Chaos Factory - Chemical Plant (Zone 2) Sonic The Hedgehog 2

[timaeus222]

23 minutes ago, SJTR5 said:

2nd paragraph: Yes, Basically mimicking the genesis. they all got reverb (well some of them), EQ, compression, individual leveling for dynamics as well. I also went and tuned the sound effects (never came to mind, but it really made a difference). Writing was changed in some spots keeping in mind what you mentioned. My big question was *expression with lead* do you mean flavoring, dynamics, velocity timings (or all the above)?

Generally that implies expression controls, so any of the following might help: vibrato, filter envelope (evolving filter), oscillator sync (one oscillator stays still, the other keeps moving forward, creating a dynamic phase offset), etc. Basically, filter and pitch motion.

[Rozovian]

16 hours ago, SJTR5 said:

they all got reverb (well some of them), EQ, compression, individual leveling for dynamics as well.

 

My big question was *expression with lead* do you mean flavoring, dynamics, velocity timings (or all the above)?

Tracker Scene??? (i honestly don't know what the reference is... i'm too young)

should i source reference those as well (it's a little of: title, bonus, chaoz emerald)?

overall question-how is the EQ, reverb, compression, and writing in general? I automated the compression for turning on and off for both old and new synths and a little for dynamic purposes.

Quick reply, haven't listened to the update:

Having effects doesn't mean using effects right. You have a very exposed sound. Some genres and styles can do this, and chiptune-y stuff generally doesn't need a lot of effects. But tracks still need their own place in the mix. Start with the levels, then push tracks into their own frequency ranges and give them the sense of space (with reverb) that they need. That's the order I recommend doing it in. Dunno how much you've already done.

What I call expression is the feeling that there's an emotion behind the sound. A static waveform, which many simple synth patches have, generally doesn't have a lot of emotion. While that's fine for fast melodies where the expression comes from other things, slower melodies end up sounding robotic when the simple sound designed is exposed. That's when you want small things changing in the sound. A good analogy is the violin, because a violinist will vary the vibrato and the strength of the stroke all the time, and sometimes lag behind the beat slightly, or do other things based on what they feel the melody needs. Timaeus covered some of the tools and techniques to use for this.

The tracker scene is about using old tools (trackers) to make music. A lot of chiptunes are made in trackers, but there are non-chip-based trackers as well. A lot of old game music was made in trackers. It's got its own sound because the tools lent themselves to certain techniques. I like that sound. It's part of what got me into music.

Minor sources don't need to be sourced if the main source is dominant. If you want to mention them, that's fine.

The overall impression I got was a good middle, a weak beginning and end, writing-wise. The sound was raw and exposed, and had some track level balance problems. Dunno how the new version sounds. Hopefully better.

[SJTR5]

(sigh) all right, another month gone by with no more music writing! but a lot of mastering and other parts.

before all that though, NEW PLUGINS!!!! now having FMdrive 2612 (the best megadrive/genesis music emulator EVER!!!) and the SPSG (pure 8 bit sound plugin in from the master system) a big thank you from this awesome site http://www.alyjameslab.com/alyjameslabfmdrive.html . I now have full modulation on the fm2612 and spsg getting a lot of dubstep like noises, it's crazy!

Each instrument has it's own EQ, Reverb (except bass), and Compressor. also the main is left alone and mastered everything else lower than i thought i should go, giving a lot of room for all instruments. The Most highlited (besides mastering) was expression, not just pitch bending, but panning as well.
Compression was also my concern due to panning around instruments, after listening to other songs i could finally hear, in a way, it's EQ placement (where the lows, middle and high were placed).

and as always, What else is there to fix? is there anything you can hear? I do have one i may ask, how is balance?
again Thank you all!!

[SJTR5]

Update!!!
I got to hear the last one in the car (holy crap!! the bass is gonna explode), so i turned it down, obviously, and turned up a little of the sega instruments and balanced the rest of my volume tracks,I took out some hi hat and added rudimental nonsense to the snare.
all right... hit me again! do note, i left it alone for some time, til last week i played it in a car and new what to fix. Other than that my 12th, 14th, 5th ... round? idk I learned a lot for the past year, thank you all for this messy help as always!!

