timaeus222

I develop one skill at time, doing a bit of it every day to make it more natural, like muscle memory, but I only try when I feel the need to learn it. I don't really play the drums, but I can imagine someone playing drums and that's good enough for me. Similarly, I no longer play the guitar, but I still can imagine an expert guitarist and sequence a realistic electric guitar as if that person was playing it. If I do something with an instrument in a day, I usually end up aiming to recreate something I hear.

What happened at 1:18? For a bit it felt like a note got pushed down in the middle, and then at 1:20 it was fine again. Otherwise, sounds really good! I think it comes pretty close to the original.

What "selected knob"? I think it's more likely that your individual instrument volumes were too loud, and your Limiter just pushed them down. Without the Limiter on, does your Master track read red? Regardless, did you change your default sound settings on Windows? You need to make sure the Sound settings for the so-called "Playback Enhancements" are turned off, because they alter the final result of your listening experience, especially the loudness. They will affect how you mix, and won't give you an accurate perception of your music. On Windows 7 (Sound > Playback Device > Properties > Enhancements), the options are called "Environment", "Voice Cancellation", "Pitch Shift", "Equalizer", "Headphone Virtualization", and "Loudness Equalization".

Note-wise it shows promise. I think the buildups are all the same though, and in some cases it works and in others it gives a false sense of energy. The buildup you have at 0:08 - 0:16, 0:39 - 0:47, 1:01 - 1:09, 1:27 - 1:31 and 1:42 - 1:46 have identical snare sequencing and/or ambient hits, but they're all used for different purposes. The first and second ones prepare me for something so high energy that I feel disappointed when I don't get that. The third one makes some sense, but I'm still not getting something as high energy as you make me anticipate. The fourth one didn't even build up to anything (if it wasn't there, I wouldn't notice a thing different), nor the last one either (is this track incomplete or is that supposed to be an ending?). Huh? Drum programming is supposed to reflect the current level of energy in a track, and evoke a sense of where you are going, structurally. It can also set a particular mood, or, in buildups, make you anticipate a change in the level of energy. Try thinking about what you want your listener to think by the time they listen to the end of the buildups you do, and if your writing doesn't imply or match that, then it doesn't make sense for the buildup to be there, or it doesn't make sense for the buildup to lead to that particular section in your track. Snare buildups with continually subdivided hits implies the anticipation of quite a high energy section. Also, while not quite as important since it's supposed to be for a game AND it's supposed to be EDM, in my opinion, the piano notes sound too mechanical because they're detached at times when the notes played make more sense objectively to ring on rather than stop suddenly in the middle of their decay (0:00 - 0:02, for example, is easiest to notice IMO). To be more specific, it sounds like they're literally being muted as they're being played, which I have never seen a real pianist purposefully do. What you could do to help this is to, again, practice using reverb and putting it to use. Reverb would have helped to hide the mechanical notes on this piano sample. tl;dr: Practice more with reverb, and try to think about when your buildups sound anticlimactic or out of place. For a cliche example of what not to do in EDM: https://soundcloud.com/zeb-ro/hashtag

I kinda agree with Kristina that the first saw lead was a little underwhelming. It's lacking some extra expression to make it even more interesting, and it feels a bit too low-passed to cut through. It's not so bad that I'd replace it, but it could have been a bit brighter. The marimba/xylophone that occasionally comes in feels a touch sharp, but nothing major (hah, get it? Sharp... major... ). The track overall sounds slightly lofi (~16000 Hz and above are rolled off or not present). I definitely hear the anime-opening feel though, and I think it's cool how well it reminds me of that. Kind of like if Phoenix Wright (or even Dragon Ball) had a new anime season and this was the opening theme. Feels like an elevated 80s~90s-inspired track.

