AMT

I'm no pro on the subject, but tgsf21x on http://soundfonts.darkesword.com/ has a halfway decent one that I like. I've never heard any of the higher quality samples / VSTs, so I really don't know how good it actually is.

No problem, just thought I'd offer. Looking forward to the next update!

Hey, a while ago bLiNd had some "Club Trance" albums up on his webspace, but they aren't there anymore. Does anyone know where to get these?

Your sig made that infinitely better. The bear is totally just spacing out.

You know, I'd offer to play bass for this, but I don't think I can play that fast. =P If you think it'd still be worth it for me to record it and speed it up or something, or rework it to be a bit more playable, I'd love to do the bass. Hit me up with a PM if you want to.

Awesome, thanks.

Forgive my newbieness, but I have a question about this mixer: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Behringer-EURORACK-UB1202-Mixer-631236-i1153479.gc The 1/4" jacks near the XLRs, are those inputs that can be used instead? Or can it only take XLR inputs on those channels? Thanks.

First off, love the strings. Now, production. The major thing I can hear is that this still has a gaping hole in the midranges. Do you have some monitors or mixing headphones? If not, that may be where your problem lies. Just messing around in Winamp, giving a boost around 1k-6khz to the whole song made it sound a ton better already. Make sure you didn't kill that frequency range in any of your instruments with your current EQs, and I'd boost up the guitars in that range even if you didn't. When applying that change to the whole mix it made the cymbals sound TOO sizzly, so watch out with that. That's really the most immediate problem, that should be addressed before anything else, then it'll be easier to hunt down all the little things. This is easily my favorite WIP on here, and the new arrangement changes are awesome (The guitar at 0:30ish sounds awesome). I really look forward to hearing more. Keep it up!

0:08 - Piano thing comes in. I didn't like it right off, but I'm not sure. You could maybe try putting a different instrument / sample doing this? Maybe a synth or something. 0:15 - I love the drums. 0:22 - Bass comes in, sounds good. 0:36 - Lead and guitar come in. Something sounds strange here, I'm not sure which. I like the lead and I like the guitar, but together it's iffy. 1:04 - I like the long chords and the new melody, this sounds nice. The drums are still doing the same thing they've been doing the whole time, they could use some variation. This would be a good place to throw in a different pattern. 1:30 - This section repeats a bit too long, I'd add something different in here or shorten it. 1:58 - Back to piano, kind of a sudden transition. This could be smoothed out some. 2:10 - That repetitive section is coming back again. We've already heard all of these patterns before, and the drums are still doing the same thing. 3:33 - Same piano drop out as before. Bassline comes in and then a fade out. The main thing I see with this is that it's really really repetitive right now. What you have is good, but you stretched out 30 seconds of material over 4 minutes. Add some new drum riffs, bring in some new melodies (I'm not familiar with the source, but you could maybe bring in some elements from other songs in the game or something to that effect). I didn't hear anything wrong production wise, but there are people here with much better ears than me. I hope this post was useful, good luck on this!

I'm going to delete my Winamp library when this comes out. It'll be the only song I need.

Yeah, some drum variation would definitely help. Some fills or slicing it up some would sound awesome and keep them from getting too repetitive. That whole part with the cricket chirp around 2:20ish or so sounds awesome, but a few of the chirps sound a little off time, and I think it'd sound better if all of them were still on time with the track. Other than that and the stuff mentioned above, keep working on this and this will pass for sure, this is some awesome stuff!

These are really nice, I like em. You should post full quality mp3s if you have them. I'd definitely like to hear a full remix like this.

You should probably use something other than megaupload, I couldn't get it to load. Somewhere where we can just download the mp3 straight would probably get more replies. Reupload and I'll give it a listen! EDIT: Nevermind, I'm an idiot. So, onto the song. First off, your instruments. You definitely need to use something else. I'm not sure what program you're using, but try using soundfonts for your instruments. Right now this could have been just a midi with the same sound quality. Try out (but try not to overdo) effects on your instruments too, like reverb. Also, the volume is way too loud on pretty much everything. My sound card is kind of flipping out right now, but I'm almost positive this has serious clipping issues. Clipping is where the sound wave goes over about 0db, so it just gets "clipped" off right there, making an ugly distortion sound. This can be used intentionally and under control as an effect (Like with guitars), but that's different from letting the sound actually get too loud. If the little meter in your mixer is going red, that's not a good thing. The timing sounds a bit off in parts, and I can't tell if a lot of it is just from a midi. Read some tutorials on the site, look up tutorials for the specific program you're using, and just keep practicing. Try using different instruments and using effects to enhance the sound some. Also, read up on equalization (or EQ), as that would help clipping issues by not letting sounds overlap too much. Keep learning and post when you have something new!

