Audiomancer

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HlQTj8BuHj-oZ37ziJ2wGDCix3a4u5pT/view?usp=sharing Latest revision after most recent rejection. Hey, I got a couple yes votes this time, yay:) Anyways, the thing that stood out the most as far as critiques are concerned is that the tune sounded muffled, as though being "played from behind a pillow". Also, one of the judges said something about if he had the stems, he could have it above the bar in a half hour. With that in mind, I exported the project as three stems; drums, bass, and synths. One of the judges said something about the bass drum being too prominent, I dialed that back some. On the synth stem, I added a patcher patch that split the frequencies at about 800 hz, and added some "subtle" additional saturation, eq, Kilohearts dual delay, and side channel reverb to the above 800 hz portion of the signal. I should add, that in the mix, before exporting the stems, I brought many elements closer to center. I think I got the "pillow" problem solved here, after A-B'ing between this version and my last submission of this mix. Feedback welcome please!

It has been a while since I have taken a shot at this. The structure is quite similar, but it was redone from scratch with different instruments and effects. Thanks! Edit: File upload failed, Remix link below. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aTLfpAB-xX7DQdZgDlPKfx4XeK0QlMd9/view?usp=sharing ReMix Attached. Original

A few eq adjustments, as mentioned. I also sidechained the snare to everything, but to a lesser degree than the kick. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YoI1od1f3QLbFZgUpPzbP2Nzttdvc7Gx/view?usp=sharing

Revised version attached with different kick and bass. Thanks! Edit...the bass is a patcher patch, I used 3xOsc for the lower tones of the bass (square wave), and used Vital for the higher pitched portion. Vital is using a pulse width wavetable with a stereo lfo on it, as well as a phaser. Also, one of my sidechain routings wasn't set up right. The bass has a fair amount of gain reduction, and the pads and leads have a smaller amount of reduction applied now. Edit...I think the kick is too loud here. I have another version that I'll upload when I get the chance. TwistedSysterzNewKickNBassMP3.mp3

So I have altered the kick AND the bass. The kick was made in kick factory in Flex, so it was quite easy to alter the volume and filter envelope on that. The bass in my latest revision is a completely different instrument that I made in patcher involving two instances of 3xosc, one a sub bass basically, and the other is higher pitched with some effects on it, including a flanger.. it's a lot punchier and less muddy sounding than the one on the judges panel currently. When I get home, I'll render it out and post it here:)

It does...and after I submitted this, I happened to stumble upon an In The Mix video that informed me that arranging differently can make everything else easier. I have actually already re arranging the tune after I watched the video, just in case of. "NO" :) Also, I never understood how to use that spectrum tool now, I've seen it, but didn't understand what I was looking at. Thanks for the feedback, and I'll actually listen to your remaster when I get the chance! Regards, Eric, audiomancer

I work in progress, different than my normal attempts, lol. A couple things....I don't know if I have enough bass on these instruments in general throughout, the horn dissonance at the end is intentional, and I know the flute has some distortion at the end of this render. The sustained strings, I don't know if they need attack and release adjustment. The flute is myself sampled in Directwave, and I used a combination of volume, saturation, attack, and transient processing automation to try to make it as "live" sounding as possible. Also, don't know if flute is too far forward...I imagined a player standing in front of the ensemble. Thanks for feedback! TemporaryTina128mp3.mp3

Another edit, I think I managed to make it sound more "airy" instead of "sizzle". I think this one is panel ready. critiques welcome as always. Had to use a link, can't upload mp3's anymore, allowed file size is reduced. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dNuwRksFqhsx9PINO8XS6Y9r9r4a5egi/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for the feedback,Para! i did add a small rhythmic component to the section that you indicated. File attached below. TS New Knowledge Master 2.mp3

WAV, FLAC, and MP3 all have the same deviation in sound. This version here is a 44.1 320 mp3 file. I just looked, and I'm using FL studio ASIO. I remember having to use that instead of ASIO4ALL v2...I think I was having glitchy sound with that one. Perhaps I'll try ASIO4ALL again. Thanks for the response!

I actually did alot of adjustment on the mix...I installed SPAN and Youlean Loudness meter...those are eye opening plugins, and they're free! I was trying to use Fruity PEQ 2 to do the same thing, I also watched a provided video about reference tracks before tweaking the song. I adjusted the volume, splitting the difference between 11 to 12 RMS, and 13 to 14 LUFS I also (think) I had luck with having in the same project a full mix file running parallel to stems of bass, drums, and instruments. I added a sub bass instrument with strong transients and a pumper effect, as well as a couple other sprinklings here and there. With these adjustments, this version passed the "car test", whereas the previous version didn't sound good in the car...which I didn't find out until after my most recent submission to the judges panel. Edit: I used Mega --Man 3 OC ReMix by MkVaff: "Snake Man (Pulse Mix)"-- for my reference track for the bass and leads...I still have the cymbals more present in my mix...I really like how they sound... Why don't my exports sound the same as when I play the project in my DAW? Is there a setting I can change?! The project sounds better, more bass, less treble. I had this problem back in the day, and I actually made an eq preset to compensate. Looks like I might have to do that again. I did take the high pass filter off of this render, but I feel as though it still sounds unbalanced. TwistedSysterzSubmissionMP38-23-2024.mp3

I would say that the best thing about fl studio mobile is that you can make multisampled directwave instruments in the desktop version, and then load them up in flm. I wish you could sample a combination of the synths with directwave right in flm (save on cpu) like in Caustic 3.

