Commodore Remix

poke16384 wrote: ↑<span class="hotdate" style="color:#888;">06/09/2019 - 22:06</span> Hi Vosla... Long time, No speakeeee!

Had nothing to say and just lurked in the shadows.

@buzzard

Had another couple of listens through... because you've lifted the bass-line an octave or two, it's sort of taken away the low-end drive, (vs the original), assuming you're trying to achieve some degree of familiarity. On the middle-8, the background arpeggio is more prominent than the lead line. I think it's partly because the notes of the arpeggio are long, (almost joined). Maybe shorter note-lengths would ease it back in the mix..

The slow-down, towards the end is quite steep and feels a bit awkward, (to me anyway). If it's there just to add a bit of variety, I'd maybe lose it and find something else instead. If you put a more constant bass-line back in, you can always drop the bass-line for effect, (from time to time).

Another possibility, for variety/effect.. Instead of just slowing the tune down, take a finished mix [without the slow-down], minus the drums, (.wav file) and.. at the part where you slow the whole tune down, slow it down in an audio editor, (goldwave/audacity, etc), I would say, slow it quickly over maybe 1 bar but then build back up more gently over 4 bars... Put that back into your DAW and sync your drum-track to it.. (I've definitely heard that effect done before in dance tracks).. The pitch of the whole track drops with the speed but the drum-kit stays solid at it's normal pitch.. It will take a bit of work to do it but the finished effect is quite dramatic.

Another trick is to use a phaser/phase shifter on 1 section... this is another thing I've heard previously on all sorts of tracks.. Obviously, this is done on the final .wav file in an audio editor.. select 1 verse/measure etc an apply a shifting phase to it.. the tracks goes thin and then gets fat again.

You could always add harmony notes to the lead-line.. That would definitely make it stand out more.. The SID track is/was limited by the C64's 3-note maximum.. You don't have that restriction.. If you use a high harmony, it needs to be a fair bit quieter than the lead-line or the whole melody will sound off & weird. Low 3rd harmony works well, (I use it a lot in my remixes)..

Hope at least some of this is useful...

OK... So I'm getting it now. FYI, I'm using Renoise as my DAW as it just plain wrong to do Commodore tracks in anything else - top down or not at all!

I have spent the last week and a bit locked away EQing - I'd EQd the mushiness from individual instruments, but this made little difference, and thanks to the advice above, I then grouped the relevant tracks and began cutting the overlapping frequencies. Thanks to the wonderful Fabfilter Pro Q3, I could apply some science to the whole process as I could see where the issues were - this helps when you have hearing issues.

Based on everything I've read, I mostly cut and only boosted a little, to address the muddyness.

Also, the 'less is more' from daXX, came into effect and I eventually muted one of the instruments that was clashing so bad, it was barely audible and trashed the sound of another instrument and the strings (which I've changed and EQd), only bringing it in when it fit. I also mixed the whole thing in mono first, which I now understand the benefit of doing so - once it sounded clearer in mono, I then had a decent foundation, which I didn't have previously.

I've changed the cymbal and taken a good few notes out - there are still a good few in, but I've put them where (I believe) they give a kind of Wagneresque atmosphere.

With that said, I'm happier with the sound now, but I also know there's still more work to do. I've done nothing on the master track yet and I'll be fiddling with a multiband compressor to blend it better.

I at least hope I'm going in the right direction, but here's the latest version:
https://soundcloud.com/aidy-burrow/ocean3eq

I think I still need to boost the low end a bit...