zircon
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Posts posted by zircon
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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.
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The rap was quite dull. You're sharper in "Da Black Market" D-Lux. You kinda just read off the lyrics like you got called on in class.
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
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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.
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Taucer and trix is a match made in remix nirvana. Not to leave out the others, but I've been waiting for a Taucer trix mix forever. I hope they do another one soon.
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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What is the name of this track in the PSF?
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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
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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
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Very basic sounds.. lots of clipping issues, corny sfx/voices, tons of production problems. Man, no chance.
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I was messing around today with the FL sampler, and you'd be surprised how you can use it! First, think about what a synthesizer is. Typically it's got at least one oscillator, a filter, envelopes, etc. The oscillator has one waveform, usually a very very short one. What's cool about the FL sampler is that you can use the "CRF" knob to select a very small portion of a sample. This means that after the first part of the sample plays, it will go through the looped part very fast. The higher you play on the keyboard, the faster it will be repeated. Eventually, it will be going so fast that a definite pitch will be created.
http://www.zirconstudios.com/Funkysynth.mp3
Check this out. It's a TR707 kick, truncated and then loaded into the FL sampler with some basic effects. Definitely a usable sound, sort of a clavinet/organ hybrid kind of thing. You can do the same with lots of samples, and apply envelopes, filtering, and the like. So before you get out your wallet to pick up a new synth.. mess around a bit with what you have
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Ah, I thought you already had ASIO drivers. asio4all is indeed a lifesaver.
If the latency is too much, you can simply decrease the buffer size. Easy.
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Yes.
In your mixer, select a track. Say, track 1. There's a menu with the word "IN" next to it. There, you can select from any input you have. This includes physical inputs, such as those from your soundcard. Once you have that selected, assuming you've hooked up your instrument properly, your guitar will be going right through that effects track and then output through FL. By clicking the little disk icon, you arm the track for recording (right click to arm it, or left click to arm it and name the recording file). When you want to actually play, you hit the main record button on the transport (next to the play and stop buttons), hit play, wait for the countdown, and go to it. Like any other recording software.
I'd very much like to do this with a guitar, except for some reason all the IN menu lists for me is "none". Does anybody know of a way to add the sound card's line in\mic in to the IN menu?
Make sure you have the proper audio drivers selected.
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Wait, what? FL is one of the cheapest and lowest CPU/RAM using programs there is.
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Yes.
In your mixer, select a track. Say, track 1. There's a menu with the word "IN" next to it. There, you can select from any input you have. This includes physical inputs, such as those from your soundcard. Once you have that selected, assuming you've hooked up your instrument properly, your guitar will be going right through that effects track and then output through FL. By clicking the little disk icon, you arm the track for recording (right click to arm it, or left click to arm it and name the recording file). When you want to actually play, you hit the main record button on the transport (next to the play and stop buttons), hit play, wait for the countdown, and go to it. Like any other recording software.
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Actually, Colossus IS mapped to GM. At least, there is a bank you can load in it like that.
OCR01465 - Sonic & Knuckles "Lover Reef"
in ReMix Reviews & Comments
Posted
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).