At 19 Feb 2004 20:21:24 -0800, Florin Andrei wrote: > On Thu, 2004-02-19 at 09:50, Pete Bessman wrote: > > > > Check out http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/eastsidemilitiamusic.htm > > Not my genre (i'm into the Vangelis / Yes / Tangerine Dream / Schulze / > Oldfield / Jarre type of stuff), but sounds good technically. > But, oh... i think it would delight me in the context of a movie such as > The Matrix :-) think - the long Highway War in part 2. Hey, thanks! Never thought about that... > Yeah, like others said, that piano needs a shot in the arm. Or just > forget piano and put in something with a more electric feeling (but > maybe that's just the heavy-metal remnants from my crazy teen years). Once the tools are in place I'll give the song a proper treatment, although I might just leave the original as is (for nostalgia) and do a remix. Who knows, I'm not one to plan *too* much. > The first 15 seconds sound kinda cheesy (the timbre, not the melody). > Percussion seems a bit weak and kinda hollow and kinda not really > getting along with the other guys in the room, but maybe that's > precisely the idea (i'm not accustomed to the quircks of this genre, so > i could like criticise the violins in a Vivaldi piece). Teeheehee... yes, it's supposed to sound cheesy. The idea is that you make the listener go, "Well this isn't very impressive..." so that when the big stuff hits it sounds even bigger. > Bass is outstanding, but could you turn it up in the eq a bit? It > sounded kinda weak even on my bass-loving and dry Alesis M1 Active > monitors. Or i don't know, maybe i'm in love with big fat bass these > days. Yes, more bass, agreed. Definitely. > For The Matrix :-) i would make those distorted pseudo-guitars (which > are otherwise very good) even more aggressive, more in-your-face, more > your-ass-is-grass. Dunno how, make them grunt, add harshness, double > them (carbon copy the MIDI track) with a deep low-freq fat sound... > naah, the latter would ruin that great-sounding bass. Those pseudo-guitars are *real*. They're are actually tripled, one hard left, one hard right, one up the middle, each with their own recording (done in one take each). I don't want to make them too big because I _do_ want vocals in there, and it's _real_ easy to drown out vox with a steroid pumped guitar sound. Plus, the difference between unmastered and mastered guitar sounds is immense, so I'm interested to hear what this would sound like after it's mastered. > The ending is brusque but not brusque enough. Either smooth it out, or > make it even more marked (like a reverse piano sample's envelope). Hafta > make up your mind. I'm invoking my creative veto here. I like how it calls back to the original lo-fi drums and throws in the big chorus guitar part, but in a lo-fi manner. It's nice and circular. > The overall progression of the piece feels like it's conducted by a > professional's hand, it's sure of itself and has the right ups and downs > and a general good swing between the different parts (although that's > something that's endlessly improvable by definition). Well thank you very much. Good criticism, this is. If you want to do a mix of your own, you have my blessing, I'm looking into getting some space to put the sources. [pb]
