Meteo Xavier

I'm not involved with this game or the speedrun video posted below, I just discovered Mibibli's Quest a little while ago and played a short bit of it. MAN BOY CHOWDER is this game cool! It's been a while since I saw some real imagination and creativity take place in an indie game design and this game has it. It really does look and feel like I took some ayahuasca during the weirdest parts of the Mother series and it somehow turned into a platformer game starring a pig or pig-like thing.
Anyway, here's a gameplay video on it. It's awesome, go play it.
 

Can't spell HEART without E-A-R, after all.

I've had the previous version of this that I found I think a year ago for the duration up to this discovery, having found it whilst on a random search for any new remixes for the source tunes. I was certainly not expecting it to show up on Ocremix and even less expecting it to have some additional stuff in it. Wow.
I love it, but my biggest feeling is its untapped potential. I still wish it wasn't so cut-and-dry 8th and quarter notes, I keep wanting to take the MP3 and add some 16th note "additional bassline" stuff and cinematic percussion and then some GRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrr... guitar chugs. Singing's ok, I've gotten used to it and I'd have no way to improve upon it myself, but that's about the length of praise I have there.
That said, WINGS works great as synthwave and this mix has noticeably improved its sound quality and EQ. I've got my copy.

Definitely placing importance on the track title is the right way to go. Somewhere in the nebulous study of what gets people to listen to what music and make it a hit the song title makes a difference, but not much can be said on that beyond "It needs to be kinda unique and rolls off the tongue well."
Me personally, I go way the fuck out of my way to make song titles as original and "interesting" as I can with various levels of restraint. I can't stand the idea of any song I title being something cliche, trite or not having had the creative effort put in. Some are absolutely ridiculous, like my Sonic 4 remix, some are intentionally pretentious and designed to give a feel of "I don't know what I'm going to hear, but it will probably be substantial somehow", like my ESPERS album, and some have specific thematic patterns, like my Saturn Icarus soundtrack where all the tracks except the first and last track have extensive wordplay on things to make it bring to mind an 80's cyberpunk sci-fi environment along with additional verbage in parenthesis to give the listener a broad outline of a story concept that they can imagine while listening to the tracks. Titling your songs interestingly shows a sense of mindfulness for your art project and demonstrates further levels of artistic credibility for the project itself. This is good for long-term artistic credibility, though, predictably, a lot of will be lost on the chaff that is intrinsic to the population on Earth. I specifically have a policy of naming my videogame tracks something fitting but non-indicative so that it doesn't spoil anything in the game.
Artists that are consistently awesome with song titles include the following:
Peter Gabriel Motor Sakuraba Paul Simon King Crimson Modest Mouse The Smashing Pumpkins System of a Down And many others that I can't be bothered trying to remember.
Point I'm getting at is this: BUY MY MUSIC YOU MUTANT HOBODICK

Your DAW should have each instrument effects channel a set of things that include stereo width and the ability to turn it all the way to zero. Turning it to zero should be Mono, not just keeping them in the middle.
Failing that, Soundspot has a cheap plugin (or was when I bought it, not sure what it goes for now) called "Focus" that has a very easy Mono option on it. It's big, it's unambiguous, you just click it on and it's narrow and Mono. It's useful for some other general sound improvement as well, so I'd recommend getting it anyway.

