Hmmm, my first non-GM song. I'm sure it screams, "I've never touched a guitar or drum-kit in my life!". [lol] It's a pretty simple tune. Really, it seems more like techno with hard-rock instruments. I think it definitely could use more balancing and volume control. And a more intricate opening seems in order. Unfortunately, I don't have the tools with me to even fade off the end. Ah well, hope someone likes it. http://www.sluggyandmaster.com/artwork/MUSIC/noskill.mp3 Second Version: http://www.sluggyandmaster.com/artwork/MUSIC/noskill2.mp3 [Edited by - lack o comments on January 27, 2006 6:21:03 PM]

I liked it. But as for never touching a guitar or drumkit in your life it could still use a little bit of work.

The sixteenth note triplets on the snare are a little unnatural sounding. Typically on a roll the first note is full volume and the rebounds get quieter.

Likewise the choice of an electric guitar for the lead is a little unnatural and draws away from the cool synthetics. Maybe another guitar with a little less drive (distortion) would be in order.

-edit-
After listening to it again I hear that the sixteenth triplets are on the bass drum. Quite impossible even with a double bass pedal. It would sound more natural as a roll on the snare.

[Edited by - samuraicrow on January 24, 2006 9:06:18 PM]

Heh heh, the guitars were in fact originally synths. Just for the heck of it I stuck the music into Slayer and kinda liked what I heard. I'll admit to not working very hard on this at all. It was a long day at work and I just wanted to do something to relax. Maybe I'll try to fix it up today or tomorrow. Espeically those drums.

If you're gonna use slayer at least try not to use default kk?

The drum hits are a tad fast, but I don't know if I'd call them impossible. I've heard some Fear Factory tunes where the drummer uses bass drum rolls like that as a song's primary rhythm, not just for showy fills. But, he's a freak like that. Also, that's the advantage we have writing for music to be performed by computers...we never have to hear a human drummer say, "You want me to play what?!"

Compositionally, it holds water for the style it's written in. The guitar seems to cut off abruptly mid-melodic phrase from time to time, which screams "sample" a little too loudly. If a rest is what you think the guitar line needs in order for the part to breathe, record it on a separate track and put the fades in manually if you have to, unless you can dynamically control it from your sequencer. The bass drum and snare need to be heavily compressed to give them a lot more punchiness in the mix.

My $0.02,
Brian

LongeBane: I agree with you. It is a bit, well... "dorky", to just use the presets. But this is all new to me and I'm just taking things one step at a time.

Quote:
The bass drum and snare need to be heavily compressed to give them a lot more punchiness in the mix.

Could you explain this to me a bit? I understand how to use the compressor. But, what is the goal that I am trying to obtain here? Should I be smoothing out the levels and raising the overall gain? Or just increase the contrast in levels. Perhaps something entirely different? What about the cymbals and high-hats?

I appreciate the tips guys. It all helps. Coming back to this with a fresh mind I can see that this needs a lot more work before it starts sounding like something. I'll probably just re-write all of the drum loops and I think I need some more variety. Eighteen bars split into two looping sections just doesn't cut it.

Here's a basic overview of compression that a Google search turned up, as it's hard for me to explain and have it make sense:

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/music_theory/what_issignal_processing.html

Scroll about a third of the way down the page.

Hope this helps,
Brian

Quote: Original post by lack o comments
Could you explain this to me a bit? I understand how to use the compressor. But, what is the goal that I am trying to obtain here? Should I be smoothing out the levels and raising the overall gain? Or just increase the contrast in levels. Perhaps something entirely different? What about the cymbals and high-hats?

Slightly oversimplified, you can use a compressor in two ways:

The first is reducing the entire dynamic range of the signal, usually for the purpose of raising the level without clipping. This can be to make things louder overall (the typical "squashed to hell" production of pop music these days), or to bring quieter parts or hits into the mix more. To do this, you usually need a compressor with a fast attack ( less than 20 to 25 milliseconds), because you want to take off the really loud peaks so you can raise the lower peaks.

The second is if you set your compressor ratio quite high, but the attack quite slow (depending on the instrument, anywhere from 25ms and up, I'd say). The initial attack of the sound itself will get through without being squashed. In effect, you are making the loudness difference between the initial hit on the drum (or guitar or any instrument) and the rest of the sound bigger, which could be described as adding "punch".

Which of these two you'll want to use is pretty much personal taste and depends on the situation. Just play with it and learn what it sounds like.

Like I said, I already know what a compressor is and how to use it. But I read the page anyway. It never hurts to re-read material.

The thing confusing me was when I read "heavily compressed" and "more punchiness". To me, these are conflicting elemements but I think I took them in the wrong context. If the drums sound a little soft if is probably because there are two tracks. One is the drum track, the other is just a kick with the same sequence of notes.

My original question still stands then. I personally think that I need to add more punch by the second method MadKeithV described (or as I put it, increase the contrast). I guess this is all pretty subjective material at this point. My personal nightmare as a programmer [lol]

Alright, I didn't have time enough to compose anything new, but I tried applying some of the advice given. Better? Worse? Substituting one mistake for another?

Sorry for the larger file size.

http://www.sluggyandmaster.com/artwork/MUSIC/noskill2.mp3