Share your created music?

[TyberAlyx]

Greetings fellow musicians! Ever felt like sharing your latest music creation sometimes? Often for me I just post a new track in soundcloud and wait for someone to stumble to it and hopefully get a critique. But the thing is, soundcloud requires connections which is sadly most new composers lack. I stumbled upon the artist forums and they have this thread for art dumpage, and I figured, maybe we could also have one but for music creation?

Cause sometimes we just want to share snippets of a work in progress, or show your latest masterpiece, or your failed attempt that you want to improve, or songs that you really just want to get over with finishing. A music dumpage so to say.

So I guess thats about it. If this feels like spam or against the rules feel free to lock it.

Well anyways though as to my point, here is my attempt in making an anime opening style of song, I am really more focused on piano but all the other instruments seems lacking:
https://soundcloud.com/tyberalyx/spires

Also here is my attempt in making a sad ending song that I don't think I will ever finish:
https://soundcloud.com/tyberalyx/scarlett

thoughts?

[keisunagi]

Cool idea! Maybe sharing unfinished work would be motivating.
I listened to both of your songs, and I really like them. They sound exactly like what you promised. An anime opening and a sad ending song. Can't wait for you to finish Scarlett!
And just my opinion, but why don't you gate the cymbals a bit in spires? I think they are kind of consuming the other sounds.
(Don't worry, you got yourself another follower XD)

Just out of curiosity, what program do you use to make these songs? I can't tell if your "Little Flower" piano is live or not. I'm guessing its not? (unless you played it perfectly in which case excuse me) but it sounds so real.

[TyberAlyx]

Hello! thank you for the input!

For little flower I made two versions of it.
One I played live: https://soundcloud.com/tyberalyx/little-flower, the other I quantize: https://soundcloud.com/tyberalyx/little ... piano-only the output goes straight to the computer as midi my digital grand piano. I use the software reaper for my digital audio workstation for the piano I use the VST called Alicia's Keys (named after the artist's unique piano).

Also made a quick loop for Apple Cinder's visual novel Caramel Mokaccino! http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 50&t=37377

https://soundcloud.com/tyberalyx/choco-chip

[D.ray]

This is a good idea. I'll have to add some songs after I finish them. I'll take on your finished song for now.

Composition wise, I think Spires is good. You did make the piano the main voice so you can't do much else with the other instruments. Just keep that in mind when composing other songs, if you go overboard with one instruments, especially if it has a large musical range, you won't be able to share the spotlight with other instruments.

With Spires, I agree on the cymbals and hihat being consuming. I don't think you need to gate them, just bring them down in volume and then use 2 eq moves. One to get rid some of the harshness and than another to add some air to them if they need them. Both will help with getting rid of that sample sound.

Your drum sound is ok, but it could use some tweaks as well. The kick could be punchier and clearer. Try boosting around 90hz to 120hz and maybe 4k to 6k for more high end presence to cut through the mix more. You might also need to cut some low mids to make room for the toms.

Your toms are also overpowering. They are taking up too much low end and sound boxy. Sweep around the 400hz region to cut some of the boxiness out and than see how much low end you can cut away without making them wimpy. There might also be some ringing frequencies on those toms you might have to cut in the mid to high mids of the spectrum.

Your snare could also use a good EQ cut. There's some boxiness you could get rid off. I would also do a small boost around 200hz or layer another snare with parallel compression on it to get a really good hefty sounding smack out of it.

I like the bass in the song but I'm also having trouble hearing it at times. It could be turned up louder and sound beefier by a boost around 80hz and another at around 400hz for more clarity. Than again once you EQ the kick right and toms right, you should be able to tell if the bass needs anything at all. You could also make a second copy of the bass part and add distortion to it. Usually the more horrible it sounds the better, but for a song like this you'll only need about a medium to low amount of distortion. Than high pass all the low end and low pass all the high end on the distorted bass and combine it with the normal bass part until the bass sounds more prominent in the mix. You might not need to go this far though.

Finally turn up your guitars if they still need it. At this point If you address all the low end issues, they should automatically sound clearer and louder. Also use a different tone for 1 of the guitars. The one doing the palm mutes is ok, but the one playing some chords is too distorted and needs more clarity.Turn back the dial on the distortion, or you can also record the same part but on a clean setting. Than combine it with the distorted part and slowly bring up the volume on the clean, or down on the distorted part until the chords are more definable.
.
Lastly you might have to re-tweak the high pass on the piano or along the mids if it's interfering with the low end or the guitars.

