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I'm happy to announce a couple of staffing changes here at OCR. First up, I wanna welcome @Hemophiliac to our Judges Panel! Hemo's been putting in the work for the last few years as one of our Workshop Evaluators, and has also stepped up in the past few months to handle a lot of the visualizers for the remixes you see on our YouTube channel. He's an active presence in our community and has a lot of helpful advice in the Workshop. We're glad to add him to the panel. Look forward to getting some fresh new NO votes on your tracks! Speaking of Workshop Evaluators, a few months ago we retired our Ready for Review process in the Workshop because we felt that it was a cumbersome extra layer of evaluation prior to submitting to the Judge's Panel. Our Evaluators did a lot of great work over the years but we're retiring that role. In it's place, we're introducing our new team called Sages! Sages are active artists in our community who'll be in the Workshop giving feedback on remixes, posting tutorials, and coming up with their own ways to revitalize and energize the Workshop. Our three new Sages are @Xaleph, @pixelseph, and @paradiddlesjosh! We're glad to have some fresh faces on staff, and I'm personally looking forward to seeing what these folks have in store for us. -- DarkeSword

It's a huge pleasure to be fulfilling this role! Over the coming weeks, you'll be seeing my mug replying to your posts in the workshop and (if I'm doing things right) I'll be providing you with means to make improvements to your writing, arranging, and/or mixing. Can't wait to hear more of what y'all have cooking out there!

Starting today, the sharing of music generated by feeding a prompt into AI-software is prohibited on OC ReMix, both here on the forums and on our Discord. LLMs, AI, and other machine-learning technologies are both interesting and impressive, but the implementation of these technologies in popular usage rely largely on unethical training practices. Copyrighted works are used without artist consent to train commercial AI-models. Moreover, OverClocked ReMix has, over the course of over 20 years, established itself as a place for artists to learn about the composition and production of music and hone their craft. We ask artists to pay tribute to VGM through the art of interpretation; we're looking for the personal spin, the human touch. I, personally, don't believe audio generated by a machine-learning algorithm is doing that. There are ethical implementations of AI-technology in the music sphere, such as sample libraries, physical modeling software, and audio production suites that use machine-learning to perform complicated tasks that an artist can use in the production process. Sharing music that uses this kind of tech is absolutely fine. But tracks generated wholly or in-part by services like Suno and Udio (among others) do not belong here. And just to clarify, the discussion of machine-learning, LLMs, and AI here at OC ReMix is not prohibited, but should be tempered by an understanding of the goals of our community, which include artistic development and education and the appreciation of VGM through thoughtful exploration and interpretation. Thanks. -- DarkeSword

I'm really excited - we have some cool stuff planned ahead!

