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The Dream In My Reality - FF Prog. Metal


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Here we go!

YouTube

Soundcloud

Musicians:

Me - Guitars and Arrangement.

Argle - Mixing

XPRTNovice - Piano sequencing and live Saxophone

Chernabogue - Strings

Source Tracks:

I'm quite satisfied with this remix. I think it turned out great and I consider it a personal milestone as I think it's the first composition I've done of this level of complexity entirely within a DAW and felt completely comfortable doing so. Anyway, give her a listen and hope you like it! Glad that the Argle, XPRT and Chernabogue could contribute to it. They are all very talented!

Edited by AngelCityOutlaw
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BTW. If that's Shreddage II, I'll be impressed with the tone you've achieved. I still haven't found my niche, yet.

It's an on-going adventure, I'm afraid.

I also enjoy using AMPEG SVT/Amplitube 3[Ampeg included] when playing with Shreddage Bass.

I don't have shreddage II, the guitar is just a basic Jackson and a Line 6 POD HD. =D

Really cool! Would love to see this expanded as well.

Sweet. Thanks! I've been working on it a bit more since people seem to like it.

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The guitar tone is good. I think if you have a bass you should play the bass instead of using a sampler (if shreddage bass is a sampler.) real is always better than fake. and I think the mixing of the drums really lacks some balls, when you're done tracking try to give the kick and snare more punch w/ EQ (mostly) & Compression...

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The guitar tone is good. I think if you have a bass you should play the bass instead of using a sampler (if shreddage bass is a sampler.) real is always better than fake. and I think the mixing of the drums really lacks some balls, when you're done tracking try to give the kick and snare more punch w/ EQ (mostly) & Compression...

Argle says he's down for doing the mixing so you know that will be awesome.

Also, XPRTNovice just laid down an awesome saxophone lead for the last part of the song which is about 2 minutes long. The total track length is about 5 minutes, 10 seconds.

Chernabogue is also up for upgrading the string samples.

So the arrangement is now finished, but I'll post the finished thing once the strings are done and Argle has it mixed. I really am pleased as hell with the arrangement and live performances so if you like this kind of music I don't think you'll want to miss the finished product!

Oh, I also added in a keyboard/guitar solo section that is based off one of the Final Fantasy X-2 battle themes. So the track has FF X-2, XII and XIII sources. All the most hated FF games!

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I think the guitars are too loud or the leads are too soft (sometimes), unless the guitar is at the time supposed to be source usage. 2:07, for example, was a part where the strings lead was a bit buried.

The 2:21 tempo shift was a little bit drastic IMO. I really didn't see it coming. I don't think it's cut time, but just an actual higher tempo that isn't a straight multiple of the original (i.e. 108 vs. 121.56 rather than 108 vs. 112 which are multiples of 4.0). Maybe you could do an accelerando rather than just jumping to that tempo.

I also think it would be an interesting addition to put a jazzy little arpeggio (that also slows down as it plays) going up at 5:03 on the piano in a high octave (7th~8th)

Edited by timaeus222
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I think the guitars are too loud or the leads are too soft (sometimes), unless the guitar is at the time supposed to be source usage. 2:07, for example, was a part where the strings lead was a bit buried.

The 2:21 tempo shift was a little bit drastic IMO. I really didn't see it coming. I don't think it's cut time, but just an actual higher tempo that isn't a straight multiple of the original (i.e. 108 vs. 121.56 rather than 108 vs. 112 which are multiples of 4.0). Maybe you could do an accelerando rather than just jumping to that tempo.

I also think it would be an interesting addition to put a jazzy little arpeggio (that also slows down as it plays) going up at 5:03 on the piano in a high octave (7th~8th)

^this^ Also, the string lead is too weak and unexpressive, and almost sounds like a pad when the guitars are playing over it, for example at 2:07. Backing strings like at 0:30 sound really good though.

Guitar work sounds amazing. Drums sound great. Lead work at 2:20 is really nice, but totally buried.

