<Pony> <Original> <WIP> With My Teddy Bear

[Magnitude Zero]

https://soundcloud.com/magnitudezero/with-my-teddy-bear-wip-3

It's a little quiet, so you may have to up your volume a bit.

Story: Inspired by that side joke from Magic Duel (something like "I want to be brave in my closet with my teddy bear"). As a filly, Fluttershy's parents gave her a teddy bear to calm her during her night terrors. Even as she grew up and made friends with real animals, including bears, her teddy was always there for her and she never stopped loving it.

I've been working on this one for a little while. Mixing this has been WAAAY more difficult than I anticipated, especially with the music box and woodwinds which have way too many overlapping frequencies...

Also, I've been thinking of switching out the music box for another VST/soundfont/whatever. Any suggestions, preferably free? I'm currently using DSK Music Box. General feedback is obviously appreciated as well.

[Omnomnomnom]

Magic. Absolute magic. I like the picture you're painting here.
Mark this: I have a tendency to love these sort of things too much, so my praises may or may not be exaggerated.

Okay.
There are a few noticeable issues, but overall the instrumentation was enough to satisfy me.
I noticed: The playing was a little machine-like, but nothing TOO serious.
Like you said, frequencies were often in the same zone; that tends to happen. A pain to deal with, even for the best.
It is quite short, but sweet in what time it has. Fine for this sort of peaceful piece.
Quite basic and light, a bit cliché, if you ask me, but I suppose that that would be the goal here. c:

AND BY GOD DO NOT REMOVE THAT MUSIC BOX! It really sounds nice and childlike, innocent, etc. Fits well with a teddy-bear sort of thing. But, if you must, replace it with a nice metallophone. (I don't know of any free vsts at the moment, my apologies!)

[Magnitude Zero]

AND BY GOD DO NOT REMOVE THAT MUSIC BOX! It really sounds nice and childlike, innocent, etc. Fits well with a teddy-bear sort of thing. But, if you must, replace it with a nice metallophone. (I don't know of any free vsts at the moment, my apologies!)

I meant replacing it with a different music box. Not gonna remove the music box itself, the song would make no sense without it

Thanks for the feedback man

[Omnomnomnom]

Ah, now, there is a free music box after all. Wavesfactory offers a freebie library for, well, free.

The catch? You have to use Full NI Kontakt. :/

Also, did you submit this to EQD? I think we both know how difficult that can be (as do most of us here), especially for basic sub-3:00 songs, but I think this one could be worth a shot.

[SliZe]

I seriously love this tune!

But, over to the feedback:
As Omnom(and so on) said, the piano is a tad machine like. Mess a bit with the velocity, make it play a bit softer and make each note play at a different velocity (not to much difference though, just a subtle difference). You may also want to lower the volume of the violins just a little bit (1-4 dB).

Other than that I love the music box (where did you get the sample for that by the way?) and the overall atmosphere in this tune. Keep it up!

[bigBerd]

I really like this, it's super mellow and soothing. Not often do I hear a music box being utilized in music. The part with the vox at 0:40 is amazing, I think the song needs one more part like that. The climax beginning around 1:20 was great too, the instruments all sorta fit. If I could offer more constructive feedback I would, but this piece is beautiful.

[Magnitude Zero]

aaaa sorry for the delay on responding to these, been super busy.

Ah, now, there is a free music box after all. Wavesfactory offers a freebie library for, well, free.

The catch? You have to use Full NI Kontakt. :/

Also, did you submit this to EQD? I think we both know how difficult that can be (as do most of us here), especially for basic sub-3:00 songs, but I think this one could be worth a shot.

I'll look into the Wavesfactory music box, thank you. And yes I plan on submitting this to EQD when it's done (it's not ) along with a PMV sort of thing with original art and animation. Because my friend who makes my visualizers likes to go big sometimes.

I seriously love this tune!

But, over to the feedback:
As Omnom(and so on) said, the piano is a tad machine like. Mess a bit with the velocity, make it play a bit softer and make each note play at a different velocity (not to much difference though, just a subtle difference). You may also want to lower the volume of the violins just a little bit (1-4 dB).

Other than that I love the music box (where did you get the sample for that by the way?) and the overall atmosphere in this tune. Keep it up!

Thank you! I've played with the velocities and timing of the piano notes a TON, but I don't think I'll be able to find a way to make it realistic without actually playing it. Which is possible, but it'll take some practice - I'm not much of a pianist. I'm hearing the loud strings now, thanks for pointing that out. And as I mentioned in the OP, I'm currently using DSK Music Box which sounds nice but has a messy frequency range that almost sounds distorted at times. You can hear it if you listen closely, especially on the chords.

I really like this, it's super mellow and soothing. Not often do I hear a music box being utilized in music. The part with the vox at 0:40 is amazing, I think the song needs one more part like that. The climax beginning around 1:20 was great too, the instruments all sorta fit. If I could offer more constructive feedback I would, but this piece is beautiful.

Thank you (again)! Those vocals are actually a point of pride to me, they're sampled from So Many Wonders (iirc it's the "EEEE" in "HOONEEEEY" stretched, looped, and pitch-shifted with a LOOOOT of EQ and some other stuff). I really wanted to have Fluttershy in the song more than just in spirit, even if you can't really tell it's her . I might have liked the idea of another vocal section if I wasn't hesitant to make the song longer than it is, which I am for a number of reasons. Maybe I can fit some vocals in the outro, but they'd have to be very subtle... I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the awesome responses guys, I love all of you <3

[Patashu]

I would normalize this, since all making it quiet does is make me have to turn the volume up for one track and then back down for everything else

This is gorgeous. Music box is instant hnnngh and mood is spot on. Nice to hear music in genres I don't expect!

If you need to make the piano more humanized - Try sustaining random notes more and less, making the chord's notes played slightly out of quantization, etc as well as just velocity. Rolling the first chord of a passage instead of playing it all at once can be quite effective too.

[Conduit]

Needs more wobble.

I think some skrillex vocal samples would also improve this song, and set the mood perfectly. Right now its missing the emotional connection that songs like Bangarang have.

tl;dr:
gud muzc much gud 4 listn nd c

[Magnitude Zero]

Needs more wobble.

I think some skrillex vocal samples would also improve this song, and set the mood perfectly. Right now its missing the emotional connection that songs like Bangarang have.

tl;dr:
gud muzc much gud 4 listn nd c

k fix'd ty you saved the song

I would normalize this, since all making it quiet does is make me have to turn the volume up for one track and then back down for everything else

This is gorgeous. Music box is instant hnnngh and mood is spot on. Nice to hear music in genres I don't expect!

If you need to make the piano more humanized - Try sustaining random notes more and less, making the chord's notes played slightly out of quantization, etc as well as just velocity. Rolling the first chord of a passage instead of playing it all at once can be quite effective too.

Haa, thanks! I'll normalize/master it when it's done, which as of now it is not. I've done a lot of tweaking with the velocities and timing, but can't seem to get it quite right that way. And I do plan on playing the piano parts (when I can actually get around to working on it psfhawihfioahdfa), can't really get a whole lot more humanized than that.