n00b - Mortal Kombat Theme

[eNeSVee131]

Hello OCR! I've been playing around with FL studio on and off for a few years now and I haven't really had any place to get good feedback on the things I made. I'm really excited to hear about the many things I need to improve on and how I can start making more quality music. Here's one of the first songs I tried to remix:

http://tindeck.com/listen/rhrd

Please critique and thanks for helping me in trying to become a better artist!

[Atmozpheryc]

One of the first things that bugged me is the amount of reverb and delay you have over the whole mix. Way too bouncy and the overall sound doesn't have enough low end either. Perhaps the phrase I could use is "tinny sounding".

I wont complain about your choice of sounds as much because I never used fruity loops and don't know how limited it is in terms of sound design but it was an overall underwhelming mix. Not enough dynamic range of sound frequencies.

I would try and define a bass line more and lower the delay/echo.

[M249-M4A1]

You definitely have the right idea, but it needs a lot of work before it becomes something that sounds better to someone other than yourself.

Firstly, I wouldn't rely on using the Sytrus Distorto Guitar that much, the reverb and effects on that is nice when played by itself, but once you have it playing with other instruments, things get really muddy really fast. In fact, I wouldn't use any of those preset generators because they just don't work well unless you know how to modify the FX outputs, which I assume you wouldn't right now.

I'd suggest you watch some FL Studio tutorials on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ste1438

This guy does a really good job explaining how you can improve your song, and even goes through the trouble of doing the good vs bad so you can hear the difference for yourself!

[Mak Eightman]

When I read the title of this thread, I was kinda angry.

I thought you stole my remixer's name!!

As for arrangement:

Your drums in main theme's melody sounds out of rhythm sometimes

(as if the drummer overslept, if you know what i mean).

Agree about reverberation and delay comment. Also arrangement too short in creativity, which cause short time length, imo.

As for production:

Dude.. Don't use slayer. FL have lot off cool synthetic sounds. Don't use slayer! It sounds bad always, unless you not RoeTaka.

Drums sections is poor. No velocity, not interesting drums/cymbals figure, no transitions, too repetitive.

Overall you can do better.

BTW.. It is not game's source..

[eNeSVee131]

Thanks so much guys! This is just what I was looking for, some concrete critique and not just my friends saying "oh, that sounds cool!". I'll definitely check out those tutorials and see what I can do about instrument choices and making the song more dynamic in general.

To be honest, I don't like any of the guitar presets in sytrus but I didn't know of any better ones. Does anyone know of a good guitar plugin (preferably free!) that may work well with this arrangement? If I can get my hands on some good recording gear, it might be easier/sound a lot better if I just recorded it with my guitar/effects processor.

[Mak Eightman]

I didn't know of any better ones.

Check your FL Studio for SAWER, PoiZone..

Does anyone know of a good guitar plugin (preferably free!) that may work well

It doesn't exist

it might be easier/sound a lot better if I just recorded it with my guitar/effects processor.

If you play guitar.. Play guitar.

[ShadowBlade]

Agreed. Electric guitar is like the one instrument you just can't get with samples/plugins.

Also, this tune wasn't for the games, it was for the movie.