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This is really a compositional problem, not a mixing problem. You need to voice your ensemble in such a way that every instrument has a place that doesn't overlap with any other instrument. Don't cross voices, and don't write dense lines below C3 (C an octave below middle C).

Muddy sounds are caused when too many instruments are taking up the same frequency. Think of it like you have an empty cup, but you're overflowing it with too much liquids. Panning the instruments are like having 2 empty cups and splitting the liquid between them, but again the cups can only hold so much. Attenuating the frequencies on instruments that don't need them as prominent as the instruments that do will help clean the overall sounds of your projects. In some cases a low shelf filter is good enough, in other a high pass filter does a better job.

I'm gonna step on all of the toes, and steal the glory of posting about the return of FF5 Water It's coming back guys, for real! DarkeSword announced at MAGFest that the music was done! Look at that, haha! Two years between this post and the one a couple posts up from me... @Sagnewshreds it might! The release date for FFXV is being announced on March 30th at the Uncovered event, we'll see what happens!

I'm so stoked to have placed in the top 3 with two entries during a MAGFest DoD. Even though numerical placements are basically meaningless. I remember at the listening party a lot of people were drunk and there were technical issues with the speakers and everything. But regardless I'm happy that I was able to make some music that people enjoyed. Seeing CarboHydroM rocking the fuck out during my entry was so amazing to me as someone who looked up to him as a guitar player and a remixer for years. Also hearing Snappleman say that my entry was rad made me super happy because he is usually pretty harsh. He didn't say "2/6" Also the fact that with my other entry, we won first place with a straightforward cover just makes me happy. Straight covers usually don't do well in DoD because people like hearing heavily arranged stuff. But I still love remixes and covers of all kinds. We just happened to pick a tune that was crazy enough by default. DoD and OCR are very different things, and I think that is good. There's no reason people should be talking about which one is more valuable. DoD is a lot of fun and it's a good excuse to force yourself to get some remixes out there on a regular basis. I think I'm going to take my entry over to the workshop, spruce it up a bit and then submit it to the OCR panel at some point. Oh also @zykO fucking killed it with that Sonic 2 entry. I was dying laughing when I first heard it. You can never go wrong with adding Shizz memes to your DoD entry haha. That song was like the official theme of MAGFest for me. I wish it never ended

don't let anyone fool ya, that was the biggest one the BIGGEST

Now that the results of DoD are published, I'm looking for some feedback on this one before submitting it to the OCR panel, especially on the production side. Thanks! REMIX: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9icom5q5n7h71xq/Chernabogue%2C%20Furilas%2C%20Sbeast%2C%20tibone%20-%20The%20Xemnas%20Imperative%20%28Darkness%20of%20the%20Unknown%29.mp3?dl=0 SOURCE: LINE-UP: - Chernabogue: mixing, mastering, drums/synths - Furilas: bass guitar - Sbeast: electric guitar - tibone: acoustic guitar

Alright, I'll make this short and sweet. I know we have the excellent Vampire Variations series of albums that covers the Castlevania series, but I'd like to propose a new CV album with a special twist. CastleMania is an album of Castlevania remixes done in the style of pro-wrestler intro tracks. You know how all those wrestlers in the WWE have their own walk-in music? I want an album of remixes that casts Castlevania characters like Simon Belmont and Alucard as pro-wrestlers with their own entrance tracks. We can do the full production on these tracks too, with some light voice acting; an announcer introducing the character, the character themselves doing some catchphrase-filled crowdwork, some crowd noises to make it sound like it's at a big event arena. I obviously cannot run this album, as I have Final Fantasy V to work on, along with this year's FGC albums and some other personal projects. I'm looking to put together a team to take this album project on, preferably someone with knowledge of Castlevania, or pro-wrestling, or both. It doesn't have to be a long album either; even a six-track EP would be cool. Anyone game? I really want this to happen. The pun-based title is too good to pass up.

And another thing - do your chords need to be as thick as they are? Can you change some of the notes in the chords to different octaves, putting less sound in a particular frequency? Or perhaps you could lower the velocity of certain, less important notes in the chord. Too much reverb in general can cause muddiness, it's not limited to the lower frequencies, (though that's what the word "muddy" is usually associated with.) For example the reverb of a particular chord could linger and clash with the next one.

Can you provide an example? Essentially, muddy sounds generally arise from too much frequency clash in the low-midrange (100~500 Hz or so), so you should check the amount of low-mids each instrument has and consider which ones actually need those frequencies. Or, alternatively, check the octaves that each instrument is occupying. When you "record", are you saying with a microphone, or through MIDI, or? Generally you could work towards fixing muddiness in multiple ways: Playing in different octaves Cutting the low end out of certain instruments that don't need bass frequencies (e.g. high pass or low shelf could work); sometimes you may have bassy ambient noise that you don't need. Raising the low cut frequency of any reverb you apply to the instruments until you start hearing a difference, and then find that borderline between where you stop hearing a difference and start hearing a difference.

