DDRKirby(ISQ)

I'd like to take over FLMC6, if you don't mind. Actually I was going to PM GLL because I know he was working on getting some midi's to remix before. If that doesn't work, I still have another theme idea, kinda like FLMC3's "Shattered Dreams" concept. In either case, I'll have something up by monday, (or possibly sunday).

god damn, this brings back memories. i'd hella join in, but i know if i do, real life is going to kick my ass. personally I like single player/LAN a tad bit better though, if you can get a good group of people together--no worries about account deletion or anything like that. me and my brother had some dammnnn good times going through that game. this past summer i had the brilliant idea of starting like 10 solo/LAN builds at the same time. brilliant. just plain brilliant. more like a pain in the arse to play through, but even then it still brought back some good times. I still have those chars lying around, they're just waiting for a return... anyways i wish you guys luck--it's gonna be a blast.

is the winnar going to organize the next one (like in the past) or are you going to keep doing it?

very nice, this is just what i needed. (b^_^)b

thanks for the replies! very helpful. =) As of right now I'm really not used to using midi for input, but there's a first time for everything--and i have no doubt i could probably get used to it pretty quickly (though i might have to buy a new one first)...it does seem like it would speed things up. At the very least it would be a different feel in terms of workflow...and i'm always up for trying something new...

Title explains it all--note I'm not trying to be cheap, in fact it's pretty conceivable that I could get a keyboard somewhere, but I'm just wondering how much a MIDI keyboard helps in terms of the workflow in Reason. Or maybe it's not necessary? I know you can draw stuff manually in the piano roll, but everything seems more tailored to using a keyboard and recording on the go... (this coming from someone who's accustomed to FL's piano roll, which I now realize I totally took for granted)

voting ends soon...sooooooooooon...

Well, you learn something new everyday...I was pretty sure it was intentional, but wasn't exactly sure what the point of it was. I'm really no expert on mastering myself (cue Snappleman) no kidding...i need to find me a good piano sf sometime... ah, I just assumed red = broken, and whatnot. ok good deal.

========== ***Blue Magic - Synthetic Luv*** mmm...you used a compressor on the master mix as a limiter to prevent clipping, but how about putting that -after- the overdrive and the EQUO, since that EQUO might actually introduce more sound... Main thing here is probably you want more interesting synths--your percussion is fine, and that "short synth" is actually a neat touch, and you got the strings going in the background...but your lead seems kinda dull and weak on top of it all. Try to get something phatter... I'd write more, but this is a bonus track, and it's rather short, and I really just want to finish this up... Summary: -more interesting synths (massive lead? detuning? flanger? anything...) -percussion actually not quite bad at all... -in general mix sounds "thin" a lot of the time, try to fill out the sound spectrum a bit more, maybe. -"short synth" is (b-_-)b ========== alright, that's all folks...see if you can guess how I voted based on my critiques...lol...

