by Navron » 30 Apr 2012 23:30
Having just finished a remix on the same song, I must ask...
Why, oh why would you pick the most complicated, chord shifty, and tempo totallynotgonnabethesame song in all the MLP episodes? Granted, I can see how you wanted to remix it, but in my opinion you jumped in a little too deep for a first remix.
I see you can take some criticism, so I'll make this as constructive as I can.
Don't blame the instruments, or the software. Sure, I might occasionally use something like LASS or Massive to give my songs a nice big boost, but surprisingly most of my songs are comprised of default Cubase VSTs and/or free ones.
The big difference between free and paid VSTs, is the amount of work to get a similar sound.
I could easily write an epic string section with LASS, but I could also write a similar section and get it somewhat close using careful EQ, compression, and environmental parameters.
Most electronic musicians seem to get this craze over the big, well-known, paid VSTs, but really, it's just a matter of laziness. Why spend hours getting something to sound good when you can have it sound good right off the bat?
The downside of that, is you have musicians jumping on the big, expensive stuff, before learning how to EQ, compress, side-chain, etc. The next thing you know is you have big tracks with even bigger, more noticeable flaws.
So while you learn music theory, take the time to learn, "electronic music theory." It's a whole different monster, and doesn't have anything to do with scales, chord progressions, or understanding terms.
So I'd recommend:
- Learn basic music theory, and even if some of the practices seem very simple, take the time to learn it.
- Learn electronic music theory, or in other words, start reading about the process of writing songs in a digital medium, and what differs from playing real instruments.
- Give yourself an EASY song to remix.
- Look back on your earlier works and smile from how far you've come. I know I do!
DAW: Cubase 6.5, Ableton Live 8
Preferred Genre: Industrial/Trance
Hardware: Schecter Diamond Series Bass, Yamaha Acoustic Guitar, BP355 Effects Pedal, Keystudio 49K Keyboard, Akai APC40, Korg nanoKEY2 25k Keyboard