Halflife 2 GL Orbifold

[Clem]

This is a remix of a particularly dark tune from HL2 that I always really liked. The original is done in an industrial/techno style and I wanted to keep that vibe while still incorporating my heavy metal style guitar playing into the mix.

I am having trouble really finishing this track. I think the arrangement is pretty good, but I'm having some trouble with mixing certain parts of the song. Of particular note are a few parts where I am having trouble getting the drums to cut through the mix.

I'm looking forward to hearing what any of you all think of this.

here is the mix: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/brxd

The file name on the mix is a little messed up. I totally misremembered song's title when i saved it and i thought i would leave it for now just for laughs.

Here is the source:

[Mak Eightman]

The only thing in my mind is two heavy rhythm guitars strong left and right, lead guitar in middle. About drums.. I like source's drums more. You making heavy thing, so make your drums heavy too. Make some interesting figure with your cymbals. And I may be wrong, but I think you use too much compression on your drums(but I may be wrong). After all I like your vision, your guitar play and arrangement itself. And I'm not so good in feedback cause I'm still a n00b, but try to use something I said. Maybe you like it)

[Clem]

Alright, I recorded two rhythm tracks and panned em hard to the left and right. I think this noticeably thickened up the mix in many parts of the song. I also spiced up the drums throughout the song, which I think gives the mix some new dynamics. Also, i rolled the compression back on the drums just a bit.

Finally, I added a step filter to the lead for the first melody and added some effects to the ending.

Thanks a lot for your feedback. Panning those rhythm guitars made a pretty big difference, I think.

Here is the latest version: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/fzui

let me know if you think the switch from the heavily processed lead in the melody to the standard lead tone sounds a bit too abrupt.

[Mak Eightman]

Wow! That sounds better to me! Interesting effects, some kind interesting drum's figure, but sometimes drums too simple(hope you understand). I don't like how drums sounds. Specially snare(what do you use for your drums?). And may be you try some different kick's sound? Or maybe use some EQ in mid-high on it with mid or hi attack in compression. It may help, I think. Cause kick overpowered for some reason. Then you may use some more highs in EQ for full mix or in some sections of it. After that you could try to do something with mastering.. See what you can do, hear it. Also I don't like Wah guitar's "paning". Sounding in center will be better, I think. And phasing rhythms.. something wrong to me with effect itself, but it's personal I guess.

GREAT MIX and WORK!!

P.S. Don't take too serious any feedback. Its YOUR mix after all. You may use some advice or not:wink:

But its pleasure to me, that you follow my word:mrgreen:

[Clem]

I'm not at all offended by your comments on the drums. Honestly I do agree with you almost completely. Drums have always been tough for me to do. I'll be sure to continue messing around with the drum patterns themselves to make them sound more interesting (some feedback on specific parts of the song that you find to sound a bit off would be helpful for me here).

I definitely agree with you on the actual sound of the drums. the quality of the samples I'm using just is not very good. I'm really just using stock samples that i scraped up on the web and mixed and matched for the best effect. I'll follow your advice for mixing them (as well as other general mixing advice you gave), but i think what would really help the most would just be getting all new samples. I just gotta find some.

I can also understand how the panning in the "wah" part of the song might sound a bit cheesy. Ill experiment with that.

Also, I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say phasing rhythms. Do you mean that first break leading into the main melody?

Anyway, thanks a lot for continuing to give me your thoughts on the mix. It's really a big help.

[Mak Eightman]

Also, I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say phasing rhythms. Do you mean that first break leading into the main melody?

Yes. That first breaking. I like the idea of using that effect and it fists to this part. But when phas "go deeb" it sounds kind wrong. As I said befor.. Its personal.

As for the drums.. Check out Addictive Drums. You may like it, cause they are AMAZING!! Or lurk http://ocremix.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=12. You may find lot of interesting or ask ppl for advice.

Keep great working!

