Looking for a collab partner

[Fray]

Jeez, way to go me. I forgot to check the link! It's fixed now.

[Sixto]

Just a little snippet of what I have so far.

http://tadakichi.baka.us/preview01.mp3

First thing, I took CHIPP's midi file and added my own drum and bass sounds. Made minimal changes to the actual midi so things don't sound so mechanical.

I cut up all of the vocals and put them in separate tracks for different flavors in different parts of the song.

This is probably the hardest track I've ever tried to mix. It's a real challenge, but it's fun and the track has actually grown on me. Still have a long ways to go, though.

[The Pezman]

As a n00b, this is informative for me to know just what might be involved in making a track.

I read that the drums and bass were MIDI. Doesn't that mean it's be relatively easy to add things like reverb and change the volume?

Also, I don't know how you can hear what the singer is saying. But I guess this is one reason I'm not the biggest fan of metal.

[Tensei]

By the way, is it me, or are the lead guitars out of tune at some points? I think a slight touch of pitch shifting could fix that.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Come to think of it, even I don't know how you could understand what the singer said. . . And I'M the one who sang it. Hahaha! Thanks a lot guys.

Fray, I like your idea about talking about the progress. Legion won't be able to join that conversation until after this weekend, cause he's got lots of work, unfortunately.

As for the "out of tune guitars" I think it's just because I reversed the harmony. The original harmonies were much farther apart and I took the lower harmony and upped it 1 octave. Which means that big intervals like 7ths become as close as 2nds. I wonder if anyone knows what the hell I'm talking about right now. Hahaha! Other than that, I think they sound good. OR . . . Maybe you're just CRAZY! AAAHAHAHAAAA!

Fray, I don't know how you figured out what the heck I was saying but kudos to you. Tensei claims that he can understand death vocals too, but I totally don't believe him because he's from the Netherlands and that's reason enough. Hahaha!!!! Just kidding. Anyway, here are the lyrics.

Jun, sharpen the katanas.

Suo, bring the armor.

Shiho, sing your song of courage.

Yumei, raise the lapis high.

The war of 9 worlds has begun

and we are outnumbered 10 to 1.

Nanami takes the odds and evens them.

Tenchu raining down from heaven!

Ragnarok is unleashed across these worlds

I choose to fight in Hai-lan.

Battle screams sound faster than Heimdal's horn

when an arrow hits my shield.

A cloud of Weeping Lilly pollen is unleashed.

I fall to my knees

but there is no valkyrie.

I must journey across the rainbow bridge alone.

Skuld!

Where are the Einherjar?

This is Ragnarok.

Even the dead can't rest.

You have been chosen by Odin to turn the tide of Ragnarok.

Your deeds on Midgard are known to us. A warrior of legend to the Einherjar.

You must fight for the All-Father or the Yggdrasil will fall to the flames of Nifleheim

So take the Bahamut's Tear.

And take the Shining Bolt.

To take your army to Valhall

use the Swan Maiden's Cloak.

And fight like you are Aesir!

I thrust my sword through Surtur,

piercing his heart of flame.

And as I am engulfed in his fire

I see the shining blue armor descend.

Hope it makes you all laugh. Now I wanna go listen to what Fray and Sixto have been doing.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

DUDE! It's so nuts how these two mixes are SOOOOO different sounding. I GUESS it's ok if I make minimal comments on the works in progress. Maybe just the one thing that stands out to me the most.

Fray. I dig the flange. I think maybe you might of used it too much. You applied it to the entire track right? I think it sounds pretty good on the low death voices but not so much the higher ones. I think it sounds PERFECT on the spoken word sections, though!

Sixto. I think your drum sounds definitely sound better than mine, although I think it's ALL extremely trebly. I know it's a work in progress though. Especially all those cymbals. They ring out ALL over the place. hahaha.

Both of you. Heavier bass drum.

Thanks guys. I'm totally stoked about these samples. I can't wait to hear the final versions and also hear something from the other 3 guys.

[Legion303]

http://neutronstar.org/music/valkyrie_v0.01.mp3

I haven't done much with it yet, just the basics. When you get a second could you upload the drum midi? Thanks.

-steve

[The Legendary Zoltan]

I just sent you the drum and bass midi by email. Let me know if you didn't receive it.

Dude, did you speed this up... like, a LOT? HAhahahAHA! It's funny dude! My voice is way higher and everything. LOL!