Oh gosh at 3:06, a new song begins. Joe's sax is lovely as heck of course. Piano sounds a tad mechanical starting at 3:31.

For mixing, all the timbres seems to be mostly centered, except the guitars and the string lead/pad somewhat, and the piano which maybe doesn't need to be so wide. It seems like the entire second half could use a pad, with the piano narrowed and quieter.

That's quite a power team for a collab! :-)

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So... you want people to go "wtf, why did this just get way faster?"? 8-O

I actually don't see it as jarring to be honest with you. The phrase ended just fine, the guitars slide out and a new part in the same key begins just 25 beats faster; from 150 to 175. The part after the solo sections goes from 175 down to 79 (nearly 100 bpm difference) in the span of a single beat. Sudden tempo changes without gradual deceleration or acceleration are pretty common in this sort of music.

http://youtu.be/R8t8-tmByBw?t=4m13s

Edited by AngelCityOutlaw
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I actually don't see it as jarring to be honest with you. The phrase ended just fine, the guitars slide out and a new part in the same key begins just 25 beats faster; from 150 to 175. The part after the solo sections goes from 175 down to 79 (nearly 100 bpm difference) in the span of a single beat. Sudden tempo changes without gradual deceleration or acceleration are pretty common in this sort of music.

http://youtu.be/R8t8-tmByBw?t=4m13s

You may not feel that way because it's your own song, and it makes sense to you. It's jarring for me in particular, and by Kristina's wording, her too. Now you're aware. ;)

Edited by timaeus222
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Well, we can't have a healthy relationship if we don't talk about our feelings. :<

Anyway, I think Argle might be doing some adjustments to the mix? Stay tuned.

:D

Oh, and to be clear, the tempo drop at 2:55 was fine to me because it was done on a sustained chord, which is less obvious than, say, if very subdivided material was incorporated during that tempo shift or before it.

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To be honest, the tempo change at 2:21 didn't bother me that much, I thought it was ok, and even kinda cool, although it could have been signaled or transitioned into a bit better, it *is* in fact rather abrupt.

The part I thought was the most awkward was at 3:06, where honestly, it seems like a whole different song begins. It is a totally different source and style, and could be seen as medley-ish by the panel.

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To be honest, the tempo change at 2:21 didn't bother me that much, I thought it was ok, and even kinda cool, although it could have been signaled or transitioned into a bit better, it *is* in fact rather abrupt.

The part I thought was the most awkward was at 3:06, where honestly, it seems like a whole different song begins. It is a totally different source and style, and could be seen as medley-ish by the panel.

Well, I didn't really make it with the panel in mind to be honest. In fact, I almost never do :shock:

Still, when or if there are updates it's probably worth seeing what a workshop mod thinks. If they're like "yeah send 'er in", that's cool. If they're like "you fuckin' suck, man" that's cool too.

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This is cool, we don't get that much prog metal here :-P

I don't know why, but most of the first half of the song sounds a bit empty to me. I have no idea if you cut too many frequencies while EQing or something, but I believe you lack more stuff in the mid range.

The bass is clear but it isn't very powerful, which is very important in metal songs! The drums aren't really powerful either. Everything sounds clear, but it lacks power.

The second half of the song, with the sax and piano, is pretty, and it feels much less empty (probably the piano chords are filling the void).

I don't feel any transition is really awkward. Tempo shift at 2:21 is cool but the guitar slide is quite bad (seems a bit off-timed) :-P

I like the arrangement, but the mix feels a bit empty and the bass/drums mixing isn't powerful enough.

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I don't feel any transition is really awkward. Tempo shift at 2:21 is cool but the guitar slide is quite bad (seems a bit off-timed) :-P.

Either my ears are broken or you're huffing glue, but the slides sounded fine and in time to me. Either one is a possibility as I've listened to this so many times it's retarded.

So yeah, I nuked it from Youtube and Soundcloud for the time being, but possibly for eternity; time shall tell. I notice that the Staccato strings didn't repeat as they did before, which might have been an error when I rendered the stems to Argle.

Toodles.

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