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A life so normal(Remixed - plus a few older ones)

Osakablade

Vocaloid User, Not A Fan.
Apr 23, 2018
53
Japan
Here is a link to my latest song on soundcloud. A life so normal. I remixed it after watching some mixing vidoes on Youtube. I changed a few things also.
(Miku)

(Miku)

(Gumi)

(Avanna)

(Miku)

(Miku 2018 song contest entry)

Words & Music - Me
Singer - Hatsune Miku, Megpoid Gumi, Avanna
Drums, bass, Keyboard, Guitar - Me.
Artwork - Me
 
Last edited:
Mar 6, 2018
25
Ignoring the mix and audio quality, I would say it's a step in a good direction. The way you arrange percussion could use a lot of work since it sounds too random and gets annoying with things like all the left panned crashes sometimes, but the rest of the composition at least seems to be fairly competent and it feels like you had a good idea with it instrumental-wise for the most part. Aside from percussion, the main things I didn't like are things like the simplistic rhythm of the piano chords (the best piano moment being 1:42), mainly in the intro (falling into the issue of how you handle rhythm with percussion) and the outro, which felt out of place. The rhythm of the guitar though is handled well. Most of the brassy supersaw synth that can be heard at 2:06 is unneeded and just seems to be doing whatever without a purpose that benefits the composition, like a wandering worker not knowing what their job even is, especially with the vocals fighting for the spotlight. Other times when used more in the background, it still comes in kind of randomly and leaves in a way that feels random at times. 2:06 is an example of a part where it works and sounds good in the composition, but by 2:14 the notes just start feeling random. Then there are parts like 2:18 where it sounds like you tried to blend the synth brass melody into the sample brass melody, which would have likely worked better if you gave the synth brass the first held out note and continued the rest with the sample brass. At :08 the synth is alright, but by :16 it starts to conflict with the other held out sample brass sounds, not that the melody itself is bad there. Maybe there it'd work better if you lowered the held out brass by an octave, but then you'd probably have to take out the guitar for those parts. I also would have ended that part (around :31) with a D note just a bit after where you ended it with a C. The 1:20 guitar solo is good, but the synth solo is just okay... and then the second part of the synth solo that starts at around 1:59 just feels overdone a bit in a way that starts to get cheesy.
In short, a lot of the issues seem to come from trying to fit too many things into the track that aren't necessary. As for melodies, I would say also to not be afraid of copying and pasting a part that sounds good and just making slight edits to that if you think it'll sound better than just having a really long melody that doesn't repeat, since most of them at least start out well.
The instruments and mixing make for different issues altogether, and I won't sugar coat it, they mostly sound pretty bad. I did like the sound of the brassy synth and hear you at least added some modulation changes throughout it, but it definitely could come out better with the filtering and mixing done. Almost everything else sounds very MIDI/soundfont-like and I would recommend looking for different percussion samples (of which you can a lot with good quality out there for free) and VSTs like synth1 for synth sounds at least. I know sound libraries can be expensive when it comes to things like the brass instruments, but you can make it sound at least a bit more realistic with things like reverb.
Like I said, the idea is there and I like it, but I think it was also ambitious and definitely seems more like new territory for you. I can see you improving and recreating it as something great in the future or with help from others possibly.

Looking at your other songs though, they all do sound better executed than A Life so Normal to me, leading me to believe it's a style you're just dabbling a bit in right now. Your strongest area definitely is with guitars, although the others still show a few of the same issues I mentioned with things like overdone melody still. I liked the sound of the track named Miku the best, and although it has mainly has the last mentioned issue at times as well, it's nearly flawless in every other way. You could probably easily just edit a few parts out to keep it from getting a bit tiring, and it'd be a really great song (also would be better if the solos had more constant flow rather than stopping for air, but that might be nitpicking).
Really good potential with the more classic sounding rock stuff, and one of the few who even seem interested in going this way. Look forward to hearing you improve, so good luck with it and just keep releasing music.

Also, don't get the wrong idea just because the majority of what I say may be negative.
I'm not saying good luck and to keep releasing just to be nice. Sure, there are people here that can get a way better sound than you may be able to, but what most of them are making sounds like the same things I've heard a million times before already. What you want to make at least seems like it's trying to do something different from the usual stuff in the fandom, and that's why I responded to it.
 
Last edited:

