[Toasty]

So I've been spending some good quality time with FL Studio 9 getting acquainted with it and stuff, and since The Elemental Stars has always been my favorite track from the GS series, I figured I'd play around with it a bit.

So here's what I've got:

Elemental Stars 2.mp3

Drum beat is incredibly repetitive because it's hard to make something that flows from 6/8 time to 5/8 time smoothly, and I've been busy with other stuff anyway. So consider this a work in progress that will probably never get finished. Maybe.

[ThankMeLater]

not to hate dude, but that's not really a track, so much as it is a somewhat boring loop with you experimenting with chords and VST presets. Still takes work, for sure, but it's not really a fleshed out song.. its just... noise? but not in the extremely bad grindcore metal noise.

[Sea of Time]

I forgot how awesome the Elemental Stars track was. You've got the right idea here, but you need to at least change tempo in places. Great start though, kudos to you for doing something I couldn't.

[Golden Legacy]

The drum beats work well enough with it. You need an additional "layer" of track though, maybe add in some synth. It's a good foundation to work with for sure, nice one.

[Toasty]

ThankMeLater, on Apr 20 2010, 02:14 AM, said:

not to hate dude, but that's not really a track, so much as it is a somewhat boring loop with you experimenting with chords and VST presets. Still takes work, for sure, but it's not really a fleshed out song.. its just... noise? but not in the extremely bad grindcore metal noise.

Dude, it's a stock MP3 with a drum beat to it. That's literally all it is.

My goal is mainly to just elaborate on the drums, and get more acquainted with FL Studio's drum synths in the process. I just thought it sounded kinda cool, so I posted it for people to listen to if interested.


Though I do appreciate critique, I'm mainly looking for opinion on a drum set accompaniment.



All that said, I am working on re-making the Elemental Star track with piano, bells, strings, etc. I already had a start on it in PXTone, so no I'm kinda just transferring that over to FL Studio, and elaborating on it. It's not listenable yet though.


[EDIT] Now that I'm re-listening to the track I just posted, I realize that it could definitely use some mastering. :\ The levels are all out of balance, so yeah, it does kinda sound like noise.

[ThankMeLater]

Toasty, on Apr 20 2010, 10:38 PM, said:

Dude, it's a stock MP3 with a drum beat to it. That's literally all it is.

My goal is mainly to just elaborate on the drums, and get more acquainted with FL Studio's drum synths in the process. I just thought it sounded kinda cool, so I posted it for people to listen to if interested.
Though I do appreciate critique, I'm mainly looking for opinion on a drum set accompaniment.
All that said, I am working on re-making the Elemental Star track with piano, bells, strings, etc. I already had a start on it in PXTone, so no I'm kinda just transferring that over to FL Studio, and elaborating on it. It's not listenable yet though.
[EDIT] Now that I'm re-listening to the track I just posted, I realize that it could definitely use some mastering. :\ The levels are all out of balance, so yeah, it does kinda sound like noise.

probably why it sounded like a loop xD. though like i said, it's still not a full track per se. a song has a progression, a structure, if you will. intro, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus outro. Not every song follows this, but you get my point. yours is just you having fun.. experimenting, not actually making a true song. there's no progression to anything. you're making music, for sure, but none of the stuff you've posted have been full tracks. i dunno, i guess this is just me being real nitpicky. btw, did you ever try remixing that track i sent you? you might have better luck with FL, since you can actually import the samples i sent you.

And I can't really help you on the drum set accompaniment. Cubase doesn't come with any stock samples, so all my drum kits are downloaded, and pretty illegal. i can upload a bunch of samples though if you want... pick through them and such.

and yeah, have fun with mastering. i get someone else to master all my tracks because i fail pretty hard at it.

[AutumnKitsune]

Well to begin with every song or half song has a fluid structure. I think like GL said, you add an extra layer and it wouldn't sound like a constantly looped track per say.

[Lightning Star]

I feel like the original track needs to flow with the beat of the drums...I don't know exactly what it is, but it kinda seems like the drums just kinda were threw on top of the MIDI. *ramble*

but with some work I could definitely see this turning into something really nifty

[Eugine]

Let me see your stuff Skidz. Well, we won't be able to prove it's your stuff... but what's the point lying on the internet?

[Mallick]

Eh, I think the beat goes pretty well with Elemental stars, definitely an improvement. I'm interested in your finished mp3.

EDIT: This part with the toms, starting at about the 1/3rd mark of the song and ending just past half.. did you do that part yourself, or is it part of the actual elemental stars midi? Cause its garbage >.>

[ThankMeLater]

Eugine, on Apr 22 2010, 06:12 PM, said:

Let me see your stuff Skidz. Well, we won't be able to prove it's your stuff... but what's the point lying on the internet?

i could send the samples i used... but you'd probably think i just stole those too. no, toasty can prove it to you if you really want.

[Toasty]

Rainbow Spaz, on Apr 22 2010, 04:17 PM, said:

I feel like the original track needs to flow with the beat of the drums...I don't know exactly what it is, but it kinda seems like the drums just kinda were threw on top of the MIDI. *ramble*

but with some work I could definitely see this turning into something really nifty

Yeah, that's pretty much all it is. :P

Mike Babcock, on Apr 22 2010, 06:05 PM, said:

Eh, I think the beat goes pretty well with Elemental stars, definitely an improvement. I'm interested in your finished mp3.

EDIT: This part with the toms, starting at about the 1/3rd mark of the song and ending just past half.. did you do that part yourself, or is it part of the actual elemental stars midi? Cause its garbage >.>

The drum tracks are actually samples built into the FL Studio drum machine that I altered (all the samples are in 4/4 time, and I needed 6/8). I threw the toms in myself though, but I agree, it sounds horrible. I just needed something in there at the time to make it sound different from the first section.


Keep in mind that this was thrown together in a few minutes as I was experimenting with the drum machine. I just thought that the first section sounded pretty RAD so I threw an MP3 up here.

My goal has been to re-create the Elemental Stars track with more of a dynamic sound, likely with some kind of punk beat or something on the drums to go with. It's been a project that I've been devoting incredibly small amounts of my spare time to, as I've been putting more of my spare time into preparing to manage a network of ~30 computers in a tech prep class next year.

And into reading a ridiculous number of articles on Ars Technica. And by ridiculous number, I mean 60+ a week. :O


Basically, this is something I work on when I'm procrastinating instead of doing homework.