Emunator

Diggi Dis turned in his final .wav today, I think you guys are gonna like what he did! GSlicer and The Scarborough Joker's track is finished too! Lots of you I still need to hear from, please get in touch with me ASAP before the deadline!

Well, I wasn't planning on doing any preview materials for this project whatsoever, but in order to advertise things I'll be throwing together a 2 minute preview (8 songs @ 15 seconds each) for this Animé Expo thingy that OCR is apparently doing a panel at. Yay. So, if you want a chance to be on the preview, get your WIP to me by Sunday afternoon! If you specifically don't want your song in the preview, you've also got to contact me by then, too! The preview will be played at OCR's panel and then released to the public afterward. ALSO THE DEADLINE IS IN 4 DAYS, IF YOU HAVEN'T CHECKED IN WITH ME TO GET AN EXTENSION OR GET ME A WIP BY 420, YOU WILL BE DROPPED!

The soundscape feels pretty static due to some weak-sounding instruments that, unfortunately, are present throughout most of the mix. The piano is the biggest offender - the writing is extremely basic which I suppose would be tolerable except that you're working with some average samples and robotic velocities. I'd suggest a mix of both giving the piano some more energy and deviating from the same chord pattern every once and a while and improvising a bit! The rest of the mix kinda suffers from the same issue - the arrangement hits one energy level and stays there for the whole mix with only some slight changes in drum patterns and melodies. The groove is fun but the song needs to be way more dynamic. You've got a nice foundation for a mix, now build off of it!

Mmkay, this is definitely getting there, a marked improvement over the last WIP I heard on this. I like the idea of adding in a flute part, but your sequencing of said-flute is really robotic and doesn't have the same articulation or human touch that you'd expect from a pan flute. Work on adding in some creative velocities and pitch bends to give it an authentic sound I think the bass synth is a little too up-front and dry, and since it's present throughout the whole mix, it tends to grate on you after a few verses. For the most part, this is coming along pretty nicely though - your synth choices are mostly working well and the melody/chord progression elicits a very Owl City-esque mood. It also reminds me heavily of Sole Signal's mix "Serenity's Wake" which is a good thing! Take caution though, your mix is starting to get repetitive, since a lot of parts are repeated several times without much noticeable variation. For a mix only 2 minutes long, that's not a good thing :\ Keep working on this, it's got good potential!

Well, I'm not gonna lie, this is really rough Very few of your instrument parts are lining up, timing-wise, which makes the mix feel chaotic, random, and kind of difficult to listen to. I don't mean to discourage you from remixing but I think it would do you some good to study the rudimentary basics of music theory on your own or find a teacher that can help you on a much more fundamental level. There's a few moments where things seem to line up alright, but I think the kind of soloing and countermelodies you're attempting to pull off here are pretty ambitious. If I were you, I'd regress into some simpler source tunes until you get the hang of remixing before you try and tackle something like Stilt Village. Sorry for coming across as harsh, but there's only so much advice that can be given here - going back and learning more about music theory and composition in general would be much more beneficial to you, I think.

I think ultimately the quality of feedback is going to speak for itself so I don't think regular critiquers like you have to worry about feeling disenfranchised or overshadowed here. I dunno about how Nutritious wants to handle things, but myself and halc both make an effort to give regular feedback anyway even if a mix isn't tagged for review, so having to do some repeat reviews isn't really anything I'm concerned about because I try to keep up with most of the songs that come through the workshop that need feedback anyway

^^ we got a witty mothafucka on our hands here! This mix really grew on me since the first time I heard it, I love listening to this one at high volume so all the detail work in the drums and synths, it's a very cool experience. Just like AnSo's mix, I don't think the brilliance of this mix was evident to me until someone else pointed out how much they liked it, and upon a repeat listen I actually ended up loving it!

Absolutely not. It's meant to lighten the load on the judges by hopefully catching some mixes that obviously aren't going to pass the panel early on. It's also there to provide instant feedback to artists who want it from people who are near the competency level of the actual judges in a matter of days instead of 2-3 months.

