"rising Darkness" And "tribal Streets", Two cinematic tracks Options

[OzRob]

I entered "Rising darkness" in the Heavyocity competition which has great prizes - http://www.heavyocity.com/Contest/

Ps. Ugh! "Tribal streets" sounds really bad - something about the Youtube encoding really makes some tracks sound really sloppy and lack definition. Anyone know a way to compensate?

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This post has been edited by OzRob: Aug 19 2010, 07:46 AM

[Saoirse O'Shea]

[...

Ps. Ugh! "Tribal streets" sounds really bad - something about the Youtube encoding really makes some tracks sound really sloppy and lack definition. Anyone know a way to compensate?

Sorry Rob - not had time to listen so I'm guessing here...

Youtube adds additional compression to audio/video and that can result in issues. It tends to be particularly noticeable if you have audio that is close to peaking at 0dB - Youtube will often take that and result in an over-compressed and heavily limited work. For Youtube (and pretty much all the similar sites) keep peak levels down to -1dB.

Also, I tend to find Youtube material to be poor EQ wise. Not necessarily the original material but what results. Too much low mid @150-350 Hz and a lack of clarity in the high at 2-5k and often a sort of nasty, over bright top end at 6k up. If I know somethings intended for Youtube I'll try and allow for this a bit at the mastering stage.

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[OzRob]

Tony, thanks for the ideas. I'll play around a bit and see what kind of results I can get. Cheers mate.

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[Vasilije Vukmiro...]

My god, this is so professional, it really keeps your attention!(Rising darkness)
TEACH ME!

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[OzRob]

Hey Vasilije, thanks - that's a huge compliment.

I'm not sure I'd know how to teach. For me, it's very intuitive.

Invest in very good quality virtual instruments unless you already know how to manipulate sonic material and can get anything to sound good. "Native Instruments" is essential for the dark industrial feel I try to achieve.

Listening to a lot of my tracks I think these are the main keys to what I do:

1) Start with a rough mental image of where I want the track to go.
2) Build up layers of instruments, adding velocity/intensity and/or volume to heighten suspense/mood,
3) Keep melodies/leads simple and repetitive during strong action moments
4) Deflate tension instantly with big hits and then rebuild
5) Progressing towards a climax, keep adding layers of percussion that occupy different sonic space - ie. start with heavy, low freq rolling drums, then add mid-freq drums then overlay with metallic tings
6) Pan background effects (like rattles or metallic scrapes) to give a sense of movement
7) Occasionally add breaths, pauses or sweeping sounds just prior to big hits to add a sense of anticipation
8) Reverb is your friend with this genre

Hmm...if I can think of anything else I'll come back and add it.

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[Vasilije Vukmiro...]

@OzRob

Thanks for your advice.
Who long did it take you to learn to compose and arrange like that , do you have some degree in music or similar?

I am really interesting to go from guitar playing(where I have great knowledge) to composing(where I have no knowledge)
so I am really fascinated by your music, I listened to few of your previous tracks, and I thought WOW.
I mean, I know to compose stuff in traditional melody/harmony/rhythm manner, but this is more like dynamics/sounds/ and other non-traditional music elements.
For example I have lots of those VSTs and instruments, it' really confusing, there are so many of them, so many knobs, sliders, I really don't know where to start. It could take years to get into all that. And when I think of additional effects, plug-ins, samples, oh mine...

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[Staffy]

Sorry Rob - not had time to listen so I'm guessing here...

Youtube adds additional compression to audio/video and that can result in issues. It tends to be particularly noticeable if you have audio that is close to peaking at 0dB - Youtube will often take that and result in an over-compressed and heavily limited work. For Youtube (and pretty much all the similar sites) keep peak levels down to -1dB.

Also, I tend to find Youtube material to be poor EQ wise. Not necessarily the original material but what results. Too much low mid @150-350 Hz and a lack of clarity in the high at 2-5k and often a sort of nasty, over bright top end at 6k up. If I know somethings intended for Youtube I'll try and allow for this a bit at the mastering stage.

Thats true Tony, but also the compression/sound is worser at 360p. If You upload a HD clip and then play it back at 760 and higher - THEN suddenly all the treble sounds normal..... Besides this "phenomena" I found the best way to do it, is to encode the movies in .flv or .f4v before You send them up. And also encode the MP3 stream at 225 kb/s instead of the default 128 kb/s in my video proggie. (Premiere)

//Staffay

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[Saoirse O'Shea]

Thanks Staffay. That info is very useful

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[OzRob]

Vasilije,

I don't have a music degree and I hardly know theory. I always have to look stuff up like keys and chord progressions. It's very painful actually.
What happens is I hear the music in my head and then I work with my software to get it out. Sometimes it flows, other times the projects sit there unfinished. It really is an intuitive process for me - I don't have strong musical knowledge. In terms of time, I've really only been doing this since March this year but I seem to have an affinity for it. This is the soundtrack of my mental life, in a sense. I'm just recording what's already playing in my mind.

Generally too, the stuff I'm writing is intended for film/tv/video games so it's fluid and keeps evolving. Verse/chorus/bridge/chorus etc structures have little use in sync music ("sync music" meaning synchronising of sound to moving images) where of a whole song maybe only 30 or 60 secs will actually be used.

So I'm not an expert by any means but I'll share some ideas that do work for me.

How would you start? Go back to some of your guitar based songs and remove certain instruments to create space. Then try using virtual instruments you'd never work with for traditional guitar band stuff - visualise what kind of sound might work then add an instrument that complements the feel of the song. Use evolving synth pads in the background to keep a mood. Look for natural places in the song for building up to climaxes then keep layering instruments to add to the mood you're trying to create. Volume fades in and out are key to weaving different textures together.

Probably one of the simplest ways to break out of a traditional guitar mindset is to ditch rock/metal drums. Use taikos, timpanis, orchestral toms and percussion. I'm working on some tracks right now that could easily be straight metal but by using orchestral drums, a completely different feel emerges.

Another good starting point is to sit down with a piece of paper and watch a snippet of a movie, tv show or film trailer. Mute the sound and just watch the screen. On the paper draw a wavy line that would represent how you think the sound should be: slow, flat background then moving up as tension builds, then sharp drops etc. Below that, write in the instruments you think would work to create the mood for that line. eg. synth pad for background with very light percussion, then as the line moves upwards add in say strings and brass, and so on. Basically draw a road map of the sound, then create it.

A third way which really works for me is to just go through presets in my virtual instruments until I find something interesting. Then I'll just play around on the keyboard until I find a riff or melody that has promise. Once I have that, I'll sit back and think about how a song could build around it, then I just keep adding layers.

So these are ideas that work for me. Just experiment. Try structures and sounds you wouldn't normally touch and you'll be amazed at what can come out.

Hope that helps.

Rob.

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[OzRob]

post deleted - see new thread "Nailing tool"

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This post has been edited by OzRob: Aug 25 2010, 11:53 AM

[The Uncreator]

Little late to this but the tracks are sounding excellent as always.

You should do a musical piece that follow the countdown and launch of a shuttle, or missile or something - I think you could do something cool with that.

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[Vasilije Vukmiro...]

Rob, once again, thank you very much... Very helpful.
I will do this thing with paper you recommended, it makes sense...

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