Awesome to see this Sage business! This is important stuff. Just yesterday I was talking about OC ReMix's rare feedback culture to a musician friend of mine. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Additional ears? You got it. I'm coming in cold on this one so you're going to get all of my impressions - not saying that all of this needs to be addressed to pass a resubmission, but hopefully you can make use of the brain dump. The intro brings some really cool flavor - the noisy distorted elements remind me of Porter Robinson's Fellow Feeling (see the 3:00 mark if you're short on time.) If you're going for random blasts of noise, I think this works - if you're trying to make it sound like footsteps stomping through, it's not giving that impression at all because every stomp is exactly the same. There's no variation in the sample and it reaches uncanny valley territory fast when you play the sample multiple times in a row. This all boils down to what you are going for here, but either way, I think some subtle variation with each repetition of the sample/layer of samples (without knowing how you actually did this) would build immersion. Some of your orchestral elements (flute, glock) are very resonant, oftentimes peaking at their fundamental frequency between 3-6db above everything else. The bells in the intro also feel comparably dry. This will probably get ironed out in your next pass, but I'm going to point it out anyway. The orchestral sequencing sounds workable for the most part, you're getting good mileage out of your samples. It's not the best but I do think you're using them effectively for the most part - the main areas that sound really noticeably fake are the half-step chromatic runs on the strings at times like 2:48. I just don't think the big ensemble patch moves fast enough to accommodate that writing, and would recommend adjusting the lead writing to fit better within the limitations of your samples. I also feel like the intro could use some deeper sub bass presence. It's not that the stomps aren't contributing any bass frequencies, but a big cinematic sub drop or sustained bass to accompany the stomps (see Fellow Feeling) would make this feel much more dynamic, or have some risers building up tension in the low end leading into :49. The decision to intersperse various melodic elements (glock, harmonic strings, cello) was a good one - otherwise, this intro would be way too long. It already feels a bit lengthy as-is, but those additions help pad it out quite a bit and justify the length. However, this gets to the problem of transitions and buildup, which I think is my biggest gripe currently. There is rarely much going on to signal that we're approaching a new musical idea, so even though you have some very dramatic changes throughout your arrangement (which are quite inspired and interesting, I must add!) they come on very suddenly. Cinematic risers, fills, sweeps, etc. are a part of this equation and could definitely be used to greater effect here to bridge your gaps, but there's another element I want to touch on: the idea of movement in your part writing. You do a great job building atmosphere and have all the makings of a very dramatic song, but there's a lack of movement on a compositional level. When cinematic music is clicking well, composition and sound design have a lot of synergy. Right now, you are doing a good job building an interesting sound palette for each individual section, but the underlying chord progression feels weak. It hovers around the tonic chord for most of the time, and even when you do have chord changes, they don't feel properly supported with anything strong in the lower frequencies. This is where a bit of music theory troubleshooting could go a long way - your melody has many opportunities for powerful chord movements that build drama and tension, especially as you lead into new sections, but you're not fully capitalizing on that potential. I don't think it would even require changing up much fundamental about the rest of the parts; just identify the chord progression you're playing and make sure that there's strong support in the bass for whatever chord/root note you're trying to play. I don't know how else to suggest addressing this without studying up on some fundamentals of music theory, but certain chords just move naturally into others and can help you allude to future changes and help transition between vastly different musical ideas in a way that feels rewarding. I think you're running up against some of the same problems I faced before I made the decision to finally start researching music theory. I had a conceptual idea in my brain for what each section of my song was supposed to do, and could support it in terms of selecting sounds and picking grooves/effects/etc., but it boiled down to luck whether or not it worked on a fundamental composition level, and I spun my wheels trying to fix that issue with every other production tool known to man. I think if you were to pick an area to focus on, the big orchestral section starting at 2:36 would be where I'd focus my energy most. Everything else before and after that can skate by a little easier, but when you're trying to make a big melodic orchestral statement, the fundamentals need to be strong first. Figure out what chord you're playing on each measure and map them out in sequence using just a basic patch. I find that it helps to actually just plot my chord progressions out on piano so there's no temptation to get distracted by sound design. See if the song sounds strong and compelling when it's just played on a single instrument, and go from there.

Thank you for feedback. I restarted the remix from scratch so it fits to the submission rules, I added an early version here. This time its a little more on the funky than the deep side esto gaza oc remix.mp3

Hello, I'm sharing a wip for a remix of Tomorrow and Tomorrow after receiving live feedback on the OCremix discord. The goal was to mimic the style of Imagine Dragons (ie Warriors) Source from 0:00 - 1:05 of and below is a earlier wip to compare changes I've made (for better or worse)

Hey Vylent! As was mentioned in the live feedback, having space between vocal phrases is helpful for the listener to digest what the vocal passage is doing and saying. The guitar lead in the older version is a great example of creating that space between the vocal phrases! The intro in the older version has a stronger build than the current, though it goes without saying that your vocalist, Sirenstar, is absolutely wiping the floor with the AI vocal. Returning the levels to the drums on the out (as in the older mix) would better realize the vision of getting this mix close to Imagine Dragons. There’s some rough cutting on the vocals around 2:44, and the breath coming in around 2:48, 2:52 is a bit hot. I think that’s most of the feedback from last night! I am really looking forward to hearing this get polished and see it get submitted!!

