Nutritious

Hey, got your PM. I'll try to get to this one sometime either tonight or tomorrow.

I haven't listened to this in quite a while. Intro is sounding a lot better than I remember, so props there. The stabs on the right ear (cellos?) felt distracting starting at :37, since they're doubling the lower instrument notes, but being stabs instead of legato. I guess it's an arrangement choice, though, so it's up to. Hmm, I like the idea of bringing a kit with the orchestra, but it doesn't sound like it's meshing well with the orchestra. The snare especially sounds like it's muffled (lack of high-end eq). I've had this problem many times in trying to combine drums with orchestra, so I've dealt with it a lot. If you'd like some more specific help on this, please hit me on pms. Feels like this is missing some elements to back things up in certain sections. Like 1:36 & 1:51. Have you tried adding a bass to fill things out a bit? Either that, or some other orchestra support would help, I guess, it just sounds like these sections are half developed. Really bad pumping/clipping at 3:47. I understand you're trying to get it loud here, but it's just getting squashed. Gotta bring things down, make sure your mastering compression chain is in order, then bring up some elements to make sure they don't get killed. 4:28 - 4:38 felt like it should be the climax of the song, but it honestly felt weak. The drum fills weren't really providing energy and there wasn't enough support for the main orchestra hits to make it sound exciting. This is a hard thing to explain or to fix, but hopefully you can look at the drum writing as well as orchestra writing here and flesh it out. You've got some good ideas and writing here, so keep at it. I generally focus on the negative to give crits, so I can imagine I'd come off as not liking anything, which is definitely not the case here. Good luck to you.

Cool, thanks. I usually review these over my lunch break, but can't get to YT here. I'll edit this later with my crits. EDIT: Production crits To start off, the vocal samples really stood out in a bad way. Jarring transitions from note to note. Either they need to be smoothed out to sound more natural, or I'd drop them. Same thing at 1:29, though it's covered a bit better by other elements. Pretty nice guitar work here. The overall levels are pretty low, so some mastering compression is needed. This should also let more elements be heard. Not a big fan of using the flam snare hit (did I say that right?) so often in the beat. It's kinda distracting, honestly. I'd save it for fills. Also, try to vary up the beat more, as it spends long sections on autopilot. See if you can throw in some off-beat hits, more fills, change-ups, etc to get it more interesting. As soon as the kick starts hitting, it sounds like the track could be clipping or pumping (note: I heard more of this on the tindeck preview, but less often on the downloaded version, but I'd still take a look). Needs some compression to get that under control. It continues to be a problem throughout the track, but especially is apparent on hits like at 2:10 section. You've got a good base here, but I think there is a lot more potential to be explored. Good luck, dude.

As mentioned, the track overall is pretty quiet. Get some mastering compression on to get the levels up. Beyond that, the synths felt like they were on the generic side, honestly. Disclaimer: I'm not really experienced with dubstep, so I don't know how much I can help in this regard. On the arrangement side, this is a very conservative mix for OCR. I'd recommend looking at ways to expand on the theme in a creative way. Right now, things get repetative with the mix repeating several times in a faster tempo, but keeping the same general structure as the original. Drums are on autopilot as well, so be sure to try and get some variation there.

Any possibility you could host this somewhere else instead of youtube? There's a couple good & free options listed here: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29277

Seconded. I can send a wav too if you need it.

BTW, Brad, OCZ make terrible PSU's now. Apparently they're using poor quality capacitors & other hardware now. This is coming both from first hand experience and reviews on newegg (on the stealthxstream models before they discontinued all of them and brought us stealthxstream II!).

Good improvements dude. Definitely. INITIAL part of the intro is a bit awkward with the drums just coming in like that. Can you think of something else to lead things in? Intro in general is MUCH better. It sounds like an element is missing to fill out the sound a bit more here, though. I'd suggest maybe a pad underneath everything. SWEET effect at :32. I'm gonna repeat that I still feel like the drums never establish the driving rock groove. I really feel like AT LEAST by 1:38 things should be in high gear. Even earlier would be better though. What I mean is a more solid kick 1 & 3 (and even offbeat of 3), snare on 2 and four, and hitting hard on the open hihat or ride on all 4 beats. Complimenting that with some faster riffs on the rhythm guitars would help drive it as well. I hope that explains it well enough. On the plus side, the drums are sounding a lot better IMO. That breakdown section I talked about before sounds a LOT better than before. The guitar part sounds like some possible out of tune-ish notes, but I'm not entirely sure. One minor gripe is right before the drop out to "I thought not", things kind've spluttered down, instead of having a more focused/directed/purposeful stop. Lastly, I think the mixing and mastering could be worked on a bit. It's hard to articulate what I mean, but when things kick in after "I thought not" I want it to hit hard, but it's instead squashed by compression and about the same volume/intensity as the previous section. That cool effect at 4:55 is also still squashed with the compression/limiting. On the arrangement side, things are sounding good. I can hear where you took everything from, but you've rocked it out well in your style. Good job there as well. This is a sweet track man, I just feel like there are a few areas that need tightening before submission.

