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Posts posted by zircon
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Here, check a couple of these things out.
http://my.mackie.com/profile/rgp_trk_nfra.asp?t=tnfra
This is a link to register + download (legally) "Tracktion" which is sort of similar to Fruityloops. You can use different plugins or samples in this program, which will give you a wider variety of sounds to choose from.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows
This one is "Audacity" as I mentioned earlier. You can use this to edit audio, add effects, layer different MP3s or WAV files, lots of good stuff. It's totally free also.
http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/composer/download.htm
This is called "Noteworthy Composer". If you are used to looking at traditional sheet music, this program lets you write music in that format. It can produce MIDIs, which you can then load into something like Fruityloops or Tracktion if you want to upgrade the sound quality.
http://www.finalemusic.com/store/login.asp?target=notepad&npv=06&npp=win
Finally, this is another traditional notation program, like Noteworthy Composer. Try it if you don't like NWC's interface etc.
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yes being 15 in brazil means you are broke i'm trying to save it all upo but man...
and zircon yes i play on gorefiend...how did ya kno?
I'm in your guild, that's how I know
I'm Arendor, 60 Priest. oh why oh why does this evil contration called fruity loops doesn't let me save my lovely lil remixlingspawn thing...i worked hard on it (kind of) not fair what they do to you...i wish the demo was more limited but you could save =(Yeah, I know, it's kind of annoying. But here's what you can try. Let's say you wrote 15 seconds of a song and it sounds really good. What you can do is export the song as a WAV, and then, using a free program like Audacity, you can put the WAV in there and save it. You can also do this on a per-pattern basis. So you can make a drum loop, export that alone as a WAV, a string part, a guitar part, all of those can be exported (rendered) separately and then you can put 'em into an audio editor.
Just hop on SL vent sometime when I'm on man, I'll tell you more
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Yo man. Just in case you didn't see my other post, do you by any chance play on Gorefiend in World of Warcraft? I think you actually know me on there.. hop on vent sometime
Anyway I'm going to go ahead and move this to the ReMixing forum. You will get some more help there.
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This one isn't too interpretive. I do like the groove element - smooth drums and bass, except for the fact that the drumloop is just an unaltered one from Reason. That's kind of lame. You usually want to at least chop up the loop a bit, use layering, variations, that kind of thing to make it more your own. You did do that a little later but you repeated the same variations over and over. For the most part, the texture here is pretty minimal even compared to the original. There's not a whole lot going on at all. Just bass, drums, pizz. strings, maybe a synth or two. You need more than that for a really full remix, or at the very least the individual parts have to be doing a lot more. Right now they're just sort of playing the melody/harmony unaltered. You can vary up the progression, changes rhythms, keys, the time signature.. a whole BUNCH of stuff to really make the ReMix your own.
On the production end, the strings are a little too loud compared to the lead instrument(s) usually, and the synths are very simplistic. However, this isn't as big of a deal as the arrangement and the overall execution.
Needs a lot more work all around, but if this is an early effort, it's not too bad.
NO
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Conceptually this is pretty cool. I could see this being developed into something fuller. At the moment however there are sound quality issues, and the arrangement is sort of one of two things; either a simplified, straight-up cover of the original, or unrelated entirely. There is not a lot linking the Chrono Trigger stuff with the glitchy/ambient stuff. Not to mention the texture overall is pretty sparse, and not in a good way either.
On the production end, I just have to say that it's too glitchy. The ambiance is a nice thought but it's not executed well - it comes across more like noise. It's not pleasant or really musical. The drums are also grating. They aren't interesting in either their timbre or their rhythm. Other synths + instruments used are also basic.
Again, good ideas but needs a lot more polish
NO
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The source tune here is really pretty basic and simplistic, but there's lots of material to build off of. Let's see what Roe did with it..
Alright, pretty cool groove going on; the combination of the keys, drums, and guitar is good. I like the part interaction there. In terms of production values this is cleaner than a lot of Roe's previous stuff. I appreciate that aspect. The percussive sequencing is also markedly better. However everything seems a little tilted towards the mids-highs. There's not a lot of bass presence, even from the string pads. In fact it's difficult to discern much bass at all. This unfortunately makes the whole thing sound somewhat thin and lower fi than it should. Not sure what happened to the low-end here but try to work on that. That issue aside I did not really hear any problems with the mixing. No other production problems at all as a matter of fact.