Hey Xaleph, I think you've pulled some of my VSTs from the Discord server anyway, but here's a list of some stuff I use commonly: VST Instruments u-he's Zebra2, Hive, Diva. All the u-he synths are notable for having free versions with very limited paywall restrictions; the free versions don't limit settings at all, they just play static or randomize notes intermittently after 20 minutes of rendering/use. This can be worked around by reloading the instance, and it's obviously an easy workaround for final mixdown. FM8 by Native Instruments - goes on sale a lot FMDrive - very cheap Genesis/Mega Drive synth that can read the original instrument files Roland Sound Canvas - not free but essential for a lot of GBA/SNES type sounds. A lot of them make up GBA soundfonts unaltered; Golden Sun, Pokemon, etc. Sforzando and Samplelord are both worth bringing up as soundfont interfaces; the former is free and the latter can notably read some proprietary instrument files used in E-mu kits like the Proteus. Performance Samples has paid VSTs but also a lot of freebies; I use the strings and percussion a lot. They just require a certain version of Kontakt. VST FX Guitar Rig - I use Guitar Rig 5 specifically. Its amps/cabinets are really diverse and convincing and I use the reverb effects on pretty much everything. Convology XT has a free version with a lot of convolution reverb presets. I use them in conjunction with these Impulse Responses a lot to emulate how reverb effects were achieved on the PS1. EliteReducer 2 and CMT Bitcrusher are both free bitcrushers. MeldaProduction has a lot of versatile free FX; I use MCompressor for sidechaining and MVibrato for gated/tremolo effects. ToneBoosters has a lot of free legacy FX i.e. Barricade. Tokyo Dawn Records has some good free/paid FX like Kotelnikov; I use the paid version on my master bus pretty much all the time.

Oh man, you gotta add Famisynth to the list! Not only is it 8-bit heaven, it's 100% free. http://mu-station.chillout.jp/plugins/FAMISYNTH-II/index.html

I only now realized I got another wooden spoon to my proud collection in the final round

Not bad at all, you'll be hearing an update in here before the end of the month.

yeah, i got lucky a few days back, in the morning. this old fav tune sprang into my mind, green hills (actually, stage 5 in the 8 bit sonic 2!) it's pretty WIP-y after 2 minute mark. i'm a bit stuck for now, but idea is a buildup of course, to something.

you already helped a bit i think...i started something a few days ago after writing&reading on here. it's not super duper but was enough to make me quite happy. was so starved for getting a groove going before!!

ha, that's cool redshadow. i haven't been using soundcloud for a while. i'll get back to you when i have anything new and noteworthy, because i love the idea of my music being blasted to some random ppl in the states. but it's gotta be something new. my music from 2018ish was really just about coping with the strange new reality. i can do much better...but it's gotta happen!! i gotta get out of this strange anti-creative loop. for reals.

definitely. over-analytical and just plain traumatized by all the crap that happened in those years. i have tried some pure cbd early on in 2019, when the voices situation was still pretty new. it's not really for me. i tried some weed a few weeks ago, and it was good for letting the fingers, like, just fall on the keyboard and see what they do. but it's a thing i better only do once a month or so. my history with cannabis is iffy. anything meditative is the way to go. biggest change for me has been doing regular cold showers. whenever i feel like not quite myself, cold water shock is good for gaining some presence. big fan of wim hof, and what he's saying about the vagus nerve and stuff. if i'm not wrong, that nerve can be connected to hearing voices, and becoming acquainted with the sensation of the cold can help you gain back some control.

This was super snazzy! Killer beat. I was definitely bopping my head along throughout.

These resources aren't plug-ins: they're great reference tools! Brad the Mad's Tempo Calculator (Chart, lists given bpm subdivisions as ms and Hz; chart goes from 60 bpm to 179 bpm) Tuneform's Tempo Calculator (converts bpm to ms) MIDI CC List (Chart, lists common CC uses) Virtual Instrument Delay Chart (Google Sheet, lists delay offsets for most orchestral VST instruments; organized by instrument section, brand, library, and articulations). Use these as a starting point and adjust to your project as needed Tap Tempo (Webapp, click or tap a key in time with a piece of music to get its tempo) I was chatting in the Lounge on Discord with folks last night discussing the importance of tools like the tempo calculators: some time-based effects plug-ins (reverb and delay, but also the attack and release controls on compressors, limiters, gates, expanders, etc) have no tempo sync function. If you can convert the subdivision into ms or Hz, you can manually sync your plug-ins to your project tempo/tempi (plural of tempo). You can also use this chart to maintain a relative pulse while changing meters: in the example I gave from a project Seph and I are working on, there's an intro segment at 90 bpm, 4/4 time that evolves into a verse in 12/8 using the same structure as the intro. 12/8 is functionally equivalent to 4/4 with a triplet subdivision, but most DAWs only give tempo expressed in a quarter note bpm, so maintaining 90 bpm gives an incorrect pulse from the click. But if you check the chart, you can see that a quarter note at 90bpm equals 0.667 seconds (666.6 repeating ms, or 667 for simplicity's sake) and a quarter-note triplet equals 0.444 seconds (444.4 repeating ms). Scroll down the chart and you'll find 135 bpm has a quarter note value of 0.444 seconds and a dotted quarter note value of 0.667 seconds: for all intents and purposes, the quarter note value of 90 bpm equals the dotted quarter note value of 135 bpm!

This is an interesting topic I've been thinking a lot of lately because the recent hype with AI generated music got me in a time when I just released my first original music album. Since I'm still learning and lacking of experience the results aren't that great so some people might prejudge that and assume it's AI, even though actually I manually wrote every single note in the pianoroll. But it was a pleasant surprise to see you all pointed at exactly the points I'm concerned of. It's not about results but more about the process. Nowadays AI generated music might be still mediocre, to say the least, but even if it eventually got real good... there's something special about the satisfaction of simply having your work done after all the time and work spent. You kinda grew with your works in a way that it makes them more like friends you build memories and stories with, and when you finally see them ready to be published you feel like you accomplished something you can be proud of. It don't matters if the compositions or arrangements are bland, if the mix sounds horrible or the genres/styles are not everyone's cup of tea. It's your work and you love it and want others to enjoy it just as you enjoyed the process, with all its moments of both tediousness and happiness. And then you keep learning and being able to do more and better stuff as you keep trying and doing more and more of that. If all you did to get it done is just writing some text line in a web/app form, however... where's the story? Where's that special feel that may connect both artists and listeners? That work ends being nothing but some randomly generated product, very much like any of these old Flash avatar generators. Music making can be often too hard and frustrating, especially if you are under disfavorable conditions of some kind (like lacking proper tools, dealing with ancient hardware, being in some kind of depression or any mental craps that makes everything even harder, etc), so I can totally understand people loving the idea of having access to such a task with just asking some cold and emotionless AI. I'm all into making things as easy as possible for anyone to show their creativity to the world, actually. But making things easier is one thing; and I can see how practical AI tools can be to just ease some parts of the process; but for the end-product? That's a totally different thing that does nothing good for creativity but rather the opposite.

very good. i haven't kept track with how advanced the publically available music a.i. stuff is compared to the text and visual stuff...and i really don't wanna. getting back into music making is freaking hard enough as it is :D i wanna take my stand against a.i. in my own little way...i have to believe that the value of making music lies in the process, not the results. the personal relationship you form with the notes and sounds while making music. got a lot to learn until i can completely embody that stance; honestly a large part of me has always been very results oriented, kinda greedy that way. we artists have to prepare for 'spiritual war' in that sense; like, fuck it, we're doing it live. but nothing against folks who wanna use a.i. in a creative fashion. not for me. idk, i might cave in for deep fake vocals at some point...as long as i write the notes and lyrics myself. basically, as long as i feel like i am doing the damn thing, more than the machine. like, give me a vocal model of freddy mercury or rob halford or celine dion, and give me all the fine grained controls to make em totally glitch out when i want to.

5 instrumentals + 3 part vocal counterpoint epic baroque rock breakup mashup :D

Thank you! I made these on a whim at first but it turned out to be a really fun 6 month project.

I really like the song and the mix. The only critique I'd have (which isn't much) is that there is a midrange where the frequencies are just a little low or there isn't a lot of instrumentation (maybe over-filtered bass and percussion to give room for synths?) It's just slightly noticeable but not huge. I think overall your dnb music is fabulous and I really hope you do more vgm remixes. We need more dnb imo and you have a really good knack for it.

Heya Seth, here's my thoughts on it so far: Arrangement-wise -- right off the bat, @ ~ 00:48, the two distinct genres between your EDM and Industrial / change-up jarred me. IMO, they both work separately but not together. I think if you were to introduce your remix with the slow dance-like beat, and then rise it up to the hype / fast-paced beat, it would work better. Perhaps start with the violin, drop it for the plucky synths, and then re-introduce it later on in a sort of interlude / mixing the two genres, before the end? That might make your groove feel more fluid and coherent between the two styles employed here. Instrument/Mixing-wise -- I had no issues with your synths, really. I found them all to be nice-sounding in timbre and appropriate, even though they might be a little basic, but I am unsure if that is because these are still your stems from your original work from 2016 project, or because you had to rework/rebuild this from scratch and some of the sounds are currently placeholder. The plucky synth around 00:15 is a bit soft as well, but unsure how mixed this remix is currently...or how far in production. However, everything sounds clear, I love the vol raise and contrast you have with the additional synth playing the same melody with the plucky synth, and your bass and kick/drums are hella groovy. :) Hope this all helps. :D I look forward to hearing more work on this. :3 Good luck with it! o/

I listened to this remix as part of a workshop event and I kinda like it. It's got a great groove to it and is pretty creative. However I feel the violin section is both thin and misplaced (it'd work better as an intro than in it's current placement). Also agree with Liontamer/Larry on not having enough of the melody of "Hidden Palace Zone". Still it's a good start and I'd love to hear a completed version of this on the site some day.

