Clem

Another new version: http://tindeck.com/listen/zqcm I made a much more interesting lead into the intro. I'm glad you brought it up cause this is just way better to me. I also made a weird pad thing playing what vaguely sounds like the main melody in the background of the intro. I think it fills it out a little bit. I made major changes to the drums throughout most of the track, starting with the first "big riff". I think I was finally able to see what you've been saying about the drums. Don't hesitate to say if they still sound off to you though. Are the out of tune notes your referring to happening at about 4:09? I'm not a huge fan of the "IT'S A STYLE! :twisted:" defense, but the out of tune effect is somewhat intentional. It's caused by slowly releasing a whole-step bend. Part of the problem may be my execution. If it sounds too jarring I can come up with something else there (though I do kinda like it how it is). I made the drums lead into the break at the end of the buildup. I think it helps make it sound much more flowing. I tried to lead into the final climax with a hard drum hit. I think it works, but it might need a little more. As far as mixing and mastering. I found that in the multiband compressor I was running on the master track, I was really flattening everything but the master band. I really cut back on that and I think it made the song sound much less squashed overall. A step in the right direction at least. I lowered the levels of the effect at 4:55. Tell me if it still sounds abrasive. I added a few effects here and there to make some of the parts more interesting. For the final submission, I going to render it at a higher bit rate. I have it at only 125kb because my encoder has been misleading me about the file size, which I have been trying to keep under 8MB. Again, thanks for your comments. They've been really helpful.

Here's the newest version: http://tindeck.com/listen/mvwt I made a new intro, outro, and build to the climax. For the intro I decided to reuse the riff that I was using for the outro in the last version. I really liked the sound of the natural harmonics and I didn't wanna cut it. I also really cut back on the gman vocal samples. The build to the climax is all new. Only similarity is the chord progression. The outro is also all new. I really like how it turned out, personally. I totally axed the old intro. It kinda hurt to drop something I spent so much time on, but I think it's better this way. I tried to address the issues with the drum track. I think I was able to make it sound more solid overall. Probably there are a couple things I can do to improve the buildup to the climax, but I have a lot to learn about using synths, so fire away your suggestions.

Hey, Thanks a lot for the in depth review. I've started working on addressing the issues you brought up. I'm planning on changing the intro and outro quite drastically. I'm also definitely going to take your advice for the buildup to the climax. I've already started working on that and I'm really liking what I'm hearing. I also see what you're saying about the drum patterns. I'll try to come up with some more solid grooves. Again, thanks for taking the time to listen and tell me what you thought.

Yeah, I might tweak the mixing on gman's voice a little bit before I submit to the panel. And I would love to put in some really groovy bass playing in the outro, but the sampler I'm using is really not good (probably the weakest link of the mix). Anyway, I'm gonna be out of town for the week, so if a mod reviews this and I don't reply it's not cause I'm ignoring you. I'll be back next week!

I really like this mix. It reminds me of Boards of Canada. The fact that the song is somewhat repetitive doesn't really bother me that much because what is there is so chill, and you do mix it up a little bit with subtle details when you reprise the sections. I really like the part where you reverse the percussion, by the way. Sounds really groovy

You should be proud. This is excellent. I'm sorry I can't be more useful I guess I do kinda echo your own sentiment regarding the trumpet solo. It sounds great, but it could be mixed to fit in a little better, I think.

Ok, I took my idea for the intro and ran with it to come up with a really eerie piece of work. It's easily the most experimental part of the mix so I suppose a few listeners might be a bit torn on it. I think this really is the final version. I'm really happy with the mixing and mastering this time. I'd like to thank all of you for listening and telling me what you thought throughout this song's development; its been a big help. Final version: http://tindeck.com/listen/krev EDIT: source:

So I messed around with that intro a bit. Breaking up the speech tended to make it sound really unnatural to me (if it's really even possible to make gman sound more unnatural than he already does), but I did see where you were coming from. What I did was try to change the musical sounds to be more ambient and in the background so that gman's speech could be more up front and the timing issues between his words and the music would be less pronounced. I'm not really sure if it worked. Just let me know if you think I'm heading in the right direction. I would really like to make this intro work, because I like the idea of having this tense and atmospheric buildup into the main part of the song. Aside from that I cut the strings from the first "wahwah" part to make it sound much cleaner and I changed the transition from the second "big riff" into the part with the Breen samples. Link: http://tindeck.com/listen/lugy

So I spent a lot of time listening closely to this mix and, contrary to what my last post says (sorry), I was able to improve this song quite a bit more on all fronts, I think. Most noticeably, I extended the intro and the outro (I'm really happy with the new outro), and I also totally redid the mixing and mastering. I believe I was able to make the whole thing sound quite a bit more professional. Not sure if I made the kick drum a little too loud so if anyone thinks so, be sure to let me know. Here is the newest version http://tindeck.com/listen/kpvh Since I changed the mix I'm reverting this back to finished status.

I think It's finally done. No really major changes on this version. I couldnt really think of an alternate ending that didnt sound "tacked on" to me. In my opinion, what I have been using as an ending is pretty effective; somewhat unexpected, but still satisfying. I was able to improve the mix a bit more, and make the drums more dynamic in certain parts of the song. I've spent more time than I care to admit trying to get the mix to sound good, but there are still parts here and that that sound just a little off to me and I cant quite figure out why. I think this is about as far as my current abilities will take it. Here it is: http://tindeck.com/listen/igkp I'm gonna go ahead and set this to mod review now. EDIT: here is the source again

There shouldn't be any clipping since the mix never goes above 0db (unless I'm missing something); however, i don't doubt that you're hearing something. I think it may be more over compression or something like that. It would help a lot if you could tell me specifically which part of the song sounds off to you. As for bumping it up to mod review. I was gonna just leave it in finished for another day or two as per the guidelines in the sticky. No need to rush it too much as i'm sure there are a few more details I could tighten up. EDIT: and I was also wondering if the mix as a whole sounds loud enough to you guys. The strings at the start are very quiet in the last version so I fixed that, but even the louder parts seemed a bit quiet and I was wondering if it was just me.