The arrangement is a really tough call for me. To me it's JUST about there. It doesn't have all that much movement, but it does have a good amount of interpretation, and the structure isn't really all that bad either (there is a definite intro, middle, end, etc). While I think it sits right on the border, I think it's barely enough to pass our bar. Given that I have no major production complaints I'm going to go ahead and give this a
YES
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Just include it in the submission email and request that djp use that in his writeup.
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There's too much polyphony and there are sampled drums in there that don't sound 8bit. If a C64 could actually do everything in this song with no modifications I'd be shocked.
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Keep in mind this is not technically a chiptune. It does not adhere to any chiptune standards I'm aware of. That is what made the decision harder for us.
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Lucky. I wish people would chuck some good mics out every now and again... hehe. Do you have any idea, or guesses as to what it would cost for me to get even just half of those mics? I don't plan on doing any recording right away, but it wouldn't hurt to know.
And judging from that, you'd need quite a few mics to get good enough quality out of a piano? My piano is located in just the perfect spot right now, it has just the right amount of an "echo" when you play it, would that affect which mics I use?
www.sweetwater.com ! They have an absolutely massive stock of pretty much every music-related item you can imagine, and the prices are generally good (you can use froogle once you find an item you like and see if you can get it for a bit cheaper, but I don't mind paying a little bit more for the service). They are also knowledgable, for the most part, so if you have questions about specific items - or just questions in general - they are good about answering them. Calling them is toll free too so you have noting to lose.
In regards to actually micing the piano itself, a technique you might try is X/Y micing with two condenser microphones. This will give you a good stereo image and minimize phase problems. Here's how you would set up the mics.
I don't think you would need more than two mics. In fact, you don't even really NEED two, it's just nice to get the full stereo picture.
In terms of how you position the mics in relation to the piano itself, this is really trial and error. It also depends on how much of a room sound you want, or if you want a really close sound. Your best bet is to just experiment until you find the sound you want.
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Now' date=' I don't claim to be a musical prodigy or anything, but why are there [i']two rhythm guitars (one panned left, one right) and the lead is panned all the way to the left? Does that make any sense? Maybe I'm just crazy.
Aside from that, I found this mix to be pretty drab. Nothing really stood out to me; just a bunch of "dun duns" and wailing guitars. I enjoy the sources tunes more... but, then again, I think the Lufia music (from the first two games only) is great; even though the second game re-used just about every song.
Anywho, decent production; the panning really throws me for a loop though. I like the mix more than I'm making it sound, honest.
Guitar doubling is a very common technique among guitarists for getting a wider sound. The usage here was a bit unconventional because usually the doubled track is played nearly exactly the same, whereas here, the tracks were somewhat different. I don't think it's a big deal though. Also, the lead is only slightly panned left as far as I can hear. It's definitely not hard left.
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VGDJ Episode 036 is now available at WWW.VGDJ.NET!
We hope you all enjoy it!
Also, please vote for us at podcastalley, we really could use it. Thanks, and again, enjoy the show! -
First of all, it's Wave capabilities are fairly new. You can can apply some vocals to an arrangement, but I found it fairly intuitive (IMO). Others might tell you something else. But what I tried so far... Recording is not simple, arranging is difficult too. And automation? Oh well... This is why Cubase and Samplitude are so great in this section. They're aimed at Multitracking. Fruity Loops is still in Kindergarden in this section. Not that you "can't" use it. But it still lacks something.
Again... others might tell you different - for sure. *oh golly will I love the flamewar!*
This is all bunk. Compy, simply put, you don't use FLstudio. I do. No, it's not as fully featured as, say, Pro Tools in terms of customizing your options. But it's pretty damn good at what it does. I've done numerous songs with recordings in them and I've found FLStudio to be more than adequate; conversely I've also used sequencers like Cubase and Logic and I didn't like them nearly as much. Automation is very fully featured as well (there are multiple ways of doing it). There are three different ways of doing it, as a matter of fact!