Well, props for tackling a source tune that's a real bitch to work with. This one's not too bad for what it is, but there's a few issues. I personally feel like your bass and kick drum is way too punchy, I think picking a different sound or working differently with the one you've got would make it sit a lot better in the soundscape. There's some weird attack/release going on with a few of your instruments, most notably the flute and the most prominent choir patch. It takes away from the realism that you really need if you're going to pull off a convincing flute solo. That said, you've got a lot of strong points here. Some nice countermelodies were thrown in for good effect, and your soloing is quite nicely written. It adds a lot of Middle Eastern flavor to the song. I feel like everything finally clicks after the flute solo - the drums are excellent, the bass fits in well, and you've got some great energy. And the transition into that section was wonderful! Not too bad man, this has got some real potential.

Yeah, it's an honor to be of help here If I miss anything, please don't hesitate to drop me a PM and get me back on the ball!

I'll agree with OA that the ending wasn't very strong and you seemed to reach the peak energy of the mix relatively early in the mix so the latter half (despite the awesome percussion) was kind of a letdown. That said, the dubsteppy bass is the shit and the way the rest of your instrumentation complements it is fantastic. One of the most fun mixes to come by the front page in a while!

You should look into submitting to R:TS if you're looking for a reputable site with a lower bar than OCR. It gets a good amount of traffic and is a great way to get your music out there that might not necessarily be suited for OCR

Vampire Hunter Dan's WAV'd in (but might be making some additions later on) and Matt Drouin, Diggi Dis and halc have been pumping out some really amazing-sounding stuff in the past few days that's put a huge smile on my face Thanks guys! The rest of y'all slackers, keep working and get me something by the deadline!

I can pretty much guarantee you it won't get past the judges panel :\ The drums are kinda looped and the production is not at OCR level. You did a good job making the song listenable and ironed out the most glaring flaws so that this song is enjoyable to a casual listener, but if we're being honest I think you've got a bit of a way to go in terms of arrangement, sound choices, and production before you've really got a chance against the panel.

Watch your peaks on the high-pitched bell things, they tend to get piercing when they hit the highest part of the note. The mix feels like it's missing several instrumental aspects. A stronger presence in the bass ranges would really get the mix moving a lot more, and some sound choices with a bit more strength behind them would help flesh out the other areas of the mix. All of your sounds are very thin and weak, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but in this case I think you could benefit from something with a more strong presence. The stutter drums don't really do it for me - I think they'd work great as a transition but for the whole verse, they just don't feel right to me. Experiment with some new instrumental choices and try to vary up your drums as you go through the song so they don't feel so much like placeholders. The biggest things working against the mix is that it feels like you're unintentionally being minimalist with your instrument choices and it just comes across as an empty-sounding remix. Keep at this one though, it's not a bad foundation to work off of!

I'll second Rayza on the compression comment, and personally I don't think I'd have used the orch. hits as frequently as you did. The rest of this though? Real tight, a great listen so far!

Yikes o_o Not holding any punches here, are we? Adding this to the list of mixes that actually made me jump when I first clicked the "Play" button... Anyway, there's some neat ideas here, although I think there's some serious problems nagging the mix that need to be ironed out. First off, you've got a LOT of stuff going down on the low end of this mix which makes everything sound really muddy. You're on Soundcloud so you can see the waveform of your song - there's very few parts where your song isn't peaking, so that should tell you something about the way you've mixed your song. From 1:50 onward especially it just gets way too busy and loud. The stutter effects were cool for a while but I think you played them out waaay too much. Remember, with things like that you want to keep the usage to a minimum so your mix doesn't seem like a one-trick pony Nice attempt at making something really high energy, and I like the outro too but there's some major problems that make this hard to listen to. If it's really such an old mix and you're just uploading it for posterity, then forgive my bashing Hopefully you can take something from my advice regardless. Let's hear something more current from you!

