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Folks, here's some advice related to combining two sources together that I wrote in a different thread.

On an interesting aside, Darkesword is right, first and foremost: if you merge sources, think not about absolute pitch (e.g. What notes are being played), but more about relative pitch (e.g. what scale degrees are being played). I'm glad he pointed that out, as it can help make the intimidating process of merging sources far more manageable. As someone who wants really great music to come from this, I can give just a few more ideas on how to handle your sources: Give a precursory thought about form. There's no need to get into too much detail, or give more than a minute of thought on it, but if you have some idea that you're going to make a short ABA track it can help generate ideas when you'll use what source, which alleviates writer's block. A nice trick I personally use, for example, is using sonata form when mixing four or more sources at once (such as my older track 'Magnus Divinicus Chiptunicus'); AB C AB (that's Sonata form: Exposition 'AB', Development 'C', Recapitulation 'AB') gives you a lot of room to use very different ideas while still having a cohesive sounding piece. That's a personal trick of mine, but you can use many more established forms to keep your track from becoming two sources stacked next to each other. For people who are not used to mixing sources together, this will help keep you on track. Shape ("Contour") is more important than getting the exact intervals correct. Rarely can you get a theme to match with another sources harmonies without changing some of the intervals notably, so don't be afraid to change the size of the intervals for important themes if it helps harmonize it better with whatever music you have underlying it. As long as you don't change the shape of the theme, it will still be recognizable. Rhythm and beat pattern is a powerful motive in its own right. If a source has an iconic beat pattern (say, MM2 Wily 1's famous '2 gallop + three 8th note' pattern), people will make the connection between the sources no matter what notes or shapes you make with them. As far as submittable material it'll give you a funny look on the panel claiming it as source, but using rhythms as compositional glue to keep it grounded in more original sections can really help make something sound cohesive. There are all sorts of smaller tricks to the trade, here, but these should help on a more general level. I'm hoping this turns out to be a great compo, with lots of solid music and growth for people here.

The People's Remix Competition 342 PRCv14-04 Hello everyone and Welcome to the People's Remix Competition! Welcome to round 4 of PRC season 14. The third round, PRC341 is almost done: PRC340 was won by both Dewey Newt and GCJ, PlanarianHugger could'n t stop them. They both agreed on one source, which will be used for this round. Source: Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles – Chrome Gadget Zone (GEN) MIDI Source Information ThaSauce link: Click here to submit To submit a song at the compo page you can use the ThaSauce page. If you use this, an account is required. If you don't want to use ThaSauce, please upload the song somewhere else and post a download link in this thread. I recommend Soundcloud, don't forget to allow downloads to enable me to upload the song at ThaSauce. I will keep using ThaSauce as the place where all songs are located. If you want to use ThaSauce, the following steps should be done. Click the ThaSauce Link. Click the 'You are not logged in' button in the upper right. Click on 'register' (at the bottom). Read the terms and click 'I agree to these terms'. If you don't agree with them, upload the song somewhere else and post a download link as mentioned above (by doing that, you allow me to upload the song at ThaSauce. Continue the process by filling in your information. You will get a question to confirm that you're not a robot. Here are some possible answers: Name a compo: PRC Who organizes One Hour Compo: Starla Name a ThaSauce subdomain: compo.thasauce.net Who created Mega Mans: Capcom A confirmation mail will be send. There might be some issues with it (meaning that you don't get it), if that is the case, upload the song somewhere else as described above. Once registered, login with your username and password, go to the mentioned page and submit the song. If you want submit two or more songs you can create multiple ThaSauce accounts or upload the song somewhere else and post the download link. After uploading your song, please check if your song plays and can be downloaded and played without problems. Only upload MP3 files. PRC instructions The deadline is Friday February 24th 2017 at 4:59 am ThaSauce time (12:00 UTC, 13:00 GMT), check the ThaSauce page for the exact time left. Make sure that the song is uploaded to ThaSauce or that there’s a download link posted in this thread. Two additional days. You may enter as many mixes as you like and work with as many people as you like on each mix. You are free to create a second ThaSauce account for that if you use ThaSauce, it's needed to be able to upload a second remix if you use ThaSauce. Of course you can also upload it somewhere else and put a download link in this thread. Do not make qualitative comments on an entry until the results of the vote have been posted in this thread. Mixers cannot vote for themselves but if they vote they receive a free first place vote added onto their score. The winner of this round may select the source for PRC344. The winners of PRC340, Dewey Newt and GCJ, can only participate by submitting a Bonus Mix. Their votes are doubled in the voting stage. You can find the full rules list at this page as well. I edited this page with the new schedule and rules. GOOD LUCK! PRC ThaSauce Home Page!

Oh, wow, Jorito and Gario, Farewell to Ballade and Strike the Earth? You guys had better not disappoint!

Fully agree with DS and Gario on this. Definitely the form; it helps a lot if you just pick A as your first source, B as your second source. And of course you can just use a part of that source's melody, no need to do the full line. My Megaman track "Never Gonna Give (Up The Funk)" is a good example of that; it uses a part of Cyber Maze Core for A in the verse, another part for the bridge, a part of Gravity Beetle for the chorus, and another part of Cyber Maze Core for the solo. You can even get away with playing the 2 leads at the same time frequently. For me, having a loose idea about form and some 8/16 bar blocks that have the source material in it so I can shove them around in my DAW is a great idea to crystallize that form. Those can be pretty basic blocks, with just some drums, bass and snippets of the leads of both the sources. It's a great way to mix and match the sources and try out ideas because you quickly get a feel for what flows well and what doesn't. A variation of Gario's rhythm and beat patterns is that you can frequently re-use an arp, a bassline or some short melodic figures quite easily. Especially if you have some of those basic blocks, it can be a quick way to fill our your arrangement more and to include more reference to the source. Oh, and for the folks that worry about music theory because of all the scales, intervals, tonics mentioned: I don't know a lot of music theory, but I've learned to trust my ears and feeling and my taste. If the theoretical and technical side of things is not your strongest suit, don't forget that you have team mates to bounce your ideas off and get quick feedback. Just trust yourself and let your team mates help you out in the things you're still learning. And yes, how to combine sources can definitely be one of those things. I'm more than happy to help out my team mates with this at least

What the guy above me says When I saw the team schedules, I already suspected DS would match us up. Now let's go and have some fun!

Oh shit, I'm up against Jorito? This'll be a tough match-up - best of luck, man! Good sources, though - easily the most recognizable and fun to arrange.

Great entries this round, everyone! Definitely a tough decision to make.

i have no wips for that track yet. i'd love to hear it! send it my way if you get some ideas written down. it by no means needs to be full length or anything - just a promising concept.

Gentlemen, match-ups for Round 1 have been posted. Check the first post of this thread for information. Good luck, and please let me know if you have any questions.

What you could do is use a standard visualizer, like what comes default in many media players. Then you can screenshot the result. I've seen many visualizers that turn it into fractals or shapes or whatever. There are many options out there!