[Fray]

Oh, I probably only understood about 30% of the lyrics, but that was enough to get the gist of it. Probably helped that I'm vaguely familiar with the plot of Valkyrie Profile, having played part of the 2nd one.

Thanks for posting -- I think it's good to know what's being said for mixing purposes too

[Legion303]

Dude, did you speed this up... like, a LOT? HAhahahAHA! It's funny dude! My voice is way higher and everything. LOL!

Oops. The files are at 44KHz and I work in 48KHz in Cubase...good thing you pointed it out!

Try the link again. I converted it back down. I got the midi too, thanks.

-steve

[Sixto]

Here's an update.

http://tadakichi.baka.us/Sixto_Sounds/Audio/mixdown_03.mp3

Cymbals may still be a little loud, though. Still uncertain of how to process some of the vocal sections and lead guitars. Also been listening to Dimmu Borgir a lot lately, so I got curious as to how this would sound with a little bit of synthy strings on top.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

HAHAHAHAAAAA! This is nuts dude! Sixto, you are one crazy mofo. Hahaha! I don't know if the strings look is exactly what I'm going for, although they do add an interesting change in atmosphere.

I should have told you all from the beginning the band that I'm sort of trying to emulate. That band is Amon Amarth. The song God's of War Arise is a perfect example of the sound that I like. Here's a video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q0XcZAuTZNM

(Lord of the Rings movie spoilers)

It's even got that two guitar tremolo picking harmony thing in it like I did in this remix. It doesn't have any harmonized solos in it though. Another one you can check out is Valhall Awaits Me.

One thing I KINDA care about with your original drum sounds Sixto, is that I kinda miss the "having 6 crash cymbals" thing.

Legion, I like what I hear in your version of simple changes so far. I don't know what you did besides add reverb to the vocals, but it sounds nice. Thank you.

[Tensei]

Hahaha! I don't know if the strings look is exactly what I'm going for, although they do add an interesting change in atmosphere.

Aww, C'mon man, the strings are f*cking awesome, you don't need to have it sound like a carbon copy of Amon Amarth. If it works you should keep it in IMO =P

[Fray]

Fray. I dig the flange. I think maybe you might of used it too much. You applied it to the entire track right? I think it sounds pretty good on the low death voices but not so much the higher ones. I think it sounds PERFECT on the spoken word sections, though!

Both of you. Heavier bass drum.

100% agreed on both items. I did apply the flange to the whole track, and it sounds great on the Cookie Monster parts but not so much on the dying screams and demon snarls. I wanted to hear your comments -- see if I was going in the right direction and all

[Legion303]

Oh, Amon Amarth. Why didn't you say so?

I made a bunch of small changes and compressed the kick, bass and vox, panned the guitars (rhythm hard left and right, and leads about 35% each side of center for that Iron Maiden-like "duelling guitars" sound near the end. Cleaned up some of the noises between notes. EQ. I plan to work on the vox more, but I'm trying to learn how to apply effects to just part of a wav in CuBase. It's easy in Audition, but I got tired of Audition's bugs and lack of support for half my effects, so I kicked it to the curb.

Could you possibly separate the drums and bass into two separate midis? I want to import the drums directly into FLS so I can swap the sounds with BFD, and I only need the bass to get note data so I can play it live. Thanks.

-steve

[suzumebachi]

can i get the midi plz?

[Legion303]

I'm trying to learn how to apply effects to just part of a wav in CuBase. It's easy in Audition, but I got tired of Audition's bugs and lack of support for half my effects, so I kicked it to the curb.

It turns out it's even easier in CuBase. Yeah, blow me, Audition. Get the hell off my hard drive.

-steve

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Don't have time to do a serious post right now, so I'll just say,

"Suzumebachi, PM me your email address and I'll send it to you."

^________________________^

[The Legendary Zoltan]

OK. Now for a real reply.

Suzumebachi, please PM me your email address for the midi.

Legion, if you ask for it, then you shall receive, but can't your sequencer be used to manipulate two midi tracks separately? You know, I would just have to cut the bass out of the mix and paste it into a new project and then save them both as midis. Are you not able to do that? I'll go ahead and send them to you, anyway cause I like you. Hahaha.

