First Song

[mentalstrike]

Hey, I've just recently acquired FLStudio, and then my friend got it, and spent two hours fiddling with it. This is the result (still a work in progress) with some of my additions. As far as I know, this is all original work, but if anybody happens to hear anything they recognize, lemme know, I'd love to be able to discredit my friend (friendly rivalry). Anyway, let me know what you think of it!

(First Draft)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E147HFA0

(Second Draft)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4ZXGXKNL

(Third Edition)

[AngelsDen]

Not bad for the first try on Fl

It somehow reminds me of some Phantasy Star 3 Music.

The Song definetively needs alot improvement. The Drumline is extremely repetitive and needs more and better transitions (not the swisses).

When the heavy Bass along with the string starts, there are missing alot of mids in the Soundscape. When the part on 0:44 starts the Mix somehow gets pretty empty, something like a warm pad or a string for the Background is missing. 1:20.. from there on the mix sounds pretty damn good <3

Keep it up!

btw, what sample is the string at the beginning?

[mentalstrike]

Okay, lesse, answers and replies for all your comments (thank you for your critique too! It's very helpfu!)

First

I dunno about Phantasy Star, but it does remind me of some sort of PS1 era boss battle. I thought it was cool xD

Next, I've been working on the drumline, like I said, WIP. But yeah, my friend did pretty much the entire song, I've just been adding on, so I'll be sure to let him know ^^ I can't wait to see his face when I'm done making this awesome.

Okay, I have no idea what you mean by "missing mids in the Soundscape" and I think the reason the song seems really empty at that point is that there is no significant amount of bass to that part, kind of like (for me) having snack foods when you're hungry, there's just no "meat" to it. My theory at least (by the way, I should mention, I have zero musical training though I've been teaching myself piano a little bit, and my friend has minimal, he's just a god. Seriously, anything he tries, he does good. I hate it)

Almost done Okay, thanks for the compliment, xD 1:20 on is where I've done the most work on his foundations. I layered a lot of stuff with what he already had. I'll relay to him though, because, as I've said earlier, he's done the most work here...

Finally, the sample used in the beginning (I'm assuming you are talking about the instrument that begins at about 8 seconds) is STR_Cell_C4.wav I'm going to go ahead and assume that it came with the package. That part was completely my friend, at the point that this version was rendered, I hadn't done anything to that part at all.

Once again, thank you for your input and I look forward to hearing more!

[AngelsDen]

Okay, I have no idea what you mean by "missing mids in the Soundscape" and I think the reason the song seems really empty at that point is that there is no significant amount of bass to that part, kind of like (for me) having snack foods when you're hungry, there's just no "meat" to it.

Maybe this will help out to conquer the mids

short Equalizer tutorial Its most likely the layering thats missing the Bass, Drums and String are your lows and the Hi-hat covers a bit of the high spectrum.

The part from 1:20 has the most coverage of the whole spectrum.

[mentalstrike]

That tutorial helped out a TON, thank you so much for that! I'm getting right back to work now, so no time for a really long reply this time >_<

[mentalstrike]

Okay, I worked on the song some more, and here are the results:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4ZXGXKNL

Changes:

Changed tempo (accidentally, actually) from 155 to 165

Added bassline to part that began at 0:44 (now at 0:39)

Added more layers to other parts of the song (if you find them all, good for you)

Maxed out the rendering quality (because it sounded like crap on my PC so I'm making sure you get the full experience)

The rest of this post is directed at AngelsDen

I read the tutorial and it helped quite a bit. I added a bassline to the part that sounded hollow, and it has a bit more meat behind it now, though not very much. I'm no composer, so I couldn't make one up myself (I'm no good with that, my only real musical talent is thinking up cool drum beats, though I did start to learn bass a long time ago), so I ended up taking that pattern, copying it into a bass track and then fiddling with it. I took out some of the more superfluous notes, and changed the key note or whatvever to make it a lower sound. Lemme know what you think!

EDIT: Crap, hit send while my file was still uploading, stand by for the results

[mentalstrike]

Okay, not like I'm not happy with the feedback I got, but I would appreciate some more of it..

[mentalstrike]

Alright, time for an update. This one features revised music, as well as better production (which is also a work in progress). I am becoming more and more adept in handling things after my friend hands it off to me. I do mostly stuff with Parametric EQ (which I am just learning to use, so bear with me), and filters, as well as adding in new instruments (though they have the same music track as the ones he gave me). I tell you all this to say this: If you have suggestions as to the actual composition of the song, just realize that it will probably be quite some time before those changes are actually made. Anything else, however, can be pretty much instantaneous. So there we have it. Oh yes, warning, I was fiddling with various equalizer settings, so please be aware that some of the channels are a little bit....off, to say the least. If anyone can point me to a good tutorial on equalizing, it'd be much appreciated (at this point I would like to reiterate that I have zero music training. Formal or otherwise) With that, here's the updated version:

A link on the first post will be provided shortly