<Pony> <Remix> Neverending Strife, Plus Me, Ahaha

[CKeyboard]

So yeah. I'll just put this here.
http://soundcloud.com/ckeyboard/neverending-strife-f8_stitcher

And there's also this.
http://soundcloud.com/ckeyboard/neverending-strife-f8_stitcher-alt

Um, yeah. I'll be getting it on Youtube (hopefully) in good season (I'm waiting on the image to go with it), but everyone will have to deal with SoundCloud until then.

I guess that's it.

[Edit: Yeah, there's more info on SoundCloud. Basically, it's H8_Seed's song Neverending Strife remixed a la me, then the bare bones mix, without anything but the clips and samples from the original song with editing and effects. Click links for more if you care, I guess.]

[CKeyboard]

I have to wonder if anyone will even see this, but I won't clutter the board with any new topics.

Here's the link to the thing on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA_iXjMXXdg

[North Kozar]

Sounds pretty good, I haven't heard the original enough to really give you a decent critique on the remix value of the song. On it's own, I like it. Kinda glitchy in parts, doesn't have any part that's too repetitive, there's enough variation to keep it interesting. Only thing I think it could use is some EQ work, stuff kinda blends together -- I'm not the best to help with EQing, however. I think the ending got a little crazy, but the intro was pretty great! I enjoyed it. Keep at it!

[CKeyboard]

Well, thank you.

I'm not happy with the mix myself; I'm a little annoyed at myself for posting the song before making sure I was done tweaking. Interestingly, the bare bones mix is actually quite a bit better from a mixing standpoint, I think. But live and learn.

[TaisiKP]

The first one sounds overcompressed to me. Extremely. You can identify it through the vocals best. Also, I could hardly hear the vocals, or the song. I had to turn everything all the way up. >.< I like it though.

[CKeyboard]

TaisiKP:
Where the volume is concerned, I've had issues both ways. It's too loud in the program, then it's too quiet on export, or it's too quiet on YouTube but when my friend downloads it it maxes out his speakers. I can't seem to get it right, ever...
And where compression is concerned, I confess that I barely know what it is. This may or may not make me look like a n00b and/or pathetically inexperienced musician, but while I've heard the term, in all my years of using VST's, I've somehow never found out exactly what it means. (In other words, yes, the thing is probably way overcompressed.)
This has been my 'live and learn' track in many ways. There are many things that I will know to do differently now.

[North Kozar]

One thing to look at is if there's some option checked somewhere in your DAW about "normalizing" the audio. Because that can mess up any sort of eqing work or whatnot you've done. And when playing through, look for clipping (when it goes into the volume hits the red in the master track). I really didn't get too much about compression, and while this video was sorta targeted at GarageBand, it gives decent general insight as to what it does, so it might be helpful, though there's probably better tutorials about it out there, I'm sure. And there's nothing wrong with posting it "early" as you said. Feedback at any stage can be helpful, so don't always feel like you need a "finished product" to post up here and get help/opinions about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfJPEqBZWQg

[CKeyboard]

Sheepish grins.
First, I'm frustrated for thinking what you see above was a finished product, and now I can't be bothered to take it down and re-mix, re-export, re-render, and re-upload. I now know it's a good idea to get a near-finished WIP up on SoundCloud and show it around and listen to it myself a few more times before solidifying its status.
Next, I am... actually... using... GarageBand. (From 2008. Yeah.) So... the tutorial should be perfect. (Edit: Almost perfect. That tut was for the new one. But it's the same stuff. And yes, it was helpful.)
Finally, possibly as a result of that previously mentioned fact, I have no idea what 'DAW' and 'edging' are. I know about clipping, and I've been pretty careful to avoid it. But with the deeper mixing stuff that everyone but me seems to be knowledgeable about... yeah, smile and nod, smile and nod.
(It might just be that I do indeed know what you're talking about, but I haven't heard the terms before. Running the risk of digging myself even deeper, I urge you to try to enlighten me.)

[North Kozar]

Well, I've actually spent most of my time using GarageBand (version 4.1.2, not sure what year, but certainly not the new one) and dealing with some of the frustrations that come with it. First of all, it's really difficult to get things to come out right from it. I've had it export a song one way, then re-export it and something would sound different (volume-wise) and other strange things. And knowing this came from GarageBand makes me respect it on a different level, just because I've dealt with so many problems using it (maybe it hated me and it's not that bad for you, though, to work with). But if you ever have questions specifically pertaining to GarageBand, I can do my best to answer them! DAW just means "Digital Audio Workstation" which is what GarageBand is (as are Reason, Logic, Ableton, Fruity Loops), it's where you make da magics. Honestly, I'm not the best one to talk to about EQing things, usually I just mess around with the EQ and everything until it sounds "right." But something I've been seeing around here often is instead of raising the frequencies (like the low end for a bass), slightly remove the low ends from some of the other sounds so the bass's lows will come through the most. (I think I that's right, maybe... Anyone is more than glad to correct me).

Also why can't you take it down and do work on it? There's no law about that, it's completely up to you if you want to keep at it or if you want to move onto something new. And don't be concerned about asking questions or learning, that's the point here! We're all here to help each other and improve our music, all wrapped up in friendship and ponies!

[CKeyboard]

Well, 4.1.2 is what I have. My version was very broken for a long time (Any sampled MIDI voice--drums, strings, pianos, horns, an so on--along with some synths just didn't work, the effects were screwy, and the interface was buggy), but I would seem to have fixed the issues (by wiping my entire hard drive and reinstalling from scratch...), and even have a bunch of the Jam Packs. So yeah.
And DAW now makes sense. Good to know. I've heard VST (Virtual Studio Technology), but it's all the same stuff, I guess.
Also, reading that was like an epiphany. I will certainly try lowering bass on other things rather than raising the bass, as I have not really experimented with that at all. I'm happy to hear someone else coming from my mixing philosophy, too (mess with it until it sounds good).

And I could take everything down and re-do the whole process of uploading, but I'm just a little too lazy. It's not quite bad enough, so I'll just stick to doing things right in the future. (By this I mean uploading to SoundCloud as a preview first, because YouTube means not only first making Enrico make me art, but then making a video in iMovie, then rendering, then uploading...)

[CKeyboard]

Okay, then. So I have re-remixed the thing, and it is up on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eOMuLsuwQk

Proud of myself.

(Also, H8_Seed seems to like it, as well. Wow.)