Chimpazilla

Gorgeous soundscape you've got going here. Backing grooves get a bit repetitive. Maybe a changeup here or there, in one or the other or both? Kick/snare in first half seem a little hardcore for the delicate soundscape (drum patterns seem ok but sounds are very heavy). Fairy lead is beautiful and I love the writing. ZL portion is lovely. Second half drums work well, samples and patterns are good. Very nice song so far! What about intermingling the two themes, as it is now they are one after the other (want to avoid medley-itis if you can). (or, is the next section going to be FF again?)

What I think I'm ok at: arrangement, chord progressions, writing in general, drums What I think I suck at: levels, balancing low end, picking good instrumentation (primarily, getting good lead sounds), mixing/getting room for things in the mix What I'm improving at: effects - learning what they are, and how/when to use them What I think I'm GREAT at: well, nothing, yet! A wise friend said "we are all works in progress." (wise friend, you know who you are)

Oki Doki update 4-24-12 Oki Doki Marioki Based on Super Mario 2, otherwise known as Doki Doki Panic. This is mainly finished, but I’m still working to perfect the bass and leads, as well as perfecting the mixing and adding more fills and effects as I think of them. I think it is pretty groovy and I hope you do to. Please enjoy, and give me your feedback, let me know what you think could be improved. Source breakdown: Super Mario Bros overworld 0:16 – 0:48 0:48 - 1:15 1:16 – 1:55Super Mario 2 character select 1:56 – 2:10 2:12 – 2:50Super Mario 2 overworld 2:51 – 3:06 Super Mario 2 character select 3:07 – 3:30 Super Mario Bros overworld 3:31 - end – throughout song

Thanks so much guys. I spent almost an entire day trying to replace and/or layer this bass, and nothing I did sounded as good in the song context as this sample did all by itself. The looooow sound of this bass supports other low things happening in the song beautifully. (I found that adding any higher harmonics to the sound just wrecked the soundscape I have created.) I just really wanted the notes to be distinct and to "bounce." I think I have it working to my satisfaction now, after some changes in compression, eq boosts/cuts, and the volume automation I did. I'm still going to play with it a little bit, and work to learn my synth better (that can never hurt!) but mainly I'm happy with it now. Thanks again everyone, so, so much!

^this^ plus what I said earlier, adding a touch of part two of the main melody, somewhere, would break it up and avoid some of the repetitiveness. I find I'm craving this as I listen. You left the farts in there... arg... guess I'll have to get used to them... That snare has a little too much something... like tone? Maybe cut some of the middle out of it. My only other crit is that main synth... who doesn't love a great square? But it's just abrasive to my ears, it needs to be mangled up a bit with some effects (mild flanger/phaser?) and some extra delay on it, just to tone it down and make it blend better with the track (also the dubstep parts would stand out even more in contrast). Maybe even a couple of portamento portions on the lead would be fun. You actually have the same lead instrument playing two lines at once... leave one as backing and change up the other for contrast. Leave the plain square in the back and make the front one more... well, fabulous. Overall I still really, really dig this track!!!!!

Thanks so much guys for really trying to help me with this! OK so double compression didn't work, eek that sounded terrible. One compressor is enough. I was frustrated enough to create a detailed volume automation which seems to have given the sound more bounce. Yes, I'm forcing what should have been accomplished with an envelope within the synth... but whatever works. I know the sound is terrible on its own. I hated posting it. But when I finally put the song in the wip forum, you'll hear why I picked this timbre and why it works. If it doesn't work within the context of the song, you can tell me then and I'll consider replacing it. Thanks everyone. Damn, why does low end have to be such a bitch??? (I know... because the payoff is soooo sweet when it is done right)

I love the low end in this song: So Will Be Now The main bass in the song is a springy-boingy sound, that's not what I want, but I want my low bass sound to behave in a similar way. The bass in the song sort of bounces and sounds so cool. My bass is a Sytrus (FL) preset that does not utilize global adsr parameters and I don't know what I can tweak to get it to do anything like this. It seems like if I could get the decay down somewhat I would be on my way.

That would be hard to do as the kick pattern is complex and changes all through the song. I spent the entire morning trying to replace or layer the sample. Nothing sounds as good.

Thanks Rozo, as usual, for your extensive and helpful post! I have spent most of the morning on this, and come up with almost nothing. I did the eq boosts/cuts to kick/bass as you suggested and that helps somewhat. Added some overdrive, yeah that's nice too. I've worked with the sidechaining as well as regular compression, and again, a slight help. I tried (and tried and tried) replacing this synth, and/or layering it with something else, bus compressing etc., and that was a dead end. This (the sample I posted) is the sound that the song requires. But I'm just not getting that "bump" that I want. It's too loose. I've eq'd everything else to not play below 200Hz so muddiness really isn't the issue. It's the lack of definition in this bass sound, no punch. It is a Sytrus preset that doesn't use a global adsr envelope, and I've tried tweaking every parameter in there, only to reload the preset and start from scratch. Gggggrrrrr. I know the sample I posted sounds weird and weak on it's own, but it works in the song. It just needs to, somehow, PUNCH. How. Hhhhmmm. Blah.

I have a sample of it with all the instruments... I'm planning to post it in the wip forum fairly soon. Great, thanks. What about the release? Long or short? OK great, will try that too.

My bad. I forgot to make it the "secret link." Should work now. I'm thinking maybe I can layer two basses, this one and one with a better attack? secret link

I've already sidechained with my kick. This sample is compressed already, 10:1 threshold of -30db with an attack of 15ms and release of 400ms. I'm thinking these settings are wrong. Eq settings are steep hp at 60hz, 6db cut at 200, and slight bump at 4khz for click. Maybe I just need to replace this sample?

