Julien Mulard

I forgot to react to that. That's too bad. But I think something went wrong during the export, because they seem more "blurry" sometimes compared to the previous versions. Except that, what would you suggest? I am limited to what I own right now, i.e. Furia from Impact Soundwork and the basic Kontakt libraries, but I'm pretty sure I can get something decent from these.

What you called a matched EQ is in fact a global EQ. I just moved a lot of things between V4 and V5, and I realized this morning that I had put an EQ on the main track, killing the ultra highs and the super lows.... That was stupid, at least for the highs, so I corrected it after listening to the V4 and V5 one after another. Wait for it in V6! For information regarding my guitar tracks, there is 6 guitar tracks (Rhythm L/R, Solo L/R and Clean L/R), each one having their own FX and EQ. There is also a track for both guitar of each type, just for mixing purpose, but not EQ in here! That was the kind of things I thought about when I read your message, so I changed the EQ of the rhythm guitars, scooping some mids to give a more compact sound (plus the hi boost, it is a rather significant change). I am not sure it was what you were thinking about, but you'll hear and you'll tell me. I love the leads sounds (solo playing guitar sounds), so I won't EQ them if it's possible. I feel changing the sound may break the flow of the sequencing, feeling natural but being just Shreddage But I may boost them if I manage to find some room! Regarding EQing in general, I bought a pair of speakers today. Nothing too fancy, but I heard some bad stuff when I played my track, so I guess it will help regarding the mixing process! First, thank you MindWanderer for taking the time to comment my track! I am really glad you like this! When I compose, I tend to build stories around the tracks I work on, and often think about what would be visually happening if it was a movie soundtrack. This piece is no different, and it tells a story: First Fear of the Heavens (FotH) is the exposure. Imagine a large view of a antique city, with a huge mountain near it. You start too understand that this world is ruled by cruel gods, and that mankind is enslaved, with images of people living in slums and looking, terrified, to the mountain, with the clouds near the top magically glowing. Something may have crossed their mystical inhabitants. The Dancing Animals is the wrath of the gods falling upon the city, for a probably stupid and arbitrary reason. A lighting strike fall from the mountain setting the city on fire. Panic follows. The city burns. From the ashes, amidst the causality, a hero rise. He chose to take arms and go challenge the gods all by himself, Kratos style, to free the inhabitants from their malevolent rule. This is FotH, 2nd appearance. The solo guitar symbolizes the hero. He travels to the entrance of the temple at the top of the mountain. The Spirit of the Night djenty part is here to emphasize the increasing feeling of dread of the hero, about to face the greatest opponents ever. The solos are the bloody battle between him and the gods. Before LTfL he is in a rather bad position. But thanks to the power of love and friendship for his fellow villagers, he manage to turn the tide of the battle and finally smash his enemies (LTfL and SotN). Explosion sound from the gods dying under his rightful power. Now the power of the gods are dissipating and the sky brighten while snowflakes (well, more like gods ashes) fall from above. This is the rising arpeggios from FotH. Final sequence, everything is for the better and the hero is now the natural ruler of the city (last FotH). The end! (Quoting my friend right next to me as I wrote this: "Wow, you went really far") Whatever, the sound design was more about storytelling than quality in audio production. If you think this is bad, I will look into this. In fact, it was a nice excuse for me to have this story behind because I couldn't figure some nice transitions out. So thank you! But I'll keep the last part. As I said to the Nikanoru, I really like long progressive songs, so this ending is not a problem for me. Plus I really like the arpeggios from Fear of the Heavens and I wanted to ReMix them from the begining. I'll try the trail off technique at 4:45 and see where it can gets me. Regarding 2:33, I think I just lack some nice crash hit at the end of the double bass acceleration. I like the old-school trashy feel of the next part, so I'm not certain a sample would work. Sorry for the very long post and the stupid story-thing. Thank you for your comments. Stay tuned for the V6 (I think I'll post updates more often from now on, as I lack the hear for mixing and will need some feedback)!

I'm not sure to understand what you mean by that, but I'll try stuff anyway! If you could elborate a little more, it would greatly help me! In the meantime, I'll try to get some help from the people you mentionned before.

As The Ninkanoru pointed out to me, the links were broken, so I updated them. Everything should work now.

Hi everyone! Thanks for all the positive feedbacks! I had never mixed drums before, and could hardly apprehend compression so I wanted to keep it for the end, but hey, I tried stuff because that's what everyone was talking about So here it is! I'm still working on the ending though, so don't pay attention too much (why is it so hard to end a track?) What changed: Added compression on drums (mostly kick, snare and toms), on the choir at some places to add more presence, and on the bass. Tried to adjust the levels of the guitars (rythm and solo) and bass dynamically, to improve loudness during the non symphonic parts. Added a cool bell sound for the "In the dead of night" part. TheNinkanoru: I really like long progressive songs, so I don't feel like this track is too long. And sadly, I think I listen to it way too much to have the courage of either remove or change drastically the composition. So I think things will stay in the way they are (I tried for example to move the "In the dead of night" part from before the second "Fear of the Heavens" to the djenty part after it, but it wouldn't click for me, and I reverted back instantaneously...). I'm really glad you like it though Gario: I am blushing right now ... ^^ timaeus222: Thank you for the track, I listened to it quite a few time, but how it managed to attain such a powerful sound is a mystery to me. Please teach me!

Hi Nayasis! I just listen to your piece, and here's what I noticed that you could improve: The first part with the plucked instrument sound out of tune. It probably comes from your sound, so try to correct it with your plug-in, or use another sound. It is really offsetting. There is at least one note out of place (in the "coolfreakinotherlead" pattern I think), around measure 23, and it can be heard every time this pattern is played. Overall, your arrangement is long and repetitive. You add some samples from time to time but it is not sufficient to keep the listener (at least me) hooked. The song you cover is short, so it a challenge to keep things interesting. You could try to change sounds again, add new layers from time to time, change tonality... Or even add drops, solos (maybe it's not the style...), or part of other songs in it. Right now, it just feels like you put a drum pattern over the original song played with different instrument. During 4 minutes. You can do better than that! I really want to help you, so don't take any of what I said the wrong way, (I know how bad criticism can be taken). Keep writing and have a nice day!

The Nikanoru asked for it, here it is! In this new version, I worked on going back to 120bpm after the solos. I tried a few things, but this was the best I could do. It make sense because of the story the track tells, but I'll keep that for later, as it is some stupid cliché stuff about oppressive gods and a hero saving everyone using hope and dreams ^^. So big explosion, and then this quiet and cool riff from the last part of "Fear of the Heavens" I wanted to put somewhere from the beginning ot the project. It ends on a kind of victorious electric guitar riff. And then, Fear of the Heavens, but in a quiet and pieceful mood (this part still needs work). What do you think about this?

Thank you for all the positive feedback! I take note of all the things you said, and will work on everything later on, as for now, I want to finish this track (it may take one or two iterations), because the good new is THE TRACK IS NOT FINISHED YET! Yeay, more heavy metal to come! I plan on bringing back the tempo down to 120bpm (I still don't now how, but I'll find something), and finish on one last Fear of The Heavens. What's in between? I don't know. Not much probably, cause I'd like to keep the track under 7', for submission purpose. But I'll try to keep it interesting Once finished, I'll work on polishing the composition and the sound design. Then mixing/mastering (working on the drums and so on). Then... Well, it probably won't go as expected, so we'll see ^^

Hi everybody! New version! Soli are a thing now, with more "Spirit of the Night". And a new source joins the fun: "Leave Time For Love" (the Mana Fortress music, see first post) I also mixed down the bass, added more reverb on the horn section, layered some more bell sounds during the "In the Dead of Night" part. Have fun listening!

I really like the mood you gave to the track! I'm curious, did you use some really advanced VSTi? Or did you record yourself? Maybe a bit of both? Well, whatever, I find it very authentic. Some little things I noticed: At the beggining of the piece, you use a cello-like instrument, wich is mostly panned on the right ear. I found it a bit too loud at some point, after the first crescendo, around 20s. More generally it tired my ear to have this low drone in only one of my ear for almost a minute. Note that I'm listening with headphones, so I may be more affected by drastic panoramisation. I also found your lead high pitched pipe to be a bit too agressive. Maybe turn it down a bit? I am not good for mixing whatsoever, I'm more focused on composing and arranging (and, in my honnest opinion, you've done quite well on this end, sir!), so take my feedback with a grain of salt. Have a nice day!

Really nice cover, the minimalism really adds to the melancholic feel of the source. I like it! Now, for some constructive feedback, a few things that I noticed: Some background noise during the guitar section. I suppose you recorded both audio and video together, and picked the city noise with your mic along with the guitar. If going for something clean, I suggest you try recording everything in a noiseless environment, most probably inside, and record a playback video if you want outdoor footage. Note that you don't have that noise during the piano part. Still concerning the guitar part, I would have let that last chord around 30s ring a little longer, along with the lead, to smooth the transition with the next part. One last regarding the guitar: I would have played the last melodic phrase legato, as the rest. The choppiness of the last part is rather offsetting :/ The piano part is well played, but your sound is a bit muddy and lacks of clarity. With maybe too much reverb. I have no idea if it comes from your mic or your keyboard, but you could probably easily correct this by removing the reverb on the keyboard during the record and adding it afterwards, with a bit of EQ like adding some highs or cutting some middle low? (I'm rather bad at EQ theory...) Whatever,thanks for sharing your work, and keep playing!

Hi Nathan! Regarding the horn sections, there is something to do, I agree with you. I was planning to reinforce them by layering another brass section, but as I said earlier, I am not at ease with mastering, and I did not thought about reverb! (Well technically I did, but on the orchestral part, wich links strings, horns and choir, in order to make everything more coherent). Concerning the drums, well... I did not process them. I am a bit scared to do so and break the balance I thought was there (seriously, all the mics and stuff, it's rather scary when you don't know what you are doing!). I'll have to watch some YT about that And last, sorry for the fadeout! ^^' I am still working on the last part, and it was mostly to smouthen the abrupt ending. Obviously, there won't be any in the finished product. A question for anybody reading. Is there something wrong with the lower end of the spectrum? I'm used to listen to music on my 3DS with cheap in-ear monitors, but I'm working with a rather standard/good quality mixing headset (a closed Beyerdynamics DT770, 80Ohm), and when I switched back to my shitty earplugs yesterday, the bass was everywhere! I may have recreate the low amplification inadvertantly, but I have a really bad ear for those kind of things, so don't hesitate to give me feedback on this end.

Hello everyone! First, thank you for your feedback The Nikanoru, and sorry for the late post! I wanted to answer you with a proper update and it took me more time than I expected to attain a stable version. As you'll notice, I tried to compose more than taking your advices into account FOR NOW. But know that I read it with great care, and that it meant a lot to me! And now, the wall of text regarding the new version (tl;dr at the end): So the first part is almost identical. I just gave more punch to the staccato section by layering with another plug-in, and added a impact sound when the orchestral stuff comes in. As for the second section, I was not happy with the ending of the "Dancing Animals" part. The riff was too far from the source, and the high pitched harmonic was great and all, but didn't transitionned well with the next part. I tried to add some choir chords, and it worked well regarding the transitioning , but did not solve the source problem. So I listened angain to the SoM OST and found the answer: "In The Dead Of Night" (I'll edit the first post for the source). And so it happened. I'm still not convinced by the bell sound I used, but I'll find something better later. Regarding the third part (the second appearence of "Fear of the Heavens"), I went crazy on it, discarding the staccato section and writing new parts for both the legato strigns and the choir. But the Horn was a bit lost in all this orchestral stuff, so I brought backup, and added a lead guitar section. At first, the guitar played the main melody, but I found it rather boring (maybe listening to this part more than 20 times a day didn't help). Now it's more like a crazy emotional and epic solo, but still close to the original melody, with nothing too fancy. The last part might disapoint you if you liked the old version. I was going for a long melodic battle on "Spirit of the Night". Not anymore. The part went totally Djent, with the first notes of the melody going between the two lead guitars in the low register (I still need to tune their FX). And then, break, tempo change, and a classic Trash riff for over the top soli I have to write now. tl;dr: A fierce and original second appearence for "Fear of the Heavens", some impact samples to improve transitions, the end of "Dancing Animals" is now "In the Dead of Night", and I heavily change the end of the track, leading to unwritten-yet-trashy-and-over-the-top-guitar-soli. I hope you'll enjoy this new version! Don't hesitate to point out anything you liked or didn't like, any mistake I made or anything! And thank you for your time! Have a nice day!

Hello everyone! I'm currently working on a Secret of Mana medley, with heavy riffs and cool orchestration. It is far from finished, but I thought I could do with some fresh and critical opinions to keep me on track, as I tend to over-listen my tracks when I'm working. Regarding the song, there is four different parts, and more to come: The intro, based on "Fear of the Heavens", but with a complete opposite feeling (hence the title). I wanted to turn the earie/mystery inducing feel of the original into something more like a fierce-warrior-marching-against-the-gods kind of epic stuff. I may have managed it (you tell me), but I feel the part still lack something, in the build-up maybe. The second part is made of really cool boncy riffs, based on "Dancing Animals", but I may have been a little to much side-tracked in the end. No orchestration here. As in the source name, I want this part to sound like a giant bear headbanging. The third part is the exact same thing as the first part FOR NOW, but I'm planning to give it more personnality in the future. I'm keeping the same kind of mood (and the same source, of course) The fourth part is a really lazy draft concerning "Spirit of The Night". I wasn't sure if I would put it here now or not, but then, it happened... ^^ Here, I want to have really emotionnal solos and this source is rather perfect for it (I personnaly call this part "Spirit of Metaaaaal"). The transitions are a bit off (mainly between 2-3 and obviously 3-4). I'm open to ideas! I'm rather confident regarding composition, I'm far less concerning mixing/mastering, so I am reaally open on this subject. Thank you for your feedbacks (and sorry for the poor english, it is not my mother tongue) The sources: The ReMix in progress: The old versions:

Hi MindWanderer, and thank you for your feedback! I'm glad you like it and call it fun! It's exactly what I got in mind when I started this project. As a matter of fact, it was from the beginning a cover rather than a ReMix, so I am not surprised by the "to close from the original" part of your criticism. I feared it was, and so it is, but I was better asking, right? ^^ I posted here for a feedback, but I wasn't aiming for the OCR standard, so yeah. The first thing I wanted was to get a sort of Motorhead feeling (it mainly influenced drums I think) and it is not a very "progressive" kind of music. So I sticked to a basic blues/jazz standard structure: twice the theme, solos, and a final twist to get a sort of grand finale As I consider it a finished work, I don't plan to re-compose/re-arrange it, so I guess it will stay as repetitive as it is now. But maybe in a few month, I'll go for a new version of it? Regarding your more "producer oriented" remarks: the panning was a thing I wanted to do, but I was willing to stop working on this piece, as I knew I would never be fully satisfied by it. But I may correct this. Or start a new project because I'm starting to be fed up with that tune ^^ Whatever, I'll take panning more seriously on my future work! For the lack of mid, in the last part, I'm not sure about what to do, as I fear it will damage the mix. I could have put the second voice during the arpeggio, but I fear it would have make this part too charged... And I really wanted that stormy load of doubled high pitched notes, and I'm not sure about changing the EQ for that part and taking some highs out. So if youy (or anybody else) as some kind of advice, I'll be glad to try and learn sutff! Whatever, thank you again for your feedback, it is very valuable to me!

Hi there everybody! I've been working for quite a long time on that epic boss battle theme. I know the approach is not super original (it's rather metal from the beginning), but I think I managed to get a new feel while keeping the spirit of the song. Feedback welcome, obviously (even if may die a little on the inside), as I tend to get reviews from friends that may be too kind for my own sake ^^ The original : (for some unknown reason, the whole soundtrack of the game is slightly detune regarding standard A440 tuning) The Cover: https://soundcloud.com/julienmulard/dark-kings-fiends-ffmq-battle-2-metal-cover(Absolutly non subjective spoiler alert: keyboard-guitar soli/duet/canon/awesomeness and more!) Enjoy!

Hi there! I always found vgm to be somewhat special, and as I've been making music from a few years now, I ended making what I think cool covers/remixes of my favorite tunes. Now I think it is time for me to share some stuff, and I'll be very pleased to get some feedback on my work, as I've never realy exposed it to any other than a few friends and familly members. I'm a keyboardist/producer (as in "I do stuff on FL Studio"), speed/shred/melodic/powerful/stupid oriented, be it in metal, happyhardcore, hardstyle or anything else, with possibly a touch of ukulele and melodica sometimes. Whatever, I'm really happy to join the rank of OCR, and maybe one day (soon?) become a ReMixer! Nice to meet you!