Infenro Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDYBbY05bXM Hey guys this is a remix that I actually haven't submitted to the judges so I'm going to call this a work in progress. It's a remix of one of my favorite melodies to Link's Awakening, the town theme. Please give me your criticisms. I would like to start being able to release successful remixes lol. Well most people would lol. Thanks, Zachary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 (edited) For starters, it would be a good idea to not use YouTube as a "music" host. It does a compression method that ruins the original sound quality you had. Not to mention the 240p capitalizes on that effect. Some good hosts would be soundcloud, box, and tindeck. At some point you'll want to tag or label your own MP3's, so I'd suggest box or soundcloud in particular. These are things that you may or may not have the tools to fix, but that I noticed anyway: Intro strings are mechanically sequenced in the way of velocities because there is an oddly robotic phrasing to them. For example, in the first second or so, the fourth note should be louder than the third note, but it's the same velocity (which should correspond to volume most of the time). The drums that come in at 0:17 and other similar spots don't match the apparent atmosphere you established beforehand. Those drum timbres go with dubstep, and you had strings playing to nature sounds. As a result, the drums stick out a lot, and feel separate from the background instrumentation, rather than cohesive with it. I also recognize those drum samples as FL Studio's "Basic with limiter" template defaults. 1:18 brings in a sub bass of sorts, and it causes overcompression by the Master (hard knee) limiter, which pushes the kick and snare back and makes them weaker. The sidechained pad at 1:45 confuses me. It draws attention away from the (fake) lead violin and covers up the background staccato strings. 2:55 comes with no transition. Same with 3:30. And then fade out ending, which you could have easily not done. If you can write music, you can write an ending to it. It's a good start, and has the potential for lots more. Edited July 19, 2013 by timaeus222 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 How did you get so detailed with your mastering ear? And yeah it does come in pretty harshly, but I personally like mixing those styles together. Is it just that it come in so abruptly compared to the strings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 Oh and also I'll take note of using another venue for music, yeah Youtube is not great for music. I actually have a soundcloud I just am not active on it at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 https://soundcloud.com/zachnichols-1/unforgettable-dream-legend-of Alright to make sure I keep my word and get used to it, here's the same song rendered as a WAV on Soundcloud. This is actually probably a bit of a different render than the Youtube but only with a few mixing and mastering tweaks, not sure if it's anything helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argle Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Hey, Mabe village. I have a Mabe remix in the works. I should finish it. Some thoughts of what stuck out at me. - Drum sounds seem out of place. They're like, dubstep drums, but they sound too heavy for the rest of the instruments. I keep waiting for the wubs. - Sustained bass sounds pretty uninteresting. How bout some more groove? - Speaking of which, song in general feels empty, lacking something. I think it's the lack of a discernible bassline. Feels disconnected. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Yeah you're right, and so is timaeus. Thanks a lot guys this really gave me some insight on it, I can definitely see the flaws in it now. My question is, particularly on the drum samples choice, where do you really draw the line between a stylistic choice or just an unfitting choice? It does sound out of place but I do like playing with throwing genres together, how can you really tell when you're just putting two things that don't go together at all together? Sorry if that question seems a little confusing lol >,< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 My question is, particularly on the drum samples choice, where do you really draw the line between a stylistic choice or just an unfitting choice? It does sound out of place but I do like playing with throwing genres together, how can you really tell when you're just putting two things that don't go together at all together? Sorry if that question seems a little confusing lol >,< The way you can tell is by looking at the strength of the drums compared to the background material. The background you have calls for softer drums because you used strings and nature sounds in a calm, slow way. The drum samples you used felt too strong to fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argle Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Yeah, I mean, you just listen and if the drums don't sound right, they aren't right. Admittedly it can be hard to take an objective view if it's your track. Sometimes you need other people to tell you the straight dope. Larry rejected one of my tracks the other day cuz of wimpy drums, which I totally hadn't noticed, but when he pointed it out it became obvious to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 Yeah I feel it now that you guys said it. Seriously though thanks for the advice, it's only been a few days and I feel like I'm really improving and learning a lot more than I have for the past year at least. You kind of get stuck in your ways. I'm currently trying to fix up this track a bit based on what you guys said. So far I have changed the drums, but I don't have many