VVVVVV Piano Medley Remix - v0.3

[Pl511]

Update 2:

Version 0.3! I think this is something like what the final version should sound like. I've tweaked a lot of little things and it's sounding a lot better. Still sounding a bit shoddy in some places, but I fixed up the Potential For Anything section quite a lot and the ending actually feels fairly dynamic as opposed to the static feel it had before. No problems are that large any more and everything is sounding fairly nice.

Update 1:

Version 0.2! I added Potential for Anything at the end of all of the others as well as making tweaks to different parts of the mix. Overall I'm happy with everything up to the point Potential for Anything comes in. I actually sort of dislike what I did with that, and I'll remove it if anyone thinks it doesn't fit at all. Gonna show this to Souleye tomorrow if I get it ready for that tomorrow. I contacted him and he's already expressed an interest to hear a semi-finished version.

Started working on this earlier today and it started to expand a bit so I thought I'd make it into a little something. Listening to the VVVVVV soundtrack through again, I'm definitely going to be finishing this up (hopefully for submission ). In this I've included 'Presenting VVVVVV', 'Pushing Onwards' and 'Pressure Cooker'. I'm also planning to include 'Potential For Anything', 'Predestined Fate', and probably 'Positive Force'.

[Chimpazilla]

I don't know these sources at all, so I can't comment on that or if it is too much of a medley... but your playing is gorgeous as always! I love it.

[omnipotentBagel]

From an OCR standpoint: Sounds pretty medley-ish right now, as it just sort of moves from one piece to the next. Granted, this seems like a pretty short sample, so it's got plenty of time to develop, but I'd recommend finding something that can run through the entire piece to keep things connected, or maybe coming back to one particular source regularly to give it a more cohesive feel.

From a production standpoint: Piano sounds a little overcompressed at times. I'm assuming it's the recording. Again, not a huge deal for an early demo, but definitely something to think about.

That said, I'm really loving what I'm hearing so far. You play very nicely and, medley-ish or not, the pieces you have so far flow quite well. I look forward to hearing more of this.

[Pl511]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Glad you enjoyed it!

Updated the original description with the details of this update. Not that happy with the new section (Potential for Anything) doesn't really flow as well as the rest) but I'll get rid of it if other people also think it doesn't work so well.

[DaMonz]

I love the idea! The playing is great, and the arrangement is nice!

I'm not the biggest fan of the sample that's used though. I'm sorry, I can't really point you in any better direction myself x_x I suggest maybe PM Doc Nano? I really really like how his piano sounds, maybe he'd be willing to discuss about it with you.

Oh and maybe it's not an issue at all xD haha I'm just saying what comes to mind

Looking forward to hearing more from you!

[Pl511]

@DaMonz: Thanks for the feedback! The VSTi I'm using is Pianoteq 4 (it's a sampled piano one) so I don't really think I can go much better than what I've got at the moment. ^^;

Version 0.3! I think it's very close to be a finished version and nothing is really that much of a problem as much as the last version. Fixed a few areas, added some extra melodic variety to the final part of Potential For Anything, and I think it's sounding quite nice as well. Feedback would be awesome to think about things to change for the finished (or semi-finished) version!

[Ethan Rex]

Yeah I'd definitely look into getting a better sample or having someone help out with this - the piano sounds pretty fake.

The arrangement is nice, but there are some notes that are cut off too shortly, and I feel like there could be some more emotion put into the softer parts especially.

This is a solid track, but it needs some polish to make it postable imo. Good luck!

[Pl511]

Yeah I'd definitely look into getting a better sample or having someone help out with this - the piano sounds pretty fake.

The arrangement is nice, but there are some notes that are cut off too shortly, and I feel like there could be some more emotion put into the softer parts especially.

This is a solid track, but it needs some polish to make it postable imo. Good luck!

I really don't understand what the problem with the sample. I'm using Pianoteq 4, and I played all of this is in directly with a MIDI keyboard. Pianoteq is pretty expensive for my price range, and there's absolutely no way I'm going to get a higher quality one. D: Does anyone know why it sounds so fake?

I'll work on velocity adjusting some of the notes to make it nicer sounding. I'm also thinking of adding a few hints of Positive Force in there as well.

[Pl511]

Working on Piano Duet sheet music for this right now! Hopefully I'll be able to get it authorised by Souleye as being a good transcription/arrangement.