[Gario]

Not sure if this is an eval, as the first page isn't updated. I'll give my thoughts on it anyway, 'cause I wanna.

I still like SFX (rawr), but Rozo is certainly correct - there's certainly a difference between using just using SFX and using them in a way that makes musical sense. Lots of effects throughout this one, and they're at least rhythmic. Not 100% on their use (there IS an excess of them throughout), but that's mostly a subjective opinion. The ring sound is piercing, though - low pass that sucka.

There's a lot of fluctuation in the volume, making the track sound a bit unbalanced. It sounds like you're taking the volume knob and trying to find the correct levels throughout the song, which is unusual. Unless you have a reason to fade out or in (like in anticipation for a drop, or as a transition), I suggest keeping the levels more steady. If you want to humanize the sound by imitating the slightly different volumes that occur when a person hits two or more notes, that's likely better done with the velocity of the instrument rather than the mixer volume.

Dat dirty bass, tho. Nice dirty bass. Nice soloing on those leads. Surprisingly good use of the panning. Sometimes the harder panning on the leads when they alternate is a bit distracting, though. I like it, but don't make that pan so hard.

Hopefully some of that helps.

[SJTR5]

FIXES: sfx are now melodic rather than simple rhythm.
           balancing has had some tweaks, mostly confused if I share what Problem I ran into
           panning on the Leads has been pulled back to 80% rather than 100%
           ring sound was turned down.
PROBLEM: uh-oh... the instruments I chose, most of them barely make a difference in Velocity. I even do listen for the slightest detail, but it sounds the same no  matter how much a difference it makes. so in trying to solve the problem, I'm a huge Dynamic Fan (crescendos and diminuendos), mostly why I control Volume instead. I love the timbre I have in this piece, when I switched the song around (after the 1st attempt) I had trouble trying to make the leads pop out of the texture, just by volume, going with velocity made a slight change but it wasn't speaking. That's My biggest reason for volume using, also note, I'm NOT using the MIXER VOLUME, all of that was balanced before I messed with track.
I hope it's a bug using FL Studio, other wise I'm stuck. I will say again in the posts I've asked, Thank you! and HOW do I fix this.
I still want an eval, knowing this in mind.
again, Thank you all!!

[Nathan Allen Pinard]

I feel that the drums are way way way too quiet. They need to punch as much as all the other leads you have going. Also this doesn't feel mastered, if that's expected.

The song itself, I like the idea, but it seems all over the place and not really structured. But there are styles that don't require that.

[timaeus222]

The SFX seems overused. It's nice to hear them every now and then, but I hear them here every few seconds, which is a bit too often for me. The rhythm doesn't really settle itself into a groove; it's very sporadic, getting almost into a groove and then getting right back out. It's a cool idea, but it's lacking in a grounded/concrete groove. It doesn't help that the drums are too distant to communicate what their rhythm actually is.

It's cool, but right now it's not going to pass the OCR panel unless it has a clearer focus, less overuse of SFX, and more concrete drumwriting. I'm not saying it's *against the rules* to use a lot of SFX, and I do generally like sonic SFX, but it was getting a bit repetitive hearing them as the remix progressed.

[Gario]

On 6/24/2016 at 4:17 PM, timaeus222 said:

The SFX seems overused. It's nice to hear them every now and then, but I hear them here every few seconds, which is a bit too often for me.

Is this a legitimate issue, or is it personal taste? This sounds like a personal taste issue, and not an aspect that'll disqualify a track; lots of sound effects doesn't instantly bring a track below the bar, or at least there's nothing in the rules against them. There IS a rule against using the soundtrack itself and adding drums, or the like, and there is a rule against using Square Enix SFX due to legal reasons, but this doesn't come close to either of those.

The critique about the drums and unfocused writing are legitimate, though. I just don't want people thinking it's against the rules to use SFX too much, or anything.

[timaeus222]

Well, it's not *against the rules*, and I do like sonic SFX in general, so maybe a bit of both. The crit was more about the repetition of the SFX than the usage of the SFX themselves.