^ Those points of "advice" are so general and devoid of details that they are completely useless. I have to wonder why you bothered writing anything at all.
Actual advice:
Keeping frequencies and things like that "even" is a persistent challenge in audio that is pretty much the entirety of mixing in the first place. By NOW I've been doing this long enough and have gotten good enough (especially compared to my first Ocremix here) that I can throw around some weight in authority on the subject, while still "hillbillying" my way through it since I still lack formal training beyond spending 15 years trying to get better obsessively. That is the pretext for me telling you what I do to achieve results:
1. EQ can be simplified here (in my own personal, unpatented and unofficial model) as three things: The Floor (the bass), the Body (the mid) and The Voice (the highs). The bass literally brings to mind a stage floor for the performance on the stage. The Body is the "stage presence" and gives the soundscape a kind of "muscle" to the overall sound. Take down a whole bunch of the mid in your EQ to hear what I'm talking about. The Voice is rather obvious: above the midpoint is where most melody and leading sounds come from above the floor and body.
You'd think "mud" would come from the floor, but I find it usually comes from the body below the midpoint. When I'm cutting "mud" from the mix, it's between 100 and 500. Additionally, I find a lot of instruments that come up in DAW are already very bass heavy and muddy. Sixto Sounds used to make fun of me for this, but I also recommend cutting some bass out of the bass instruments themselves. As silly as that might sound, you just need to do it sometimes to achieve the right balance.
2. I never learned how to use Reverb properly and I still have trouble with it, but there are some solid fundamentals I can pass on.
    2a: Find the amount of reverb or general sound you want, then go straight to DRY. Then add WET (i.e. adding reverb amount back in) slightly and slowly until it sounds like you're achieving a balance that isn't too echoey or out of touch with everything else while always opting for it sounding too dry than too wet. I only had one college class for audio production and it wasn't even the right class, but my professor said something that (pun intended) resonates today: "You're supposed to make reverb sound like you're not using reverb at all". He was a goofy-ass guy, but this was spot-on.
    2b: Not all reverb plugins are equal. While there typically is no such thing as a bad reverb plugin so long as it provides any reverb at all, not all reverb plugins and sounds work for everyone. If you're getting too much mud and slush from your reverb stuff, you might need to go looking for a reverb that does sound like what you want.
    2c: For instrument channels that you're using reverb with, a delay effect should be on as well. The trick here is to put it on a very basic 3-step delay, then turn it down to like 3% or 5% where you can't hear the instrument bouncing off the sides (unless, of course, you want it to be bouncing echoes like many instruments in modern productions do). This is a trick to finalize wetness that I learned from Rozovian, who in turn learned it from bLiNd, IIRC. I use a delay effect on practically every channel except the main bus (main channel for all instruments).
    2d: Some reverb effect plugins let you EQ the reverb itself, but I find this effect is much more subtle than it might sound. If reverb is sounding too muddy or slushy, you need to fix it in the instrument channel, not the reverb plugin. The reverb plugin is just for minimal tweaking after the real work in the instrument channel.
3. In heavy, thick productions, the bass instruments should have their stereo separation reduced to straight up MONO and then very slightly adding some stereo back in, or not at all. Between the bass and drums, it's the drums that need stereo placement and width and keep them wide while focusing on a narrow bass will fit the floor correctly. I also add a compressor on the bass. I use FL Studio 11 and I just use the FL Studio Multiband Compressor on "Mastering 2.4db" preset, then style the EQ and mixing channel volume as needed. I read this bass tip in some random audio mixing book years ago at a Booksamillion and it has worked ever since.
4. Checking to see which instruments/frequencies are wrong during the song production is just a case of experience with successfully doing it. You won't really know what to fix until after you've already done it right a few dozen times. If I have trouble with this, I just mute and single out the instruments starting from the bass up (or wherever it sounds like the problem is) and automate volume or EQ as needed until it no longer makes me think something is wrong with it.
    4a: This deserves it's own line, but learning how to automate the volume levels and EQ frequencies in your DAW is essential. It's complicated and a pain in the ass to do, but it's easier than other hillbilly methods of fixing stuff. If I had learned to do that in my early days, I would saved myself dozens of song headaches.
    4b: Also remember that most instruments and frequencies are not supposed to have the same volume and intensity all throughout the song. Sometimes the bass is supposed to be pulled back, sometimes the piano or guitar have to become inaudible, etc. Sometimes being uneven is what makes it sound organic and makes it work.
And that's all I feel like typing. Enjoy.

