mikeastarb

I'll start looking for some Roland samples and see what I can find for free online. If you, or anyone, can point me in the direction of a good set of samples, or a nice soundfont for some electronic drums, that would really be appreciated. I'll also try adding some more effects onto those chippy sounds to make them sound a bit different from each other. I'm worried that adding in effects is going to destroy my low end but, it's all a trial and error process I suppose. Thanks for the reply, and for all the advice you've given

So, I went back to the drawing boards with this one. In short, I'm still learning how to use my DAW and once I decided on the changes that needed to be made, I had realized that I had things set up in the project horribly and that it would be easier to learn from the past and start fresh. Anyway, there's a really detailed write up in the description of the song for what sounds I'm using and a little more about the composition and arrangement. I have taken into account a lot of advice I've gotten when restarting this project. Keeping the low end clear (or clearer to my ears) while keeping the sound pretty full. I've also got some reverb going on with it and have used it to generate a building/climaxing feel. Or that's how it comes across to me. Again, to my amateur ears, this sounds fantastic. I've really come to like this version more than my last but, I know that I'm still learning and still have plenty of places to improve. If there's something that really sticks out to you as being bad, please let me know. I would also really appreciate if you could suggest specifics on fixing whatever it is because, frankly, I have minimal knowledge about what I'm doing (a lot of throwing music at the wall and seeing what sticks). I'm sure I've left something out of this that I meant to throw in... Oh right! No ending to the track currently. I'm still playing around with what I want to do. If anyone has any loose suggestions for how to wind a track down, any advice is helpful. Thanks for listening, commenting, reading, critiquing, etc. Brambles [WIP.4]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone there still is a lot of work to be done here. Looks like taking out the bass synth wasn's such a good idea after all. I've had a lot of comments on the blandness of the synths so, I'm looking into making them a bit more interesting. This track is probably going to go back and get some new arrangement to keep the sound full but not muddy, then get some new Eq attention (now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing). I feel like I should know this but, what do you mean by atmospherics? Are you thinking that I should be putting in another pad or two or should I be looking into reverb? Also, any suggestions for how to keep things playing but, shift them to the background so they're not trying to compete? Is it as simple as just lowering the faders on it or should I be bringing in more reverb to send them further towards the back?

https://soundcloud.com/mikeastarb/brambles-chillout-room-wip-3 Took some advice from a few sources and this is where the track is currently. This is really the best work I've ever done and, to my novice ears, it sounds fantastic but, I know there's still room for improvement. Any suggestions or advice about where to go from here?

You are right, its all synth sounds. I just don't know what the names of anything are :/ thanks for the advice though.

Awesome! Thanks for such an in-depth review. Right now I'm working with side-chaining the bass to the kick. I have the two things panned left and right (the bass/pad/thing on the left and the bass/guitar/thing on the right so they wouldn't interfere with each other. I'm thinking I might just completely cut one of them to take some pressure off the low end. Any suggestions on that? Would the 75% pan still be enough to separate the two? How would you foreshadow that builddown? I feel like there needs to be a transition there but have no idea how to start that "this is going to drop off" feeling. Thanks again for the write up, and thanks for the headphone tips. I've been meaning to get a nice pair to work with so I can get a better idea of the flat sound rather than whatever Skullcandy tells me sounds good.

Hey all, I've finally gotten around to getting a mix started again. I've done one WIP already and got some feedback on it from a few friends and now I'm ready to get things out there to the community and see what comes of it. Specifically, I'm really new to working with EQ. I've done some research online and read some threads about EQ over on reddit.com/r/wearethemusicmakers and I've got this track to show for it. I'm not sure how it sounds to others though. I'm working on a cheap audio interface with Skullcandy headphones and I'm not sure how the sound is being colored by those things. I'm also really unsure what to do with other effects though (reverb/compression) so, I've left those things out to not mess up what I've done so far. To my amateur ears, it sounds fantastic (especially when compared to WIP.1) but, my ears don't really know what to listen for that reverb/compression could make even better. Anyway, if you feel like you can help me out with some feedback, please do. I would be really grateful if you did Thanks for reading and listening Bramble's Chillout Room (working title)

I like the intro! It does a lot to set the mood and I think it's a really nice touch. I would take out the music from it though and keep it with just the voices and swirling air. Something about the town music is just a little too... energetic for the rest of the track, if that makes sense. I really like the new instrument at 0:53, its the little things that make a track. Also, way to go on fitting in the melody! That's such a good addition and you did it perfectly. It's still a little short but, you've got so much more content now than you did originally. Now, what I'm left craving is just a little more variety. At 1:40 I think you have a lot of room to work, tinker, and create. You've got the melody (and source) fresh in someones mind. Now cut it, fold it, tear it, and glue it back together and show us just how much better it can be from the original! I know you've got the skill set to do it so, don't be afraid! I'm really impressed to see so much change from version 1 to version 2 and it makes me even more excited to see what comes next. Also, just to comment again, I really like the idea of the intro.

