Level 99

Plz do update your OP with the latest link of the mix. It makes it easier to find and MUCH easier to figure out. If you've got bass here, its focused entirely in the subbass area which is making it a little difficult to hear properly on my headphones. Not saying its bad but the mix sounds thin on anything but my car stereo in that case. Try adding some mid-eq tweaking to your bass (or copy the bass sequence and add a second bass sound that is narrowed into something like 200-ish hrz (lets see how that sounds. This sounds pretty damn sweet otherwise. I need to spend more time with source tune before I can comment on the arrangement. Would love a source breakdown

Sitarish synth is just sliiiiiiightly too bright, I think. The soundscape sounds very full to me, but people on regular headphones might not be able to hear the elements of the subbass that I'm picking up. Either way, make that tiny tweak to the sitarish synth and you should be good to go. This is awesome!

Monobrow's advice is dead-on. Follow her tips and post a revision.

Sorry about the late reply, but the judge's official stance on changes to mixes after submitting it is that you can't change it. Some people use personal ftp's and dropbox, which allows link and file replacement on the fly, which is taking a chance if they upload a new version because you can never be 100% sure on if they judges have listened to the mix yet or not. The Judge's Queue thread isn't always completely accurate, so again, replace if you want to take your chances (in this case you can't because you're using tindeck which has no replace or hotlink method). However, if it gets rejected again, you should definitely be on hand with a resub ready. (that's my way of telling you to go make those fixes NOW, because if it gets rejected you're immediately able to resub, and if it gets posted you can request the improved version to be used instead if the changes are minimal enough and/or the staff allows it). Plus yeah, I really want to hear those fixes put into place.

First thought: you should try using a better piano soundfont. In fact, you should probably try finding some better samples all around. For piano, there's plenty of good ones if you know how to google (NS Piano comes to mind, but I think splendid grand is also free). For orchestral, find squidfont if you're not already using it (and if you are, spend a bit more time humanizing and tweaking the sequencing so it sounds more realistic). And if you can't find a better trumpet sample, it might be wiser to drop it alltogether and go with something that's easier to sequence for. Brass in general, unless you're using some great sample libraries, is particularly difficult to process and sequence so it sounds good and is believable. Production-wise this could be tweaked more as well, as on the whole its unbalanced with the drums being very loud and a distinct lack of bass all around. But the biggest issue is the arrangement. It is still very repetitive, using only the one section of dedede's theme. Really should focus on changing up the melody and chord progressions more so it doesn't sound static, like it does now. The song is basically just two separate build sections based around dedede's theme. The middle section is okay but it still has the same base progression mostly, and the switch doesn't last long enough. I think that's plenty to go back to and work on for now.

Finally, I get a chance to listen to this on my mixing headphones! Aaaaand nope, no issues. This is ready to sub in my opinion. Headbanging to it right now, and I'm wishing you the best of luck.

Hmm...is the high high HIGH shelf on the master track being reduced? Cause I'm not hearing anything above 12k. I can hear clipping on the piano section at 2:25. That section itself doesn't feel like it fits after what just came before it in the song, which makes that section kind of a jerk out of the flow. It might be because of the piano/bass pairing, so consider a smoother transition to the piano from the dropout. The section itself is great after it builds but then the song kind of just...stops. This song definitely needs a real ending. Production-wise this sounds okay besides that weird no-superhighs thing, and the source usage sounds up to par to me. Fine-tweaking aspects of the arrangement such as transitions and stereo interplay (some of those arps and lead patterns would sound great with panning and/or glitch effects) will tighten this up, along with making a real ending. Its close but you've still got a little work to do.

Did you ever post the revised song? If not, please do or change this to finished please.

Mixing could be beefed up quite a bit here. There's a lot of mud, as has been said. I would look up some guides on how to mix orchestras, as I'm sure they exist (google is your friend here, also will require some dedicated time to read). What you have is pretty good, but to really get those emotions you're seeking to evoke, you'll have to step up the game with mixing and processing. And I wish you luck because even I am still an amateur when it comes to orchestral mixing! That said, your low end is pretty hot, and should be brought back a bit. For orchestras, a powerful low rumble can compromise the integrity of the rest of the mix, because of the niche frequency positions of each set of instruments. Your high end is still easily audible, but as things start to get into the mids it becomes meshed with the lows and the impact of those instruments is reduced. As far as source tune usage, I THINK you're alright but a source breakdown would be a life-saver here. and sorry for the delay in mod response.

Thanks for all the replies thus far. Just a reminder that the listening party is today at 6 PM EST. server: irc.esper.net room: #OCRListeningParty

its still in eval right now.

OH CRAP! I knew I forgot something. ARGH sorry, my email's been a mess with the NiGHTS release. I'll get back to you this evening. So so so so sorry.

BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP AND ACT SNOOTY. Otherwise people will get the idea that we like projects around here Wow, there's...so much room.

That's exactly what he's saying. And don't call me Shirley.

Preview it: Download it: http://lucid.ocremix.org Torrent: http://bt.ocremix.org/torrents/NiGHTS_-_Lucid_Dreaming.torrent Post your thoughts about the album here! Thanks to everyone for the patience and support, and most importantly, all the amazing musicians, artists, and people that helped make this a dream come true!

Would this be a bad time to adopt the Duke Nukem Forever sentiment of "It'll be released when its ready"? Yes? Oh, well, then let me say that it will be out SOMETIME today. (Most Likely) We're operating on EST trying to coordinate everything but, as far as I am aware, we are as set as we can possibly be at this point. Just sit tight, enjoy the day, drink some purple DRANK, and celebrate NiGHTS' birthday in other ways until the release.

Though not even remotely related, the two fires of OCAD have burfdays tomorrow. I'm totally just knocking it out now to save time because I'll forget by then. Eat cake, ride ponies, do whatever it is you do! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Edit: And also happy birthday to The Author. He is cool too. And mighty old.

The majority of the music from this uses themes from the movie, which unfortunately do not qualify as being remixable in the OCR sense (since they were originally composed by John Williams). There's a few tunes that are original to the game, so there could technically be something allowed. As of right now, though, there isn't one.

Listening party is planned for a week from today. Time: Sunday, July 10th. 6 PM EST. Place: OCR listening party IRC, irc.esper.net (room #OCRListeningParty) Have the album downloaded beforehand, I'll queue it up and we'll all stay in sync. Whole album is going to be played with a short intermission between discs. I'll let y'all know if the plans change.

Episode 62 - Beth's Dropkick Abortion Clinic of Pony Magic Stevo, David, Deven, Brian, Beth, and Val tried to do a regular show but ended up reading a NiGHTS fandom fanfic that's beyond horrible. I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry. Also this one took a very long time to edit, because it goes without saying that a LOT of it had to be cut out.

Yeah, this is but a small smattering of what goes on behind the scenes. With NiGHTS coming out imminently, I can tell you for a fact that there are so many things you have to think of and tackle ahead of time for a good and smooth release. I've been prepping for release for about three months, and even then I'm still finding things that need to be done. It is very easy for some things to slip through the cracks because of how much is going on at the same time, which is why we normally try to avoid specific release dates. But hey, for all that work, the results are worth it!