Master Mi

Pretty cool and realistic articulations for the electric guitar. )) Don't know if it's the sampled guitar, the tone or the hall that sounds a bit tinny (like a can-like preset - got one of those can presets in some of my VSTIs, too). It's also possible to make the guitar less thin (more powerful) without taking away the wide echoing room effects - just reduce the reverb a bit and use a stronger ping pong delay effect instead until you have a thick, strong and also wide, reverberating, room-filling guitar sound. I'd also leave out some of the overlappings of the guitar notes that sound a bit out of shape - like those ones at 1:32 (sometimes it's more than enough if just the overlapping hall/delay of the consecutive notes makes the tonal interference instead of whole overlapping notes - depending on which notes are overlapping). Besides these few things it's a really nice reinterpretation of the track. From where do you have got these nice ride/cymbal sounds you can hear pretty well in the beginning of the track? Are these samples from Shreddage Drums?

Sounds like a layered but not too complex pad soundscape to me. I'm sure you could get pretty close results even with free VSTIs like DSK ChoirZ and some external reverb 'n' delay plugins and some movements/automations in the stereo panorama.

No big news in da house. But since I deleted my track just by accident on Youtube I reuploaded it with some changes in the sound quality, a much wider stereo panorama and a few changes in the VSTI & synthesizer settings for a fuller and cleaner sound. Maybe check it out - it's still version 1.2 (only edited the post).

Meanwhile I've worked on an update of this soundtrack. All the changes I've made you can find in the description of the Youtube upload. Here's the version 1.1 of my remix: >>> >>> https://clyp.it/vht55ihs

I'd buy MIDI-Controller and VSTIs/synthesizer separately. If the expensive keyboard with the expensive synthesizers crashes (and it might be just a glass of spilled water that kills your ultimate all-in-one-solution in a second) you can't use anything of it. No working keyboard - no working synths - no happy composer. If just your MIDI-Controller is broken you can still use all the collected VSTIs, synthesizers and plugins in your DAW and just buy a new MIDI-Controller if you can't repair it. And maybe your preferences change over the time - maybe you want drum pads directly on your MIDI keyboard oder weighted keys with hammer mechanisms. Would be pretty expensive if you buy those hardware improvements along the line of new keyboards with integrated synthesizers. I've got a pretty nice MIDI keyboard all-in-one solution with my M-Audio Oxygen 49 MK IV >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee8bzs3fYbE It has just synth action keys (I actually really like 'em since I got used to them) and no aftertouch function - but I really get along with it. If I need some aftertouch I can do it with an automation by overdubbing the track with my MIDI controller and the MIDI learn function on the VSTIs and synthesizers in my DAW pretty easily. You can program and edit lots of functions of this keyboard - for example the sensitivity of the keys and drum pads or the functions of transport console, buttons and controllers. And you have lots of buttons, controllers and modulators there.

Maybe the idea with the synth instead of the piano is not bad at all - at least I tried some synths that would fit pretty well. But I'll also try to make the piano stuff more realistic - a good classic instrument for a good classic game wouldn't be too bad either. --------- Does somebody have the problem with the delay at the piano part as well? According to my headphones I can't hear a problem with the delay there - but maybe you have better headphones to filter out some annoying stuff much better than I can do with my ones. Which kind of headphones do you use, Rozovian? --------- The bass part before the drums is just the previous synth bass that goes over into a clean power guitar bass as a little prelude for the following heavy guitar part. Thanks for the hint with the drums - I'll work on this. What exactly is a down beat hit (you mean bass drum?) and an optional hit (snare or hi-hat?) in this case? Or is your beat code just about the bass drums? --------- For my guitar part I use following VSTi and VST stuff: - for the bass guitar stuff: "Vita Power Guitar" >>> http://www.magix.com/int/hidden-extras/additional-instruments/2015/ - for the rhythmic guitar stuff: "Vita Century Guitars" (just look for Century Guitars at the same link as for the Power Guitar above) - for the lead guitar stuff: an own preset for an electric guitar from "Independence Pro Library" (just listen to the second demo track of "Acoustic & Electric Guitars" after clicking on the speaker symbol there for listening to one of the clean electric guitars) >>> http://www.magix-audio.com/ie/independence/libraries/#productMenu With this as a base I use a VST-Plugin called "Vandal: Virtual bass and guitar amplifier" with a self-made preset on it >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRalAVOvxd4 I really like that one - you can build nearly any kind of guitar sounds with the complex functions of Vandal in connection with a real electric guitar or a good clean electric guitar VSTi with lots of articulations/key switch functions as a basis.

