zircon

First thing is to keep in mind that microphone techniques, even though taught in books written by professional engineers or taught at recording schools, are more or less suggestions. There is no right or wrong way to approach mic selection or placement. With that said, I can think of two ways to do this off the top of my head that would probably produce good results. 1. Use a simple cardioid microphone pointed approximately at the middle of the drum (I'm assuming you hold it so that the heads are parallel to the ground). Move the mic back perhaps a foot and see how that sounds. Adjust the distance as necessary. This will capture both heads equally in both volume and stereo placement. This will, however, introduce some room noise which may not be desired. 2. Use two separate cardioid microphones, one for each head. The exact distance from the drum head and their angle would be up for you to decide, but keep in mind this general rule. When micing something with two microphones in this manner, the distance between the two should be equal to the distance from one mic to the instrument times THREE. This is to best avoid phasing problems which can occur in this type of mic placement. Now, depending on the timbre, it's possible that you might even want to use an omnidirectional mic placed above the center of the drum (again, the distance would be up to you). This would be a good idea if your room doesn't sound too bad, and if you are experiencing problems with very low/bassy frequencies that are typically accentuated at close mic distances due to the proximity effect. These are just suggestions. To reiterate, there is no right or wrong way to approach this, and your best bet is trial and error. What I've written here are just some suggestions to get you started.

I'm not sure that it was the best idea to follow a similar instrumentation and stylistic interpretation as the original (which was in and of itself a driving dance tune with string marcatos and so forth). When the main beat comes in I was a bit surprised at the lack of low and low-mid power. The bass is very "rubbery" but lacks any real presence in those frequencies. Everything else is kind of thin and tinny. The timbres (processing aside) aren't bad, but they aren't anything to write home about either. In fact, overall, most of the sounds here used are pretty textbook synth patches for this style - pretty standard drumbeat too with no percussive variation to speak of. The lead and harmony synths tend to get muddied up very quickly as they're occupying the same frequencies. In my opinion the mixing/mastering as a whole could use some improvement - the ReMixing forum, as you know, is the place to go for advice there. My compression/limiter advice, combined with blind's tips on mastering, should give you a place to start. The arrangement is unfortunately pretty basic. The original had a unique selection of sounds and some driving energy to it. There were numerous changeups including chord changes and melodic variations that you didn't include here. I think that you simplified the original for the worse, I suppose, since a lot of the material there was very cool to begin with. Given the short and repetitive nature of your arrangement (which again, left out material), I would recommend working on that aspect first. Changes to the mastering and production would be secondary in this case, in my opinion, though they are still issues. NO

Some very cool concepts here. Great improv work, performances and sequencing is good throughout. The percussive aspects ARE on the barebones side and I would like to hear more variation there. The clicks also are unwanted, dunno where those are coming from (TO pointed them out). Finally, I think better choices could have been made in laying out the song, as it does seem to lose energy towards the second half, but overall, there were a lot of cool textural changes and compositional things that made it enjoyable to listen to. My only real problem with the arrangement is the rather abrupt ending. I'd echo the concerns voiced by Larry that some of the sections are a little TOO low-key and sterile, and some of the notes are off, but I don't think these elements detract significantly enough to merit a NO. This ia close one, but YES

The initial harder panning of that opening synth is quite obvious when it's by itself. You might consider centering it until later when you have more instruments in the texture. While I do enjoy Fatty Acid's stuff, I voted NO on his last submission that I voted on as well. This I believe suffers from the same problems to a greater extent. The sounds are very simplistic and the beat is very basic with little variation. The arrangement isn't bad but it's on the more cautious side, and the fact that the percussion never changes and few new instruments are introduced makes it seem a little more repetitive than it should. The vinyl effect is also a little overdone at times, such as towards the end, where there are audible pops and clicks that could almost sound like clipping. This is just really basic. Simple sine waves comprise several of the synths, an overall panning bias to the right for no apparent reason, no changeups with the beat (basically just two separate loops), no standout solos or original sections.. I would say that this is without question below our bar. Your other mixes have been better, I dunno what's up with this one. NO

