Something a little different from me here. No orchestra this time. I'm responsible for drums, bass and guitar in this collaboration (and I made the video)
So, recently I noticed that there are times when I just don't know what to do: a track has a nice melody and a good rhythmic/bass line underpinning, but it's just not as full as I want it to sound. None of my usual routes were providing the answers I seemed to need, so I moused around for awhile and found this series of videos by Ryan Leach about McKay's orchestral textures. No doubt this is old news to the more experienced among us, but I found it pretty enlightening! Some things I guess I already knew, more or less, but having some nice audible examples really helps. I'm not much for reading notation, but the examples he uses are simple enough that the scores serve as a visual aid, almost like seeing piano roll tracks stacked on each other.
I included individual links to each texture's video below. There's a final one that just plays back all his different versions of the theme in each texture after Hybrid.
When I use FL Studio, I have access to a nice pad plugin called FPC that allows me to load up whatever samples I want and make drum kits. I can then program or play drum parts on the keyboard on a single track instead of having to do everything as a its own track. Surprisingly, I can't seem to find a similar freeware option to use in Reaper. Does anyone know of anything similar? I suppose I could also just map samples as kits in Kontakt or another sampler, but a plugin like FPC has some nice workflow optimizations that just save time.
Just for clarification, I'm using the keyboard to play parts or just sequencing them. I don't have any hardware pads and don't plan on getting any.
There's been some talk about time signatures here lately, so I figured I should post some songs that might be useful for either practicing your ear or just fun examples of odd meters in a melodic context (as opposed to, say, djent/math metal type "weird for the sake of weird"). I have only included songs with passages in mixed meters, since a single time signature throughout is IMO a little too easy, though feel free to add your own examples to the thread. Now, since odd time signatures is a staple of prog rock, it should come as no surprise that most of these are from that genre. Aside from Subdivisions, I have linked to the time codes of certain parts I wanted to highlight, but by all means, listen to the entire songs!
I learned that Kansas violinist Robby Steinhardt passed away just recently, so it feels fitting to start off with one of the band's most well-known tunes:
There's tons and tons of examples in the prog genre (if you're feeling particularly masochistic, give The Dance of Eternity or Death of Balance a shot), I just felt these are a little easier to grasp due to the time signatures being so closely tied to the melodies.
Ok, this tune may not be to everyone's taste, but I've been listening to a lot of this kind of stuff as I've begun to tackle time signatures and meter seriously for what is probably the first time since 2005 and my one theory class in college. I admit ignorance on a lot of that stuff. I often just set my simple meter to triplets when doing "heroic" stuff in the past, but that isn't going to fly anymore.
One thing I've learned is that it seems you can usually trust whatever your compulsion to tap or nod your head might be to get a good start on determining meter--that general feeling is where it starts. I sure wish someone had done a better job explaining to me that pulse and beat are not always the same thing, though. But, especially in metal music, it can be tempting to assume what is compound to be simple when it's a particularly fast compound part (which paradoxically can feel slower at times).
So this track feels like it's moving pretty seamlessly between simple and compound meters. I'm hearing it start in a simple triple meter and going into compound duple, then changing between simple and compound duple pretty fluidly throughout the track. Pretty standard for metal, I think. Am I on the right path here? fast double kick and blast beat rhythms are usually pretty easy to feel as compound; fast skank/thrash-beat derivatives tend to feel "simple," and can trip me up.
It's a Jazz drum kit library, though we also added GM-style percussion from VSCO 2 and other sources so that it'd be largely GM-compatible. It's compatible with Sforzando or ARIA Player (the GUI won't show up on Sfizz, but I suppose the patches should still work in theory).
There are also a bunch of other really cool entries, so consider checking everything out and voting on your favorites. Sadly not a ton of sample libraries, but a good amount of synthesizers and effects. Everything is by definition free and a lot of it is open source too: https://www.kvraudio.com/kvr-developer-challenge/2021/
This is what I've been up to lately. I'm trying to release a new video once every 2 months. My previous one was released about 2 months ago. I already have another one finished and ready to go for release 2 months from now. I'm just beginning to think about what I'll publish 4 months from now. This arbitrary schedule seems to be just the right amount of motivation for me to continue to casually create new music/videos and enjoy the process. Not sure how long it will last. Coming up with video ideas is tough.
It's been quiet around here for a while. Just curious what everyone is doing these days? Still making music, sampling instruments, writing books, developing plugins? What's new?
I finally got back to making music after a long hiatus (crap year!) and wanted to write something that made me feel happy.
I posted this track a couple of days back and I WAS happy with the mix.
The drums sound a bit boom-y on commercial speakers and the lead guitar sounds a bit over-compressed (not much compression going on, maybe 1-1.5db at times) and lacklustre.
I have tried boosting the high end of the lead but still not much of difference. I plan on releasing this track again and was hoping if someone could help me out.
Around the 2:05 - 2:15 mark, I hear a bit of phasing on commercial speakers but I don't hear that on my mixing set-up. Is it an issue?
I know the arrangement is weird but I was writing for myself