samples to choose from that are more organic. I'm also working on making a good bass track that would fit the style, dreamy and groovy. But I have a bit of a music theory question, it is true you should generally stay with the chord for the bass right? (side note, what would you recommend to learn more music theory) Sorry if my posts seem long-winded, I'm really new here. I'm clueless on good etiquette here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 I'm currently trying to fix up this track a bit based on what you guys said. So far I have changed the drums, but I don't have many samples to choose from that are more organic. Organic, as in acoustic? Or vinyl? Both are "organic" to an extent. Some vinyl have an organic quality to them, and some vinyl are not, and it really depends on the sample pack you choose. I'd suggest When Alien Drum Robots Attack and MPC60 Vol 3 from goldbaby.co.nz I'm also working on making a good bass track that would fit the style, dreamy and groovy. But I have a bit of a music theory question, it is true you should generally stay with the chord for the bass right? (side note, what would you recommend to learn more music theory) Generally you can stay with the chord for the bass, but sometimes you can have the bass play "outside the box". For example, you can have a bass note one octave plus one whole step below the highest note in a chord and it could sound jazzy. A D chord with a G base would be a way to write a Dsus4 chord with the G shifted down an octave so it sounds less dissonant. In music theory it would be written as D/G. By the way, I don't really know music theory formally. xD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 Oh I'm glad to hear not everyone is formally trained lol. I played in band in high school, but I was a percussionist lol (ironic since my drums lack a lot of soul). So I really only know a bit of music theory, as much as you can learn experimenting. My biggest issues are my knowledge in music theory, and my lack of variation. Or at least as far as I can see. Out of curiousity, how much time do you spend producing music a day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 Oh I'm glad to hear not everyone is formally trained lol. I played in band in high school, but I was a percussionist lol (ironic since my drums lack a lot of soul). So I really only know a bit of music theory, as much as you can learn experimenting. My biggest issues are my knowledge in music theory, and my lack of variation. Or at least as far as I can see. Out of curiousity, how much time do you spend producing music a day? I did take piano lessons for 9 years, but that just helped me improvise, and I didn't really learn music theory seriously at that point. I just write something if I think of something, but maybe around 1~4 hours a day, usually 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 26, 2013 Author Share Posted July 26, 2013 Oh okay, right now I'm doing about an hour a day. It's complex trying to work it into 2 jobs, and soon school (I'm trying to get through school debt free). I think the main reason why I don't vary much is because I think patternedly from years of lack luster percussion. The most fun I had was in drum line, and only a few times did our director actually let us change it up. He in general didn't like percussion so we never got to bloom much. How much do you think learning a bit of keyboard skills would help write more varied pieces? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 26, 2013 Author Share Posted July 26, 2013 https://soundcloud.com/zachnichols-1/unforgettable-dream-wip Okay this isn't much, but this is 3 bars where you can hear a few things I tried to do. I used different more relaxing drums but when it drops at 1:19 I'm going to try and go for a bigger beat feel and have more of a drop to and change drums. I'm still having trouble thinking of a good sound for the bass that would fit in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argle Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 If you need some more drum samples here are some. They're from a very old issue of Computer Music mag, not sure there's any harm in sharing them, and they've served me well over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 https://soundcloud.com/zachnichols-1/unforgettable-dream-wipOkay this isn't much, but this is 3 bars where you can hear a few things I tried to do. I used different more relaxing drums but when it drops at 1:19 I'm going to try and go for a bigger beat feel and have more of a drop to and change drums. I'm still having trouble thinking of a good sound for the bass that would fit in. Good start. The snare is really close. If you put some reverb on it and tweak it so that it creates a sort of "hiss" at the tail that lasts around 0.8-1.2 seconds, that should do it. Since you use FL, I made something just like that here for Fruity Reeverb 2. The kick should be something less hip-hop-like. That kind of kick is probably a TR-909 pitch envelope kick, but try a kick with more of a "glued" hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infenro Posted July 27, 2013 Author Share Posted July 27, 2013 Thanks Argle, I downloaded the samples and will check it out ASAP. You know, timaeus, I almost never try using reverb on a snare. I just find it irritating after repeated hits, but thanks for the preset! I'll try that out (and will probably work, I often learn I just do things wrong a lot). Yeah I actually tried a few different kicks, I wanted to try a more realistic kick but that still had some real bass to it. I've never had much luck in finding any good kicks really I often stick to a handful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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