Kat
-
Posts
375 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
8
Content Type
Articles
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Kat
-
-
Been pretty busy, but I should have something submitted in time.
-
Haha, I know the feeling. It felt like ages when I was going for my Tyrael and Johanna master skins. Currently working on Leoric and I just hit that curve last night.
-
Updated again.
As suggested by timaeus I've made the brass a bit more prominent, along with giving them a bigger part in the intro. There is more brass presence throughout the song as well, along with a contrabass ensemble to help fill it out a bit. The percussion had a few tweaks in regards to rhythm, but nothing too noticeable at this point. I'm open to suggestions to how the current percussion could be improved and expanded, as it's currently lacking quite a bit. The cymbals in particular aren't quite as I'd like them, and I'm having trouble finding a suitable VST or library that fits the sound well.
Still working on improving the lead trumpet and violin harmonies. I haven't had much inspiration in that area yet.
-
My gear has Tenacity, Ninja Squid and Ink Saver(Sub), along with a few quick respawns. Works great for the Inkbrush. I can drop sprinklers pretty fast while staying undetected. I want to eventually reroll and get rid of the respawns, but it's not a huge deal. Helps me recover from bad plays. I just bought the N-Zap '89 though, and have been using that with my gear to a similar effect(thanks to having the same sub and special).
I do favor Last Ditch Effort a lot of the time though. If you've got something that can spread ink fast you can really turn the match around in those last 30 seconds. I don't find Opening Gambit to be near as useful.
-
Well, I didn't really know what else needed to be said. It was a very simple orchestral version that didn't really stand out much. It wasn't really much more than a straight cover of the original song, which isn't what we're looking for.
That's more or less exactly what else needed to be said.
If he wants it, cool. Although I've done a lot of improving(both in personal skill and in the aforementioned mix) I'm sure it'll be miles above what I can do at this time. Best of luck with the album, I look forward to hearing it on release.
-
I like it for the most part. I like the blend of chiptune sounds with the bass and percussion, and the breakdown/temp increase at 2:06 was pretty nice. I'm not particularly good at technical feedback so I can't help you much there. I can't decide if there's too much bass presence or if I'd just personally prefer less bass. It's a pretty nice listen regardless, though.
-
Well, it was a very indifferent, short and untelling reply to a conversation(that I initiated) that quite frankly felt uninvited/unwelcome, as I had posted here a few days prior and received no response. I didn't feel like bothering you via another PM under those circumstances.
-
So is that a no, or an ignorant dismissal?
-
$250 is definitely not too low given the age of the system, but it does depend on the model you have. Is it the 8GB white model or the 32GB "deluxe" model? You probably won't get $250 for all of it if it's the 8GB model. I'd aim for $150-200, but welcome offers. Wouldn't hurt to highball the price a bit while mentioning you'll accept offers to draw in potential buyers.
The only Wii U I've seen for sale around my area(via craigslist) is asking for $400 for the deluxe console, 5 or so games and two pairs of wiimote/nunchuks(all in excellent condition). I have doubts it will sell at that price.
-
Legend of Dragoon was the first PS1 game I played. While it probably doesn't show much at this point Dennis Martin was one of the biggest influences on both my desire to compose and the style of my compositions(or the style I want, at least).
-
Mine is Virtuoso#1608
I'm not on HotS that often, but when I am I usually play Johanna or Tyrael. Mostly quick match, as I'm not a big fan of the moba "ranked" scene.
-
At the very beginning, to me it feels odd to have the trumpet playing, but no other brass (as far as I can tell). I recall that you do have other brass samples, and I hear some of that at 1:14 (trombone and french horn could work there). Perhaps work towards making this part more of an ensemble sound in the intro.
Yep, I've actually been thinking about that. It was originally like that because of the lack of any brass presence outside the lead trumpet, and it felt odd having a strong brass intro followed by a complete lack of brass. In hindsight I should have thought "Why not add more brass?" instead of "There's not enough brass for that to work". It'll probably be the next change. I think I'll go for a more bombastic intro.
I do like how the trumpet trades off with the violin on the melody at 0:40 - 0:55. I think you could play with that a bit more and have the trumpet harmonize with the violin at 0:45 - 0:55.
