Nutritious

Bass synth and background pad/choir stuff is colliding in the mid to high frequencies. Drop the higher freqs on the bass and see if it helps. Pad also really needs some frequencies dropped also because... Things get really messy when the drums and flutes come in. Everything's competing for space. I think the pad is the main culprit - cut back the non-essentials on it and it should really open up some space. Also, what I hear with most of your mixes is that even when you have a good soundset going (with some production issues sometimes), there's no logical flow to your piece. Here, you have the pad playing some notes with a bass synth. Then, you add some drums and flutes to the mix, which basically the same thing going on as before with the pads/synths. I know you've heard this many times, but your song needs to take the listener in different directions as it progresses. It's hard to give examples for arrangement issues because you literally could take it in so many directions. Try and let you piece evolve and also have distinctive sections i.e. Intro, A, B, C etc.

In addition to the aforementioned production issues, there's too much reliance on the original structure and arrangement for this to fly at ocr. For much of the song after the intro, itsounds like a midi rip with replaced instruments and slower tempo. It does branch off later to other parts, which are pretty nice (like the guitar mentioned above). If you're planning on working this to submit here, you need to step back and take a look at what direction you want this piece to go so it reflects some personalization. After that, start working on your production.

wow, harsh chicken

What kind of musical style(s) are you looking for? I might be able to help you out and can provide examples of previous work.

Moar Soundscapes plz

Final mix posted for me.

Out of curiousity, which track number is this on the nsf?

Welcome aboard

"Finished" mix posted with Fishy geetars. Looking for any production crits.

Left some feedback

Sorry, but I really must disagree here. The thing I take issue most with this track is not enough interpretation of the source. The first :40 seconds are exactly from the source with no variation. You layer some stuff on top as it goes on, but from :40 - 2:00, you still have the original source song playing verbatum with some beats and synths on top. Same thing 2:53 to the end. It's not that it's a bad thing necessarily, but it doesn't jive well with the interpretation requirements outlined in the submission guidelines, since the vast majority of the song is directly taken from the original. If you're planning on submitting this to OCR, I think your best bet is to work on actually arranging the original theme and personalizing it for your track.

Just found this game recently, so I thought it would be appropriate for a thread resurrection: Battleships Forever Top-down view real-time strategy game where the player controls ships of various sizes and armaments to battle through single player and custom game maps. The style kind of reminds me of the battle system from the Master of Orion games, but in real time. You can also create custom ships and missions and share with others. There are quite a few fan created missions and ships available for download in the site's forums. The complete game isn't available yet as it's currently being remade with a new engine to allow for multiplayer and other features. The single player missions are pretty fun, though, unfortunately, the storyline isn't yet complete.

In FL Studio: -Open up piano roll for the pattern you want to change the key -Ctrl + A (highlight all notes) -Click first note and drag it to the correct key. All notes will move same distance.

I don't know of any way to actually change the time signature on the fly. Personally, I just start writing in the new time signature and ignore the markers. It can get a bit confusing, but it still works.

Yes, thank you

Beautiful intro. Nice soundscape - MUCH cleaner than your prevoius mix. Those strings in the background need some more variety around the same progression; they're gettin repetative playing the same 4 notes. I felt like things needed to change a bit more in the feel of the soundscape around 1:15 - mainly in the backing instruments. It needs more contrast from the earlier sections. String movement around 1:53 has a bit of a slow attack for the part it's playing, it kinda makes it sound awkward. At 2:18, piano almost seems like it gets a bit lost in that note run. 2:10 - :15 was ok, but after that, it sounds a bit off. Might want to cut down the run a bit or check the notes used... or both perhaps. I'll try to comment later when I have more time to listen further.

Started mix on this: http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?p=403213#post403213

Edit Final Version: http://nutritious4.googlepages.com/FF6-MartialLaw_11.mp3 ========================================================================= A farily quick sketch I started yesterday: Still lots of work to do on it; it'll get a lot bigger later in the song. This is in response to a post in the Request forum.

Only thing I'm worried about on the store is that the page to sign up with your name and address info isn't a secured page. I'm a bit wary of entering personal info on a non-secure site :/.

I'm going to have to disagree with this as a matter of personal preference. I do all of my composition in FL Studio and find the piano roll to be very intuitive. Also, I prefer to keep patterns down to smaller blocks. Anywhere from 1 full measure to around 8. The longer your pattern is, the harder it is to navigate to any specific spot you want to change something. Once I get the first pattern down on a specific instrument and need another, I'll right click the pattern and clone it. Then, start editing the clone. This can save time rather than grabbing a blank pattern each time, finding the right instrument to place the notes, and naming it. Cloning will just add a # and the next number to the pattern name, saving you from having to manually enter a new name. Keeping your patterns named will really help you keep your song organized by instrument. I also always write in the clips half of the Playlist window rather than in blocks (this can be done in FL 7+). This way, you can easily see which instrument is playing what based on your earlier naming conventions. As to your method of actually approaching a piece, it really depends on what genre of music as well as what approach you find works well for yourself. If you use your Lufia mix as an example genre, here's how I usually approach it: -First, when I get the main melody or hook for the song, I'll write that section first to get the general pattern and harmonies down. -In case I have several good ideas I don't want to lose, I may do the same thing with other sections -Then, I write an intro to the song (this is something your Lufia mix was missing). Something that grabs the listeners attention right off the bat and can develop well into the main hook. -If there's a beat in the song, I'll generally do it now. I know Zircon and others start with their beat, but I like to hear how the song is going first so I can try and match the beat to the song, rather than the other way around. -Next, I'll go back to the melody section I wrote earlier and write transitions & other sections of the song. Gotta keep in mind that your song needs distinct sections with varying sounds and volume levels. This could mean other instruments, letting the drums drop out, letting the overall volume of a section be higher or lower, etc. -At this point, I write the ending of the song (something I'm not that great at yet). -Throughout the process I'll be tweaking parts, changing instruments, levels, dynamics, etc. At the end, I'll listen to things several times spanning usually a few days to listen for any problems or something that doesn't sound right. Really, your preferred method of composing will come naturally as you become more familiar with the program. If you're just getting started I HIGHLY recommend the entering into the PRC and ORC competitions in the Competitions forum. I started entering into these right after I began trying to write music and it gave me a great opportunity to practice and get feedback on songs. PRC forces you to remix a new song each week, so you keep working with different material each time. This gets you away from (IMO) the trap of trying to work and work on the same song that you're stuck on from the very beginning. Instead, you more on to more material and come back to those earlier songs you're stuck on as you get better. Hope this helps.

Congrats man, you deserve it!

Two down, one to go for me

Ahh, got it now, thanks.

Thanks for the feedback, Jeremy. Always good to have your critique on orchestral stuff . Are you talking about rising bass hits at 1:05 and later at 2:50? I guess I'm a little confused, because currently I already have low strings, trombones, timpani, & trumpets (later in the phrase) playing this same part. Perhaps it's more of a balance issue then? Bleh, noone was supposed to notice this - I was trying to fudge the timpani pitch so it would just follow along rather than be realistic. Oh well, I'll fix it.

New version: http://nutritious3.googlepages.com/CaveStory-Showdown_5.mp3 -Extended mix to the previous end point -Strings breakdown added -Cleaned up some production -Still figuring out what to do at 1:27 -Might have to clean up the last section some more, things getting pretty crowded