Feedback for piano underscore?

[denalihighway]

Hey guys,

Sorry bout the delay. Took a few badly needed days off.

I’ve been readily addressing your excellent input above.

Andy your “geekness” is very much appreciated. You guys will inherit the world (if there’s any justice). This stuff is worth my Taxi membership alone. I won’t be expecting much more help (seriously – time I went on my way with this one), but thought I’d post the latest version and let you know what I’ve done to it.

My original concerns about the track were definitely muddiness. I hope the changes I’ve made have addressed it.

Andy I’ve very much taken on board what you were suggesting and the changes you hear are as follows:

- Resolved to tonic

- Re building the dynamics etc. I messed around with dipping in and out of guitar / piano at various places during the first half and just couldn’t settle on anything that worked for me. What I did in the end was just ride the fader on the piano down during the pause bit at 56secs, so that its just providing chordal context behind the guitar strums (which didn’t seem to work on their own) and not out there in the mix. It seems to have the desired effect of a lull before the 2nd half kicks in. I think perhaps I need to finish this piece and move on, unless there was something really fundamentally wrong with it. I could be at it for years. It’s been an excellent learning environment and I’ll implement what I’ve learnt effectively in the next similar piece.

- as suggested, I split the main synth in to two monos and basically did exactly as you said – that seems to sound good now. Originally I had a stereo widening plugin on it, which I do like for more minimal productions/instrumentation, but for mixes with more instrumentation, it seems like it’s a bad choice. Let’s face it, I guess the plugin is a lazy option.

- I’ve taken two synth lines completely out of the 2nd half, as they seemed to be superfluous when I really listened to it. There was the hissy/wirey synth and a breathy lower one. Obviously it’s opened up the spectrum but also, I think it just sounds better – probably for that reason I guess

- I’ve changed the panning slightly on the strings and replaced the cello sample. The other one just wasn’t cutting it really. I think this one sounds better hopefully.

- Also…and I’m not sure if this is completely right thing to do…I’ve done some mirror eq-ing on the Strings Reverb VS Synth reverb to give them a bit more space reverb wise.

- I also did a bit more anally retentive obsessing over the guitar sounds with some gating and EQingetc. The proprietary gate with Cubase is grand but I actually find the gate with the VST amp rack (Steinberg) quite transparent. To my woolly ears anyway…

One area I would like to ask quickly about it the ending? A lot of my endings vary depend on the piece/mood and what seems to sound best with regards to the sustain on strings etc – are there hard and fast rules?

LitttleRedChurch – many thanks for the kind comments and advice also. I Youtubed some Dustin O’Halloran stuff – very cool. I’m big into those techno-screamy, eerie background type stuff on piano score etc.

Link: https://soundcloud.com/stasissounds/fin ... ix-july-23

Thanks once again
Gar

[johnlewitt]

Gareth,

The link doesn't work.

John

[denalihighway]

apologies guys - https://soundcloud.com/stasissounds/fin ... 23/s-srBiJ

Tis a private link (that old chestnut)

Thanks John
Gar

[LittleRedChurch]

More verb on the guitar!! Please please someone tell him!! He doesn't trust me More verb more verb more verbbbbbbbb.

[jeromerossen]

Hi Gar-
Sorry if I’m a little late to the party… enjoyed listening to your track. I really like how it kicks in at 1:25-ish. Very cool. Nice textures.

You asked about your ending. Yes, I think it works. I think however, you could hold your strings longer (midi) and fade them elegantly in your mix, so they fade with everything else. Right now you have them holding for one bar (4 beats…).. I think it could be better if you held them for like 3 bars. See if you like that?

Speaking of strings - your strings sound late to me. I bet they line up just fine in your DAW - but string samples often sound later than they appear (sound like “objects in mirror are closer than they appear “ ). Not sure what DAW you’re using, but if you grab the whole midi string track and nudge it all forward, take a listen…that’ll do it.

Also, you mentioned that this was an emotional PIANO underscore piece. I think the piece is nice - however if you’re pitching it to a piano listing, I would maybe mix the piano higher in the beginning?

Full disclosure - I often let myself accidentally wander into another genre if I’m writing for a listing, finish that idea, hit save, and start again with what I was supposed to be working on .

Jerome

[denalihighway]

Hey guys,

LittleRedChurch - like a lot of amateurs I´m a recovering reverb addict, stop trying to push me off the wagon I´ve been clean for almost 2 months

Jerome - thank you very much for that. Interesting stuff. I´m away from things music for a few days but will attend to it soon after I´m back.

Yeah funny about the ´piano´genre description - it defintely doesn´t accurately describe it. But I was stuck for something so went for piano. Its more an emotional instrumental perhaps. Half guitar, half piano! On a serious note I guess this is something I should pay more attention to as I know screeners and library / publisher people get ticked off about inaccurrate song descriptions..

Thanks again
Gar

[denalihighway]

here is the latest and last I hope , version

https://soundcloud.com/stasissounds/fin ... 16/s-p2Nut

thanks again for your advice - the ending had been bothering me slightly - I had a string fade originally but didn't like it. Now I do - peer pressure!

Gar