At 1:01 - 1:04, perhaps change those 4 descending notes, because I think it's out of the key (seems like you are playing a major scale over a minor chord?). At 1:12 - 1:28, I might be hearing a... is that a chanting choir? xDHaha, yeah. I've been having a terrible idea with creativity and that's exactly what I did. Major over minor. While it clashes somewhat, I (at the time) enjoyed how it sounded and wanted to get a little feedback. I personally think it works to an extent and doesn't clash enough to harm the melody, but I'm open to feedback and realize It could still use some adjustments.
And yes, that is indeed a chanting choir. Still trying to blend it in and out, though. It was there before, just not prominent enough to be noticeable. I'm not sure how much I like it at this point. I feel it does add a certain amount of epic to that segment, but I get this feeling that it's still missing something.
Does your trumpet sample have any other articulations? I think if you use the "blatty" tone (the strong one you are using most right now) less often, it could help on the realism since it seems like a tone you get when you blow hard. For example, you could use a softer tone on softer parts, like at 1:44 - 1:58, or blend it a little more with the ensemble brass. The phasing's gone!
I have that violin library, by the way, and I like how it sounds here.Quite a few. Crescendos, flutes, mordents, graces, staccatos, valve flutters. You name it and it's probably there. I'm still getting down all the keyswitches though. That's always given me trouble. I should certainly put it all to more use, though. The most common articulation used in this mix is simply called "sustained warm". So far I've only used a few key switches in the song - Most notably the flute trills during the intro, and the more obvious staccatos throughout the song. I should be able to spice it up a bit more.
I still like that harp!Indeed! I do love me some harp arps! Advanced Orchestra's harp sample is pretty awesome as well. And the Friedlander Violin is probably the best purchase I've made. The amount of detail and quality(when I use it right!) is insane for the price(and the Kontakt Player compatibility).
-
Oh yeeeaah, I should have fun with this one. Good memories.
-
Updated.
https://soundcloud.com/katallen-12/pg-en-route27
I've adjusted the reverb a fair bit to help blend certain instruments better. I've also adjusted some of the counter melodies, harmonies, etc along with the volume of some of the lesser heard parts. And given my poor trumpet player a rightful turn in the limelight. Most of the mixing has been done on a pair of BX5a studio monitors alongside a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones. I have yet to test this on a variety of devices(outside of a cheap pair of earbuds, which sounded about as good as cheap earbuds will sound).
-
How about some Imperanon? Sadly, they never really took off. While I'm not a huge metal fan, Stained was a pretty cool album. This song was always my favorite
And then there's Amberian Dawn, another older favorite of mine.
-
This is a pretty awesome cover. I love the overall mellow feel it has, and everything blends together nicely. It stays pretty true to the original while having a few great personal touches. Well done!
-
I've been getting a ton of mileage out of the Ink Brush. It's still my favorite weapon by far. My poor fingers though, but it's worth it when you get off 5+ hits a second. Even better against unaware rollers. Or unaware anything, really.
I'm also looking forward to the Slosher type weapons.. It sounds like an awesome enough idea.
-
On 7/27/2015 at 2:16 PM, timaeus222 said:
The drums sound not overcompressed now, so that's good. However, I would call them dull-sounding, tonally, since they lack punch in a ReMix that likely is supposed to sound punchy.
This so much. A definite improvement in sound, but not in sequencing. I still don't feel much power from them. The kick and snare seem a bit quiet compared to the high-hat, which is still in machine-gun mode. Again, I'd suggest adjusting the velocity and adding some variance to the drums as a whole. More fills, frills and all of the wonderfully chaotic loudness a rock/metal-ish mix deserves. And I really do feel like you could do so much better with the drums, both in terms of quality and content. There are quite a few good free or cheap drum libraries out there. If I may make a suggestion, have you looked at Sennheiser's FREE Drummic'a library? It's quite good and runs in Kontakt Player. There's also the recently released Shreddage Drums for the really low price of $119, also for Kontakt Player. Both would be excellent choices, I think.