Ok, here is yet another updated version: http://tindeck.com/listen/sotl (gone now) I think i was successfully able to get the mix sounding much better and I incorporated better string samples. If the mix still doesnt sound quite right then dont hesitate to say so. Ill see if I can think of an improved ending as a finishing touch. Today i spent most of my time trying to fix the mix up and I think i finally got something that will work. EDIT: I realized that mix i just posted was badly over compressed. Here is a better one: http://tindeck.com/listen/rxdj

Made some mixing changes: http://tindeck.com/listen/wtlt Not sure if i fixed the issue you were hearing so it may need a bit more tweaking, but I think this is ready to move to finished, which I will do as soon as i figure out how. Edit: this is kind of embarrassing but, despite my best efforts, I cant figure out how to change the thread tag. Anyone wanna help me out?

Here is the latest version: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/eovd I upgraded the drum samples again and improved many of the beats. I also made a new intro. I think this is getting pretty close to being done. Again, thanks for all the comments so far. Let me know if you all think this is about ready to bump up to finished.

I hear what your saying about the drums in those part. I'm kinda torn about it, because I can see your point, but i do kind of like the "glitchy" kinda feel it gives to those parts of the mix. Whenever i try to change it it just doesn't sound right to me because I've listened to the song a countless number of times and I've had a pattern like that since i started the project. This may be keeping me from being objective about it. And im wondering if you think the new samples are good enough, or if they still don't work. I probably wont be able to get really really nice sounding samples for this mix, not only because I don't have any really good sampler, but because my tracks are all set up for this particular sampler that I'm using. In short, it would probably be really time consuming to implement a whole new drum sampler because I would have to remix and reprogram all of the drum tracks. Implementing an external drum track may end up being a lot of trouble, but if you can somehowget me some of your ideas for beats ill be happy to listen to them.

Overall this sound pretty solid to me. The drum track has a really nice fast pump to it with lots of well placed fills here and there that keep it interesting. The tone on the rhythm guitar is also good, but if i had to nitpick i would say that maybe it could use a little bit more lows cause it seems to get overpowered sometimes (like at the end after the cool harmony part for instance). The rhythm playing itself is really good. I like the riffs you use here. The main criticism i could level at the mix is probably regarding the lead. I think it could really benefit from some cool harmonies interspersed throughout (maybe another guitar, or a synth). I think it would make the whole thing sound a lot more dynamic if you played some of the melodies at a higher octave as well. All that said, the lead is certainly not bad, I just think it could be improved with some dynamics. Pretty good stuff regardless, if you ask me.

I just uploaded a newer version here (has a proper title now): http://www.tindeck.com/listen/odgm Lots of changes this time. Probably the biggest change is that I added all new drum samples. I also redid the guitar tracks to tighten them up and changed some of the rhythms. I changed a bunch of the drum patterns as well, and overall the drums seem to be much more powerful to my ear; but I'm still hearing some noticeable mixing issues and having trouble fixing them. Let me know what you think of this, and thanks for all the comments so far!

I'm not at all offended by your comments on the drums. Honestly I do agree with you almost completely. Drums have always been tough for me to do. I'll be sure to continue messing around with the drum patterns themselves to make them sound more interesting (some feedback on specific parts of the song that you find to sound a bit off would be helpful for me here). I definitely agree with you on the actual sound of the drums. the quality of the samples I'm using just is not very good. I'm really just using stock samples that i scraped up on the web and mixed and matched for the best effect. I'll follow your advice for mixing them (as well as other general mixing advice you gave), but i think what would really help the most would just be getting all new samples. I just gotta find some. I can also understand how the panning in the "wah" part of the song might sound a bit cheesy. Ill experiment with that. Also, I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say phasing rhythms. Do you mean that first break leading into the main melody? Anyway, thanks a lot for continuing to give me your thoughts on the mix. It's really a big help.

Alright, I recorded two rhythm tracks and panned em hard to the left and right. I think this noticeably thickened up the mix in many parts of the song. I also spiced up the drums throughout the song, which I think gives the mix some new dynamics. Also, i rolled the compression back on the drums just a bit. Finally, I added a step filter to the lead for the first melody and added some effects to the ending. Thanks a lot for your feedback. Panning those rhythm guitars made a pretty big difference, I think. Here is the latest version: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/fzui let me know if you think the switch from the heavily processed lead in the melody to the standard lead tone sounds a bit too abrupt.

This is a remix of a particularly dark tune from HL2 that I always really liked. The original is done in an industrial/techno style and I wanted to keep that vibe while still incorporating my heavy metal style guitar playing into the mix. I am having trouble really finishing this track. I think the arrangement is pretty good, but I'm having some trouble with mixing certain parts of the song. Of particular note are a few parts where I am having trouble getting the drums to cut through the mix. I'm looking forward to hearing what any of you all think of this. here is the mix: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/brxd The file name on the mix is a little messed up. I totally misremembered song's title when i saved it and i thought i would leave it for now just for laughs. Here is the source: