Interlopers.net Forum - Half-Life 2 News & Tutorials

I noticed that AGAIN, I just waltz into interlopers and just dump everything I have on you guys. Sorry about that.

Well, my computer (that is about 10 years old) officially died yesterday. I managed to make this before it's death writhes.

I had a dream that I started falling upward, and picked up tremendous speed as I passed by planets and stars, and eventually galaxies; but somehow I made it back to earth and landed softly on my feet where I started. I tried to capture that feeling in this song.
FLstudio 7 with some external soundfonts.



http://www.tindeck.com/users/Makkon

That drum synth is terrible. Might I recommend the DR-Fusion2 VST. 'Tis free. http://www.odosynths.com/DRF2.rar

Ah, thanks. When I get situated with a new computer (or my old one stops being dead) I'll fix the drum synth. Is that compatible with FLstudio? I'm hoping to move on to Quantum Leap Colossus soon, and dump FLstudio in the trash.

It was good, until the obsessive and obnoxious plucking came in.That ruined the whole song...

I suppose you're right, I've probably become conditioned to the sound, but maybe others find it a little off. When I retrieve my data (which I hope is soon) I can fix it, and make the twang in the pluck more of a base.

Most music studio programs can host VSTs. I think FLstudio is included. If you aren't familiar with VSTs and DX instruments and effects, you really should check 'em out. There are many free ones that do things from a moog synth to vocal pitch correction, which Cakewalk Sonar has built in. I prefer Sonar. If you haven't tried it out, I recommend it.

If all you need is a drum machine, check out Hydrogen.

musically it's quite nice, but as other people are saying, your sound choices are a little off.

The plucking and the drums are the biggest offenders. You need to get either some decent sample libraries like Vengeance, or something like StylusRMX or StormDrum.

In terms of the mix, I found the strings and piano parts to be a little hot/saturated in the lower frequencies. I don't know if you had a sub they are clashing with or if it's the actual sound, but either way a low-cut on those areas would help.

I use Stormdrum with the Kontakt player by Native Instruments (managed to pick it up free) but there's a more updated version of it available now. It's quite expensive though, but it's a fantastic library. I also have Symphobia (and I won't discuss how I obtained that one) which is absolutely amazing, but it's like $1300+. A lot of game and movie composers supposedly use it, I can't argue with its quality. It's roughly a 17gb library.

The FPC plugin in Fruityloops is actually a great plugin, but the stock samples are terrible. FL Studio 9 has more drum kits to choose from, but they're all pretty mediocre. You can create your own kit if you have some custom samples, that's what I do. I don't think you'd need any other drum machine than FPC. The problem is that finding good samples can be really difficult. I found some decent samples at freesound.org, but you need to create a free account in order to download files.

The pluck that came in sounds like the Plucked! plugin. I'd stay away from it since it's pretty static. You also have some distortion in the high frequencies when the stronger pads come in. You gotta make some use of the Parametric EQ 2 effect plugin to get rid of such things, especially if you're dealing with low frequencies (bass and low bass).


Some VSTs I use are the following (none of which are free):

z3ta+

Absynth 4

FM8

Blue

Renegade

Predator

Discovery V2

Albino 3

Surge

Vanguard

Toxic Biohazard (Demo version comes with FL Studio, but it creates a weird sound occasionally if you don't have the full version)

Synplant (Incredibly intuitive plugin, I highly recommend it)


Anyway, all the recommendations here are good. Fruity Loops may seem weak because of the stock content, but when you match it up with awesome libraries and plugins, it's a great program.

You all have some excellent suggestions that I'm going to have to follow up on, thank you. You all seem to know a whole lot more about music composition than I do. I'm probably going to hold off messing with FLstudio and wait until I get my hands on a better program (like symphobia as you mentioned, nub). I really really love music, but perhaps I don't have the articulated skill that I want. I'll keep at it, though.
Here's the current progress. I replaced the plucking sound with some bells. They're the most appropriate sound I could think of, and in all honesty I think the plucking was better.


And.... did I ever show you guys this song?

I like the track but like it has already been said the drums are not very good. You could simply put some compression on them, they are so quite.

The break at the mid-point is too samey.
Change keys, maybe even drop a whole octave or something. You've got a neat vaguely techno beat building to that point, and it disappoints.

Also, the string bit after the break seems off-tempo, Probably just wierdness in the attack on the string synth, but I'd consider moving all of the string bit back a 16th note or something to sync it better.


Over all, I actually really like it, so don't let my criticism get you down.

I really like composure!