Chimpazilla

Well I really do like your arrangement and writing, quite a lot. I listened to this four times in a row yesterday. And I didn't mean to be insulting, I realize some mixing decisions are personal taste (selection of chippy synths). But I must say this would probably get a "resub" vote on OCR just due to the mixing. Most of your instruments are fighting each other for space. Too many things are playing in the lower ranges, clashing with the bass. (personally, I HP every single thing in my mix, and I make sure NOTHING is playing in the same low frequencies as my bass, except my kick, and I eq those surgically so they don't clash, and I usually sidechain kick to bass also, to help with this issue). The bass itself is way too loud and needs eq and compression, as some of the bass notes were so loud that they nearly popped my speaker cones out. So, I suggest starting with balancing the instruments much better, first, then attacking each thing with eq so each instrument plays in its optimal range without doubling the frequencies of other things. You'll be amazed how much cleaner your mix is after you do this process, and you'll be able to get it louder overall too, as a result. Then, time to play with reverb to get some more feeling into the mix and also tell the listener how close or far away the instruments are. Also, please look into stereo separation, the mix will come alive with a few things placed wider in the stereo field. After all that, we can talk about special effects! Good luck! I'm looking forward to hearing this one again!

Ok so I love the writing here, all the way through. Really nice arrangement, very detailed and emotive. However... there are issues. The intro string pad sounds noticeably fake in the articulations. It sounds just real enough to require some smoothing and realistic swells. The synths are almost entirely too loud, with no dynamic range at all, and they are very plain and vanilla, no expressiveness on anything (no vibrato or modulation of anything). Everything is dry as a bone. You'll need to start by balancing the instruments so not everything is the same volume. What things should be in front? What is supportive and should be pushed back with lower volume and more reverb? Then you'll need to do some eq work, to get each thing playing in its optimal range without overlapping the other instruments playing. For example, if the lead is strong at 2k Hz, make a dip in your pad and other instrumentation at 2k Hz to accommodate the lead. The bass is really muddy and lacking definition and whoa too loud. I'd recommend a high pass at at least 50Hz and then experiment with removing some frequencies around 250Hz to clear some mud. Your snare has way too many lows, as does your tom. You could do tons of improvement to this track also, using strategic stereo separation. So, still some work to do here, but what a lovely arrangement!

Limbo. Short game (five hours), but excellent.

Me too, T. Me too.

Total awesomeness PT. You really are a chiptune god!!! Loving this.

Hey guys, great mix! First, you adapted it to 4/4 from the 3/4 source, and I love that. And you definitely captured the feel from the original in ambiance and sfx. I'm not familiar with this original so I'm trying to get up to speed. Like Aaron, I'm struggling a bit to pick out the source, but I know you Timaeus and I'm sure your breakdown is correct! Hopefully the judges won't struggle too hard to hear the source usage. Chris, those guitars sound amazing. The only problem production-wise that I'm having is that occasionally, the leads are a bit buried. From 0:45 all the way until 1:13, that lead is really soft. The lead that begins right after, at 1:14, is a better volume. Lead at 1:49 sounds great. At 2:36, that lead is very soft and hard to focus on. I have the feeling that isn't supposed to be a real lead there, but a background arp, but from 2:36 to 2:51 it seems like it should be a lead (at least, my ears want that!). At 2:52 the lead seems really buried as there's much more stuff going on there. At 3:10, the pianoish thing is a perfect volume imo (so don't change that), but seems odd following the softer lead. So I'd say bring those softer leads out somehow, and the production is perfect. Really, I'm nitpicking here. Drums are up to your usual standard of awesomeness, T. Nice job guys. Wishing you luck when you sub!

