Jump to content

Final Fantasy Crystal Clash - Congratulations to Tuberz McGee and Eino Keskitalo!


Brandon Strader
 Share

Recommended Posts

Tuberz McGee

Lovely intro. Like the little 8-bit synth. Ooooh, like the guitars too. :) And you managed to include the Kain theme. Very impressive and natural combination.

1:42 really expected and wanted some drums here. Made this section feel flat.

Guitars sounded a little brittle and harsh at times. Just some gentle EQ'ing and small amounts of tastefull FX could fix that. Great track, hope you submit it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Omg Avaris this track is so unbelievably cool... whatever you did here, it's workin'... I'll give more extensive feedback when I can, but dang, I love this...

Tuberz yours is also excellent... you mean I have to vote between these two? Eeek... *is reminded of a similar situation that occurred earlier in this very compo...*

Edited by Chimpazilla
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tuberz McGee

Lovely intro. Like the little 8-bit synth. Ooooh, like the guitars too. :) And you managed to include the Kain theme. Very impressive and natural combination.

1:42 really expected and wanted some drums here. Made this section feel flat.

Guitars sounded a little brittle and harsh at times. Just some gentle EQ'ing and small amounts of tastefull FX could fix that. Great track, hope you submit it!

Thanks dude. Your track was pretty hella awesome too! :D

I cannnnnot wait for next round <3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I have time to vote now. :P lol @ avaris doing dubstep hip hop. xD

Okay, general feedback:

Tuberz --- The production is actually kinda quiet, especially at 2:10 (overcompression. Hard knee limiter?). You may hear how 4:08 is louder than the section before it. The sounds work in general. Great uplifting atmosphere! Really fun and engaging arrangement.

avaris --- The mixing is pretty loud! :D The clap is pretty quiet. Putting aside my general distaste for 808 percussion and siren-style wubs, the production can objectively be tighter. The bass isn't as "grounded" as it can be, the drops aren't super impactful, and either the lead is too loud or the backing instruments are too quiet because of the overcompression. Cool arrangement. Still, as your attempt at this genre for the first time, it sounds much better than most people could have managed (though this type of hip hop production may have been popularized quite a bit). Great job!

Okay, I've got my vote picked. :)

Edited by timaeus222
Link to comment
Share on other sites

avaris --- The mixing is pretty loud! :D The clap is pretty quiet. Putting aside my general distaste for 808 percussion and siren-style wubs, the production can objectively be tighter. The bass isn't as "grounded" as it can be, the drops aren't super impactful, and either the lead is too loud or the backing instruments are too quiet because of the overcompression. Cool arrangement. Still, as your attempt at this genre for the first time, it sounds much better than most people could have managed (though this type of hip hop production may have been popularized quite a bit). Great job!

Thanks for the critique. Yeah I barely had anytime to work on this. And tracks of this nature/genre are very tricky to mix quickly. When I checked what it sounded like on my crap headphones at work this morning I noticed alot of problems. It's a the reason why if you have the time you should always listen to your track on multiple devices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the critique. Yeah I barely had anytime to work on this. And tracks of this nature/genre are very tricky to mix quickly. When I checked what it sounded like on my crap headphones at work this morning I noticed alot of problems. It's a the reason why if you have the time you should always listen to your track on multiple devices.

I hear ya. Electronic genres have so much more in production than the more organic genres, as you have to do the sound design/picking/tweaking, and there's much more EQing since organic instruments are made to work well together with little EQ fixes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear ya. Electronic genres have so much more in production than the more organic genres, as you have to do the sound design/picking/tweaking, and there's much more EQing since organic instruments are made to work well together with little EQ fixes.

Man this is so wrong. :-P If anything electronic music is easier to mix because the samples are clean and loud, compared to organic sounds. :-P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man this is so wrong. :-P If anything electronic music is easier to mix because the samples are clean and loud, compared to organic sounds. :-P

Wut

So then

zircon is...

wrong? :tomatoface:

Seriously though, IMO, his reasoning there is pretty sound when you use templates for any consistent organic genre (orchestral, for example). He explains very clearly why I'm so picky with electronic remixes here. :)

Edited by timaeus222
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've gotta agree with Brandon here.

It's so much harder because EVERYTHING can affect your sound and you can get a slightly different sound because of small differences.

