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This is what has been working for me the past couple of years. Getting a good mix is the most important thing. Most of the time I just make music without any effects on the master track at all. Focus on getting the right mix levels, on bussing your stuff correctly, on giving the instruments their own space via panning/eq, etc. Nowadays my mastering process is very simple and keeps getting simpler the more I focus on getting a good mix beforehand. Try to shy away from presets. Get used to starting from scratch on compressor settings. It's hard at first, gets easier with time, and you'll get the best results that are appropriate for your track.

Really great round, guys! Reviews: bLiNd ~ Arsonist Really solid work here, and out of all the EDM tracks in this compo so far, the best production. My only production gripe is that the lead guitar felt like it stuck out of the soundscape for some reason; I think it was the reverb design and midrange EQ that did it. The arrangement was fairly predictable, but there were lots of subtle variation details. The incorporation of Doppler felt kind of "shoehorned in", so a decently-cohesive but well-executed track. Cam3 ~ Tiger Millionaire Cool concept. I get that you were going for kind of a grungy, techy feel. The production needed work in the Master track processing in that the whole track felt quite overcompressed whenever the drums played. The main drum samples also felt rather tonally weird, moreso the kick than the snare. I thought the sources were fairly well-integrated and personalized to the style. GrapplingHook ~ Arma Gonna Topple That Dopple v0.1 Not too shabby. To me the tempo felt a bit slow for what you appeared to be going for (not by much, just maybe 4~8 BPM). At 0:43 - 0:56, it felt like the lead was meandering. The production is alright, but could be better. For example, the intro guitars had quite a bit of reverberation in the treble frequencies, which isn't really audible once all the instruments come in. I find that the upper treble frequencies get cluttered fairly easily, and even the smallest EQ edits up there could help. Also, the drums felt fairly clean/uncompressed, and some controlled distortion and careful compression could have strengthened the tone of those drums some more. WillRock ~ MMMDop Dat title; what, X3 = times three, and so Mega Man X3 -> Mx3 = MMM, and then Dop? Aight, anyways, this arrangement is clearly exceptional. Loving the chord progressions throughout, especially the ones at 2:28 and 2:48. The wicked solos also weren't totally terrible (in other words, they were awesome). On the production side, I thought the midrange was a little bit cluttered with regards to the backing instruments (those could have used some slight mids scooping), but it wasn't a big deal to me. That shift to minor at 3:16 was also genius. Based on the chord progressions and crazy solos, and the solid production, this is pretty awesome. Tuberz McGee ~ I Don't Run At All Right off the bat this feels a bit quiet, but that's not too hard to fix, right? Some small crits of note: At 0:19, I can hear you make a noise with your mouth that you could have edited out, for example, and some of the fricatives and sibilances on the vocal takes don't line up to such an extent that I would call them "tight" (such as 2:13 on the "st" in "style"). And then there's the lyrics; funny, but perhaps a bit overdone on the frequency of usage. I get that that's your theme, so to speak, but I kind of anticipated cameos more so than repeated usages. I thought the rock part was fairly straightforward, and my favorite part was the acoustic outtro. The drums are serviceable, though they could be a bit stronger via some controlled distortion and careful compression. Garpocalypse ~ Is é mo aingeal imithe This was a refreshing vibe to hear amidst the more electronic tracks I tend to hear in compos. It sounded Irish to me, and I actually sang lots of Irish music in high school, so that's cool. The production is fairly clean, aside from the amount of reverb on the distant choir that shows up every now and then, and my main concern is the amount of repetition in the track. By about 3:07, I start to crave more variation in at least the textures, and if not, at least the chord progressions, or even the melodic contour. Maybe a stark left turn into a mood shift, or something new to keep us interested. I think after you incorporate more variation or eliminate repetitious areas, it's a pretty good candidate for OCR. Gario ~ Red Shifting Drift This could have been one of my top picks, actually. The lead sequencing was excellent, and the drums, while fairly generic tonally and in terms of the sequencing, are serviceable. My main gripe with this was actually the pad/synth choir you had going on, which had quite a bit of reverb and made the whole track feel a bit overly washy (the one exposed at 2:28). The sources were pretty well-integrated too. fxsnowy ~ Thermoception The intro literally felt like an X-style stage-select theme. HAH! The drums were fairly serviceable tonally, but they didn't seem to fit the mood I thought you were going for. If you wanted to go with that drum kit, I felt you needed a wider bass (even if by just a bit). The bells were pretty loud and lacking in velocity variation (such as at 1:24). I also thought at 0:46 - 0:48, the notes were rather weird, and there were some other spots that felt weird with the melodic contour and/or chord progression, such as 1:25 - 1:26, 1:36 - 1:37, and 2:13 - 2:14. My main issue with this is that the bass frequencies feel fairly bare, leading me to perceive a bit of textural sparseness overall. I realize that you actually have a bass, but it was written staccato for a good chunk of the track, so there's not as much of a "foundation" beneath the other instruments wherever it feels more fit to parallel the action of the bells and pads that each had long releases (ADSR). That really comes down to the flow of the way you wrote the bass, so I realize that it may not be an easy fix. Shadix ~ Winter Weather Advisor I see you were going for a Jazz Fusion feel. I think that tonally it worked. I enjoyed the less busy parts the most! One of my three main concerns with this is that in the spots where the drums are busiest, they feel conflicting relative to the other lower-energy instruments. Perhaps if the writing in those spots was lighter (such as using primarily overhead and not writing such hard hits), even if nearly as busy in terms of the rhythm, would feel less busy overall. My second is that there is a bit much reverb on most of the "primary" instruments. For example, the sax could have a higher low-cut cutoff frequency on its reverb to minimize low-mids reverberation (the character of the reverb is fairly perceivable at 3:07). My last concern was that the overall track feels overcompressed, but you knew that. I would check the Attack and Release on FabFilter Pro-L, and experiment with the Attack, Release, and GR settings on the LA-3A compressor emulation. DusK ~ Just Give Me a Minute Fun metal track! Sounds "like you" (easily identifiable as something you wrote). Rather short, though; to me it felt like it could have been longer, based on the arrangement flow, but that's alright. Fairly solid production, and I wasn't bothered by the clicky kick. I forget if that's FPC or something else. Cash ~ Dark Times, Happy World To me, the arrangement felt rather forced, and the stereo field was strange. I personally have (almost) never auto-panned a bass or anything having low-mids frequencies, because it tends to feel weird doing so. The people I know are so used to bass being centered (typical) or wide (dubsteppish). The overall soundscape also felt sparse, and lacking a chordal component; you seem to have tried to make up for it with reverb, but I think it would be more helpful to write chords. Lastly, the ending note tail needed to last in its entirety before the track ended, and it's an easy fix (just add an empty/silent clip at the end of the track, perhaps). jnWake ~ Beetle Dopplerganger The arrangement was really fun, and my favorite part of this was the chord progressions you used. The solos were quite nice too, though they could have used a synth tone that had more body to give them more of a commanding presence. The rhythm guitars were fairly straightforward but pretty realistically sequenced/MIDIed in. I don't think the lead guitar was really lacking realism, per se, but the execution of the performance emulation wasn't as impressive as a real person playing the same notes, and was lacking the variation in playing style that a real person would naturally incorporate out of human tendencies to not play the same thing the exact same way each time (even if it was written that way on sheet music). Overall, based on the chord progressions and pretty good solos, I think you should continue polishing this track in the guitars and solo synth tones and submit this sometime to OCR.

