Byproduct

It's now on Spotify too. (Excluding some regions like US and CA because of remixes and bureaucracy I have no control over). https://play.spotify.com/album/2miyqvsVr6itVN08nFNz6T

Hi! I just released a free, full-length album: http://byproduct.koshiyoka.com/newgameplus.html It includes remixes on one Tyrian and two Shovel Knight and Star Control II tracks, my one and only OCRemix (on Phantasy Star II), and a bunch of other remixes and original tracks. The main thing is the mixed album which you can grab for free, but you can also get the album from bandcamp (name-your-price) to get all the tracks as separate .wavs plus 14 bonus tracks. Obviously I can't edit the tracks at this point, so detailed technical feedback would be wasted, but if you have any other thoughts I'd love to hear them of course. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks! If you can't get enough of sc2 remixes, I've also made this track from the hyperspace theme. (That, and Tyrian.) Not OCR material either, though.

Hello! Here's some Star Control II themed music. Sampled some of the lovely Kohr-Ah philosophy and other game sounds, and remixed a bit of the battle theme. This isn't enough of a remix (not enough source material used I think), so I'm not going to submit it to OCRemix. So no need to worry about that in feedback (although any thoughts are welcome of course!) - just posted it in case fans of SC2 might enjoy it. I don't know what genre it fits, but it's slow and pretty dark. https://soundcloud.com/byproduct/byproduct-cleansing

Thanks again. I made a couple of small tweaks according to timaeus222 and a few other small fixes, and released it as a video. There's a download link there too of course.

Thanks for listening! The tempo change is because the two remixed tracks have very different tempos, but I wanted to use elements from both songs also simultaneously. It's meant to throw the listener off, just like the (numerous) sudden deaths in the game do. As for the slowdown, that's an illusion! There is no BPM change besides that one sudden jump. Interestingly, some people perceive that part as slowing down, and some don't (based on what few comments I've managed to probe out of listeners). Presumably not a good thing for the "flow" of the song, but I guess I'll keep it anyway, you know, for science. Did anyone have any thoughts on the mixing (instrument balance, eq, etc) that I should be aware of?

Edit: new link: Hi! A bit late to the bandwagon, just got Shovel Knight and it's amazing soundtrack a few weeks back. Here's a bass-heavy electronic remix combining the tracks "Strike the Earth!" and "An Underlying Problem". Sources: https://virt.bandcamp.com/track/strike-the-earth-plains-of-passage https://virt.bandcamp.com/track/an-underlying-problem-the-lost-city If anyone has any comments, I'd love to hear them. I'll put the final version out on Monday evening (going on a holiday). I can take any feedback into consideration before that. (Not going to submit as an OCRemix - the structure is probably a bit too odd for that, and it follows the original melodies pretty closely.)

I suppose everyone who's going to comment has done so by now, so I'm marking this as Final. Here it is in a video now ^^ Download here: https://soundcloud.com/byproduct/space-things or here: http://byproductmusic.net

Yes, these are just the kind of things I get deaf to when working on the same track for too long. Thanks! I shifted the 1:30 synth a bit and gave the SID lead some water. New version here and on the first post. (The 1:30 synth was a wav ripped from the original track as a little gimmick so I couldn't make it perfect, but it's better now.) I agree this would probably not get past the judges for the reasons you mentioned - actually I wasn't planning on submitting all, just needed feedback. Should've probably mentioned that. Cheers!

PsyNES has made a fun remix of the first level, here: https://soundcloud.com/psynes/roof-is-on-fire-tmnt2 (The topic caught my eye since I've remixed the last level, here: )

A new version here: (link) A small update, a few new notes plus some mixing tweaks, nothing major. Anyone care to give it a go?

Well, this is an enjoyable listen for sure! I'm not familiar with the sources (and didn't study them now) so I don't know how the remix relates with them, but you do have a nice amount of detail here to keep things interesting, and it sounds pleasant overall. Good one! I can think of three things that would in my opinion still improve it: - The transition(?) at around 00:50 feels awkward, like a cross-fade of two completely separate tracks. There could be some element here linking the parts together. - The piano (especially towards the end of the track) sounds like it's being hammered a bit much, like I can't imagine an actual pianist hitting every accent so hard. A little less velocity would maybe sound more natural (and more pleasant?) - The high bass instrument reminds me of windows 95 .mid songs, which kind of sticks out among the otherwise hifi instruments. Maybe you could make it less static and more alive somehow? Maybe apply some moving filters or try an altogether different preset? Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. ^^

Good stuff! I haven't heard the originals but I'm enjoying all this melodic harmony a lot! The gunshot effect at 2:43 doesn't bother me. But I think the bass that's starting at ~1:04 is seriously lacking in power. What if you tried something like they do in modern "progressive" psytrance? Like (just one example).Also, I think I'd like the droning pad sound after ~0:30 a lot more if it wasn't interrupted by the kick drum, which now causes a sort of pumping effect. Maybe it's sidechained to the kick a bit too much? Or just a feature of a master compressor?

