Posts by garethcoker

daveydad said
Just had one rejected for: This submission does not meet our sample quality standard. Any thoughts on what this means? Composition or recording quality?

Recording quality. ‘Sample quality standard’ would suggest to me that your piece was orchestral and that the instruments used and your virtual mock-up was not to a high enough standard.

Can you place a link to the piece that was rejected so we can give better feedback?

Yeah, I can see why it got rejected.There is nothing wrong with the music at all, it sounds great, nice arrangement, good mix, etc….

Problem is, structurally, and harmonically it is very similar to the Part One. To the average buyer, there is not really a huge difference between the tracks. To a musician, obviously there are differences.

For me, your 2nd version is definitely classed as an ‘alternate’ version of your first track, and so your 2nd version should be uploaded together with the first one.

Here is an example of something similar from my portfolio. http://audiojungle.net/item/this-new-life/1244444 The 2nd version of this track has a totally different guitar riff, the arrangement is slightly heavier, and the drum beat is different, and the ending is also completely different – but I still think it’s a variation, rather than a new track. That’s probably what the reviewer thought when hearing your track.

Ultimately, it’s pretty simple.

Would you rather have Envato control the quality of your preview file (even if it is just a watermark being added), or would you rather be in control? It’s a simple answer for me, but I guess for others, the time is better spent elsewhere.

In any case, if you want to speed up things you do a lot in your software (tasks you repeat a lot, etc..), you should give QuicKeys a try. It’s an amazing little app, basically it writes macros for you based on tasks that you do. Saves a LOT of clicks and time.

Using this in conjunction with a hardware device like X-Keys -http://piengineering.com/xkeys.php – can save you a TON of time.

The above two things in conjunction are basically shortcuts on steroids. Very handy.

I’ve never understood how it is a pain or why it is a big deal to add the watermark except maybe for SFX guys who are adding hundreds of files. If you’re worried about clipping, use a limiter. Otherwise, just drag, drop, extend the preview loop, render – done.

Come on guys, this thread is so old. Please check the dates of the requests. Mods please lock.

Bright_Ideas said
If you mix into the limiter when you turn the limiter off your mix balance will fall apart. Why not just turn up your monitoring volume a bit and get your mix sounding how you want it with decent headroom left? Then, when you master, you have lots of options for how you want the final sound to come out while preserving your mix balance.

I was taught this (particularly the 2nd sentence quoted) a couple of years ago while interning for another composer. It remains some of the best advice I have ever been given concerning production/engineering..

Put up your track without Ozone 5 / other mastering, and we can make recommendations. Also (and I have done this before http://audiojungle.net/forums/thread/mastering-evaluation/49905 ) put up your track in Item Discussion and allow other people to master it for you.

It depends. I’ll always have certain EQs already applied to some tracks , but generally just ‘thinking’ about things in stems makes things a lot more manageable – as long as you’ve stemmed them well

I’m very careful with use of EQ, I think a lot of balancing problems are actually defeated in the arrangement/composition, especially when dealing with sample libraries. I generally apply reverb separately on each stem too, especially when using convolution reverbs, as reverbs such as EWQL Spaces, take into account the positioning of instruments (and have presets that help this).

One of the biggest offenders in poor mixes are the sub frequencies (below 40 Hz). Most engineers will recommend using a 12 dB/Octave slope to get rid of the low frequencies. Too sharp (24dB/Octave or higher), and your mix might sound thin. Also, reducing the sub in tracks that don’t contain meaningful sub information can help the final volume of the master. In summary, if the instrument doesn’t have meaningful sub information (which will be most of the track) – get rid of it!

When I’ve finished the mix there is usually at least 5 dB of headroom, but depending on the track usually between 3 dB and 10 dB. Most mastering engineers will tell you that it is never a ‘problem’ for a track to be too low. If you are composing/mixing in 24-bits you can go as low as -48 dBFS and there won’t be any noticeable degradation in quality on a final master. The only thing to avoid is any clipping. If in doubt, bring the output down.

HUGE generalization, but if a track is well mixed, a limiter won’t bring out too many bad frequencies.

In short,I recommend to get your track sounding like a mastered track, BEFORE you actually master it . i.e. it should sound absolutely awesome and you should be tapping your feet, or feeling like you could run through a wall, etc… before applying the mastering chain. Generally, if you follow that rule, you’ll be very happy.

P.S. There are plenty of composers, Charlie Clouser being a notable one, that composer/sequence with the limiter on the whole time. There is no right/wrong way of doing it, just find a way that you know WORKS when you present the final result.

I separate the two processes.

I compose and mix on the fly (I have all my stuff bussed out to make mixing more manageable). I’ll master in a new project. Sometimes, I’ll bounce out my bus stems as well into a new project just to relisten and not have to deal with all the clutter of a giant sequence. Generally though if there isn’t time for that, it’s compose+mix on the fly, and then master to help deliver the final sound.

vaisnava said
classy
strip club

Not two things you normally see together