Glad to help

Some additional crits: Drums are basically on autopilot for the first 2/3 of the song. They really couse use some switching up. I also wasn't thrilled with the drum samples - they feel a little on the thin side and the shakers are getting grating on the high EQ spectrum. Kick could use some more oomph as well as it doesn't have a lot lot of low-mid presence. By the time :44 comes in, there's a lot of stuff occupying the same frequency range (I'm thinking Mids to Highmids). Also, one of the arpeggio type synths has a LOT of high end, which is fatiguing. In general, could use some more low/lowmid presence. Mixing wise, the bass could come up more and some of the various synths could come down to make room for each other. It feels like there's a lot concentrated in highmids and not a whole lot in low-mid range. Lots of high end on that transition synth at :40, 1:40 and 2:40. Consider rolling off the high eq so it doesn't pierce so much. 1:44 - 2:13 didn't do much for me. There's just not much going on. I think here and in other sections it feels like some elements are missing (as mentioned before). Like more hooks, interesting rhythms, fills, and changeups. I think it would help to switch up some of the synths to give a wider textural palette here as a lot of the synths used are similar and kind've just sound like noise when they're all playing together. Hope this doesn't sound like too much of a downer, but I feel like there's more potential here.

Initial thoughts: Intro was a cool idea, but quickly degenerates into what just seems like a lot of noise with the spoken sample on top. I suggest cutting it down quite a bit to just the most important/memorable phrases for impact. Cool transition to rock. I would've liked it to hit harder when the drums/guitar come in. Also, all of the pads and noise elements suddenly stopping like that felt slightly awkward. Nice guitar playing and production there. Probably the strongest part of the mix. The drums kind've felt like they were playing a bit haltingly. Almost as if they were playing fills 80% of the time or a bridging pattern to something else. I kept waiting for them to really establish a rock groove, but it didn't quite get there. Very nice changeups to the different sections. I think you could bring that synth lead up more. It'll help give more sonic contrast when it's there. Are you doing some sort of stereo separation on the drums to put them in the background? They don't sound bad, but it seems like they could be pushed slightly further front and center. 4:04 the synths honestly felt weak here compared to the rock work that preceded it. The whole section felt pretty flat dynamically. I think it'd be a TON more effective if you used the section to build up and compliment the vocal sample to hit at the end. For example: Building it up slowly with guitars and drums (with better synths IMO) while he speaks, then do a big crash/hit and dropoff while he says "I thought not", then do that guitar effect. Something to that effect. Loud section at 4:37 is causing pumping against the compressors. Too much sound occupying the same space. Cool transition effect at 4:52, but REALLY bad distortion from pushing the limiter/compressor way too hard. Nice section in general here as the climax to the song, just try to get rid of the pumping by bringing down a few levels or creative EQing. The extra section beyond 5:10 (while it had some cool transitions and effects) felt like a let down, energy wise, and unnecessary. Maybe you can finish off the song somewhere towards the end of the more high-energy part immediately before.

Can't listen to youtube at the moment, but I'll comment on the production/flow/etc for now: Cool effects usage to bring this in. In general the sounds are pretty low fi, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - I understand the style you're going for. The hihat specifically struck me as maybe a bit TOO low fi in this regard, though, it almost sounds like a noise channel on an old game system or something, which makes it stick out. The kick and snare tend to stick out a bit too, but not as much as the hats. I guess I'm a little on the fence about the beat in general. It plays a minor role, however, so it's not a huge issue. Cool flow here, I'll echo stevo that this has several sections that could use some more filling out with supporting parts & content. For example, when the beat comes in at 1:14 and 1:22 the song momentarily loses it's energy and momentum. Really liked the more forceful part at 2:26. I would've liked to hear a bit more energy/support behind it to even give it a bit more contrast. Slow wind down to the ending is very cool. The last note struck me as a bit weird, but it's workable. One more thought: I would've liked to hear a bit more contrast in the textures in the track as it stays fairly close to the same throughout (try just clicking around the track and you'll hear what I mean. Overall, this is a very cool track and a fun listen. I'd like to get a feel for how strong the arrangement is, so I'll try to chime in later with that.