It'll take four times the clickiness to compete with death metal. It ain't clicky enough until you think it's popcorn popping.

You are aware it's called a kickdrum, not a clickdrum, eh?

Listening party is over! Thanks everyone for coming and giving feedback! Here's the listening party log: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/93696675/sfrg_round2_party_log.txt

Super Smash Flash 2 is a Smash Bros. fan game for the PC. With a large fanbase, active online community, and more than 1,000,000 daily plays, it’s not only the most popular Super Smash Bros. fangame, but also one of the most successful video game fan projects ever created - all constructed from the ground up. For the early years of SSF2’s development, music was not a focus, but with the last few versions we’ve been trying to change that. Smash Bros. games are known for having a large, diverse collection of the best video game music, and we want SSF2 to be no exception. We’ve come here today to request your help to achieve this objective and bring more high-quality music to Super Smash Flash 2. What can we offer: - Spotlight! This is a game played by millions of people. Yes, seriously. We have an online community of hundreds of thousands of active players, and the number grows as the version number does. - We have a small, but tightly-knit developer team. Our team has achieved a lot together, and we promise a good environment and proper tools for you to be comfy working with us. - Early access to work-in-progress versions of our upcoming releases so you can hear/see what your music adds to the game! - Part of having a soundtrack for a Smash Bros. game is having diversity in musical style. We allow and encourage ourselves to experiment musically to a large degree, with the main guidelines/restrictions coming from the ambiance of the stage where the music will be used. Feel free to check these samples to get an idea what we’re talking about: Please turn your volume down before clicking - these are direct MP3's of ingame music which is fed into the game at max volume. Kraid's Lair Waiting Room Cruel Smash! Majora's Mask Medley Bomberman's Theme What we're looking for: - You should be willing to keep an open mind and willing to attempt many different songs from different series as needed. - You must be versatile, and willing to challenge the usual in Smash. Some of our remixes stick close to the originals, while others are more experimental. SSF2 includes rock, orchestral, jazz, and latin, among other styles. - You must be able to discuss your work and receive constructive criticism. - You are likely to be assigned with confidential tasks. You’ll need to be able to keep confidentiality until your work is released to the public. - We’re not requiring any particular DAW or music-related software. Do note: SSF2 is an unpaid project - but there may be paid projects in our future after SSF2 is completed. If you’re interested, please make an account on http://forums.mcleodgaming.com, then apply at http://bit.ly/SSF2Apply. You may post any questions or concerns in this thread, or direct them to our press/partners email - ssf2devs@mcleodgaming.com if you prefer. We look forward to help from the talent here! We know there's a lot of Smash fans on OCR and we were fortunate enough to meet some staff members at Apex 2015. We're sure we can make magic with your help.

