WIP RoboZeal

[Gorgonian14]

Hi!

I am not an electronica artist by any stretch, but I do like to try it out from time to time and like to learn. This is more of a learning process than it is an attempt to enter my arrangement into the canon of ocremix.

That said, any and all comments and suggestions are appreciated. Here is one of the projects I am currently working on and have no idea what I can do to make this sound better. I hope you can at least follow the ideas I am presenting in it.

Thanks for any time you can give me!

http://pwatts14.googlepages.com/zeal.mp3

[John Revoredo]

Um...... This sounds like a free arrangement of Zeal Island, which is kinda cool.

Try to find better drum samples, and make them more powerful (use a compressor) and put their volume higher!!.

Anyways this is quite fun to listen. try to find more sounds for the drums, and try to work on differenced sections: with that i mean.. try not to make the entire mix sound like an uniform section.. but instead, for it to be divided in several and different sections: that makes the listener enjoy more each part of the song, (if it was only one section, the listener would get tired after one minute.. ).

Anyways, keep on it. Sounds good so far

[Rozovian]

There's essentially three types of electronica: club stuff, trip stuff, and past stuff. This is somewhere essentially club stuff with past stuff sounds. Too simple waves, simply put. They're all from another millennium, and in this case, it doesn't fit in. The instrument that comes in at 0:48 is okay, I like that one, but the others are a little too basic for the genre IMO.

The drums sound ok from my laptop speakers, you might need some more punch for the bass and work out a different rhythm for the hats but other than that, the drums are cool.

I like many of the melodies here, but can't hear that much of what I remember from Zeal. The trademark accompanying bells aren't here at all, as far as I can here. If you've included Robo's theme here I didn't recognize it. It might be because I can't remember it. Right now, I'm too lazy to get over to vgmusic and dig up midis for reference.

Overall, the sample issues should probably be worked out. Aside from oldies but goodies that unfortunately don't fit, you've got some weird attack setting on one of them (at 2:25, sounds a bit like an accordion). There's a hihat rhythm that's kind'a breaking the beat (starts to become too loud to ignore at about 2:00). If you come to a place where you don't know what to do with, take a melody straight from the originals and see if it fits. This could use that familiar theme, maybe as the grande finale?

So, work wonders with it, G14, it's not bad, so a bit of work can make it good.

[Gorgonian14]

There's essentially three types of electronica: club stuff, trip stuff, and past stuff. This is somewhere essentially club stuff with past stuff sounds. Too simple waves,

Could you elaborate on this? As I said, I'm fairly new to this, so some suggestions on how to beef up, say, the first synth you hear would be very helpful.

The drums sound ok from my laptop speakers, you might need some more punch for the bass and work out a different rhythm for the hats but other than that, the drums are cool.

Yeah, I had trouble getting a decent sounding bass. I will be working on that.

I like many of the melodies here, but can't hear that much of what I remember from Zeal.

This is basically just a treatment of the main Zeal theme. The melody is changed up quite a bit and some of the harmonies are beefed up or tightened up. There really aren't any other influences than the main Zeal melody. Nothing accompanying it was included or influenced this.

There's a hihat rhythm that's kind'a breaking the beat (starts to become too loud to ignore at about 2:00).

I hear what you mean. That's odd, I had never noticed it before and don't remember writing it like that. I will check it out.

So, work wonders with it, G14, it's not bad, so a bit of work can make it good.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions!

[LagunaCloud]

I liked this mix it was very different

[Rozovian]

Okay, details... (this is gonna be way too long)

Oldschool stuff means it uses really basic waveshapes. Really oldschool is called chiptunes, and is an artform in itself, wher eit's all about using old tools to create the smallest file with the coolest sound. Works with tracker formats, not audio like mp3. WIth simple waveforms, I mean, since, square, and saw, really simple waveforms, really primitive synth sounds.

Nowadays, synths use numerous techniques to change the sound while it's being played, envelope and LFO being the triggers for any change. I'm fairly new to using those myself, but I'm learning. LFO is a low frequency oscillator which can have any simpler waveform, and then controls cutoff or some other filter on the synth. The envelope is what each note is contained, also known as ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, and release). it determines the volume of each note, but can also be used for controlling filters. I might be wrong about something tho, so anyone who _knows_ this stuff, feel free to correct me.

Using recorded samples and bizarre effects, reverse sounds and crazier ideas of tweaking the sound, club electronica is essentially anything with a mighty beat, synths, and sounds most like other forms of music. The trip stuff is too bizarre for me to describe, but I imagine it's ideal for various forms of psychadelic trips, something I do not endorse.

Still, that's the most crude classification of electronica I can think of. With today's genre-blending and digital processing of pretty much everything, everything is electronica. Still, synthesized sounds and sequenced melodies are more so than the average rock band with a flanger on a guitar.

--

The first synth... It could play something more melodic. I'm pretty bad at figuring notes out from just hearing them, but if it's an E, you can throw in an H or a D there as well. Try replacing some of them. Use the same pattern for the others, there replacing those notes to their equivalents of H and D. It's also got a pretty peppy sound, maybe you should try something a little more saw-wave with this one? Note that you can set the length of notesusing the decay and release settings on the synth or sampler, playing around with those might make it more interesting.

The low synth is cool, but it's a very basic sharp shape. An LFO, or even a phaser or flanger on it would give it a more varying texture. Automating cutoff would make it pop up from and dive into the low range, but automation is another chapter.

The clap snare thing that comes in there is really lame. There's types of music where it's required, but this doesn't sound like one of them. It's too weak. A really aggressive compressor with a slow attack might spice it up, but you might need a compeltely different sample.

The synth coming in at 0:13 is oldschool. It's also got a slow attack. For a lead, that's not good. Use something a little more refined than a basic waveshape, and give it more attack (attack being the short fade-in time for each note). Also, I think you should raise the sustain level. And, it might be an octave too high.

Hard to tell you what to do without hearing what it's gonna sound like, but it's all suggestions and advice that you'll be getting from here. Do consider making backup before trying anything out, in case our advice only screw up your work.

The drum "roll" coming in next is cool, tho it could use some more bass. Be very specific about the frequency range you boost, don't just boost bass, try something like everything between 200 and 400 Hz.

Then comes a really cool sounding synth, which I think you can leave as it is, at least for now. Just before 1:30 you had some weird pan effect. It's not all bad, but caught be off-guard, which didn't make it sound any better. I'm not saying you shouldn't use it, it's jsut a general warning: don't go overboard with panning.

You do relax it well enough for it to, arrangement-wise be pretty good. While I do miss the mystic melody I member from Zeal, this remix has come to grow on me.