The Mana World Forums

Ok, I've had another go, if you follow the same link...

http://www.infectedmusicdesigns.co.uk/T ... illage.ogg

Probably not perfect, but at some point, I may re-master as I admit my mixing skills aren't all that great :\

EDIT 01:40am 20/04/2008 - I've reloaded as I just found I forgot to tag this...

This is already something I can swallow easier.

Although now there is a bit too sharp of a contrast between the soft and brittle elements.

The bass is just a bit oversoft and some of the clingclanging [?] high instruments are now highlighted too much IMO.

Also the strings seem to have lost detail.

I think our music team should have a team of composers, someone rendering the songs and a mixer.

The glockenspiel does contrast with the other instruments. This would be indicative of the icy surroundings and therefore a good thing it's in the lead. However, I think your concern may be if there's a gaping hole where there's soft, resonant bass elements and then the glockenspiel. (the clingy clangy one )

I can shave early milliseconds from the glockenspiel samples to soften the attack more - this will lend it a softer quality, but we can still keep that icy sound... sound good

The strings you may be thinking about are the violas. Previously I tend to stick to cellos and violins. I've deliberately used violas (there are also violins in there). They do sound less sharp than violins in their nature, but they can also be more scratchy and scraping to listen to than violins. There are three sets of samples for violas and violins, dependent on bow pressure. I used the softest and middle one to maintain a gentler property to the sound. This might sound like a loss of clarity, but when these samples are taken the instruments are probably muted.

The double bass is still a bit oversoft, will fix that

Hey there,

Ok, same link as before...

http://www.infectedmusicdesigns.co.uk/T ... illage.ogg

Have tried to close that difference between the soft/brittle dynamic. Violas should sound a little more lively...?

Ok, you have gained my trust when it comes to capacity to produce. (As in the full pipeline of composing/rendering/mastering.)

From here on you have immunity from my nitpicking (does not tell you it will not happen, tells you that you can ignore it until you feel like finishing the piece into perfection) and instead of twiddling with details and finishing stuff to the finest details, you can go into mass production.

For the mass production you should come into contact with dave, since he is the most familiar with our world at the moment. As stated on the forums many times over I'd like to have regional themes, arranged transitions between those and a theme of the world arranged from all the main regional themes.

At the moment doing random is good since it's improving the quality and enjoyability of our project, but on the long term it's just first aid.

Also for referrence and the sake of archiving, please use some sort of a versioning/revision controlling on the files you share with us. Just come up with a sensible standard.

I'll propose for something like "nameofcomposer-designphase-songname-revision.ogg". You are free to disagree.

For example this could on the long run mean some poor fellow's song could go through 7 revisions of composing before we are happy, then go into 4 iterations of how to render it and finally be tortured in the merry go round of mixing for 50 revisions. For the sake of tracking what is happening and why (and especially to reduce the numbers of revisions per design phase), the revision control archiving is good. Also gives new people joining in on the fun some interesting insight. Also brings drafts into commentary faster. Cannot see any negative sides to it.

Thanks Rotonen, I do have a pair of high-end monitoring headphones, which I have not been using on the other tracks. I'll switch to these when it comes to the mixdown. I don't mind the pointing out of the small issues, or mixing issues as generally it's one of the main areas that I don't have a great deal of experience in.

The archiving idea sounds good, and you've covered every point why . After the Ice Continent track, I'll pick up this approach and use a standardised filenaming convention as follows

(date)[yyyymmdd_composer_title_productionstage_version.ogg]

So, the same as yours, except for date pre-fix in that order should keep everything arranged chronologically when viewing the files...

Is the version the total rolling version of the song or is it how many times it has been rendered for hearing in its current design phase?

It would be total rolling. We could do 1.x (for each stage, could step up the number, so if 3rd stage is mixing, the 2nd attempt at mixdown would be 3.2?) this might sound a little unnecessary though, I'm not sure... good idea? Awful one?

On another note, I've picked up some nasty crackling where the dbl bass and cello's hit together, I'll have to adjust this and preview my tracks properly before uploading them (hopefully this would be the last time for this track)