I gave a quick listen to each track, and it sounds like the main thing I think you could improve on is avoiding overcompression (or overly intense sidechaining) in Safe in your Arms and in Altered State. Similarly, Dub Moon Rising is strangely quiet overall, and feels overcompressed, or you have a dull kick drum that is coupled with overly intense sidechaining. It's odd since it's dubstep and I usually find dubstep songs on soundcloud to be very loud. It's not wrong to be too quiet, but I don't want to have to turn my volume up for your song but then turn it down for others. Mainly I would work on trying to find a better limiter that is more tolerant to your loud mixing (relative to the limiter threshold), such as TLs-Pocket Limiter or FabFilter Pro-L, but I would agree that compositionally the songs could have a more well-defined structure and a more logical flow to the arrangement. Currently I can skip through them without missing anything climactic or hearing textural contrasts. If you can skip about 15 seconds along your song a few times and you can tell that something feels substantially different, you'll be on the right track IMO. An experiment you could try is to listen to your songs with your computer monitor turned off. Soundcloud may cloud your judgment on how good or bad your transitions and flow are because you can see the waveform and you can usually tell what's going to happen (it's gonna get quiet here; it's gonna drop here, etc).

Did you accidentally change your accessible range in the VST wrapper? In a VST channel, under the Plugin tab, there should be a mini piano strip. Normally the C5 is highlighted orange. Try dragging the left edge of it all the way left until you reach the beginning of C0, and the right edge of it all the way right until you reach the end of C9 to expand the accessible range to 100%.

Classic Chimpazilla with the groovy disco feel! I think the melodic syncopation was an effective way to adapt to 4/4. I think maybe the gated vox could have left at 1:39, but it's no big deal. Dat zircon lead though! The highlight of this track was 2:12 - 2:44.

Hm. Well, I like the atmosphere you had going on. Nice touch with the subtle plucking starting at 0:46 on the right. There were a few compositional choices I think could have been improved though: - The OSC-sync-like phasing sound at 0:56 - 1:13 feels like it goes so low that it loses a tonal center, and I guess I could describe it better by saying that you could hear a similar effect by playing chords on a piano. If you play a C major chord near middle C, it sounds great. If you play it 4 octaves down, it sounds like mush because the frequencies are more closely spaced. In this case, I think that's happening, but on that phasing sound. - At 1:44, it felt like something bassy was introduced, but it felt indistinct. Something percussive, maybe a bass drum. It comes back at 2:01. I think it could have been replaced with something more audible, because it clashes with the bass sound you seem to have there too. Overall I do dig the vibe you had when you introduced that sound at 0:20 (was that the nyckelharpa?), and there are some subtle additions to the soundscape that ultimately help fill it in. It's mostly cohesive, tonally. I just think stepping back and listening to the big picture, and seeing if everything sounds distinct enough, would help on making a clearer track.

Early on, I like the atmosphere. The pad is active enough for me that things feel full enough, so far. Nice bass line. At 0:52 and on, I agree with Joe, but I think the melody is too thin, to be more specific. I would rather it come out more in the midrange, rather than above the upper-mids. It needs a more midrange tone to fill in the hollowness of the soundscape. The soundscape continues to be hollow throughout. I think this is the biggest issue. There is a large gap in the midrange frequencies, which makes the frequencies above ~2000 Hz seem more piercing (though they are a little piercing regardless), at least at 0:52 - 3:12. What midrange elements you have are just too quiet to contribute significantly enough that they matter. They should be louder or there should be more midrange content. I personally didn't like the sax/flute parts. They felt out of place to me, narrow, and were more lofi than the other instruments, so for me, they stuck out too much as lower quality, in terms of fidelity. A bit of personal taste here. At 3:12, you did have that quick piano interjection, which helped for a few seconds, and then the midrange becomes empty again, until 3:44. Why not use that piano earlier on? You had something going there. At that point until the end, the melody still stands out as piercing to me, even though the percussion fills in some midrange. I didn't mind the ending as much, but I see where Joe's coming from. Overall, the major concern I have is that the midrange is too empty at 0:52 - 3:12 and 3:16 - 3:44, and the bells are a little piercing all the way through 0:52 - 4:18. To help the emptiness, I think a thicker melodic instrument with more upper-mids and mids would work better, and I think there should be more midrange elements or louder midrange elements. It's a pretty good skeleton so far; just needs more meat.

