Emunator

It's the one on the first post in the thread, silly

Both Rozo and Tydin have some great advice - I personally think you could make this a lot more interesting by working in some subtle synth elements into the intro, and vice versa with the piano in the synth section. I think you could fill out the soundscape a lot (which currently seems a bit empty) by crossing over those elements. If you're going to keep the intro at the pace that it's at, I would definitely throw in some more ambient pads than you have now, as well. In fact, your whole song could use some added ambiance to fill things out more. Drums have been mentioned, but some more interesting fills that are composed of more than just kicks (perhaps some electronic percussion) would make this mix a lot more interesting. There's some other things that could be mentioned, but see what you can do with the feedback you've got so far. I do like the idea of mixing synths and pianos and I think you could make this into a cool sounding song, but it's too sparse right now to really be interesting. Good luck!

Cool, someone else using the Mod Review tag! Thanks for keeping me employed First thing I noticed about the mix is the drums, which seem pushed too far back for the most part. Only a few parts of your kit are really audible and the interesting part of the drum loop is thrown so far into the background for the first half of the song, which leaves the whole beat sounding pretty bland and boring. The writing is a little repetitive too, which doesn't make the aforementioned issue any easier to swallow. That sorta leads into my next point - the arrangement itself has some cool ideas, but is largely repetitive and built off the same few loops. There's not much to the source tune aside from a solid groove, which you replicated well, but I definitely think this could have used some more original writing on top of it. As it stands, it's probably too conservative to pass the judges panel :\ On the plus side, there's a lot of moments in the song where you do some really cool synth effects/embellishments, your bassline is fun, and you did some subtle but well-appreciated countermelodies. Production generally sounds nice (though there's some instances where notes bleed together too much.) All of those aspects were handled nicely, but the conservativeness of the track and the fact that it's just a short groove without anything taking center stage on the melodic front, as well as the weak/repetitive drums will probably keep this from passing the panel if you choose to submit in your current form. I'd strongly advise fixing up your beats and changing up the structure from time to time to facilitate variety and allow for a more melodic focus here if you're still interested in submitting. If you're not aiming to go for the panel, you've still got a short but sweet track with some very enjoyable aspects to it

To be honest, this is kinda hard to listen to :\ When you've got the two different synths going on at once, it sounds a bit better - the timing is tighter and, while far from perfect, things go together alright. However, that portamento synth that you used a lot of the time just doesn't sound good at all. If you're looking for a similar effect that's a bit easier to be melodic with, try something that can pitch bend between notes. Also, you should work on transitioning from note to note more smoothly, the performance here seems choppy and hesitant, like you're not very confident with what you're playing. Practice will help you build up that musical flow a lot better. I'm not trying to rail on you too hard, but honestly you've got a ways to go with your keyboarding skills. There's a few moments where it sounds good in here but it's just going to take some practice with different synths & sounds to see what you can come up with.

Neblix pretty much nailed it, there's something going wrong with your synth intro and it sounds like all the notes are bleeding into each other pretty badly. In addition, your piano does tend to get lost, though the delayed/panned stuff sounds awesome I disagree that it needs more humanization - for the kind of music you're making, the way you sequenced the piano sounds perfect. It just needs to be a bit more audible. In general, this WIP sounds pretty tight, especially when that lead synth comes in full-force. Work on some of your EQ'ing with the synths and I think you've got something that could be very submittable Looking forward to hearing more from you!

Ok, first off nice work on accepting and incorporating feedback That's what this forum is all about and you've been getting some excellent feedback from people on this board. However, I still don't think this one's ready for primetime - while you definitely did a good job of ironing out the kinks with the drum sequencing (I still think the kick is too weak in the intro and the drums as a whole are kind of thin throughout the rest of the song, though) that section of the song is really overpowering everything else, so all of the instruments that should be leads are totally buried and hardly audible at all I'm not sure whether bringing up your leads or bringing down your bass/drums would help more, but one way or another your mixing on this is really lopsided and it's hurting the song overall. Things sound fine up until :26, and then again at :45 and 1:36 when the drums let up a little bit, but other than that the whole song is suffering from this issue, sadly, and I think it's the machine-gun drums' fault. If we're going into more detail here, I'd also say that the synth you've got playing at 1:15 that gets repeated throughout the song is really bland, I think you could use a synth with more punch and energy to it if you want it to stand out next to the rest of the high-energy instruments you've used. Also, something really loud is happening at :55 with the kick beneath the cymbal crash and it sticks out a bit painfully. Maybe tone down that particular drumbeat so it's at a similar volume level to the rest of your drums. Keep working on this though, you've got a solid arrangement and a very good idea at work, but the mixing is dragging it down hardcore. Luckily I think you've got most of the sequencing and instrument parts recorded/written fine, it's just a matter of working them all into a cohesive package where nothing is overpowering the rest of the soundscape. Keep going on this

I load my mom's iPod up with all sorts of OCRemix stuff. I sent her the whole Serious Monkey Business album recently and she dug a lot of it, especially Joshua Morse, Patrick Burns, and Sole Signal's stuff. In general she's a big fan of a lot of the remixes I get from this site. The cool thing is that she actually recognizes the source for a lot of the songs I send her because she used to do a fair amount of gaming herself. My dad affectionately refers to everything that comes off of the site as "elevator music" just to spite me I referred him to Gecko Yamori's "Elevator Music" from Project Chaos and got a good laugh. Deep down I can tell he appreciates it though

Now seems like a good time to forgo the lossless release, like Rozovian is doing with his project. It seems like one of those things you need to prepare for early or else you'll have to spend too much time scrambling around at the end. That said, good luck if you decide to pursue it!

