One Synth Challenge #72: Eclipsis by VSTZONE (Richard Semper Wins!)

[Mojo42]

Goooooooooooooooooooooood news

I simply didn`t sleep at all and went on working at my song, because signs and wonders happened

I found my song a bit boring without the drums and most of all without my beloved Arp by RichardSemper and then I had an idea: I took off the automation as you know and my idea was that maybe the automation was the main cause for this automatically muting of some instances. This idea was just a glimmer of hope, but I made a leap of faith and simply tried it and it worked

Means: I could realize my original concept now. I could add the drums and Richard Semper`s Arp again and now I`m completely happy. Damned that has been hard work all in all and very time consuming, but I actually made it YEHAAAAAAAAA!!! Okay, I will make the final touches now and then I can post it I guess. I just tell this here for the case that someone else is still struggling with his/her DAW. Maybe taking off the automation will help!!!

Of course it is no fun to work without automation, but I could balanced this out with my arrangement and I think it is okay now. Ahm and by the way: The title of my song is Signs And Wonders

That just fits too well. It is actually a pure wonder that this song is finished now, really. There had been moments........ah I better forget the bad times now.

@Esteband: I really don`t know what you are talking about. I listen your song now the third time and I can`t hear anything of pops, clicks, terrible sound and so on (???) Am I deaf? I think it sounds really well.

@mehun: Oops okay, thanks for this information

[jdruery]

Hi everyone,
Thank you for all your kind comments. It's very encouraging to me since I'm relatively new to making instrumental music. Mostly I've done singer-songwriter stuff.

@esteband, @DoctorBob: thanks so much. I find comparisons interesting and take them as a compliment. Sometimes you find out about artists you hadn't heard about befor (you both mentioned Vangelis, so now I'm going to check that out).

@Mojo42: that's interesting that you hear a difference between the two versions. I don't think I changed much in the first half of the song. Mainly I adjusted the eq to bring out the high percussion part... maybe that one small change makes the whole track sound sharper?

@rockingricky: thanks for your encouragement and for your interesting comment about the sudden ending. It inspired me to play around with extending the last few measures. I tried to keep the decisive ending but lead up to it a bit more, so it doesn't seem so abrupt.

Sorry I haven't had time to return the favour and give all your tracks a good listen -- I'm looking forward to doing that soon!
Jeff

[esteband]

@Esteband: I really don`t know what you are talking about. I listen your song now the third time and I can`t hear anything of pops, clicks, terrible sound and so on (???) Am I deaf? I think it sounds really well.

I haven't uploaded my new mix yet. I was hoping to find a solution to the pops and clicks first. However, even the mix that is currently up on soundcloud has issues. If I listen to just the first few bars with headphones (and turned up pretty loud), I can hear them.

[jdruery]

In short: Is around -30.00 dB loud enough or not??? Very simple question. Can someone answer this? There is a make up knob at the compressor, I could use it for making the song louder if necessary. But first I need something for orientation. I don`t know how other people reach a loudness of 0 dB, I mostlikely will learn this, but not in one single night.

If, in this process, you notice one or a few very large peaks which makes the whole rest of the track much much lower, try to tame just those peaks. That's basically what a compressor or limiter will do anyway. Better to have it done when mixing or even arranging.

@Mojo42: Just to add to what @mehum and others have said, once you've tamed your tracks you can also get a little more loudness and smoothness by adding a limiter or compressor on individual tracks and/or on your master track. For example, I used Classic Master Limiter by Kjaerhus Audio. It has one simple control for threshold -- when it's at 0 it does nothing, and the more you turn it towards negative db the more it will raise the overall volume of the song and then squash the loudest parts to make it fit. If you turn it very high then the song will sound loud but you lose your dynamic range, so there will be no difference between the quiet and loud parts of the song. Most limiter/compressor plugins have a meter that shows you how much it's compressing. If it lights up only once in a while then you have just a little bit of compression, but if it stays on all the time then you have no dynamic range left.

If it's needed I also add a bit of compression to some of the individual tracks, especially bass and kick drum or other low sounds.

It's a personal preference whether doing this will improve the song. I feel that using too much compression will make it sound smoother and louder but it can also take all the life out of the song.

[bjporter]

I submitted my track a little too soon. I was never happy with it, but as a new dad with a rather challenging baby at home, I decided I had given this contest enough of my time. Afterwards, however, I regretted submitting it in such an unfinished state and began to touch my track some more whenever I had a break from baby duty. I re-made the kick drum and did lots of various mixing tweaks and got it to a point that's far from perfect, but much more satisfactory.

So now I'm ready to bounce the final re-mix. Everything sounds fine when i listen real-time in FL-Studio BUT... once, I export it, it sounds TERRIBLE. There are all kinds of clicks and pops that happen, usually around the attack of the kick drum. In addition, there's some aliasing that sounds a lot like a sample-rate mismatch. I've double and triple checked all of my settings and can't find any reason for this sound to show up in the rendered mix.

FWIW, I usually work in 48k sample rate, so all of the Eclipsis tracks that I bounced out were bounced at 48k as well. My Firepod interface is set to 48k, too. Still, the exported file, whether WAV or mp3, still has those awful pops and the sample-rate-mismatch sound.

I have tried disabling certain plugins on the master channel, but was unable to isolate any of them as the culprit.

Have any other FL users run into a similar problem and found a solution? I'd love to resubmit my best possible mix. I hope someone can help...

Best,

-Steve

Can you upload them both for us to listen to? If you don't mind, maybe you can send me your project, and I will try to render it for you on my computer (I have FL Studio 11). A few other members have FL too.