Alright, new version here! Also updated the first post. Some mixing aside, the first part (hyperspace) is pretty much the same as before, but the second part (camanis) has changed here and there. Also it ends with the boss theme for that level (called 'camanise') and will then blend onto the following track on the upcoming album, hence it's still just a fade-out here. I tried adding a third full source for even more space things but that didn't work out so well. I think the structure I want is now here. If you have any opinion on the track, I'd love to hear it before tweaking the final version. ^^

The "audio enchantments" just mess things up. No song (commercial or not) can accommodate to randomly set eqs and master reverbs and whatnot. So yeah they tend to mess things up. Turn them off and dont worry about it

Well, my reasoning is there in the post you quoted.

The problem with drum loops is they tend to contain many different sounds from bass to treble, in one file. That makes proper mixing tricky. For optimal mixing, each sound should have its own effects so they can be adjusted separately as required by the rest of the song. Loops also make sidechaining a pain. Also, it's going to sound really really boring if the loop just goes on over and over throughout the song. Granted, many people do great things with creative loop slicing and such, but I still feel I have much more freedom in drum fills etc when I do things by hand. Loops are great for creativity however! I often try adding them to my tracks to find drumming ideas I wouldn't have come up with otherwise. If I find something I like, I can do something similar with samples manually. That way I get the idea of the loop but also the mixing freedom. So tl;dr yes use them but not in the final track. It's similar with synth presets. Feel free to browse them for creativity, but also learn how the synth works so you can customize the sound to better fit your song. Note lengths, reverb/delay effects, pannings and such are usually not optimal for the track by default. It's often the case that the preset sounds real nice by itself (they like to turn on all sorts of effects to make it fat don't they), but has way too much stuff going on everywhere to fit nicely in the mix. Or alternatively, you can just do modern EDM which seems to consist of just a bassdrum and a couple of default presets and everyone thinks its AWESOME. Kids these days... *grumpy old man face*

Thanks a lot for the comments! I wasn't fully satisfied with the part after 4min either. Yeah it has to go, I could maybe try something softer with less drums as an interlude. Thanks for calling me out on that. Also what you said about 5:13 is a great idea, I'll do it!

Well, since it's already final, no point in going into detailed criticism - I just wanted to say great work! I think it could be improved with some light background instruments - I can definitely imagine a smooth jazz band there supporting the lead piano. I mean the piano is excellent for sure, but is it enough by itself?

I was referring to the bass instrument after 1.04 that does the "wubbing". I'd try something less dubsteppy, or alternatively, if it's going to stay I would make it more powerful. But as you can see (how timaeus likes it), these are a matter of personal preference only.

Not the patterns, they're nice and creative enough. For me it's just the sound itself - doesn't fit nearly as well as the earlier drums, plus it's a bit of an overused cliche. But that's just personal preference that you may well disagree with. If you've sequenced the drums in from individual samples, I think you could do great things by keeping the same patterns and trying different samples. But if you're slicing up ready-made loops then it's of course not possible.

Sounds pretty good! I haven't heard the original, so I'll skip commenting on the composition. But two things I wanted to say. Firstly, the amen loop drumming (or w/e) kind of irritates me, and doesn't seem to fit very well with the rest of the instruments there. The drums early on fit much better in my opinion. Secondly, the guitar~ish instrument sounds unbalanced; either it's not coming from the center or some other aspect of the mix makes it seem panned to the right, which is fatiguing in the long run.

Groovy! I like it, a lot of good stuff and energy going on. But I think some of the leads and screeches may be just a tiny bit too bright, they're kind of piercing the ears and preventing me from cranking it up and enjoying it in a loud volume. Compare side-by-side with whatever similar track (electrohouse?) to see if you agree!

I like the idea of the pizzicato too. I'm also voting for keeping it! Otherwise, I think there are too few instruments there overall. It brings to mind an image of a full orchestra sitting there and only one or two guys playing.

It has a nicely mellow and pleasant atmosphere otherwise (great work there!), so the wub wub dubstep sound just doesn't fit in it in my head. I'd go for a different sound there; it could be a dark synth drone for sure, just not the wubbing type in my opinion. If you still want to keep it however, I think it needs to be more powerful for that approach. It doesn't deliver wery well as such. Again, I dislike only that one instrument there, liking it otherwise!