Jump to content

Seth Skoda

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    233

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    12

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Seth Skoda

    My own songs sound boring to me....

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    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.

    I'm having a troubled conscience over remixing and copyright

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted · Edited by Seth Skoda
    Added more details

    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.

    Different sound in different situations, help!:)

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    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.

    Marvel vs. Capcom - Theme of Jin Saotome (Symphonic Metal Remix)

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    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.

    Sonic & Knuckles - "Death Trap" (Death Egg Zone)

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    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.

    Original SEGA Genesis Music

    in Post Your Original Music!

    Posted

    I thought I would share this original piece with the OCR community and not just leave it entirely to Newgrounds.

    https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/884549

    I have more, but screw it, here's my audio page:

    https://skoda.newgrounds.com/audio

    Yes, it redirects to a different user name. As a supporter of Newgrounds, I have the privilege of being able to change my user name once a month, and I can choose to have my old name redirect to my current one.

    "The Dark Carnival" (Sonic 3) [ICP Style]

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted · Edited by Seth Skoda
    Edited music link

    Right now, it's just a concept track made with SEGA Genesis sounds. Obviously, the finished product will not be like that. I've been thinking about this for years, and whether it would really work or not. So far, I haven't found any remixes like this. What is it like? An Insane Clown Posse inspired remix of Sonic 3's Carnival Night Zone music. I always thought that the song Hokus Pokus would blend well with Sonic 3's Carnival Night Zone music, so I finally started this project. I'd like to know if I should go forward with this, knowing full well that I could emulate the style of ICP to the T.

    Here's the audio link:

    https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/883481

    It's supposed to loop, but in the preview, it's not doing so properly. It should be fixed when the audio is published to the site.

    Uh, I'm just a dabbler of sounds

    in Post Your Original Music!

    Yet another Flying Battery remix

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    On 8/30/2019 at 1:23 AM, Eladar said:

    This is solid Seth! I love the source track (well, I love just about every song on the S3&K OST, but this one does probably make the top ten for me, especially Act 2). And I think you've got some nice variations on its themes here, and have found a unique vibe to explore with it. Like Souperion said, it's fairly relaxed, which makes for an interesting contrast against the urgency of the original. I also agree that it sounds Megaman-esque, maybe it's those synth toms lol. Your synths are all sounding good and they meld together as a set nicely. Mixing-wise, about the only thing I'm not a fan of is the hi-hats. They sound pretty dominant on my headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 770s), to the point where I feel like they're masking some of the nice synth work going on elsewhere. I'd reduce the volume on them a bit.

    Arrangement-wise: you say the song has a long intro in your Newgrounds description, but actually some of my favorite touches of the whole remix are in the first minute. I really like the groovy progression that comes in at 0:30 (sounds a bit guitar-like, to my ear) and continues until 0:55 or so. And the transition from 0:56 leading into the song proper at 0:59 is really cool too. I missed these later on and would love to hear them return elsewhere - maybe a breakdown section or two, where the primary hi-hat-based percussion falls away and all we get is something similar to what goes on at 0:30 to 0:55 for a bit. You could lead into/out of it with effects similar to the transition at 0:56.

    I say this mainly because there's sections of the song where I feel like things are getting a bit too homogeneous/repetitious, and I want to hear some contrasting energy to "break me out of it" briefly. The shift into the B theme just before 2 minutes is a good one, and I like the fat sound of your synth lead here. It's more around 2:27 where I first start feeling like I need a breakdown (or something similar) to mix things up. I think the omnipresent hi-hats are partially responsible for this, so a break from them here and there might help your synth work shine through better.

    I'm also not sure the piece needs to be as long as it is - you've got a melodic exploration at 3:05 - 3:26 that's good, but then it basically repeats itself from 3:27 to 3:55 and I don't feel like I'm hearing anything fresh here to keep me invested. 4:27 - 4:55 also seems to me like it's just layering a couple previous explorations together in a way that isn't particularly novel, and I'd almost rather it skipped to what you have at 5:00 instead, which I like better. I think you could get the song just under 5 minutes this way, which would still be plenty long imo.

    A caveat: I'm not too familiar with trap music, so maybe some of my thoughts above would push you too far out of your chosen genre. Disregard any suggestions I've made that you feel would mess with the song's identity too much. I'm basically just looking for a few mixups to give my ears a break from what they've gotten used to over the course of the song.

