Hi there! I just started this piece last night and I am looking for some feedback so I can make it a bit "shinier" as it will be appearing in a commercial game. It is a mix between old school, orchestral and drum and bass. http://www.allacrost.org/staff/user/rain/SpaceShooter6.mp3 Thanks a lot Ryan Reilly

Well, when I read "drum and bass" my face dropped but I actually really like it. To be quite honest I wouldn't say there's much drum'n'bass too it and would compare the sound to something more akin of a Final Fantasy battle tune. It has a nice military theme to it with the drums backing it up. I liked the build up too, raised the pace nicely and seemed suitably stirring for a space shooter. The only real downside was the very sudden ending.

Top stuff.

Quote: Original post by ghosted
Well, when I read "drum and bass" my face dropped but I actually really like it. To be quite honest I wouldn't say there's much drum'n'bass too it and would compare the sound to something more akin of a Final Fantasy battle tune. It has a nice military theme to it with the drums backing it up. I liked the build up too, raised the pace nicely and seemed suitably stirring for a space shooter. The only real downside was the very sudden ending.

Top stuff.

Thanks much for the feedback Ghosted. :) Some of the drum beats and patterning played by the snares accent a particular rhythm used predominately in drum and bass... but you are right, perhaps I shouldn't sell the piece as drum and bass...thing is I really don't know what genre this piece of music falls into. :p

yea...the ending is crap. Still, this is a piece that will loop so it really isn't needed.

Thanks bro!

-Ryan

DUDE!!! LOUD!!!! Man, I don't know what you're mixing on, headphones or monitors, but GET SOME NEW ONES. It sounds like you put the entire thing through some sort of distortion plugin.. no offense dude, but that's absolutely horrible. You GOTTA fix that. I loaded up the song in Wavelab and it looks like just one big squarewave.

The sounds and arrangement underneath sound OK but I really just can't get past the loudness issue. Please go much, much easier on your volume, tone down EVERYTHING a good 15dB or so, take off any distortion/saturation you have on, and then re-upload.

[Edited by - zircon_st on March 12, 2006 9:13:16 PM]

Quote: Original post by zircon_st
DUDE!!! LOUD!!!! Man, I don't know what you're mixing on, headphones or monitors, but GET SOME NEW ONES. It sounds like you put the entire thing through some sort of distortion plugin.. no offense dude, but that's absolutely horrible. You GOTTA fix that. I loaded up the song in Wavelab and it looks like just one big squarewave.

The sounds and arrangement underneath sound OK but I really just can't get past the loudness issue. Please go much, much easier on your volume, tone down EVERYTHING a good 15dB or so, take off any distortion/saturation you have on, and then re-upload.

DUDE!!! ITS SUPPOSED TO BE LOUD!!!! I am using some AKG studio headphones so the problem definitely doesn't lie there...Its unfortunate that everything has to be pronounced...I wasn't getting good speaker playback at the original level so I did up the ampage. Do you think maybe some compression would benefit the piece rather than some decreases in volume? The piece needs to be pretty crazy and that is kinda what I was going for. The distortion really's not that bad is it?

Thanks a mil for the feedback. I'll keep tinkering with this. :)

Ryan

It's pretty good... It is mixed quite hot, at 1/4 volume it is maxing out my headphones/ears...

As far as the music goes I like it quite bit, I'm assuming that it'll loop and that last bit where it cuts off won't be there... =)

Its 2:44am, so I'm sorry that I don't give this more attention, but sounding good, even if mixed very hot.

Quote: Original post by H_o_p_s
It is mixed quite hot, at 1/4 volume it is maxing out my headphones/ears...

Holy crap are you serious? Do you think that can be attributed to guitar distortion or just the overall volume of the piece?

Thanks a bunch for listening,

Ryan

It's definitely too loud. Distortion is good and all, but the whole piece is real hot. What you are doing is making speakers everywhere, big and small wear out just a little bit faster. There's distortion and there's clipping. You're clipping. You're sending square waves at the highest level to analogue speakers who are desperately trying to meet it, but end up distorting the signal.

The piece sounds nice, but I'm not interested in wearing my equipment down any faster than they need be.

BTW, compressing anything in the track is just going to make it more dense, so don't do that yet. Figure out what you want to be upfront and "crazy" and what is supposed to be in the background supporting it. It can sound chaotic and a little overdriven here and there, but to distort the whole thing is kind of like highlighting a whole page instead of just a few key sentences here and there.

I know I've used that analogy here before somewhere...

Anyway, I'll definitely relisten after another pass!

Tony

Quote: The piece needs to be pretty crazy and that is kinda what I was going for. The distortion really's not that bad is it?

Yes, it really is absolutely terrible. A friend of mine (Will Roget, a fellow composer who also frequents these forums) was equally shocked and appalled. Even heavy metal and power metal is not mixed this hot. Trust me, TONE IT DOWN.

Quote: Original post by zircon_st

Quote: The piece needs to be pretty crazy and that is kinda what I was going for. The distortion really's not that bad is it?

Yes, it really is absolutely terrible. A friend of mine (Will Roget, a fellow composer who also frequents these forums) was equally shocked and appalled. Even heavy metal and power metal is not mixed this hot. Trust me, TONE IT DOWN.

Shocked and appalled? Seriously...Sorry to disrupt the sensitive sensibilities of everyone's ears. :p In the future I'll try to save some ears and equipment by not sucking at mixing.

Ryan Reilly

edit: btw, your music is damn good.

[Edited by - Rain 7 on March 13, 2006 4:32:21 PM]