^ Those points of "advice" are so general and devoid of details that they are completely useless. I have to wonder why you bothered writing anything at all.
Actual advice:
Keeping frequencies and things like that "even" is a persistent challenge in audio that is pretty much the entirety of mixing in the first place. By NOW I've been doing this long enough and have gotten good enough (especially compared to my first Ocremix here) that I can throw around some weight in authority on the subject, while still "hillbillying" my way through it since I still lack formal training beyond spending 15 years trying to get better obsessively. That is the pretext for me telling you what I do to achieve results:
1. EQ can be simplified here (in my own personal, unpatented and unofficial model) as three things: The Floor (the bass), the Body (the mid) and The Voice (the highs). The bass literally brings to mind a stage floor for the performance on the stage. The Body is the "stage presence" and gives the soundscape a kind of "muscle" to the overall sound. Take down a whole bunch of the mid in your EQ to hear what I'm talking about. The Voice is rather obvious: above the midpoint is where most melody and leading sounds come from above the floor and body.
You'd think "mud" would come from the floor, but I find it usually comes from the body below the midpoint. When I'm cutting "mud" from the mix, it's between 100 and 500. Additionally, I find a lot of instruments that come up in DAW are already very bass heavy and muddy. Sixto Sounds used to make fun of me for this, but I also recommend cutting some bass out of the bass instruments themselves. As silly as that might sound, you just need to do it sometimes to achieve the right balance.
2. I never learned how to use Reverb properly and I still have trouble with it, but there are some solid fundamentals I can pass on.
    2a: Find the amount of reverb or general sound you want, then go straight to DRY. Then add WET (i.e. adding reverb amount back in) slightly and slowly until it sounds like you're achieving a balance that isn't too echoey or out of touch with everything else while always opting for it sounding too dry than too wet. I only had one college class for audio production and it wasn't even the right class, but my professor said something that (pun intended) resonates today: "You're supposed to make reverb sound like you're not using reverb at all". He was a goofy-ass guy, but this was spot-on.
    2b: Not all reverb plugins are equal. While there typically is no such thing as a bad reverb plugin so long as it provides any reverb at all, not all reverb plugins and sounds work for everyone. If you're getting too much mud and slush from your reverb stuff, you might need to go looking for a reverb that does sound like what you want.
    2c: For instrument channels that you're using reverb with, a delay effect should be on as well. The trick here is to put it on a very basic 3-step delay, then turn it down to like 3% or 5% where you can't hear the instrument bouncing off the sides (unless, of course, you want it to be bouncing echoes like many instruments in modern productions do). This is a trick to finalize wetness that I learned from Rozovian, who in turn learned it from bLiNd, IIRC. I use a delay effect on practically every channel except the main bus (main channel for all instruments).
    2d: Some reverb effect plugins let you EQ the reverb itself, but I find this effect is much more subtle than it might sound. If reverb is sounding too muddy or slushy, you need to fix it in the instrument channel, not the reverb plugin. The reverb plugin is just for minimal tweaking after the real work in the instrument channel.
3. In heavy, thick productions, the bass instruments should have their stereo separation reduced to straight up MONO and then very slightly adding some stereo back in, or not at all. Between the bass and drums, it's the drums that need stereo placement and width and keep them wide while focusing on a narrow bass will fit the floor correctly. I also add a compressor on the bass. I use FL Studio 11 and I just use the FL Studio Multiband Compressor on "Mastering 2.4db" preset, then style the EQ and mixing channel volume as needed. I read this bass tip in some random audio mixing book years ago at a Booksamillion and it has worked ever since.
4. Checking to see which instruments/frequencies are wrong during the song production is just a case of experience with successfully doing it. You won't really know what to fix until after you've already done it right a few dozen times. If I have trouble with this, I just mute and single out the instruments starting from the bass up (or wherever it sounds like the problem is) and automate volume or EQ as needed until it no longer makes me think something is wrong with it.
    4a: This deserves it's own line, but learning how to automate the volume levels and EQ frequencies in your DAW is essential. It's complicated and a pain in the ass to do, but it's easier than other hillbilly methods of fixing stuff. If I had learned to do that in my early days, I would saved myself dozens of song headaches.
    4b: Also remember that most instruments and frequencies are not supposed to have the same volume and intensity all throughout the song. Sometimes the bass is supposed to be pulled back, sometimes the piano or guitar have to become inaudible, etc. Sometimes being uneven is what makes it sound organic and makes it work.
And that's all I feel like typing. Enjoy.

Don't you miss the days when topics like this were the norm here on OCR? You'd think our succeeding generation would do some of their own, but no, they just want to do music competitions it seems. ?