P.S. Sorry for my english, if I said something wrong or.. strange:mrgreen:

[Level 99]

Awesome tone on the guitars. Pretty cool effects you used as well. Drums could use a bit of a boost, and probably some better samples if you can. Those drums need to push the power of the guitars you're slamming the listener with (I mean slamming in a good way here). Listen to mak and take a look at Addictive Drums if you can.

Other than that, I enjoyed it.

[Clem]

I just uploaded a newer version here (has a proper title now): http://www.tindeck.com/listen/odgm

Lots of changes this time. Probably the biggest change is that I added all new drum samples. I also redid the guitar tracks to tighten them up and changed some of the rhythms.

I changed a bunch of the drum patterns as well, and overall the drums seem to be much more powerful to my ear; but I'm still hearing some noticeable mixing issues and having trouble fixing them.

Let me know what you think of this, and thanks for all the comments so far!

[Mak Eightman]

As you asked about feedback on specific parts in drums. I have to say that from 0:32 to 1:04 they sounds pretty simple to me. And same repeats from 1:22 to 1:28. And I don't like how sounds that cymbals which goes in center then right, then center etc.(hope you understand). It remind me Magix Robota's sound). But otherwise this simpleness fists to those parts of your mix. So maybe you don't have to change it.

After all everything is great and some more highs in EQ will be the finishing touch. I think.

As I said before I'm not good in feedback, but I may try to write drums for you using my samples if you want:mrgreen:

[Clem]

I hear what your saying about the drums in those part. I'm kinda torn about it, because I can see your point, but i do kind of like the "glitchy" kinda feel it gives to those parts of the mix. Whenever i try to change it it just doesn't sound right to me because I've listened to the song a countless number of times and I've had a pattern like that since i started the project. This may be keeping me from being objective about it.

And im wondering if you think the new samples are good enough, or if they still don't work. I probably wont be able to get really really nice sounding samples for this mix, not only because I don't have any really good sampler, but because my tracks are all set up for this particular sampler that I'm using. In short, it would probably be really time consuming to implement a whole new drum sampler because I would have to remix and reprogram all of the drum tracks.

Implementing an external drum track may end up being a lot of trouble, but if you can somehowget me some of your ideas for beats ill be happy to listen to them.

[Clem]

Here is the latest version: http://www.tindeck.com/listen/eovd

I upgraded the drum samples again and improved many of the beats. I also made a new intro. I think this is getting pretty close to being done.

Again, thanks for all the comments so far. Let me know if you all think this is about ready to bump up to finished.

[Mak Eightman]

Your mix sounds like 22kHZ. Dunno why, but you may try use some EQ. After that its FINISHED! I think so.

[Clem]

Made some mixing changes: http://tindeck.com/listen/wtlt

Not sure if i fixed the issue you were hearing so it may need a bit more tweaking, but I think this is ready to move to finished, which I will do as soon as i figure out how.

Edit: this is kind of embarrassing but, despite my best efforts, I cant figure out how to change the thread tag. Anyone wanna help me out?

[Mak Eightman]

Hmm.. Now it sounds more clean to me but still have something "22kHz-ish". I mean your mix sounds somewhere "far" from ears. I don't know what cause it, but I think it's mastering problem( I repeat! I don't know what cause it! Just thoughts).

P.S. Dunno how judges react on those strings, cause I heard VERY cheap sounds in some of OC's remixes.

P.P.S. Edit your first post and go advanced to change thread's stats.

[Clem]

Ok, here is yet another updated version: http://tindeck.com/listen/sotl (gone now)

I think i was successfully able to get the mix sounding much better and I incorporated better string samples. If the mix still doesnt sound quite right then dont hesitate to say so.

Ill see if I can think of an improved ending as a finishing touch. Today i spent most of my time trying to fix the mix up and I think i finally got something that will work.

EDIT: I realized that mix i just posted was badly over compressed. Here is a better one: http://tindeck.com/listen/rxdj

[Mak Eightman]

Yeah!! Finished! I think. You may change your stats to Mod-review.

Great work!! Great guitar play!

Edit: Or submit right now!)