I agree that the disparity between the recording quality of the piano vs. the sampled stuff is noticeable and a bit jarring, especially considering the amount of room ambience in the piano recording. I appreciate some of the piano stuff that was going on, for sure, and I think with a slightly better recording (or recorded on a keyboard w/ good samples) it could be a nice focal point. However, the guitars are a bit sloppy in their performance and the lead doesn't stand out much. The drums aren't bad either but they're on the mechanical side, and the bass drum/snare are sort of lost in the mix for the most part. The transition from guitar to piano/harp works in theory but the way it is executed isn't as smooth as possible (timing differences). For whatever reason, when the piano comes back later it actually sounds better than it did at the beginning. To summarize, I liked the piano parts a lot. I think building on those would be a good idea. Also, you don't need to be afraid about adding original material or some new chords to give the piece your own interpretive spin. This isn't a bad mix at all, just polish up the middle section, maybe work on the transitions some more, and perhaps try to integrate some new material as well to keep things interesting. I like the ideas here. NO

Really basic drums and synths here, for the most part. The lead synth has a cool tone for the first few seconds, but it doesn't move enough, so it quickly becomes annoying. I like the subtle processing you did to it to keep it interesting but you need more, or an entirely new lead altogether. The texture is relatively minimal overal, with usually no more than a handful of parts at any given time. To keep things that minimal you have to make sure the parts you DO have are interesting and engaging. The drumbeat, for example, is not. It's very plain. I recommend varying it up more or layering additional percussive parts. When the piano comes in, followed by the bell-type synth patch, things just get really muddy fast. I think I even heard a little bit of clipping so you need to watch your levels there. EQ the low-mid frequencies back and cut down on the reverb. The arrangement is not too bad in terms of the overall interpretation actor, but there IS a lot of repetition and because of the lack of changes in the percussion and the lack of significant changes to the chord progression or dynamics, it feels like it doesn't go anywhere. The ending is a simple fade out, not good. A lot of things here need to be polished. It seems like you know what you're doing in terms of putting together nice synth sounds but you gotta make them work together, and also work in the context of a 4:42 song. Also, polish the arrangement and rework some of the percussive sections, and you'll be a lot better off. NO

This is common policy in the ReViews forum. If you don't like it, I don't know what else to tell you except this is how it has been run (primarily by Darkesword, I might add) for quite awhile now. You can call it a double standard, but "pointless" or trivial/inane praise is quite simply harmless whereas baseless criticism or flaming is not. I have no problem with anyone not liking any aspect of this mix. For instance, I didn't chastise the person who said the drums didn't fit. I disagree with him, but he's free to say that. On the other hand, implying that the people involved are not "real instrumentalists" and that we have no sense of pitch is not a criticism of the MIX, it's a criticism of US, and an obviously untrue one. edit: Anyway, look, I'm just trying to keep things civil here. If we could move past this I would appreciate it. Again if you have a problem with something here I encourage you to PM a moderator (or if it's about ME, pm another moderator).

It's understandable why pixietricks is angry at you. The way you've written your criticism implies that you and other critics are "real instrumentalists" and she is not. The reality of the matter is that she is, in fact, a professional vocalist attending the nation's most selective conservatory for music. In other words, while you are welcome to criticize aspects of the remix, you are not welcome to cross the line and suggest that a very talented and obviously very qualified vocalist is somehow not a "real instrumentalist". It's worth noting that the recording WAS initially slightly off pitch, but that was corrected and run past NUMEROUS different people, none of whom found a problem with it. I was one of those people. Also, we didn't rush it just to "get the mix out a few days earlier". This is simply false. I put together the mix from all the component parts that were given to me, or that I created, and tweaked them until I felt that the mix was ready for submission. Being a judge and an experienced ReMixer I am well-versed with the standards, and being a professional musician myself I have a good sense of what sounds good and what doesn't. At the stage we were at, I felt that while additional work COULD have been done, the mix in its current state was more than adequate for submission. Tons of ReMixes on this site could be improved in some format. Lazy mixing/instrumentation, "off" notes, bad endings, sloppy performances, I could point out hundreds of ReMixes that could have been improved with a few more days of work. However, I, along with hundreds of thousands of other listeners, am quite capable of listening to these imperfect pieces of music and greatly enjoying them. The minor flaws in this mix should not merit baseless criticism. You don't like it? Ok. We get that. Go ahead and even explain WHY you didn't like it. Other people in this thread had some beefs with different parts of the song, and there's not a problem there. Flat-out insulting the credentials of the people involved (when they are probably greater than your own) IS a problem, especially when you come up with misinformation as well. I won't tolerate any more senseless flaming here. Restrict your criticism to constructive only, and if you have any additional issues, take it up in PM or through some other channel of communication. The Reviews forum is not the place to do it. I believe you have warned before for this kind of behavior, so this shouldn't be new to you.

Steve had it the worst of anyone. He recorded that at 4 or 5AM. We had just spent the entire day walking around New York City having a blast too, so we were definitely exhausted at tha tpoint. Finally, my mic is TERRIBLE, and he had to record on that. I'm sure, given the opportunity to record 'em again, he coulda been a lot sharper, but like Jill said, that wasn't really the point with this whole thing. Of course, I'm not saying that some of the criticisms here aren't true, just putting things in perspective

I guess to offer a contrasting opinion, I don't use reverb on any part of my main drumlines except the snare and sometimes the hats. I find that putting reverb on the kick just muds things up too much.

I can more or less guarantee that there will be future Taucer/Trix mixes. In fact, I would like very much to do more collaborations with any or all of the lover reef crew. In fact, Taucer and I are working on something as we speak!

It's totally dependent on what type of style you're going for. Among electronica producers - particularly those who do dnb/breakbeat - a common technique is to process the individual drum parts separately then route them all through one compressor (or effects chain that containsa compressor). I've tried it this way, and I think it CAN work, but I prefer to compress the bassdrum + snare separately. Sometimes I don't compress the bassdrum at all, in fact, depending on the sample I am using. Finally, I DO tend to compress premade drumloops or breaks simply because a lot of the time they have wacky dynamics, and compression followed by izotope vinyl (plus some possible distortion/saturation) really gives it some crunch.

Well, you know, you CAN do that. There is a program out there called "FXTeleport" which is designed to do just that. Basically, it creates a wrapper around all your VST plugins (I'm assuming KORE itself can be run as a VST), which you install on two machines, along with the FXTeleport software. Then, provided the computers are networked (no MIDI/audio cables required) over standard ethernet, you can have one machine running all the plugins while your main machine sequences + edits them. It's pretty wild.

Being a sucker for anything NI I will probably buy it. What I like most is the fact that it lets you access and organize presets across numerous devices. NI employs some GREAT preset designers and most of the time I go off edited presets for stuff like Absynth or Reaktor ensembles because of the level of complexity of those synths. Being able to click "Synth" "Lead" "Dark" and get all the dark synth leads is a really cool feature that workstations like the M1 had.

What is the name of this track in the PSF?

I'm not entirely sure that shonen, D-Lux, and pixietricks thinking about that stuff at 3-4AM when the lyrics were written.. but hey, what do I know; I was plunking around on my little 3 octave MIDI keyboard the whole night

Yeah. It was really a blast doing this. To be fair we didn't quite *finish* it in one night.. once we all went back to our respective locations, over the next week, we put together the final version and made sure everything was in place before getting it ready to go. We would have liked to do it all right there on the spot, but at 4-5AM or so pixie wasn't quite ready to sing and my mic is really NOT good at all (D-Lux's part was recorded using it and I did my best to make it sound good, but it was very noisy by default). Anyway if for whatever reason you didn't like the awesome vocals I do have an instrumental version. I don't know why you'd want it, but; http://www.zirconstudios.com/Lover%20Reef%20(Instrumental).mp3

Most importantly, I use FLStudio 6. Without it I wouldn't be able to do anything. However it is augmented with a lion's share of plugins and sample CDs, the full list of which is here; www.zirconstudios.com/about.php (scroll down a bit)

I had to listen to the original a few times to familiarize myself with it. I gotta say it's pretty repetitive in terms of the motifs.. probably no more than 15-20 seconds of material there. I'll be interested to hear what you do with it. First of all, I think the texture you have going throughout the mix is cool. I'm a sucker for orchestral stuff mixed with guitars and acoustic drums. At the same time, I agree with Larry that the transition into this texture could have been extended so it isn't quite so sudden. In addition, I also thought the last section could have been planned out a little better as it DID seem abrupt. Otherwise I think the level of arrangement and interpretation here is acceptable. From the production standpoint, the orchestral samples are used fine, though I might suggest layering some of the lead strings with marcato/short bow samples to get more attack. If you can, I would also try to give the acoustic stuff a little more "punch" and perhaps to EQ the snare so it's a higher in the frequency spectrum. As it is, it's sort of in the lower bands mostly which gives it some power, but ultimately makes it muddy with the bassdrum. Overall I have to agree with Larry that this is not quite there yet.. tweaking some of your arrangement ideas, polishing the production, and working on the structure would help this mix get to the YES point. Until then I encourage a resubmit. NO

