Old 09-05-2019, 12:13 PM   #1
E8 Heterotic
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Default Harvest Dance (17 EDO)

Hello, I'm new to these forums. I recently made switch to Reaper from LMMS for many reasons. One reason is that I make microtonal music, and Reaper makes this a lot easier with its customizable piano roll and its scripting capabilities. This is the first song I made in Reaper. It uses 17 EDO/17 Tone Equal Temperament. 17 EDO can sound very similar to the 12 EDO everyone is used to, but it can also sound very different and "exotic." This song is on the more conservative side, because I was getting used to Reaper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnL_EexOnUE

I'm still learning the ropes, especially with mixing (particularly EQ) and mastering, so constructive criticism from more experienced producers would be appreciated.
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Old 09-05-2019, 01:33 PM   #2
karbomusic
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Nice job, I like the 17 EDO, not sure I've heard of it before now. Also listening to Dodecahedron 34 ET which was also cool. I can't offer much production/mixing advice being unfamiliar with the style.
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Old 09-05-2019, 02:00 PM   #3
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Nice job, I like the 17 EDO, not sure I've heard of it before now. Also listening to Dodecahedron 34 ET which was also cool. I can't offer much production/mixing advice being unfamiliar with the style.
Thanks. Like I said, 17 EDO can sound very familiar, but it can also sound very alien. It has better melodic and worse harmonic (at least worse "normal" harmonic) properties than 12 EDO. 34 EDO, on the other hand, inherits all of the nice melodic properties of 17 while have a major third that is actually more in tune than 12 EDO's. In fact, the "5-limit" harmony of 34 EDO is almost perfect.

I tend to write stuff that's kind of synthwave-ish, I guess. I'm not an expert on genres. My music tends to have a lot of different lines going on at the same time, and I want all of them to be heard through the mix, otherwise why even put them in? I basically used only leveling before, but now I'm starting to add EQ to the mixing process, but I'm still learning. I know that you want to "add holes" in the frequency band of a track so that other tracks can fit in and be heard, and I know that you often want to cut-off some of the extreme low end to remove muddiness and the extreme high end to remove hiss and potential hearing damage.

I don't think I need too much compression-based mastering, as that's more of an EDM thing and it tends to take out the dynamic range of a song. Maybe a little would help, but I'm not sure.

I've been using SeamlessR's videos on YouTube to learn some stuff. He makes music in a very different style from mine, but he has a lot of universally applicable advise.
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Old 09-05-2019, 02:13 PM   #4
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I'll chime in on EQ.

The first EQ in the chain is the instrument selection itself followed by orchestration (when/where each instrument plays in relation to the others). You'll not hear about this so much these days because it's buried under all the "fix it in the mix" noise (it's called mixing not fixing ) - but it's always smart to consider the available frequency range, where each instrument falls within it, and choose voices that fit in the sonic holes of others - truth be told, many of the instruments we have today are what they are because they are filling particular areas of the spectrum - if we do a great job of that, less EQ is needed at mix time.

I'm assuming you know all of ^this based on the complexity of your work but I always like to mention because that is the "original EQ" and we want to get that as right as we can before we start "carving holes" for instruments - I kind of cringe anytime I hear the word carve and EQ in the same sentence.
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Old 09-05-2019, 06:09 PM   #5
E8 Heterotic
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Quote:
Originally Posted by karbomusic View Post
I'll chime in on EQ.

The first EQ in the chain is the instrument selection itself followed by orchestration (when/where each instrument plays in relation to the others). You'll not hear about this so much these days because it's buried under all the "fix it in the mix" noise (it's called mixing not fixing ) - but it's always smart to consider the available frequency range, where each instrument falls within it, and choose voices that fit in the sonic holes of others - truth be told, many of the instruments we have today are what they are because they are filling particular areas of the spectrum - if we do a great job of that, less EQ is needed at mix time.

I'm assuming you know all of ^this based on the complexity of your work but I always like to mention because that is the "original EQ" and we want to get that as right as we can before we start "carving holes" for instruments - I kind of cringe anytime I hear the word carve and EQ in the same sentence.
Yeah, this is one of those points that is obvious once you hear it but you don't think of beforehand.
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Old 09-11-2019, 03:08 PM   #6
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I love the pitch smearing (for want of a more elaborate description).
1:16 --> 1:20
3:06 --> 3:15
a fiddle music piece made with synths...interesting
I like microtonal,I load tuning files sometimes...drawn to Bohlen pierce 11/12 and others from bagpipe to greek and european,meister-t,kirnberger etc.
I like em...lots, but sadly I know nothing academic about em,just that they are seen as "alt scales" that could be the best choice for certain end results.
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Old 09-11-2019, 03:31 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by prom View Post
I love the pitch smearing (for want of a more elaborate description).
1:16 --> 1:20
3:06 --> 3:15
a fiddle music piece made with synths...interesting
I like microtonal,I load tuning files sometimes...drawn to Bohlen pierce 11/12 and others from bagpipe to greek and european,meister-t,kirnberger etc.
I like em...lots, but sadly I know nothing academic about em,just that they are seen as "alt scales" that could be the best choice for certain end results.
Thanks. The "pitch smearing" was just splitting a single voice into harmony.

I'm unfamiliar with 11/12. What's that?
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Old 09-21-2019, 07:10 PM   #8
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This was enjoyable, thank you.
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Old 09-28-2019, 12:34 AM   #9
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This was enjoyable, thank you.
Thanks. I've been getting more used to Reaper since I wrote this.
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Old 09-30-2019, 12:49 PM   #10
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Interesting... As I was listening I was thinking Larry Fast meets Dead Can Dance. You can really hear that sort of harvest dance thing going on. Nicely done.

Not sure about the 17 EDO thing. I follow two other artists that use microtonal scales and I suppose that because I have been so entrenched in standard western tunings (I am sixty next year) that this sort of thing goes right over my head.

That didn't spoil my enjoyment of it, though


cheers

andy
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