I definitely think you should try to fit it in. It doesn't have to be note for note, or even have the same rhythm though. Between 0:35 and 0:48 (where you have the melody line come in kind of quietly) the song starts to build some energy. At 0:48 there's an opportunity to transition the chords to something new/different where you could fit a new phrase that has the other part of the melody in it. I've been in your position before where I've written something but it's short, and I feel like things just won't fit into what I already have. What happened with my song was that I got used to how the unfinished song sounded and because of that, anything I did to it sounded "wrong". To fix that, I had to force myself to change it and keep that change (even though I didn't like it). Eventually after to listening to it a bunch, that change became normal to me and it didn't seem so wrong anymore. It wasn't the best thing ever but, instead of thinking "This doesn't fit, it shouldn't be there", it turned into thinking "Ok, the song goes this way but, I could tweak [X], and do [Y], and move [Z] and it will sound better".

It was really nice to listen to! There should be more!! 1:44 is just too short. The part at 0:18 gives you a really nice backing track. I also like what you did with the part from 0:00 to 0:18; it's a good introduction to the sound and feel of the track. I think it would do good though to throw some more of the source melody (with some variations of course) in though because, for a while, I wasn't sure if I had the right link or not. I'm excited to hear what gets posted next!

Very nice work. Things sound much better now I think you may have something ready to send out to the judges (or at least get a mod review)

Gotcha, that will probably help solve some issues that I've had. My laptop that I'm using currently is a Dell Studio that's about 3 or 4 years old now and I've always had just a small but noticeable amount of delay between my key presses and the sound being rendered. Thanks for the reply!

thanks for the reply This is what I do now but, I suppose it never occurred to me to shut down steam, skype, dropbox, etc.

Cool, thanks for the reply. I've been making really not good music for a few years now and have finally resolved to take things a lot more seriously and asking questions seems to be the best way to learn (instead of my old "figure everything out myself" method).

It's a question that's been on my mind for a while now but, how do you all deal with latency while recording from an ASIO device and when recording from MIDI? Do you cut down the buffer size temporarily and deal with the artifacts so you can time things correctly? Or do you record it without listening to what's happening and then touch everything up in post?

This is a remix that I'm doing as an experiment for myself. In the past, when I've written remixes or covers I've had a really hard time trying to arrange things into something new. I feel like if I'm too familiar with the source, I'll have a bias for how it "should sound" and I can't ever break away from that into something new. So, with this mix, I started by choosing a game that I've never played and listened to the soundtrack until I found a song that sat well with me. It's gone through a few iterations getting some feedback from friends and now it's time for it to go to you all and see what you all think Also, if you have any suggestions about how to overcome this "should sound" barrier, I'd love to hear them because, I really want to overcome this block that's always in my way. Source track : Mix : Soundcloud Also, apologizing in advance if I've written something wrong or named something wrong. I'm new to the forums and looked around for a while before posting so I could see how others post but, still covering bases anyway. Thanks to all who listen and extra thanks to those who reply!

I really liked the laid back feel to this track. I'm not even really sure what to call it but, the moving synth line really gives it a lot of uniqueness that's still reminiscent of the original track and it keeps everything flowing and moving while still being calm. That feeling grinds to a halt though at 1:10 and doesn't pick back up until the drums pick back up around 1:30. My suggestion would be to keep the drums going at 1:10 and let them lay back and provide the drive while nothing else is really going on. Taking away that low synth sound only will take out a lot of the drive but not all so you'll still get some dynamic feel to it. The spot around 2:30 is a nice change of pace. I like what you did with the melody here and it really feels like the track is about to pick up into something with a bit more energy, especially with the part at 3:05. That gets stopped again though a little after, going back to being really chilled out and picking up the pace into the reprisal of 2:30 where the energy is back (and it's back into what I think is the best part of your mix). In summary, I think you have a lot of good parts going here and some really cool, serene sounds that are really relaxing to listen to. The issue that I want to highlight is how the tracks energy and drive feel really jagged at times, which really messes with the flow of the sound. There also is a really large range between your maximum/minimum drive in the track. I feel like if you would reduce that range a bit, the changes would feel less jagged and the track would be able to have a better flow. Other than that though, I agree with the others that you've got a really strong contender for a submission.