zircon
-
Posts
8,297 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
17
Content Type
Articles
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by zircon
-
-
I agree that the organ is far too muddy at the beginning. You should work on reducing the texture there, especially when the strings come in, as right now it's too dense and dark (in a non-musical way). I can't tell exactly what reverb you're using (kinda sounds like GlaceVerb) but regardless it is a little too resonant and spacious, further adding to the mud you have going on. I would cut back on it a bit. Basically the lows and low-mids are just completely swamped all the way up until 1:36.
Speaking of 1:36 the piano sample here is really not very good.. I would pick up NSPiano or perhaps the Clavinova Piano and use either of those instead. Don't forget to boost the high frequencies as the current piano is a bit dull.
The mixing could use some work. While I didn't hear any clipping I think the whole thing was compressed and limited too much, especially in the sections with swells and crashes. Reduce the volume of everything first and try not to squash things so much.
Overall I'm not really feeling the arrangement either, unfortunately. There are some very basic interpretive ideas but definitely not enough for this to pass our bar. Basically what you have here is more of a re-instrumentation than anything else. You need to expand more on the ideas presented in the original theme or add your own. In addition, you should try to give your song structure some kind of direction. Because the texture and dynamics are the same throughout, you can skip to any part of the song and it pretty much sounds the same. That's something you want to avoid. Either through changes in your instruments, rhythm, tempo, key, or whatever, you want things to be moving over the course of the song. It's a hard concept to explain but I suggest you simply keep practicing and listening to good music and you'll hear what I mean.
Keep at it and don't forget to make use of the ReMixing forum for any technical questions you may have.
NO
-
That said, if anyone knows any places to find reference drum samples, I should be able to find a better explanation for my intensions.
For the third time, the best way to communicate an effect you're going for is to simply load up a song that has the effect you're going for, edit out the section you want to show off, and upload that clip. It's really VERY VERY simple. For example..
Downtempo, "phat" acoustic/electronic drum sequencing;
http://soundtempest.net/example1.mp3
(The Crystal Method - Over the Line)
Electronic drums w/ pwm/sync bassline.. very 'techy' sound;
http://soundtempest.net/example2.mp3
(The Crystal Method - High and Low)
Huge synth bass with phat electronic and acoustic drums;
http://zirconstudios.com/example3.mp3
(The Crystal Method - PHD)
"Chemical" type breakbeat, with very tight processed acoustic drums;
http://zirconstudios.com/example5.mp3
(The Crystal Method - Comin' Back)
Massive, hugely saturated and compressed drums.. very 'in your face';
http://zirconstudios.com/example6.mp3
(The Crystal Method - Name of the Game)
-
I guess we'll just have to disagree there. I find this kind of drum style to be stupid, uncreative, and dull. I was hoping Rexy would cite something like "Roll It Up", "PHD", "Ten Miles Back", "Poison", or "Narayan".
-
Well.. two things;
1. If we're analyzing THIS particular MP3 example, then yes, simple distortion and bit reduction was used. It's very clear to me.
2. Though it's difficult (if not impossible) to come up with an objective definition of "dark drums", I don't think I would characterize warm fuzz as being part of that.
-
This isn't amp simulation, it's basic distortion.. and you can hear the effects of the bit reduction in the decay of the reverb in between the drum hits (the "grainy" quality).
-
These are really stupid drums, in my opinion, and I have no idea why you would want to make something like them (they're also much different from typical TCM, Prodigy, or TCB material). However, that being said;
It's a Roland TR-909 kick and what sounds like an 808 or 909 handclap or similar electronic snare/claps. They are both being distorted heavily with standard waveshaping distortion, as well as samplerate and bitrate degradation (I estimate somewhere around 8-12 bits and 22khz). Both delay (low feedback) and reverb (metallic) are being applied. As the clip progresses, the samples are pitched down further and additional bit degradation is applied. At :09 they are pitched much higher. Finally, heavy compression (low threshold, high gain, high ratio) is on the whole thing.
It is conceivable that the distortion and bit reduction were applied on the entire loop before the compression, rather than to the individual samples. I'm not sure, but the effect is similar.
-
It would help if you mention which one
Distortion? Flange? Delay?Nonetheless, what I'm thinking specifically tone-wise is late 80s-early 90s dance riffs, with artists I'm looking at here including the Prodigy, the Crystal Method and the Chemical Brothers. I could even point at Khalan's "DevilLab Acid" for the kind of mood to look for, but that's five years old and I don't even know if the effect remains now.
I have pretty much every CD from all three artists you listed, but I wouldn't characterize their drums as "dark" at all. Can you please provide an MP3 example with a specific time of the exact effect you're referring to? I guarantee I can help you if you can do that.
-
As always, this kind of question is nearly impossible to answer without reference MP3s of the effect you're going for.
-
Am I looking in the wrong place? Scitscat.com has EWQLSO for $199, and the XP Upgrade for $195. Was it on sale at one point?
Strange. No, it wasn't on sale.. I guess East/West forced them to raise the price. Brilliant marketing
-
Yep, Gray is right here. In this soundtrack I've been working on recently, one level takes place in a big South American temple. Lots of reverb on numerous tracks was crucial to creating a spacious atmosphere.
-
Some tips:
1. Use two or even three tanks. Have the offtanks build up aggro using just about every ability they have, but not quite all of them. This lets them stay high on the aggro meter. When the MT gets 4 or 5 debuffs, have him stop doing anything (except Shield Block) while one offtank begins taunting, sundering, and otherwise going all out. Keep this rotation going throughout the fight.
2. Have people spread out in a circle around the boss so at most only one or two people get hit with the sandtrap - not that they should anyway, since you can see it coming and avoid it with ease.
