Thanks to a new job and getting married I didn't have the time to release anything since April - but I've been working on several things and this had to get out there in time and so here it is. Cheesy Halloween with a lot of cliché references.

 

Great song... Love the chorus... The guitars... The lyrics... super entertaining song... Great video too... Congrats...

Only suggestion... The drums could be more forward and aggressive...

Congrats on having gotten married!

 

great song really like it !

 

Dude! Like it!

How do you edit and record videos like that?! They are very professional.

 

Thanks to all of you!

@Kinghtsurfer and @No Avenger : What aspects of the drums, sound or playing? For the latter I have to admit that it's the only instrument I don't actually play so it's a little hit and miss with each song (and I will never try working with a real drummer again...what a waste of time)...for the former: suggestions or anything specific I might look into?

@metaller
Step 1: get a decent camera with good video auto focus (I've got a Sony A5100). So avoid DSLRs and go for a mirrorless one for video (can't say anything about the widely used Panasonics or recently released Canon Rs / Nikon Zs but most of them got phase detection systems ON their sensors which drastically increase video autofocus performance). Also: if you got the money, get a good lens. The 16-50mm Sony kit lens is crap as even the 50€ Lensbaby Muse (the close-ups in this video) shots are waaaay sharper. Also also: Use a tripod. Not some gorilla pods, card board boxes or sth. like that.
Step 2: don't buy an expensive "green screen", get a huge sheet of green fabric (mine's 3m x 3m) and a lot of lighting. I use cheap LED panels as they produce soft light by default and if you get 4-6 from the same manufacturer you get the same light color and nice even lighting if positioned correctly (correctly depends on Step 3 from time to time).
Step 3: have ideas on what to do with the source material by searching for backdrops etc. BEFORE you film so you have an idea about angles etc.
Step 4: practice. this is my 29th original music video and more than 40th overall. If you look at them from the beginning to now you can clearly see the progression. I had no idea about color grading until #17 and only used white balance which I knew from photography. And blend modes for overlays etc. etc.

 

The playing is fine... I only meant make them more audible in the mix... Exactly how, @No Avenger will have better pointers...

 

Sound advice...

The subtleties of compression are still a mystery to me...

 

Hm, there is very little compression on the main out (2:1 and barely moving GR meter - and that not even 100% wet; just a little glue). So it must have happened during raising the output during """mastering""" using KClip with a ceiling. I'll admit that I just use reference tracks for the audible level and am done with that. There's nothing else to be gained for me there so I just make it louder using the ceiling as last line of defense and be done with it. And I only do that because I am myself annoyed by tracks that jump in levels too much.

I'd prefer to do nothing after mixing but then 99% of the comments (outside of this forum) would be as useful as "it's so silent, it's too quiet, I can barely hear it..." by non-audio people who love to state the obvious (or like the one guy who commented on a lack of bass using his laptopspeakers...I can't get over this one even after three years...). I'll check the overall output of the "mastering stage" before I upload it to bandcamp. Should be the cause for this as I really don't pay much attention to it and I actually would've no idea where else further compression could come from. so far!

Not an edit but I loaded the project to quickly check it in the meantime: kept the meters on PEAK/RMS instead of my usual K-something so that could've been at least part of the problem. Will post the bandcamp-link here later today or this week( when the coverart is done). Should be better - sounds better with KClip disabled rightaway even though way quieter...considering skipping this stage altogether in the future now.

But overall: parallel compression, subgroups, etc. is all happening - I am way too lazy to manually adjust every single thing after I've balanced the instrumental groups within themselves. The heaviest compression is on one of the background vocal groups. Something like 5:1 ratio and working constantly while there's a signal). And the bass in total but I just use several "weak" comps on top of each other until it's controlled enough.

And the only sidechaining that's happening on this song is the kick triggering veeery slight compression on the bass so the attack of the kick cuts through a bit easier if necessary. And not even all the hits trigger this sidechain.

 

And this is not a joke and I wish I made that up. It was at the very beginning of my little project when I checked out every little bit of feedback twice just to learn something. Tried to find a problem with the bass levels for roughly two hours until two other people chimed in to say that there's no real problem there and the guy admitting he was listening on his laptop speakers.

That's the dangers of the internet: you never know where the comments are coming from. Experienced audiophiles, morons, people with top-notch gear but no knowledge, people with crap gear but wisdom to fill books...and people checking out subbass with a pair of ALDI-computer speakers that cost 20 bucks (that's based on something that happened before I made music...you know those speakers with an "X-tra Bass" or "Ultra Lo" Switch?...)..


So it's now on bandcamp

Although I now feel it's a little bit on the boomy side it was a perfect storm of fuck-ups. I normally exit mixing with -6db on the Master Bus VU (not the fader, that stays at 0). Forgot to check that and it was hotter than that. The mastering consists of an instance of SDRR2 and KClip aaand somehow SDRR2 didn't load the preset I stored with my "mastering"-""chain"" and loaded something that added further makeup gain. So KClip had to work a lot. A lot. Yeah. Note to self: do not hastily release your stuff just because you thought you were happy with the over all mix for once and the video was already done and just waited for the final audio...oh my..

 

Last edited: Oct 28, 2018

XD that nearly made me fall off my chair!

Yeah, it really shows. Thx for the other tips, too. Anyway, you've evolved a lot, weird that I feel proud of ur "journey" to fully-fledged media giant behemoth with added video slickness! :D Also, congratulations on getting married!

I'm definitely an experienced moron, but I loved the track - it feels as if it could be (and you should!) be filling stadiums! The drums do feel quite lost in the mix, maybe toms / kick lil too squashed & similar timbre; prolly tried to (wisely) tame hi freq, but crash seems like the only white noise you can hear in the rhythmic part - maybe some more stereo width (tamborines?) to cut through and give a lil bit of groove / emphasis? I loved all the guitar elements, tho, great contrasts too! Not cheesy at all, well, not in a bad way! =)

 

It seems that you put a lot of work into this project, liked

 

ficking awesome dude !!! how did you do the video effects? what soft???? please?

 

@korte1975
which ones? Color keying? Color grading? Moving backgrounds/elements? Overlays?...

As of now I am using Premiere Pro but I'll move on to DaVinci Resolve asap (with a new computer - my current one's gpu is too old and not supported). I'll strongly suggest to learn everything in DaVinci as Premiere is shit. Plain and simple. Adobe has been in a position of power too long so the usual stuff happened (slugglish behaviour, bloated code, pointless interface changes, missing this and that...) - avoid at all costs and go for the way better alternative (also: DaVinci is basically free as you really don't need any of the paid version's exclusive features, especially not if you're just getting started).

Two things to start with: color keying and color grading. The rest is forced creativity by limitation...

 

Last edited: Nov 5, 2018