The Vagrance

I've considered this a lot, because as pretty much everyone has said, melody-wise this is a strict interpretation of the source. The deal is though, is that I absolutely love the original version of the song. Any improvising I've done on the original melody has sounded kinda shit to say the least, so I haven't. That said, I tried to make it all progress as each main section occurred, adding a new element each time around. If you don't like it though, thats your thing. I missed this the first time around, which I apologize for. Yeah, I kinda have a weird thing for high bitrates. I'll definitely have to push the bitrate down but for now, let's enjoy another 160Kbits of quality. This was actually an issue I worked on early in the mix. Right now I think it sounds fine and so far your the only person who's complained about it, but I do agree the mix was a bit bass-heavy. The deal with the piano, is that its actually one Kontakt with multiple Piano instruments open, where the cutoff between the low notes and the lo-fi ones is just done by grouping. The lo-finess (new word) of the highest note of the left hand was due to pure laziness by me, but its fixed now. I also altered the dynamics on both "hands" of the piano. I also edited the drums for the first half, including adding another break that hints a bit at the slicing to come, which was something discussed earlier. Also, for my voice I stripped a lot of the unecessary effects, or at the very least toned some of them down. It sounds a lot more natural, which may be a bad thing because I'm kind of a shit rapper. Anyway, new link: http://www.mediafire.com/?fcyum12wum2 As always, comments are nice.

Okami is by far one of my favorite games, hence the sig. It wasn't so much for its' gameplay elements (I groaned every time I got into a battle towards the end) but rather just for the atmosphere of the entire thing. It really felt like I was in a ancient Japanese fairy tale land, and the music in the game is for the most part fantastic. One of the few games I didn't hesitate to beat.

nice to see OCR gradually getting more and more love.

Deaf people I win.

I really need more opinions on this.

I wasn't planning on taking them out, but if you thought the transition was too sudden for some of them I was considering re-working it. Also, to everyone who says the slicing is forced: explain what you mean by that.

I actually got rid of the Virus about a week after I got it, just because I didn't feel it was good enough to justify spending $2G on it (that said, I will probably try finding a second-hand C or . But yeah, I'm mainly aiming more at producing at the moment. I've actually started building up a vinyl collection anyway despite my lack of DJ equipment just because I really want to get back into it again. I do download tracks from Beatport though and make mixes in Ableton (actually thats whats going on in the window below this). Absolutely beastly, I love those classic Roland synthesizers you have.

-Been producing for about 4.5 years -Been kinda sorta teaching myself piano during that time but not really -Been playing drums for about 1.5 years

Thanks. Yeah, you actually heard "Alan Greenspan" right, which is quite possibly one of the nerdiest things I've ever referencd. The lyrics though: Get smacked with the invisible hand like Alan Greenspan Don't try to mess with the new-age iron man Sorry fellow men, sunshine will now be replaced So please enjoy this twilight because there is no escape The system provided has no concerns So please be prepared to lose life and limb, or at least form Don't bother the chief, I'm too great to scorn Don't bother with her, (shes) too late to mourn As for the breakdowns, I understand what you mean, but are you suggesting they go entirely or are just toned down a bit? Haha, about Snowpeak...my friend was staying over with me (also a huge music guy, he'll probably work on me with a remix soon and one of my original tracks features him) the week that I was starting this remix so while I was remixing this theme, he started playing through on my Zelda file and beat Snowpeak entirely, so I've never actually experienced any of that part of the game. Immediately after he did this, I copied my file and he went on to complete the game way before me. What did that have to do with this remix? Absolutely nothing.

Pretty wicked tune there. I assume that rankings this early in the month mean nothing though, but if they do, I'm boned 2/3 times (My Missouri track is 5 in electronic for some reason I can't figure out)

"Missouri" under electronic "Memphis" under dlub/dance "The Known" under beats and stuff I may also submit a track under experimental and alternative hip-hop. Also, my name on that site is "fli", I figure it sounds a bit more mainstream and socially acceptable than "The Vagrance"

0:00 This piano sound is kinda tiny and cheap, try finding a better one. The arrangement is also fairly standard but I like your little add-ons to it. 0:30 Ok, quite a few things wrong at this point. The drums, first off, are way too pedestrian; at the very least make the kick thump into people's skulls if you're doing this genre. The bass is also lo-fi, bass samples are fairly simple to come by plus there are people on this forum who would probably be willing to help. Worst-case scenario you use a few sine waves. That said, I kinda like the arrangement, and this reminds me a bit of GT4, but not in a good way. 0:58 Just FYI, here would be the perfect place to have some jazzy vocals come in and carry this mix to extraordinary heights, but its not necessary. The strings are also too lo-fi, get new samples for them. Also, I feel that the melodies are moving too fast for the arrangement at this point, especially if this is supposed to have a laidback feel to it. OVERALL Ok, at the very least, get new samples for everything. Working on dynamics really wouldn't hurt either. At the moment this sounds slightly better than what you would hear on an SNES soundtrack, but only slightly. In order to give it that extra notch, you need to find better samples, and include live instruments if you can. Also, this mix has a bit of an identity crisis because it can either go down as a radio-esque R&B styled track or it can be closer to a smooth jazz thing. The drums say R&B, everything else says jazz. If you're going to go down the R&B road, make all of the melodies less chaotic - find a general hook and stick with it. If the jazz route, make the drums more acoustic feeling. In both cases I'd at the very least tone down the melodies a bit because there's a lot of activity going down with that piano for what is supposed to be a laid back track.

