u-he

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:33 pm

I hope this forum doesn't mind me posting song links here, but when I post in the actual KVR tunes forum, it just gets ignored *sad face*

http://soundcloud.com/sendy/zombie-grin ... ease-mix-1

Anyways, Zebra is doing the formant-style bass and sub-bass in this track. The sub-bass layer is part of the patch, done with a simple sine FMO, and aftertouch is set to cut the volume on the formant but keep the sub, for the d+b-style breakdowns.

The metallic sound at 1:27 is Diva in all her FM glory.

The morphing sequence gate in the intro is Uhbik T (really fun to program!)

Reverb, Chorus and delay are handled by Valhalla Room, Ubermod and FreqEcho, ShortCircuit is doing the breakbeats (Note - what sounds like a low-pass filter is actually audio-rate slew-rate reduction - pretty much the same thing but a slightly different sound). The C64 PWM lead is SIDizer - really good one, that!

Also starring JP6K here and there, and SQ8L for that steel drum riff.

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 9:45 pm

It has an ol'school ravish feel to it... the formant type bass is adding more to goa? ... hmm.. anyway.. it's pretty cool.
Feels like a PS 1 action game tune

Are you looking for constructive feedback for the mix also?

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:03 pm

Thanks for listening

Are you looking for constructive feedback for the mix also?

Yeah, I don't have the *best* monitoring solution at the moment.

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:52 pm

Nothing seems (tone) defined so I can't really point to anything... but since you said you don't have good monitoring, you can do more harm than good with eq most of the times if you don't really know what you're doing.

Your arrangement seems to build linearly, so a good advice would be to automate volume. Once new elements are on focus.. you can try reducing the volume of older ones.. especially if they aren't so important to the scene (part) or if they share most of the same frequencies.

Even if you don't have good monitoring, you can try to make small, relatively wide eq cuts (3 to 5db) on some tracks.. use SPAN or some good analyzer to help you pick out some of the low-mid range. on some of the instruments.

Sub bass seems to distort in some loud parts. you can try some volume automation there as well... side-chaining also may help.

If you have separate effect tracks.. try eq-ing those as well.

Hope this helps a bit.

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 12:23 am

Thanks for the advice! Even on my monitoring system (which isn't terrible at all, just far from ideal), I can tell the balancing needs a little bit of work. I just posted it because I've finished arranging it (for about 3 weeks, lol), and I've had a lot of encouragement to finish and post it.

I honestly think the sub-bass distortion might be a Soundcloud thing, but I'll double check. I generally tend to EQ very minimally if I can help it, apart from notching out resonances. Will definitely try some broad, shallow scoops. I should probably get some compression going as well. I'm not used to having so much CPU power left after finishing a track

Gonga · Post by **Gonga** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 3:53 am

Soundcloud streaming does weird things with deep bass. If you want to hear this clearly, listen to one of my game soundtracks with the bass drum - there's a high-frequency buzzing added too. The download version sounds totally better.

http://soundcloud.com/dan-ling/the-mad-house

This track sounds pretty good to me Sendy. There's a lot of overlapping mid-to-high content toward the end, but that's not really "fixable" the way you'd re-arrange a top 40 tune to avoid that, and the separate voices are distinct. You could try freq. band-limiting them to more distinct ranges, but I'm not sure it would help more than hurt.

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:40 am

Yes, the bass is very low. The sub sine I have underpinning it plays at 39hz

http://soundcloud.com/dan-ling/the-mad-house

Epic dronescapes going on there! The crossword sample made me giggle

Fritze · Post by **Fritze** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:23 am

Wow, yeah! Slick that is! Cool sounds, nice composition with some welcome variations in the middle. I love that Zebra sound. I'm a freak for those formant sounds. Quite stylish overall.

jumpercable · Post by **jumpercable** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 7:26 pm

I like it alot! Some really nice surprises. To me it has the same feel for something like the fluke tracks for wipeout 64 - maybe an obscure point of reference - but those tracks were brill! I think it might be to do with the drums sounds. Good work!

aaron aardvark · Post by **aaron aardvark** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:26 am

Without vocals, it sometimes sounds somewhat repetitive, but there are plenty of cool parts. Good overall!

Esgalachoir · Post by **Esgalachoir** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:35 am

Awesome! Really liked the breakdowns in the later half of the middle. Some great synth riffs in there.

mcnoone · Post by **mcnoone** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:36 am

This music is great.
Maybe you should consider using the midi and remix using only Zebra sounds.
Just to see if you could better it, or just to experiment.
Imo...Zebra has a lot of sounds that might fit that tune better.

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:54 pm

Thanks for all the comments!

mcnoone wrote:This music is great.
Maybe you should consider using the midi and remix using only Zebra sounds.
Just to see if you could better it, or just to experiment.
Imo...Zebra has a lot of sounds that might fit that tune better.

I've got too many people who say they like it as-is to really change it around a huge amount. I might play with an alternate arrangement and mixing it a bit differently, but overall I'm happy with it and really hate changing sounds after the fact.

I'll be trying some u-he only tunes soon though, just to up my u-he fan-drone credentials and gain some points with the boss

u-he

KVR Audio

A tune with Zebra on bass duties