Probably need some more information before worthwhile answers could materialize here. "What advice can you give me?" for something like this is too broad to really go with even if you're not expecting to make money off of it. We would need to know what you feel like you don't know or know enough of before starting your publishing plans.

Yes, there's lots of demented Mario fanimation on the YouFace TwitSpace Interwebs, well here's another. Happy 2022.
I don't have anything to do with this video, but it does have some interesting sound sample work in it that I'm sure damaged a few eardrums along the way.

Yes, there's lots of demented Mario fanimation on the YouFace TwitSpace Interwebs, well here's another. Happy 2022.
I don't have anything to do with this video, but it does have some interesting sound sample work in it that I'm sure damaged a few eardrums along the way.

The Korg M1, which was the primary instrument used in Donkey Kong Country, has loads of industrial/machine-type sounds like you're looking for. Korg has a VST of that available.

Might to give us some more information on what version of FL Studio you're using and what's playing the Soundfonts. FL Studio used to have its own soundfont player that was considerably easier to work with IMO (no dragging that I can recall in 15 years of using it) back in its 32-bit versions, but axed that out in more recent versions. It's one reason I'm still on FL Studio 11.
These days, soundfonts are really outdated and I don't recommend them to people who haven't been using them as long as I have anymore. If you have Kontakt, there are ways you can get replacements for soundfonts that I would recommend instead that are free (if you don't mind wading through ancient CD-based sample libraries that have been converted). Another idea is a VST called "Xpand! 2" which is a pretty cheap synth and GM sampler (most places sell it for $15, I got mine for $1) that is a great modern budget-priced sample set for beginners to cut their proverbial teeth on.

Dude, why are you so hung up on this? They have answered you many times more than the question needed.
If you need videogame music so badly, there are literally tens of thousands of game composers in dev groups and Facebook and Youtube who are dying for someone, ANYONE, to let them do music for a game. You could pay them in sandwiches and head cheese and they'll deliver music quality comparable to Ocremix posts (a lot of them really are pretty skilled in music where they are not skilled in advertising themselves in a field that has 100x more supply than demand).

What? No. No for-profit games. None storefronts. Zero monetary exchange. Bupkiss bartering material. Void of gain-exchange or personal constructionary trade on this planet and all others for which any kind of exchange system exists or can be expected including celestial bodies such as Sol, Betelgeuse, Alpha-Centauri, Beta-Centauri, and space-time punctures such as black holes and quasars.
In a word: nope.

It does feel weird to make topics on rather small subjects the same as I did 15-16 years ago as the community here isn't nearly as interested in those things as before, but I still feel compelled to contribute them here regardless of how adolescent it makes me look and feel.
So one game I've become slowly addicted to as of late is one of the 112+ small-name SNES JRPG knockoffs that Kemco has been releasing as indie games for the last decade or so called JUSTICE CHRONICLES. It's the first of these RPGs that I've actually spent some dedicated time and effort into and by now it's paying out some dividends. JUSTICE CHRONICLES is not a hidden gem or anything, it's all stuff that's been done before and done better. The graphics and music feel like Chrono Trigger and other JRPG knockoffs that were made well enough to pass but not really provide any unique magic or identity to the game. It's a somewhat gussied-up appetizer trying to look kinda like a meal at TGIFridays or something, but on its own merits, I have found myself more and more wanting to play it at the end of each day. I've actually ratched up 30 hours on it when I'm pretty sure I could've cleared this game in 18 if I wanted.

One major reason for that is an interesting little dynamic that doesn't get observed nearly as often is that despite taking a whole lot of stuff from other, better JRPGs, putting it in one game, giving a forgettable modern shonen coat of paint on it and calling it good is how ridiculously USER-FRIENDLY the game is - creating an experience that makes a rather bare experience look and feel more likeable and positive. Most every gameplay complaint I remember gamers bitching about over the last 30 years has actually been mitigated here:
* Battles are quick and efficient.
* Grinding does not come up that much.
* Menus have stuff that remind you what's going on.
* Very little padding of gameplay or plot that I've noticed.
* Overworld maps are just points to go to, like in Super Mario RPG.
* No fighting character is significantly weaker than another, everyone feels like they're pulling their weight.
* Menu option to instantly leave any town or dungeon with no catch or penalty.
* Automap that shows mining items and treasure chests (at least on the 3DS version I'm playing).
* Can give magic and alignments to characters that don't naturally have them.
* Can even double the speed of battles to blast through them quickly.
* Side quests are a mission-based system that make it easy to keep track of.

