multiple times in a row, I tend to call it "machine-gun-like". The variation in tone is not always obvious. Reverb can sound in various ways; there are more metallic tones, more ambient tones, and so on, and it depends on the balance between low-mids, midrange, and treble reflections (if those settings are available). If the difference in tone is too drastic for example (and this is exaggerated), maybe an instrument sounds like it's in a closet, but another instrument using a different reverb instance sounds like it's in an auditorium.

Koto-ish When the koto (or whatever it was) first comes in, at about 0:00 - 0:08, the velocities just register as stiff to me; did you adjust the magnitudes and quantization? It feels quite on-the-grid, and it's especially noticeable because (and when) you're playing chords. I usually write the bottom chord note coming first, and the top chord note coming last. If the person is plucking two notes at the same time on different strings, then I just slightly offset the timings in whichever direction since one finger might just be faster than the other. Consider checking this stiffness in other spots for the (presumed) koto---even a few ms of offset matters, and it really helps to adjust the velocity magnitudes on each chord note, too. I tend to have the first note quietest and last note loudest on a strummed chord, and for plucking two notes at the same time on different strings, they may be close in velocity more often than not. Also, I'm not sure how the ADSR envelope for the koto is set up (or if you can look into that at all), but assuming the release is low and the decay and sustain are high, perhaps if you want to minimize the amount of times the (seemingly pre-recorded) vibrato is heard, I would guess that you can just shorten the length of the sequenced note and it should stop the note before it reaches the pre-recorded vibrato in the sample. With a sample like that, I would try to minimize the amount of pre-recorded vibrato that ends up playing so that it doesn't sound so fake. Ideally, if possible, you should adjust the ADSR envelope so that the vibrato hardly ever plays, and then record your own vibrato manually using pitch bend "event edits" or "automation clips". That way it's more human. By the way, with "pre-recorded vibrato", I mean "baked into the sample". (was that "stitched" sequencing of more than one instrument instance?) ----- Erhu I agree that the erhu doesn't have much realism; its slow attack coupled with its same-y tone makes it stick out as lacking variation in tone (through round robins). I also find that ride sample that comes soon after, a bit distracting (the one panned rather far right). ----- Big Picture / tl;dr (major: reverb, timing stiffness, velocity magnitude sameness, vibrato sameness) Overall, this kind of reminds me of the Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon OST (great OST). This atmosphere works pretty well in terms of the instruments chosen. Still kinda rough around the edges on getting the instruments to sound realistic (various stiff areas in the timings, especially with chords, and the amount of times a seemingly pre-recorded vibrato plays). Another good idea is to keep the instrumentation sounding like it's all in the same room. I think the ideas are pretty good so far, but I also think, if you have the options available, refining the cohesion between reverb tones (whether the reverb is primarily low-mids, midrange, or treble reflections, where the low cut and high cut of the reverb "wet signal threshold" are, etc) would help. Unfortunately I think it's something you'd have to isolate in your DAW and listen for, and it's not something I can hear in the full context since it's pretty subtle. Generally, low-mids reflection adds low end ambience, midrange reflections may sound a bit metallic if overdone, and treble reflections should sound "hissy" if overdone. The low and high cut basically jointly mark the frequency range that the reverb will affect. Everything below the low cut frequency won't be affected, etc.

For 2002, this is actually pretty good! I liked it! One of your better old ones IMO. This is very listenable, even today. Cool e. piano sound! I wonder if you've tried the jRhodes3 soundfont yet; that's my favorite free e. piano sample, and probably the best free one you can get in terms of round robins and tone (otherwise I just use my synthesized e. pianos, or I whip out Neo-Soul Keys).

Sounds great! My only minor complaint is that maybe it could have had another second or two of tail at the end (it seemed to end a touch too quickly).

What I heard was a note that had a sudden volume dip for a short moment. If it was a low velocity note, I think it would just be quieter. Maybe a volume or CC11 automation got a stray low point, or it wasn't as smooth as it could be. Really though, it's a very minor point, and I only pointed it out to help Neifion with attention to detail. It doesn't detract (IMO) from what is still great.

I didn't know he wrote for Land Before Time. I'm pretty sure I had up to the 9th movie on VHS back then. RIP

Then let's do it? C'mon man, I'll even lend you a hand. (and by that, I mean collab)

If a source tune has vocals, and someone made a ReMix for OCR with the same lyrics, but a different melody and harmonies (but similar-sounding blend to the harmonies), would that still count as source usage? Specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKye8frl9Qc - Original https://app.box.com/s/d7wsat6dt4dlx8ul9yjzqij3xdh3vkd9 - ReMix The original seems vocoded, and mine is vocoded.