halc

here's resources for Mario and Zelda sounds.

I gotta agree with Larry, and also point out that I think the instrumentation was a bit crowded at times, not to the detriment of the sound quality, it's just that with so many instruments simultaneously playing very similar riffs or rhythms, it was hard to pick out what was supposed to be the lead, and nothing really held my attention until the synth soloing started later anyway. I think smoothing out the levels and adjusting to fill out the soundscape a bit more would get this to baller status, as the arrangement is pretty rockin'. I could see this passing, so best of luck with the rest of the vote, but for now I'm gonna go with a NO(resub)

was digging the arrangement of this one at first, but the sounds were definitely wearing on me after a minute or two. they sound like they came from one of those little casio or yamaha keyboards we all had when we were younger. the mixing is also a bit overcompressed I think, there's definitely some rumble/distortion in the low end during the heavier bits. i think all the hard-panning is a bit much too, that combined with the dryness of the instruments makes the soundscape sound sparse despite all the activity going on. hope not to come off too negative here, as the arrangement has nice ideas but the sounds and production need a lot of work. NO

I must admit I'm not hearing anything from the source linked in this mix. the mix itself was basically just the same couple bars looped with some raps over it, but I'm not hearing any connections. perhaps someone can clear that up, otherwise this one's gotta be a NO for me. NO

compression might be pushing just very slightly on the master, the low end feels a bit smooshed at times, some of the writing felt a little unnatural, definitely some weird articulation stuff going on in the strings, but a lot of the wind leads were nicely done and the overall arrangement was very expressive. cool stuff. YES

huh? I'm pretty sure I yes'd this before.. maybe it was resubbed another time? I don't know. I've been digging this track for a while. YES

good stuff here, really smooth, pristine soundscape and a catchy arrangement. great drum programming too. I like it. YES

lots of good critique here already, and looking over all of that I can't find much else to say. the mixing and balance definitely has a lot of little inconsistencies (and those weird 'shifts' in the mixing as Larry put it, when certain instruments are introduced/taken away) that make the overall soundscape just kinda.. odd, for lack of a better word. it's not bad per se, and the arrangement was great. my gut wants me to go with a pass here but seeing these other NO's and the knowledge that a few easy fixes could produce a really nice resub have me leaning the other way. for now I gotta go with NO(resub)

enigami... that was inspiring

submitted my mix. :]

hehe thanks, hope you'll dig it. the hardest part is deciding which time-zone to use. loved your take on tidal tempest, can't wait to see how you change things up in the next round.

my track is nearly finished at 3:56. as soon as my new monitoring headphones arrive, I can polish this off and call it a day.

1:35 on my mix so far, and very happy with where it's going. :]

can you not re-record just the sax?

started my mix today. i feel dirty for remixing sonic 4, but my two themes are working surprisingly well together.

I agree with Deia about those high staccato notes being too loud, and the articulations/sequencing was really stiff. the worst example are those repeated notes at 1:33, and again at 1:43. sounds completely unnatural and fake. the velocities and note timings need to be edited slightly in order to make it sound a little more fluid, and you might be able to change the articulations on individual notes if your using a fancy enough sampler or plugin. the overall soundscape had a sparseness to it, but aside from those string stabs, the instrumentation here was treated pretty nicely and felt cohesive and natural. the arrangement was pretty solid, and the tunes nicely adapted to the new instrumentation, the section at 1:26 in particular was excellent imo. not bothered about the fadeout, it sounded just as awkward and unnatural as every straight-up fadeout, so no effect on my vote there. however, I do think those string stabs are a tad bit atrocious, and one more pass at 'em (just lowering their overall gain and humanizing the sequencing) would satisfy me. for now however, I unfortunately have to go NO(resub)

agreed, definitely a beautiful source tune, good find. at first I thought maybe the vocals were soundbytes until (you?) started actually singing. the rapping doesn't feel very fluid or natural to me at all, but the melodic sections and the bits with the lead synth were good. however in terms of the sounds at play, that lead was too dry and strident. the other synths were still kinda vanilla, but they got the job done. the drums were very nice, and each time they kicked up a notch, the song got better. it's not bad but I feel it could use some refinement. not sure what to say about the vocals, but I'm sure others will chime in on them as well. NO(resub)

thanks guys, I played with the demos of both and T-Racks sounded excellent (and would even be great for individual mixer tracks) however Ozone was definitely the clear-cut choice for me, based on first impressions anyway, and I can even get it for $125 through iZotope's website with their one-time educational discount...

hey guys. google tells me there already a billion threads about this across the web, but I trust you people a bit more. anyway, I'm looking into buying one of these two products in the near future; I've downloaded the demos of both and will be trying them out myself this weekend. from what I've read, you can't really go wrong with either, but I'd like to get some general opinions/thoughts from some of you guys that use/have used either of 'em.

love the direction you took this source in, toning it down a bit, however I think there are some smaller issues that are bringing it down a bit. -as you said, it's cover-ish, and I think you could afford to take more risks with the arrangement. I'll agree that there's a passing level of interpretation involved here, but just barely. -lead flute/string sequencing and articulations were stiff and lacked realism -soundscape had a nice warm sound, but felt a bit sparse to me, like it could have used some light pad or string chords in the background just to act as a 'glue' or sorts, and I would have liked to hear some more variation in the instrumentation, but I don't think the style dictates constant sonic variation as necessary, so that's a subjective thought. I'd probably feel better about it if the sample/sequencing quality were improved. -slight timing issues in 2nd half of track I like the tune but I think it needs a bit more polish before we can post it up here. NO(resub)

I'm usually a huge fan of your stuff, but I wasn't feeling this one as much, although the dubstep bit was pretty groovy. don't get me wrong, the arrangement and production are there, obviously by this point you know how to make an ocremix. ;D any thoughts I have on this are pretty subjective and bear no holding on my decision, so I'll just keep them to myself. YES

I'd really like to hear someone do a more liberal take on this theme, but this was very pretty, and the personalization added here was still great. really loved the way you treated the melody/harmony right there before the end. the strings definitely sounded pretty fake when they were exposed at the beginning but became a lot less noticeable as other stuff filled into the soundscape. my biggest complaint is probably a lack in the low-end, could have used a thicker bass presence imo, just during the fuller sections. I'm not gonna dwell on it though, pretty nice stuff here, and one of your most polished sounding submissions yet in my opinion. YES

gonna cosign on what the judges have already said. I thought this was pretty cool and definitely a unique way to treat the source, but thoroughly expected some kind of lead melody or vocal. NO(resub)

no problem, and yeah, always worth it to jump on those huge sales on big bundles and huge sample collections. I splurged on Komplete 8 during their spring upgrade special, and it is one of the best decisions I've ever made. EastWest actually had 50% off ALL their products through Sweewater in March... next time that comes around.. SPLURGE

agreed, but for clarification, workstation =\= midi keyboard. The OP is referring to something like this. as I mentioned before though, you can grab a really high end VST bundle and midi controller for under $750, easily, and much more, especially if you've got the kind of budget that can afford a huge Korg station.