I like that the beats have a kind of swung rhythm, but they do plod after a while. New section at 1:04 dragged a lot and the texture felt too empty; the overly fake-sounding string sustains, piano, and kicks all hurt this on a sound quality level. I like the string writing at 1:42 in principle, it's just an ultra fakey sound, and the placement is so loud compared to everything else. Cool rhythmic change at 2:01. I wish the textures were more sophisticated or better padded, because there's so much empty space due to how thin the instrumentation is. Could use more melodic usage of "Hidden Palace" as well. It's a start!

A lonely lover has journeyed far indeed from a distant mountain of dreams: WillRock still brings the jams

I really enjoyed some of the harmonizing in this remix. I am a big sucker for good vocal layering and this remix did that in spades! Very excellent remix. :).

The synhwave groove is very good. The percussion stands out as being especially good in this remix. Good stuff!

Opening both the 2012 and 2024 versions side by side in an audio editor, you can tell from the waveform data alone how much extra effort had been poured into this remix for over a decade. Let's listen! On the prod aspect of things, I ran analysis with a Blackman-Harris function, both 128 and 512bins on linear and logarithmic scale, to positive results. Spectrum analysis didn't make me fall off my camel either, you've got nice stereo separation and likewise no alarming RMS. However I counted more than a 150 clipped samples throughout, which might be related to that enthusiastic -12.23db LUFS integrated with a 6LU loudness range (accounting for DC offset as well). Either slightly limit your master bus output just to be safe, or keep rocking the '0db sample peak' lifestyle. Up to you. Arrangement-wise, there's been massive improvements in texture, sound choices, dynamics and overall balance from your 2012 original, pioneering mashup. Melodies are less muted, the mix sounds clearer throughout and the soundscape is so much fuller now. Imho, your greatest success here is instilling new life and movement into the piece, making this revision much more engaging to listen to. Case in point the first section from 0:15 to 1:00, where the industrial percussions have increased in presence and intensity compared to the 2012 version. But conversely, the source's melody is also more prominent and distinct during that part, which creates an interesting contrast, rather than an irritating dichotomy. The second section from 1:15 has undergone a shocking transformation, where the melodic material used to timidly defer to the classic Roland drum kit, but is now emboldened and confidently riding shotgun with the rhythmic bed from 1:32 to 2:05, before the eerie, melancholic twist of the original remix metamorphoses into an array of decisive stabs complemented by surgical percussion hits, which now makes the 2:05-2:38 section hugely more climactic. As for the ending section from 2:40 onward, I applaud the pivotal choice to swap instruments for the lead which confers it an exotic yet contemporary quality, meshing beautifully with the thunderous drums in this dreamy yet tangible soundscape. There's a lot of subtlety and detail about this arrangement that people hopefully will notice and appreciate. Like in spite of the whole remix being centered around a repeating leitmotif and written with a singular sound palette, you can distinguish the theme associated with each source in relation to its time period and cultural inclination. Which to this day remains a testament to your ability as an arranger to assimilate material from different sources, then interpret them with both cohesiveness and distinction. I can still revell in the care that went into creating this ambient/industrial tribute with delightful Deus Ex influences, yet I also realize that such flavor might not suit everyone's tastes, and might be looked down upon in some leet circles... In any case, it's wonderful to see you revisit and reinvigorate this old work in such an elegant fashion, so many years later. I can only commend your diligence and consistency in the pursuit of this ideal, in the spirit of Ryu Hayabusa. May this labour of love capture the judges' hearts and ears, just as it captured mine back on Game Duels. This truly made my day, thanks for sharing this Eino.

I really enjoyed that saxophone, very cool. I enjoyed this remix overall, it was very funky and drizzling with drip!