I saw you helping out a bunch of other people so I figured I'd return the favor for you. 0:00 Definitely a chiptune intro done right. 0:04 Everything kicks in heavy, which is nice, and that synth that comes in sounds great as well. The guitar has a great tone to it at it plays off nicely against the synth. That said, I feel that the guitar should be a bit brighter. 0:24 The synth that was in the earlier section had a lot of high end that suddenly goes away in this switch and its a bit weird. Maybe try adding in another note when the transition is made to allow for a bit more continuity? Iono. The drum programming is excellent. If I had to nitpick any more I guess the snare could be a bit more audible but really it could be at just the right level and I just don't know it. 0:45 Nice, nothing specific about this section to complain about. 1:26 The transition is handled a lot better here, well done. I actually kinda love the part right here. 1:37 Drum programming right here is fantastic. 1:46 Back into it again. I still really like your drum programming, I am starting to feel they could be louder though, and you guitar definitely needs to be brighter, and aural exciter or maximizer will probably do the trick. 2:07 I like the way the guitar plays off the strings in this, but both are kind of hard to distinguish from each other because they're both taking up the same frequency range. Also, I'd like to see a bit more variety in the drums here for the first 8 or 16 bars or whatever. 2:53 I like the kick in the middle of the little breakdown. That said, I wish that guitar had more volume in it, or something more to distinguish it from the other guitar tone you've been using this entire time. 3:18 Not bad at all, I like this part a lot 3:38 The synth in here is a bit weird but it blends in fine, just wasn't expecting it. 4:00 What the hell happened here? Its alright once it get into this point but the transition is horribly sudden. Maybe you could do something with the 8-bit synth for like an extra bar before the transition that leads into this but its all a bit weird. That said, the section itself sounds fine. OVERALL Really good remix, but like Nekofrog said the guitar tone needs a bit of work. As for the rhythm thing, I couldn't hear what he was talking about but maybe you updated the mp3 since he commented. Also, I thought the drums were fine but they could stand to be louder and perhaps even brighter. My main problem with the remix is that it feels too muddy, the synths are the only things with brightness and so every time they're played the high end stands out way too much because there's nothing else competing for it. Try using maximizers and exciters on various components to see if you can give this some more overall energy.

Hah, another 17-year-old, nice! 0:00 Yeah, this is a pretty bad lead-ish sound you got going. I like the little square-things going on though, it'd be sweet if you had them become more and more intricate as it built up. There also isn't enough of a build-up in this section, may I suggest a noise-sweep? The entire thing in general sounds a bit cheap, but there is a nice little house stab thing going on in the background that sounds great, if you didn't have it hit as much (like maybe once every 2 bars or something) but doused it in reverb and made it have a long tail it may sound nice. 0:45 This section sounds nice, the bassline is cheap-sounding but it works remarkably well. The little gating thats going on is nice for adding an extra layer. The drums could definitely be more driving, if I were you I'd add some 909 layering to it. Just as general advice, when in doubt, add a 909, its like magic. So yeah, throw on another 909 kick to give the bass more oomph and add a snare and compress that sucker to give it pop. 1:47 A nice little break-off to keep this from getting too stale, but you could have gone on so much further. I'm waiting for some massive saw-based bastard to come in and start tearing this mix apart, especially during the little splicing breakdown. Also, during this breakdown, I'd go as insane as possible with what you have. Monster leads, Ed Banger-esque sampling (Like Justice or SebastiAn), glitching, whatever. Something to give this mix bite. 2:15 Back through the courses, the bassline is kinda getting old now. By now we've gone through a lot of great opportunity but haven't really exploited it enough. I like the little lead but it would've been nice to hear it with something aside from a basic square lead. 2:42 This little pad thing that comes is the start of something I wish you did more often. Its leading into promise but never does anything. Overall Its not a terrible mix by any means, or even a bad one. Its just kinda, remarkably average. Nothing jumps out from it and grabs my attention. Though the wooshing is nice throughout it, its not enough to sell it. Some of my suggestions may lead you to take this down a road you don't want to go down - and thats fine, some of my suggestions were really just personal preference. But what I really want to hear is something that sets this mix apart from others, something that has a distinct "PanManDan" touch to it.

What do you mean hopefully you'll be begging for votes? I would just plain-out hope for 1st.

I can't wait until next month, it'll be my first time doing one of these.

Slightly even more updated at my VGMix http://www.vgmix.com/members/982/ I'm pretty much on the edge of submitting this, any more advice?

So I listened to what Audix said, switched up the main riff a bit, and possibly finished the arrangement. I felt a need for a second drop since I was still aiming for a DnB theme but whenever I started making it I just really dug the bare-bones of it, so I added a little speech sample to the mix. So, I dunno, you all may hate it. The updated version is at: http://media.putfile.com/Zeal-Remix-Final (Its not really final, putfile just hates question marks)

Thanks. Now when you talk about the "main" riff I'm assuming you mean the "Sitar" part, correct?

I'm getting a 404 error every time I hit the link.

NOOOOO!

Wow, I've either left people speechless or they're following the "if you can't say anything nice..." mentality.

I went ahead and did my part, though I will say it was a little bit tougher on the DJ one because that "War of the Gods" track was hella tight. That said, still voted up all of you for first, good luck.

Happy birthday! Okay, enough nice time. Actually I kid, this isn't off to a bad start, but I feel like this is a rock remix without guitar or vocals. At the moment it just lacks an extra element to it, everything else though sounds great.

Sounds nice so far, but like Nekofrog said, its hard to judge at this point. Wait until you hit around the 2:30 mark.