Lemmings Dance Mix

[Cosmic Games]

Hey everyone, I'm new here to OC, (I just signed up an account being intrested in submitting remixes to OC in the future).

I'm quite new to fruity loops 7 (as I have only been using it for about two weeks, or so, and I'm still trying to figure everything out) but I do have experience composing and mixing.

Heres my latest song, which is a Lemmings one: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/125639

Could anyone tell me if this would be worthy enough of submission?

I plan to fix it up a little first though, maybe.

Also, I'm working on a second Lemmings remix right now, so I'll be posting it later today (hopefully).

Thanks!

[Rozovian]

Welcome to OCR!

Could anyone tell me if this would be worthy enough of submission?

Sorry, it's not. Arrangement is pretty nice, tho the drums probably need some more work. Samples and synths need an upgrade. You might also want to use some textures (pads and such) for some of the parts.

As far as mixing is concerned, this sounds really raw and unprocessed. The leads are drowning in the other sounds, the bass needs more bass (and a more complex waveform), the drums need more weight (I also suggest using another snare drum), they're all kind'a fighting over the same frequencies and space.

But it's not bad, certainly not for someone who's only used FL for a couple of weeks. Hang around here and see what you can learn from other people's works. Listen to similar tracks already on OCR, and keep working. OCR needs more lemmings.

[Harmony]

Cool mix, gotta love Lemmings.

I like the change-up around 1:59, although the harpsicord-ish synth could use some humanization. I also like the bass-only breaks that show up now and then. So yeah, I think this one has some potential, but there are a few issues that I think will keep this from pulling a YES from the panel.

Biggest shortcoming for me is the number and variety of ideas that get worked into the mix. It's only 3:22, but it feels like it's dragging on at points, because although there are changes, they don't sound all that different from each other. Add to that a bunch of repeated sections and the drums that barely change at all and you have a mix that doesn't hold attention for very long. Beef up the drums, play even more with automating the synths, and make sure that you've got more texture than 'buzzy synth 1', buzzy synth 2', etc.

Second, that main snare is far too simple, both in sound and in pattern. Try layering it with something else to get a fatter more interesting sound. Change its pitch once in a while, add a filter and play with that during fills. As far as the pattern, those eight note fills like at 0:35 have absolutely got to go. The fill at 0:32 isn't terrible, but it could use some flare as well. You jazz up the snare pattern a little at 0:51 but that's about it. Play with it a lot more, listen to some of the great electronica drum programmers on this site (like zircon and tefnek), and steal ideas if necessary

Lastly, for a dance mix, I'd expect a lot more energy in terms of mastering. This is often overlooked by the newer guys, but it's an important aspect that adds fatness and dancibility to the final product. Learn about the compressor and try compressing both the drum track and the entire mix. Using EQ you can bring in some more kick, get a snappier snare, and really highlight the main synths.

Nice work so far, keep working to make it nicer!

[Cosmic Games]

Thanks for the help guys! I never realized even OCR'ers were such good critics. I'll fix it up big time, since now I see the things you two pointed out that needs fixing. I'll post the new version later today hopefully, and postpone the second one. Hope you guys check back later, thanks again for the help!

Edit: It's much better already, I'm looking forward to posting the new version when it's done.

Heres a newer but not complete version: http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/huhw/Superlemmingsdancemixfix5

To compare with the first, you can click here for the older one: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/125639

[Knives]

It's too loud. Turn the master volume slider in your mixer down. And if you want an instrument to be quieter than the others, then turn the volume down on that one as well, don't leave it blaring at max volume and just put a limiter on it. Getting the right volume levels for every instrument in your song is a fundamental skill in mixing music. Work on it.

An example of your remix versus zircon's "dirt devil" remix (recently accepted to OCR):

Your's is flying off the graph, and that's not a good thing, because it causes things like clipping and distortion, which makes your song very jarring and difficult to listen. Try to make it more like zircon's, which basically means turning the volume knob down on a lot of stuff.

[Rozovian]

Okay, it sounds crappy out of laptop speakers. Clipping, bad mixing, stuff like that. Usually, stuff sounds decent (tho bass-less) on my laptop speakers, so. I told you before to use a limiter on the master channel, as well as drop the master volume a bit. Okay, now with headphones:

You need more bass, lower bass. With more attack, the cutoff envelope bass (plays like this: __*___*_) is way too slow. The other bass (_*_*_*_*) needs more bass frequencies, drop it an octave. Try boosting some low frequencies in the EQ. Subtly. Not many dB.

Lead sounds pretty neat, but it's drowning in the rest of the instruments, plus there's some noise. I'd use another cutoff filter and tweak the cutoff level to get richness without noise, tho if you don't know what that means, just raise volume for now, fix the rest later.

There's a really sharp background pad that you could have loads of fun with - if you can automate cutoff. If not, just drop its cutoff level to make it less sharp.

I already told you some of this over msn, but here it is for others to agree or disagree with. I'm looking forward to hearing a cleaner and fixed version.

edit: Good visual aid, Knives.