Hm, that's a strange thing. I can't really hear a too reverby sound in the orchestral drum section - and even the VSTI parameters don't show a too big hall effect. The wetness is about 40 % and the hall time (or let's call it the hall size of the room) is just 4 seconds. I can't even hear a too much reverb there if I play each section as a solo. Somebody else who has the same impression by listening to it that this is too reverby? Maybe the different headphones are the main cause for the different perception - I've got some of the Panasonic RP-HX550 series >>> https://www.amazon.de/Panasonic-RP-HX550-Street-Kopfhörer-schwarz/dp/B00FG5H6II/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1494161177&sr=8-12&keywords=panasonic+kopfhörer In my vision for creating this part I was thinking of some of the islanders praying and drumming for Mike's sake along his courageous and dangerous journey - some kind of a powerful spiritual support from far away. ---------- The rhythmic strings in this section are already "spiccato" - that's nearly the same like the general term "staccato" (I guess, spiccato = staccato for strings). Maybe they are interfering with the legato strings in this section - although they have a different setting in the panorama. But somehow I like this how they sound together. ---------- The steel drums are actually no real steel drums - it's a special preset for my vintage organ which sounds quite similar. And I tried different velocity curves there - but for this VSTI the "Ayers Rock" velocity curve with slightly randomized velocity of the neighboring note simply sounded best there. If I go too semicircular in the velocity there you won't hear too much of this in the whole soundtrack anymore. Unfortunately I don't have a real/realistic acoustic steeldrum for this one. But at least I have some steeldrum synths where I could use a different velocity curve (pretty much semicircular) that actually don't sound that bad as I thought. ---------- At the moment I want to take all my time for fixing things and trying out new stuff for my tracks. It's just my 4th or 5th year (as far as I remember I began somewhere in 2013 or 2014) of getting into music from ground zero and creating soundtracks. And I'm still learning lots of new stuff every month just by reading, seeing, hearing or simply trying out new things. So, at the moment it's really okay for me to improve continuously over considering my tracks as being finished. ))

Thanks for the encouraging feedback. Though I'm really satisfied with the track at the moment I'll wait with subbing. I'm sure my skills in creating music will improve even more within the next years - but at the moment I can really enjoy this level. The funny thing with the strings in the intro is that I had tried some much more realistic samples of strings, but I didn't like it (maybe the better samples sounded much too formal for such an easy, tropical melody, but maybe I have not added enough reverb and delay). As I remember I tried some synths as well but they were too artificial and too spacy - they didn't fit the other acoustic instruments. So I used the average "golden medium string samples". But yeah - I could work on the notes of the chords and make them longer or a bit more interlocked. And which toms you mean with "like making the tom part feel tighter and less reverb-y" - the orchestral drums towards the end or the toms in the drum kits before? According to my loudness & peak metering in my DAW I have a free headroom of about 6 dB between the 0 dB mark and the highest signal peaks in the track. So, I guess I could easily increase the master volume up to further 5 dB for the OCRemix upload version without using any compressors/limiters. But for my personal uploads I'll stick with the EBU R-128 loudness standards because it's much easier to keep a certain loudness level for all my tracks without reducing the dynamic range, limiting peaks or making unnecessary changes in the sample or sound quality.

Thanks for the review. I guess I'll keep working on the track - especially at the piano stuff, maybe at the drums and maybe at the ending (although I thought the fade-out was fitting pretty well in this track). Besides - which piano parts exactly do you mean with odd - the very first notes or some parts afterwards? And would you say through the perception via your headphones that there's too much reverb and delay is going on in the prefatory piano section?