Thank you! It's an obscure game with an even more obscure soundtrack but you can find the full OST here: p.s. if you happen to find the original vinyl release of the soundtrack, be sure to buy it. It's worth it's weight in gold (no joke).

I have a WIP that is finished as far as arrangement goes (happy to play with the mixing/mastering if necessary, it's somewhat loud at -9.08 average LUFS). My remix goes a little further than originally intended and includes source material from three tracks of the LISA game (Forever Turbo Heat Dance, Pebble Man, and Men's Hair Club). I will not be pursing a Knytt Underground remix at this point. Here's a terrible music video of my LISA WIP for your en"joy"ment! For those of you who haven't heard the LISA soundtrack before, it's.... different to say the least.

it's very cheezy tho innit? i reckon it could be very nice cheeze once the arrangement is fiddled out. but the melody (the very sugary one) sounds very different at this bpm and groove. i tried to make it gain bpm for a while, so it goes back to the energy of the original the more the song goes on, but couldn't get it to work. so, gotta optimize on the "good cheeze" part. that's why i have this nagging feeling that i'd rather start a different mix, for now :S but maybe i'll come back to this one. with a fresher mind. heh :) this one needs a lot of cool soloing and stuff if it's gotta pass the "really good cheeze" marks, ......and stuff. i kinda still lack agility for that. or you make it really minimal and full pop, or....whatever. idk what to do with this right nao! haha. it's ok i guess. ty for comments!

This had a lot of energy and I found myself tapping my foot throughout most of it. This track was a lot of fun and a hoot to boot!

I didn't realize how big of a collab effort this was until after I listened to it. It has high quality seeping throughout the song. The placement of the main motif was very well done. This would be a fantastic part of a video game soundtrack!

What a lovely tune. A pleasant remix to listen to, bravo! :)

I felt like I was floating high above, drifting amongst a sea of digital clouds, reveling in the weightlessness due to the style and timbre of the synths. Let no artifice consume reality, unless that reality bears no meaning.

I love that intro. Are you mining for gold cuz there is some grade A Panning going on in this remix :DD

When the vocals ramped up at :58 I was thinking "I'm awake!" No joke this is one of my favorite time compression remixes. :D

Interesting story. To me is sounds like your issue is less about luck and more about being in an overly-analytical mindset. There may always be some degree of luck when it comes to creativity, but I believe an important part of it is creating the headspace for it, and getting yourself into a relaxed and open-minded state. A state where vibes and ideas become present without much friction. I feel like meditation can help that kind of process a lot. Also I think cbd oil (probably without thc given your disposition -- that's the kind I get either way) may be helpful as it can increase neurogenesis and also calm the mind. Listening to inspirational music and doing things that kind of ground you can also help. Just some ideas though. I have a relatively creative background, though I mostly did traditional art and martial art. I've had so many musical ideas throughout the years and I've recorded many and played around with making music a bit, but I have never really gotten the chance to immerse myself in it enough. But yeah, definitely hope some of that might help you find the music within

Thanks for posting this! And thanks for all of the Judges' feedback - I enjoy all the advice and critique.

At 1:33, that synth line's pretty shrill. From 1:51-on (arguably 1:33-on), the way this is mixed, I feel like I'm hearing the beats and claps being the most forward instead of the melodic elements, and then you also have leads and supporting lines competing to be heard due to being in the same frequency range. For example, the lead at 2:07 is too subdued compared to the percussion and industrial sounds (even though I realize it's meant to have contrast with the louder instance at 2:41), then you have stuff like the plucked strings and bassline just adding mud. Very busy sound without clear enough mixing to know what should be focused on, resulting in nothing having a direction. I like the overall arrangement concept, Eino, but the overall texture is too messy and cluttered. NO (resubmit)

Yooo i love to see aluminum back.

My only thoughts are... "Murder a steer"?

what the fuck YESS This is so great

this is the best remix i've ever heard

The hate. It's coming.

I like the way you think. And it looks like R5 has got audio in with a nifty autotune type thing. It's called Neptune...I'm sort of disappointed that it's not called ReTune xD I think most people probably hated R4 at first. I basically went from Garage Band and Orion Platinum to R4 and I thought it was the biggest piece of bullshit I ever saw. But after crunching some deadlines for some projects in my Music Tech class, I realized, "Wow...Reason is fucking awesome!" And now I can sketch songs out everyday, quickly AND easily. It just takes some time. And Reason+Live=God.