2 tutorials 4 newbies/intermediate remixers available

[GaMeBoX]

I recently wrote two tutorials. The first one is kinda like a technical introduction to gameremixing at a very basic level. The second one is about musical idéas and filosophies.

You can find them here:

Game Remixing 101

http://www.bitmapstereo.com/blog/?p=5

Game Remixing 102

http://www.bitmapstereo.com/blog/?p=6

Hope you find them helpful. You can request topics for upcoming tutorials, both more indepth specifics, and completely new topics.

[Splunkle]

That entire second paragraph of the first tutorial makes me want to stab something in the face. The paragraph on clipping and normalisation is similar. That being said, your second tutorial - though its really more of a bunch of collected thoughts - makes some good points, particularly on repitition.

But a few corrections for the first tutorial:

1) While Fruityloops and Reason are the largest camps in game-mixer-ville, there are other camps. And claiming Reason is better for you if you have some form of MIDI input, while fruity is better if you don't is downright silly, not to mention the following claim that "People with a lot of musical experience, or people with a background of playing keyboard will probably feel limited with fruityloops". WTF. The main differences between the two programs are design philosophy and interface. In brief:

Fruity tries to let everything plug into it, and its interface tends to oragnise everything into "pages" or "tabs".

Reason tries to do everything it needs to internally, and tends to emulate hardware in interface, which usually means everything is front of you at once.

2) Normalisation does not remove clipping. Nor does it prevent it. In fact, it has absolutely nothign to do with clipping, save that they are both related to volume. Normalisation is just a process whereby the loudest peak of the song is brought up to a predefined level, usually -0.2dB or thereabouts. Notice how I said "brought up". If your song gets quieter when you normalise, you have done something very, very wrong.

3) Compressors aren't Limiters. Similar, but different. This has been explained far better by others, so I will merely tell you to go look at Zircon's mixing tips part 5.

4) Your analogy between overdrive and clipping is kinda dodgy - yes, they are both produced by pushing the volume high, but they are VERY different in both sound and how they are produced.

In all honesty, I can't reccomend people read the first one. Theres just too many glaring errors and instances of opinion stated as fact. I appreciate that you probably just want to help people get started - but it is rather important to get it right.

[SnappleMan]

The problem with game remixing guides is that they're all based on the writers opinion.

I think that your guide would lead someone to the path of constant OCR rejection and an endless circle of mediocre music.

The first thing someone needs to do when they want to "ReMix" is learn what really makes up the music they personally like to listen to. When you understand what makes the music you like sound the way it does, you can learn to emulate it until you're good enough to create your own style.

I knew nothing of software and sampling and recording when I got into music. I didn't need tutorials to learn about what I needed to do. I had the internet, and search engines.

If someone needs a guide on how to get started on this, then their music won't be worth listening to.