Thanks for the hints on Bandcamp and Instaud - I'll check these out soon. )) PS: I've just read on Bandcamp that you can only upload covers if you got the permission of the artist who made the original - so, how to handle it with video game remixes? >>> https://bandcamp.com/terms_of_use ---------------------------------------------------- For the controversy about the audio quality of Soundcloud vs. Youtube I would say that Soundcloud was a bit better than Youtube in the past. But at the moment Soundcloud seems to be even worse than Youtube. Check out my latest Star Tropics remix. 1) Youtube version (loaded as WAV into Windows Movie Maker, exportes as a WMV with just 192 kbps (max) audio quality and uploaded on Youtube) >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGhY2cxDv5Q 2) Soundcloud version (uploaded as a 320 kbps mp3 file on Soundcloud - but sounds as compressed and tuned down as the WAV file I had uploaded there before - you'll hear the big difference in the undefined cymbal sounds - sounds worse than in the Youtube version and much worse than in my uncompressed project file) >>> https://soundcloud.com/master-mi/star-tropics-the-fire-of-the-southern-cross-master-mi-remix I don't know why Soundcloud sucks this much in these days - but I guess it's about the financial interests behind the platform that is going to destroy the original concept. Besides - somebody gave me a good tip with the audio streaming platform "Clyp": >>> https://clyp.it/ There you can upload (and download) tracks with about 100 MB per file in the free account - obviously no upload limit and streaming with at least 320 kbps audio bitrate. A really good source - spartan design but really functional and useful. The cymbals in my Star Tropics remix sound really nice there in the audio stream (uploaded with 320 kbps quality) >>> https://clyp.it/ggch1nth

After a long time I've finally made a pretty huge update of this remix. Better check out the Youtube version (... somehow it has a slightly better audio quality than the Soundcloud version and in addition to that it contains a video with some of my very own in-game scenes from my very own walthrough). Informations about the changes I've made in this remix update you can find in the descprition of the upload for Youtube. Here's version 1.4 of my Dungeon Theme remix "The Fire Of The Southern Cross": >>> >>> https://clyp.it/ggch1nth

Yo, dudes. I'm looking for a free online platform where you can upload and stream (in the best case an unlimited amount of) high quality audio (and maybe video) files with at least 192, 256 or 320 kbit/s audio quality. I'm just a little frustrated that popular platforms like Soundcloud only support up to 128 kbit/s audio quality for streaming. ... 'cause I'm working on a music project with lots of good-sounding cymbals (good-sounding at least in the uncompressed project file) and you really hear the difference after soundcloud has transcoded the lovely hi-fi quality to their kinda degraded 128 kbit/s audio stuff right in the stream. Does somebody know some secretly overlooked platforms for high quality audio uploads out there? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since audio streaming platforms like Clyp fell apart 'cause of a new unlucky financial course (so, with a former free account you won't be be able to upload any further musical content - they still might keep the old content from free accounts, but I deleted my account because with the new rules it wasn't of further use for me since it's also a less known platform)... ... I decided to concentrate much more on Youtube as a free and well-known (and for free conditions pretty good) video and audio streaming platform and Soundcloud as a free (and for free conditions at least fairly good) audio streaming platform. ... In the meantime, I've found another really good video and audio streaming platform where free accounts are possible and very useful. It's a Japanese platform called Nico Nico Douga (or simply called Niconico after 2012). It might not have the big and useful interaction and commenting features (allows only pretty short comments) like Youtube has to offer. But you can still navigate through an English interface for your account and the main features of the platform in English language. And - this is important - you might be able to upload and stream files in a much bigger quality than Youtube allows (possibly files with around 192 kbit/s, 320 kbit/s or maybe even lossless audio files) with a free account. The funny and for Japanese developments pretty iconic thing is that your account develops like a RPG character - with specific points and level ups, depending on your feedback of the community and things like that. I still haven't made it past LV 2 there - but I won't give up so easily. ^__^ Definitely a platform with very great potencial - so, feel free to check it out: https://www.nicovideo.jp/ ------------------------------- So, just to make a little list with free and useful video + audio streaming platforms or just audio streaming platforms for every content creator or content savourer out there: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Youtube https://www.youtube.com/ 2) Niconico https://www.nicovideo.jp/ 3) Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/ If you know other free, really good and innovative platforms like these ones (which might remain free, really good and innovative in the future as well), feel free to share your knowledge with the rest of this community and I might add further ones. ))

So, finally I've made a huge update for this remix. I've written some new notes for a preluding piano part, I've created a pretty nice rock part for the final and at last I've made a video with my own gameplay scenes for the German NES version of Maniac Mansion. More information about all the other changes in this version and backgrounds of the remix you can find in the description of the upload for Youtube. Enjoy - here's version 1.1: >>> >>> https://clyp.it/y0v1j0f1

