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So, I've been debating as to whether I should make a post about what I have experienced and learned through the process of getting something posted, but I figured if even one person is helped, this perhaps maybe long winded post will be worth it. As always, constructive advise is appreciated and encouraged!:) First, spending money does not mean success. You don't need full Kontakt, Serum, Phase Plant, etc. I believe my finally accepted version only has one paid plugin, Hybrid 3 to be specific. 5 Dollars on sale. There is at least one fully fledged DAW you can have for free. Cake-walk, from Bandlab. In fact, if you have lower computing power, Cake-walk lets you freeze and unfreeze tracks with ease....that meaning, it renders a WAV file of your synth on that track, possibly saving CPU power. I wish FL Studio included that. It doesn't, as far as I have searched. Watch Tutorials. If a judge says something you don't quite understand, YouTube it. I would recommend specific channels, but not sure if allowed;) Don't get discouraged. I started playing at age 12, and got paying gigs with rehearsals and everything within a year. Imagine a young teenager's delight at receiving his first bottle of sparkling wine, Ha! Makes me laugh out loud as I type this:-D I remember getting a bass guitar as an adult for fun, and my wife couldn't believe I could play a few well known riffs within an hour just plunking around. Music production....FAR more difficult for me. A couple specifics below:) More delay with parameters adjusted, less reverb. EVERYTHING gets a high pass filter, adjusted for the instrument. Including reverb. Check tuts. Keytracking on various filter types. Helps a filter move with the instrument being filtered. Sidechaining is not only for bass drum and bass. Snare drums and crashes can eat a lot of headroom, too. You can even have leads cut frequencies from background pads. Check tuts:) Next, a few free plugin recommendations! Surge XT. Intimidating interface, but so many presets available. Vital. Free Serum...kind of.. there's much argument. However, I think this is is the most complex synth that's relatively easy to learn sound design on. Check tutorials. Tal Noisemaker. Relatively simple, but really easy to make interesting sounds easily. The "freeform" oscillator is just great on something this simple. Helm. This one is made by the same guy that made Vital, but the presets are nice if you remove the on board effects and add your own to the processing chain. In your face basses and screaming leads that cut through are easily had here. Also, everything is one one page, no menus or drop-downs. Kilohearts Essentials. This is a suite of about 30 free effect plugins.... they're great. Work well with simple interfaces, and include everything needed to at least get your feet wet. I especially appreciate the trance gate, noise gate, and dual delay. TDR Nova. Almost Fabfilter, for free. A dynamic compressor/EQ BBCSO Orchestra Discover. Low resource using free full orchestra. Just because a Kontakt library is free, doesn't mean it works with the free Kontakt Player. Just because a Kontakt library is paid, doesn't mean it works with the free Player. Make Sure You Check! Free Kontakt Player. Crazy what's available for free for this. Last......... Join the d.mn.d Discord server!!! You get quick great feedback! I hope some of this is helpful, and I hope others respond and add, or perhaps politely disagree with what I have said:) Respectfully and Semper Fi, Eric, aka, Audiomancer.

I still occasionally enjoy "Afternoon Tea with SnappleMan's Mom", but anytime is a good time for a "Ska Buffet". On the other hand, "happy breakfast" is such an ear worm, I just can't anymore 😂

Howdy, RHYTH_TWISTED! Closing this one out by adding a quick co-sign with XPRT and proph. Really solid production and vibes, just need to hear more of your personal touches on the arrangement of things. We'd love to hear some more from you soon! NO

Nice pick with "Dawn of a New Day". You got at least 2 ReMixers-turned-pro in that 1 track! edit: Well, XPRTNovice is a pro voice-actor, at least 🤔

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Bloodrelations Remix

Some of my all-time favorites, right here.

This is nearly 2 hours of music in only 8 tracks 🤯

Right from the jump, this master is way too loud. There is no reason for a mellow/jazzy track to be mastered this loud and it has no dynamics as a result. I do love the jazzy-vibed concept of this mix. The drum groove is a particular highlight! The piano performance is excellent. The instruments and drum kit all sound ok to me, and the volumes sound well balanced, but I do hear the clashing that has been mentioned in a few sections. From 0:09-0:23 the reverbs and delays are running together leaving a mush of clashing soundscape trailing behind the fast piano playing. You may not need this much delay in the mix. There's a harmonically awkward turnaround happening at 0:59, and the overlapping reverbs and delays are making it worse. I agree with the guys above me, the mixing needs a cleanup. In addition to taming the reverbs and delays, some EQ work is suggested. Make sure there aren't lows in your piano or other supporting instrumentation playing/conflicting in the low-mid bass ranges, and I agree with XPRT that the bass could also use some EQ to remove some low-mids. On the reverbs (and delays), make sure lows are EQd out also. These mixing fixes should clean things up nicely. I don't agree with the guys though on the drum mixing, I find the balances of the drums fine if not a bit quiet in the mix! I think the drums are fine as-is. Awesome concept and remix! It just needs some mixing love to keep things sounding crisp and clear. You may also want to turn down the final limiter gain also for a more reasonable master volume (something more like -12 to -11db RMS, the mix currently hits -7db RMS), although the EQ changes we have suggested will most likely give you more mastering headroom anyway. Please do these things and let's hear this fun remix again soon. NO (resubmit please)

What a neat idea for an 8Track. Another candidate could have been Horizons of Time (although DDRKirby(ISQ) is already represented), and maybe even Enchanted Esper (which seems to switch from 6/8 to 7/8).

My description for this 8Track is a nod to track 9 on the Heroes vs. Villains album.

It sounds promissing ! The arrangement is a little short, you should develop a little if you want to post on OCR. But the direction is good :)

Random comment, I played on a cover of this same theme just a couple months ago: https://unknownpseudoartist.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-phantasia-a-metal-tribute-to-tales-of-phantasia. Anyway, this begins with a drum fill and then straight up double kick metal, nice! First part plays pretty much exactly like the source, until 0:17. From what I can you're using Shreddage for guitars here, it's always hard to do convincing fake guitars... I think you do a great job with them but I feel they sound too clean. One thing I've noticed on my attempts at making decent fake guitars is that real ones are always not that clean, there's more noise/reverb than what Shreddage produces. Second riff is also almost identical to the source, but the drum beat is different. Third riff (0:25) is also quite straight from the source until 0:45, there's some notes on the sampled lead that sound a bit odd (0:29, 0:32, 0:34). I do appreciate that you tried to make the best out of the's sample articulations though. For the final riff there's some small differences in timing, but it's still fairly conservative. From 1:01 onwards we don't follow the source on the same order anymore, there's a couple repetitions of riff 1, then a weird take of riff 2, then a repeat of riff 1, then a solo over riff 3 with some quotes of the first main melody. Around 1:45 riff 4 returns and for the ending we have a repeat of riff 1 with some variations over the main melody. Arrangement will be the sticking point here, as noted by the above judges. The first half is pretty much a straight cover from the source and, while the second has some variations, it still has fairly straight takes on most riffs... Besides from how conservative the arrangement is, it also lacks any sort of direction to me. Second half feels like random quotes of the previous riffs but it's not really leading anywhere. On production this is good enough to me. I have some nitpicks about the sampled guitars, they're honestly rarely as good as the real deal but they're fairly well programmed here. Drums I think could be punchier, both the kick and snare are a bit tame, they need more grit and snap so that the track's punchier. Bass is also fairly quiet except for riff 4, I'd like more of it on the mix. As chimp noted, the drums' hats are all very quiet, those really need a boost. Overall, this is a fun tune but it definitely needs more arrangement to get posted. Production is good enough IMO but there's still some adjustments that could make it even better! NO

i enjoy listening to it in certain moments. it makes me feel relaxed, especial because of the whispered parts, which are my favored. the whole track is great though

Hey there are some pretty good tracks on here. 😏

New episode featuring Dr. Mario for NES!

lmaooo great use of the 8-tracks feature