Tensei, it's not that I feel like I have to have the perfect master copy of Amon Amarth, but I don't feel like this song needs string parts in it. The guitars are harmonizing like ALL the time in this song. I don't want to take any attention away from those guitars. And besides, I know that Sixto was just experimenting to see how stuff sounded because he's cool and stuff, but if I WERE gonna put string parts in it, I'd definitely want them to be something more complicated than sustained chords.

[HoboKa]

Oh yeah Oh yeah??? You guys ain't got shit!! Check this "masterpiece" out

http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/dfmq/best-rock-song-evar

[Legion303]

Legion, if you ask for it, then you shall receive, but can't your sequencer be used to manipulate two midi tracks separately? You know, I would just have to cut the bass out of the mix and paste it into a new project and then save them both as midis. Are you not able to do that? I'll go ahead and send them to you, anyway cause I like you. Hahaha.

I don't know if my sequencer can do that...this will be the first time I've ever imported a MIDI file. :/

But I have an updated edit here. Mostly further EQ refinements, but I also added some harmonization to the lead guitar parts near the end. I also gave the kick a boost.

http://neutronstar.org/music/chipp_valkyrie-v0.02.mp3

-steve

[anosou]

This thread is interesting! *lurks*

I should have told you all from the beginning the band that I'm sort of trying to emulate. That band is Amon Amarth. The song God's of War Arise is a perfect example of the sound that I like. Here's a video.

Amon Amarth? That's my classmate's cousin So she has like all their CD's signed and some unreleased demos and whatnot. Didn't know they were big outside of Sweden? Hell, I didn't know they were big in Sweden XD

[Fray]

New version up:

http://www.winter-light.net/nbmont/Valkyriemix_Fray_v5.mp3

- I incorporated all the production requests from the OP -- Chipp, lemme know if I got these right.

- Added some volume automation on the guitars so they could really sing out during the solo parts but not crowd or get old otherwise.

- Did a bunch of processing on the vocals

Problems:

- There's something really ear-fatiguing about my mix that I can't seem to get rid of. I'd love suggestions if anyone has them, it's driving me nuts.

- The bass is too boomy at times.

- Probably need to revisit the guitar automation, I think it pops out too much sometimes.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Amon Amarth? That's my classmate's cousin So she has like all their CD's signed and some unreleased demos and whatnot. Didn't know they were big outside of Sweden? Hell, I didn't know they were big in Sweden XD

WHAT?! NO WAY! ARE YOU JUST JOKING?! I'D LOVE TO GET AMON AMARTH'S SIGNATURE! they're style, while kind of overly simplistic (and definitely repetitive), is just so interesting to me, and they've become one of my all-time favorite bands. I REALLY want them to play out here sometime. They're song about Ragnarok, called Burning Creation, was a BIG influence in the arrangement of these Valkyrie Profile tunes. That song has a ton of vocal parts with no chorus all one after the other for like two minutes, and then there's this really nice slow solo and then there's one more verse at the end where the vocalist says that Surtur burned entire world and then there's this slow dramatic solo that fades out. I recommend it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AJ70ouO5uj4

It's the ultimate viking death metal song in my opinion.

Now to check out Fray's update. Can't wait for this.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

New version up:

http://www.winter-light.net/nbmont/Valkyriemix_Fray_v5.mp3

- I incorporated all the production requests from the OP -- Chipp, lemme know if I got these right.

- Added some volume automation on the guitars so they could really sing out during the solo parts but not crowd or get old otherwise.

- Did a bunch of processing on the vocals

Problems:

- There's something really ear-fatiguing about my mix that I can't seem to get rid of. I'd love suggestions if anyone has them, it's driving me nuts.

- The bass is too boomy at times.

- Probably need to revisit the guitar automation, I think it pops out too much sometimes.

This is freaking sweet. The only thing that stands out to me as something I don't think I'd want is the amount of reverb that's on the vocals. Definitely want it to be that much is a few key places, but the entire thing being echoy seems kinda strange to me. If I remember correctly, I think Sixto put about that much reverb on the vocals in his last version too. Does metal usually have that much on it?

As for the ear fatigue, I TOTALLY know what you mean, and I think it all started over here from my side. I think it might be the kind of distortion I used. I'm not entirely sure, but my ears feel like they're lacking mid when listening to this. So I guess you could try giving the guitars more mid. I too would REALLY love to get rid of that ear fatigue. I'm sure that would be a pretty big deal to the judges too. The guys that did Cursed Bloodline had a sound that pretty heavy and your ears never got tired. I wonder how they did it.