Here, I threw this together using DrumMic'a as an example of what I'm talking about. Mind you it's a rather sloppy example and doesn't even get into half the options DrumMic'a makes available, but I think it gets my point across. Ignore the instrumentation. I don't have anything even close to suitable for this style of music, so I just used a few pianos as it's mostly about the percussion.
https://soundcloud.com/tesonael/l2-sinistral-drum-demo/s-9cgAR
I'd also focus less on the EBU R 128 loudness guideline, less on loudness, less on less compression and more on what sounds good. If you feel said guidelines suit your music that's fine, but don't let them interfere with your creative drive. It's perfectly possible to achieve a great dynamic range at any (reasonable) volume if you know what you're doing(I sure don't!).
-
Yeah, the soundtrack is pretty awesome and I may do a few more things with it. Given the time it was released it has a lot of good stuff.
In this case it just happened to follow a similar chord progression. I could probably turn this into something half decent. Might try a few things out when I've got more time.
-
https://soundcloud.com/katallen-12/zeliard-hotel-satono
Let me first say that I have no idea what the hell I've done. Boredom + Midi Keyboard + Zeliard soundtrack, I suppose. This was literally the first thing that came to mind upon hearing Zeliard's "Satono Town" track.. I'm not sure if it's even worth pursuing(or if I'll get around to it). Then again, I do recall 'Super Mario's Sleigh Ride'. Not that this would ever compare to that masterpiece of a mix. I just felt like taking a break from more serious things. It's not a particularly fancy arrangement at this point.
Source:
Edit 7/30: After exploring the main melody a bit more I don't think I'd be able to pull off a full mix/blend of the two songs(I wasn't expecting to in the first place). I hope this has been entertaining nonetheless, but I think this will be shelved indefinitely.
-
Not a big fan of the drums myself. They do sound overcompressed and I can't say I like the sound of them that much as it is. What library are you using? Additionally, the leads at 1:40 and 2:37 have, in my humble opinion, far too much reverb compared to the rest of the mix.
Given one of my recent mix attempts, it's funny I say that.
As for the rest of the mix, I wasn't that big on the minute and a half of repetitive power chords before any sort of lead hit the mix. What if you brought that harmony at 1:56 in a bit earlier to spice up the introduction a bit? And given the energy you're trying to convey, what about a lighter crash cymbal 1/4 notes instead of high hat 1/8 notes, before leading up to a drum fill and transition into the main melody?
Speaking again of the percussion, you should mess around with the velocity a bit - it's very repetitive right now. An accent here and there can work wonders, especially on the high hat.
-
If by listening you just mean for pleasure, I personally prefer a nice pair of Marley Positive Vibrations. They're a bit colored though - they have a little more bass(not near as much as most "celebrity" type headphones though) while maintaining a nice mid to upper range. Great for listening, and you can usually get them for around $50. However, I wouldn't recommend them for mixing or composing.
For mixing/composing headphones, I prefer the AKG K 240 semi-open headphones. They're on the cheaper end at around $100 and overall pretty good, though I couldn't explain the technical details. Unfortunately I've heard the production quality has gone down quite a bit and they aren't too good anymore, though mine don't seem that bad. Still though, If your goal is to stay under $200 you can probably do better. I'm a bit limited on my opinions as I don't tend to buy the more expensive headphones.
-
You're right about it sounding hollow - it was originally going to be pretty bare-bones, but at the moment I've left plenty of room for other parts. Too much room, more likely. It comes across as a decent enough soundscape on standard headphones, but I've now noticed that on pretty much anything else(from higher end stereo headphones to PC speakers) it's lacking, so that will likely be the next thing I improve. I'll most likely incorporate a low brass ensemble to help out a bit. Right now there's a lead trumpet with a small trombone and trumpet ensemble that are a bit too quiet. I'm partial to keeping the first verse/chorus a bit light, though. The ending was intentionally bare, but there's really no reason to leave it that way.
I'll be going over the violin and trumpet and adjusting the reverb to blend them in a bit better. The violin's volume was also a bit high, which only made that issue more noticeable. Regarding the phasing, the issue appears to be with the trumpet portion of the brass ensemble coming in behind the lead trumpet. I've toned it down a bit and the phasing seems to be gone now - that's something I should've caught earlier.
Thanks for taking the time to give me some constructive feedback - A lot of this is stuff I'm still new to, and it really helps me out.
