SnappleMan

Hey, welcome aboard new guy! I suggest you stick around and start learning and sharing what you know, this place can really transform you into a much better musician if you let it.

It does not take a long time to compose. It takes YOU a long time to compose. You need to get that straight. Some prog musician might take a week to write what you can write in a day and visa versa. It all comes down to what comes naturally to you, and real progressive music is about going naturally from beginning to end without thinking about staying within a genre or following some existing set of motions. I can write a prog song in a day, "simple" pop song in a month. Complexity comes in different shades. Someone might find it complicated to write a song with varying time signatures and modulating keys/melodies, but someone else might find it just as complicated to write a simple song with a good hook. As far as the perception of modern prog music goes, you're best off focusing on rhythmic variation, as the harmonic elements tend to stay pretty common among most prog bands today. And whatever harmonic integrity there is is masked under djenting guitars and annoying screaming vocals. So yeah, rhythmic variation and non-standard instrumentation will create good solid prog.

I don't expose myself to many comments on what people like/dislike about my music. Every song I write or remix is a song I love to work on and am proud of, even the awful ones. When I release a song all I really care about is that at least one person has heard it and enjoyed it, after that I just want some feedback from my peers and it's time to move on to the next song.

nice thanks for the heads up broster!

The volume in that clip is fine. Your problem there is the overall timbre and mixing of the sounds. Everything seems to be focused around the mid/mid-high range, and it's causing the mix to sound harsh and cluttered. You definitely need to consider studying up on EQ and how to make sounds fit together more cohesively. With EQ you can locate and fix the problems in your sounds, so that they're not unbalanced to the point of clipping. To help you understand what I mean, take a trumpet sample. Let's say the sample has too much going on in the 1khz range. If that's the case then the more you boost the volume, the more you'll be boosting that 1khz bias, and the sample will start to clip at 1khz way before the rest of the sound is loud enough. So your job is to use EQ to cut that 1khz down to a nice even level, so the sample can be louder without clipping as easily. This effect is amplified by layering too many instruments in the same register. So if your trumpet, violins, flute etc are all playing between c4-c5, those notes all reside within a relatively similar EQ range. Now we have the samples that have too much going on in that range, and your composition also has too much going on in that range, and the result is a very harsh sounding mix because everything is focused around the same area. Keep in mind that this is just an example, the EQ range and values in your song are for you to discover. And that's the problem that most people seem to have with understanding EQ. Make sure you remember that it's a tool to help identify and repair problems first and foremost. EQ as an effect to accentuate things is secondary. You really need to google and youtube some tutorials about EQing, search for finding the "sweet spot" using EQ, and frequency/EQ slotting. Those terms should provide you with a lot of information that is necessary to getting decent mixes going.

And little drums called TomToms. THIS. Is rock and roll.

Think less about drums and more about rhythm. Study this song and you'll get it:

First you have to understand how the song is written. So import your MIDI and figure out where the verse and chorus are. If you don't know what a verse is then you need to google. Essentially you want to find where each "section" of the song begins and ends, then you cut the midi there and drag them apart. Now you have your intro->empty space->verse->empty space->chorus. Your job at this point is to fill that empty space. Once you figure out how to do that your brain will begin to think musically, and that's when you can transform a song. But remember, you don't have to transform a song into your own for it to be a good remix. You can build on the existing song structure and expand it into a full length "cover". This music will never be YOUR music, it'll be your interpretation of music someone else wrote, so it's your job express it in your voice. Think of it as a poetry reading; you're reading what someone else wrote but you're using your own phrasing and accentuation. Using an existing midi is limiting to say the least, but it's a good way to start. Your musical abilities will not improve well unless you start figuring out music on your own. As for tips on how to add parts to a song that fit, you need to learn basic theory. The most basic thing to do is figure out which notes work in a section, and the most basic way to do that is to put a section on loop and then play the notes on the piano roll. You'll find the note that sounds the most "right", that's usually the key of that section. So for example if the section you're looping sounds good with a D note played over it, it's in the key of D. Next you look up which notes are in D major, you try some of those notes, if they don't sound good, look up D minor. There are many different modes of every key, so it may take you some time to find the right one, but as long as you find 3 notes that fit the looped section, you can write a new follow up section that'll fit. That's basically the remix process in a nutshell. As your skills improve the methods of doing this will become more advanced and efficient, and you'll be able to think of complex phrasings and chord progressions. If you devote serious time (many hours each day) to learning music theory you can start making some good music very quickly, otherwise it will be a slower process. Either way is rewarding, so do whatever suits you best.