Music's done for WATER. Finished it last week. I wanted to be able to announce it's done at MAGFest. What I need to do now is put together the visual identity for the albums. I'm considering redoing the artwork for WIND and coming up with a better look that I can use across the series. Alright. Is it out of your system? That's the last time anyone gets to make that joke.

D-D-D-D-DOUBLE POST! I just finished watching the trailer and listening to the entire album again... Man oh man, what an album it's become! And it's so close to release I can almost taste it... #morehype

I could be way off the mark, because you're in fact not sharing the music in question (you're asking an IT guy to troubleshoot your laptop without letting him see your laptop). Would be better if we could actually see what you are doing to tell you what's wrong with it.

Left hand sounds much better now, and the right hand is integrated with it better. I liked the tempo change at 0:11. Much better dynamics too. I didn't mention this before, but I like how you incorporated a bit of megalovania into this. Concerning the right hand, although it sounds better, I think the "pluckiness" problem is happening because attack of the right hand notes sounds much louder than the sustain. Is this is because you've made most of the right hand notes very staccato, and it's just the reverb carrying the notes afterward? If so, I don't think having so many overly-staccato notes fits the overall style of the song, or the left hand. Some minor things: The grace notes at 0:28 are a bit painful. I think it would sound better if the grace notes were quieter, or started soft, but led up to the velocity of the actual note. Are the right hand notes at 2:37 octaves? If so, I think the 2nd note should have a lower velocity and maybe have some imperfection, because the pianist would barely have to to play it before having to move their hand. I think the repeated right hand notes at 2:11 and 2:14 get overly loud. I think you could ease off the velocity after the first time of a repeated note in this case.

2 comments after seeing the project in your DAW: The notes of the right hand all seem to have the same duration, whereas a human player might alternate between staccato and legato, and generally put style into it. For example, if I were playing this on a piano, I might play the first few seconds of the right hand rhythm like this: staccato, legato, legato, legato - staccato, staccato, legato, legato Your note velocities, despite being humanized, and all generally in the same place on your controller area. Why? You have an entire controller area to work with! Give it dynamics! Have the song start off soft, build it up to a forte, make it soft again, etc.

That's updated? For some reason I still hear similar velocities in the right hand. Maybe it'll work better after checking the velocity response.

The rhythms are played too perfectly despite their complexity. As for the sound itself - if I listen hard enough, some of the repeated notes sound the same. It does sound better though. I suppose it could be the style, a "thicker" sounding piano might work better for the slow chords you have here.

Better, but yeah, still sounds like "MIDI". The faster phrases are a bit too perfect in terms of the evenness of the velocity magnitudes. Is it possible to adjust your sample library's velocity response? It might help to smooth out the hardness of the tone overall by making the slope more exponential than logarithmic.

Random thoughts, in no particular order: To best approximate a real event, it would probably be best to have an equal number of heroes as villains. It would be pretty hilarious if the "Heel" wrestlers (monsters) went by their "actor" names from Castlevania I. Boris Karloffice, Love Chaney, Christopher Bee, etc. Castlevania: Judgment has "official" character themes for several characters, both heroes and monsters. Not that we'd have to stick with these, but they're a good starting point. There should probably be two versions, one with voiceovers, crowd noises, etc. and one without. The one with could also have an announcers' intro and other "event" segments. I'm already planning on organizing an OCR-I for CCoI. This might actually be a good opportunity for me to get my feet wet, since it would have a couple months' head start, and I'd need a co-director anyway--I can put in the time and effort, and I know Castlevania pretty well, but I have no album experience, I don't have a sufficiently good ear for quality standards, and the last pro wrestling event I watched was when The Undertaker made his WWF debut. But if someone is willing to help with that side of things, I'd be happy to take on what I can.

I'm using a Fighting Commander 4 Pro. Dude no. Use x360ce.

You should have banked on this project, 'cause it's too big to fail.

This is great news! Now we can wait another 5 years for Part 3: Fire

Pokken still open huh? I could've sworn I claimed that earlier lol - but do enlighten me on how the claim process works. Do I have to send in a sample of a mix before it's official? : )

One claim per game for now. Games available are Pokkén Tournament, UMvC3, and Killer Instinct.

It's today. 30 years ago, on February 21st, 1986, The Legend of Zelda came out in Japan, and it's been a good ride ever since. The first of a years worth of video game birthdays, but certainly not the least. Just don't let Ganon have all the cake!

Hell yes let's celebrate! I'm literally listening to this right now as I saw this thread.

