If there are a lot of highs then usually I've noticed it's the section that has the highest energy. While if the track is very mid/bass heavy then generally I consider these to be more like verses instead of choruses.
I would avoid thinking that way.
"Energy" will rarely come by virtue of the dominant frequencies.
The energy will come from the performance, arrangement, beat, etc… there may be a lot of high frequency material in an energetic section, but it will probably not be creating the energy.
You can have a tinkly high frequency piano section that is mellow… and a bass heavy section that is crazy and very energetic.
and regarding "verses" and "choruses"… that is 100% based on the song you write… not frequencies.
The orchestral drums are just a 1 bar loop so I can understand how you may think they're to repetitive... I can possibly add some more to it to add in some more variation. Maybe turn it into two 4 bar loops with some variation on the second one.
in addition to it being only one bar, it sounds 100% quantized, unnatural and the sounds are not very good.
and the flip side of the quantization issue… to be unquantized or less quantized, you need to be able to play with some feeling and rhythm… an unquantized poor performance is no better.
and it needs dynamics to give it a sense of excitement and to remain interesting to a listener.
4 bars? how about you just play the drums over the course of the song building as you go? have some loop as a base with room to play around on top.
The strings as I've said in a previous post are overlapping a lot on the same notes only because I thought that they added more "beef" to the sound. I believe I posted an audio recording earlier in this thread of how they sound individually with them only playing one note instead of the chord. It just sounds really "wimpy" to my taste so having them play the full chord was my solution. I did have a little bit of variation in between the velocities of the sounds by using the midi editing capabilities in logic but I didn't think that it was to much... Really it was only about a 10 velocity difference with some minor exception on the accented parts.
I don't say the strings should be one note.
I said it sounds like you are playing some 3 note chords and a 1 note "bass" line all with the same generic "string section" patch.
It sounds like you "happen to be playing some chords using a string sound" rather than "playing a string part".
And, it is not constructed like a string part.
As far as sounds go... I originally thought that they weren't "terrible" (at least everything before the saws) so it kinda hurts' but I can see how you would think that.
The fact is, anything less that "great" IS "terrible"… it either sounds like a "real song" or it doesn't.
It shouldn't "hurt" that I'm saying this.
You didn't build the synth… you didn't make the sounds (at least I don't think you did since they sound like generic presets)...
You just need to acquire better sound libraries.
Or really analyze the songs you like and REALLY listen to the sounds and HEAR what it is that is making those sounds "good".
You need to pick your sounds with intent.
I'm not completely ignorant to the general techniques of a string section. I play guitar so there's a lot of similarities/overlaps.
Guitar chords structure is VERY different from string chord structure.
The only thing is that I never actually "learned" how to arrange something for strings. 4 part writing is something that I just never really got to. I just know that certain notes make certain chord progressions and that it's advisable for there to be as little motion as possible in the inner voices.
"advisable for there to be…"?--- sounds like a "rule"… there are no "rules" (unless you are talking about some specific academic rule based form of music, which we are not)… just make it sound good.
The line between "mixing" and "sound design" doesn't seem exist to me really... You can have a basic supersaw but EQ it differently and add a little bit of reverb/distortion and suddenly it becomes an entirely different sound. I tend to view most sounds as some sort of extension of either a saw or a square wave. Most sounds that I hear consist of these with the ocassionaly "sine wave"
the "line between mixing and sound design" has nothing to do with this discussion...
You just need good sounds.
All "supersaws" are not the same.
All EQ's are not the same.
All reverbs are not the same.
You can have 50 synths with basic "supersaw" patches and they will all sound different.
And you can transform a "supersaw" into whatever you want… the fact is, if it doesn't sound great, then who cares? ya know?
With that being said... would you mind shedding a little bit of producer/engineer advice? I'm assuming you're better at this then me. I can usually hear when something sounds like crap such as the mix I posted above... It justs takes A LOT of time for me to figure out what the heck it is that makes things bad.
If you know what it is that's making things sound bad and understand the solution to fix them then god It would help me out SO MUCH if you could propose some solutions. Only because you only pointed out the flaws really.
There is only so much a person can tell you to help you to improve.
What I said in my previous post still holds true… you need to just keep doing it and getting better…. you need to not just "listen", but really "HEAR" the sounds and production of the artists you are trying to emulate.
I can't pick out the sounds for you or play the parts for you… you just need to figure that out and there is no way to tell you what a "good" sound is…. know what i mean?
also, there is nothing wrong with certain things being 100% quantized and robotic… but that doesn't work for everything… certain things want to sound more natural.
Don't be impatient.
This stuff takes years and years of practice.