Should be noted that the process of getting a degree can significantly widen your network. The most reliable clients I have are the ones who I went to school with, and the biggest gigs I've gotten have been thanks to the connections I made (and I simply took a few music courses as electives while working on a getting my CSC degree). Granted I only do professional work as an engineer/mixer, so my composer friends have no problems helping me find work. Some people I know who are earning a professional living with music don't have music degrees, some never went to college and a couple never finished high school, so nothing is a prerequisite. So yeah if you're a composer, make friends with engineers and mixers, no competition there. And get into writing library/production music! Do whatever you can to get yourself out there. If you got time to post on this message board then you're not doing enough to launch your music career! The only person I known who managed to create a (seemingly) sustained career as a composer has been Jake Kaufman. And as long as I've known him he's never had time to relax. It's a 24/7 commitment, and wondering if a degree is good or not just opens your mind up to excuses for failure. You need tunnel vision and a resilient butthole, cuz you're gonna get fucked hard.

There were no gaps in the waves I sent to Zircon. Part 1: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32558357/Final_Fantasy_6_Omen_(I.%20Black%20Dawn).rar Part 2: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32558357/Final_Fantasy_6_Omen_(II.%20Terror%20March).rar Part 3: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32558357/Final_Fantasy_6_Omen_(III.%20Daydream).rar Part 4: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32558357/Final_Fantasy_6_Omen_(IV.%20Polemos).rar COMPLETE MP3: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32558357/Final_Fantasy_6_Omen_(SnapOrgBread).mp3 Whatever playback gaps there are must have been the cause of zircon editing the files himself or the disc manufacturing process. I left the mix audiophile friendly (uncompressed) and maybe someone applied his own EQ or compression to the files in order for them to match the albums levels and upon exporting them is when the little bit of silence was added, who knows. I haven't listened to the album version. Anyway, there should be no gaps (also there was a mistake in the Polemos cut on disc 1 where a good 30-45 seconds of the previous song is in the intro). Overall it seems like our song got fucked on this album.

There's nothing to figure out. The smartest thing to do is to associate "OCReMix" with everything that is released. Dave and Larry are doing it right with regard to the site. It's a business (regardless of the lack of profit), and should be run as such. The artists who have a problem with it (myself included) can choose not to participate in most of the projects and all that. I don't think anyone is doing anything wrong or "bad", it's just a matter of values. I personally like being able to pop in and out, throw a song into an album or whatever, and do my own thing the rest of the time.

I don't mean that the fans don't give thanks and praise. That comment was aimed at OCR (the people running the project and the site) because they don't act as if they appreciate the artists for devoting their valuable time and filling the site up for them. Sure there's a quick "thanks to everyone involved" on the project sites and whatnot, but that doesn't mean too much when the general vibe I and many other musicians get is that we're treated like we should be thanking OCR for them allowing us to be on their site. I'm not trying to make anyone look bad here, it's just that the nature of what we do here is too niche to be appreciated on a more general level, and OCR promotes OCR, not the musicians. "But snappleman you're wrong blah blah blah" No I'm right. Look at any OCR youtube video. It's nothing but a commercial for the site while a persons song is playing "LIKE THIS SONG? WE ALSO GOT ZELDA AND MARIO SONGS! COME SEE THE SITE!!!!" Instead it should have info about the artist, linking to his/her songs. But that's another discussion for another thread. I have my own very dedicated fanbase that takes care of me pretty well as far as my own releases are concerned, so I don't need to submit my music to OCR for exposure. I submit to OCR because there are some great people here who I respect, and when they ask me to be on an album or whatever I feel honored. OCR has been creating the OCR brand for years. The fans see OCR as a single entity first, and then later when they dive into the site and the music they're exposed to the actual artists who create the content. That is why there are such strong anti/pro OCR opinions, you'll see "Oh awesome another OCR album hell yeah!" and "Oh, another OCR album? No thanks." That tells you very plainly that the very first thing people notice is the brand, and then whatever they associate with that brand is automatically applied regardless of the content. To some that may sound negative, but it's a very powerful position to be in, so kudos to DJP and Larry for making the brand stick. This all comes back to the issue of feedback. The backers are arguably the most dedicated fans of the site and especially this album. Hundreds of people backed it without even having a full list of the artists involved. That means they believe in the OCR brand. It would be easy to leave feedback based on the digital release if it was just about whose song you like, but I believe that the complete OCR package is what people are waiting on, and I expect a good deal more feedback when the entire package is delivered.

It doesn't matter if you pay money or not, you pay attention. That counts way more. If making money doing this was anyone's priority they wouldn't be here.