You know, I just realised something. What happened to PuD; doesn't he usually enter these MAGfest DoDs with some huge collab?

Looking for feedback on my track

Resuuuuuuuuuults (if you haven't seen them already): #1 Robby V, finbeard, Snappleman, Tina, Maiko, Monte, Sagnewshreds - Ninja Warriors - Daddy Mulk as performed by T-Shizz - good -0.36 #2 Russian Attack (Affection State, Boroda-kun, Claude D., Commander_Doyle, creepue, GamBit, GearX2, Harmsing, Inrudiment, Jean Sugui, Shipluss, SJ Van Damme, streifig, TwoJan, Zubareus) - Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Rush'n Attack, James Bond Jr., Jackal, Ninja Gaiden - Radio Dendy - good -0.42 #3 newip, BLOBER - Thunder Force 4 - Rynex - above average +0.4 #4 Sagnewshreds, Brian Westbrook, Mike Dreher, Tony Barhoum - Final Fantasy 6 - 6 Feet Beneath the Veldt - above average +0.32 #5 Harmsing, Sofia Taro - World of Warcraft - Forest Tavern - above average +0.29 #6 Ivan Hakštok, Wake, Sixto Sounds - Sonic 3D Blast - 3Fast5You - above average +0.2 #7 Brandon Strader, Cheryl Norfair - Xenoblade Chronicles - Beyond - above average +0.04 #8 Affection State, SJ Van Damme - Ninja Gaiden 3: The Ancient Ship of Doom - A Heart that Wants to Save the World - above average +0.02 #9 LONELYROLLINGSTARS (Ailsean, Mega Beardo, Chris Dlugosz, norg, finbeard) - Solstice - Merging Black Holstice - above average -0.19 #10 clansmaneddie, Josh Kay - Venture Kid, Retro City Rampage - Cityscape - above average -0.19 #11 Moiré Effect (BluuMonk, SuprMelO) - Chrono Trigger - Give Lavos a Chance - above average -0.32 #12 TwoJan, Creepue - Battletoads & Double Dragon [NES] - Game Bar - above average -0.34 #13 Shipluss, Claude D., Olga Gosteva - Bioshock Infinite - The Song in The Sky - above average -0.42 #14 Kyle Hoke, Epic Game Music, The Blast Processors - Final Fantasy 4 - Face Your Fear: Zeromus - above average -0.47 #15 Steel Samurai (Katamari, JawN, darmock, Parvenu, Jason Farrell) - Shovel Knight - Hit the Dirt - above average -0.48 #16 Czyszy, EmpireAnts98 - Burning Rangers - Angels With Burning Hearts - above average -0.49 #17 Electric Sex Toy (zykO, Greeny) - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - The Biggest One (ft. drunk kylO ren) - average +0.41 #18 Marshall Art (streifig, jmr), Cory Johnson - Undertale - MGLV: The Easiest Enemy - average +0.21 #19 Chernabogue, Furilas, Sbeast, tibone - Kingdom Hearts 2 - The Xemnas Imperative - average +0.14 #20 Quaz, Bean - Starcraft - No Rush 20 - average +0.11 #21 Old Man Wizard (pingosimon, zangderak, Francis Roberts) - Savage - Savage Title - average -0.07 #22 Ailsean, Flik - Suikoden - A Large Gathering of Mice - average -0.13 #23 Trap Fanatic, HoshiHearts - Undertale - Detemmienation - average -0.44 ALTS Daemon9623 Mega Man X - Swing Chameleon Inrudiment, Harmsing Robocop 3 - Robocop 3 Title Sofia Taro, creepue Lineage 2 - Shepherd's Flute Harmsing, Albina Captain America and The Avengers [NES] - Cap Funny Symphony "Villains' Violins vs Avengers' Guitars" New theme to be announced when streifig gets back home.

UPDATE: I'm chatting with DJP on it now and we've come to an agreement on this subject. We'll be moving forward with his design and policy.

I didn't know a better place to post this. I don't like navigating new forums or making accounts, but I did so solely so I could tell the artists that created this album how much I appreciate their time/work/dedication that was involved in creating an album that remixed my favorite game soundtrack of all time. And thanks to the crew of OCR that allowed this amazing collab to happen. I'm sure there are hundreds of other people who think the same, but just don't want to go through the effort to let you all know how amazing an experience you guys brought forth. Maybe, just maybe, in a decade or so, I'll have the fortitude to try this kind of thing myself to create content for my next favorite game and make a fan like myself. Again, Thanks

I'm honestly rather surprised this thread hasn't been locked yet. It's more or less a 105 page argument that's really gone nowhere between the two sides of... whatever issue this thread is about now..

Hey it still might come out before FFXV