Additionally, the game starts out easy enough, but it gets more difficult as it goes on. My characters are on Level 75 and the basic battles in areas I need to go through to progress in the game and they come out battles needing healing more times than not. I don't know if I love this progression personally, but it's an intelligent approach nonetheless.
What's actually been addicting me to the game is the weapon and armor CRAFTING system. I don't really love crafting systems as they add so many more steps to getting better equipment, but this one has addicted me. You have to gather items from mining points and occasionally enemies from dungeons to upgrade your equipment, but you have to find recipes in treasures as the game goes along that all go to a crafting "tree" of sorts. The mining spots are generally plentiful and the game keeps track of a lot of it for you while you can do missions that trade resource items for higher quality ones pretty easily - and then the original ones you traded in now become available for purchase at the item shop. I'd say 9 of the 30 hours I put into the game have been for mining and crafting purposes and I'm still not done. <:O
Won't blow anyone away, but I do recommend checking out JUSTICE CHRONICLES for people like me that can't get enough simplified JRPG stuff and want one that takes a thoughtful approach to it. I think if this game had been released on the SNES, it would be one of the B-tier RPGs that nevertheless commands $200+ on Ebay.

It does feel weird to make topics on rather small subjects the same as I did 15-16 years ago as the community here isn't nearly as interested in those things as before, but I still feel compelled to contribute them here regardless of how adolescent it makes me look and feel.
So one game I've become slowly addicted to as of late is one of the 112+ small-name SNES JRPG knockoffs that Kemco has been releasing as indie games for the last decade or so called JUSTICE CHRONICLES. It's the first of these RPGs that I've actually spent some dedicated time and effort into and by now it's paying out some dividends. JUSTICE CHRONICLES is not a hidden gem or anything, it's all stuff that's been done before and done better. The graphics and music feel like Chrono Trigger and other JRPG knockoffs that were made well enough to pass but not really provide any unique magic or identity to the game. It's a somewhat gussied-up appetizer trying to look kinda like a meal at TGIFridays or something, but on its own merits, I have found myself more and more wanting to play it at the end of each day. I've actually ratched up 30 hours on it when I'm pretty sure I could've cleared this game in 18 if I wanted.

One major reason for that is an interesting little dynamic that doesn't get observed nearly as often is that despite taking a whole lot of stuff from other, better JRPGs, putting it in one game, giving a forgettable modern shonen coat of paint on it and calling it good is how ridiculously USER-FRIENDLY the game is - creating an experience that makes a rather bare experience look and feel more likeable and positive. Most every gameplay complaint I remember gamers bitching about over the last 30 years has actually been mitigated here:
* Battles are quick and efficient.
* Grinding does not come up that much.
* Menus have stuff that remind you what's going on.
* Very little padding of gameplay or plot that I've noticed.
* Overworld maps are just points to go to, like in Super Mario RPG.
* No fighting character is significantly weaker than another, everyone feels like they're pulling their weight.
* Menu option to instantly leave any town or dungeon with no catch or penalty.
* Automap that shows mining items and treasure chests (at least on the 3DS version I'm playing).
* Can give magic and alignments to characters that don't naturally have them.
* Can even double the speed of battles to blast through them quickly.
* Side quests are a mission-based system that make it easy to keep track of.