========== ***RocketSniper - Oonts Oonts Snakeman Oonts*** -Okay right off the bat, I gotta say...that Blood Overdrive on the hits at the beginning was totally uncalled for...at least not to that extreme...turn it off and listen to the pattern and it makes more sense (to me, at least). Maybe like half of what you did would have been a nice balance--now it just sounds all GRAHHHHHH... -things start out kinda slow, but then toward ~0:40 I'm like awwww yeah now we're talkin...what with the chopped up loops and the bass comes in and everything....yeahhhhhhhh -nice liberties taken with the main melody, stayed recognizable but added just the right amount of variation and countermelody that it wasn't a bland copy+paste job. -at ~1:40 I liked how you took everything down a notch, made me a little expectant, I was just waiting for things to go back into full swing. I might have liked it if you had kept the bassy arpeggio through until that cutout point and cut everything at the same time, though. dunno. -nice vocoder work...and the "reverse" bar at 2:18 was cool. -more l33t perkussion work...tasty. -at 2:33 when you bring things up a notch, seems like you coulda worked up a buildup to that better (one bar fill maybe?) -nice panning on the "one...one..." sample at 3:00...then we get to -the swing section, which I was totally digging...I think i might have liked it better if you had the kick come in right away instead of waiting 8 bars or so, but it's all good. -then we got some nice filter automation...all good, all good...scratching work...light arpeggio...then you bring in the strings, PERFECT...3:48 till 4:26 hit the spot, pretty much...then it kinda settles into a different groove--I wasn't quite feeling it there, maybe some more variation in the melody--different synth or something might have been better there. I didn't like how the percussion stepped up at 5:20...it's an outro so I didn't really want anything to come back in. Also at around 5:27 you have a gap in the gating of your strings, not sure if that was intentional or not. -using the vocoded loop for your ending, that's fine, but maybe try and fade it out a bit maybe? Summary: -l33t percussion work. I'd love to see what you can do when you're -not- limited to FL defaults. -nice variation on the snakeman theme -arrangement was for the most part good. In a few instances i might have liked things to be structured a bit differently, but other times the stuff you did really hit the spot...awww yeah. -things started out a bit slow, but in the middle there was good stuff. -synths were for the most part okay. not really anything special but they worked just fine. -i think maybe you could have fit a break in there somewhere--like 8 bars or so with minimal accompanying synths where you just go crazy on the drum loops and all. ========== ========== ***Gollgagh + El Pollo Diablo - Noobmusic*** First off, I for the life of me can't figure out what source tune you used. I went through the nsf and...didn't find anything. o_o Also, I'm not sure the "noobmusic" drum loop you used is legal, since AFAIK it's not an FL default and it's not in the FLMC4 pack. =/ but I'm going to be nice and evaluate your mix anyways. anyhoo, onto the actual project...you mentioned you wanted comments on mastering and mixing, so I'll try to focus on that (although to tell you the truth I can't really say i'm an expert on these things...) before we get to the actual song i just want to take a look at your mixer setup--for example, you've got your master output fader at about 90% or so, and I'm not exactly sure why. It does leave some headroom for your mix, but since you're not actually doing any mastering outside of FL for this, i don't see any real reason for that--you just end up making everything softer (unless you normalize afterward). next off you've got send channel 1 as "HP" (highpass i'm presuming)--I don't exactly know what you were going for here. I tried listening to the output of what went through that channel only and well, i still can't exactly tell what you were trying to do. You have an EQ there that does indeed act as a highpass filter, but the cutoff frequency is pretty low, and it ends up actually boosting quite a bit around the 200 area, which makes the sound more boomy. Then you slapped a multiband compressor on there...i don't really like using multiband compressors that often...i dunno, essentially you just thinned out the sound my compressing it and making it softer, so I don't exactly see how that was a highpass effect. And I don't really know how that would benefit the entire mix as a send effect either. Maybe I'm missing