Thx for the feedback, Rozovian dude. )) Haha, guess I like the Dealbreaker Style in this case. I really don't like such lowercased exceptions in headlines while other words you regularly write lowercased are capitalized there. I have seen this style at many other mp3 titles and just adopted it - pretty uniform and easy to memorize. No problem if you change the upper and lower case of the title to your standards later on. According to my perception and music equipment I think the loudness of the drums is quite okay (maybe 0,5 to 1 dB I can go up with these - but not more). In a rather melodic rock ballad like this I prefer some kind of "integrating drums" that support, but not predominate the melody. When it comes to the overall loudness of the track I'm really in love with the mastering standards of EBU R 128 which allow more than enough headroom for uncompressed and full dynamic range of the tracks which are all at one loudness level. So, for my own uploads I'll keep it this way - but as a version for OCRemix (when the track is good enough and really finished someday) I could easily export it with a loudness that is about 6 dB higher than now (without any kind of dymanic compression). This should be around your average loudness standards in OCRemix. Hm, the strumming sound at 2:30 - yeah, you're right. The velocity goes a little bit over the edge there - guess I'll will fix it in the final version and check the whole strumming section completely as a solo played track once again. For the piano part I think I'll leave it as it is. The side noise in the higher piano section might be part of the piano itself and it rises recogniceably at a certain level of reverberation/wetness. For my perception it's not even an annoying side noise. Somehow it goes really well with the video where glass breaks into many shards. Thanks for the detailed feedback. I'll keep working on this track and especially on the performance of some instruments in the future.

Got a nice update of the track - further informations of the changes in this version you can find in the description of the upload for Youtube. Let me know how you like this version 1.2: >>> >>> https://clyp.it/vx2pp4xy

C 'mon guys - gimme a feedback or some inspirations who you would improve that track in the future, what you would change or make different, technically or concerning the composition in general.

Finally a huge update of my Street Fighter remix for the Balrog theme. It's my first remix I have created on my new high-end PC. I've made a lot of changes - further information of the new stuff in there you can find in the description of the Youtube upload. Here are the links for the new version 1.2: >>> >>> https://clyp.it/0qz3jt4t

I know - it's not quite a video game remix. But I'm trying a lot of things with guitar sounds for my videogame remixes in these days. So, I decided to create an instrumental composition for a famous TV series opening from the 80s to use my new self-made raw (slightly distorted) clean electric guitar presets. Further information you can find in the description of the upload for Youtube. Maybe you can give me some feedback how you like the guitar sound, the new drums, the piano stuff as well the rest of the remixed soundtrack. Original soundtrack: >>> ---------------------------------------- Newest version of my remix: 1.1 >>> >>> https://clyp.it/vht55ihs

Got the newest update of my remix done - you can read about all the changes I've made in version 1.2 in the description of the upload for Youtube. So, here's the new version 1.2: >>> >>> https://clyp.it/3dj3to2t

I've made an update of my Lufia remix recently (the things I've changed within version 1.5 you can see in the upload description). This time it also comes with a video that consists of in-game scenes of the final battles gainst the Sinistrals. Here's the link of version 1.5: >>> >>> https://clyp.it/gmmrf0zz

Nice feedback. Concerning the loudness of the electric guitar: I've listened to the track via speakers, headphones and mp3-player (in-ear buds) and it was really okay for me. But you're right - I could tourn the loudness of the lead stuff at least bring down for about 1 dB. What do you mean with: "The notes cut off too early in my opinion, which may be leading to the overly stiff sound. I feel like they should flow a bit better."? Should be a few more overlappings or just make the notes longer until "note-on-note"?