Well I can see how that would be tremendously useful when using the old fashioned white pattern blocks, where you can't tell them apart by looking at them and where they must be in their own track lanes. Using the playlist in a freeform way, you wouldn't need that kind of feature. You *could* of course put your patterns on separate track lanes, and you could name them accordingly if you wanted to, and you can color the track lanes to make it even easier to see. Or some people put all drums on one lane, all bass on another, leads on yet another, and so forth, and label the track lanes as such ("bass," or "leads," or "drums"). But I would guess that a lot of people, myself included, make use of the freeform nature of the playlist to put midi, sound clips, and automations anywhere they happen to fit. This is one of the best features of FL if you ask me, and why I will stick with FL instead of giving Cubase a try. I can see how this will take you some getting used to, though... so maybe you could start by just labeling the track lanes, and coloring them, so you can clearly recognize what you've got there, whether it's a repeating pattern or just all bass or all drums or something like that. As for copying patterns, that is a great feature. To clone a pattern in the playlist, just click on it and either click somewhere else to paste it there, or use the paintbrush and just paint it across as many times as you like. The patterns will be identical. To alter a pattern, make it unique. Rename it something meaningful to you. Then, change it all you like. You can then paint that one across, too, if you want more of them. Quite convenient, actually. If you ever want to see any of this in realtime and ask questions, I'd be glad to do a Teamviewer session with you.

Ok Meteo, I think I need some clarification. 1. You said "no longer highlights the channel in the sequencer playlist." I'm a bit confused. The "channels" appear in the "channel window" (which includes the "step sequencer") but not the "playlist." Do you just mean the channel window? I'm assuming you do. There is an option you can turn on and off, and you can control whether the channel window highlights the channel you're working on, or not. (I prefer "not" since it messes me up when working with midi-outs) The option is under settings-general, and it is called "auto select linked modules." Try that, see if that is it. If not, and I misunderstood, clarify for me. 2. "copy whole channels" do you mean clone an instrument instance, in the channel window? You can do that with a simple right-click on the channel, and select "clone." You said "channel in the playlist" and this confuses me, as channels do not appear in the playlist. 3. "letters to keys" I assume means in the piano roll. FL defaults to the text option with labeled pitches. You can switch it to keyboard by clicking on that "abc" tab in the piano roll. I don't know if you can change that by default. Ok I just looked and can't see that option, but someone on the IL forums may know. edit: For "copying channels" for chords and fills, maybe you just mean copying a pattern and making it unique. Just click on that pattern in the playlist, then click somewhere else to put that same pattern somewhere... then on that copied pattern, click (left or right) in the upper left corner (you'll get a little hand thingy), and select "make unique." It will give it the same name plus "#2." (you can rename it, also by clicking in the upper left corner). Do this, and edit away!

Sounds awesome, great guitar work with Shreddage! I think the drums sound great too, perfect for the style.

Nice track! Tagging fraud indeed!

Sorry you're feeling pain! What horizontal scrolling box? You can just drag the scrolling bar (above the playlist) longer or shorter and you can see more or less of your playlist. Is that what you meant? The blocks thing, huh? Do you mean the template that resembles the legacy blocks, like in the video I linked? Zebra2 is indeed the best synth there is I think. That and Omnisphere. I haven't tried Effector yet, nor GMS. I like Bassdrum a lot, though. Your i7 should handle your stuff like a boss. But yeah, experiment with turning those multithreaded options on and off. You'll have to trade off between cpu usage and crackling, depending on the size of your file. I only ever have to worry about that on huge files. Play with those two options on a big track and see what works best for you. edit: remember, bridging is automatic when you use a 64bit version of your plugin. This should only be necessary with big plugins like Kontakt or Omnisphere, no need for a Zebra instance, 32 is fine there.

Hey Mr. Auracle! I think we were (at least I was) a little put off by your unusual introduction. Many of us here have Twitter feeds and Soundcloud accounts, and we are all working very hard on our skills. Most of us are actively trying to get our songs posted here on OCR. When you post a song in this WIP forum, it is assumed that you want to submit your song to OCR for judging, so we will dive in and offer criticism intended to help get you there. Sometimes the criticism can sound harsh. Timaeus can give particularly intense crits, but generally his advice is spot-on. I felt intimidated at first by the direct and specific criticism I received in this forum... but ultimately it helped me develop to the point of getting a mix passed by the judging panel and into the queue for posting. So, sorry if we jumped on you! Please accept our welcome, and please keep posting. Let us know if you're just sharing your song or if you're working towards getting posted here, and we will reply accordingly. And please take any critiques given as helpful, developing a thick skin is job #1 if you really want to improve.

Yes, I'd be interested to learn more about this.

Not a rap fan... but wow, this is cool. And really well produced! Great writing, instrumentation, and vocal processing. Enjoyed it!

