Mastered with Bandlab. I believe it was the clarity option.
Details
patterns, tracks, instruments
mix levels
Used FL Studio (fresh bought, first project!)
4 tracks
4 patterns
Instruments:
Synthus for acoustic nylon
Flex plugin for laser harp and chariot horn
DirectWave sampler for the strings, but cannot recall how I loaded in the string sample..
Played with other sounds, some shown above
Recorded MIDI with AKAI MPKmini
Did not mess with piano roll volumes besides the strings (b/c it was glaringly digital if I didn’t)
Adjusted general mix levels
Reflections
I had asked my dad if he would buy FL Studio for me ($200) since he had offered to buy a mic. I didn’t agree with his condition, so ended up purchasing it on my own. I had been thinking about it for days, and did not want to wait for a sale, so just pulled the trigger and got started.
Had less time than anticipated because we had surprise guests over the first day. I had originally wanted to do it all in one day (across two/three sittings). Definitely helped to have a time constraint for “finishing”. Nothing super hardcore, just seeing WT the first night and telling him that, “I’ll give you something by tomorrow.” Finished it the the day after so I could have something to show before meeting him again.
Attempted to play by ear at first for about 30 minutes before “giving up” and looking for sheet music. Advantage of being able to read music. Next project, when projecting time estimates, I’ll factor in whether sheet music is available or not beforehand.
Spent a decent amount of time trying out different sounds. After completing the project, I realized I was skipping a lot of presets within the plugins.
Attempted to master by following a YouTube video, before running out of time and remembering about the Bandlab free mastering tool.
Will separate different lines/voices into multiple tracks next time (strings in this case).
Also didn’t consider “wrapping” the track as a whole. The beginning and end both cut off abruptly. May come back and improve that later.