-
Could you or somebody else elaborate on compression. I have found that a lot of the industry audio-engineers are frustrated with being asked to make CD's as loud as possible through compression.
Well, that's extreme compression and limiting - reducing a normally large dynamic range to virtually 0 and then maxing the whole thing out at around 0db. It's difficult to do that without actively TRYING to so I wouldn't worry about it.
On OCR, the judges also tend to look down on overcompression of tracks as it loses the natural audio quality of the instruments.I don't think this is the case. We rarely make a big deal out of compression, in fact more often than not I would say it isn't used ENOUGH.
So my question is what is a "nice saturated mix" setting on a compresser such as the TRacks compressor.I have an FL mixer preset called "SimpleMaster" that I created for Impulse Prime. I use it in all my projects to date.
The compressor is set to a 12.4ms attack, 702.7ms release, 2.47 ratio, .7db stereo enhance, -15db input drive, and 12db output.
The eq is a little boost of 1 or 2 db in the very low and very high frequencies.
The limiter is set to boost the lows slightly (again), release time of 200ms, 2db input drive, -.2db output.
Also, do you not generally compress individual tracks like your drumset, guitars, vocals independent from each other? How do you achieve a good balance with this if you are only applying compression to the master track?I compress a lot of my tracks besides the master. Bassdrums, snares, leads, harmony synths.. etc
-
-
Something that's a bit ironic; there are a fair amount of soundfonts out there actually based on the same samples that Edirol HQ Orchestral is. For example, the "Florestan martellato" soundfont.
-
Not to nitpick but as I wrote above, you can get Silver for about $120-$125 now.
-
Well.. yes, it can do the same thing, but do you really want to have to bounce out individual tracks every time you want to use the program? The plugin just mkes infinitely more sense.
-
or QLSO Silver which is only about $125. Both have more samples and better recorded samples.
Actually, QLSO silver has far less instruments than HQ Orchestral. The quality is higher, of course, but Silver doesn't even have a full string section sample
. And it's not like one is bad and one isn't, they're both far above the quality of your average free soundfont.Anyway, I've gotten satisfactory results out of both HQ Orchestral and QLSO Silver, however the sample quality in QLSO is much higher. I have not used GPO, though.
So Edirol gets points for having a boatload more instruments than QLSO Silver, but Silver beats that out with a very high quality. Keep that in mind when shopping around.
I never said QLSO had "more instruments", I said it had "more samples" - eg. more samples PER instrument.
-
Actually, there IS a standalone version of TRacks that can't be used as a plugin.. but obviously, you'd get way more usage out of the plugin version.
-
A really, really good, inexpensive (relatively) option is the Edirol HQ Orchestra. I've tried various programs like GPO and EWQLSO, and those definitely have higher quality samples (and wider selection), but Edirol HQ is really quite astouning for what it does...and it's only like $200 or something. You could save up for that if you wanted to.
Alternatively, check out the soundfonts/samples thread, and definitely look into squidfont orchestral soundfont. It's great. It really is.
I have to recommend against Edirol HQ. As you said, the samples in HQ are relatively low quality - in fact, it's only a few hundred MB of saamples derived from old Roland keyboard expansions. Considering that it's $200, there is little reason NOT to get GPO which is also $200, or QLSO Silver which is only about $125. Both have more samples and better recorded samples.
-
I'm a big fan of TRacks, but it's a specific type of sound. It's "colored", not transparent. I also have the Waves Rennaisance compressor (part of the Rennaisance plugin pack) which I've found is a more sterile sound. I also use the FL Compressor a lot which is pretty surgical too.
There's also "Dominion", a free VST plugin that can create some more saturated/crunchy sounds, though I'm not sure if it would be good for vocals.
-
Some general tips:
Get a quality compressor and EQ.
Roll off frequencies not used by instruments.
Learn to turn stuff down, things don't need to be as loud as you think.
Turn the reverb OFF.
Don't be afraid to really carve stuff up with the EQ to make it fit in a mix.
Remember to pan stuff.
Don't overcompress... except for drums. Ratio's low, threshold a couple db below where it's peaking.
And most importantly, use your ears.
I have to disagree with the excessive use of EQ, and frequency rolloff. I've tried this method a number of times and I've found that minimal EQ is almost always preferable. really "sculpting" a sound is OK for purely synthetic stuff (leads, pads), and I do encourage that, but for anything else I think it's a bad idea.
Excellent points otherwise. Reverb on the master track is a terrible idea. Typically this is my final signal path for the master;
* Parametric EQ (only making very small modifications, +/-3db, and usually only to the lows/highs)
* TRacks compressor (I love the sound of this, and I set it so that I get a nice, saturated mix given the type of music I do)
* TRacks limiter (some colored limiting to keep my levels in check)
-
So if I understand you, your entire vote boiled down to not liking his guitar sample?
-
I've been following this since it's inception and giving my own advice on it throughout, so it's cool to hear it in its final form. I really like the soundscape overall, and the drumwork + synths are particularly good. Lots of effects going on all over the place to spice it up. The guitar was made a lot more fluid since the last time I had heard it, and though the "chugs" could be better, I can't fault the ReMixer's samples.
The arrangement is good overall. Nice intro, ending, original material - if I had to pick one beef it would be the transition section at 1:27-1:55, which has some notes/chords that don't sit too well with me, but that's basically it.
Great mix with no substantial flaws. Easy;
YES
-
Paladins are, by far, the most effective combat healers in all of WoW. In AB in particular, they are a serious force to be reckoned with. I cannot tell you how many times a Paladin has completely turned the tide of an encounter in a PVP match.
Official Mastering and Production thread
in Music Composition & Production
Posted
Yeah. It's kind of dumb. I usually don't quite go to 0db either, actually, but SLIGHTLY less just in case.