[timaeus222]

I really don't understand what the problem with the sample. I'm using Pianoteq 4, and I played all of this is in directly with a MIDI keyboard. Pianoteq is pretty expensive for my price range, and there's absolutely no way I'm going to get a higher quality one. D: Does anyone know why it sounds so fake?

I'll work on velocity adjusting some of the notes to make it nicer sounding. I'm also thinking of adding a few hints of Positive Force in there as well.

I can't listen to it right now, but it sounds like your velocity response is an issue. Check out what velocities you get when you record, and see if it's reasonable. Fix it as necessary. If you're playing in live with no latency issues, and Pianoteq is supposedly good, then it has to be velocities or playing technique. You might as well find more piano samples. Maybe the one you chose just doesn't work for this specific song. Have a wide variety of piano tones for use. Even some of the free soundfonts out there are good. Darkesword's soundfonts page has some good stuff.

[Pl511]

I can't listen to it right now, but it sounds like your velocity response is an issue. Check out what velocities you get when you record, and see if it's reasonable. Fix it as necessary. If you're playing in live with no latency issues, and Pianoteq is supposedly good, then it has to be velocities or playing technique. You might as well find more piano samples. Maybe the one you chose just doesn't work for this specific song. Have a wide variety of piano tones for use. Even some of the free soundfonts out there are good. Darkesword's soundfonts page has some good stuff.

I'm not really sure. Personally, I was really pleased with this mix, and I've been live-playing (unfortunately with a bit of latency, so quantising is necessary) it in with my velocity-adjusted keyboard and everything. I don't really see a problem with it myself. That said, I'm working on it, and I like this VSTi with this mix so I'm going to stay on like this until I get a finished product.

[DaMonz]

I'm not really sure. Personally, I was really pleased with this mix, and I've been live-playing (unfortunately with a bit of latency, so quantising is necessary) it in with my velocity-adjusted keyboard and everything. I don't really see a problem with it myself. That said, I'm working on it, and I like this VSTi with this mix so I'm going to stay on like this until I get a finished product.

I perfectly understand and respect your point! If YOU like it like this, best advice I can give is to stick with it.

I just hope it suits the site's standards, if you plan on subbing it to the judges.

[timaeus222]

I'm not really sure. Personally, I was really pleased with this mix, and I've been live-playing (unfortunately with a bit of latency, so quantising is necessary) it in with my velocity-adjusted keyboard and everything. I don't really see a problem with it myself. That said, I'm working on it, and I like this VSTi with this mix so I'm going to stay on like this until I get a finished product.

Oh, well there you go. You had to quantize it, so it's not as realistic. The more you quantize, the more robotic it can get. See if you can figure out a workaround. Maybe export the MIDI to sheet music since I think you're using FL (totally random guess and I might have remembered wrong, but I think I saw that you use FL). Then play the sheet music (if you can read sheet music, that's a plus) in an empty project file (i.e. less chance of a latency hiccup), save as a MIDI, and import the MIDI in your original project file. Do it for each distinct section in your song, after you subdivide it into n equal pieces (just kidding, calculus joke, don't shoot me).

You're also going to have to be open to suggestions, and try out other piano samples. Just because Pianoteq costs $319 doesn't mean it'll automatically be good, or that it'll automatically work nicely for every song. Even a good VST can sound bad with bad sequencing (not saying your sequencing is bad. Just not mind-blowing). It might even be worth your money to upgrade. For a person like you, I'd imagine you would like customizability. Upgrading to the non-budget Standard version is a good way to make your piano sound better. If you're really crazy, upgrade to the pro version, lol.

If that's too much to pay, you might as well go look for a good room reverb plugin instead, rather than assume that Pianoteq is uber-awesome and that nothing can be done to enhance the sound. Good reverb can really make instruments sound realistic.

[Brandon Strader]

If you're using ASIO4ALL or something, lower the input latency.. try 512 or lower. If you're not using an asio driver, try using an asio driver.

Having said that... there's potential here, but the quantizing just kills it dead. It's unfortunate but you'll probably need to re-record the entire piece. There are some quite odd transitions as well, where it jumps from loud to quiet and it seems quite sudden... probably in part due to the quantizing, but also more reverb could be utilized to help smoothen out some of the edges here. There are some parts, like that arpeggio at the end, where the velocity seems too consistent through the notes... could use some further expressiveness in the performance. This could also be a problem with the sample, I'm not sure what you use, but a real piano doesn't maintain such a perfectly consistent tone between notes like that. Something to think about but maybe not a huge deal.

I think most of all, re-recording it without quantization and latency will be the first step, then adding some tasteful reverb.