Jazz Jackrabbit - Tubelectric

[lazerblade]

I was a bit suspicious of that panning. I'm very new to stereo imaging, (I used to do only LRC or total center not long ago) so I'll try to balance them out.

At 0:53 and several other parts of the song is a reverse clap/snare sample. I use it when I want a more harsh notable transition. Perhaps I should tone it down or replace it with whitenoise at that part.

I'm not sure why you keep asking me to find more sounds. If I need a certain sound, I usually dig into my VST collection and create one myself. Most of the sounds in this track are my work. Only some of the drums and the drop sample are not. I also have growing sample, preset, and vst collections. I always keep my eye open for more sounds to download and try to keep learning more about sound design though.

I definitely agree about the freq muddiness. I kinda liked the idea of a really ambient distorted synth guitar for that part and wanted to try it, but it needs work if it's to be used at all there.

The arrangement and structure are what I need inspiration for now. Kind of like what you're saying. Maybe new beats, new instrument, new timing, maybe just end the track sooner, or whatever. When inspiration sneaks up behind me and stabs me in the thorax I'll start on the next update.

[timaeus222]

I'm not sure why you keep asking me to find more sounds. If I need a certain sound, I usually dig into my VST collection and create one myself. Most of the sounds in this track are my work. Only some of the drums and the drop sample are not. I also have growing sample, preset, and vst collections. I always keep my eye open for more sounds to download and try to keep learning more about sound design though.

I'm not actually asking you to find more sounds. Just more flexible VSTs. I'm asking you to be aware of any new VSTs that warrant your attention (those that are capable of some really great synthesis, AND are inspiring), and it looks like you are. Just don't limit yourself to the free stuff. Be on the lookout for the good commercial VSTs too. Look at reviews and seriously consider buying something that you believe you'll keep using for a long time.

What I mean by more interesting sounds is that I'd like to hear more than just basic saw waves and all those basic waveforms, plus a few interesting things. It'd be great if you spent more time adding subtleties that, although most people wouldn't notice, add more to your remix and really make it stand out.

For example, layering specific sounds to get a sound that you want that you don't have. On a remix I'm working on right now, I spent about a half hour picking bass tones to layer to get the right bass tone, and I ended up mixing an FM bass, two different PWM basses, and a funk pulse bass. It sounds like this:

http://www.box.com/s/22faivryknxo6fg7olvh

There was a funk pulse bass to give it a big low end, one PWM bass to give it a powerful treble tone, one other PWM bass to add more to the treble to let it pierce through a thick mix, and an FM bass to round out the overall tone.

So what I'm saying is take your ideas to the next level and make your sounds attractive. Add some expressiveness with vibrato, tremolo, pulse-width modulation, phaser, chorus, sync, and so on. Think about if other people might think "Damn, that's a really cool sound. How do I make that?" If they think "Oh, that's a pulse wave" or "That's a square wave on a low octave with some detuning", it's because it's a simple sound. Add some interest into your sounds, and it'll make your tracks much more appealing to more people.

[lazerblade]

Gotcha. There are definitely more commercial VST's I want to collect. E.G: Zebra2, which looks like a sound designer and synth hacker playground.

It's true that this track lacks a lot of the complex layering and synthesis techniques of other modern EDM, and it's true that that will negatively effect the number of people who come to it for the interesting sound design. However, I chose a retro style for this track and intentionally limited myself to simple synthesis techniques because I have an uncanny love for 80's acid House. If that means this track doesn't make the cut for OCR, so be it. My next remix targeted at OCR will be in a more modern style with more obfuscated sound design. I am omni-genre in both taste and production.

This track is still going to be the application of my idea for mixing classic acid basses and arps with breakbeats and synthpop leads.

[timaeus222]

Gotcha. There are definitely more commercial VST's I want to collect. E.G: Zebra2, which looks like a sound designer and synth hacker playground.

It's true that this track lacks a lot of the complex layering and synthesis techniques of other modern EDM, and it's true that that will negatively effect the number of people who come to it for the interesting sound design. However, I chose a retro style for this track and intentionally limited myself to simple synthesis techniques because I have an uncanny love for 80's acid House. If that means this track doesn't make the cut for OCR, so be it. My next remix targeted at OCR will be in a more modern style with more obfuscated sound design. I am omni-genre in both taste and production.

This track is still going to be the application of my idea for mixing classic acid basses and arps with breakbeats and synthpop leads.

That's good. I would have recommended Zebra2 as well. That's what I used to make that layered bass sound.

I understand that you want to go for a specific style, but that doesn't necessarily limit you to the few instruments in that style. Lots of OCR artists have remixes that mix several genres. Although 80's Acid House is pretty specific, there are more than just those specific instruments that can go well with that genre... right? For example, I don't think I heard this:

Then of course you can always give your sounds more life, if you don't want to change them or add more. Craft the tones some more to keep sort of the same tone, but with your own touches to it, like vibrato, phaser, chorus, etc.

[lazerblade]

I decided to take the sync on the lead from "a bit for flavor" to "a crazy ton" and layer it with another synth lead and a supersaw/organ thingy. Also, lots of mixing improvements. I think I may have overdone the DRC during mastering, but I'm not sure. At any rate, I think the overall sound has improved as well as the lead, although now it feels even more like it should be a different instrument during the jam section.

(Trying google drive as a host. Please let me know if this does not work for you.)

(outdated link removed)

[timaeus222]

The link works, but I'd suggest using a host that is better oriented to music hosting, like box, soundcloud, tindeck, etc.

The new lead sounds pretty good, but it can sound even better. Try adding a slow LFO to modify the tone as it's playing. Maybe synched to a 1/1 or 2/1 rate? (that means 1 cycle per bar or 1 cycle per 2 bars respectively)

That remix I mentioned earlier, "Jazz Castle Adventure", is a great example of a really good sync lead.

[lazerblade]

This update is mostly micro-improvements. I added some slight vibrato at some parts, increased the pulse-width LFO depth on the main sync lead, changed instrumentation up a bit near the end(although with very simplistic sound design,) and other stuff. This version has an audio glitch right as the drop effect happens before the bass drop. It will certainly be removed before the final submission.

(outdated link removed)

[timaeus222]

I heard the vibrato. It's good, keep doing stuff like that throughout. Add things most people wouldn't notice, and eventually it'll turn out to improve the song a lot. Don't be afraid to modify the melody a bit more, either.

[lazerblade]

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/n6ybmmgfxd4nrka/Cybernetic%20Acid%20Groove%20-%20WIP13.mp3

I only hope I can make this awesome before I get really sick of it. My creativity and inspiration have gone elsewhere, and this isn't exactly a style I've heard on OCR before. I'm not feeling optimistic, but please do provide criticism and feedback anyway. I think I've squeezed just about enough out of this interpretation of this track, so I'm wanting to finish it and move on. Maybe I'll come back in the future and spin it a different way.

[timaeus222]

Production sounds good as it is now, good job!

[lazerblade]

Production sounds good as it is now, good job!

Yay! Coming from you, whose music I recently listened to and adored, that is very encouraging.

Status upped to finished. Mod review to come in 48 hours if there are no other fixes to make.

[lazerblade]

Ready for mod review. After a 48 hour break I don't hear a bunch of glaring issues listening to this track again, so I'm hoping it's up to snuff.

[Gario]

MOD REVIEW

Mmm, the production is much tighter on this one. Nice work cleaning that up for us.

On it's own, I like the track - it builds up to the source material and pulls some funky maneuvers over the source once it gets to he guts of it all. However, as an OCR submission I don't think it would pass, solely because it really does sound too close to the source structurally. Changing the melody around, or a chord here and there won't be able to amend this - it's at the very form of the song that you arranged that the OCR judges would have issue with.

Mind you, it's not an issue with the track that would give you grief on the panel, it's an idiosyncrasy of the site (and it's requirement that the song not sound too much like a 'cover') that is the issue. The style/genre is similar to the original, the form takes no liberties and the themes that are there are played very straight, which puts it in a place that OCR will probably not accept, and for this track there's little that you can do about that.

I enjoy it quite a bit for what it is, so nice work on it. I don't expect it to pass through the panel, though - if you make a new track (probably a different source, as you're probably bored of this one ) and try to play around with the structure of the track more, as well as placing different sections together in unconventional ways, you'll have a much better chance at passing a track through the panel.

Best of luck, man.

[lazerblade]

Alrighty then, I officially declare this track done!

I want to thank the both of you for being patient and putting up with it for so long. I learned a ton doing this track, and look forward to doing more of them soon.

I haven't 100% decided whether or not to submit to the judges, but I'm leaning towards no.

I'll show my hand now: I used LMMS to produce this track and Ardour2 to master it. I used open source synths, open source FX, and mostly free samples as well. LMMS has become my DAW of choice, even over FL Studio. I'm hoping that this and future tracks of mine will serve to help dispel the stigma that "LMMS is a neat little idea, but it has a long way to go before you can do anything pro level."