Changing to ready for review. This is a remix of Mara and Nara's theme, 4th chapter of Dragon warrior 4, with a short interlude using the battle theme from the same chapter. This thread covers some of the changes I've made. Some concerns are the harmonics on the bass, as noted above, as well as the volume of the cymbals. I personally like how this sounds. I experimented with more reverb on the snare (Someone above mentioned this), but I like it best the way it is here. Sources linked, remix attached. TwistedSisterz10.mp3

Changing to ready for review. This is a remix of Mara and Nara's theme, 4th chapter of Dragon warrior 4, with a short interlude using the battle theme from the same chapter. This thread covers some of the changes I've made. Some concerns are the harmonics on the bass, as noted above, as well as the volume of the cymbals. I personally like how this sounds. I experimented with more reverb on the snare (Someone above mentioned this), but I like it best the way it is here. Sources linked, remix attached. TwistedSisterz10.mp3

Latest take, Thanks again for all feedback! I added some other stuff to the new section, the most important of which is I layered a sitar over the DX 7 guitar patch. made some mixing changes, slight changes to reverb settings, and I removed some unneeded high frequency from most of the instruments. Also, I put and instance of Maximus on each of the bass drum and snare. I changed some compression curves on the different bands on each. This is in addition to the changes mentioned above. I am not sure if I lowered some of the bass harmonics too much or not, and also not sure if the hats are too loud or not. I actually really like how this sounds right now, I really like the changes I made to the hats. Thanks! TwistedSysterz10MP3.mp3

I changed some of the beat work just now. Minor changes is the kick and snare, more changes in the hats. Also added some "decorations" to the new slower section involving the sister's battle theme:) TwistedSisterzReEQed5-1.mp3

I added an extra section incorporating bits of the battle theme for the sisters. Not sure if I like the lead I chose or not in that section....or rather, I like it, will others? It's a Yamaha dx 7 guitar patch, and the bass drone was made with Sawer, with an lfo on the sync frequency. I had it more in tune sounding, but decided I wanted to push the amplitude on the lfo just a little more to give a more detuned sound. The pad is one I made from scratch on Harmor, with various parameters effected by lfos, and well as some harmonic content being altered with the image synthesist part of Harmor. Thanks! TwistedSysterzCausticReEQed5MP3.mp3

I was wondering if I could incorporate the battle theme for that chapter in Dragon Warrior 4. Chapter 4 is the only one where the characters have a different battle theme as well as overworld theme. I could possibly squeeze an ambient break in the middle of this remix that uses that battle theme. Battle theme linked below. https://youtu.be/9iR9Is3SBcw?si=Qjs6fBoxHMnrVqmD

Thank you all for the feedback! I hope to post later today an updated version. Changed a couple small things, and did a mastering pass. Edit. File uploaded. Lowered the bass slightly, added an additional part the second time through the A portion of the tune, a high pitched chime as one of the posters mentioned, and did a mastering pass using caustic mastering...8 think I got some more high end presence and clarity. Lowered one of the harmonics on the bass. Thanks! Edit: Oh, one more thing, the italo disco sounding song that I took some of my sound ideas from. https://youtu.be/8C35sdjc_cw?si=hU8Ss0qREsCgkvRe New version of my song below. TwistedSisterzReEQ'D 6 dash 12 .mp3

Yup, I am trying to get something posted that I actually like listening to, lol. 80s and 90s cheesy dance music is a favorite of mine...I like how you mentioned Italian disco, lol:) source below.

Another shot at this. I lowered the number of lead instruments used as suggested...I think that turned out pretty well. I made the bass patch on Harmless...I think I like how that synth works, as far as adjusting the volume of specific harmonics is concerned. I imported a single cycle waveform to manipulate. I made the first lead after the intro on Harmor, (where the stutter synth was last time), the bell lead is on Ogun. I lowered some of the high frequency content on that bell lead, as suggested. On the break, I layered the bell and Harmor leads after automating some filters for those parts. The second time through the melodic content, I lowered the volume of the backing elements, I felt they were too loud. I also applied some transient processing on the trance pad. For the bass and snare drums, I did some eq and compression work on the lower and middle frequencies, as well as applying some transient processing. I think they push through more now. I do have a send that I was using, but I mainly used that for sidechaining the snare to the mids and highs. Someone said something about having reverb on that send instead of the individual tracks, but it didn't turn out well IMO, so I reapplied the individual reverbs, and put a slight side channel reverb on the send. I appreciate feedback, and thanks:) Edit: I listened to this through a different set of headphones, and I think there might be too much sub bass on the bass instrument....I could easily lower the slider for the sub harmonic to fix that. Also, I added some chorus effect to the bass, but used Maximus to bring the stereo information back to center for the lower frequencies. TwistedSisterzReEQed3MP3.mp3

I thought I would try a different tack from previous efforts. This is a WIP of a tune I have always enjoyed from the game. Feedback welcomed:) TemporaryTina.mp3

Xaleph is correct, everyone should have khs essentials, there's a lot of good stuff there. It's weird, some vst's don't automate well, even if they sound good otherwise. FL Studio's Flangus is a good example. Also, I have tried using FL's peak controller to automate the fruity balance plugin, and that works horribly...just like described in original post..nasty latency and sound. Trial and error is sometimes involved.

Are you manually drawing the automation, or are you sidechaining it? Also, are you using an actual filter, or an EQ of some kind? Which DAW you using? Thanks:)

12-19-2023 version below. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vvknm1GCUqjw4PIc5H6z6KUwQ5liIMkc/view?usp=drivesdk Thanks for that very detailed feedback, timaeus222! I tried to incorporate all of what you suggested here. Also thought it could use some more low end cleaning, so I did some more of that. Thanks!