-
Updated the mix. I've made quite a few changes, including:
*Panned the violin a bit closer to the center - it felt a little too distant.
*Various timing adjustments - the whole mix feels a bit tighter now, but (hopefully) not stiff
*Added a couple new counter melodies to help certain parts of the mix stand out a bit more.
The trumpet seems a bit quiet to me, so I may turn it up a bit. The cymbals vary a bit, but usually seem too loud and/or stand out. I'll have to look into those as well. I believe I'll expand some of the brass elements a bit more to even the mix out a bit. The lower end(low bass specifically) is lacking and needs some attention too, I think.
Thoughts or opinions?
Super Mario Maker
in General Discussion
Posted
http://supermariomaker.nintendo.com/#/home
Scheduled for release on September 11th. I've always been a fan of games that let you get really creative. This started with the simpler ones like The Incredible Machine(essentially the first version of the more modern Contraption Maker), and other side-scrolling creators like Blast Works for the Wii.
So this one really got my attention. The $60 price tag is a tad bit more than I'd like, but not a huge factor for me. Anyone else really interested in this?
KP9000 has created a repository of courses
Click Here to view the repository
OR
I've compiled all courses posted in this topic below. Hopefully we can get these all submitted to the above repository or it might start to get cluttered!
(Hylian Lemon) Goomba Falls: D60C-0000-0019-D75A
(atmuh) Unnamed: 407E-0000-0024-6309
(atmuh) get to chipotle before the rush: E1EF-0000-003B-1AFE
(FenixDown) Fenix 1-1: 44FD-0000-001A-3EA1
(FenixDown) Fenix 1-2: F1D1-0000-0027-81B3
(Mirby) Ghost Dodgers: A962-0000-001A-FBEF
(Mirby) Icy Skies!: 6EF7-0000-001E-C473
(Mirby) The Flying Dutchman: 1202-0000-0027-2F1D
(Mirby) Plains of Passage (Shovel Knight): 1CC5-0000-0026-195D
(Mirby) Mushroom House (Super Mario Land 2): 1FDF-0000-0029-23A6
(Mirby) Air Man Stage (Mega Man 2) Remix: 314F-0000-0034-3B7B
(Mirby) To Hades and Back: EEC4-0000-0035-7208
(Mirby) Assault on Mount Olympus: 7989-0000-0039-10F1
(Mirby) Anthem (Azure Striker Gunvolt): A7E6-0000-003A-24FE
(Mirby) Follow That Shell!: 70A1-0000-003E-36F3
(Kat) 1-1: Koopa Krusade: 4951-0000-0048-1B52
(Kat) Fear Factory: 0DEE-0000-0043-BCEB
(Kat) Storming The Gates: 7865-0000-003D-08C8
(Kat) Mario's Mission: C64E-0000-0033-D963
(jnWake) Koopa Shells: 551C-0000-0032-58EF
(jnWake) Goomba Jumps: D075-0000-0034-B953
(jnWake) Bullets in Koopatlantis: 6FB6-0000-003A-ED9A
(jnWake) Under The Thwomp: 7D5F-0000-003F-B84F
(jnWake) Mystery House Bounce: 15EA-0000-0048-B42C .
(Bleck) Weighted Companion Shell - 845D-0000-003B-4D70
(purplecowadoom) Stinging in the Rain: 7783-0000-0037-D8B6
(purplecowadoom) The Bounce Vault: 8BE4-0000-0038-F252
(purplecowadoom) "It'll give you wings",they said: CAD0-0000-003A-33C0
(purplecowadoom) Can't handle Bill say, "What?": 4E18-0000-0048-69B4
(purplecowadoom) Pyromania Pizza Palace: 79E3-0000-003E-378E
(purplecowadoom) Pin the Tail on the Cheetah: 1706-0000-003F-F632
(purplecowadoom) "Friendly" Mario vs the Sky Guys: 1C58-0000-0043-B19E
(purplecowadoom) Mario, Woodchipper Inspector: 1017-0000-0047-E992
(purplecowadoom) Sink or Fly, Stop and Die: BD8C-0000-0048-E3E6
(purplecowadoom) Ghosts of the Past: E923-0000-004B-4821