When I record guitars in the heat, I get lots of fret buzzing which really affects the sonic character of the guitar.

Mixing organic instruments/timbres is harder because there's never a consistency.

Plus... y'know... we have to actually have the chops to record the stuff.

Plus I know that Brandon and I don't stick to what you would call 'consistent organic genres'.

We shift about a LOT and what you might just call Metal, we might call Metalcore, Black Metal or Thrash Metal. Y'know?

lol my two cents

also lol i don't know how to use anything especially compressors lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've gotta agree with Brandon here.

It's so much harder because EVERYTHING can affect your sound and you can get a slightly different sound because of small differences.

When I record guitars in the heat, I get lots of fret buzzing which really affects the sonic character of the guitar.

Mixing organic instruments/timbres is harder because there's never a consistency.

Plus... y'know... we have to actually have the chops to record the stuff.

Plus I know that Brandon and I don't stick to what you would call 'consistent organic genres'.

We shift about a LOT and what you might just call Metal, we might call Metalcore, Black Metal or Thrash Metal. Y'know?

lol my two cents

also lol i don't know how to use anything especially compressors lol

Yeah, it's certainly true that you get those recording-environment-based issues, and I get where you're coming from; what my opinion entails though is the assumption that everything organic is free of strange audio artifacts and you're just ready to start mixing (or picking electronic sounds). :P

One thing to think about though is that all metal has guitars, so all metal can be difficult to mix in terms of the bass, so at the very least you can make that generalization about the mixing in metal tracks. :lol: Also, recording live instrumentation means you don't have to sequence anything realistically---you just played it! That just depends on how well you play, not how well you know how to use a sample library (which, depending on the library versus the instrument, can make a difference) or how well you understand an instrument to "play" what you can't play. For example, I didn't play a single guitar on my Gunstar Heroes ReMix, but it passed on the realism, with Larry as the DP evaluator there. :)

Edited by timaeus222
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure what you mean by 'strange audio artifacts'.

Can you please elaborate?

Clicks/hums, line noise, the fret buzzing you get from recording your guitars on a hot day (like you said), sibilances (vocals), bass voids (when you don't have bass traps), etc.

God made organic instruments to gel together, ya know? :)

Edited by timaeus222
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah. Right, I get you now. I agree to some degree yes.

There are a few gaps in those theories, but generally as an exception to the rule anyway.

With most metals yeah, it's about the bass... unless it's like... power metal. Then every guitar is up playing the noodly bits. Haha

But yeah I totally get what you're saying.

I think there are upsides and downsides to both electronic and organically produced music.

All in all though, I think it balances them rather than makes one harder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I've put up a thread in the social group to vote between Avaris or TuberzMcGee's entries. This is the Light Bracket pre-final round.

The winner of that match-up will go against the winner of the Darkness Bracket's Pre-Final match-up which is currently taking place.

Also here's the compo represented by a puppy:

yhDHuj4.gif

Edited by Brandon Strader
Link to comment
Share on other sites

AWESOME PUPPY PIC!!!

Btw just my 2 cents on the production/mixing conundrum. They are both equally difficult just in entirely different ways. In electronic music you have to constantly design and re-design sounds that not only sound good but sound good together. in recording it can a huge PITA to get a good recording. If either of those areas are messed up you are in for a helluva time mixing. Crap in crap out.

Also the mixing techniques to carve out space can differ greatly. In electronic music you often have more creative and flexible methods at your disposal. However in alot of electronic songs you are dealing with 40-120 tracks. That is alot of shizz to account for and manage sonically. In contrast, a recorded instrument genre has less instruments. Therefore, your mixing decisions are more exposed to the listener.

If someone gave me a properly written, recorded, and produced track I would choose to do the rock song over the 120 track dance song. It would take less time.

Edited by avaris
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm officially out, guys. Sorry Brandon, but I enjoyed this compo very much anyway (it was my first one!), and 9/10, would do again. Hopefully the next one you do Brandon will be less jammed up against the holidays.

Electronic and orchestral production and mixing are entirely two different beasts! They each have their own challenges and I'd say they are equally difficult to do, just in different ways. I have not done a rock song, so I can't comment on that.

Good luck to everyone still in the compo! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...