I've said it for years: People are getting spoiled. We've all been at this for over a decade, and the newness of it has worn off, now it's all about the relatively few diehard fans who have stuck by all this time, and the fleeting waves of younger kids who discover this scene and then move on. It's definitely not the same as it used to be, and it's a shame because we, the artists, are spending big chunks of our lives refining our craft, learning anything and everything we can, spending a LOT of money on gear and continually striving to get better. Most of the fans don't realize that it's a completely thankless way to spend 90% of you free time (not even OCR thanks us for being on their albums). I really wish everyone had the same appreciation and overall mentality as the kickstarter backers do, but that's not how the world works.

It's a balancing act for sure, especially when there are so many variables. But this topic came up because people have been asking "where's the feedback?". When I think back to when VotL(ol) was released, there was a ton more response from the internet. This time around the response is much much more positive than with VotL, but there's much less of it, and I believe that the staggered release may have something to do with it. I expect a bigger flood of feedback and a generally bigger reaction once the CD ships. Some people might even be looking at the early release in the same way they would look at an early leak of an album or movie.

Don't push my buttons, you. If you weren't so damn cute I'd have sent you to the moon years ago.

I was under the impression that the CDs would ship first, so the people who actually backed it would get something sooner or bigger than what the general public gets for free. I mean I know that there was the projected release date to fight towards but we all know well we meet our deadlines here, so maybe setting such an unrealistic release date was detrimental. Maybe if the release date on the kickstarter was more realistic we could have spent more time and money on getting a more cohesive sounding album too, so it wouldn't sound so much like a compilation. But that's all in hindsight, this was the first release of its kind for OCR, so it's as much of a learning process as anything else. The end result is good and people are generally happy everywhere I go, so it's a good thing.

It's not a matter of physical vs digital. In this case the people waiting for the physical copies have already paid for them a long long time ago, so they may not want to listen to the digital version more than once or twice. The whole point of the kickstarter was getting the physical CD.

That's a good question! I would think that the smarter and easier choice would be to change the input. I'm not a headphone designer but I would assume it's pretty difficult to change the EQ curve at the output stage of a headphone. You should clarify what you mean by input and output. Keep in mind that regardless of where the contour happens within the headphones signal chain, your EQ will be off. If you're mixing through headphones that are contoured, your mixing decisions will be biased to that contour.

I think people are just waiting on the physical discs. I don't know why you guys allowed for a such a long gap between the digital/physical releases. If it was gonna be a month late then make it a month late, it's better in the long run.

I'm another of those "I used to use Cakewalk" guys. I started with Cakewalk 7 and used it till about Sonar 3. Switched to Cubase SX2 and never looked back. Also, Dan, as far as dragging audio in and out of Cubase, they took that feature out when they introduced the Media Bay in C4. I haven't yet tried dragging the audio out into another program, but you can drag and drop anything from the media bay into any part of your project. Also instrument tracks are not meant for multitimbral plugins. Without instrument tracks I'd lose my mind because I can't stand loading a MIDI+Audio track for one instance of a monotimbral synth. And the fact that they accept both audio and MIDI inserts is fantastic. I love em.

Random internet guy: "Oh a free giveaway, I'll see what they offer. Holy shit $50 for so many of these things?" *enters but doesn't win* "Fuck that at $50 I'll just buy these things." Smart marketting! Though it does help that you guys offer a great product.

Man, great odds. Nice going. I want some of that shit, gonna enter the fuck up.

Cubase has the most powerful midi editing of any program I've ever used. - very easy to set up multiple controller lanes - easy to set up input chain groups for multiple source inputs - no issues with multiple soundcard MIDI routing (I have the MIDI of 3 different soundcards and MIDI clocks running at once into Cubase with 0 issues) - the MIDI inserts are fantastic and merging (applying) them to MIDI events is quick and easy - the quantize/transpose panels within the piano roll are extremely helpful and make editing even faster - the logical editor is still the most powerful tool anyone can ask for when working with MIDI Everything I do is done within Cubase. Logic and Pro Tools are things I have to work with from time to time for other reasons, but Cubase does everything and does it quickly in the most powerful and bug-free workflow I can hope for.

Polemos is part IV of the song Omen. The version on disc 5 is the same song as the one on disc 1, only difference is that zircon didn't want to include the entire 40 minute song (for obvious reasons) so he made me cut it into 4 parts, and he made his own cut of the last part (that being Polemos) to use on disc 1. So yeah, the 4 parts of Omen make up ONE song and are intended to be listened to as such.