That sounds quite interesting! Though I might not have the most experience with horror, I think I can manage Do you have any examples to get a clearer idea of your vision or maybe get influcnced by?
EinelTheFox
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Hey! Yeah, I’m still looking for a team. If you like to, we could talk details via discord. My Username is einelthefox_12888. Might I ask what genre you are planning to work on and what kind of music you are looking for? Do you have any planed restrictions, like number of polyphony or use of instruments?
I might need to add that I am situated in Germany (UTC+1), so time difference might be a thing 😊
Sorry, haven't worked with any soundfonts yet and don't have any libraries in that style. Though I have some SNES and SEGA Megadrive based synths, if thats something you might be interested. Generally programming midi wouldn't be the problem. And learning to work with soundfonts or creating and using custom samples might be interesting. :)
Hey there! I am David and offering my skills as a composer for this jam. If you are looking for a good sounding orchestral soundtrack or an ambient soundtrack with synthesisers I am all yours. For a little taste of my previous works feel free to take a listen on my SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/einelthefox). I would be glad to hear from you and talk about further info. You can contact me via SoundCloud or just leave a message here.
😮💨 Glad I didn’t do you any discomfort.
As for your approach. It depends on how old the gear might be or through witch system you wanted to play through. Every Soundsystem has its own idiosyncrasies. Vinyl gets scratchy and has system wise a pretty steep cut in highs and bass and warbles in speed and pitch by quite a margin. Cassette looses its dynamics and some bandwidth, though mostly highs and flutters in short bursts. So maybe it’s best to work out how you wanna break it.
Overall, some Distortion in the mix bus, that is added in parallel might give some grit while not overdoing it. Maybe also adding a bit of Tape simulation or Vibrato could add something.
As for the positioning. If you want to be an ultra-stickler, you could have multiple instances of the same reverb. All but different in the pre delay. Reason is, that the sound merges more with the room the further back it is to mic or listener. So the more far the sound the lower the pre delay. Also, some instruments loos some fidelity in highs and lows. So having some high- and low-shelves cutting by a bit might add some Depth grading. Also having those reverb instances globally as an effect bus and every track having a separat send adds some cohesion.
Like I’ve said before, maybe adding a stereo widener might hinder the mix more that helping. Most widener destroy the stereo field or cut the mid in the stereo. The best advice I can give, is less is more. Also, it might help to watch the mix in different terms. Maybe the sound stage can be formed like a real stage (positioning instruments like on the stage) or in LCR (fully panned left, center or right, it was mostly used in the 70s) or Mid/Side (mono and stereo difference). Especially Mid/Side can add a lot of depth (like cutting the bass at 200Hz for the side mix to have it in the mono sum and have a fat sound).
I can defenetly relate on the heavy reverb use. I needed to somewhat wean my use of it a bit and learn to cut it a bit more. General rule of thumb nowadays is to mix it like I want it, and like said earlier EQ it, and the cut it by 3db further. Reverb can be a b**** to mix. Generally if you notice it it is most likely to much. But it’s right if you cant tell if it is on or not. If you the just bypass it, it is like magic and you will miss it. It could be also a problem with some headphones. I had some Audio-Technica R70x that were great but sucked every reverb tail, so I drowned everything. Nowadays I use some HiFi-Man Sundara, they are planar driver headphones, that are higher resolution and can recreate those tails. Also transients are more true to life.
I hope that might help somewhat. If necessary, I might need to add my Discord-account for some further nerdery ^^.
Maybe my intentions got somewhat lost in translation. I kind of don't wanted to criticise your mix so heavily. I just felt like these were some points where I felt like it could be improved on, since it overall sounded pretty decend. That was my "try" on adding to it. Sorry if I overstepped here or gave a bad impression.
Kind of feel like difficulty B would be more fitting. Interesting approach by letting the instruments play reversed throughout the whole song. If I had a wish open, I would have loved something playing in the lower register. Maybe having your left hand on the piano an octave lower would have done the trick or doubling it with a bass. Nonetheless this was a cool entry.
Creative ideas with the over- and underworld and adding them together. Also having the underworld in a reversed sound. It would have been a bit more interesting if the different "themes" would have differed a bit more soundwise. Maybe like having underworld more synth heavy and Overworld unplugged. Nether the less, cool work!
I've got goosebumps while listening. Such an haunting noire atmosphere sprinkled with very cool sound design.
While the actual sounds are quite impressive, I feel like the reverb sticks to much like a blanket and diminishes the overall good mix. My advice would to be to add some more predelay and also EQ the Reverb directly. The good old Abbey Roads trick was to cut the Bus-reverb at 300 and 6k. So the reverb was never able to overshadow the original mix. Might be something woth to try. I kind of also feel like the use of stereo widener was used a bit heavy handedly. Eventhough it might sound contratuitive giving the mix a narower soundstage might benefit the mix and give it a realistic room with more puch with a more "in your face" character.
I might wanna add, that this is not a general critic of your work. I feel like it is one of the strongest entries I've seen. However I feel like there could be something added to its furthor glory.
Can definitely relate to your story. This theme wasn't certainly my cup of tee and I almost threw the towl. Glad you've shared your work anyways.
I feel like the idea at itself has quite a pleasant spaceiousness that could be furthor added by just some additional atmospheric sounddesigne. Sometimes the simple things can be more impressive than trying to engeneer a new weel and I think your song is on the right path.
A very strong entrance for a first jamer. And then even with multiple songs! Felt like being right in the moment and venturing with the hero on his journey. Definitely "the thousand years war".
If I could advice: Your Woondwinds sometimes are having long lasting passages. Maybe think about letting room for breathing breats or edit them in for a more realisting feel.
Also your strings are quite heaby on using just Legato without any wurthor starting articulation. It might be sometimes more preferable to give them more articulation even if it is just for the start of the nex passage (might be sounding odd but singing the parts with la for legato and ta for articulated helped very much. Might be an approach).
Pretty much appreciate the info. I'm a retired guitarist and might be interested to get back to it and should definitely look into the Neural DSP stuff. Thou I played a Strandberg I kind of Ignored all the Ampsimulations.
I might also look into the basses you've named. The fretless sounded pretty sweet and affordable and tonal versatile sound like the perfect combination :D
Picture reminded me kind of on "Take on me" by Aha. Quite the journey you've taken us throughout this song. Might to look some of your used gear up. The Gojira Neural DSP might be something, as well as the Alex Lifeson LP. I need do commend your playing. Getting to hear a cleanly played Guitar is one thing, the other having also a fretless bass played so well. Great job!
Loved the different Fuzz sounds of your Guitar throughout the listening. Felt like any moment Amon Amarth would come out and rock the place :D. The whistling and vocals gave it an interesting sound color. Defenetly wasn't expecting to find som Sludge/Doom on this jam. Well done!
Also, you might need to teach me how you've createt so much music in such a short timespan. There must be dark magic at hand. ^^
This is certainly not meant to be mean. But I feel like having just one song and working on that would have gotten you a better result. While most songs sound true to the GB/NES and its limitations, I feel most songs sound played save with just one melody repeting itselve and reversed. I kind of wished for something more. None the less you've nailed the challange with every song. So kudos to that.