^This.^ Song is very repetitive, both in writing and sounds used. Why not try a different lead here and there, to break it up, and some varied drums sounds and writing too? Mixing is a bit dry but not awful, bass is a bit ill-defined and muddy, but it seems like you've got some talent for mixing, just need to spice up the arrangement and sounds to make the track interesting. As Timaeus would say, if I fast forward the song to the middle, and I don't know where I am in the song (beginning? end? they all sound the same) then something is wrong. Don't be discouraged. Welcome to OCR.

I'm speechless... what a unique combination of sounds, all performed flawlessly. The sounds are diverse enough to inspire a number of different emotions as the track evolves. Western atmosphere is accomplished to perfection. Very detailed, and produced professionally! edit: just a guess, but does the title "Fistful of Nickels" in any way refer to, say, a whole lotta dimes in Blazing Saddles?

Omg, Joe. Just wow. Gypsy jazz, klezmer arrangement with your super expressive and cheeky clarinet lead, and Young Frankenstein all together? I'm in music (and comedy movie) heaven. Performed and produced to your usual level of XPRTise. Nice.

Great videos... how can I watch them ALL AT ONCE??? Haha! Thanks, gonna watch these.

I just wanted to point out to Meteo that with FL11, the "extended memory version" is now the default. So just download FL11 and use the default launcher to get the highest memory usage. (with older versions, you had to select the "extended memory" option separately) Also Meteo, I took a look on my old computer (which my son is now using) to see which version of FL9 I had on there, hoping it was 9.5, but it was 9.1, same as my friend's version that I already uploaded to Box for you. I'm sure this helps you a total of zero, as your projects are all saved in 9.5. Sorry, I tried! I think this means you must move forward with FL11. I think in time you'll be happier with it, it does more. (including some new plugins, a new synth called GMS, and Bassdrum!) Let me know if I can help in any way.

Thanks Cosmic for those kind words! And thanks T, those are some excellent final-mixing crits! I appreciate that very much!

Hey Meteo, FL11 is quite nice. I barely remember 9 and I never used the legacy blocks. You can sort of emulate the blocks in FL11, . I recommend the playlist instead, though. You use it in the same way as the blocks afaik, but you can see your midi data."Get sequencer lined up in grids instead of sound clips" I don't understand what you are asking, is this about the blocks? You can still "grid paint" in the playlist, you're just painting your midi patterns (that you can see) instead of those white blocks. In the playlist you can put midi patterns, and also sound clips (wavs etc.) I'm sorry if I misunderstood your question. Bridging happens automatically when you use a 64bit version of any plugin. The wrapper will load in bridged mode automatically. FL11 seems to have corrected any bridging bugs (I have found it to be totally stable so far). The bridged plugins will operate without the 4GB limit, even though FL itself will still be operating under that limit. Good luck! edit: Meteo I have a friend who still has his FL9 installer on his machine, should you really want to go that route. Let me know. (but I hope you'll bravely venture into FL11 instead.) edit #2: Here is the installer for FL9.1, if you end up needing it.

I have to agree... writing orchestral-only arrangements using midi instruments seems to be a skill all unto itself... and a daunting one at that! Takes soooo much practice and knowledge and just plain effort to get it right. I much prefer hybrids myself. There are some who are superduper good at this though, like this guy!

Hey Big B! Here's a thought. How about you reduce your number of subs down to say.... 30 per year? Down from your traditional 85. #letsomeothershaveachance <3

Hey Joe! I have to agree with PH and T here... there are some nice sounds used, and man this is interesting, with a neato haunting/troubling vibe... but it does feel a bit rambling and directionless. I'm having trouble grabbing onto a theme here, which leaves it somewhat unmemorable. Some repeated phrases would help a lot. The percussion is very static, much more variation work is needed (ugh, I know...). And some more instrumentation is needed for sure, what about some mallets somewhere? Or some harp passages? Definitely strings could be used more than they are. Nice start, but hhhmmm... :-/

I was gonna skip the Wii U because it just doesn't look that spectacular. But with HD Wind Waker coming out soon, and a new Zelda game sometime in the future, and Xenoblade 2, looks like we'll be getting one. Whatever console the Zelda games are on, that's what we will have here, absolutely. Oh, and nothing wrong with strategy guides. Helps make the most out of your game, and gets you unstuck and moving forward again. And mommies are darned helpful sometimes, too. So says my 8-year-old son. ;-p