Joe has a way with quirky arrangements that work rather well. This is no exception!

Hm. The latest two mixposts (3141 and 3142) have no comments displayed in the ReMix Details page, but in the regular forums they're there. I also get an error when I click "View Complete Thread" or "Post Your Own". Firefox 36.0.1 Windows 7 EDIT: Awesome, thanks!

Mine's pretty much done. I'm just seeing if I want to do anything else with it.

Yeah; ampersands as well.

Now this is heavy! Only thing I'd say is that the guitars are a little midrange-heavy (1~2 dB), so that may explain why Larry hears the slightly buried leads ('cause I agree). But ah well, 'tis still drop E-flat without flabby strings, wha-?

Liking the intro here. Cool concept. When the piano comes in, I do hear a lack of variation in tone, since it doesn't really blend into the soundscape that well. The combination of instruments in the beginning makes me think it should be an ambient intro, so maybe that could be something interesting to try. The rigid piano sequencing is not nearly as noticeable as in WIP 1 though, so I think the sequencing has improved. However, it gets more noticeable at 0:46 with the blocky chord writing. I think you need a sample with more velocity layers, and more intentional reverb to make the lack of variation in tone less noticeable. The mechanical piano continues though later on and it's just everywhere in the ReMix, so this is a major point. The chopped guitar at 2:29 - 2:33 really threw me off. I think that it wasn't necessary and was kinda distracting and unexpected, actually. Looks like you took out the vocal clips and rock section. =P Well, to me it looks like there aren't as many transition issues as were pointed out by the judges. The main things I would look into are just getting a better piano sample with more velocity layers, reworking the velocities to give a more realistic performance, and more importantly, make sure you have enough Fairy Fountain in here. The sounds you chose are pretty cohesive so far, so the concept works as far as I'm concerned.

I like the chords you're using. The instruments though have little to no expression and reverb; the synth lead has no vibrato or variation in velocities, the piano has no variation in velocities or rhythm, the drums are on autopilot, and the bass pattern sounds copied and pasted. It's a good start, but there should be more attention to detail on the sequencing to make it more realistic and personalized, and the lack of reverb makes the piano, especially, sound more stiff. (I'm not recommending, however, to put reverb on the bass) I think it would help to re-read that reverb article I showed you earlier, and see if you can put it to use while practicing with a reverb plugin---putting something into practice pretty much requires actually using it, so... yeah.

The kick feels pretty muffled to me, and the snare isn't really coming through the hi hats. Other than that, this is sounding pretty rad!

There were some pretty good entries this round! One of the strongest rounds, in my opinion.

This is one of my favorites of yours, man. Loved the jazz solos, and DAT CHIFFY LEAD. Really makes your "sound" distinct.

Hm... I'm getting drums, and I'm getting bass, but not exactly Drum 'n Bass. Didn't really make my hype-o-meter go off. That aside, it's a pretty interesting, minimalist approach to a ReMix. Nice use of FM crackling to make things more disorienting, in a good way.

Hm? Do what? Well, it has a USB port so you can plug it into your computer and drag music into it like a regular folder, and the 32 is in addition to the harddrive space it comes with. It charges via USB. You can't play music while it's plugged in, though I don't think that's a big deal. I have a slightly older model (circular buttons, otherwise the same), but mine is about 1.25" x 2" x 0.25", more or less. I'm also kind of LOLing at the claimed dimensions; 5" x 5" rectangle? Wha-? xD

Yeah, I actually have a Sansa Sandisk, and although I broke it somehow, I heard it can hold a 32 GB micro SD card. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MAPS6W?tag=price301-20&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER It does play MP3, and it does organize by Artist, Album, etc. It even has a little option to tune into the radio and record stuff off the radio. =p

Well, there is an option to allow both left/right click in the piano roll, so you could right click to remove any number of notes. *shrug*

Sounds like a nylon guitar to me! Sometimes the chords could have used more "open" (separated by another octave) voicings to reduce low-end clashing, and at 2:08-on there were some resonances in the midrange, but otherwise, nice job on this! Warm tone, and relaxing atmosphere.