timaeus222

It does sound improved! It's not super realistic, and it sounds looped, but it's definitely one of the better free-soundfont orchestral remixes I've heard. As for the cymbal, I kinda wish you could have found some sort of cymbal roll to vary up the type of cymbal hits you have going on. That way it doesn't sound like the cymbalist is waltzing around playing like he/she was in a marching band. What if you just replaced the tom with an orchestral snare?

Well, right off the bat, the guitar just sounds tonally and notationally fake, quite literally like a computer is playing it. :/ The writing isn't bad, but the fake guitar is really bringing this down. It's kind of inherent in rock and metal that you need realistic guitars. They don't have to be super convincing, but they aren't up to snuff here IMO. You're hitting point #2 on this post: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/40776-mixing-what-am-i-missing/?p=785497 and points #4 and 8 in the last section of this post: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/25003-post-most-common-mixingmusic-problemsmistakes-you-see/?p=784385 Basically, you need to train your ear to pick out good sounds. I honestly think this is more of a writing issue than a mixing issue. This can't be mixed to sound like a convincing rock track because the specific samples chosen here are pre-distorted and lack round robins. An example of a normal rock track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5nMWTR7wb0 If you compare the two, it should be noticeably different on the tonal realism.

Yeah, it's definitely better. I hear more cuts were made in the bass. The bass instrument is a little clearer. I kinda get a Pokemon Heroes feel from this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld3JPWdt7JI). Maybe this can be a nice reference track for the mixing above 200 Hz. The brass is more lively than before, though the marimba and harp are getting buried. You need that detail work to shine through if you want this to sound clean. This will ask for a lot of skill to mix, for sure. If you want me to help you on this, I'm willing to accept the challenge. - This needs more attention to detail on the small stuff, like the buried marimba (it's okay before 0:31), and the 0:42 run thing with the... is that a buried harp? Hard to tell. - As I'm listening to this, the staccato strings sound better and less lofi than the other strings at 0:39 - 0:47. - 1:05 - 1:17 is just missing a brighter lead. Lots of stuff is indistinct there. What happened with the strings and the brass there? Dull articulations, perhaps? Needs brighter layers on the strings and brass. Listen for more sections like this with buried or dull instruments. - 1:40 and other places where the timpani tries to come through... it just muds up the soundscape. That's more of a writing issue than a mixing issue. Maybe you can omit a few bass notes before the breakdown at 1:41. It's not THAT bad, but it's a little bad. Also, I don't agree with Kristina there; it doesn't sound like an ending at all. There are clearly some swells on the strings to keep things going, and the drum fill worked (though the swell could be more obvious). - Good improvement on the breakdown section; I can hear the flute and brass are a little more highlighted in the update, and the partwriting is a bit more complex. - When Juan's guitar comes in at 2:21, there's a weird lack of upper treble. I know I said try cutting more often than boosting, but I meant in terms of stuff below the midrange. If you can hear the difference AND it sounds good, then sure. If you aren't sure, don't do it. I limit myself to doing only edits I can hear. It may seem self-explanatory, but some people have trouble with this. - Everything's brighter overall, which is great. I think some stuff was way cluttered in the climax in the previous version. That's kind of fixed now. The last ending note is fixed too. Overall, that was a nice update. There's a brighter feel overall to the EQ, and the partwriting came through a bit better. Could be even better though; I would focus on the places where the certain instruments or leads are not sticking out enough to be heard: 0:39 - 0:47 [strings, harp] 0:55 - 0:57 [marimba/xylophone] 1:05 - 1:17 [strings, staccato strings] 1:24 - 1:38 [marimba/xylophone] 2:26 - 3:11 [strings, brass, harp, marimba/xylophone] especially 1:05 - 1:17 and 2:26 - 3:11. You can hear Juan's guitar just fine, but all that stuff backing it at 2:26 - 3:11 is smearing together.

I'll sign up as a star again just 'cause.

There's muddiness in the bass from that... clicky percussion sound. What is that, a kick or tom drum or something? In general there's reverb washiness and bass muddiness overall, and kind of an overuse of the cymbal. Also, I don't hear any automation swells on the brass or strings. Everyone wants to play at a constant volume I suppose. It's unrealistic that way, though.

What does your bass guitar sound like by itself? It's still indistinct in the mix.

I think Shreddage X only went to drop A or something, and Shreddage Bass goes down to drop Bb. Shreddage 2X goes down to drop G, but that wasn't used in the demo.

