Leaderboard

I'm a firm believer that most "mixing" happens in the arrangement/orchestration stage. Sometimes the best thing I can do for a song is delete a part that doesn't need to be there. It's so easy to get carried away with layering, with today's technology essentially eliminating almost all technical limitations of recording and composing. But just because you can easily stack a hundred tracks on top of each other, doesn't mean you should. Restraint is an art form; the notes you don't play are every bit as important, if not more so, than the notes you do play. More and more I'm learning that trying to fill every possible hole in the sonic spectrum just leads to mush, and ultimately, an endless "tail-chasing" cycle with EQ and compression and all that. The more empty space you have, the more powerful each note is within it. When you've got dozens of synth plugins, and two hard drives full of sample libraries, sometimes the greatest challenge is refraining from cramming all that awesome stuff into every song. Tasteful, well-recorded sounds, when mixed with other well-recorded sounds, should ideally not need any EQ at all. In theory, anyway. If you're trying to carve holes to fit more stuff in there, maybe you've got too much stuff in there already.

I'm officially claiming Remote Town!

What I'd call the "base usable" version of FL is a mere $199 (Producer Edition). This will get you several usable plugins (including flagships Sytrus and Maximus, plus GMS, etc.) and the entirety of mixing and sequencing capabilities. With what's included in here, you'll have more than enough to get started making music with a wide palette of tools.

On the plus side, the composer's name is Trevor Morris. If that was supposed to be a sneaky Castlevania-themed pseudonym, it couldn't have been better.

ReMixer name: SupahForte Real name: Christian M. Swanson Email address: Userid: 34515 Name of game arranged: Mega Man Zero 2 Name of arrangement: Cerebral Glacier Name of individual song arranged: Ice Brain (Poler Kamrous) The Main reason I did this song was due to the fact that even the remastered tracks had fake guitar on it. This track is definitely one of my all time favorite tracks but I felt the remastered tracks didn't do it justice. Upon recording it I decided to not follow the track entirely. i composed mostly my own drums.The bass and guitar was recorded throgh my amp through my interface using SM57s. The programs used were "Reason" For the guitar and bass and Guitar Pro 6 to Compose the drums This would be a Rock version of this track.

Mega Man Zero is a criminally underrated series, with music that matches the best of the Megaman series. It kind of makes me wonder why there isn't more awesome arrangements of it... perhaps people just didn't get too far in the games of the series? They were pretty tough, after all... As far as the arrangement goes, it's pretty cool. Making the track into something of a rock arrangement fits well with the source, and the synths used in this compliment the rock elements of this track well. The rhythm guitar and drum work is pretty solid, as far as performance is concerned, so nice work on that. The lead, while serviceable, doesn't sound like a clean performance. The timing is often sloppy (like the grace notes at 1:28 & 1:35), and the notes sound like they have an unintentional degree of separation between the notes when the notes get really high. Tighten up those entrances and rhythms, and connect your notes better in the higher end. One last element is the doubling involved later in the track at 2:06 sounds strange - the lower guitar that doubles it hits on a slight delay. It sounds like the intent was to create an echo, but it instead sounds like it's just missing a beat since it's an octave lower. Line your doubling up better. The mixing of this is a larger overall concern for this arrangement - the lead pierces, and the middle elements (rhythm guitar, bass, synth) sound like soup behind it. Overall, the varying elements need to be balanced better - hold back the lead a bit, separate the middle elements so they're more distinct and bring out the kick and snare of the drums better. I think this has some solid potential, but the lead performance and mixing hold back. I hope to hear some improvements on it, because the arrangement is slick, and the transformation to rock is awesome. NO