prophetik music Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 (edited) prophetik note: this is version six, i believe. here's the previous five. v5 v4 v3 v2 v1 Alright, another attempt, and I think I did better this time. I imported a reference track directly into my DAW so I could AB faster. The reference track I used was MkVaff's Vega theme Pulse mix. I chose that file because it has a similar "spanish gypsy" feel to it, IMO. I tightened up the velocities and timings on some of the parts; I had received advice on humanizing, but then was told on the judges' decision that the timing was "scattershot", so I brought things to a more on grid state. I also added some very slight panning to the call and response parts in the first half. I added a "mud removing" eq to each individual track, and also eliminated the rather aggressive compression I had on my instrument busses. Instead, I put a multi band compressor with gentle attack and knee on the master, and it's only doing about 1 to 3 db gain reduction per band, before going to a lookahead limiter that's also only doing between 1 to 3 db (depending on where you are in the track). I eschewed using Ozone, and instead went totally by ear with the reference track. Again, thanks for the consideration, and thanks for your patience;) Audiomancer Games & Sources Original Above. Edited April 17 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 (edited) a sixth version! this family has a lot of sisters. opens with some arpeggiating bass, an EP, and kit. the snare sounds doesn't have much tone to it, it's mostly just static. the melodic content comes in quickly and is handed off between two synths - the latter entry has a lot of really high content frequency-wise and is a bit tough to both listen to and tell what it's doing. there's a short break at 0:33 and it's back to the same synths as before doing the melodic material from before. we hit another break in the beat at 0:58, and there's a stutter hornet synth used as a lead in this quieter section. i don't know if the high-energy vibe that a stuttered saw like this adds fits this section too well. there's a build into 1:23 and then it's back to melodic content. there's more personalization here initially which is nice. 1:47's the same as earlier at 0:33 but with drums this time, and then we get one more recap of the melodic material before there's a big fall. what's left is an outro over some deep pads. the drums specifically sound really lacking. the snare is not only just static, but it also lacks punch which is an important part of an edm track's momentum. better samples are available for free all over the place and would really improve this, as well as increasing the volume of the snare a bit so it sticks out of the mix more. similarly, if there are hats, i can't hear them, and if there are cymbals used as transitional elements, i didn't notice them throughout. lastly the kick has a deep electro beater tone, which can work, but it doesn't have any bass to it that i can hear. a quick freq analysis shows that the bass peaks very highly at 70hz or so and there's just zilch underneath it, either in the bass instrument or the kick. i'd expect to her a fundamental in the 35-40hz range based on that tone, so layering the kick with something that's got more sub bass content (that's trimmed to ensure it doesn't go below that 30-35hz range and clog stuff up) would give it a lot more guts. the stutter synth used throughout as a melodic element really doesn't fit the vibe overall. stutter synths are used in other tracks to drive energy and provide a rhythmic element that's not just the boom tiss of the drums. that's not how this this used - this track has a heavy focus on melodic material, and so while the backing elements work just fine with that stutter tone, the lead doesn't really work in my opinion. a gliding synth that lets you really play with the attack and release elements would fit what you're going for more, i believe. all of your leads are very reverb-heavy, but the bass, drums, and backing synths have very little verb on them. this (along with some of the odder synth choices) serves to make the backing elements feel separate from the lead elements. taming the fade and the tail of the reverb would help a lot in terms of making them feel more adjacent. is your reverb on a send or is it individually applied to leads? a send that you can send everything to to some extent would help normalize the sound stage and make it feel more cohesive. i don't think this is there yet! but you're in it for the long haul, clearly, so hopefully some more focused feedback in this judging thread combined with you interacting with the workshop on the discord or in the forum should help. NO Edited March 6 by prophetik music grammar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 If this ever passes, I'm pretty sure it will be the most-resubmitted remix in our history. Sadly, I don't think this is the time. The sound palette is still very vanilla, and still sounds like you made it with stock synths from LMMS. FL Studio supports dozens of really great VSTs that can give you richer and more varied sounds. Not that you didn't use a large number of different synths; it seems like it changes leads every couple of measures, but all of them are simple and generic-sounding. I agree with proph about the snares being underwhelming, but I have honestly no idea what he's talking about regarding hats, crashes, and kicks. There are hats used all over the place, keeping the 4/4 time everywhere that isn't a break; cymbals are often used as transitional elements; and the kick has an easily adequate amount of bass. The instruments that aren't leads are mostly pads and sweeps, but I hear perfectly fine amounts of reverb on everything else. I think the arrangement is suitable, and the production isn't bad, but your sample choices are letting you down. Using a hundred basic ones is not going to get you where using a dozen good ones will. Hit up our workshops, either on our forums or on Discord, and get some recommendations for free VSTs, and presets for them that will do what you want. I think this will get you most of the way there. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 The opening lead is really buzzy; it adds a lot of trailing mud in the high-end frequencies that ends up crowding the soundscape, even though, texturally, there's not much going on. Same with :19, that other line is too muddy. The dropoff at :33's probably my highlight. There's care put into varying the textures, but the overall timing of things still feels stilted and locked to grid, so the energy of the writing is undermined by the rigid timing. Even the stutter synth from :58-1:13, the effect feels passe pretty early on because of the overall timing feeling too robotic. I'm sure prophetik explained it best, as an experienced musician, but despite all the activity going on with the beat-writing, the beats also plodded. Consider examining tutorial or workshopping videos on beatmaking in FL Studio, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHOI0c-w_sE The sound design is an improvement from many iterations ago, yet it's going to need some further leaps. You actually can make strong stuff with FL presets, so you don't need different sounds, just better use of what's already available. Listening to something like Rellik's "Mirror and Transparent" from way back, it's all default FL sounds and effects, yet the flow of it all is so much more vibrant: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01475. It'll sound like I'm saying Rellik's the bar, when that's well above it, or that you need to adopt his specific writing style. That said, this is still very far from having the writing or production sophistication to get this close to the bar. Keep doing more research & workshopping, and keep learning. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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