Help with creating/testing mulit-tracks

[Eiderhild]

Hello everyone :)

Firstly, as this is my first post here, a thank you to everyone who has given me such great advice on learning the music system! I was absolutely thrilled to find myself on a musical server as I LOVE music!

I am a musician IRL (guitar) and often work with midis to create backing tracks so I have been playing with meastro and getting to grips with how it works.

The first challenge was finding files with vocal tracks (I don't usually use them) but I have found some and been experimenting. As I only have 1 character at the moment I was wondering if any good folk would be willing to help me test my first multi-track song and give me some honest feedback. Not sure how to share the file but I am happy to email?

As a side note, I have access to very good quality midi files via ultimate-guitar.com , which I use to find 'guitar pro' files and then use a little program called Tux Guitar to edit (if needed) and then convert to midi. I find these files to be superior in quality to most available on midi websites so if anyone has any requests (or instructions on how to do it) please do let me know!

Many thanks, Eiderhild xxx

[Malvy]

GDPR#3463094

[Malvy]

GDPR#3463094

[Eiderhild]

Hi Malvy, thanks for the reply and I will check out lotro artists :)

I will look at organising a testing event, hopefully on a weekend once I have a few more files! So far i've only done one which is 8 tracks, is that considered a lot or is there a 'sweet spot' number of tracks that is considered best practice? I admit i'm having a little trouble figuring out how to reduce a multi-track song down to 1 or 2 tracks, but its fun trying!

 

I think I might have an old drop box account I can fire up :)

The guitar pro files often have many tracks not just guitar, all the drums and bass and soft pads you could wish for hehe. They are rated by users so you can quickly see which are the best ones to check out :)

 

Thanks again for answering, and I may well give a 3 track song a go :)

 

 

[Glofinwing]

Hi, Eiderhild, I don't think there is really a sweet spot for the number of parts. It just depends on how many musicians you can get together. The Remediators have a lot of 8-part songs and even more; it's just harder to get enough people to play sometimes, without alts anyway. Sometimes it's pretty easy to reduce the number of instruments, but sometimes you sacrifice too much by trying to reduce. It just depends on the song. I would say if you have a great song, just make it the best song you can and don't worry about having too many instruments. Then if you have trouble getting people to play it, in the future, just work on songs that you know will be great with fewer instruments. When I first started making ABCs, I thought I needed a different instrument for each track, but I'm better now at knowing which tracks can be combined on one instrument and when to use more than one instrument for the same track. I'm not a musician though, so you'll probably pick that up much faster. I still rely on Briallan's advice on that!

It would probably be a good idea to plan to test more than one version of the same song so you can hear the difference in-game. I would be happy to help you test.

[Eiderhild]

Good advice thanks, and thanks for the offer of help with testing :)

I do seem to have better luck when using the same amount of tracks as the original midi, at least until I get the hang of reducing them down. I've found that when I do this and listen in the abc player, the levels are wrong. For example, using basic lute for 2 guitar tracks with different volume levels, the volume of the higher track seems to pull the volume up of the lower track on notes when they play together. An interesting effect none the less but not what i'm after hehe

Anyhoo, I stayed up way later than I should have last-night making 3 multi-track songs that i'm quite pleased with, and hope they sound semi-decent in game

Any feedback would be very much appreciated :)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YKll5zhrD70zQUgy81iDex7Gwj6_Xkpm

Eider xx

[Eiderhild]

I'll be around tonight and tomorrow from around 8pm UK time (3pm server time I believe) for a few hours if anyone would like to join me for some testing and general Friday Frolix. I may have wine and sweet snacks to share :)

[Eiderhild]

Apologies for spamming i'm just ridiculously excited about testing some music

 

I have 12 songs to test now, some 6 tracks some 7. They sound ok in ABC (not brilliant but ok, hence wanting some feedback and pointers) so looking forward to hearing what they sound like in game :)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Mihlqt3k5JXdXGV28YC9wEnkhWl37tq8

[Glofinwing]

Those are fun songs, Eider. I like them! I wasn't in-game at that time. Did you get anyone to help you test? If not, maybe set a time well in advance, at least a week ahead, so people will have a chance to plan for it. Also, you might pick your favorite 6-8 songs to test and then see if the comments on those tested would also apply to the others. Or maybe choose a few songs and test different versions. For example, you might test using LOA instead of basic lute in one version or double LOA and basic lute.  Or you might work on balance by doubling instruments in one version (if you've already adjusted volume on individual instruments and it's not enough) and comparing. 

[Eiderhild]

Hi and thanks :)

I managed to get one song tested lastnight which I was very happy with!

 

I will try and organise something more in advance when I know how the next couple weekends are fixed for me (never know if my eldest daughter and grandson are going to visiting until the last minute usually, because I have no life oh no child, I don't need notice lol)

Eider xx

[Briallan]

Hi Eiderhild!

The Remediators can certainly help you test your songs … many of our band members have one or more  alts, so it won’t be a problem testing songs with 8 parts. Once you know which weekend you would like to test, I am sure we can find a time to get people together :)

[Eiderhild]

Thats great thanks! Will let you know :)

Eider xx