Chimpazilla

Oh jeez... thanks Zircon... any suggestions on what else to look at? The distortion is very mild, but I hear it... I have no idea where to look. This has never happened before Omnisphere. edit: I've soloed every single thing and it only happens when everything is playing.

Hi all, I just got Omnisphere and wow I love it! I've written a remix using it almost exclusively and it sounds amazing... but I noticed at the climax of the song (when everything is playing) there is some mild distortion/clipping. None of my metering indicates any visible problem (looked at every instrument and the master, nothing is clipping) so I looked into Omnisphere itself, and discovered that all the mixer faders (under multi) are set to 0.71db! I have right-clicked and "restored to default value" and that pops it back to 0.00... but as soon as I hit play in Fruity they pop back again to 0.71db. Does this happen to you (or is it just me)? Could this be causing my distortion problem (it sure seems like this is the problem)? How can I fix this? Sure I could lower the volumes of each channel pre-mixer in FL, but should I have to do that? Thanks for any advice on this. Or should I contact Spectrasonics?

You can always ask a question like that on the FL Studio forum. I had asked that exact question a couple of months ago and received the answer in five minutes from a "power user." They are very nice and helpful over there.

To move patterns around in FL: 1. in step sequencer, select the pattern you wish to move 2. put cursor in the black bar, just to the right of the down arrow next to pattern name (step sequencer must be "active," so make sure it is the last thing you clicked on before doing the next steps or it won't work) 3. hold "shift" 4. use mouse scroll wheel up or down to move pattern (again, your cursor must remain in the black bar area for it to work) Another nifty trick you can do, you can create pattern group names that don't hold any information, by simply naming a pattern something with "---" in it. I have my patterns organized as follows: ---drums--- drums 1 drums 2 ---bass--- bass 1 bass 2 And etc. Makes your patterns easy to find and work with.

Timaeus, do you know someone who plays guitar that you can collab with, ask them to play a part for you? There is probably someone on here you can ask, if you don't know anyone.

Listened to the first two: they sound sweet! Real... can't say... maybe moreso with some humanization... but they sound great. Third sample requires login to box. Do you have another link you could put up?

He is making remixes. He has quite a few wips in the forum already. He is doing all he can to learn this stuff as quickly as possible, as we all are. There are ways to convey even the worst possible information in a way that makes the recipient feel supported. We should all learn this life skill.

Again I reiterate... I've started by downloading a midi more than once. Call it training wheels, safety net, whatever. I've never used an entire midi for anything, maybe only one part, or a couple of bars. It has gotten me started, given me ideas, given me courage, given me a push. From a few bars or notes, I've taken off on songs in a way I couldn't without that headstart. I can't see how there is anything wrong with this, especially for someone new to composing. I would only caution against using an entire midi for something... that won't do much for you... and is a bad habit for sure. Use parts of it, get ideas, change it up, learn to be flexible. Is there any difference between using a midi sparingly, and doing a remix of an existing melody? In both cases isn't one using previously created material to launch their own original-ish work from?

I recently got Omnisphere. I downloaded a midi to a vgm song I like, just so I didn't HAVE to write it... I wanted to just practice with my new sounds on a piece I knew. I only ended up using 7 notes in the midi... and a full remix wrote itself on top of them. The midi inspired me massively although I barely used it. I suppose it was sort of a safety net. I think it is ok to start with a midi, for whatever purpose you need. Of course in the end result, the judges would never pass a suped-up midi, so Jordan as long as you are aware of that, midi yourself silly.

Hey PP! It's very cute... I don't know the source... but it sounds really really sparse and repetitive, and the plain synths I predict will be a problem (I usually have this problem myself, working on that). There are some chords that are, well, discordant. And the drums are very simple, judges hate that. It seems you've got a good start... but it will need more work for sure. I like the arp that starts at 1:48, some more interesting stuff like that wouldn't hurt! Good luck and keep at it.

You should always have a limiter as the last plugin on your master chain. The approx -1db setting is to keep you from clipping, ever. If your track is clipping, either something is too loud or you intended it for creative reasons. If using a limiter on your master is muddying up your mix, then the track is getting squashed by the limiter because something is definitely too loud somewhere in your mix. Use a metering plugin like Voxengo SPAN on each of your mixer tracks until you find the offending instrument and turn it down or compress it. That is a tremendous review. Keep in mind that those are Timaeus222's opinions... and some good suggestions... but not rules. edit: Timaeus, I didn't mean to single you out, so sorry! Jordan, many of us have given you suggestions. Some are no-brainer mixing tips that everyone should know. (I'm still learning all this stuff too) Others are matters of personal taste. Don't think you have to make every change suggested!

I think this is amazing!!! I LOVE the lo-fi beginning, you fooled me for sure! It sounds a bit thin in places, but mainly that's ok, maybe just that main lead could be filled out a little with some more unison voices, just to widen it a bit, especially for the parts where it is playing with not much else. Also that gating synth starting at 0:42 is only delayed on the right side, how about some left side love? It gets really noticeable (and annoying) at 1:27. And the track does get a bit sparse starting at 3:10, I'm waiting for moar stuff to happen here. Ending is... odd. Otherwise wow, this is really fun, glitchy and groovy!!!!! I enjoyed it.

