jordanrooben

I've been having a bit of trouble with writing melodies lately, but I have one I think is okay. Can I get some feedback on this WIP? https://soundcloud.com/sanus-concordis/seven/

I don't mean to imply that I've ever done professional work with music before, I just mean that I got into writing music by way of OCR, and I was remixing video game tracks before I began writing original. But yeah, I was just wondering how writing music from that perspective has affected people who have VGM influenced material, and what commission work is like, and it's really cool to hear from the people here.

Asking from the perspective of a mixer/composer with a background of work with VGM, does anyone have any information on the process of actually making money? (As if it's that simple.)

Updating status to Mod Review.

I boosted the volume of the interlude synth, and tweeked the intro again, and I'm pretty happy with the final result. I'm putting this as finished for now, and maybe I'll do a mod review in a bit, if it's good enough. Version 8: https://soundcloud.com/jordanrooben/chrononet-version-8

This is really cool! It very cinematic. The reason the lead seems odd, I think, is the high attack. Lowering that would probably be a good idea.

I think you've got a good concept here. I like the drums and synth lead you used, and I agree with the other posters that there's potential for an 80's style piece here. For me, I think your mixing is a bit flat though. I can see a pretty great soundscape being here, but right now, it seems too simplistic. The arrangement is also a bit too basic. Except for the intro and outro, everything is at more or less the same intensity level. It might help to try experimenting with solos or bridge sections.

For this version, I upped the bass by a lot, because it was far to quiet. I fiddled with the intro some more. The issue with the final section having too much reverb should be gone now, but I don't know if the lead is loud enough there. Version 7: https://soundcloud.com/jordanrooben/chrononet-version-7

Here's a new version with a more polished arrangement, and a few changes to the mixing and sound design. Without having gotten any feedback since I modified the arrangement, I'm pretty happy with it, and I'm thinking that It may be finished. Version 6: https://soundcloud.com/jordanrooben/chrononet-6

I'm taking it in a bit of a different direction now, I think. I got inspired by ' ' by The Others. I liked the evil computer/terminator feeling, and although I'm not sure exactly how much of that made it into my remix, I have a goal in mind now.I'm probably going to be changing the name since I was never completely happy with what it was. For now, it's tentatively 'Chrono-net' or 'Chrononet' - I'm not sure which - but I think that'll probably stay. I know that the transition from the interlude to the finale isn't very good, and suggestions would be great, but I did want to get a new version out sooner, rather than later so I can get some feedback about the direction that I'm taking it in. Version 5: https://soundcloud.com/jordanrooben/giant-mutant-5-chrono-net

I lowered the Sub Bass a bit, and boosted the Wobble Bass. It sounds a lot better now. Thanks for the help! For the snare, I saw what you meant about it sounding a bit thin, and I layered a few more samples in there to give it some more punch. I want something that has a tail to it, though, so I kept the original snare sound too. The section at 1:58 I had used wobble bass samples, but neglected to tune them properly for the section. That should be fixed now. Thanks for calling that out! I totally overlooked it. Regarding the dynamics, I had some minor compression on the master channel. I got rid of that for this version, though. Version 4: https://soundcloud.com/jordanrooben/giant-mutant-4

I'm pretty happy with the arrangement. I can't say it's finished, because I'm sure that I'll get ideas for it while I work on finishing the whole thing. I'm not sure about the production. It sounds pretty good on my headphones, but not so much on my speakers. They're not monitors, so I'm not sure which is more reliable. It would help a lot if I could get some advice on the mixing. Is the bass heavy enough? Are the drums loud enough? Too loud? Version 3: https://soundcloud.com/jordanrooben/giant-mutant-3

Thanks for the advice. I was afraid the drums were a bit muddled. Is it all of the drums, or just the kick ? When you say better drum track, do you mean arrangement wise, or production wise?

I did some work towards another version. I added a few small bits that I thought of over the last few days. I also reworked some of the mixing and the sidechain. Version 2: https://soundcloud.com/jordanrooben/giant-mutant-ve2

The biggest thing that jumps out for me, is the drums. They sound really fake and kind of tinny/papery. They sound almost like you have them filtered somehow. You may want to check out getting some new drum sounds. Vengeance sounds are pretty fantastic for electronic pieces, but you can find a lot of good material for free if you do some google searches. You may want to try to find sounds that are similar to those in songs you like. Other than that, it's not too terrible early on. You should definitely look into getting better samples and/or practice making/choosing synths, but nothing's awful. For the most part, it all sounds generic, which is fine so long as you're doing interesting things. I noticed some stereo seperation/panning on the guitar, which is good. Little things like that can really liven up a boring part. When you first start solo-ing, the sine/sync you have isn't very good, but the actually notes have potential. Experiment with that a bit. Maybe try a sytrus preset, or look into some of the presets from nexus2. It's not free, but relatively cheap for the amount of great synths you get with it. If you want to, you can also look up some tutorials for the built-in fl synthesizers, though that's a bit tougher. After you do the whole "solo" thing for a bit, it's gets pretty awkward. Around 2:00 and on, especially 2:40-3:00. I'm not really sure what you were going for there, but you may want to take another approach for it. As far as the production values, they're decent, which is good if you're starting out. That's where most people have trouble. At this point, your best bet is probably to look on youtube or google for some tutorials. Learn about EQ, compression, limiting, stereo seperation, phase cancellation, etc. As much as you can. There's a lot to learn, but it's a pretty great experience.