What does your bass guitar sound like by itself? I think that's what could be improved. Maybe it's just me, but I think the guitar as-written sounds more "rock" than "metal" because it doesn't reach as low as some of the metal I listen to, and the bass guitar lacks a powerful low end. If you can get a meatier tone to your bass, that would be a great improvement. This could be a good metal reference track for this song; it's pretty similar.

Here's a bunch off the top of my head. Surely you can find ONE of these useful: Orchestral: https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/i-am-the-sentinel-credits - dramatic film score https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/dinosaur-dna - action score https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/unity - pretty much perfect bass https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/turn-my-crimson-into-white - african cinematic spiritual General Electronic: https://soundcloud.com/zircon-1/level-bounce - funky electro house/chiptune https://soundcloud.com/zircon-1/rise-of-pharaoh-remix-of-lara-croft-and-the-temple-of-osiris - middle-eastern drum & bass http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02367 - drum & bass with vocals https://soundcloud.com/isworks/celestia-terrarium-naked-by - ambient/atmospheric https://soundcloud.com/isworks/shreddage-2-nuclear-dubstep-by - Dubstep reference 1 http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02318 - Dubstep reference 2 Eastern: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02305 - General middle-eastern https://soundcloud.com/ocremix/11-tibetan-tussle-timaeus222 - middle-eastern big beat / dubstep http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02853 - far-eastern cinematic / dubstep http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02094 - meditative far-eastern Rock/Metal: https://soundcloud.com/isworks/shreddage-2-subterrenea-by-ian - Djent metal https://soundcloud.com/magnus-engdahl/wing-it - Common metal http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02293 - In-your-face rock http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02625 - Melt-your-face metal Solo Piano: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02962 - Nocturne http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03096 - General jazz http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02954 - "Freeform" jazz

Well yeah. I just wanted to type less. Strategic typing GO!

Have ya seen this topic? =P http://ocremix.org/community/topic/37172-metal-mixing-a-general-approach/ The drums sound pretty good, actually. I'd say, try not to high pass your guitars too much. They're a little thin, but not bad. Try high passing near around 100 Hz lightly (in FL Studio, use a slope of "2" instead of something like "Steep 4" or "Steep 6"), instead of near 200 Hz, and scooping as I mention in the topic I linked.

Here's a new video with me experimenting on a few synth I got! If you're into sound design and wanna learn what makes for an aggressive dubstep bass, I think you'll have some fun with this one! Length: 11:20 Just me trying out a new synth called Serum by Xfer Records. The presets are pretty generic, but the synthesis engine is fantastic.

For some reason it had never worked for me in the previous forum version anyhow. =P Yeah, needs to be a URL. Maybe try tinypic.com?

Heyyyyy! Naw, the clicks are gone! Are those the default FL kick/snare later on? =P I think you should layer the drums with some punchier layers to rise above the deep bass, and try finding a new limiter. RIght now the whole track is getting pushed down a bit much by the limiter, at least until 1:22 (but that's because there are less elements there). I'd suggest TLs-Pocket Limiter; it's simple, but I've yet to use a different one!

Yeah, the kick's there. So you wanted a silent kick on this? What you can do is link the kick drum to the bass track, do the sidechaining you did here (choose the kick as the sidechaining source on a limiter in the bass mixer track, lower the threshold to maybe 9:00, and raise the threshold to maybe 2:30), and mute its sending to the Master. If it still sounds like this after doing that, then I don't think it's a product of your kick somehow still being audible. Can you screenshot your limiter on your bass track?

Well, first of all the initial piano, though a little thin, is fine. The drop at 0:28 came a little early for me, but it's okay. A little much bass though, and lacking more fullness in the low-mids and midrange from some sort of chordal element. By samples you may have meant the cross-panned speaking, the random interjections, and the other vocal samples. Yeah, I don't think those were necessary. They stop the musical flow, don't really add anything creative, and sound cheesy IMO. Even if you didn't have them in there, there wouldn't have been any lacking component other than the midrange and low-mids mentioned above. Overall, not bad, but it could lose the cheesy vocal samples and have a fuller midrange and low-mids (except in spots similar to 1:57, where you do have that supersaw). Everything else sounds good as-is IMO for what you were going for.

The main thing is that there is a huge lack of transitions and many sudden source tune switches, making for a definite medley. You can have a completely cohesive sound palette being used here, but it won't change anything if there aren't enough transitions and the switch to a new source tune is so musically easy to distinguish. It'll stretch ya, but I think you should work on your transitions; it's a recurring thing I hear from you, and if you can get on more solid ground with transitions, you'll be several steps forward. In general I think your production is already pretty good.