Oh wow... that's really, really cool... it's like a patchwork of sounds... it sounds well mixed too... great lead... really fun and groovy! Good luck with the judges.

A tad repetitive in some spots... but super groovy and creative! I love that lead in the second half. Very nice track!

I would also like a good, dedicated brass vst. I have been using Miroslav (through Sampletank), which has some decent samples, but ST is a pain to load and sometimes crashes my daw altogether (also, it's expensive). I looked at Wivi Band, it is reasonably priced but the instruments are all modelled not sampled, and you've really got to know what you're doing (I don't) to make them work. They do have a demo you could try... I tried it but ST sounded better. Hhhmmm. So I'm stuck with my ST for now.

Gosh... that's impressive... wow... beautifully done song... nice video too.

Oki Doki Marioki update 4-24-12 Round 2. -Varied hat patterns for more dynamics. -Automated master volume and drum sum volume for quieter sections. -Added more interplay with backing groove. -Added extra backing elements. (my favorite is the "distant singer") -Changed/altered/layered most of the leads. I'm still not loving every lead. I have quite a few here. Which ones sound good or ok, and which ones really don't? -Rewrote some lead patterns, and lowered octaves of others, to avoid the "stupid high lead" effect. Is it improved? Does it still sound too basic? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- edit: I think I'm going to put this song on hold while I work on my instrumentation skills. This is my big weakness at this point, I feel. I may re-instrument this totally at a later date. If you would like to comment on the writing/arranging, that would be fine, though. Thanks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oops you're right... sssshhhhh... let's pretend I never mentioned it in THIS thread... it's epic beyond belief. I'm about 40 hours in.

I agree... I loved Okami... we played the first half straight through... then got stuck at Kaguya... I've tried so many times, daily for awhile, then once a week, then every other month... don't even remember where we were in the story anymore. Sucks. Maybe we'll give the PS version a try, one day. For the moment I'm heavily into... Xenoblade! I'm loving this game.

Did this work for you? It didn't for me. My son keeps asking for us to go back to Okami... and I just can't... it's terrible to be stuck at that point. It would be different if the game could continue without doing this challenge, heck we got halfway through even with the difficulties. Up until this point, those digging challenges were optional, and I succeeded one time and vowed not to do them again. Then we get to Kaguya, and it is mandatory. Crap!

Sounds really nice so far! I like all your sounds except that lead that starts about 3/4 of the way through, that one isn't so pretty. You do realize FL 10.0.9 is available???

Okami is the only game I've ever had to abandon halfway through. What a beautiful, entertaining game... great for me and my 7 year old son both... but those digging challenges are a pain in the ass due to the instability of the wiimote when drawing lines and patterns. Halfway through the game, there is a digging challenge you must pass to continue the story (the "Kaguya" challenge). I tried it fifty hundred times with the most miserable failure. I've tried to teach my son about not screaming in frustration at a video game. Had to stop trying this challenge... I wasn't being a good role model anymore.

Welcome to OCR! Your song is a work in progress for sure. You need to change your title to "work in progress." "Mod review" is only for tracks ready to be submitted to the judges, after you have received replies from people on your track, and polished it as much as you are able to. To change your title, simply edit your post, and click "go advanced," then the option to change the title will appear at the top. Rozovian has written an excellent remixing guide which is very helpful. I suggest you start with that. Good luck and, again, welcome.

I think the lead in the first half is now too quiet... it sounds like background instrumentation now... which could work if you do some other lead-ish soloing on top of it. The whole section up to 1:11 sounds leadless. If it were my song, I would use what you have there as an opportunity to add some unique lead on top of it, from :48 up through the first break. The first break is better, in fact mighty cool. And I love that thing that happens at 1:21! The lead that follows, at 1:22 is very nice, although a tad vanilla. The writing gets a bit repetitive here. Another opportunity to do interesting and unique stuff here, with that lead, after you've introduced the melody, vary it up a bit. And how about some more interesting drum sounds added here as well? I hear some clicky-clacky stuff way in the background here, bring it up, it works. I like how you introduce that groove at 2:03, then after the break, you bring that back as a background groove. Great idea. The lead in the last part is underwhelming though, both in sound and writing, it is repetetive and discordant. Again, another opportunity to do something fabulous, leadwise, here. The final pitch rise is cool, much better without the speedup. There's a theme here: take your weak spots, and turn them into fabulous.

This won't be a full crit... there is still work to be done on this track... and I don't know the source at all... just a quick comment that I really like the track and I think this is your best work yet. That low kick is the bomb... make sure to roll off everything below 30Hz though, and maybe notch out arount 200Hz too... or things could get muddy. Nice gating work. I love your lead synths. The breaks might be a little too sparse, add something back for more continuity. The speedup at the end is a little unnerving, though. Nice work, keep going on it. Oh, it's not really DnB, more electro house? I'm terrible with genres...