Audiomancer

So this is my latest WIP. This one is the first attempt without soundfonts, and done with VST's and Cakewalk. It's rough, not close to being done, just looking for feedback for work done so far. Thanks:) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1K6bENeWlr67w2fE0-eJ0O80hcuhUuz7d

I turned off absolutely everything...it's been double checked:( Oh well, I assume when most people on this site listen to the tracks, they are sure they're hearing unadulterated music. I listen on my phone through headphones much of the time, as I notice my WIP's sound the same on my phone as through ASIO on my pc.

Thanks for the reply:) changed some stuff with the lead guitar, toggled off doubling, and reduced the reverb. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g7mbZMuCMpxs8gcqaDvR0DDfURMvPTOE

This is something I put together really quickly, and I want to know if the instrument quality is up to par. Thanks!:) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g7mbZMuCMpxs8gcqaDvR0DDfURMvPTOE I fiddled with the lead guitar a bit, toggled off something called "doubling", and dialed down the reverb.

I took another pass at this one. It didn't make it past the panel, and I took some of their advice when preparing this rendition. The rejection thread has the entirety of the constructive crits, but I'll outline some of the changes made this time around. I shortened the intro as suggested. I used a few different synths/vsts. I altered the ending a bit. I changed some of the percussion. I very slightly changed the "soloing" part in the second half. The term "noodling" was used by one judge to describe it, which is good and bad at the same time, because that is the exact term/style I was looking for;) I narrowed a couple of intervals in that section, but didn't alter it overall very much at all. Latest version below. https://drive.google.com/file/d/18Bv8PRVMqUlDu1CxRpIjNQtLMXxhfbq5/view?usp=sharing

Latest version posted.

Thank you for the clarification on the mp3 question.

Thank you both for your responses:) I did check for enhancements under audio properties, and nothing is selected there. I'll have to see if there is some sort of properties menu in the media players. I don't know if this is a dumb question, but when judges listen to submissions, do they use a daw or wav editor when they do so, or is something else used? Thanks again for the responses!

Ok, so I have some questions, and I apologize ahead of time if my post comes across as rambling, and I give thanks ahead of time for any suggestions given:) I am using BandLab's Cakewalk as a DAW, my computer has 8 gigs of ram with an i5-7400 processor. I am running a SSD. First off, I noticed when I export a WAV file through my DAW (that's using ASIO), if I open it in a WAV editor that's also using ASIO, it sounds the same. If I play the WAV using a run of the mill file player on my computer, such as Windows Media Player, the file sounds SIGNIFICANTLY different. If I alter the WAV file in the WAV editor, and then play it on a standard file player, the altered sound occurs then too. I've changed the sound driver option in my DAW to not use ASIO, but it really doesn't run very well, and you get some audio oddities while working on the track..however, the export sounds the same when played between your audio software, and the standard audio players. Also, If I get my WAV to sound how I want in my WAV editor, and then export to MP3, the sound is altered then too...and I'm not just talking about a lossy sound either. The resultant MP3 is over a decibel louder, and the waveform is altered visually in relation to the original WAV. Is this normal? I searched the internet for answers to these questions, and couldn't find answers that helped....or at least my novice self couldn't understand them. The only one I found was about not using ASIO in the first place...but there's got to be a better way, and that doesn't explain to me the MP3 issue. This is something I discovered after submitting something, and not realizing the change in sound of the MP3 submitted. Oh well. Thanks again ahead of time!

Thanks for the feedback!:) I would like to spice it up more with the flute, but Mic time is hard to come by at all these days with an infant at home. I'm trying to make do with the recordings I already have. It's cool that you said something about the flute vs. Guitar....I am trying to make it as intentional sounding as possible...so it looks like that kinda worked;) Again, thanks for the listen and feedback!:)

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Lol, yeah, I very quickly was surprised by how awful the staff view is. I was super excited when I saw that as an option, and then...well, you know:)

Disclosure, I is noob:) Cakewalk is now free. It used to be a program you used to have to pay for, but through foreign corporate acquisition, you can get it as "Cakewalk by Bandlab", free. You'll have to set up a Bandlab account, and then the DAW is yours. LMMS is also free, but it's VST capabilities are horrid. However, it's built in synths and soundfont support are awesome. There are VST's for SF support in other DAWS, but LMMS seems to do it the best and most consistently. You can always use both:) If you don't like them, you are out zero dollars. VST's are important, that's where you'll get the most of your sounds, and there are many good free ones out there for beginners, like us:) It's great we live in a time and age when we can get our feet wet for free. I've not paid a dime for anything, and I think my stuff keeps sounding better and better through practice with the tools I have. Full disclosure, I'm not posted on OCR yet (I hope it happens), but I'm working on it, and I have made it a mission to do so without paying anything, so that everyone else knows that it can be done for free, also. TL;DR. You can try Cakewalk and LMMS for free, and they both have their strengths.

