BKM

My second take on Half-Life 2's soundtrack. Initially a byproduct of my other HL2 remix, which I posted here some time ago, 'Ravenholm' then developed into a full project. It's not nearly as progressive; the focus was on atmosphere this time. Lots of samples and self-made ambient stuff. I'm proud of how the drums turned out, but still unhappy with my guitar tone. That might change very soon as I'm looking into investing in a Peavey 6505mh tube amp, so expect better next time. Really grinds my gears that I was never able to reproduce the tones I had on Exordium. I recommend downloading the high quality MP3 320 version over at SoundCloud or hearthis.at. Next up will be metal remix of Pendulum's 'Blood Sugar' and if I find the time, a solo playthrough video. Also, I will be starting production of my 8 track orginial instrumental album 'Oracle' in December as writing is finished now. I'd appreciate any form of support immensely - in the form of helpful critique to improve my mixes or, you know, just throw a like my way somewhere!

I really shouldn't write forum posts when I'm not feeling well ... I cut out some of the ramblings in my original post and decided to try and learn how to optimize my mixing instead of whining about lack of time. In that context, I challenged myself to completely redo the mix in 2 evenings, kind of a "get shit done" approach. I tried to tackle as many of the issues stated above as possible while not losing myself in the details and I think I was able to improve on the original version. https://soundcloud.com/bkm/into-the-cold-light-v2 Would love to hear what you think. Cheers!

Shame that no one commented yet, because this is pretty good imo! I love how you captured the mood and the overall sonic impression of the original. The choice of synths and that archetypical snare (almost Judas Priest levels of reverb haha ) ooze 80s flair. You really committed to the theme and created a mix that is very coherent - things really fall into place (instruments are separated well in the frequency spectrum), nothing hits the listener as unfitting. Playing is tight yet doesn't give off the impression that it was heavily edited to be so (that's just a personal thing, I like honest sounding recordings). Question: Am I right to believe that the bass is sampled? Some nitpicky things about the rhythm guitars (sorry, that's just really important to me ): I think they sound a bit muddy and uncharacteristic. Maybe try a little less distortion for more attack or boost (~ 2-3 dB) around a bit in the 1000-2000 Hz region to find and pronounce the characteristic frequencies of your instrument. Then again, not sure if that would make it collide with synths. Might I ask how you're recording your guitars, DI or mic? Again, I really liked what I heard. I wish my mixes would sound as round (especially the low end) and overall euphonic as this. Cheers

I use the M50s as well for metal production and they've been troubling me greatly recently. I've found problems all over the frequency spectrum: Bass (< 250 Hz): The bass response on the M50s, both in terms of velocity and linearity of frequency emphasis, is sub-par in my opinion. I'm heaving a hard time actually hearing what's going on in this region, let alone EQing there. Most of the time, it's pure guesswork. I frequently mix the bass region way too loud so I can actually hear it on the M50's and it will sound completely out of proportion on other monitors. Low-mids (250-800 Hz): Completely underemphasized and this is a huge issue for me. In a metal context, guitars, bass, and toms as well have vast amounts of content in this region and it gets cluttered and muddy very easily. I rarely notice it until I go to another listening system. This region literally gives me headaches. High-mids are okay imo. Highs (> 4000 Hz): I don't know how old your M50's are, but for the first half a year, mine were much too bright until the membranes (and the sound) became a little softer. Still, they're fairly bright in comparison to other monitoring systems in my opinion. That frequently resulted in me filtering out too many high frequencies, especially in guitars, because it sounded abrasive on headphones. On other systems, the mix would then sound dull and would lack brilliance in comparison to commercial mixes. Let me know if some of these problems sound familiar. I recommend getting a frequency generator and sweeping through the whole range, to get a sense of how strong the headphones will pronounce certain frequencies. EDIT: Darangen says something very important. I load up 3 references before I even start mixing. Also, concider using a frequency analyser: some of these (the Waves one for example) are able to "learn" the frequency distribution of one track and apply corresponding EQ to another track to make it sound similar. This can be helpful at the beginning of a mix, since you will get an immediate visual feedback on what regions of your mix need attenuating or more emphasis.

Hi everyone I'm new to this community and after two weeks of back and forth, I found the courage to post my most recent project. I hope you don't mind that this is going to be a somewhat longer post; I want to share some background on the track and on myself. The track is called "Into the Cold Light" and is a metal remix of "Triage at Dawn" from the Half-Life 2 soundtrack by Kelly Bailey. Most likely you have at some point already heard DJ Dains famous remix of this short, yet incredibly powerful ambient piece. I found it very inspiring when I arranged my own cover. Sources: Original (Kelly Bailey): https://youtu.be/rvyswm1UMko DJ Dains Remix: https://youtu.be/iy61r3Qkm6o Into the Cold Light: SoundCloud (download provides MP3 320 kbps): https://soundcloud.com/bkm/into-the-cold-light Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zM35R3RsWA GEAR I used Cubase 7 as DAW and EZDrummer with the Metal Heads addon as drum sequencer. Everything else (piano, strings, choir, ...) is stock Cubase instruments. Guitar tracks weere recorded via DI, using a Radial Pro48 DI box into an Alesis iO2 audio interface. I've been using a dedicated DI box for the first time on this mix and it made a huge difference in clarity and note definition - the iO2's unbalanced guitar input is astonishingly bad and gave me clipping issues even at lowest gain settings in the past (I use high-output pickups, that's probably the reason). Guitars were recorded with an ESP LTD MH-417 and bass was recorded with an Ibanez SG 405. My guitar tone is courtesy of the free "Emissary" software amp sim by Ignite Amplifications, in combination with mic impulses by Red Wire and Guitar Hacks. Aside from EZDrummer, I've been using freeware and stock plugins exclusively for mixing and mastering. Lately, I've been in love with a lot of Antress plugins like the Modern Analoguer (tape saturation) and their vintage console emulations, even though they have the nasty habit to occasionally crash Cubase since they are not being developed anymore. ISSUES WITH THE TRACK There are some glaring issues with this track. From what I read in the rules it is definitely not up to the OCRemix standards, so I do not plan on submitting it. Here are some things that I am aware of: Bass is an incoherent mess. I'm struggling with the headphones I use for mixing. I'm still very much fighting with my guitar skills and with latency issues, so some riffs and especially the solo are not as tight as they could be. I refuse to edit my takes, so at least it's an honest performance. Frankly, I started practicing with a metronome much too late and it's coming back to bite me. Balance between rhythm and lead guitars is off at various points during the track. The piano gets drowned out during the busier parts of the track, my EQing needs some more work as well. I mastered too loud, there's clipping. You can hear it clearly after the orchestral intro when the guitars kick in. Mastering is my biggest weak-spot, although I am starting to become at least a bit proficient with multiband compressors. Overall, the track would profit from some more brilliance, but I was unable to achieve that without making things sound harsh. LAST WORDS First of all, thanks if you made it through my ramblings. Despite all the problems, I really hope that there's one or two of you who enjoy the mix. I would appreciate your feedback immensely! Also, from what I've seen so far, there is not that many Cubase users on here, are there? I have been using Cubase for 5 years now and have found myself acquiring some knowledge on mixing and mastering with free / stock VST plugins, so if you have questions, I would be glad to help! Just bear in mind that I come from a metal background Cheers