I started using FL the version right before they introduced pattern clips, but now I use them exclusively. I think they just keep playlist clips around for old project compatibilty reasons (like the 4 dedicated send tracks on the mixer)

Congrats, dude! Marriage = awesome Kids = extra awesome (for future reference)

Very cool guys, fun listen and interesting throughout. Subject matter was especially interesting to me given I'm coordinating the album project. And yeah, we remix Haunted House

Frequently I record myself humming an idea on my phone's voice memo. It's not perfect, but it keeps me from forgetting an idea.

Very cool idea. Looking forward to when you've got more content.

Seriously, though, it may be helpful to empower him to make some decisions and provide more direction while you're busy with school.

Production stuffs: Cool start here. Good use of reverb and spacing. The leads were a bit weaker than the rest of the sounds. That double reedish (bassoon?) that starts at :12 has some overlapping notes, which makes it sound unnatural and I'm assuming is just a sequencing mistake. It's also a bit back in the soundscape, so a bit hard to hear. Sounds like an oboe lead at :38? The pitch bends make it sound fakey, but i guess if it's not an oboe (or other "real" instrument), this isn't a problem? I didn't see it mentioned in the judges decision thread. Cool section at 1:08 with the beat coming. Wish that beat stuck around longer Another lead with overlapping notes at 1:34. I think there are some balance issues that could be addressed here as well. On the whole, the leads sound too quiet, and the beat (esp the kick) is also pretty soft. On the Master track, the overall levels could come up a bit, but at the least, try to achieve good balance between supporting elements, percussion, and leads and I think you'll be set there. I'm not sure I agree with the snare panning at 3:32 as it's a bit distracting from the elements I really want to hear. Personally, I would've liked to hear a bit more clarity in the general soundscape. The soundfield is generally washed out in reverb. I understand it's a stylistic choice as well, so that's up to you. Cool track with a kind've old school, spooky feel. Really liking it here. Good luck.

Emu hit the arrangement side, so I'll hit production more: Pretty cool groove here as a foundation. Synths are on the basic side here, but seems to be the style you're going for as well and also par the course for Earthbound as I understand it. I still feel like more could be done, though, to make the synths more interesting. Filters, effects, unexpected stuff (a la Mazedude) could make things more interesting. The drum loop really could use some variation as it basically keeps a static pattern throughout the song (I did hear the fills near the end, but each time it's the same fill repeated). I'd say that's the biggest gripe of mine on the track. The bass synth isn't bad, but I did notice it started to grate on my ears a bit after a while. Anyway, all said cool track here and pretty catchy, I just feel like it has a bit more potential .

If you don't have it already, try Winamp + Chipamp.

Can't listen to the original here, so I'll just hit production: In general, not a bad job producing here. Solid sounding samples and fairly good balance. I'm gonna get a bit nit-picky because of this. Right off, the song in general feels a bit distant and on the soft side. It does get louder though. Are you using compression on the master? Just curious. I think the biggest issue here is volume/velocity humanization. There are some parts that feel rigid: starting section staccato strings & bassoon lead (esp. the lead), french horn lead at :44, string lead at 1:26, etc. I can tell you have been doing some work on it, but i think you could exaggerate more crescendos/decrescendoes within phrases. It sounds like you're using EWQLSO[edit: duh, guess I should've read the entire thread], so you should have access to patches with DXF (dynamic crossfade), which allow you to use midi control CC11 to control both velocity and timbre. It can breathe some life into static phrases. Be sure not to overuse cymbal rolls for transitions (2/3rd in and near the end on the stronger portion). Again, overall this is sounding really good on the production side - it just has some room for improvement. Good luck to you.

Sorry for the delayed review, here goes: Production sounds pretty solid here. I'm not gonna comment on the Daft Punk textures either positively or negatively, but only to say I'm not sure what kind of precident there is on the site for such heavy use of recognizable textures. MOVING ON I think the bigger issue here is the source usage. I appreciate the breakdown you gave as it gave me a good starting point. Here's a bit more what I'm hearing though: :00 - :24 Original :25 - :41 I see what you're saying here, but source connection is tenuous at best. I'd honestly consider this more on the original side. :42 - 1:23 Overt source usage 1:24 - 2:12 Daft Sine 2:13 - 2:29 Overt source usage 2:30 - 2:33 Small original transition 2:34 - 2:50 Overt source usage 2:51 - 3:26 I hear that backing riff, but the melody only seems to be hinting at a connection. Still, I'll count it as connection. I guess my breakdown came a lot closer to yours than I initially thought. 111 connection/206 total = 53% Connected I'd say this is really toeing the line on being liberal, based on general judge guidelines. I'd recommend trying to develop the arrangement to get a firmer source connection. It looks like you haven't touched the B section of the source in your arrangement (though you did use the bridge), so I definitely think there's some additional potential there.

HB "Nebbie"