Seth Skoda   Members

I don't know how to use this message board to its max, but I wanted to thank you. But it's not my composition. I only wrote the percussion and carried out sound design and mixing. If you click the link to the original song on the page, you can hear how the composer made it. IMO it's definitely got that SNES feel, but perhaps not Chrono Trigger. As far as your mixing, try EQ'ing your instruments a little more tightly. Lately I just throw a low pass and high pass filter on every instrument (even the bass) to take out unwanted frequencies and get a cleaner mix. Having filters restricted to different ranges for each instrument (even if they overlap) can give you a cleaner mix. Be careful, though. You could easily end up with a tinny (yet muffled) mix. That other piece I'd like to hear. I love metal and hard rock, so throw it on me.

Go for it, I say. The ladder effect is something that happens on the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive sound chip when the voltage of the sound wave approaches zero. It gives off some rather interesting timbres. The Wikipedia article about this is quite informative and explains it well. They even have a clip of the Streets of Rage intro on the page to demonstrate.

Is this all original music? It's quite chill, and quite nice. Good melodic content and the mixing seems to be on point. I feel like $7 would be fair if you were more well-known. You need to utilize social media to make this happen. I think you should not only jump on Newgrounds, but try Soundclick.com to grab an audience, though that's more for beat and soundtrack producers than regular artists. Wouldn't hurt, though.

Ooh, neato. A bit of a percussive assault at the beginning (percussion bell was a bit loud for my taste), but overall it was quite a good listen. The flutey sound just sealed the chill vibe for me. My only REAL complaint is that it feels like it's over before it can really develop into what I felt it was going to be. I seriously thought it was going to break down into some kind of solo or something. But nice job on all the percussion going on, keeping things interesting.

lol Believe it or not, that's a new version of a track I originally made in 2016. The original kinda sucked, so I felt that it needed to be redone with my new software and increased ability. Thanks again for listening.

O.O Well, thank you for taking the time to listen to those...things. Gas Man... What the fuck was I thinking? TBH Harsh Life and Mushroom Forest Dance are among personal all-time favorites from my content. That's mainly because I feel like I came very close to the exact feel and sound design for which I aimed. Especially on Harsh Life. On the DL I'm making a new remix of that. Note: I prefer the term "skill." Talent is too nice. Making music is something I learned how to do. I believe that it can be taught and learned, so therefore it is a skill.

Thanks, man! Ngl I rip drum samples from games to make sure they're authentic. I have a couple of choice VST plugins for the instruments, and then certain effects to enhance the feel (low pass filter is one of them). But I could do better if I had AlyJamesLab's FMDrive. It has "the ladder effect."

Dude... Thank you for all of your replies. I have seen them, but I have been busy as all hell. Working overtime, getting that bread I wouldn't say Newgrounds is great for getting exposure, but it sure did help me get to where I'm at in terms of my skill level in music making. And sometimes I'll get a few thousand listens on a track in its first two weeks. The community there is great, and I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have another audience. You should give it a go. BUT they have a system in place to ensure that people don't upload other people's music. To avoid too much waiting with that system, upload 3 or 4 original tracks (not your remixes, if you have any) after getting an account (and confirming it) and I can approve you for the Audio Portal (I have tenure). And YouTube did what now? I can't say I'm shocked. Twitter has been doing this to NSFW artists for some time now, and Google seems to have some kind of problem with Newgrounds (because of their NSFW content).

Something. Like, any style. This trap style remix was nice to hear on Newgrounds, but the user is no longer active, unfortunately, so I can't encourage him to submit it: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/675421 He considered it in the past, but decided not to do so because it's so different from the original, he thought it was too different. Here's the source tune for reference, if you haven't heard it: If you're wondering, yes, I had a hand in the making of that remix. I sequenced the MIDI arrangement and sent it to the user who then used it to make that remix. The midi sequence can be found on vgmusic.com somewhere. If you can't find it and would like to use it, hit me up. Just a heads up, it kinda sucks, but it is usable.

I use free stuff for mastering (actually, in general). Broadcast for Compression and default Mixcraft stuff for everything else. I also use cheap equipment. $20 SONY headphones and some cheap GPX speaker set I bought at the local dollar store (it does pump some nice bass, though, even the rumbles, shakes the floor). Good equipment is great, but I get by without it. I wonder how much of a difference it makes. How much do you hear the difference between regular headphones and high-end studio headphones? Speakers? I'm curious to know about this.

