rebrained

Thanks!

Hey there, I just released an album titled "cytociel", a nine track trek to massive dystopian soundscapes. You can get it from Bandcamp at an affordable price of "pay-what-you-want", or just dig it in Soundcloud or Youtube. Oh, and the Bandcamp version includes bonus wallpaper versions of the artwork. Happy listening!

Many thanks.

Thanks. There are a few others who have also found some connection to Blade Runner. I'm guessing it's that closing track with the floaty pads and all.

Earlier this summer I released this 5-track techy, glitchy, electronic EP called spherical structures, with a thematic setting somewhere around the world introduced in William Gibson’s Neuromancer. The EP is free to download through Bandcamp, just hit 0 as the price and you’re good to go. Oh, and I also made a bit epileptic video for the first track as well. Enjoy!

Americans seem to like me. Not surprising though, it's because of the few Zelda-themed tracks I did about a month ago. That burst of plays skewed all the stats for a long while.

There's also Pianoteq. QL Pianos is a rather heavy library and most of the instruments sound some how stale and stuffy, though the latter might just be me. Also, after my recent experiences with how they handle their stuff hasn't exactly gotten me to recommend them to anyone.

https://soundcloud.com/siperia/sets/blackmagicwhitenoise I helped out a friend of mine to create his first full length album. If calm ambience and tranquil melodies are the bestest thing evar, I urge you to check it out.

I kind of like the room reverb, because it gives everything a sort of hand made feel, but it also sounds like it's somehow applied unevenly, like some instruments aren't affected by it. For example the flute and harmonica have a lot sharper high end than the bass and percussions, which makes them stand out in a bit awkward way. Can I ask how this track is made? Live recording or virtual instruments? Edit: the harmonica is a violin? Daaaamn...

https://soundcloud.com/rbrn <- My confusing little stash.

Your bass is doing some serious clipping there, especially after 1:30. I'd suggest you change it to something a bit more defined and preferably something you can hear even with low volume. Sub basses like that don't tend to work too well when there's a lot of stuff happening and a multitude of other instruments floating around. If it's an option, you could try a "real", sampled bass, maybe with a hint of simulated amp on the side. Could go well with the more realistic drums you already have there.

Bought it this morning. Spectacular stuff straight out of the box. Or download. Or whatever. But the Peavy ReValver had some problems cooperating with Logic and its stand-alone's activation doesn't seem to work properly. I have other amp software that I use so it's not that big of a deal, but still...

The clipping you have there caused by the compressor and/or limiter is pretty harsh, everything playing is practically competing to be the frontmost. Especially so in the end, just before the fade out begins. Ease up the comp/lim you have on top of everything, and while your at it you might want to consider lowering the volume of the bass a bit as well. If you want/have to do a lot of compressing, I'd suggest doing it (subtly, of course) on individual tracks at first. That way there's less chance that the tracks start competing like that.

I did some more work and added some details to the string instruments at the beginning and mid-break of the track. In addition I tweaked the drums a bit, made the mid-break a bit longer and switched some parts to different synths. Link to the new version is at the first post. However, I'm not entirely comfortable to manicure the structure with an axe at this point, so I'm going to hazard a mod review and try to get more feedback that way.

Remix: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4556435/wang_you_want.mp3 Source: Previous version: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4556435/wang_you_want_old.mp3 This is a remix I originally did about a year ago, but never got around posting it all the way to the judges. Thought I might give it another spin now. The original Shadow Warrior soundtrack is pretty much pseudo-asian ambient, Everybody OFF!!! included, so I expanded that concept and worked in the beats, bigger percussions and more realistic oriental instruments. The result is this sort of dubstep-ish thing. "Shanghai step", I call it. I'm marking this as "finished" (because it pretty much is IMO), but maybe someone could lend me a fresh pair of ears and tell me if there are some areas that still need improving before I label it for mod-review and forward it to judging. It would be much appreciated.

Other than slight timing issues here and there, I really can't say. I usually avoid wandering into that territory as I'm not a guitarist/bassist.

The drums are pushed way too back and squeezed into a pretty thin frequency band. You could try using a preset drum set as-it-is and then mix everything else relative to it. That alone could improve the overall sound a lot. Hope that helps.

If there are any fans or friends of genuine finnish metal here, they all should note that Causemos has now released their album/EP/whatever called Infinite Event. The album consists of seven relatively cosmic and undeniably tight tracks and is free to be downloaded via Bandcamp. Or you can pay something if you wish, we'll leave that up to you. Go listen!

One vote for Chipsounds. I've been using it for almost two years now and I tend to use it on most of the stuff I do. It's not too difficult for making "pure" chiptunes with it, but mostly I just use it to add flavor. As such, it works great.

Thanks. I have to say though, that track was somehow insanely difficult to put together. Glad that it worked out ok in end.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but to me Tallon Overworld theme sounds a lot like the Brinstar theme from original Metroid. If that's indeed the case there seems to plenty of midi files from that going around. Feel free to correct me while I wake up and initiate my caffein intake.

Last year when I visited Japan I did two things: bought a PCM recorder and spent a few rainy days in the hostel making music on my laptop. This is what happened: http://soundcloud.com/rbrn/sets/nihon/ As I was on vacation I decided to take a break from my "usual style" of making music and just try to express the local feel and vibe. In the end it amounted to four neat and minimalistic ambient tracks accompanied with sounds of shrines, traffic, rain and train stations. I don't think it's too obvious on the set there, but all four tracks are free to be downloaded because, you know, free things are always nice. I also composed a video for the second song from the video clips filmed on the same trip: http://vimeo.com/41421231 Hopefully this beats the regular "pls look at my vacation photos!!1" approach. Enjoy! EDIT: Wrong prefix...

I'm a Logic user myself so I can't give any tech advice, but regardless this sounds an interesting approach to say the least. I'm with Gollgagh here, since I usually just rip the audio from a youtube video (if it's the only source where I can hear the original song) and slap it into an empty project, find the correct tempo and signatures and start out with lead melodies. Also, tackling seven songs is no minor feat, so it's pretty normal to get swamped. Best bet would be to forget all deadlines you might have invented for your project and just take it one song at a time. Hobby projects are best when stress isn't included.

It's the Z-button, actually. Close, but not quite.

I'm currently grinding up a WiP on the Decision Bell, should have first version later today.