Don't give this guy the wrong impressions please. Independent artists all around the world have put out professional releases with a wide range of sequencers, from things like Garageband, to FLStudio, to Tracktion.
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Yeah, my guild's really cool about stuff. My mage is 31 arcane/12 fire/8 frost. I specced just enough into frost to be somewhat useful when I need it, like the shortened casting and +critical damage. My guild doesn't mind if I'm fire; hell, I've still got Arcane Missiles, eh? We've also got a feral druid in the guild, and she even picks up on some of the tanking sometimes. Some of our priests are/were shadow, and our main tank went arms/fury for a whole week just for fun.
The only thing they really encourage is having CT Raid, and that's not -necessarily- a requirement; it's just a "you should really have this, because it really, really, REALLY helps" sort of situation.
It's funny how guilds try to copy other guilds when they do their own runs; the same strategies don't necessarily work with different people.
Haha.. lemme just tell you a couple things real quick about unusual specs
1. When I was specced shadow with about MC level gear, I topped the damage meters. Shadow priests own.. HARD.
2. There's a guild on my server that has a Feral druid tank the Broodlord in Blackwing Lair, one of the more difficult bosses in the game.
3. All warriors in my guild save one (who is only the tertiary main tank) are Arms/Fury/Prot, all the way down to 31 in Arms. I'm on a PVP server so almost all warriors are specced this way.
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Yeah, a lot of that sound is in the sample you use. You could try to reproduce the effect with lots of tweaking, compression, etc.. but you're better off just getting a nice "splash" clap sound. It's not the punch that gives it the unique sound. It's the really hot sustain; it doesn't just have a short transient, it holds for a bit.
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Ah, another convert
FLStudio users unite! -
You should see my friend with her priest, she could almost bind her left click to one macro/mod and the right click to the another, and she would be instance ready.
She no longer takes any counscious decision when she plays, it's only the macros that do the job.
Another reason why I quit. We were talking about DPS (a couple of rogues) and one said "get this mod (some energy managing thing), I increased my DPS by 5 with it."
Ya know, you are running mods in a game so that the game almost plays by itself. I wish WoW was not moddable.
Unfortunately mods can't make you a better PVPer, or better at high end raid content. There are decisions that HAVE to be made by a human.
Not in most of the guilds I have seen.
Taking decisions often mean "not following the walkthrough linked 25 times on the forum." I have seriously seen some guild leaders complain about someone making decisions during a battle... There is a plan and we must follow it. If we die, we are not following it enough.
These macros are more often than not used in high end PVE gaming to be sure that no one makes the wrong decision. The leaders say which macros you need and which settings you should have.
You're talking to someone who does MC, BWL, AQ40, and outdoor encounters. I know the endgame. Macros cannot win difficult battles. You need to be able to adapt in the middle of a fight; that's how the hard encounters work.
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You should see my friend with her priest, she could almost bind her left click to one macro/mod and the right click to the another, and she would be instance ready.
She no longer takes any counscious decision when she plays, it's only the macros that do the job.
Another reason why I quit. We were talking about DPS (a couple of rogues) and one said "get this mod (some energy managing thing), I increased my DPS by 5 with it."
Ya know, you are running mods in a game so that the game almost plays by itself. I wish WoW was not moddable.
Unfortunately mods can't make you a better PVPer, or better at high end raid content. There are decisions that HAVE to be made by a human.
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I'm kicking myself that I forgot to hook up with you when the test realms came up zirc. Oh well it'll give me some time to get those final pieces from BWL before we get a chance to duel.
You won't win. But you're welcome to try
I don't have ANY BWL gear btw. Lame zero sum DKP system in my guild. If I did, I'd be truly unstoppable.
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Yeah. There is no doubt about it that I can still kick MAJOR ass. With my dmg gear on (non-shadow) I can smite for 600-650 normal, 900-1k crits with no buffs and no trinket. I'm not even specced for Force of Will either (pumps up dmg by 5%) or PI. If I get PI, AV buff, pop my trinket, and use a battle standard I can get over 2k crits. The great part is I can then heal myself, shield, fear, etc!