Osakablade

Vocaloid User, Not A Fan.
Apr 23, 2018
53
Japan
Ignoring the mix and audio quality, I would say it's a step in a good direction. The way you arrange percussion could use a lot of work since it sounds too random and gets annoying with things like all the left panned crashes sometimes, but the rest of the composition at least seems to be fairly competent and it feels like you had a good idea with it instrumental-wise for the most part. Aside from percussion, the main things I didn't like are things like the simplistic rhythm of the piano chords (the best piano moment being 1:42), mainly in the intro (falling into the issue of how you handle rhythm with percussion) and the outro, which felt out of place. The rhythm of the guitar though is handled well. Most of the brassy supersaw synth that can be heard at 2:06 is unneeded and just seems to be doing whatever without a purpose that benefits the composition, like a wandering worker not knowing what their job even is, especially with the vocals fighting for the spotlight. Other times when used more in the background, it still comes in kind of randomly and leaves in a way that feels random at times. 2:06 is an example of a part where it works and sounds good in the composition, but by 2:14 the notes just start feeling random. Then there are parts like 2:18 where it sounds like you tried to blend the synth brass melody into the sample brass melody, which would have likely worked better if you gave the synth brass the first held out note and continued the rest with the sample brass. At :08 the synth is alright, but by :16 it starts to conflict with the other held out sample brass sounds, not that the melody itself is bad there. Maybe there it'd work better if you lowered the held out brass by an octave, but then you'd probably have to take out the guitar for those parts. I also would have ended that part (around :31) with a D note just a bit after where you ended it with a C. The 1:20 guitar solo is good, but the synth solo is just okay... and then the second part of the synth solo that starts at around 1:59 just feels overdone a bit in a way that starts to get cheesy.
In short, a lot of the issues seem to come from trying to fit too many things into the track that aren't necessary. As for melodies, I would say also to not be afraid of copying and pasting a part that sounds good and just making slight edits to that if you think it'll sound better than just having a really long melody that doesn't repeat, since most of them at least start out well.
The instruments and mixing make for different issues altogether, and I won't sugar coat it, they mostly sound pretty bad. I did like the sound of the brassy synth and hear you at least added some modulation changes throughout it, but it definitely could come out better with the filtering and mixing done. Almost everything else sounds very MIDI/soundfont-like and I would recommend looking for different percussion samples (of which you can a lot with good quality out there for free) and VSTs like synth1 for synth sounds at least. I know sound libraries can be expensive when it comes to things like the brass instruments, but you can make it sound at least a bit more realistic with things like reverb.
Like I said, the idea is there and I like it, but I think it was also ambitious and definitely seems more like new territory for you. I can see you improving and recreating it as something great in the future or with help from others possibly.

Looking at your other songs though, they all do sound better executed than A Life so Normal to me, leading me to believe it's a style you're just dabbling a bit in right now. Your strongest area definitely is with guitars, although the others still show a few of the same issues I mentioned with things like overdone melody still. I liked the sound of the track named Miku the best, and although it has mainly has the last mentioned issue at times as well, it's nearly flawless in every other way. You could probably easily just edit a few parts out to keep it from getting a bit tiring, and it'd be a really great song (also would be better if the solos had more constant flow rather than stopping for air, but that might be nitpicking).
Really good potential with the more classic sounding rock stuff, and one of the few who even seem interested in going this way. Look forward to hearing you improve, so good luck with it and just keep releasing music.

Also, don't get the wrong idea just because the majority of what I say may be negative.
I'm not saying good luck and to keep releasing just to be nice. Sure, there are people here that can get a way better sound than you may be able to, but what most of them are making sounds like the same things I've heard a million times before already. What you want to make at least seems like it's trying to do something different from the usual stuff in the fandom, and that's why I responded to it.
Wow.
Thanks for that. Very good insight. I`m not offended at all, so don`t worry.

I know my songs are not mixed very good, I don`t have the first idea how to mix them.
I am currently using Mixcraft 8 Pro for everything. Can you suggest a good VST to help with Mixing.
I also have Magix music maker 2016, Studio one3, Sonar home studio Steam version(Not Installed)

Sorry, but I found your remark about drums, percussion and guitars a little funny, I was a drummer not a guitar player when I played in a rock band from 1976 to 1982. I quit cos I got fed up with the constant travelling/touring. Yes I am old now almost retiring age.

I write and play everything myself. I use loops for drum and bassline tracks that I create with an Akai MPK mini. Although I am thinking about buying a electronic drum kit.

Thanks for the comments.
 
Mar 6, 2018
25
I am currently using Mixcraft 8 Pro for everything. Can you suggest a good VST to help with Mixing.
I also have Magix music maker 2016, Studio one3, Sonar home studio Steam version(Not Installed)
I mainly use EQ2 with FL Studio, but when that's not an option, I think the best free alternative is MEqualizer.
As long as you can control where you want the EQ adjustments to be and how wide or narrow you want them to be.
I don't like working with just sliders for that because then you can't do anything real surgical or pinpoint certain frequencies, unless you get a knob for each slider, which then means you'll have to remember which positions are for which frequencies, and it's all just easier imo to have it mapped out visually.
For reverb and stereo related filters, there are a lot of free options out there that have their own various additions and touches.

Sorry, but I found your remark about drums, percussion and guitars a little funny, I was a drummer not a guitar player when I played in a rock band from 1976 to 1982. I quit cos I got fed up with the constant travelling/touring. Yes I am old now almost retiring age.

I write and play everything myself. I use loops for drum and bassline tracks that I create with an Akai MPK mini. Although I am thinking about buying a electronic drum kit.
That's interesting. Well then, I look forward to hearing when you do get an electronic drum kit. I recommend things like EZDrummer for the samples, but I'm sure once you have things like that, the quality would surely improve with percussion considering you've been a drummer. Things like velocity variations from a human playing can make a huge difference, especially if editing midi in depth to add differences in articulation for each note is something you're not as strong in.
The fact that you play it all yourself and record it is a bit of a rare quality nowadays, but can definitely be advantageous to getting a more human sound.
An impressive history nonetheless for someone here.
 

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