http://supermariomaker.nintendo.com/#/home Scheduled for release on September 11th. I've always been a fan of games that let you get really creative. This started with the simpler ones like The Incredible Machine(essentially the first version of the more modern Contraption Maker), and other side-scrolling creators like Blast Works for the Wii. So this one really got my attention. The $60 price tag is a tad bit more than I'd like, but not a huge factor for me. Anyone else really interested in this? KP9000 has created a repository of courses Click Here to view the repository OR I've compiled all courses posted in this topic below. Hopefully we can get these all submitted to the above repository or it might start to get cluttered! (Hylian Lemon) Goomba Falls: D60C-0000-0019-D75A (atmuh) Unnamed: 407E-0000-0024-6309 (atmuh) get to chipotle before the rush: E1EF-0000-003B-1AFE (FenixDown) Fenix 1-1: 44FD-0000-001A-3EA1 (FenixDown) Fenix 1-2: F1D1-0000-0027-81B3 (Mirby) Ghost Dodgers: A962-0000-001A-FBEF (Mirby) Icy Skies!: 6EF7-0000-001E-C473 (Mirby) The Flying Dutchman: 1202-0000-0027-2F1D (Mirby) Plains of Passage (Shovel Knight): 1CC5-0000-0026-195D (Mirby) Mushroom House (Super Mario Land 2): 1FDF-0000-0029-23A6 (Mirby) Air Man Stage (Mega Man 2) Remix: 314F-0000-0034-3B7B (Mirby) To Hades and Back: EEC4-0000-0035-7208 (Mirby) Assault on Mount Olympus: 7989-0000-0039-10F1 (Mirby) Anthem (Azure Striker Gunvolt): A7E6-0000-003A-24FE (Mirby) Follow That Shell!: 70A1-0000-003E-36F3 (Kat) 1-1: Koopa Krusade: 4951-0000-0048-1B52 (Kat) Fear Factory: 0DEE-0000-0043-BCEB (Kat) Storming The Gates: 7865-0000-003D-08C8 (Kat) Mario's Mission: C64E-0000-0033-D963 (jnWake) Koopa Shells: 551C-0000-0032-58EF (jnWake) Goomba Jumps: D075-0000-0034-B953 (jnWake) Bullets in Koopatlantis: 6FB6-0000-003A-ED9A (jnWake) Under The Thwomp: 7D5F-0000-003F-B84F (jnWake) Mystery House Bounce: 15EA-0000-0048-B42C . (Bleck) Weighted Companion Shell - 845D-0000-003B-4D70 (purplecowadoom) Stinging in the Rain: 7783-0000-0037-D8B6 (purplecowadoom) The Bounce Vault: 8BE4-0000-0038-F252 (purplecowadoom) "It'll give you wings",they said: CAD0-0000-003A-33C0 (purplecowadoom) Can't handle Bill say, "What?": 4E18-0000-0048-69B4 (purplecowadoom) Pyromania Pizza Palace: 79E3-0000-003E-378E (purplecowadoom) Pin the Tail on the Cheetah: 1706-0000-003F-F632 (purplecowadoom) "Friendly" Mario vs the Sky Guys: 1C58-0000-0043-B19E (purplecowadoom) Mario, Woodchipper Inspector: 1017-0000-0047-E992 (purplecowadoom) Sink or Fly, Stop and Die: BD8C-0000-0048-E3E6 (purplecowadoom) Ghosts of the Past: E923-0000-004B-4821

Now this is an interesting track. I remember the OST for XG was heavy on tons of EDM names. But it stood out for the tracks by themselves. From the outset, your take on "Urban Motorway" is dead on good. I love the rhythm's and the timing. It just keeps a steady "heartbeat". Well done friend.

I liked the clicky drums, personally.

Hey, you're stealing my line and role! I'll only be able to listen to his track during my lunch break.

Good news, everyone! The album should be finished this week-end! If you haven't sent your notes or consent or track name, please do so asap.

Turns out they accidentally remixed Final Fantasy XI instead of IX so they gotta shuffle really fast to make a FF IX album now

The apply page is broken. Could you fix this? I'd love to talk with you guys about this.

I missed the listening party but this gem in the log got me: <+Gario> Ground Scaravich? Isn't he the beetle that carries poo around? If the stupidly weird harmonies in the song hadn't made me regret my choice enough! EDIT: Also, regarding the criticisms I read in the log, I rushed a lot of the writing so my guitar lines are very simple haha. The guitar leads are MIDI recorded so I guess that's why they don't sound that sequenced. I may re-visit this with more time later to add more variations to the guitar and stuff.

OH MY GOD, IT WORKED! Song is pretty much "auto-YES, no override" for me.

10 minutes until the listening party. #ocrcompo IRC channel on esper.net Download mixes before you get in there.

The taken King has been revealed thoroughly with this new video Documentary.It comes Sep.15 Year 1 ps exclusives like Hawkmoon,Monte carlo,(some)Crucible maps and strikes will be available for all Xbox players when the Taken king is released. However, A new year for Destiny also means a new year of Playstation Exclusives that Xbox players will be left out untill fall 2016. The video below talks about the new ps Exclusive