April 29, 201015 yr Did this one for my friend 2 days ago. going with her to this guy in downtown atlanta to have her sing over it. it's kinda long, you really just need to hear the first 90 secondswas done using 3 different samplers. the beat itself, the bass guitar, and the tenor sax is from FL studio 9, the string section is from GPO, and the water effect, the piano, the vibraphone and the acoustic guitar is from Goliath. hope y'all like it 110
April 30, 201015 yr The begining is very nice, actually I think this would fit better in Electronic rather than Rock/Pop, do you want me to move this to Electronic ? In the begining there is some Glockenspiel or kinda pitched triangle, is very much in the background and is sounds nice, but then when more instruments appear, it get completely lost, perhaps you should bring it more to front modifying the Reverb you use. The Main Theme is very nice, and can be heard over and over without annoying, but some extra development would be better, maybe the easier way would be to modulate from C#m to Ebm or F#m. The beat is a bit unattended, you focus a lot on the rest of instruments but the beat could be improved, that tiny hat is ok, but maybe more stuff, a ride cymbal, some Reverse Cymbals from time to time, and a better clap, (I would add a bery little of Reverb to the beat, specially the Clap is too dry and spread some percussions a bit to left, others to right) The End, ok I think this piece deserves a better ending, just you have repeated the harmony so many times that you don't know how to get out of that groove, you can build a similar chord progression and melody to the end, something like this: G#M (from you last phrase) the AM (not C#m again) AM, F#m, Bm, G#M, AM, F#m, Bm, (rall) G#M C#m......... The melody, similar to the existing one, just modify some notes according to the harmony, that's it, it would end nice, for the rallentando, if you're in FL, right click on the speed numbers, and click "Edit Event", then you can draw a line from your current speed (~65 BMP) to 35 in the last bar.
April 30, 201015 yr Author wow thanks. wasn't that detailed of a review. I like the reverse cymbal idea. I had a muted trumpet in there and an oboe at one time but it didn't work at all. as for the reverb and all that it just flys over my head. I can tweak stuff from Goliath like I did with the piano to make it more dense sounding, and the same for any sampler from GPO, but the stuff I use from FL studio I don't know how to add reverb and all that. it's rather confusing. with Goliath you just turn a knob and that's it. the celli is also a huge problem for me, you can barely here it and it's turned all the way up. need to ask around people that use FL studio religiously that glock sounding thing was the vibraphone. but excited to hear what it will sound like with her singing on top of it
April 30, 201015 yr Hm... I also don't know whether this should be in the pop/rock. The beat itself sounds a lot like the stuff you hear in modern rnb productions...no dynamics whatsoever The song itself is rather simple but relaxing, hope the vocal melody isn't too complicated because it might ruin the calm meditative feel of the song.
April 30, 201015 yr I love the chord progression, but the loud clap/snare just didn't fit in too well with the "Christmas" bell. Perhaps you could replace it with a snare rim side stick hit with a lot of re-verb instead.
April 30, 201015 yr Author ? you mean the vibraphone? and yeah I don't know how to do the reverb stuff in FL. so many little knobs in the master mixer that I don't want to tweak the wrong thing and mess up something
May 2, 201015 yr Don't change the knobs of the mixer itself, just add the reverb in "insert 1" and try adjusting the knobs "Reverb" and "Dry" (and maybe "Decay") only... See the pic, I'd say that Reverb: 50% Dry: 80% Decay: 2-3sec are settings compatible for most of needs.
