Full Length Epic Northerners Battle Theme

[Tyler Johnson]

I think it's a good composition. But it sounds to me like there's a load of compression, and you converted it to a very low quality .mp3

See if you can convert it to a higher quality, it sounds too "jumpy" right now.

I don't know if you knew what goes on when you make a .wav into an .mp3, but it's very important to use the best settings. I'm not going to go into technical details here, but render it with a higher quality setting and it would sound 10x better.

Nice use of EWQL though!

[Velensk]

Even if he dosn't get around to fixing this do you think we could use this? It need a bit of refineing but it is still superior to the current northerner theme IMO.

[West]

Even if he dosn't get around to fixing this do you think we could use this? It need a bit of refineing but it is still superior to the current northerner theme IMO.

TBH I would rather just keep the old Northereners theme. All we have here is an 192kbps mp3, converting it to ogg would introduce even more compression artifacts. Not to mention that the tune in its present state is compressed [i.e. in terms of dynamics] to crap. Better to keep the original tune than replace it with a new one that will need to be replaced again eventually.

Too bad really, I like this piece

[zookeeper]

Better to keep the original tune than replace it with a new one that will need to be replaced again eventually.

Yes or no, depending on how far in the future "eventually" is.

[Tyler Johnson]

Well, what happened to 13 colors? Did he disappear? Maybe he hasn't read the updates and is still working on a newer version. I like the current northerners too though, this one couldn't be "added" on?

[West]

I'm not an audio engineer but there might be some voodoo technique one can use to reduce the heavy compression pumping (using an expander maybe? I seem to remember reading that this might be possible). I sincerely doubt that it's possible to completely undo the effects of the compression though. There's a lot of very knowledgable people on the REAPER forums, I'll go ahead and ask for some pointers there.

If it can't be helped, or it sounds even worse, I guess we could mainline this version until/if TC decides to come back.

[Tyler Johnson]

There's virtually no way to make it sound good.

While you CAN expand it, we don't know the settings he used, even then, the mp3 format is too choppy. There's no way to get the wave forms back in an mp3.

I don't know exactly how much say I have around here, probably not much, but I would vote against mainlining it for now. Are we in a hurry to get more music in the game? I don't think so...

[West]

Sorry Tyler, I must have misread your post completely. I thought you were saying that you wanted us to mainline this tune regardless of its flaws.

I don't know exactly how much say I have around here, probably not much

Maybe it's time for a promotion then. Rain and Jeremy don't seem to spend a lot of time here anymore. You are a valuable contributor, and I definitely trust your judgment. Would you be interested in becoming a Lord of Music?

but I would vote against mainlining it for now. Are we in a hurry to get more music in the game? I don't think so...

+1

We're not desperate for new music. If we're going to replace old tracks, we want to make sure that the replacements are higher quality in every way -- not only compositionally, but in terms of sound quality as well.

[TreizeCouleurs]

Just a quick message to let you guys know I'm still around, and that I haven't run off somewhere (well actually I did, I've been away traveling all around the state, from one outback town to the next, really awesome experience. It's pretty cool when you're staying at the only pub in a town that has a population of a hundred or so), but I haven't abandoned the project as of yet

As for committing this to mainline, please don't. West pretty much sums up the shitola job I've done on the "mixing", and I would be deeply unhappy if it was. As I'm back from my biiiiig adventure now I've got a couple of days at home before I'm off again on a rough as guts camping trip. (hahaha the place we're going to has no toilets, you have to machete your own campsite out of the bush, there are caves and wild dogs, and currently there's a huge snake plague throughout the area so yeah, hopefully I won't die)

Back on track, hopefully a new fixed up version will be posted in the next few days. I will also start working on a new piece if things go well after I get back from the trip.

I am also happy to upload pure wav stems when I return if someone else would like a go at mixing mastering.

About the mp3/ogg issue, because mp3 is arguably better supported currently (Windows doesn't even support it out of the box which is a real shame), I will only upload an ogg when the piece is determined to be finished. I use low bitrates for draft mixdowns primarily because I hate wasting bandwidth, something which is rather overpriced and slow here, it's ridiculous. No kidding, until a few years ago, "unlimited" broadband plans actually meant 20GB download caps and the largest broadband provider charges unconditionally for upload data use !!!

Btw thanks for all the kind words on the piece too. Cheers and happy holidays everyone

[West]

Just a quick message to let you guys know I'm still around, and that I haven't run off somewhere (well actually I did, I've been away traveling all around the state, from one outback town to the next, really awesome experience. It's pretty cool when you're staying at the only pub in a town that has a population of a hundred or so), but I haven't abandoned the project as of yet

Glad to hear it! Sorry about sounding like we were about to give up on you, but it happens that people show up here and post their music just to get feedback, and when they don't get to hear what they want to hear (i.e. "your music is the best I've ever heard!") they disappear again. So nothing personal, as a LoM you just get a bit cynical about these things after a while

I am also happy to upload pure wav stems when I return if someone else would like a go at mixing mastering.

I would definitely like to give that a try! Not because I doubt your mixing skills, I just seldom have the opportunity to mix other people's music and I need the practice.

[TreizeCouleurs]

Hey guys!

Still alive and kicking, although real life's (you know, that thing ...) kinda had the better of me for the past couple of months. Here's my latest mix of this piece, the compression is turned down alot, and the strings are up, among other things. Lemme know what you think, I'm only upping this as a 256 mp3 cause I'm capped at the moment, and I'm basically on dialup speed grrrr. [Ahhh 6mb file took 15 minutes to upload - yikes!]

Northerners V6.mp3 - 6.31MB

To be honest, I'm wanting to get started on a new piece so if you want another battle tune I'm gonna start cooking one up, unless there's something else that needs to be done/replaced? Hopefully I can get this mix fine tuned for you guys sooner rather than later cause I'm starting to get a little sick of it

BTW, anyone use vsl around here? im looking at maybe getting the extended special edition to complement my ewql stuff, wondering if it's worth the relatively large bucket of money they want for it.

[doofus-01]

I'm starting to get a little sick of it

I hope you can get it to a point where you're satisfied enough with it to post the .ogg. It's a really great piece and it would be a shame if it fell by the wayside.

[Tyler Johnson]

Unfortunately I can't listen to the updated piece at this very moment, but I will do so later.

Have a look here:

http://vsl.co.at/en/211/497/1685/1693/1342.htm

It's not a bad deal for what you get. The Epic Horns in that set are amazing. I would suggest buying it just for those. It's an 8 French Horn Ensemble that really is...epic.

Plus you get the Vienna Software (which I don't personally use).

[ancestral]

zshare

No offense, but can’t you put it up somewhere… better?

I think I’ve spent more time trying to download the file than actually listening to it.

(And actually, if you’d like some web space to put stuff up and don’t know who to talk to, let me know.)

[TreizeCouleurs]

Okay, guys will try to up a HQ ogg of this up overnight as I'm on dialup ... don't hold your breath

EDIT: okay heres the link, stuck up on a better file sharing service. Seriously though, I like zshare . The ogg format setting is set to quality 8.0 which is equivalent to a 300kpbs mp3 or so .. i.e pleeeenty.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B4X7CPZS