My first real FL Studio Mix...

[Cybermouse]

I'm working on a Mega Man remix right now (see this thread:

http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=7192

for more info on that). Since I started that project, I've been slowly getting better at FL Studio and looking at guides and tutorials, although largely still learning by doing. Anyway, I was losing steam on the Mega Man mix and out of nowhere came up with this piece, which I may include in an album at a later date:

http://rapidshare.com/files/165040206/Restricted_Area.mp3.html

I woke up suddenly late one night with this tune running violently through my head and had to get it into my computer. (Is that normal?) The result is here...good or bad, that's for you to decide. I'd appreciate feedback on any aspect of it, anything that helps me submit better mixes when I do finish them, or in general, figure out what I could do better in the future.

Of note is that some parts are reminiscent, if only vaguely, of the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. Lol. If that bothers anyone, I'm sorry but I had not intended to "borrow" themes from anything and I don't believe I did, at least not while composing the piece. I have done a lot more stuff than this in FL Studio, but this is really the only one worth listening to, so I consider it my first real mix. In all my tunes before this, it's painfully obvious that I had no idea how to use FL Studio (and may or may not be obvious in this one, ha ha).

Enough of my gabbering. Enjoy, hopefully.

[SplinterOfChaos]

If I had a Pounce account, it wouldn't be hard for me to tell you what I think.

[OverCoat]

Yeah

Friendly tip: If you want people to hear your stuff, make sure it's not password protected %^(

I recommend rapidshare or senduit, at the very least

[Cybermouse]

Ah, my apologies. I was browsing through the forums for a good place to host files and I came across a thread zircon wrote in which he recommended two, one of those being pownce. I didn't think to test the download myself...rapidshare, you say? We'll see how this goes:

http://rapidshare.com/files/165040206/Restricted_Area.mp3.html

Wow, that was pretty painless. Although it says only 10 people can download it and then it gets removed or something...well I doubt that many people will download it anyway. So there you have it.

EDIT: I have upgraded to a Collector's Account, whatever that means. So now more than 10 people can download it.

[Cybermouse]

Since this has been up for a couple weeks now, and no one seems willing to help me out with any feedback (although I am a non-remixer so I guess this automatically excludes me from the community, in a way) I'm going to post some feedback of my own. Actually, it's not really MY feedback, it's from a guy known as bustatunez. He gave me some feedback about two weeks ago on the ocwip IRC channel, and I've realized since then that he was right.

The piece really needs drama, which bustatunez told me is kind of, going in a direction the listener doesn't expect. He told me the tune doesn't really go anywhere and he was precisely right. While he didn't mention anything he liked about it, I don't think it has any other major flaws, although if anyone can find any, I'd appreciate feedback on those, too. I have realized since I received this feedback that I implemented no dynamics whatsoever, did the entire thing with only three instruments, and it's only my 2nd major mix in FL Studio. Also I had not intended it to be in the classical, or even dramatic, genre.

Bustatunez said that all music has drama, and I disagree here. I have heard plenty of music (and liked most of it) that did not have any drama at all. Examples are most techno mixes, mega man tunes, and a lot of what I consider the "Electronica" genre, which is exactly the genre that I had intended apply to "Restricted Area." So, in my mind, it's fine the way it is, although I'm going to do a remix of it because I think it could be better. I'm pleased with how it turned out, but I think a remix would be a good experience for me learning what works and what doesn't in terms of only drama, which I'm apparently terrible at. I'll post Restricted Area 2 on here when/if I get it done.

Meanwhile I'm in my capstone college course for a BS in Computer Science. This class is a bunch of LAMENESS about planning which for me is mostly unnecessary. Thus, I'll be busy for the next couple weeks (the last two of the semester) on presentations and other stuff that is useless to me but I guess I need to learn because managers nowdays don't like looking at code, they want something like a graph that shows profits going up which is about all they can understand. I was hoping to get my Mega Man mix done in time for noob week (which has long passed by) so yeah, that's not going to happen.

Ironically, later on in the chat mentioned earlier, bustatunez renamed himself NoMusicalTalent. Lol...should I really be taking advice from ONE person alone, who thinks he has no musical talent? Hopefully I won't have to, if someone is brave enough to tell me what they think too. C'mon, people. Is is so terrible it doesn't even deserve a comment? Do you think bustatunez is totally wrong? Help me out here.

[TenchuX]

I suppose I can give you some advice.

Not sure if advice on sound or composition is more important to you. I can say that normally one should avoid low-end VST guitar sounds. They tend to not sound very good, and in this case the FL Slayer? running through the phaser/flanger really doesn't do this song justice. If you had a real guitar or made an instrument switch it would help the song out.

Not sure how you feel about the guitar, but it just hurts my ears hearing it so much.

The drums are also way too low and not diverse enough... they don't really provide much definition in the song thus far. Sounds somewhat like standard FL Kicks with panning and FL Claps.

Your other synths seem kind of muddled and aren't very refined.

In terms of actual composition, you defiantly have a melody you're going for but you don't change stuff up enough. It feels almost like I'm just hearing the same thing from beginning to end.

I would probably cut the song down in size and work on really switching up things on the 2nd half.

A suggestion would be to use more instruments/sounds... you really seem to have the guitar/main synth and then bass synth. It's really hard to enjoy something that not only sounds the same for almost 5 minutes composition wise, but instrument/sound wise as well.

I realize this is your first FL mix so don't really take offense to this; just use these comments to get better. I remember when I started music too and I made the same mistakes... and I'm still trying to get better.

Keep at it and good luck.