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I like this. Very creative in the arrangement, and also in the timbral choices. The production is a little weird at first - it's not your standard rock song by any means. But the choices made are not necessarily bad and listening to it a few times, I don't think there are any major problems. The lead is a little soft comparatively but that is not a big deal. Lots of creativity, enjoyable.
YES
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Heh. That video is a bit misleading, but yeah, Priests are very cool now.
Reasons it is misleading; for one, the guy has full BWL/endgame gear. Every shot just about is him with his trinket up (+280 damage base), Power Infusion (+15%), a Flask of Supreme Power (over +100 damage base), sometimes another consumable buff, Berserking/AV Fury buff.. etc.
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In terms of crediting, I think if they contributed less than say... 10% of the total material you probably wouldn't have to list their name there. I mean, this is really subjective of course, but that would be my take on it. For example I'm working on a collab with tefnek right now and Rellik did contribute to it, but he dropped out early on. I'll still mention it in my sub letter but the actual artists in the mp3 tags will be me and tefnek.
Traditionally I think performers usually don't get credit either in the file name if they didn't do anything except perform. We have a piano mix or two up like that, and the FF4 battle medley had Ailsean performing with no credit in the tag.
Again, all this is just opinion. If you feel that the person made a big contribution you're probably right, go with your instincts.
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Okay now stop it, Andrew. You sound like a dumb full-oh-himself-fgt again. You have a lot of experience in terms of collabs, production and the like and I respect you, but you additude lately is not what I'm used from you.
Someone asked a question. I answered their question. I have experience and I produce good results. This is not being "full of myself". This is what this forum is FOR. If people don't like my advice they can take it or leave it. Same goes for your advice or anyone else's.
This is definitely not the same work, nor is it balanced. Depending on the production and the instruments used, it can be a 6 hours job to a 2 month production which was originally written in like a couple of hours. You can't relativate that.Maybe for you, but for many people production is really not all that hard. Taking a MIDI and slapping instruments to it, in fact, is one of the easiest things you can do. That's why when we get those at OCR we auto-reject them. It's really not hard at all. A good arrangement, conversely, can take a very long time. Ask any of the recently posted ReMixers here. Things don't just get done in a few hours unless you have some VERY talented musicians involved.
That production I'm working on atm for the Special Edition of the Chrono Symphonic project is very time consuming. It's not just finding the right sound and shape it with the EQ. There's way more to it, even though I got a Cubase project file with 20 tracks!Or the remix I've done for Zeratul. Even though I only had to "mix" the track, I still had 12 stereo wave tracks that had to sound as unity. And it took me 3 long days to mix that thing.
Well, I know for a fact that most people in the community don't spend 3 days on mixing. You'll probably agree with me on that. And I also know for a fact that professional mastering studios and award-winning engineers typically do entire albums in a day. So, the fact that it is taking YOU so long says something about your methodology.
This is NOT to say that you are not good at what you do. You are. I don't think anyone here would contest that. However, you have to consider that other ways of working may be either faster, produce better results, or both. You have to be careful not to generalize and say that they're all bad.
So the engineer has more to do than the one who wrote the track.Once again, tell that to someone like Greg Calbi. Engineering takes skill. There's no doubt about that. I would also say you are a skilled engineer with experience, so you know what you are talking about. But an album can take months to years to write and produce. Mastering is something that usually only takes about a day for that whole album. For a community like this, then, thinking about it logically, it should take even less time.
BS1 and BS2.As you might have seen by now, Cubase isn't the minority anymore - even not here at "this website". So don#t gimme that crap.
Ok, name all the ReMixers here who use Cubase. No, seriously. Do it. How would you even know?
This board might be biased with Reason and the all-so-holy FruityLoops, but it is definitely not commonly done. Accepted maybe, but in the practice it's completely different."In the practice" no one really cares. Some of the best albums have been produced with terrible gear. One of my good friends is a very successful composer and songwriter who uses Garageband of all things. In the real world, it's a results-based enviroment. NO ONE CARES what you do if the final result sounds good.