[z.prime]

... are all kinds of clicks and pops that happen, usually around the attack of the kick drum ...

Another suggestion: can you bounce each track down to audio without the pops? Then just render the whole project with the VSTi muted? Side note: I am also noticing semi-random pops on my project (using Bitwig Studio)... oddly enough they are correlating to the attack of the kick drum, too. I haven't tried rendering the whole thing yet, so will see when the time comes if I need to try something like that, too.

[Mojo42]

Years later.............it is finally done

Inspired by TrojakEW`s style of songwriting I wished to tried something similar, but of course I did it my way. I mixed classical instruments with some modern sounds and I just wished that I would have had more time for to work this out really nice, but........you already know the whole story. So I`m glad that it sounds like a song at all and it also seems to be loud enough

Of course any feedback is much appreciated, because I still feel unsure about the mixdown and about the sound etc. For the case of serious complains I would have the chance to change something, because one day is still left.

Now the facts:

DAW: Cubase Elements 7
Instances: 9
Effects/Plugins: TAL-Reverb-2, MHORSE P3, TDR Kotelnikov, Limiter 6
Automation: None
Editing: I exported the Arp Bass Drone 2 to audio so that I could make at least a fade in. The fade out I made at the final audio file of the whole song.
Presets:
TrojakEW: Inst_Strings, Inst_BrassSection
Richard Semper: Bass Drone 2 Arp
Photonic: Kick-1, Snare-2
My own: Pad Silent Journey, Pad Hope, Inst_Piano 1(2 instances)

Many, many thanks to all for your great support. Without your help I wouldn`t have had any chance I guess. I`m not entirely happy with my song, but for this circumstances it turned out better than expected. Anyway I hope you like it and if you find something to criticize, please don`t be shy to tell me. I wish to learn.

Edit:Postet a newer version with hopefully no clipping:
https://soundcloud.com/unimatrix-zero-1 ... al-version

I`m Unimatrix Zero at Soundcloud (don`t laugh!!! ) I was just surprised that this name was actually still available

I answer to the other posts later,I need a break now.

[bjporter]

Years later.............it is finally done

https://soundcloud.com/unimatrix-zero-1 ... nd-wonders

I`m Unimatrix Zero at Soundcloud (don`t laugh!!! ) I was just surprised that this name was actually still available

I answer to the other posts later,I need a break now.

Some impressive drums there, and congrats on the track

Unimatrix Zero is an epic name actually.

[wagtunes]

Years later.............it is finally done

Inspired by TrojakEW`s style of songwriting I wished to tried something similar, but of course I did it my way. I mixed classical instruments with some modern sounds and I just wished that I would have had more time for to work this out really nice, but........you already know the whole story. So I`m glad that it sounds like a song at all and it also seems to be loud enough

Of course any feedback is much appreciated, because I still feel unsure about the mixdown and about the sound etc. For the case of serious complains I would have the chance to change something, because one day is still left.

Now the facts:

DAW: Cubase Elements 7
Instances: 9
Effects/Plugins: TAL-Reverb-2, MHORSE P3, TDR Kotelnikov, Limiter 6
Automation: None
Editing: I exported the Arp Bass Drone 2 to audio so that I could make at least a fade in. The fade out I made at the final audio file of the whole song.
Presets:
TrojakEW: Inst_Strings, Inst_BrassSection
Richard Semper: Bass Drone 2 Arp
Photonic: Kick-1, Snare-2
My own: Pad Silent Journey, Pad Hope, Inst_Piano 1(2 instances)

Many, many thanks to all for your great support. Without your help I wouldn`t have had any chance I guess. I`m not entirely happy with my song, but for this circumstances it turned out better than expected. Anyway I hope you like it and if you find something to criticize, please don`t be shy to tell me. I wish to learn.

https://soundcloud.com/unimatrix-zero-1 ... nd-wonders

I`m Unimatrix Zero at Soundcloud (don`t laugh!!! ) I was just surprised that this name was actually still available

I answer to the other posts later,I need a break now.

I like it. Nice and soothing. Nice arrangement. Don't even know what I'd criticize other than maybe you played it a little "safe". But that's fine. Better safe and do something that's pleasant than dive in with all guns blazing and churn out an ungodly mess.

Definitely a from me

[z.prime]

Better safe and do something that's pleasant than dive in with all guns blazing and churn out an ungodly mess.

Ehh... agree to disagree on that point.

[wagtunes]

Better safe and do something that's pleasant than dive in with all guns blazing and churn out an ungodly mess.

Ehh... agree to disagree on that point.

Well, if you're into ungodly messes, sure.

[z.prime]

Better safe and do something that's pleasant than dive in with all guns blazing and churn out an ungodly mess.

Ehh... agree to disagree on that point.

Well, if you're into ungodly messes, sure.

You obviously haven't heard the music I make.

[wagtunes]

Better safe and do something that's pleasant than dive in with all guns blazing and churn out an ungodly mess.

Ehh... agree to disagree on that point.

Well, if you're into ungodly messes, sure.

You obviously haven't heard the music I make.

Well, I did vote in the last OSC so I must have heard at least one track. I might just go and check out some of your stuff to see just how ungodly it is.

[TrojakEW]

Mojo42: It is nice track but there is something that wont let me enjoy it. There is some hard clipping here causign distortion in your track. check loudnes and limiter of yours. For example when starting at 10s. Try to fix that it it will be GREAT.

[bjporter]

Mojo42: It is nice track but there is something that wont let me enjoy it. There is some hard clipping here causign distortion in your track. check loudnes and limiter of yours. For example when starting at 10s. Try to fix that it it will be GREAT.

I noticed that too. FYI I rarely put anything on my Master channel in the OSC.