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Thanks Hleet for filling the void. I can now proceed to the voting! Because of the 2 day round extension due to the lack of entries, i've extended voting by 2 days.

Welcome to the Voting Stage! There are 2 entries this round. There is 1 Bonus entry(s) this round There IS a voter bonus this round! Souperion has a vote worth 2x. When Voting, if possible, avoid granting 1:1 covers top spot. MnP requires a bit of remixage after all. Don't vote for Bonus entries please. Do let me know if you have problems voting, and we can sort something out. Try and not make any comments about each entrant until after voting has concluded. Thanks! Participants may not vote for themselves. The winner of this round will submit a source for MnP Round 135. Vote ends 10th August 1PM. Vote here: https://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/MnP134

got something in

I thought this was going to be for three pianos hahaha. A bit disappointed but then pleasantly surprised. It's a decent start. I think even if the automations and such get much better, unless the mix is unbelievably exquisite and emotional, I'd want more originality. Maybe in a B section? What do you mean by modeled by the way?

Such a good...really good amount of wisdom here. I wish there were like posts we could archive to help new composers or lost ocremixers. You bring up a lot of critical points and the one that resonates the most for me—and they all resonate strongly—is the point about appreciating what you have. As a collector I like having lots of vsts to fiddle with but as a composer it can get me in trouble if I don't spend enough time getting the most out of what I have. It's why I like doing these "remaster" projects where my goal is not to add myself in but to make a midi of a game soundtrack feel new and modern. It takes away my need to be too creative and helps me focus on the ins and outs of my libraries and my DAW. Over time I've gotten to find which of my libraries are my workhorses that I really like to employ and actually slowed down my desire to get more things. I can't actually say less is more from the heart but I do believe more is less if you don't have the ability to employ them properly.

Just like Jorito already said: It really depends on the type of the game and the kind of music that players would expect for this game. It might be kinda impossible for a composer, who only owns some NES-like chiptune samples, to create some convincing soundtracks for modern RPGs like the Final Fantasy 7 remake. But... Compared to the video game composers who created soundtracks for the NES video game console back then, you have some big advantages (even with similar samples) as a contemporary composer. Today you can use much more complex DAWs with a lot more functions, much better VST plugins for sophisticated sound design and - of course - very good DAWs with no meaningful restrictions concerning the amount of MIDI tracks you can use within one single soundtrack. So, with some rad composer and sound design skills, you might be able to create a soundtrack with a great atmosphere even with the dullest sounding samples as a base. And that's something which can really ignite your creativity and ingenuity. On the other side, you can own the most sophisticated samples - but without the necessary knowledge for using your DAW to the fullest, without the necessary music theory, listening experience, composer, sound design and mixing skills or a bigger creative spark inside, you might not be ready to compose greater soundtracks. So, before buying too much stuff at once, I'd rather buy a decent DAW (definitely a full version without restrictions) and rather invest some money in a faithful home studio first, then read through the manual of your DAW from time to time and try out preferably all of the functions in it, read through basic and advanced music theory or special topics like composing and mixing - and work with the basic stuff you already have. Work with it, try out new and crazy things in your compositions, master it - until you feel that you have almost fully exploited the potential of your samples and plugins. Maybe try with some basic plugins and rad sound designer skills to let an electronic sax synth sound like a real sax - might be a tough goal... but not a totally impossible one. And then master it again on the next levels. If you can manage to create really satisfying solutions for every problem or vision even with the simplest musical equipment, you might already be on a good way to become a great composer one day. So, I'd really try to master the things you already have before you buy too much new VSTi stuff. "Living more in being than in having" might be also as a composer a good mantra to start with. It might deeply relax you in front of all the things you can buy in this big world, eases your heart and brings it down to earth. And on the other side, it can ignite the creativity and the inner fire of your composer soul. If you got to this point, you might have saved some money during your material asceticism. And if you buy a good VSTi then, you might enjoy it much more because you will see much more possibilities when working with it at your compositions.

Okay so big caveat, I've spent my single adult life with no responsibilities collecting thousands of dollars worth of libraries even though I don't work in the industry...or have anything to do with it haha. So I think I should at least clarify I may not follow what I'm about to say...but it may also give you some tips on what these libraries won't do for an amateur like myself. I don't think you necessarily need to have many expensive, "realistic" sounding libraries. I do think that many great, versatile libraries do have fantastic realism to them, but I don't believe not having many of them will stop you from making good stuff. Firstly and most obviously, it will depend on your target genre of music. I don't think having spitfire symphonic strings and chamber strings along with other string libraries will help you if you make primarily electronic music. However, maybe having one of the cheaper ones like Audio Imperia's Nucleus could open up your possibilities and the like. Secondly, it will depend on your skillset. I'm more of a collector (don't judge me >_<) so i don't mind excess but it doesn't help me make better music. It helps with realism I guess...well, not I guess. It does, but it's possibilities are often limited by my own skills. Those have expanded as I've grown more comfortable and more experienced but it's been a tough road learning how finicky these things can be! Another...weird consequence is excess can leave you wanting more and doing less with what you already have. There are very good libraries I rarely use anymore. I like having them because I'm weird but I also realize that sometimes I actually forget I can use them. This is not a good road to go down I think but if you are aware it's okay. Anyway, lastly I think you really have to watch out for what is realistic in terms of performance of the libraries and what may be... overstated or hype. I don't like to call out any libraries but there are many people who are disappointed with 8dios Majestica for example. I actually find use in the fact that it lacks realism sometimes and can give me an aggressive synthetic sound. Same thing with Spitfire's ultra smooth sounding strings at times. You just gotta get more experience to really tell what is a bit of hype and how libraries act outside of a demo video. Also how they act in the hands of, again, an amateur like myself! I hope this helps some. I can give recommendations on what I use and daily drive, as well as things I use rarely, and stuff I don't use at all but I own...for better or worse. For me it's all gravy because I got so many cool things to fiddle around with. But I think it's worth looking at what you actually utilize etc.

I wrote a bit on feedback in my remixing guide, back when. It's less about giving good feedback and more about identifying it among the feedback you get, but it might still be useful to you. The checklist mentioned above. I think good feedback comes from good listening. This means understanding what you're listening to, understanding the artist's intention but also a typical listener's reaction and negotiating some kind of useful response out of that. Knowledge, whether music theory, audio engineering, performance, sound design, mixing, music history or anything else is also useful, so learning any of that will help. Be aware of the artist's intention. On this site you might come across releases, works-in-progress, experiments and all kinds of things, and some of it is made with to suit ocr's standards and some of it isn't. And elsewhere on the internet ocr's standards aren't relevant (the vgm interpretation stuff anyway). Then comes the psychology of how to actually deliver the feedback in a way that's constructive. I've screwed up on this a few times (apparently the word mediocre means bad), and you will too, probably. Don't tell the artist what to do. Offer your perspective. Suggestions are fine, but be more descriptive than prescriptive. There's a saying about how usually when people say something's wrong they're right, and when they say what's wrong they're not. I try to offer multiple solutions when I identify a problem, as in "you might be able to solve this by EQ-carving some space in the other instruments, or side-chain compressing them out of the way". That gives the artist options to consider rather than directives to obey. If you make music (I haven't seen you around), think about the feedback you'd want on your mixes, and how you'd want it delivered. And then write it a little softer, a little nicer than that, because tone is difficult to convey in text. I'm not exactly in my best head space right now, so this might not be entirely coherent. I hope it's still useful.

Hey man, just wanted to say Happy Birthday! Have a good one!