[metal/orchestral]Resurrection(.it)

[JimGin]

This is an old song, called -Resurrection- wich I made for the Sabotage competition that was held back in the days lol.
http://modarchive.org/data/downloads.php?moduleid=56709#rsr.it

Im currently making a metal mix of an old nes song wich will be up short to make this return offical

Rate and comments would be much appreciated:D
Hasnt got much attention on the modarchive site haha

[KrazyKatz]

Pretty aggressive stuff man. I think you can tell in the piece that you enjoyed yourself making it. You can see you are also aiming for a natural sound. If you want to make it sound more natural, I'd suggest using different volume variations on the drum kit. When the snare is crescendo in for example make the volumes go softer to loudest. You'll see a huge difference.

Keep on tracking -In the words of S.Z  :wink:

[Harbinger]

Notes on Resurrection

Usually i don't bother listening to other people's mods but i decided to see who we had among us. If you want an honest critique, count on me to give it to you. As long as you understand this is meant to build you up, not dissuade you.

Even after reading the Comments in the .it file, i take it you're the one that assembled this song. First off let me say, there are two facets to every song, the "arrangement" and the "composition". The arrangement (that is to say, how the sounds interact with each other) is very good. Every timbre has its "place", though many of the sounds seemed "diminished" as if they weren't very full. Reviewing the samples i realized the problem: too many samples were 8-bit. As a general rule you want to upsample your sounds to at least 16-bit. This brings in some harmonics that fill up the tones you're using. I also had to turn up the sample volume all the way to the highest level. It's generally a good idea to track with all Global volumes in the center, and without any EQ. Adjust these after you've produced the song to fine-tune the volumes.

Now the composition. This left a lot to be desired, but you knew that. Arranging instruments is a technical skill that anybody can learn, but composing music is a talent that must be developed with experience, education about music theory, and LOTS of trial-and-error. The composition of this song showed an obvious lack of melodic progression, chord progression, and rhythmic structuring, but i saw something there that can be developed. You know what good music sounds like, and obviously you were going for that. But music, esp. rock music, relies heavily on riffs, and i don't mean guitar licks or drum transitions, but rather catchy musical phrases. Very little music can get away with no melodic progression, namely, Trance, Ambient, and DnB, as examples. The same with chord progression. I noticed the entire song didn't switch out of the E-minor chord. This may be what you intended, but it makes the song very uninteresting. Now you can get away without chord progression IF you balance it out with melodic, rhythmic, or sonic progression. You'll find that a lot of EDM does exactly this.

It seems from my experienced ear that you do well with tracking techniques, in which case all you need are tips to help you make it easier when you assemble a track. But more of what you need to make your songs stand out is a thorough understanding of music theory. For that, do what i did, and learn all this on your own (if you haven't already). Read EVERYTHING you can find on the subject, and you can start with reading about the kind of music YOU like to listen to.
As you begin to understand the principles of music theory and why good music sounds good, apply them in your tracks, focusing on what makes music "music" -- chord progression, melodic progression, rhythmic structure, and sonic progression. After a while, you'll find yourself wanting to bend the rules for each of those types of musical layers, until you find your own distinctive style. And i'm sure Sam_Zen will be the first to remind you: "Don't be afraid to experiment!" :wink:

[Saga Musix]

I don't really think you're getting the philosophy of trackers, harbinger.

Reviewing the samples i realized the problem: too many samples were 8-bit. As a general rule you want to upsample your sounds to at least 16-bit. This brings in some harmonics that fill up the tones you're using. I also had to turn up the sample volume all the way to the highest level. It's generally a good idea to track with all Global volumes in the center, and without any EQ. Adjust these after you've produced the song to fine-tune the volumes.

First of all, upsampling 8-bit to 16-bit does nothing. In the end, ModPlug will have to upsample every thing to 32-bit, so why should you waste space if the samples are 8-bit anyway? Writing modules is not really about superb sample quality.
Also, the global volume slider is supposed to be all the way up. I'm not happy with Mixmode RC3 introducing the behaviour of setting the global volume to 64 by default, which is simply wrong.

[Harbinger]

I didn't know trackers had a philosophy. :?

And i beg to differ about the difference of 8-bit and 16-bit samples. I can hear a DISTINCT difference between a sample under 8 bits and the same under 16 bits. It's hard to describe but the 16-bit sample has more "air" in it. The difference is greater when you run them thru sonic effects.

To YOU, tracking (which is only a form of composition) may not be "about" superb samples, but they are an important part of a well-"translated" piece of music ("translated" from imagination to medium). It is why alot of my orchestral music i have not put into software, because i want SUPERB samples of acoustic instruments. It's that important, so i'll wait till technology can help me out.

AND i disagree about the global volume, too.

Boy! Is there anything we do agree on?

[uncloned]

if you start with 8 bit samples and upconvert to 16 bit it does nothing unless you further manipulate the sample to remove noise etc.

starting with 16 bit samples are the way to go.

Is this the source of confusion?


and the philosophy was / is do as much as possible with the least amount of resources - I think.... like programming in assembler - the hack is in the efficiency.

[Saga Musix]

if you start with 8 bit samples and upconvert to 16 bit it does nothing unless you further manipulate the sample to remove noise etc.

exactly. you won't gain anything from upsampling unless further processing is made.

[JimGin]

Yes it was me that created it ofcourse, I had a variety of names before because I could never stick to one wich I liked haha.
I thank you all for your comments and I`ll try to apply them in future releases, as I expand my knowledge, and theory and hopefully come up with more melodic tunes.
loved reading everything it inspires me to evolve even more as a tracker,
and this time im gonna stick with my name, one thing is certain though, my email remains the same

[JimGin]

Ow and Harbinger thank you for your deeper review and taking your time, appreciate it  

[bully34]

Sounds old, indeed. Very nice track though! I love that drum work and some of that guitar work! nj dude!