something? In regards to the overall mix, the main problem is the bass, which is sooo boomy that it's eating away at the space for everything else. Just play the song and mute the bass and you'll see that all of a sudden you can actually hear stuff again. Most of the problem is just that the bass is too loud in volume overall, but also you generall don't want to have delay or reeverb on your bass because it can get pretty muddy. A lot of people do their basses in mono too, so it's more centered, just like a kick. Remember, as a general rule, the level of the bass should be soft enough so that when you listen to the mix you won't notice it unless you know it's there and you listen for it consciously. So just loud enough to be heard and felt if you're trying to. You have to especially watch out for the level on your bass because you have a bass which plays long sustained notes (as opposed to something like the one in my mix) so it can get pretty boomy and drown out everything else. Maybe you mix on speakers or headphones that don't have enough bass response, that's why you mixed your bass so loud? You also have quite a bit of delay and reverb on your mix that you might want to tone down--delay + reverb is usually pretty nice on synths, but make sure it's not too much, and be careful about notching the feedback up, as it can just cause all sorts of mud. Your drums are also really loud--obviously you wanted meaty drums here, with the distortion and everything, but be careful not to go overboard, especially since your drumloop is -already- distorted to begin with. You want meaty, PUNCHY distortion, not just GRAAHHHHHH "wall of sound" noise. So essentially, between the bass and drums you've taken up maybe 90% of the soundspace that you have available, so trying to squeeze the rest of the actual song into there is causing all the clashing and makes it all muddy. Try to mix low--with your kick peaking at -6dB or something like that--it'll sound soft when you mix, and that's okay. Just turn your speakers/headphones volume up. Then -later- after you have all your different elements laid down you can start adjusting levels and maybe boosting when necessary and using some =light= compression on the master mix to bring things up a little bit. Usually easier to boost and try to fill out the soundscape rather than to try and cut into a mix that's already cluttered. This also applies to EQ as well. Usually it's better to cut, then to boost EQ. Look at the EQ on your "noobsynth" and your pads for example--you boosted most of the entire middle frequency range, including around the 250 area, by 6 dB or so, which not only made everything very LOUD, but also made it boomy. Unless you want drastic changes to your sound, usually EQing anything over 5dB isn't really advisable. (one notable exception is when you want to cut the low or high end of something, in which case you can just go and cut it way down) Also the EQ on your drums is oooooooh god vicious. usually you only want to touch those lower two frequency bands by maybe 2-3 dB at the =most=...otherwise things get boomy reallllll fast...I understand you were probably trying to get a massive bass sound out of your kick, but that's not always the way to go about it. Actually I find that compression (to get more PUNCH out of things, meaning you need to set your attack to maybe 50 or 100 ms, not 0) plus a slight midrange cut can make a kick drum more punchy. experiment... Although, your kick drum from the "noobloop" is already pretty messy, it's overdistorted, so... Your intro was pretty cool, the gated pad was pretty sweet. Arrangement-wise, you had some neat elements going on...the 303, the arp, filter automation, etc. But there wasn't really anything interesting about the development of the song--in other words, needs more variation--having the same melody for one and a half minutes isn't always too great =p. I'd be wary of having that notch filter on the master fx channel on the entire time--might be doing something to your sound without you noticing it. How bout only turning it on when you do the sweep effect, hm? I've tried to work out a quick re-mixing/remastering of your mix--in other words I tried to do what I could, in a few minutes. I'll admit I couldn't really do that much, but you can see what I tried to do and the differences, etc. http://iosquad2.googlepages.com/noobiermusic.zip I think I've rambled on enough... Summary: -Less bass, dammit! -Be wary of boosting when using EQ, as it can muddy things up really fast -Weird "HP" channel confuses me -Careful of overusing delay + reverb -Mix low, bring things up later ==========