So... finally, I've managed to improve my rookie drum skills to a much more advanced level of drum composing skills - which will help me a lot with my video game remix projects in the future. That's how level 2 of my drums skills sounds like. This time I've also created a screen recording video of my playing drum VSTI (instead of just a picture) for the Youtube version - so, you can follow most of the drum elements in my drum solo project much better. Backgrounds and futher informations you can find in the description of the Youtube upload. There 's also a clyp link with an uploaded 320 kbit/s file for the die-hard audiophiles. --------------------------------------- Newest version of my track: 1.1 >>> >>> https://clyp.it/dqb5rrty

This is a little rock remix of the opening theme from the Pokémon anime series. It's my first remix of an anime soundtrack after making a few remixes for several videogames. I'm not the typical die-hard fan of Pokémon - but I loved the anime when I was a child. Pretty fluffy and hearty stuff with a nice touch of adventure. Some time ago I've listened to the opening theme of the anime once again which has a really decent melody I still like - and I thought that this could be a nice track for improving my virtual guitar skills. So, I put some effort into the articulation of every single guitar note. Sometimes I tought for hours about where the different articulations or playing techniques (like long played notes, hammer-ons, tappings, slides or some FX guitar sounds) might fit best within a short guitar sequence. But I got into it after some time and I think this helped me improving my music production skills a little bit - especially for creating much more realistic guitar sounds. Thanks to my really awesome virtual guitar amplifier Vandal I could give the guitar sound its totally unique style and make a decent final touch with a little bit hall reverb and a little bit more pinging stereo delay - really good combination for reverberant but also strong, assertive guitar sounds. I've also enjoyed working a bit more with velocity dynamics to bring some more life and vibrance into the track - but it's still pretty tough for me to find the right balance between the velocities of the different tracks within a song. Already a velocity value change of just 10 out of 127 can make a perceivable difference between hearing single notes in the whole mix and not noticing or at least not feeling them anymore. But I will work on this in the future. Just as usual I've mastered this remix at EBU R 128 loudness standards and used absolutely no compressors or limiters for keeping the full, natural sounding dynamic range and best possible hi-fi sound quality. So, check this stuff... Original Intro Theme: >>> ---------------------------------------- Newest version of my remix: 1.0 >>> >>> https://clyp.it/ymrif5kn

I've tried some stuff with the whammy bar emulation stuff to get it as realistic as possible. 1) The tip with articulation setting is pretty good. The best results I've got with hammer-ons, tappings, fx guitar sounds and harmonics. Harmonics can be pretty nice to wham out longer notes into silence if don't have an aftertouch function at your midi keyboard (to control the velocity of the key after hitting it). 2) Use a vibrato/LFO on the guitar sound (at my sampler I can set that the vibrato/LFO of the guitar sound with a defined frequency begins 0,7 seconds after playing the note, for example - can also automate that stuff). 3) Bevor you do anything with the pitch wheel make a jump of at least 4 or 5 semitones (upwards or downwards) and keep holding both notes after playing them (don't have to hold the note at harmonics of course) - for example play c2 and jump to f2 (or to fis2 or a2, for example). A jump from c2 to h2 (or "b2" at international rules) doesn't sound too nice as well - because after b comes c again (no distance of at least 4 or 5 semitones). If you want to jump between different octaves some combinations sound differently nice (for example - never jump from c3 to e1 and hold the keys - doesn't sound good - but if ya do the jump from e1 to c3 it may sound fairly nice). 4) After doing the jump with hitting the second note/key >>> move the pitch wheel and you'll get some awesome rock guitar whammy sounds. 5) If ya want to have it even more realistic try some volume automations in a similar way the pitch wheel is going to get some tremolo effects like in the video link (there's a pitch AND a volume/tremolo stuff going on - I guess it should be called "pitch tremolo bar" over just "tremolo bar" - maybe the reason they 've found with "whammy bar" a completely different name which is not too long and complicated).

At the moment I'm trying to improve the amount and quality of the articulations of my VSTI guitar sounds in my DAW. There's a lot of great stuff you can do with the keyswitch buttons, the mod wheel, the pitch wheel and all the possible automations of course. But one thing I haven 't found out yet. It's about how to emulate the techniques with the whammy/tremolo bar of electric guitars which can give some really awesome sounds >>> It's stuff like this I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAeD9-J8exk According to my knowledge a whammy bar is a device on modern electric guitars that allows the player to give or take tension from the chords/strings of the guitar. Different tension of the strings means that there is (at least) a pitch shift is going on - and as it seems (sounds) it 's a much different pitch shift than normal bendings and vibratos you perform with your own hands directly on the strings. So what's the big secret of the whammy bar if you want to emulate this in your DAW - or is there something like a special VST plugin for this?