My First Project

[BendyStraw]

Ever since I started listening to ocremix.org stuff, I wanted to try my hand at making a mix or two of my own. Here's what I did.

1) Spent 5 hours gawking at all of the material online about compression theory and how my sound card and headphones suck.

2) Downloaded Fruity Loops and spent 5 hours gawking at all the little knobs (There are certainly a large amount of knobs!)

3) Made a crappy drum loop, but that was okay, since I couldn't save it using FL's demo anyway. Exported it instead as an mp3.

4) Downloaded Reaper and gawked at all of the little knobs all over again.

5) Downloaded some VSTs and some Samples and Soundfonts. Threw out the ones that sounded like crap.

6) Fiddled with the piano roll and virtual keyboard features in Reaper until I came up with something that sounded sort of neat. Added a loopy drum loop. Spent fifteen minutes trying to get it to sync correctly. Eventually, I had to use the loop as an mp3 that plays through Reaper's sampler in the piano roll like a midi instrument would. I like having more control over the sound by doing this, but I see a lot of mixes do their thang without a piano roll. *shrug*

So I now have a little work in progress. It is not very good, but it's a start. I could take any criticism that you guys can offer, for I definitely need it, before I continue working on it. It's a little clip of Objection! (2001.) It is hardly a true remix, but I figured that to best learn my way around Reaper I should emulate before I innovate.

http://media.putfile.com/phoenix1

I have a few questions.

1) What is a good way to "slice" drum loops? I have made some loops myself, and I am not sure how to get the professional sound that so many ocremixes have, with spiffy reversed parts and other goodies. I haven't read much of the tutorials on the site itself, but since those are obvious options for learning more, does anyone have any tips of their own, particularly when dealing with Reaper?

2) Humanization. What are some good ways to get some humanity into my synthed stuff? Does Reaper have an option to add some? I know that FL does.

3) What sorts of samples and synths should I avoid? I hear a lot of "This sample you're using is overdone/overused" in comments on people's stuff, but I'm not sure what makes for a good unique sample/synth/soundfont.

4) I've found that using the piano roll to do stuff has been really easy and intuitive once I figured it out, especially since I have some prior music knowledge. But... when I see sample projects on Fruity Loops for example, some of the tracks (indeed, most of them) don't use piano rolls at all! I guess that there is a ton of stuff going on in the background that I'm not seeing, but even the VSTs (with all their pretty knobs) just seem to be acting as the instrument for the track, and not for any actual notes or rhythms. I am not using FL anymore for the main project, so I guess it isn't a big deal, but it certainly is perplexing for a nub like myself.

5) Can anyone recommend any good entry-level VSTs, for instruments effects and whatever else I might need to start with? I don't need to know where you get them, a simple google search is working fine for me. However, I'm not sure what sorts of effects are good to have, or even which ones are the most appropriate for general use. Are there any in particular that would help me along?

6) Any horrible mistakes that I'm making in my first attempt at getting sounds to come out of Reaper?

Thanks for your help, and I look forward to being a good remixer someday.

[sirgareth]

The first thing I noticed was the the drums, everything sounded of until they came in, you might want to try putting an EQ cut at around 330Hz on the kick and boost 80-100Hz and Boost about 1Khz, also some compression might help a bit too. Your snare sounds rather dull too, maybe boost some of the High frequencies a bit. In general the drums sound kinda muffled. I'm not sure if there we any cymbals in there, I thought I heard a little crescendo roll, but I'm not sure. In any case, if there is one its too quite, if there isn't then I've been listening to too many songs tonight and I need to stop...lol.

The ends cuts off abruptly for some reason, I'm not sure if thats because of the player or not, but its a very big groove kill.

Otherwise, not bad for a first go, Keep getting some feedback though, from as many people as you can, someone always misses something, also listen to some similar music, something professional and well known. Comparative listening if you will, not to copy mind you, but to get an understanding as to what is generally considered well mixed, even experienced Audio Engineers need comparative listening.

Anyway, hope that helps a little!

[BendyStraw]

I appreciate your advice, but I'm not sure how to implement what you're suggesting. Is there a tool that I can use to do Equalization on the Bass part without messing with the rest of the drum track? The drum loop itself is a single track.

I am not sure how or why to do compression. Do you mean, reduce the file size of the song itself?

Oh, and this is not close to being done. I just needed a little feedback before I continued. I'll add some cymbals action and a more forceful beat until the drums kick in. Thanks for your help.

[sirgareth]

If its a single track that may prove harder to EQ...you might want to consider making the drums your self using different tracks for each drum.

As for Compression, I meant audio compression not file compression....again not so easy to do on a single track with different sounds. Do you know what audio compression is?

Its really hard to mix drums properly if you cant edit each sound yourself.