Drums are a bit loud to me, but you probably know that already. I'm not thrilled with the detuned synthesizer that comes in after the sound effects and vocal clips. That's probably a matter of taste, though. However, I do like the fast-paced (DnB, maybe?) feel here, and also the chippy 8 bit-ish sounds. If you get your volume levels right and a clear mix, I'd say this would be submittable as a ReMix.

Well, thank you for the comparative feedback! I'll definitely keep this in mind with future pieces.

Thank you for the feedback. That "piano" is a YM2612 but yes, 90s feel was my aim. I guess if I turned down the bass, it would get cleaner. Thanks again.

I really appreciate the detailed advice. Thank you very much!

Thank you for the advice! But really? That's all I gotta do? Other things I was reading were saying use different EQ as well. Would that make the stereo effect seem wider? I think it would.

I want to make metal. I know the answer to my question likely can be found on the internet, but I'd rather hear it from someone who does it rather than some random online article. SO I'd like to ask the members of the community here about their methods. I must point out that I am without an amp, using amp simulation effect plugins. These seem pretty cool, actually. I've been making various types of electronic music for several years, so don't worry about confusing me with terminology. I know more than basic mixing/mastering techniques as far as that goes. But guitars and rock/metal is completely alien to me in terms of mixing/mastering. So, my question: What do you do to get both left and right panned guitars to ring out clearly, both in stereo and mono?

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/887525 You'll notice that someone else composed it, but I have remade a lot of Brent Bunn's (Bertn1991's) tunes. I'm probably going to remake some of them again, considering that I have improved greatly in mixing/mastering.

It's actually pretty kick-ass and very underrated as a DAW. Has anyone else at least tried it? I'm using Mixcraft 8 Pro Studio, btw And I made this with it: https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13933223

Yeah, I have the same issue sometimes. But I also have the problem of not developing my piece enough. Most of the time. Once in a while I can whip out a gem that's polished and not boring. However, when you start feeling stale on anything you've made, put it away. Come back to it another time when you have new ideas for it. I once had a project sit for nearly three years until I was ready to finish it. In fact, I forgot about it until I searched through my projects for stuff to finish (being too lazy and lacking inspiration for a new one). I found a neat little project from 2016 with a changing time signature. I finished it a few months ago, and I'm still not completely satisfied with the end result. But it is pretty alright. To sum it up: Instead of rendering your tracks, put the project away after you have what you think might be a finished product. Forget it exists and open it later.

You know, OCR has been around for 20 years doing VGM rearrangement. If we haven't been sued into oblivion by now, you uploading stuff on your own should be fine. Also, if you feel uncomfortable with violating SoundCloud's TOS by uploading VGM remixes, try Newgrounds. Their Audio Portal welcomes such content and doesn't recompress your audio. Even the owner of the site placed one of my VGM remixes on the front page of the site! A few somewhat popular artists (such as The Fat Rat and Panda Eyes) are there.

Something is wrong. Are you absolutely certain you turned off audio enhancements? My only issue where anything sounds different is when I play it back in Windows Media Player at high volume. It has a limiter that really screws up the volume leveling in the parts of music with less going on. That aside, everything sounds the same played on everything within my PC. The only thing I can think of is that any editors you're using are using different audio drivers, but even that shouldn't cause a significant difference.

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/886646 A trap-like instrumental piece.

Due to the fact that this piece has two different sections that crash together, I'm strongly considering a gapless mix of all the main level themes and the boss themes as an album. I'm not going to make any other commentary, I'll just post the link now. https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/885604?updated=1570105545

Oh, wow, you use GarageBand? For something made with MIDI instruments, this actually pretty damn good. It was like... N64 music, but higher quality, aside from the guitar. And the guitar playing was fine, though it doesn't sit well in the mix. It was like your guitar work was having a power struggle against an orchestra. And some of the orchestral instruments stick out in a way that I can't exactly explain. Still, I can't say that I didn't like it. I'm interested in remaking this for you from your recordings and midi tracks. I make no guarantees, but I think it would be a good opportunity for me to learn how to mix live instruments like guitar. I mean, I don't do orchestra stuff often, but I guess I'm not bad at it... https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/875971 A hip-hop piece there with mostly orchestral instruments in Mixcraft 7 (I use 8 Pro Studio now). I'm not trying to advertise; I'm just letting you hear what I can do.

This might sound familiar. That's because I originally made it almost 3 years ago. However, I recently remastered it to sound clearer and less muddy. I label it as completed, but I still welcome any feedback and may change things based on feedback. https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/884680 On the listen page, you can find the original as well. There's a huge difference right from the beginning as far as how it sounds. No other changes were made but the mixing.