PIrates of the Caribbean: Waltz of the Sea

[Shadow Wolf]

Hey guys! OK, this is a big enormous moment for me. After 6 years of listening to all of you, I’ve finally attempted to make my own music. This remix isn’t actually from a game though. It’s a waltz version of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. So I’m not a game remixer yet. You go with what you’ve got, right? I had a good solid idea for this song, so here it is: Waltz of the Sea, WIP 1. Please download it, give it a listen (choke through it if you must) and critique it. I have little experience in Fruityloops and no musical training, so I did it all by ear. If you have to be musically technical to explain something, please use small words. There are several things that I know are a little off with the mix:

I haven’t balanced the volumes of all the instruments to my liking yet. This is all about panning, and what I want in the foreground and background of the mix.

I’m also very unfamiliar with tips and tricks for how to make a soundfont sound really good.

I want the soundfield to be fairly full, meaning I like to have a lot of instruments cooperating at one time, but I also don’t want to overpower the mix.

I don’t think there’s enough variation between some of the melody and harmony parts, they’re too much alike in places.

The cellos are too ‘ethereal’ for lack of a better word… I’d like to make them flow between notes better without dragging too long on one note, but listening to it it sounds like bringing the note delay down might do that.

Also of note is that the last part of the WIP with the solo cello is pretty much raw, I don’t have a transition or accompaniment yet.

Basically I’d like to use this mix to pinpoint things I can do to make me a better mixer and learn how to use Fruityloops better. Have at it. But please, be gentle with me. Thanks! Also, if the link doesn’t work/goes down, please let me know so I can pop it back up.

You can download the mix [>>right here.<<]

[DarkeSword]

The cello here isn't a good lead. It's buzzy and there's too much reverb on it.

You need to pay a lot more attention to velocities when you're sequencing. You have a lot of successive notes that are the same velocity in the harp, piano, and cello lines. As a rule of thumb, velocities from note to note should always at least slightly differ from one another. Think about a person playing a piano: when he plays, he's not going to press every key of the piano with the exact same amount of force; depending on how his hand is positioned, the note he played previously, and other factors, the next note will be quieter or louder. This goes the same for other instruments as well.

When you produce music on a computer with your mouse, you have to remember that even though you're "writing" the notes into the computer, you're still a performer, and you have to perform your music.

[Shadow Wolf]

Yeah, I did change the velocities for some parts of it, but not nearly all of it. So, question. Here's the velocities for the harp notes... this was how they were when I exported the MP3, so they're unchanged. So, how much change is too much? Obviously it depends on the forcefulness with which I *would* be playing the instrument, but you don't want the transitions between notes to be too jarring, and you don't want them to be too quiet either. So, any advice?

The way I would play almost any instrument, especially strings, I would tend to be more forceful with the last note of certain bars, as well as when I'm playing longer notes, which I think shows in the image above. But mostly it's me going by ear and imagining how it would sound if I played it.

[Jacian]

I would recommend becoming familiar with the randomizer. This, by all means, is no substitute for being a musician and like Darke explained, chording by the mouse still requires that you preform. But the randomizer helps Select all the notes from the piano roll in a composition and go to the Tools -->Randomize or hit Alt+R. Deselect the "Patterns" and adjust the Vol and Seed arrows in the Levels window. This will help considerably in terms of adding realism. you might also try adding subtle "mistakes" in your composition as well, like the chello lead not being so synced and on beat.

However, your mix is pretty well done for a great beginning. It was rich in my headphones. The cello lead needs to be changed. I would use the cello from the incredible Squidfont soundtrack. Also... you may want to use some cymbol crashes like the ones found here:

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=39664

I use these for my orchestral stuff too and it's a great transition point. Anyway, great start. I loved the pirates theme song, too! Congrats and good luck!

~jace

~Joel