Hope some of this makes sense. You'll definitely get a much tighter, clearer and polished sound with better EQ moves. And it's great to see another reaper user too. I love using it.

[TyberAlyx]

Thank you for the explanation, it was clear and precise and I am really glad that you helped me notice the things that could be improved. The things you mentioned made me re-listen to the songs a couple of times and noticed that indeed I can't help but just give the spot light to the piano and have the other instruments augment it. But alas, mixing is still a very vague idea for me and most of the time I just use presets to mix my instruments as I am not that familiar with all the areas where to tweak things in equalizer.

I am very impressed in your mixing skills and good ear. Do you have a pair of monitor speakers? I tried to do a background check on your works but I have failed to see any significant work on your soundcloud.

[D.ray]

^ ha yeah, I have a non existent portfolio at this point in time. Of the 2 songs I have on my soundcloud, one is really old, literally one of the first songs I composed/mixed, and the other needs to be redone through a better piano VST. I'm working on a few songs for some projects as well as my own music so hopefully that will resolve that issue. I'm also working on a page that showcases my production work. The raw, unmixed, and unprocessed before state of a song, and the after, once I've mixed and mastered it.

I started my journey as a guitarist and went onto play other instruments, so for a while all I did was practice a lot, than I got into composing and shortly after recording and audio production. I've spent the last few years really learning and honing my production skills.

And yes I have studio monitors. I have a home studio I made. Although I didn't use my monitors to figure out what your song was missing or needed. I listened through a pair of bose computer speakers. I've had them for years, and know them well enough to know how music sounds through them. Monitors do make mixing production much easier by providing better stereo imaging, volume, depth and a much fuller uncolored frequency spectrum. Of course if you don't know the fundamentals of mixing or have a developed ear for production, they won't be of much help. That being said, if you have really horrible speakers or are using laptop speakers, you'll never get an accurate representation of the music and what needs to be done.

I would suggest you learn the very basics of mixing. Which is mostly EQ, compression and using reverb and delay. There are a lot of great tutorials online, both on youtube and on forums. You could also check out a few books online. Just make sure the information you're getting is correct.

Here are 2 articles on EQ to get you started.

https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_a ... 95/eq.html

http://therecordingrevolution.com/2013/ ... ng-part-1/

The first link is also a great resource for production in general. It's a highly respected audio production magazine. If you look on the top right corner under DAW Techniques there's also link specifically for tutorials in reaper.

You don't have to aim to become an elite mixer or audio producer or something, but understanding and being able to apply the fundamentals of mixing will be worth it. The songs you create and compose will be presented in the best possible production for listeners to enjoy. Not only that, but it will end up giving you an edge and a more professional portfolio. The other option would be to pay someone to do it,which is not a bad thing, but will cost you, and there's no guarantee that the end result will be what you envision. The last 2 parts are exactly why I taught myself audio production. I didn't have the money to pay someone and I'm too much of perfectionist and control freak to let someone mess with my music. That and I consider mixing as part of the artistic process.

I've been learning for over 5 years now. I started online, with youtube, forums, articles than went onto magazines, books, podcasts and eventually took classes and attended audio conventions and workshops. Combined with lots of critical listening and practice I've gotten pretty good at it. As you can probably tell, I'm very serious and passionate about audio as I do plan to make a living out of doing production for others (a service I offer here), along with making my own music. Mixing is not easy, in part because every song needs to be treated differently, and like everything else it takes lots of practice to get good at, but it is worth it.

Once you got the hang of mixing, you could try your hand at mastering, which is another ball game.

If you have any more questions,or need production advice or music critique always feel free to hit me up. And all this talk about about mixing has got me thinking I should make production guide for users on this forum, if there isn't one already.

[TyberAlyx]

Thank you for your insight! Its very impressive that you are able to dedicated so much time into music production. I am still learning composition wise though I would be very happy to ask more questions and advice if you are able to.(do you have skype or twitter?) Also I believe there are no music production guide here, at least not in terms of mixing yet. I assume it will be helpful to many of us but tutorials in terms of mixing always sound complex so a simplified version would be a good start.

[D.ray]

You are very welcome. I do have skype. I will PM you my username and we can continue from there.

And I think I will make a guide for production for the community here. Something to help people get started since I have noticed it's usually an area people struggle with. That and there aren't many guides online that are beginner friendly or have all the information in one place.