[Cybermouse]

Ah, thank you! Finally, some useful feedback. I won't take offense, don't worry. I wasn't on here fishing for compliments, I just wanted some ideas and constructive criticism about how to improve my stuff that way I don't make the same mistakes on a remix in the future. You definitely provided a lot of specifics, so thanks for taking the time to reply. Your feedback will help me a lot.

As far as the guitar I used, it was actually a Sytrus preset (Inferno, I think) and at the time of using it, I thought it sounded quite good. It would seem that this is just my own opinion, however. Perhaps I have yet to hear an actual decent guitar instrument, but instrument choice is the hardest task for me in making tunes like this.

One thing I'm curious about is exactly how I would go about "refining" my synths as you mentioned. I don't really know what you mean by that--messing around with the knobby things in the plugin/channel settings?

Also with the drums, would you suggest using compression to bring them out more, or did you mean something different by "way too low"? I wasn't really going for a beat-heavy tune but if that would help, then that's something I could try. And the drum choice, what is wrong with the default FL kicks and claps? Honestly I could not tell a difference between any of the samples included with FL and I like the default ones. Maybe this is due to my untrained ear, but even so, I guess I just don't know how to do drums very well.

[Rom Tom]

I'll say right now that this is MUCH better then my first fl studio creation. But otherwise, quality is at a newb level. Again, don't take offence, as we ALL were (and I dare say, still very much ARE) newbs. It will take a LOT of messing around to start getting a better understanding of how to mix, master, and process music. Its good that you know how to use effects and things like that. It took me half a year to realize that effects exist. Generally, just like anything else, making music is something that you devote yourself to.

Now for actual advice on your mix, here.

It is quite repetetive. There is barely any variation in the melody. The drum kit is unrealistic for the genre (kick & clap(?!?)). Usually, a song with a guitar (suggesting, rock, metal, or the likes) would have a realistic and basic punchy kick drum with a punchy snare accompanied with hi-hats and crash cymbals, and toms, if you will. I will say you have applied a bit of creativity to the drum beat you already have there. If you decide to add a snare, do compress it. But learn how to use the compressor, if you don't know how to already.

Also, do you know about the parametric equalizer? AllI have to say is use it! Its the ultimate mastering tool. They help to sculpt out how the sound will be heard. You can make a helpless kick gain punch, or give a strange bass synth some texture, or take pain away from a shrieking high lead, or... the list goes on. If you haven't used it before, use it, and really mess around with it.

Also look out for filters when using lead synths or pads, like some of the ones you used in the song. I found that some of your synths sound like they are half filtered (which gives them a 'stuck' feeling) throughout the whole song. Check out tutorials and such if you want to learn more.

Generally, just go wild and mess around with all the different effects to see what they are capable of. But one thing; dont over-use effects. Over usage can cause cpu overloads which is when the song is... not playing smoothly. I have major trouble with that even now.

I don't know if you already knew most of what I said above or not. If you did... well then that was all in vain. But I enjoyed writing it!

In the end, I'll just say mess around, enjoy messing around, and come back with a new (or revised) song to delight our ears! Best of luck.

[Cybermouse]

Hey thanks a lot! I'm glad to start getting feedback.

Well, I guess I'm gonna have to head over to the tutorials section. I actually did use the parametric EQ and apparently, not very well either. In fact I had an EQ on all three instruments, but it obviously wasn't doing them any good. I guess I just don't know what the idea behind it is or what the ultimate goal is for the sound. This is kind of hard for me to grasp that something can just universally sound good as opposed to sounding good to one person but not another. I need to learn what this universal good sound is, because I'm searching my limited knowledge of synths and I just don't know the difference between a good sound and a bad sound.

Also I had a question...bustatunes who I mentioned earlier seemed to think that EQ was irrelevant to my tune, or at least the way he put it, something that you worry about until much later. I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that because...well, the piece is done. The phrase "much later" doesn't make sense at all, because I've already worked on the EQ (and according to Rom Tom's feedback, and a lot of the judges notes on rejected mixes I've read, EQ actually IS important).

Anyway, yeah I'll wave my "noob" banner proudly, because judging by the sheer magnitude of the stuff one can do in FL, it'll be a long, long time before/if I ever leave that status. I've started working on a new version of the tune with all the feedback I've gotten on here in mind, cutting down the harshness of the guitar, adding depth and drama to the tune and just trying some different things. Also the length will be a lot shorter, the first thing bustatunez said was "why is it five minutes long?"

I've come to realize that it is a lot of repetitive stuff, just a bunch of different versions of the same basic melody. Although isn't that kind of what defined good classical music? I mean, Beethoven's Fifth was the same rhythm and the same intervals over and over, just varied up a bit (albeit, composed with the skill of a master musician madman). But nowdays if you were to call THAT tune repetitive, you'd most likely get murdered by some musical cult. Just a few of my random thoughts...

[Cybermouse]

It's been a while since I was on here, and I have done a lot of mixing in that time. The good news is, I might have gotten better; at least it feels like I have. Of course, I'm still a noob at all this. I should change my name to Cybernoob or Noobster or something like that. Anyway, here's what I've been doing lately.

First I went and remixed my own mix, Restricted Area. Swapped out the guitar for one that's easier on the ears, and tried, probably in vain, to make the drums sound better. I realize it still needs a lot of work, but I think I did manage to fix some of the problems the old mix had. Here's a link to the remixed version:

http://rapidshare.com/files/250051387/Restricted_Area__Remix_.mp3

Next, earlier this summer I was asked by a friend to help him with a soundtrack for a movie. He gave me a wav file with a basic melody, and from that, I came up with this mix, which could possibly be my best yet. Not that that's saying much:

http://rapidshare.com/files/250053920/End_of_the_Line.mp3

My friend, Jacob Onnen, composed the melody itself, while I did everything remix-related.

If you have any suggestions on either one, I'm all ears.