To all--enabling tools->smart disable on all your FX is a -great- way to make sure people don't have pops and clicks when they listen to your song =p Of course, all critiques are entirely subjective and are completely biased, and only represent my POV, etc. etc. If you really think I'm wrong, you're probably right. (note: post split in two because of char limit...yes, i wrote THAT much...) ========== ***DDRKirby(ISQ) - Top Man Spun Wild*** hey, it's my own mix! =) I still love this one. Maybe could have used a bit more variation, but that build-up is friggin awesome, and the 303 section ain't too shabby either. I like how the build-up is different the second time around, more energy from the kick and bass goin...makes me wanna pump the volume up... Also, gotta love the playlist gradients. Pretty colors... Summary: -friggin kick-ass buildup -Mass 3xOsc supersaw ftw -ending could have been worked better ========== ========== ***Bundeslang - Dreaming About The Gemini Master*** No 3xOsc =(. Really, really, you need to learn how to use the 3xOsc. It's a rather simple synth in nature, but it ends up being one of the most powerful tools in FL Studio's arsenal...(look at my FLP for an example) That being said, you do seem to have a better handle on how to use the program now--you don't have any weird offset patterns in the playlist like there were in Soft Party, for example. Your arrangement is still very sporadic, but right now that's understandable since you don't seem to be working with a good range of sounds. Learning how to use the 3xOsc, or finding more samples (there ARE some better ones in the FL defaults), would help. I'd say the next step is to maybe look at a simple song and try to recreate its different elements--listen to it and try to deconstruct it into drums, bass, lead, pads, etc. so you know how the full sound is put together. If you have the FL example songs, looking at those and seeing how things are done and whatnot works wonders as well. If you'd like, I actually have a "make a song" tutorial that I can send to you--it's not very rigorous, but it gives you an idea of some of the things I do. Just shoot me a PM or something. ========== ========== ***Sir_NutS - Snakes on a Loop*** Ah, I can always expect something good out of Sir_NutS... -okay, so in the beginning you have the ArpA pattern going, and I didn't like how you had the pattern as xXxyYyzZxXxyYyzZ (where capital letter is higher octave note). I understand that's how the arpeggiator did it for you, but the higher notes being offset a bit kinda makes it sounds just a taddd bit funky. I would have liked XxXYyYZzXxXYyYZz or something like that better, probably. Once things start going it's fine, though--just in the beginning when it's singled out is when I notice it. -uhm...ok so you're using send channel 1 for reverb, okay...but it's not quite set up how I would think it should be (unless you did that intentionally). Maybe you're just used to the mastering plugins in Reason? =p So you have the Fruity Reeverb 2 as a plugin in send channel 1, but it's not set up as a send effect--it allows the dry sound to pass through as well as outputting the wet sound...so you're getting the dry sound twice (once from the original channel -> master output, then another time from original channel -> send 1 -> master output), which isn't usually what I would do. The other thing is that sometimes (channel 9, 10, and 12, for instance) you have reverb in the channel fx as insert effects, but you have those going to send 1 as well, so you end up having dry+reverb, plus another dry+reverb, plus dry+reverb+reverb! Which seems quite unwieldy...and that might be causing some of the clutter in the loud sections of the song. -I liked the congas in the percussion--added a nice touch =) -Beginning buildup was actually pretty nice, especially going into the main section at 0:55--dropping the drums for a bar and using the CrashFX worked. -The main melody sounds "inconsistent" through the pattern--this is because you used filter cutoff automation on the notes...you were probably going for that effect, but I wasn't really digging it too much. Also if you go into your TranceLead pattern you'll discover that the 3rd note (1st note of the actual melody) is accidentally doubled. whoops! (unless that was intentional, haha) -the second little buildup section at ~1:20 with the flanged snare roll and that sustained high note (which was great) was pretty good--could have used better filter automation on the main lead, perhaps. The actual "arrival point" lacked a certain oomph, though. The one bar kick roll was great...but...i dunno. Maybe the crash needed more punch or something. Maybe the mix just needed a bit more room (because the whole reverb thing made things a bit mushy) -you can totally better bass synth than using that sample...=p -your individual channels are mixed really high. You compensate for it all by lowering the master fader volume, but I'd probably prefer to mix the individual channels low, then you can bring stuff up later. Especially if you're going to master in something other than FL--in that case you'd leave like 3dB headroom in your master output and then maximize/normalize everything using something else (i've never done it before though). Right now your master output shows maybe a bit of clipping on the FL monitor? (I really don't like using the postfader on the master output channel, as you can't really analyze the final signal that much that way--i prefer to use a Fruity Balance or a Parametric EQ to bring the global volume down as an insert effect) -The "pluck" section at ~2:03 is wayyy too loud...needs to be softer to offer contrast, IMHO...also the piano part stops a bit abruptly--dunno what would be the best way to fix that...although, the problem would be alleviated a bit if the piano weren't so "bangy" and loud =p -Okay, that layered TS404 synth is -the- greatest thing about the entire song. Nice use of volume automation...filter cutoff control...and the cross delay worked as well. Sweeeeeeeet. It drops out a bit too noticably when the kick roll comes in, though. -Over towards 2:50 things really start trying to fight for space--this is the Send 1 thing again...just by turning that channel down it sounds a bit less clashy to me... -and then that awesome synth comes back in. tasty. -that SweetMelody pattern is a nice way to end things--an encapsulation of the main melody, but only a little reminder of it. Summary: -missing waveforms in the 3xOsc's...so I dunno what happened there... -Send Channel 1 issues made everything seem loud and clashy at times -TS404 synth was uber-awesome -I saw lots of 3xOsc presets...I could call you lazy, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here and say it was just because you're too used to Subtractor and Malstrom. =p -Tone that piano part down! -Good structure and development, arrangement-wise. The main lead could have probably been more interesting, though. ==========

