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Ape Escape Main Theme


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Yeah okay, I did an Ape Escape remix before, it was, admittedly, awful. I hope this one is an improvement; I've varied a lil' from the source this time which was the main criticism before. Anyway, hope you enjoy, please criticise, yes it is in the early stages, but I need all the criticism I can get! Mainly because I'm never too sure on how I'm mastering and producing or whatever.

Anyway here it is:

http://www.mediafire.com/?yygdnjkmmnn

Oh yeah, unless you really want the lyrics you can decipher them yourself! ^^

This game is not remixed enough!!!

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Yeah, that was solid and fun. The structure and writing were pretty good. I liked the vocals, the shouts included. I like how you use more wet or expanded sound like fills from one part to the next. The "lofi radio" bits likewise.

I really think you could insert more vocals, have them all the way through the song. Before the vocals in it feels that the song lacks "center", a prominent foreground element. The vocals work great as that element. The leads aren't quite doing it. The 00:22-0:33 leads feel like support instruments. 00:39-00:45 bit is alright, the lead is prominent enough, but I wouldn't want to listen to that lead sound throughout the song.

1:08-1:17 is a fun lead, really simple, but a bit too simple and unexpressive.. long notes are kind of boring. It doesn't need much, just a little to liven it up (like doing just a little filtering with the long notes or something).

Hope this was useful!

--Eino

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Awesome, thanks for the comments! n___n

I really think you could insert more vocals, have them all the way through the song.

Yeah, fixed that up. Hopefully they're alright. You were right, needed more vocals.

1:08-1:17 is a fun lead, really simple, but a bit too simple and unexpressive.. long notes are kind of boring. It doesn't need much, just a little to liven it up (like doing just a little filtering with the long notes or something).

Yeah, tweaked it a lil' just to add a bit more interest. Thanks very much, it did help. Added a few more effects, padded out some of the transitions, mastered a lil' put in some cheering - Always makes a song better.

I can't be bothered to edit below so here's a new link!

http://www.mediafire.com/?mnt4gmok2ly

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Heh, you got all the things I had issues with and it turned out really great. This is a really fun song.

The added vocals sound a bit louder than the last verse, which imho has a good balance. There's also a real loud breath in the mic after the first "travelling through" - which kinda works, being out of breath fits the song, but it's pretty loud and sounds like a mistake. In the last verse there's a similar breath but I didn't notice it until just now, I think it works there. Was it even intentional? It sounds like it could be. :)

Great work! I hope you get more feedback as this is a good fun song.

--Eino

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Was it even intentional?

*Nods*

Softened them though and changed some levels 'n' stuff. Annoyingly the balance isn't right between all the parts and when I try and change it, I'm getting an insane amount of clipping!! The whole track is just a nightmare!

Some of the first bass notes are off-key...

Hrmm, I know what you mean but I can assure you they're not. It's the way it's sorta muffled by the rest of the sound and just the nature of the bass, it's awkward to change really.

Anyway, update.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ndmuddodm3d

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The introductory vocals that come in at :22 or :23 or whatever seem to loud IMO, compared to the level of everything I had been listening too, same thing for when they come back in at :50 seconds mark. Those main vocals just seem too loud.

Also, when you say "monkeys all over the place" in the beginning, you've got a major plosive on the "p" in place that should be adjusted. If you can't get rid of it simply by removing bass in EQ, another trick is to simply volume adjust the "P" which lasts for all of a quarter of a second.

I'm not 100% sure, but it sounds like I'm hearing clipping in the 1:00 - 1:05 mark, just some faint crackling and popping.

Overall sounds good, the things that I've mentioned should be easy to fix.

1. Adjust levels

2. Fix a couple of plosives on your "P"

3. Watch for clipping

4. Watch out for your "S" sounds like in space and place, might want to get a de-esser in there for that.

Main thing are those levels though, throughout the whole thing I feel like I gotta keep adjusting my levels because some parts I want to hear more clear, then the vocals will come in and blast me away.

I'm loving this track. What are the effects on the vocals? So many memories <3
My guess is a combination of auto-tune and vocoding, or simply just vocoding. Auto-tune is what generally gives that more "sharp edged" note changes in voices that has now become a part of about 99% of todays hip-hop and pop songs popularized by cher of all people =P

Just my guess though

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1. Adjust levels

2. Fix a couple of plosives on your "P"

3. Watch for clipping

4. Watch out for your "S" sounds like in space and place, might want to get a de-esser in there for that.

Hrmm. Yeah, I know what you mean. This is my first time editing vocals to this standard and so I'm not too sure what's good/bad. I'm sure this can easily be done, thanks very much for pointing all this out; my usual headphones are a lil' muddy hence the volume of the vocals. I'll do my best! (see what I did there?)

Just my guess though

Nailed it. A mixture of custom pitching, vocoding and good ol' traditional singing! Mind you the flanging does make it sound constantly vocoded which is kinda cool. ^^

Thanks again to everyone who commented earlier!

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Hrmm. Yeah, I know what you mean. This is my first time editing vocals to this standard and so I'm not too sure what's good/bad.

It's all good man, vocals still aren't mine forte. I'm mainly a music man, where as some people are lyric people...I don't even hear lyrics in songs half the time, I just hear the tone of the voice.