Additionally, the game starts out easy enough, but it gets more difficult as it goes on. My characters are on Level 75 and the basic battles in areas I need to go through to progress in the game and they come out battles needing healing more times than not. I don't know if I love this progression personally, but it's an intelligent approach nonetheless.
What's actually been addicting me to the game is the weapon and armor CRAFTING system. I don't really love crafting systems as they add so many more steps to getting better equipment, but this one has addicted me. You have to gather items from mining points and occasionally enemies from dungeons to upgrade your equipment, but you have to find recipes in treasures as the game goes along that all go to a crafting "tree" of sorts. The mining spots are generally plentiful and the game keeps track of a lot of it for you while you can do missions that trade resource items for higher quality ones pretty easily - and then the original ones you traded in now become available for purchase at the item shop. I'd say 9 of the 30 hours I put into the game have been for mining and crafting purposes and I'm still not done. <:O
Won't blow anyone away, but I do recommend checking out JUSTICE CHRONICLES for people like me that can't get enough simplified JRPG stuff and want one that takes a thoughtful approach to it. I think if this game had been released on the SNES, it would be one of the B-tier RPGs that nevertheless commands $200+ on Ebay.

I usually find at least one major earworm every 3 months, but it's been over a year since I can claim that. This is the closest I got right now:
 

I have to tender my resignation on this project, to no small amount of personal disappointment and chagrin. I wrote it on over to Rexy first and now I'm writing it publicly.
The conflict is all on my end - when I first joined up to try to help push this sucker out and today is the difference between World of Balance and World of Ruin, to put it in Final Fantasy VI terms. I wasn't exactly Spring Chicken at that time in terms of vitality and work availability, but I could do it. Then I had a medium-sized relapse into (depression-related) depersonalization in August, then me and my family's world got pretty damn well upended just before Christmas 2019, then we had snow and floods in February just before COVID-19 hit, THEN COVID-19 hit the planet, THEN my dad announced he has throat cancer. Now my Mom just started having an episode of anxiety-related something that is similar to the depersonalization and I have to be helping her with that. Of those items, only the flood and snow has actually cleared up, the rest is still present.
As a result, my administrative performance so far has been well below what I would personally find acceptable and it's pretty plain to see that I'm not currently fit to tackle the role. I don't have as much invested in this project as I did SD3 (err, "Trials Of Mana" now, fucking Square-Penis...) so powering through it isn't really justified this time around.
Sorry to bring a downer to this album's projection, but I'm at "unarmed Jubei Kibagami in Ninja Scroll" stage on this end. Best of luck, or whatever we have going on for statistical chance in 2020 right now, for following this album forward!

Use a Youtube-to-MP3 converter to download the track as an MP3. Then Google something like "Identify song by upload" where you can upload the MP3 and see if they can trace it to something or somewhere.
I did that for a few tracks back in May that I've had for over a decade and don't know anything about and they certainly solved those mysteries.

Use a Youtube-to-MP3 converter to download the track as an MP3. Then Google something like "Identify song by upload" where you can upload the MP3 and see if they can trace it to something or somewhere.
I did that for a few tracks back in May that I've had for over a decade and don't know anything about and they certainly solved those mysteries.

Yer not a moron, Hobo, it just took you quite a long time to get your shit working. A LONG time. But you still got it working and that justifies the time spent on it.
Not all of us get to be talents or savants. Not all of us get to be Zircon or bLiNd or Rebecca Trip or among the upper echelons of fame in this line of work - we have to trade our lack of early success for eventual success and be thankful for it lest God takes it away overnight. Today I can call myself a veteran in this art and act like it, but my decade-long dorky newbie era is just as fresh in my mind as they were then and scattered throughout this website for all to see as well. It stays as a constant reminder that there is blood, tears and torn flesh even in rearranging video game music for those that pursue it without the talent to start a fire on launch.

The Seiken Densetsu 3 project - because I was on that project for 12 years and shit blood for it more than once in my sanity-defying, reality-molesting quest to finish that god-literally-forsaken project for you testicle-explodingly-pedantic listeners to like it less than any other project ever made.
I feel like I permanently gave up a portion of my humanity to see it to the end...

The Seiken Densetsu 3 project - because I was on that project for 12 years and shit blood for it more than once in my sanity-defying, reality-molesting quest to finish that god-literally-forsaken project for you testicle-explodingly-pedantic listeners to like it less than any other project ever made.
I feel like I permanently gave up a portion of my humanity to see it to the end...

Why am I only now seeing notifications from Thursday and being quoted in Russian?