Aight, so, continuing our WAV-a-day streak, DCT got me something finished today that should make a wonderful ending track to the SNES album Thanks man, it's been a pleasure working with you! Also, give a warm welcome to Flexstyle who'll be taking on Hot Pursuit. He's a very talented musician and seems like an all-around great guy to be working with, so I'm looking forward to it!

Don't worry man We've got 3 of the most legendary mixers that have ever hit this site working on individual Rockface mixes - Zyko, McVaffe, and Sixto - so you better believe that your needs will be met! Hooooly crap. Got my second WAV from halc this week, and he brought a friend along for collaborating with on Water World! The Vagrance might hurt me for this, but this is DEFINITELY an album highlight here. Yay for finished song #10 - 5 from each soundtrack so far! Keep it up!

It's been claimed twice and dropped twice. I even got a WIP from each artist, but they dropped for their own reasons. I've never had a song go past claim #3 without finding someone who can stick, so hopefully that will hold true here, as well Fun fact: Jungle Jitters, Nuts and Bolts and Baddies on Parade were also all claimed twice and dropped twice, but from the looks of it the artists that now have them are going to actually have the inspiration to finish!

Yeah, Jade wouldn't want you posting your WIP here, unless you got express permission from them, in which case I'm sorry for deleting your link

@The Vagrance: Heh, maybe I do, but I've been saying this about Blue Magic's song since it started. He's a great mixer and he really brought his A-game with this mix. That said, I'm not surprised that so many of you have picked out Mazedude's track as the cream of the crop - not to slight my other remixers, but Mazedude's track is amazing. I'm going on the record now and saying that it's probably some of the most well-arranged, expansive, and in-depth work he's ever done. @Invader_Quirk: Tell me about it. The two Rockface Rumbles are my favorite songs from each respective soundtrack, and I recruited Zyko specifically for that track. He's busting out some musical skills he's never shown before so it should be amazing As a side note, GSlicer has taken on a 3rd track and threw me an almost-finished WIP for Pokey Pipes (GBA) out of nowhere. I didn't think anyone would be able to do a remix for that song but he proved me wrong

Like I said, I'm sorry, but the preview was really limited for time, or else I would have shown more tracks. It's not personal Brandon, your track is really great Also, Blue Magic's Waterfall .wav is in and it's some of the best tunage we've gotten so far! Stellar work, now get to it on your other WIP!

Here's the list: 1.) AeroZ - Mill Fever (SNES) 2.) 8-Bit Instrumental - Crazy Calypso 3.) Mazedude - Mill Fever (GBA) 4.) halc - Water World (GBA) 5.) Diggi Dis - Chase (GBA) 6.) Sole Signal - Rocket Run 7.) AkumajoBelmont - Enchanted Riverbank (SNES)

The song you're hearing isn't Jungle Jitters, but Chase actually Same melody though. I wouldn't put a scrapped WIP into the preview knowingly, that would just be cruel I didn't put Waterfall in this preview either, though if I'd had room (for these purposes, I was limited to around 2:00-2:15) Blue Magic's Waterfall WIP was next on my list. It's really, really good

IT'S PREVIEW TIME! Alright fellas, here's a very very short preview, it's only got a few tracks but it should give you an idea of a few that I thought were good to share Thanks to halc for putting it together!

If I were you, unless you can find a very good brass VST/sample, I would just scrap that and write in a different instrument. A good brass is hard to come by :\ By exposed, I mean that it's dead-center stage, loud, and there's not enough covering up the weakness of the sample itself. Reverb might fix this, or simply EQing it back a little bit or writing in new instrumental parts to mask the flaws somewhat. The key with sampled instruments is to make them audible (obviously a sample that you can't even hear is going to do you no good) but do what you can so that the sample quality is not a distraction. I'm not really sure how to un-quantize something, but for example, adding more noticeable vibrato to your strings or tweaking the velocities your instruments play at might help here. (I'm at school now so I can't listen to the actual mix, so if my memory of the remix is spotty and you've already done any of this, I apologize.) For a rough sketch though, this honestly isn't too bad You've got some great potential, so work with it! Maybe someone like Nutritious or Archangel can come in with their symphonic expertise and give you some more specific pointers

Well, I was mainly referring to his work ethic Steal that and keep your own musical sound! Deal?

See? This mofo got his final WAV in NOW, why can't the rest of you be more like halc? <3 Oh, and P.S.: it's awesome as hell. Almost as awesome as his other mix, which will probably be WAV'd in relatively soon, too

Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not a musician so I can't really tell you step-by-step directions on how to fix it, but identifying the problem is the first step I suppose Hopefully that was at least a little helpful to you.

Ok, well, I think most of my critiques have been covered. The drums are pretty weak and I think finding a more powerful kick sample would help out a lot. Other than that, the whole section from 1:00 to 2:00-ish felt kind of lackluster, but since it's just a placeholder I suppose you're aware that there's lots of room for improvement. I think finding some less generic sounding synths would also be a huge step up, or at least writing in some countermelodies to spice things up. It's not bad man, but this one needs a lot of time in the oven in terms of drums, synth choices, additional harmonies, etc. before it's ready for prime time. Keep at this one though, I love progressive house and I love DKC2