Oops, sorry! I changed the title. Here is eight seconds of bass. Thanks for any help!

Hi everyone, I think I have my leads under control... time for the next question... I'm finding that my lower end is an ill-defined mess! What are your suggestions for getting nice tight bass with a nice punchy attack sound? Is compression the weapon of choice, and if so what settings work well? Thanks again guys.

I'd like to post my wip in the forum, I just want to give it my best shot first, then you guys can listen to all the leads and make some suggestions. I'm not quite ready for all the tomato throwing just yet. I have FL Studio so I'm using Sytrus, Harmor and Toxic Biohazard primarily. Of these three I like Toxic the best so far, as it is easy to use and understand the parameters. (a good friend referred to Toxic as the "perfect noob tool," haha!) I also sometimes use Tal Noizemaker and/or Elektro.

Excellent advice guys... all worth trying out. Awesome posts. How wide is too wide for a lead? I have some presets I've used where I actually have to rein it back in with a stereo shaper (cuz I don't understand the synth well enough to fix it there)... when is a lead too wide? I mean, a lead should be kinda centered and not "everywhere" am I right? Or... (idea brewing) would it be cool to have a way wide lead, followed by a more focused one? Hhhmmmm ideas...

That's a great tip, thank you, I'll check into that. Just to clarify, I'm not looking for a typical "screaming saw" type of sound, I'm looking for many varied voices, but they've each got to be rich and full.

Hi all, so I have a decent arrangement made, and some fun backing grooves going, some nice pads, even got some fairly groovy drum patterns/fills/rolls done, but my leads (apparently, so I am told) suck badly, and they sound vanilla and preset-ish. The song has several leads, my plan was to change them up as the song progresses, some will have more attack and be more plucky, others have more sustain and/or more gliding legato. As it stands there is only one lead in my song that sounds dynamite... and I need about six of them. Each will have a different "voice" in the song, as they hand off the melody, one to the next. What are your best words of wisdom for choosing and/or creating really great leads? Do you start with a preset, and change things in the synth? Do you layer? And if you layer, do you use just the portions of each sound that have the qualities that you want, so each instrument is playing a different frequency range? (or one more up front, with the other supporting it?) Do you bus and compress this layer together? Do you pan the instruments to the same place, or one slightly left and the other right? What is the best way to make two (or three?) instruments into one cohesive sound? Also regarding leads, it is my understanding that a lead should always be the closest thing up front in the soundstage, but I've also heard great songs where the lead (clearly the lead as it is the loudest) has more reverb than the drier backing groove. Any thoughts on this? I'm sort of stuck until I can get a better understanding of leads. Any advice you can offer will be appreciated!

Don't be discouraged! This is a very good track. I recommend your starting another track, with Rozo's comments in mind. (if you're working towards getting posted here) Post your wips along the way and ask for specific ocr-worthy crits. Write your song in such a way that stuff can be moved around easily if need be. Make sure the arrangement works first, before filling it out too much. I'm sure your next track will be just as awesome as this one is, but with more postability potential. Looking forward to it!

If you're going to get Producer anyway, you should spend the extra $100 for Signature because you get Sytrus which is a great synth ($179 on its own). You also get Maximus (multiband compressor, $189 on it's own), their soundfont player ($35) and Directwave sampler ($99). Worth it I think. And once you start using their convenient automation clips you'll wonder how you got along without them. FL has some other really nice synths and plugins that are worth buying. I have Harmor, Gross Beat and Toxic Biohazard so far. I use Fruity plugins whenever I can because they are more easily automated and take less cpu power and you can usually use their "slide" notes and just work well with Fruity. (hey do I get a commission, haha!)

This is a very old thread. I'm reviving it (rather than starting a new one). I love this game. Love love love it. Soooo addicting. And the music is phenomenal I think. It was composed by a woman! (Laura Shigihara) I don't see any remixes of it... seems this would be hard to remix well, it is so good as it stands. Absolutely no new melodies or rearrangements come to mind as I listen to it. Thoughts?

It can certainly be done well on a daw. This is me doing Clair de Lune on my daw (I can't play the piano for the life of me!). You can make a huge automation for the tempo and speed it up or slow it down that way (although in my Clair version, I did it within the patterns, I had better control that way). I think your song is great and can only get better with more feeling added. Can't wait to hear it again!

Hi Darren! I don't know this source at all so I can't comment on source usage. The arrangement sounds pretty good, although it's quite static and never really develops. It's a bit overly reverbed in some spots (like starting at 1:10) and a few instruments are too loud (oboe and triangle). That piano needs to do something different after awhile. I do like the dramatic panned intro! Orchestral stuff is tricky... most of the instruments sound really fake (I can say this after having received similar comments on my hybrid electro/orchestral Ganon remix, and not knowing how to begin to fix it, haha!). It seems that unless you really know your stuff with daw-based orchestration, this genre is really tough to pull off. Maybe someone more versed in this can help. You mentioned you only have Fruity Edition and this is going to limit you severely. You need at least the Producer Edition, and I recommend the Signature Bundle because you get a lot of nice vst's with it. You need the Producer Edition to be able to use automation clips which are crucial to pulling off orchestral arrangements (or, really, any arrangements!). There is definite promise here... I hear it... so keep going, get good advice if you're going to go orchestral, or try some synth stuff too!

Tempo variation would be nice, I just think it could flow better... maybe with more velocity variation... even though this is played by a human, I can still hear it in my head with more feeling... speeding up and then slooooowing down... louder then softer... aaaaahhhh... and maybe with the chords rolling a bit more often, but wow what you've written is so nice, those themes are made for each other! (have listened 3 times now)

It's just a tad long for my taste, especially since the tempo and feel remain unchanged throughout... BUT that being said, this is absolutely LOVELY.