yay, now this thread can go to rest... haha yeah I didn't really have the club scene in mind when I was mixing this, so the intro wasn't really geared toward that. The outro is better suited for mixing but...it's actually a tad bit sloppy. as for the main synth, there actually is a note on every 16th--so there's no -actual- white space--it's just perceived white space because other notes are down in a lower octave, as opposed to the longer, high notes which form the main melody. I do see your point though. if you really really want me to rework this for your project, just shoot me a PM later

i'm working on my critiques right now, will have up by the end of tonight, hopefully.

someone? anyone? just one critique will do...just -one-!

yeah, i'm going to do comments on everyone's song like last time if i can--and i think i can, as long as i don't put it off TOO long =p

(bump) okay, the FL samples thing was supposed to be more of a justification, than a deterrent...;

The mp3 works, but the zip is corrupted and gives me a 0 kb broken flp file... also, my files are now available on more permanent file hosting: http://iosquad2.googlepages.com/DDRKirbyISQ_Mega_Man_3_Top_Man_Spun_.mp3 http://iosquad2.googlepages.com/DDRKirbyISQ_Mega_Man_3_Top_Man_Spun_.zip

Before you all go crying "FLNOOB!!!" i must inform you that this was designed as an entry for FLMC5 so I used FL default samples exclusively, =on purpose=. Don't kill me... that being said, this is a "trance" remix of Top Man's Stage theme (d'uh)--complete with overused cool supersaw lead synth (made completely with 3xOsc's!). http://iosquad2.googlepages.com/DDRKirbyISQ_Mega_Man_3_Top_Man_Spun_.mp3 let the praise/criticisms/cookies/flying diapers commence!

Sure thing, guys... zip file: http://download.yousendit.com/8CC64A6A4FFB9D17 mp3: http://download.yousendit.com/0C2C6FF17C5728B4

yeah same here--Sir_NuTs, you need to include those custom waveforms that you used in your 3xOsc's... either that or render the mp3 yourself and upload that. Even -with- the broken 3xOsc's it sounds pretty cool...=p btw, RocketSniper your entry is da sh%t! (as in good @#$^, not bad @#%^) Had some really neat things goin on there...

one week left, guys...

His song uses samples from the FLMC4 pack--available as a zip download also from his site...

I take it the switch over to reason treated you well? i'm trying my hand at it too, to tell you the truth...

fiddling around with stuff is great for when you're first starting out. also playing around with the example songs and tutorials and whatnot...

Alright, as promised, this is my mix of Top Man's theme...done using only FL defaults (didn't use the FLMC4 pack) I'm using yousendit.com for filehosting--just let me know if these links expire or whatever. Top Man Spun Wild - FLP (with smart disable enabled so that your cpu doesn't crumple up and die) Zipped Project File (in case you're missing some of the FL default samples) Top Man Spun Wild - MP3 version feed me comments, praise, pity, cookies, etc. for the most part this is pretty much done, but tiny tweaks may be in order in terms of mastering and such. personally, i'm pretty pleased. =) I'm still looking forward to what Sir_NutS makes, having already heard Change the World =D