Leaderboard

Go for it! Underrated series, especially music-wise.

It's a square wave.

It does definitely vary from genre to genre, and also background to background. For example, I have one remix posted on the site, and another in the evaluation queue. Both use live instruments almost exclusively. One is jazz, and the other is some other genre that I don't know how to classify. Jazz doesn't really sound right with samples, especially with wind instruments, so it tends to work better with live instruments. As for background, a lot of people on this site are hobbyists who learned music on their own. Using samples or synths is what they know really well, although there is a large number of rock/metal who use live guitar. Many people play guitar as a primary instrument. I'm a classically trained french horn player who also does jazz extensively, so I prefer live instruments because that's what I'm more "fluent" in. If you use what you have, and make it work, you'll fit in just fine!

Not quite cornered. There's a strong jazz presence and some "orchestral lite" (~4-8 live instrumentalists and/or vocalists). But for 100% live instruments, rock/metal is definitely the most popular supergenre.

I definitely concur that a minority of tracks include even one live instrument--most are 100% synths and/or samples. But a substantial minority do include at least one live instrument, as well. That number goes up if you include vocals. I will add that we come down pretty hard on sequenced instruments when they lack humanization. You can go through old judges' decisions to see for yourself: when an instrument is lead or exposed, it's much more likely to get rejected when it sounds obviously fake. Being able to play lead violin and electric guitar yourself is a huge boon if you'd like to use those instruments--I think that as leads, those two instruments tend to trip up mixes the most when sampled.

Dex, you're on the money. Even with this revision, most of your feedback still applies. eval: The ebb and flow dynamics of the intro strings pad seem a bit erratic. You might want to even it out a bit. This issue is still there when the same pad is used with the piano. Fiddling with the envelope and note lengths should help here. Try to avoid whatever happened with the instrument at 1:00. The main piano quite bright, dry, and hard. (It also sounds a bit like an sd3 track.) It doesn't quite feel like it's part of the same world as the other instruments. It's a bit too loud, and could use more reverb or delay to blend in more. It's still quite mechanical. I'm hearing more variation in velocity (eg around 3:15), but the timing still seems quite rigid. Check your mix levels against well-mixed tracks (eg ocremixes by veteran remixers, from the past few years). That way you have an easier time spoting differences in frequency balance and dynamics, in mixing things between the two mixes. The hihats and your synth leads both seem quite loud to me (as did the piano). This is something you start to notice when you listen for it, and train your ears on well-mixed tracks. The panning on the synth lead is annoying. Not something you'd get rejected for, but it bugs me, so I'm letting you know. This is without a doubt a remix of Deus Ex. Both structure and instrumentation are quite close to source. There are some creative differences, like the uses of the secondary sources (well handled, too), but I think it's still too conservative to pass. That's one of the more difficult things to deal with; issues pertaining to sound design and mixing are easier to identify and to alter. Currently, it'd probably be rejected on the basis of being too conservative, unrealistic sequencing (instrument parts aren't smooth enough), sound design (mostly that superbright piano), and mixing issues (track levels, making instruments fit together). My recommendation is to take this as far as you currently can without bothering much with trying to change the arrangement (unless you get a good idea for how to do that), use another eval if you feel you need one later, sub it, and see what happens. It's a good arrangement to practice the technical aspects of remixing on. Pass or no pass, you take what you've learned (including judges' feedback from having subbed it) to your future works. Have fun.

I do believe I'm one of the two recent builds, and yes, I'm loving the new system! Great work! You get my recommendation for sure.

Nabeel is correct, you are looking for a standard square wave. Here is an article that shows how to create such a sound in FL Studio: http://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/how-to-create-a-portamento-square-wave-lead-sound There are also VSTs such as Peach ( http://www.tweakbench.com/peach ), which specifically emulate the exact square, pulse, and other waves from vintage video game sound chips.