4 days and no posts? Let's get this guy some feedback! First thing I notice is the intro just seems empty and doesn't contribute anything to the mix really. It's a totally different mood as the rest of the song, I'd definitely start from scratch with it. You've got some neat pitch bending ideas on your melody but the lead itself that you're using is a little underwhelming. There's a few good leads that fit the bill in the free Kore Player base sample packs that might suit your needs better here. The rest of the song is really short & basic and probably not suited for OCR because of its simplicity and lack of detail in either the ambiance or the arrangement, but it's enjoyable for what it's worth. Fun, sugary-sweet groove with some very subtle ambient effects make this a fun listen for a casual listener Not too shabby, way to break out of your comfort zone and try something new!

Yeah, this is sounding a lot fuller, very good work bringing all these instruments to life! I'm not really feeling the flute-sounding instrument at the end, though - it seems an odd choice to throw in for the last 10 seconds of the mix and sounds rather weak compared to the rest of your instrumental samples. All in all though, this is good I'd look for a suitable substitute for the flute at the end, maybe work on smoothing out the transition from the intro to the section with drums (it seems kind of rough as-is) and make any last touch-ups you see fit... and then seriously give some thought to submitting this. It's good

That's totally fine, you shouldn't expect yourself to be at OCR-level right off the bat. Most artists spend years and years trying to reach that level, so I'm glad that you're not discouraged from making more stuff. I'd chalk this up to a learning experience - it's not bad, but you've got lots of room to improve as well. So keep laying down the music and you'll work your way up there in due time Thanks for coming to the workshop forums, hopefully we were able to help give you some direction on what to work on with future mixes!

Yeeaaaahhh booiiii GET SOME!

Hey, sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this one! I've had a rough week and just haven't had the necessary time to do my workshop mod duties like normal Anyway, I'll have to echo the issues that Theophany and others brought up. This one takes a long time going places and overall the song feels very static. There's not a lot changing around, all of your instruments and synths remain in the same frequency range throughout most of the song with a few exceptions. To your credit though, your pads and ambient effects do help fill out the soundscape a lot, and there's a couple of verses that sound like you did a better job of filling out the space. I would recommend changing up the instruments you've got playing the main melody line though - the piano sample that you've got would fare better as a supporting instrument because it's just not a strong enough sample to carry the song on its own. Search around for a while or mess with some synth creator programs to see what you could come up with, I bet you'd be surprised at what you can find with minimal effort Having some different sounds pop in from time to time would really improve this mix. Either that, or try and find a more expressive, higher-quality piano sample, perhaps? I'm personally not feeling the acoustic bass, I'd like to see what you could do with a more electronic-sounding bass instrment, it might mesh with the rest of your instruments better. I'd like to hear an update on this before I critique it further - you've got a wonderful source tune and some nice effects going for you, but this needs some work to make it more dynamic, less repetitive, and ultimately bring it up to the bar it deserves to be at Keep at it!

First thing I notice right off the bat is the incredibly thin piano. It sounds almost too drowned in fx and reverb for its own good I guess that might be intentional but I think you went overboard. And if it's just a weak sample problem, I'd recommend looking into that as well. Past that though, this is a lot more enjoyable. The vocals are mixed in pretty nicely but I think they could use a bit of filtering so it fits in better with the electronic soundscape. The beat/synth work is pretty tight, although sometimes it drowns out the vocals and makes them unintelligible from a lyrical standpoint. Not that they don't sound cool even if you can't understand the lyrics, but if you're going for making them understandable I'd take that into consideration. Conversely, I think the final "dreams" vocal clip is too loud and the piano outro is too quiet, so check your levels around there. You've got some nice arrangement chops and your girlfriend has a great singing voice for this style

Just a quick update, Children of the Monkey Machine has dropped his tracks, but joining the project now is Matt Drouin! Welcome! I've gotten a few confirmations from artists who are indeed working on their tracks, and heard a really wonderful D&B WIP from Sole Signal for Rocket Run! Hope to hear lots of stuff flowing in soon, 'cause the deadline is in 2 weeks! If you need an extension, contact me sooner rather than later! Also, the first project track to get submitted to the panel got accepted today Grats to GSlicer and The Scarborough Joker for getting "Water Warped" past the judges!