Hey cakies, haven`t posted for a while, here`s one of my latest, yup it`s MIDI except for my Vocals LOL

http://fandalism.com/alkie/dD4C
 
Cheers,
 
Alan

Alan, congratulations on doing a difficult song.  You did a good job with the arrangement as much as you can with a MIDI guitar.  The great advantage of MIDI is that you can endlessly try out sounds until you're satisfied.  Your vocals are well done with just enough of your own touch for it to be yours.  But, imho, the song as a whole is overcompressed to the point of it becoming two dimensional because of its narrow dynamic range.  If you back off and let the song breathe, ala the original version, I think it'll come to life and feel more natural.  Just my .02, otherwise a good job.

Lynn
Alan, congratulations on doing a difficult song.  You did a good job with the arrangement as much as you can with a MIDI guitar.  The great advantage of MIDI is that you can endlessly try out sounds until you're satisfied.  Your vocals are well done with just enough of your own touch for it to be yours.  But, imho, the song as a whole is overcompressed to the point of it becoming two dimensional because of its narrow dynamic range.  If you back off and let the song breathe, ala the original version, I think it'll come to life and feel more natural.  Just my .02, otherwise a good job.

Thanks Lynn, not sure how to back up on the compression as I only used it on the vocals and it was barely hitting 1db.

Hi Alan,
 
I wasn't familiar with the Kansas song, so I googled that and listened to theirs first.
 
I like this cover. I'm not sure on the mix... Sounds okay to me, but I have to rely on Lynn's expertise here...
 
I've listened to some "MIDI" music in my time and there sometimes you can really tell that they are, especially when they are transcribed directly from sheet music. But this sounds quite good to me. I'd be interested to hear your method of getting this to sound more "human." And is it a guitar sampler that you use?
 
Is your other SoundCloud stuff MIDI? Big Hard Sun doesn't sound like a MIDI tune either.
 
 
cheers
 
andy

Alan, did you use a limiter on the overall mix to make it louder?  Your mix sounds like my mixes when I lower the threshold too much.  If not then I would consider giving your mix a little front to back depth, meaning some elements are closer to the front of the stage than others.  Rather than all elements being equal volume and lined up in a row, if you know what I mean.  This song and version if worth an extra tweak or two because it's a gem waiting to happen.

Lynn
Alan, did you use a limiter on the overall mix to make it louder?  Your mix sounds like my mixes when I lower the threshold too much.  If not then I would consider giving your mix a little front to back depth, meaning some elements are closer to the front of the stage than others.  Rather than all elements being equal volume and lined up in a row, if you know what I mean.  This song and version if worth an extra tweak or two because it's a gem waiting to happen.

Nope , No Limiter.....    What type of set-up are you listening on?
http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o445/alkie2008/Dust%20in%20the%20wind%20meters_zpszcon51re.jpg
 

synkrotron
Hi Alan,
 
I wasn't familiar with the Kansas song, so I googled that and listened to theirs first.
 
I like this cover. I'm not sure on the mix... Sounds okay to me, but I have to rely on Lynn's expertise here...
 
I've listened to some "MIDI" music in my time and there sometimes you can really tell that they are, especially when they are transcribed directly from sheet music. But this sounds quite good to me. I'd be interested to hear your method of getting this to sound more "human." And is it a guitar sampler that you use?
 
Is your other SoundCloud stuff MIDI? Big Hard Sun doesn't sound like a MIDI tune either.
 
 
cheers
 
andy

Thanks Andy, the biggest thing to making MIDI sound more Human is to go into the MIDI file and adjust Velocities of each note... then using delays and reverbs you can get a more human feel to a MIDI File... It`s time consuming and I don`t do it much anymore as I have a few guitarists and drummers online to collaborate with now. Big hard Sun was not MIDI it was a mix of 3 Backing tracks.

Lynn
Alan, did you use a limiter on the overall mix to make it louder?  Your mix sounds like my mixes when I lower the threshold too much.  If not then I would consider giving your mix a little front to back depth, meaning some elements are closer to the front of the stage than others.  Rather than all elements being equal volume and lined up in a row, if you know what I mean.  This song and version if worth an extra tweak or two because it's a gem waiting to happen.

I don`t know what happened as I repied earlier and it dissapeared... anyhoo Nope no limiter on it at all and the mix is very low in levels....I post a screen pic of the meters... What are you listening on? There`s only 2 guitars which ar panned left and right 75% the keys which are centered and behind the guits and the violin on the right and cello on the left... I wonder if its because I did this stereo and the original is mono.

Alan, I have to apologize.  I listened just now and couldn't hear anything wrong with this.  The first time I listened was after a 3 hour mixing session, and my ears must have been fatigued.  Again, congratulations on covering a difficult song and one of my all time favorites.  Rock on!