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Hey guys, so I made a cover of a song by Leslie Hall called Tight Pants (Body Rolls)

I've been in love with this song since I heard it. Made the cover to try and get it out of my head and I realized that I make my songs far too empty. I've tried quite a bit, but being limited to a single DMG with a single LSDJ cartridge I don't feel is a good enough excuse to have such an empty sounding track.

I've tried levelling instruments, putting a bit more in the wav channel, filling up the pulse channels with as much as I can that's complimentary (Kick is pulse, immediately chain a bass rhythm behind each kick while using the other pulse channel for vocals and wav for a complimentary melody or bass)

I've also noticed that my noise game is pretty shitty. My drums sound pretty tinny and empty and small. I think it's because I can't stand sitting here listening to the same sound OVER AND OVER to try and fine tune in a sound I'm going for (Hi-hat/snare is pretty simple, but I can't do anything else and even my hi-hat/snare are pretty junky.)

The BIGGEST problem I have with this song is that I don't know how to get the intro to sound any better either.... I mean, if you listen to the original it's pretty... Dissonant and odd, and I just can't peg that tone without making it just sound like shit. HUGE ups to anyone who doesn't mind helping me through that. (Particularly the vocals)

My biggest concern for my music is that I've looked into lots of instrument guides and I just can't find meatier sounds.

http://chipmusic.org/jiar/music/leslie- … ight-pants

Any cc on getting my song to sound more full or just the song in general (Especially improving the intro and the bridge before the ending chorus) is greatly appreciated. smile

Last edited by jiar (Jul 17, 2016 12:40 am)

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Naptown

So here's my suggestions for the intro

-Don't use pulse kick. Unless you seriously need to, you can make kick sounds that are 1,000% better in the wav channel than you ever can in pulse.
-Use your E commands in every channel. Don't forget you can use those for echo effects but it also just helps to make the sound more dynamic.
-In general, you can get away with a lot less than you think you need, especially bass. It's easy to add a lot in the bass, but I've found that you should use the absolute minimum amount of bass notes that you need to.
-You can emulate some of the weird vocals by using both pulse channels at once. In some of the vocals they are doubled and sung at different pitches, so play different notes on each pulse. You can also use a couple of different instruments, like make one that has some difference in the fine tuning and use it in both channels at once to make it sound more doubled.
-To emulate vocal bends use L01 to do a slow legato bend from one note to the next (like the note "pants" in 0:18-0:20), or use P01 to glide up.
-Noise hi hats are typically done with noise shape FF and a very short env like E61, or E62 open hats maybe E67 or E68. Snares are greatly helped by using a table to automate the shape of it so it doesn't sound flat.
I made a short demo of what I came up with using some of these tips: http://picosong.com/t2B9/
Hope this helps you.

Last edited by urbster1 (Jul 18, 2016 2:26 am)

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(ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧ el ass dee j

I was waiting for someone to cover this. Thank you.

In terms of CC, you have good compositional techniques but I would still try to vary stuff up even if it is a cover.

Study tables to the max, work on instrumentation all the fucking time.

Also don't overdo pitch bends and be mindful of using bass. You seem to use the low end spastically (not to say that it's not there at all) but it def needs to be more prominent or legato.

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Wow. Holy cow. I've asked for CC in the past and usually get a quick "use more X" or something that's so open ended it feels like I was just dumped in the ocean.

I can't thank you guys enough!

Urbster, when I get a chance to, I'll be listening to that demo and I'll come back to probably ask more questions - You said a lot of things that I feel like I was too lazy to truly pull off and you pointing out the single-channel vocals being lacking for some of the more awkward pitches tells me that you also noticed the "perfect" timing throughout the song as well. I didn't deviate from standard timing at all even though Leslie does. (You've already given me a pretty good idea of what to try out since I don't think I ever even remember the Legato command for any of my songs. (I was proud for remembering that Vibrato existed for this song. I'm a sad creature.) And thank you for the advice on the Wav Channel kicks - would you happen to have any instrument recipes for a good wav kick for me to go off of? I legitimately rely on pulse kicks for nearly EVERY song I do as it stands so this would be revolutionary for my melodies. (And I won't be able to thank you enough)

Nanode, You're welcome for the cover. I'm sorry it's cut-rate and I'll try to improve on it so that you can fully enjoy it. smile (Also thank you for the compliments!)

When you suggest that I study tables, would you have a good resource or model examples? I'm sorry if I'm asking too much but I'm a slow learner - I really learn by doing/mimicking more than just reading or experimenting (I have little faith in my own abilities, so experimentation usually just winds up in horrid self-criticism)

Thanks for not being afraid to criticize my over use of bends... They weren't very dynamic, and I somewhat noticed that myself when listening to this again - I actually went back and replaced a few bends with vibratos just to offer some variation because I used even more than there already are. I guess I'll also have to experiment with Legato/Chords for the chorus considering the whole chorus is just a series of bends (And I now see that it's more detrimental to the sound, when I originally thought it offered some variation)

Thanks a tonne guys. I really appreciate the CC. smile

Last edited by jiar (Jul 18, 2016 2:09 pm)

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Naptown

If it were me I probably wouldn't worry about the variation in timing, but if you wanted you could use D commands to emulate that. I actually didn't notice it. The difference in pitch would be more important to me, but that's my personal taste.
For a wav kick I usually try settings like these. Your mileage may vary, depending on the tempo you may need to adjust the P commands in the table.
https://i.imgur.com/ub0Sd9k.png

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Awesome. I honestly should just go through the effects tables and read the descriptions again and start using more commands. I've honestly always been intimidated by messing with some of the commands and can't even fathom swing or how I'd use it.

thanks for the Wav Kick - I'll start messing around with that as much as I can. Seriously can't thank you enough Urbster. smile