[Clem]

There shouldn't be any clipping since the mix never goes above 0db (unless I'm missing something); however, i don't doubt that you're hearing something. I think it may be more over compression or something like that. It would help a lot if you could tell me specifically which part of the song sounds off to you.

As for bumping it up to mod review. I was gonna just leave it in finished for another day or two as per the guidelines in the sticky. No need to rush it too much as i'm sure there are a few more details I could tighten up.

EDIT: and I was also wondering if the mix as a whole sounds loud enough to you guys. The strings at the start are very quiet in the last version so I fixed that, but even the louder parts seemed a bit quiet and I was wondering if it was just me.

[Clem]

I think It's finally done. No really major changes on this version. I couldnt really think of an alternate ending that didnt sound "tacked on" to me. In my opinion, what I have been using as an ending is pretty effective; somewhat unexpected, but still satisfying. I was able to improve the mix a bit more, and make the drums more dynamic in certain parts of the song.

I've spent more time than I care to admit trying to get the mix to sound good, but there are still parts here and that that sound just a little off to me and I cant quite figure out why. I think this is about as far as my current abilities will take it.

Here it is: http://tindeck.com/listen/igkp

I'm gonna go ahead and set this to mod review now.

EDIT: here is the source again

[Clem]

So I spent a lot of time listening closely to this mix and, contrary to what my last post says (sorry), I was able to improve this song quite a bit more on all fronts, I think.

Most noticeably, I extended the intro and the outro (I'm really happy with the new outro), and I also totally redid the mixing and mastering. I believe I was able to make the whole thing sound quite a bit more professional.

Not sure if I made the kick drum a little too loud so if anyone thinks so, be sure to let me know.

Here is the newest version http://tindeck.com/listen/kpvh

Since I changed the mix I'm reverting this back to finished status.

[Sbeast]

This is actually pretty good. It's nice to see an underrepresented soundtrack get some attention. The Dr Breen quotes fit in really well too. Nice!

[Mak Eightman]

Wow! Good additions! That dude in intro awesome and I like how mix starting after intro. But "that dude":mrgreen: missing around those strings, string's reverberation may cause it. Same problem cut my ears in "after intro" when wah guitar leading awesome melody. Those strings reverb too fat, I think. But it may be personal.

Nothing more I can to say. Everything AWESOME, great outro. With this additions your mix sounds different in good way.

Can't say more, cause using bad headphones now.

[M249-M4A1]

I don't like the intro as much only because it's pretty long, and that it doesn't quite match up to the beats of the song. it gets a bit muddy and weird to me but after g-man's little speech all is better.

IMO i would break up the g-man's speech a little instead of playing it continuously in its original way

[Clem]

So I messed around with that intro a bit. Breaking up the speech tended to make it sound really unnatural to me (if it's really even possible to make gman sound more unnatural than he already does), but I did see where you were coming from. What I did was try to change the musical sounds to be more ambient and in the background so that gman's speech could be more up front and the timing issues between his words and the music would be less pronounced. I'm not really sure if it worked. Just let me know if you think I'm heading in the right direction.

I would really like to make this intro work, because I like the idea of having this tense and atmospheric buildup into the main part of the song.

Aside from that I cut the strings from the first "wahwah" part to make it sound much cleaner and I changed the transition from the second "big riff" into the part with the Breen samples.

Link: http://tindeck.com/listen/lugy

[Clem]

Ok, I took my idea for the intro and ran with it to come up with a really eerie piece of work. It's easily the most experimental part of the mix so I suppose a few listeners might be a bit torn on it.

I think this really is the final version. I'm really happy with the mixing and mastering this time. I'd like to thank all of you for listening and telling me what you thought throughout this song's development; its been a big help.

Final version: http://tindeck.com/listen/krev

EDIT: source:

[Mak Eightman]

I like those effects on the strings in intro, but gman still somewhere far for me(I repeat! For ME! It is personal). Everything great! It is more then finished!

But some strong slap-bass in outtro will be awesome to complement amazing guitar.

Hope you understand my english:mrgreen: