Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2013

[Ethan Rex]

Reviews:

Zerotoherothemaster: whoa, nice improvement from last time. source shift is still a little awkward, but not nearly as bad. nice full soundscape.

eaus: cool ethnic sounds in the beginning. square (maybe even a marimba) arp thing seems to be hitting an odd note at around :17 that continues; I think it's part of the saturn source that isn't meshing well with junk man. Production sounds nice and clean. Wish there was a bigger breakdown to change up the energy, but the ending does well enough at that for it to be a small issue.

shadows24actors: soundscape is as interesting and eclectic as last week, but seems a bit thin. Things still seem to have little flow and seem to meander.

Mr. Dr. Professor L: melody can come out a lot. some key issues with sources; work to create distinct roles for your instruments (lead, accompaniment, bass) and to create a cohesive piece with the two sources. pads sounds sexy as always, and i like that kick too.

KingbutnotaQueenTiger: nice intro. kick drives energy. vocals work well minus a few small small intonation/lyric issues ("i wont try" being the biggest one), but that's a really small nitpick. Diggin' the chill atmosphere here; this gives a Killers vibe that i love. Seems to be a bit long at times, but changeups do happen and work well.

JiveTurkeymaster: bahahahahahaahahahahahaahahahahaha hell yeah.

Jason makeaCovenanttokeepmakingthisgoodmusic: whoa. nice work using all the stardroids. Piano sounds sexy, and the whole aesthetic nails that Micheal Jackson vibe you were going for. I was just starting to write something about how things seemed to linger when that changeup happened, so nice work on keeping things interesting

Jamesons writtingisSuttonelsehuh: intro hooks me like a fish. aesthetic is groovy and almost sonic spinball-esque. soundscape seems a little thin at times. Transition at 2:25 seemed a tad sudden. lead writing here is done really well

Hackerstock: energy prevalent right off the bat here. nice guitar harmonies. I don't know much about guitar to comment on tone, but everything sounded nice to me. cymbals could use more panning. synth layered with the guitar in the section at around :50 seemed a little robotic. chorus at around 1:33 is really nice.

Hiland Lemonade - chip sounds work really well here. atmosphere is chill, but sounds carry a energy that drives the piece. Love the breakdowns

Cashmoneybaby - Kick can come out. Synth sounds are interesting but cover up the lead at times. Soundscape can be a little thin in areas. Some nice grooves in places

Bentothe Briggscomebailmeout - another sonic spinball vibes. like the chip arps at the metal man bits. nice sonic 3 vocals. Rhodes provides a nice texture change to the chips.

Ampharos - nice smooth sounds as always. glitches create instant interest. breakdowns change things up, but still maintain dat groove.

[timaeus222]

eaus: cool ethnic sounds in the beginning. square (maybe even a marimba) arp thing seems to be hitting an odd note at around :17 that continues; I think it's part of the saturn source that isn't meshing well with junk man.

Actually, it's a chopped up modified version of Saturn to match my chord progression near 0:17, so the note was following my implied chord progression. 0:18 is where clearer Saturn shows up.

I put the source breakdown here if you want to take a look.

[Jivemaster]

JiveTurkeymaster: bahahahahahaahahahahahaahahahahaha hell yeah.

Lol that's right,

For those interested, lyrics and breakdown at soundcloud link:

https://soundcloud.com/neozeed/top-to-bottom

[Brandon Strader]

damnnn jivemaster brought it

compo over imo

[NovaReaper]

So, what do you guys say about a listening party at around 8 PM Eastern?

[Cash]

Cashmoneybaby - Kick can come out. Synth sounds are interesting but cover up the lead at times. Soundscape can be a little thin in areas. Some nice grooves in places

What do you mean by kick can come out?

As for thinness, I'm always afraid of overcrowding my soundscape, so my music ends up being thin, I'm still working on that. I definitely wish I filled things out more though after listening to my mix again, but I didn't have time.

Also, do you have any time stamps for where the lead is covered up?

[ectogemia]

What do you mean by kick can come out?

As for thinness, I'm always afraid of overcrowding my soundscape, so my music ends up being thin, I'm still working on that. I definitely wish I filled things out more though after listening to my mix again, but I didn't have time.

Also, do you have any time stamps for where the lead is covered up?

I'm just gonna randomly spill some tips all over the thread here because I'm in a noxiously boring and long class which I have no interest in. Let's begin!

A quick solution for thinness in some situations is a little reverb. A lot of NES soundtracks were re-released by the parent companies with a little reverb on the master bus to gel things together a bit. If you do it, keep that wet knob conservative and be sure to raise your low cut to at least 400 Hz, if not another 100-150 Hz higher. Remember that reverb is just a synthetic series of sound reflections based on the input sound. That wet reverb sound has a frequency spectrum, and the bounds of that spectrum are defined by the low cut and high cut knobs. The low cut knob is essentially a high pass knob. The high cut knob is essentially a low pass knob. So you have to be SURE you are raising the low cut knob to AT LEAST 400 Hz, but preferably a little higher, because the most muddy frequencies are below about 500 Hz. Adding in a bunch of mud via reverb isn't going to help clarity. Low-cutting out the muddy reverb frequencies and then adding a bit of verb to the master bus can add some glue to the mids and highs. This isn't a terribly common technique, but it's out there for really dry mixes.

A somewhat more technique-sensitive way to add a little thickness is to add some compression to the master bus on the order of 2-5 db of compression and makeup gain to taste (though I find that adding about 1 db less makeup gain than gain reduction I'm getting from the compression almost always sounds great. Be sure to have conservative attacks and releases. A longer attack of 45 ms+ to allow all the transients through and a shortish release of 100-200 ms to avoid overcompression should get things sounding a little thicker.

If you don't already have a compressor with a gain reduction meter on it, I'd get a hold of one. It's not necessary, but it's certainly a useful number to have access to, especially if your ears aren't well-trained yet. That seems to be a super common problem with compressors. A lot of people just don't really understand what they do, why they're used, or what compression really sounds like. Being able to tie the sound you're hearing to a number measuring the amount of compression occurring is crucial to forming a solid concept of what you're actually doing when you're compressing, in my opinion.

Another solution is to add a little delay to instruments which won't cause lots of mud from echoing. So don't add delay (in most cases) to things in the muddy frequency range below ~500 Hz. Usually, delay goes best on leads. It thickens out the spectrum because as your lead plays through the melody, the echoes from previous notes in the melody shine through all over the spectrum of each note played by the lead, so there's a strong saturating effect in the general frequency range played by the melody. Again, be conservative. It's VERY easy to overdo delay. As a starter, the feedback knob controls the number of echoes, whereas the amount knob (the name varies: input, amount, depth, etc.) controls the volume of each echo. Experiment with these two knobs to get the right saturation of echoes. You can even add some stereo width by using the stereo offset knob (read up on the acoustics of stereoization via stereo phase offset to open your mind to the awesome word of how flangers, phasers, chorus, and stereo delay units work) or by adjusting the panning knob and changing the delay type to ping pong delay.

But these are band-aids for a greater systemic problem. Picking good samples/synths which work well together is the best way to end up with a good final mix. It's harder than it sounds -- much harder. But you can't have a full-sounding piece if you aren't filling out the frequency spectrum properly, so although you're afraid of crowding the mix, you still have to make sure you've got enough going on to make it sound full. Darke's tip about lead, percussion, bass, accompaniment is spot on as the basics you need in most cases to have AT MINIMUM a full-sounding mix. Everything has to be in the right octave as well, so experiment with that, especially when layering pads and leads.

Another random tip is that a lot of people over-EQ things. I used to be guilty of this. Now, I NEVER make an EQ adjustment unless there's a very specific goal in mind. Some goals include things like notching a bass where the kick/snare fundamental is, notching a pad where the snare fundamental is, boosting the high mids on a lead by a dB or 2 to add some presence, boosting the highs on a snare to add splash, getting rid of a weird partial with a surgical cut, etc. A lot of people boost and cut like madmen. They know that something needs to be done to the sound, but they don't know what. It'll take time to get to the point where you can make really well-informed EQ decisions, but if you're aren't trying to get a grasp on how to EQ properly by struggling through doing it the right way and instead you're just waggling bands around, your ears will never develop. All that band-waggling often ends up cutting essential frequencies across several instruments, so things end up sounding thin.

And as a last tip, very generally, it's a good idea to boost with smooth eq curve (a wide band width) and cut with a sharper eq curve (a narrow band width). That's not always true, especially with respect to cuts, but in most cases when you're cutting, you're either high/low passing or you're notching something to let the fundamental of something else shine through, usually in the muddy frequency range in the lows and low mids. Boosting with a notch/narrow band width often sounds really artificial and weird, but it does work in some situations, like emphasizing certain narrow partials like snare fundamentals or whatever else.

Yeah!

edit:

Edited August 13, 2013 by ectogemia

[Xarnax42]

Also, I wanna give a shoutout to Xarnax42 for getting his first mix posted as part of Balance and Ruin!

Thanks! Must say, it came as a bit of a surprise. I thought album mixes still had to be submitted separately for front page consideration, and Calum said he never subbed it. In any case, it's pretty exciting. Next goal is a solo mixpost.

So, what do you guys say about a listening party at around 8 PM Eastern?

I don't get home until 7 PM Alaskan (11 PM Eastern). If people can manage to wait until that late, that'd be awesome. I expect that's probably a bad time for a lot of people, so I'll at least be idling in IRC and can read through the chat when I listen alone all by myself.

Also, everybody - don't forget to vote for 3Penny Chorus and Orchestra tonight on America's Got Talent. DrumUltimA is the timpanist for the group!

[NovaReaper]

Thanks! Must say, it came as a bit of a surprise. I thought album mixes still had to be submitted separately for front page consideration, and Calum said he never subbed it. In any case, it's pretty exciting. Next goal is a solo mixpost.

I don't get home until 7 PM Alaskan (11 PM Eastern). If people can manage to wait until that late, that'd be awesome. I expect that's probably a bad time for a lot of people, so I'll at least be idling in IRC and can read through the chat when I listen alone all by myself.

Also, everybody - don't forget to vote for 3Penny Chorus and Orchestra tonight on America's Got Talent. DrumUltimA is the timpanist for the group!

I can wait that long, don't know about anyone else.

[Magnetic Ether]

11 works for me too.

[Troyificus]

Ok, so if 6pm EST is 11pm GMT, that makes 11pm EST 4am GMT. I think I might be missing that one as well guys

[timaeus222]

I'm gonna miss that party. I don't get home until around 12PM EDT and I'm away at 10PM EDT.

[KingTiger]

I work until 9 pm EDT.

[Garpocalypse]

Awesome round and all but

I would get so much more out of these vocal remixes if the lyrics were... unintelligible.

...and SCREAMED!!!

[Troyificus]

Awesome round and all but

I would get so much more out of these vocal remixes if the lyrics were... unintelligible.

...and SCREAMED!!!

One day Garp, your wish shall be my command

[Garpocalypse]

One day Gar, your wish shall be my command

That day is long off though isn't it? You know it's probably the same day that the GARPOCALYPSE ERA OF OCR BEGINS!!!

Judging that I submit 1 mix every 1.5 years that day is long off in deed.

[DrumJ8]

Since shadow24 asked about DAWs, I am curious, who else uses Cubase?

[i'm watching the B&R reflections video, I'm surprised at how many people use it]

[Brandon Strader]

all of the professionals use Cubase

[Gario]

Oh hey I got started on mine early. That's a good thing.

For me, anyway.

[shadow24]

Awesome round and all but

I would get so much more out of these vocal remixes if the lyrics were... unintelligible.

...and SCREAMED!!!

Maybe you can compromise. How about some Bobcat Goldthwait lyrics police academy style?

Edit:

Edited August 13, 2013 by shadow24

[DrumJ8]

all of the professionals use Cubase

YA I saw that you and Rexy use it, and djp, Anti-Syne ..

I have decided that it is now my dream .. to create great-sounding music .. using Cubase .. and I would like to achieve this dream .. by Sunday ..

[Phonetic Hero]

Oh hey I got started on mine early. That's a good thing.

For me, anyway.

Haha, seems like every time we're in the same round, you feel like you need a head start

all of the professionals use Cubase

Shut your butt

Edited August 13, 2013 by Phonetic Hero

[Sir_NutS]

I am wearing my acid-washed jeans and hot pink shirt just for this round.

[Jason Covenant]

I guess we're on for that 11pm ET listening party. For those that can't make it, how about another lp exactly 12 hours later, at 11am ET?

[SuperiorX]

Since shadow24 asked about DAWs, I am curious, who else uses Cubase?

all of the professionals use Cubase

I am wearing my acid-washed jeans and hot pink shirt just for this round.

Since we're talking about DAWs and professionals and acid, I'll just say I use Sony ACID Pro 7 as my DAW. All the professionals use ACID right? ... right? Wait. What, I'm the only person ever that uses Acid? Ok...

And woot, nice job getting started early Gario! Thanks again for going this round!