Let me say now that it appears as though I am back on the right track again. I won't celebrate until I'm DONE with this new WIP of mine (which you can find in the WIP:Other forum) but I can explain how I got to this point.. Basically, I got the inspiration for it, quite simply, by listening to the same stuff I always did. I was just going through Community Service II on my iPod for 20 minutes before English class, and I was actually listening - not being distracted by anything else. I had forgotten how catchy and well-produced the songs were. These were the same tracks I was listening to while making Impulse Prime as well. As I listened to them, I started sort of putting in my own improv parts over them in my head, and for whatever reason, I just began to get the same feeling of burning creativity that I had while making IP. Maybe it's because that day, the weather was NICE for a change.. it's been freezing here, but that day, it was basically like summer. Anyway, as the day progressed I just felt better and better. I don't know how to describe it, but it was like my brain was really working hard and on a different level than it usually is. So the second I got back to my dorm I started working on the track. For the first few hours I came up with some "bleh" ideas. And initially I was sort of disappointed and began to lose confidence. However, I guess I remembered some of the advice here, and pushed on anyway. I actually erased most of what I did and kept trying different things until I came up with a motif I really liked. From that point it's been easy to work on the song. And FUN.

OK OK.. sorry guys, I thought this was Sonic 3. I guess it's because I always saw Sonic 3 bundled with Sonic & Knuckles so I always associated them. My bad. (djp is fixing this as we speak)

Basically, here's how it works. You have two turntables and a mixer in between them. The mixer can have volume sliders/knobs for each, EQ, effects, or whatever, but all of that is secondary to the main function, which is a horizontal slider that alters the balance between the two turntables. In other words, if the fader is in the middle, you are hearing both equally. If it's all the way to the left, you are hearing only the left turntable. If it's all the way to the right, you're only hearing the right one. So, what you do is have one turntable playing some type of music (it could just be some beats). That one is going to be constantly going and for simple stuff you won't even be touching it. Then, you use the other turntable for the actual scratching. You could have any type of material on there, and I know now they actually sell vinyls specifically with nonmusical stuff that is great for scratching. Thus you have a constant beat going, and you're fading that in and out as you're introducing rhythmic scratches from the other vinyl.

I have to echo Darke's sentiments here. There are some good arrangement elements in this mix, and the individual part writing as good. Unlike DS I DO think they work together, but my problem is more with the overall structure at the arrangement. Like the original, it has a sort of a build but ultimately does not resolve in a satisfying manner. The changes in texture over the course of the mix are, of course, welcome, but they are not executed in such a way that I can feel like the mix "went somewhere", if you know what I mean. Perhaps adding more elements would be a wise idea, or making changes to the rhythms, or even the tempo? Production is basically fine by me. With some structural changes I think I would pass this. NO

Hmm. There are some pretty cool ideas here as a breakbeat track. I like the drum sequencing for example, and some of the atmospheric synth patches fit well with the style you're going for. However I think most of all the production needs work. The piano for example is too loud in comparison to the drums, and the drums themselves are mixed rather poorly (ideally in a mix like this the drums should take the forefront). Also some of the drum samples sound a little too lo-fi, especially the kick when it's being played really rapidly. I think also having the piano patterns going the whole time sort of took away from the overall mix. Finally, you might want to practice using effects a little better. The delay on the piano is simply excessive. Add reverb, decrease the delay. Wetten up some of the pads and the hats/snare too to make the whole thing seem a little more spacious. The arrangement isn't bad though switching up the texture at some point or another would be a good idea. As Larry said, hit up the ReMixing and WIP forums for more help on some of these topics. NO

Very basic sounds.. lots of clipping issues, corny sfx/voices, tons of production problems. Man, no chance. NO