Also wrong. There can be done a lot of mistakes. In the case of Reuben Kee and pixietricks' "To Far Away Times", Reuben's recording started sooner as pixie's vocals. So something went wrong while recording right from the start. I used a mp3 as reference to adjust the tracks and lined them up. Which was a load of work.Ok, so you're telling me that what I did was wrong? Even though not a single person to date has commented on timing problems? No, sorry. My method actually worked. I wouldn't be telling people about it if it didn't.
MP3 is definitely a NO-NO, as the encoder cuts stuff too (silence at the beginning, ending) in worst case, not to mention that the material can be totally useless if reclessly encoded.Really, because I did all of "When All Hope Has Faded" by exchanging MP3s. Same with "Lover Reef". No complaints yet. So much for a "definite NO-NO".
A pro wouldn't recommend this technique at all!They might not, but your average "pro" wouldn't recommend FLStudio either to people. I don't give a damn. It's one thing to listen to a professional's advice about something. It's another thing if you develop a way of working that produces a great song in the end, and a "pro" tells you you can't do it that way. How about.. hm, no?
This reminds me of when I was in middle school. When we were learning how to type properly, I developed my own method of typing that was different from the one the teacher wanted people to use. Soon enough I was faster than anyone else. In fact I was even faster than the teacher, but she didn't believe me. She was mad because I was using the "wrong" method. So one day, she gave me a blank keyboard and gave me the hardest exercise on our typing program and told me to do it. I did. I did it perfectly and more quickly than anyone else. And now, today, I'm bordering on the world record in terms of how fast I can go (in a year or two I'll actually shoot for it).
It's always good to listen to what professionals and teachers have you to say. But if you do something and it works better than what they teach, there's no reason to let them tell you what to do.
Oh yeah, then why does the "huge standard bar" exist for submitted remixes? I told you earlier... the engineer has to do most of the work. It's the same as with a driver. Does somebody who has no driving license tell somebody who has a license actually tell how to handle a car?The engineer, once again, does NOT have to do most of the work. The engineer has an important job but the artist/producer deserves 95% of the credit.
We don't have a "huge standard bar" either. Our standards are very reasonable. We've accepted tons of people who have only submitted a single ReMix, people with very little to NO music experience, etc.
Yeah, I don't like noisy recordings, or piercing synths in your ear, while the fucked up beat blaberises in the background. So what?! Got a problem with that? A good balance is important as just "slight changes" in volume can change the complete feeling of a song, makes it more agressive, or more smooth and relaxing.Yeah, but the person who wrote/arranged the song and did the production should have already taken care of the most of that. The mastering is just the icing on the cake.
I hate 5 minute compression jobs. This declares the chaff of the wheat. Not also in terms of music, but also in terms of engineers. You do your thing, I do mine!Most of my compression jobs take me less than 10 seconds. Once again, no complaints yet. I have, however, gotten TONS of compliments on my production values. In fact, I even got a mastering job because someone liked the sound of my CD so much. So yeah, I'll do my thing.
Even if this community is "for fun", a lot of people are using OCR as jump-point to a professional career. Yourself included. If you come along with these comments, I lost faith in what I learned the last couple of years. If this is what you learn in school, then I definitely don't want to go to an engineering school anymore/at all!Do whatever you want. Here's my underlying point. You have a very weird way of doing things that is not mainstream in the actual music industry, OR in indie communities like this. You have an extreme exaggeration of the importance of engineering that, once again, not even world-famous engineers share with you.
So you have a choice. Either keep thinking that the entire world is against you; all universities, engineers, artists, and people in this community are out to get you and you're the ONLY ONE who knows anything about production & engineering.. or accept the fact that other people have methods that can produce results that are just as good (if not better) but are different than yours.
We know you are good. Your advice and input is always appreciated. The problem is just when you tell other people that their advice isn't valid for no reason other than the fact that you have been engineering for years and they haven't.
As I wrote in my tutorials, the advice I give to people is NOT BY ANY MEANS the only way to do things. I'll say it again here. But that's the difference between you and me. I accept that there are lots of ways to do things in the music world. You don't. You have your way and that's it. You can't go around telling people that their method is "wrong" or a "no no" when it WORKS.
What headphones or monitors (speakers) should I buy?
in Music Composition & Production
Posted
I didn't say that there wasn't anything that cheap; simply that there is a sacrifice in quality when you go that low.