One thing to try when recording your vocals is to tilt the mic from the side, above, or below you. If it's below...tilt the mic so that it still points to your mouth, but is below your wind path so you don't get those plosives, same for if you have the mic hanging above you, or tilted to the side. Many people might now scream at me "EHH, ITS OFF AXIS" but the point is, the mic is pointing directly at the source of the sound without being in the way of the wind, so it really isn't off acis. Alternatively you could invest in a popfilter....or better yet....steal some of your moms panty hose, make a circle out of a coat hanger and cover that shiz with said panty hose =P, works just as good.

Hell, even a pencil in the middle of the microphone can break up a little bit of the air, same reason the AKG D112 has a big line through the middle.

Good luck!

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steal some of your moms panty hose, make a circle out of a coat hanger and cover that shiz with said panty hose =P, works just as good.

Oh dear, that actually works dude. Hrrmmm. It's probably worth re-recording those vocals again with my new set up. Haha! That did make for an initially awkward conversation with my mum though...

Thanks very much for all the advice! It's actually working! Mind you, looking for a good de-esser still, any tactics on that?

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Hmmm. ya know, I just use the general De-esser that comes in protools default digidesign sweet plug-ins to tell you the truth. Since 99% of my songs don't ever have vocals on them, it's never been a big problem for me.

Although I can't suggest a particular "good" de-esser, I can tell you how to kind of, make one yourself, using a compressor and EQ.

1. Make a duplicate of your vocal track.

2. Put a compressor on your ORIGINAL vocal track

3. Put an EQ on the DUPLICATE vocal track

4. On the DUPLICATE vocal track, find the frequency that's making those "S" sounds stick out, probably around 7.9kHz - 8.4kHz and bump those frequencies making them stick out even more on the duplicate track. (Make sure you use a high Q setting, making the band that you're rasing, a fairly narrow band to really hone in on those sibilant S sounds)

5. Take the output of your DUPLICATE track and have it go into the "Sidechain input" of the compressor that is on your ORIGINAL vocal track.

This way, you won't hear the output of that duplicate track with it's now bumped up overly S sounds...what you've now done is whenever the song plays and comes to those S sounds, the duplicate track will cause the compressor to compress on the main track during those sibilant times, thus effectively creating a de-esser, and of course you'd just move around the frequency on your EQ to find out the best spot to compress.

I hope I explained that right, it's been a really long time since I've even done a technique like that, that I hope I just got the point across accurately.

If you don't want to go through all that trouble, I'm sure you can just do a google search and find some decent free ones.

Haha! That did make for an initially awkward conversation with my mum though...
lol, that made me laugh, and yeah I can only imagine how that went. "Ehhh, so mom....got any panty hose you don't need?"
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Edit- Updated!!

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jtzjmyfjyzj

I've still got a tiny bit of polishing to do, also I wanna add in some ingame sound effects and things. Been a bit busy so I've only just finished the entire recreation of the vocal part so I thought I'd just post that to see if y'all cool with it! (Well, Nubioso in particular seeing as it was you who picked me up on it).

Oh, and whilst on the subject, thanks for all the vocal advice, especially the whole pop-sheild thing, I've managed to hook up it up with mah mic on a custom stand made from some of my old K'nex. Screw buying stuff!

lol, that made me laugh, and yeah I can only imagine how that went. "Ehhh, so mom....got any panty hose you don't need?"

Yeah, pretty much it however I made things worse by starting my next sentence with "Well this guy online told me..."

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Nice man! I definitely hear an improvement. No more plosives so that sounds great, the sibilance seems to have been taken care of as well, good job. You said you got just a tiny bit of polishing so I'm gonna assume these few tweaks will be among them:

:019 - Build up too loud

:40 - Lead synth a little loud

:44 - Accompanying panned synths a little loud

2:01 - Distortion on "Present Day"

Except for the distortion, the loudness thing of course is always really subjective. It just seemed like they came in pretty loud and when they were gone the drums were a bit low.

All in all, good job man and good luck when you submit it!

Yeah, pretty much it however I made things worse by starting my next sentence with "Well this guy online told me..."

Muahahaha, hilarious.

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Just a quick update, now with SFX 'n' all. I think this is pretty much the final version, I think I've still got one or two tiny bits to sort out and one more SFX to add.

Except for the distortion, the loudness thing of course is always really subjective. It just seemed like they came in pretty loud and when they were gone the drums were a bit low.

I agreed with all your points. It's just having to listen to the same track over and over it sorta passes you by. However the synth was kinda loud admittedly, sure it was my headphones. I used some different ones and it was just crazily loud.

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I could do without the final "do your best" vox sample but I'm guessing it's from the game, I can see how you want to have it there. Still, the original lyrics have the "do your best" bit (which I really like - hearing that is much more encouraging to do my best than the sample is!) which is already a reference to that particular sample from the game. Now when I see the name of the track I'm reminded of the sample, instead of the part in the lyrics. I'd much rather be reminded of the latter! Okay, that's a lot of talk about one particular detail. =)

I don't think there was anything else rubbing my ear the wrong way here. Continues to be a fun and infectious song. Great job with the improvements!

--Eino

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Just a quick update, now with SFX 'n' all. I think this is pretty much the final version, I think I've still got one or two tiny bits to sort out and one more

I agreed with all your points. It's just having to listen to the same track over and over it sorta passes you by. However the synth was kinda loud admittedly, sure it was my headphones. I used some different ones and it was just crazily loud.

Yeah, I know what you mean man. After listening to the song hundreds of times over, you get to a point where you start to forget what it should even sound like lol

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