I've always liked this tune, and I put together something incorporating two ideas. Edit 4 25 19 Ok, so this is a rough section/rendition that I have posted at the bottom, I am mainly wondering about the "lead guitar". I don't know if it's up to par...besides that, I don't think the balance is quite right.. I am going to have/already have more than this: I am concerned about elec guitar lead...Thanks!:) Edit 4 27 19 I'm still wondering about the guitar mentioned above, but this time I have added an acoustic guitar/flute section at the beginning. That is me playing the flute here:) The timing is slightly off at the beginning...I now realize I had different drivers for playback and recording activated while recording the flute, and with baby, I have so little mic time Looking for feedback on this WIP. My goal is to expand on this idea, lengthen the tune, and have the guitar and flute playing together/question answer each other. Edit 4 28 19 I just figured out that I can just move the flute audio track in the DAW, so now it lines up better. At least the driver issue I mentioned didn't actually stretch the timing of the recording. Since I was in there, I also added a little acoustic guitar to "play" along with the flute. Feedback welcome, as always!:) Edit 7 4 19 Latest version is in the most recent of my posts in this thread, along with the original...as per Ready For Review instructions. Edit 10-17-2019 - Latest version posted here, along with original. The actual WAV sounds a little better than this Soundcloud link,(the pads are marginalized, and the bass seems emphasized) but the idea is clear:) Thanks for feedback! Edit 10-20-2019 Changed the lead, and am sharing as a Google Drive link, so the file can be downloaded and listened to with proper software (ASIO) Remix https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zVoo5F2Ob8DtAtERdNmM0TtSxI5X20Ao/view?usp=sharing Original

I'm a novice with electronic music production, but from my limited experience... LMMS has a soundfont player built in, and it works very well, as far as I can tell. It lets you open up all banks in a soundfont easily (for those with multiple banks), whereas soundfont paying plugins for I have tried with Cakewalk seem to have trouble with that. Those plugins have other oddities as well...some won't let you play more than one note at a time, some will only output to the left speaker, some will only let you have one instance open, etc. LMMS is free, and it lets you use soundfonts perfectly, but for most anything else, you'll want to use something different, because LMMS' VST support is pretty terrible. Only one out of every 5 work correctly...and working correctly means it has to work when reopening a project, not just when you fire up a vst for the first time.

I am inexperienced with this sort of thing, but with the cymbals, would it be possible to eq out some of the low end (Ha, low end of cymbals), so you have more of a "shimmer" type of sound, instead of an aggressive percussive sound on them? Sounds nice overall:) As for the ending you possibly could "calm into" a lightly arranged major chord pattern/arpeggio/pad, with F in the bass, and an F major chord in the treble as the base of your arranged pattern, perhaps with a 6th or 7th added in for flavor, giving a picardy third kind of vibe?:) Oh, one more thing I just thought of...on the snare, perhaps you might like the sound of a brush snare (the kind you hear in soft jazz) instead of a standard snare?

I've always liked this tune, and I put together something incorporating two ideas. Edit 4 25 19 Ok, so this is a rough section/rendition that I have posted at the bottom, I am mainly wondering about the "lead guitar". I don't know if it's up to par...besides that, I don't think the balance is quite right.. I am going to have/already have more than this: I am concerned about elec guitar lead...Thanks!:) Edit 4 27 19 I'm still wondering about the guitar mentioned above, but this time I have added an acoustic guitar/flute section at the beginning. That is me playing the flute here:) The timing is slightly off at the beginning...I now realize I had different drivers for playback and recording activated while recording the flute, and with baby, I have so little mic time Looking for feedback on this WIP. My goal is to expand on this idea, lengthen the tune, and have the guitar and flute playing together/question answer each other.

I made a small adjustment to the lower frequency EQ, one that's only slightly noticeable, taking into consideration what XPRTNovice said about their headphones. I also added a small spoken intro to the second "improv" part that should have been there before. I have submitted this mix, and thank you for your time, ear, and -ahem- XPRTise:)

I just noticed something when listening to my track today...does it seem panned slightly to the left for anyone else, or is that a peculiarity with my headphones? It's nothing too distracting, but I noticed it today. I can also see a discrepancy when I look at the left and right waveforms, leading me to believe it's not the headphones, but it's still something I thought about. I have an updated version I might post that sounds more even between the left and right channels to me, I'll post it if someone else notices the panning issue. Thanks! I decided to upload and post:) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nHURd09pcMxso4k32o9CuwqUvuTeNww-

I did do some different stuff with the mixing of this this last time. I had some different ideas with eq, compression, and limiting that I hadn't done before, and I think it helped with the overall tonality of the tune. It really is all trial and error for me, I have no training at all when it comes to music production:) As for the goal of this project, I sure would like it to be accepted some day by the panel:-D By the way, I notice that you provide a lot of detailed feedback to many folks, that is really cool, and appreciated.

My latest version is right here:) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nHURd09pcMxso4k32o9CuwqUvuTeNww- I had to do it through google drive this time because when I tried to convert to mp3, it added unwanted audio artifacts, for lack of a better term. Also, when I tried to upload a WAV to Soundcloud, it did the same thing. Per the advice given by Gario, this is a different arrangement; instead of more than one theme, I just used one, and had some fun with it. Also, I mostly went with synths, except for the choir and organ sounds, which were mentioned as not being too bad. I look forward to constructive feedback on this:)