Yeah, I still don't like the intro; it sounds like you sampled the original game and faded stuff in and out. It's just not creative, I definitely think it's medley-itis right now, and I think it would be to your benefit to start this at 1:00. It's much better at 1:00 and on. Furthermore, I still can't really hear Boss Select at 1:16 - 2:46. It's too liberal of an interpretation. It's like, 30% inspired by it. At 3:16, it just returns to the basic medley-itis that hit you in the beginning. The complete and utter stop at 3:16 just ended the remix for me. As far as I'm concerned, 3:17 starts something completely separate and just not related at all. Additionally, whenever you've been using melodies in this remix, it's been just repeating the melody over and over again. The bass at 4:10 was actually grating for me, and 4:23 was sudden and dissonant compared to what came before, at least until 4:30 where more harmonic context came in. Then at 4:41, somehow we skipped on over back to the first remix. I can't even talk about this without calling it two separate remixes. *shrug* At 5:08, we're back to the second remix with some sort of really resonant, painful high bell lead that should definitely, without a doubt, be replaced. It just hurts and melodically doesn't click until we're back to remix #1 at 5:39. Yeah, main issues are definitely: - Medley-itis, using the source tunes willy nilly - Extremely resonant lead at 5:08 - 5:39 - Stagnant intro until 1:00 - Lack of sufficient transitions

The main issues here are the sample choice and the partwriting, not so much the mixing. The main tom drum sounds like it was repitched as a sample (so it sounds fake), and it's on loop the whole time (so it's repetitive). Also, the strings and french horn sound too detached to be playing the parts you've written for each (so it sounds fake). Also, the panning's too wide for an orchestra. Are these hard-panned? Overall, the textures sound sparse and unfocused, and the panning's too wide. Try listening to this and paying close attention to the panning positions. Right now it doesn't sound like you have a focus for what you want each instrument to do. Were you inspired by anything when you wrote this? If so, listen more closely to what it was, try to imagine the song how you would want it, and think about what instruments are missing at each point in time. So far this sounds like everyone's vying for lead attention, and it's telling me that it's a standby theme for a boss battle.

? It didn't take that much work to get the modwheel working on FL for me (Windows, but still). I guess I'm careful or something.

I tend to be inspired by zircon, Stephen Anderson, and once each, Weather Report and Zalem (you'll see some Zalem-esque didgstep on the BadAss V3 album). Obviously with zircon the styles range pretty widely, from dubsteppy EDM, to expansive ambient, to aggressive D&B. Stephen Anderson is a hybrid orchestral film score composer, Weather Report is pretty snazzy Jazz Fusion, and Zalem... well, look below. I think I can pretty safely say I have my own style now though, in mixing dubstep with funky stuff. Some stuff from Stephen Anderson: https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/orc-wars-opening-sequence https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/covert-mission https://soundcloud.com/stephen-anderson/dinosaur-dna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYP4wKD-6J8 Some stuff from zircon: https://soundcloud.com/zircon-1/augment https://soundcloud.com/isworks/celestia-terrarium-naked-by http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02547 https://soundcloud.com/zircon-1/9-fiberoptics Some stuff from Weather Report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae0nwSv6cTU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMQUFvv0WRY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSUk8bSVHYc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7_vNpVXubA Some stuff from Zalem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ9TJmmwRBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXBGZoBYaLY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiozWbBNzT0 On a side note, I figured out how to post youtube links as links.

yeah, I was wondering where they were. =P

To save you time, it would be rejected based on the instruments being mechanical (fake), particularly the strings and the staccato lead (clarinet?). Interesting rhythmic similarity with the woodblock though; I think that part is valid arrangement. Based on 0:19 and on, which generally has more overt source usage, I think the lesser presence of scales compared to the original (which has more scales and less >1 whole-tone melodic jumps) makes your melody a bit too different, at least until 0:58 for me. 1:36 is the most obvious source usage IMO, and I can say that 1:36 - 1:55 is quite valid because it's in the context of a similar harmonic progression as well. Afterwards, however, it gets more liberal. Overall, I think this feels more inspired by the original than being an actual ReMix of the original. It's kind of borderline for me but I would lean towards it being too original.

How does your cord look while connecting? What I mean is, is it connecting straight on, or do you have to bend it quite a bit in an awkward way? I say that because I have to do it that way to put my keyboard in a nice playing spot, and occasionally (every few weeks) it gets disconnected, and I have to resecure the connection. Other than that, if it's a nice new cord, it should connect fine afaik, since you say it's connected before.