I totally thought it was going to segway into the Mario RPG Boss music when that bassline came in. This is pretty nice, good luck!

I wouldn't submit quite yet, but it's definitely improving. The new drums sound a lot better. It seems like the whole song in general could use a boost in the mid-highs, it sounds kind of "hollow" for lack of a better term. As for the mixing thing, try rendering every track down with all of their effects except for EQ, and then mix those together. That way you save system resources. I really want to hear more on this, I absolutely love the arrangement and some parts are just plain awesome. Keep it up!

Is this a temporary deal or the standard price for it?

Alright, so I've totally reworked and re-mixed my recently rejected submission, and it's already sounding a ton better. It's of the Forest Stage from Tetris Attack. I think I'm ready to post it here to get criticism and fix everything. Tear this thing apart and let me know exactly what needs fixing! Redone version to be resubmitted: http://myweb.cableone.net/rebelart/Poochy.mp3 Old version that was rejected: http://myweb.cableone.net/rebelart/FinalPoochyIsStupid.mp3 Thank you for your time, and please leave feedback!

I hope you didn't take any of my comments as mean, I'm just trying to give constructive criticism. Please don't take anything I said as an insult, I said it with the best intentions.

Also, check what sound device you're using in the audio settings, and make sure that no other programs that are open could be using them.

Let me clarify. By direction, I mean some sort of progression or "direction" that the song is heading toward. Listen to something like Black Wing Metamorphosis. It starts off with a simple chiptune. The orchestra gradually comes in over it, making a transition into completely new instruments. The song builds up until the drum track comes in alongside some epic chanting, and then even further into some strings, then it breaks down into a section where it kind of marches forward. Drums come back in to propel it forward, then it goes back to the chiptune, but it manages to keep the momentum the drum track gave it. Then it picks right back up with pretty much every instrument you've heard thus far all joining together. They drop out into the creepy-ish chanting... etc. The point is that it's constantly doing something and deliberately bringing the listener towards the next section. You can skip the cursor around in Winamp or iTunes and know exactly what part of the song you're at based on how it sounds. Right now, this song doesn't have that. Instruments come in and out, but it doesn't sound like there is any specific reason for putting them there, not because it enhances the song, works toward the next section and brings the listener along. Get an idea of exactly what you want to do with this and where you want to take it. Then work towards that. That's my take on it. EDIT: For a great example of what I'm talking about, listen to Citizen Erased by Muse.

Alright, here are my thoughts as I listen: -Intro rhythm guitar is really dull. Give a mid-high boost to give it some edge. Also, give it a hi pass filter to cut out the low end (200hz? 150? Somewhere around there) so that your bass can stand out. Give your kick drum a bit more high end so it has that click sound as well, it's kind of hard to hear it right now between the bass and rhythm guitars. -The drums sound wierd, like they're covered in wet toilet paper; Maybe some compression would help? I'm really not sure exactly what it is that's wrong with them. If you're processing all your drums in the same FX chain, use a multiband compressor so you can tweak each frequency range individually; what sounds good for the snare probably won't sound good on the hats. The snare in particular sounds wierd. The drum sequencing itself is awesome, by the way. -Synth is awesome! Yeah, overall, my advice would be instead of trying to fix the mixing with the project file you have (I have no idea what you're using), open up a new file, import in your audio files for each part at a time, and start the mixing from scratch. Start off by not using any EQ at all, and mostly use it to cut frequencies that are overlapping between two instruments. This is what I do when I can't manage to get a section right, and it seems to really help. I hope I didn't come across as sounding mean, just trying to help out. I'm far from the best musician here, so feel free to disregard anything I said. Hopefully some of this advice was helpful!

The main thing this song is lacking is any sort of direction. It sounds like you've got some sort of buildup to something for the first ten seconds or so, and then it just kind of wanders in circles from there as instruments drop in and out. The flute at 1:05 hurts my ears. There's nothing to really capture your interest; the whole thing seems to drag on without really doing anything. Also, as mentioned above, humanize your instruments; offset the timing by small amounts, changes in velocity, etc. Bring in some new instruments, start some sort of a beat, something. A few timpani hits every few seconds aren't nearly enough to drive this song. You did do a good job as far as not having anything that's really muddy and stuff, but the arrangement itself needs to be focused on before that really counts for anything. Don't be discouraged, keep working on this and improving it in every way you can. It's far from submitting, but it doesn't sound like a "my first song" attempt, which is a good thing.

Ah, that explains why it kept crashing, I only tried V2. I'll get 1 when I get home.

Anyone have a link on how to use this thing, or a reccomendation for a better free sampler? I can't seem to set a directory for the file browser to be in, let alone load a sample.

Unreal Tournament 2004.