Tensei

Classic Sixto with Shariq-infused melodic interpretation? I'll take it! Incredibly emotive lead-playing, wonderful arrangement and near-professional production. Only criticism I have is that the (brickwall) limiting might have been a bit too harsh, song feels a bit grungy in that department (if you listen to the cymbals and snare during the busier parts), but that's really nitpicking.

C'm on man, don't post midi rips If anything, the drums shouldn't be just background noise but actually sound like they're at least driving the song along. Edit: damnit Rozovian stop one-upping me with giving feedback

Decent concept and arrangement, very meh execution/production. The sounds by themselves aren't bad, it's mainly the way they're sitting in the mix that's annoying (I hope the panning issues aren't because of the newgrounds upload otherwise what I'm writing below here is pretty futile ) The drums panned left are a VERY bad idea IMO, it makes the whole mix feel lopsided and is almost painful to listen to on headphones. The kick and most likely the snare should really be dead center, and the other drums should be panned around that (though not too widely). As for guitars, record your rhythm part twice, place one hard left and the other one hard right. Bass should be panned dead center as well. This particular setup has so many advantages that it's basically the industry standard for rock music: you get a wide stereo field because of the hard-panned guitars (which sound huge as well because of the doubling), while keeping the center open for the drums and bass. When you have a version with correct stereo balancing I'll be able to comment on the rest of your mix

I think the assumption that "everyone uses ProTools" is a wrong one. ProTools USED to be the industry standard because they were ahead of their time but other programs (especially Logic, possibly Cubase, Sonar, FL etc.) have caught up. I really don't think anyone here uses ProTools because even the cheapest (M-Powered) version requires a stupid hardware add-on and simply because it just isn't that good of a bargain compared to other options nowadays.

Arrangement is definitely good but IMO it could do with a bit more humanization, it still feels a bit rigid (though this might be because of the sample quality rather than the sequencing). You're lucky rubato's and the like weren't all that popular yet back then The reverb feels..weird, it sounds like you selected a room reverb with 100% wet ratio, I think it could stand to be a bit drier.

*cough*planescapetorment*cough*peterjackson*cough* Hoo boy those allergies sure get bad this time of the year.

If FL's piano roll/sequencer works for you, why look for something else? FL's sequencer is generally considered to be one of the best (I mean, even people like Zircon and Sixto swear by it) and you're saying you work faster with it than with Finale, so I don't see a reason why you would need to look for 'composing software'. No idea on the 'changing melodies to different modes' though since I just compose by ear

Jumping on the ' I'm available for recording guitar' bandwagon. There's a bunch of guitarists here so there's really no reason to use samples (unless you're aiming for the sampled guitar sound itself) when you can get the real deal almost just as easily.

Ibanez RG 2570 with the standard fare HSH DiMarzio IBZ pickups, floating Edge Pro III bridge :3 As for good suggestions for six-string pickups, look into DiMarzio tonezone, Super Distortion, PAF Pro.

http://www.tindeck.com/audio/filestore/a/awrr-Polar%20Star%20Overdrive.mp3 Done and submitted :3

Because the judges really base their decision on their opinion of the game that's remixed, not the remix itself, right?

I think recording a piano with one or two decent microphones and a good pre-amp (which is important too!) will be more than enough to bring up you up to OCR standards. I don't think they'll mind a little hiss and I'm sure nobody expects you to record a piano with a huge-ass multitrack recorder and six top of the line condensor microphones. A possibly cheaper alternative would be to get a midi piano (of course not the cheapest one, make sure it has at least enough (weighted?) keys and decent velocity layering stuff) and play with it through a vst (I'd suggest the Tascam Continuous Velocity Piano which is based on physical modelling and is absolutely INCREDIBLE for a free VST). That way you don't have to worry about mic setups, hum and all that, though purists will of course argue that the real thing is better. Another advantage of having a midi piano is that if you DO choose to try your hand at something different than solo piano mixes (church organ perhaps?), you already have a way to enter notes and drum patterns Edit: Goddamnit Moseph, it's uncanny how much our posts resemble each other, great minds think alike?

Try to analyse the music you're aiming for, get a feeling for how the composer solves the things you mentioned (the transitions, the phrasing etc.) and then try to apply them to your own stuff. I've been trying to nail Joe Hisaishi's (the composer for movies like Spirited away and Princess Mononoke) style lately and I noticed that after listening to enough of his stuff the idea's for songs really came by themselves and all I needed to do was to write them down. Of course later on I was able to pinpoint key points in his style like using a lot of pentatonics in the lead melodies, but I think that if you listen enough Sakuraba's stuff you'll get inspired no matter what. That said, for me there really is no clear way of doing things. It can happen just as well that I get a complete musical idea (melodies, harmonies, percussion and all) or that I come up with a cool progression by noodling around on my guitar and then adding melodies etc. Just do what feels right

Hm I guess that beepy thing is the new addition, it gets kind of annoying as the song progresses, might do with a pattern that's a bit more interesting or just have it stop altogether at some points. IMO the whole song is a bit too drawn out considering the sparse soundscape, it's just too repetitive. Decent production otherwise.

I'm guessing the game has been hacked in such a way that he enters doors like that automatically, it would be kind of odd if he had automated the whole level except the doors. The fact that the video is called 'This Hands-Free SMW Level' kind of indicates this too. Either way, it's still impressive that he programmed the level to be so perfectly in sync. Well yeah, the thread title says " Super Mario level that plays music" which it isn't so if you look at the video after reading the thread title I guess I can't really help but be a bit disappointed. That said, I'll conceed that the little melodies done by the shell stomps and collisions definitely ARE impressive.

I should rephrase that: I expected more out of it. The amount of time and effort that obviously went into this is admirable/impressive but the final product doesn't really PLAY music (as I was hoping it would), it only vaguely syncs up the SFX noises with the song, which is what didn't really impress me. Also, you're overestimating the guy, this is one of those levels that are designed to 'play themselves'. I'm pretty sure he didn't even touch the controls during the level, since the whole level is quite obviously created with the intent to sync up with the music.

If you consider the amount of time that went into making this, the result is, unfortunately, rather unimpressive IMO. Sure, it's amazing how well the SFX syncs up with the music but the sounds really don't do anything more than accentuate the beat of the music, rather than actually playing the music as I had initially hoped

Got bored of doing rock mixes so I started doing this out of the blue. Turned out way better than I expected, definite Hisaishi influence, enjoy. http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/ggfa/Serene

Ibanez RG 2570

How about you learn to play it before you actually start modding it. I've been playing for years and I still haven't felt the need to switch out my DiMarzio IBZ pickups. Tone is in the fingers dude. =3

Remix'd http://www.tindeck.com/audio/filestore/d/dgxp-Remix.mp3

I could take the easy way out and just say you need to get Synth 1 for all your synthesizing needs, but I have a sneaking suspicion you actually mean Sequencer or DAW, not synthesizer. It wouldn't hurt to learn the correct terminology. Of course, if you're actually referring to a VSTi Software synthesizer (with oscillators, filters etc. etc.) feel free to ignore my bullshitting.

Windows Sound Recorder.

Google is crap video quality and monophonic sound(IIRC). Good alternative upload sites are Vimeo, Viddler or Dailymotion.

YES! NO! Also, look up Dimebag Darrell from Pantera, if nothing else, he teached me how to do those crazy harmonic squeals. Another more modern though less universally respected guitarist would be Alexi Laiho, if only for his incredible soloing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J7iThdiXQ0