    Some nitpicks, take 'em or leave 'em - I think that plucked synth sound all by itself in the beginning is a touch harsh; as the synth strings come in you pull it back and it sounds better to me like that. Maybe have it start at a lower volume, more equivalent to where it's at alongside the strings. I'm also not a huge fan of songs ending on a fade-out, so... maybe consider ending it more definitively somehow, but that's not a big deal ;D

    Whoa. Quite the in-depth review! It is much appreciated! Really, thank you for taking the time to write this!

    Let me just say first that I wish I had waited before submitting until I received feedback like this. But still, maybe it will be accepted. If it gets rejected, I'll make the changes you mentioned, as they sound like great ideas to me.

    Honestly, though, I'm used to structuring my original trap and hip-hop tracks to fit verses and a chorus on them, and perhaps that was a fatal error in the case of something that I intend to submit to OC ReMix. 

    The idea of a breakdown and a break from the hihats actually seems like it would make this more enjoyable. Each time I listen to what I've got, that becomes more apparent. My biggest concern with doing that, though, is killing the flow of the piece as a whole.

    Even at my skill level, I have a problem with switching from one section to another and keeping the piece smooth (which is how I like my beats to be).

    More on the hihats, perhaps a bit of volume leveling could fix this as well, but they're a key component of trap (just like 808 bass), so that might end up screwing up the piece as a whole. I'm still going to try it, as I can simply hit the undo button if it sounds wrong to me.

    Now, what if I write lyrics and rap (or have someone else with better equipment rap) on this piece? I was considering this, but I (selfishly) wanted this to be a one man show, and I am almost certain that trying to record vocals won't be worth it without the proper equipment. Well, it's not all selfish. I just think that having my first submission being a collaboration might hurt me in the long run for some reason. Please correct me in the likely case that I'm wrong about this.

    And haha, I'm glad that I could fool someone into hearing an imaginary guitar. I'm actually quite proud of this particular sound, both technically and composition-wise. What I really did was use subtractive magic: a virtual analog VST that doesn't even sound like a string instrument with a few effects on it. And no, I didn't use an arpeggiator with this one; it was calculated using the chords present elsewhere in the composition (I know theory well enough to do this).

    Well, that's all I have to say for now. Thanks again for the detailed review and constructive feedback!

    Yet another Flying Battery remix

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    14 hours ago, Souperion said:

    Well, let me first congratulate on building this from scratch. Your time investment shows, as well. It's somewhat relaxing, yet plenty active. The echoes are nicely done, without muddying things up, and the synths are crisp and clear. Your style and treatment of it reminds me of the Megaman 11 sound track, to be honest, but is decidedly Sonic material. Nice work!

    Thank you very much for the review! Yes, I'm quite experienced in mixing, having learned techniques both from online articles and others who produce similar material, in addition to figuring out my own ways of getting it done. In case you didn't notice it, there are 4 YM2612 instruments in there, but only two are obvious.

    It's funny that you mention Mega Man. I love those soundtracks (NES & SNES games), and I want to rearrange some of those OSTs one day.

    Black Mesa - We've Got Hostiles - Metal

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    On 8/27/2019 at 1:02 PM, BKM said:

    Hey Seth, thanks! Yeah, I'm not good at writing lead lines and solos, that's why I got one of my bandmates to contribute that ending solo. Maybe something I oughta work on in the future.

    Shameless plug: if you're interested in hearing music that I'm involved in that also features vocals, check out Remember Your Scars on Spotify, which is a Nu-Metal / Metalcore band I play bass with :)

     

     

    I do like Nu Metal. I definitely will check it out!

    Volcanic Glass (Sonic & Knuckles Lava Reef Act 1 + 2)

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted · Edited by Seth Skoda

    The chimes are a bit weird, but other than that, I really enjoyed this. The stereo effects are great, mixing is on point, and other than the chimes (they sound a bit too detuned, to the point of being almost off-key), your synth selection is pleasing to the ear. And like you stated in the OP, the piece gets more energetic later on. Nice combination of the two (very different) themes of Lava Reef.

    Edit: because of your awesome mix, you've inspired me to make one myself. Thanks for that!

×
×
  • Create New...