Rozovian

You could have ocremix as artist and the artist name as the album (letting you keep all ocremixes under the same artist name and if necessary get to be more specific by selecting a specific artist), but I would recommend leaving the tags alone and making playlists instead. Works for me, and is far less trouble than re-tagging everything all the time.

Selling ice to eskimos? Welcome to ocr. Nobody here knows who you are, what you can do, and most of us are your competition, not potential employers/customers. If you want to get known here, you should do some remixes, review stuff, join projects... Also, posting your bio everywhere makes you look like a spammer with no serious interest in our community. Just fyi, and again, welcome.

About time. Not too familiar with Sonic or even Ice Cap Zone a year back when I heard this the first time I didn't know what was source and what wasn't, and that's a good sign. The source is used well and the original content is seamlessly blended in with differently variations of source. I do agree with Larry and others who have complained about the simple synths. The lead, when it first comes in, bothers me a bit, it's a little too simple compared to what I'm used to. Then again, the overall sound is full of simpler synth sounds, so it's not hard to look past it and just enjoy this 80's revival track. It's a fun track. I envy you a bit.

Thanks for the write-up and reviews so far, glad you're all enjoying it. I was getting worried that it had been forgotten or something since it's been almost a year since it was subbed. Checked a few other recent postings and found they too had been sitting and waiting for quite a while. Whatever, I'm just happy it's out now. This was something of an experiment, I tried using as few tracks as I possibly could (11) and only use synths, no samples. As it turns out, one of the instruments I used was a sample, but of a synth. More all-synth experiments soon to enter the TBJ-queue. Glad I confused ppl with the title too.

Google something specific, like "how to eq music" (this is the first hit). People have different eq philosophies, some are "cut, don't boost", some are drastic, some subtle... I tend to use EQ to shape the sounds, and then another layer of EQ to control the sound and make it fit with the other tracks, usually by carving out room for the important tracks in the less improtant ones and making sure leads and foreground instruments have enough highs compared to bg stuff. As for zid's remix, it's not 2002 anymore. it doesn't work for comparison. Listen and compare to more recent remixes, like 2005+. Read what the judges said about the remixes while they were being judged. Cut the original into little pieces and put it back together wrong... I've complained that there's no objective way of measuring if a remix is too conservative and the judges have had a hard time trying to define it. Listen to more recent stuff and compare it to source. If you find something rejected for being too conservative, see if you can find it on the wip board (you might end up searching for stuff over a year old). Hope this clears things up a bit.

Wrong. Logic Studio comes with a pretty big sample library and a bunch of synths and stuff like e-piano and organ simulators. All those Jam Packs for garageBand? They're included with Logic Studio. Transfer of sample libraries is more a matter of SAMPLERS, not DAWs. With Logic (both Studio and Express) you get the EXS24 which is a pretty cool sampler. It's got all the basics, keymapping, velocity layers, lfo- and envelope routing, filters, etc... Kontakt reads EXS instruments, but EXS24 doesn't read Kontakt's native format. It's got nothing to do wit the DAW (except in cases where the bit depth is the problem), just the samplers. So yes, while most samplers and sample libraries come from other companies than the DAW, most work with most DAWs... if you have a compatible sampler. The sampler is a virtual instrument, you input/write notes, it plays sounds. So if you get Logic Studio, explore the sounds that comes with it before rushing off to buy other sounds and plugins.

You can make awesome music in Audacity if you know what you're doing, but you'll more likely want a DAW, different DAWs doing things a little differently but most can do most things most others can do. Reason, FL, Logic, Live, and Cubase are some of the most common ones I've heard ppl use here on ocr. If you're concerned about the sound, that's both a matter of skill and a matter of resources. Even if you get the best tools of the trade, you'll still make terrible stuff if you don't know what you're doing. Aside from the DAW itself, you'll want samples, sounds to go with it. There's lots of those as well, depending on what sounds you want. You'll probably get a little of everything if you get Kontakt, tho your budget does allow for a package with Kontakt and more. In any case, don't expect to be awesome in just a few months. Learning to mix stuff takes years, whether you have top-of-the-line resources or not. lol at your reference to pitch bend. That's something pretty much every music tool that can work with midi comes with, since pitch bend is one of the most commonly used midi events. I don't think I've ever used "music creation software" that couldn't do pitch bends.

Yep, I got it. It's near the top of my todo-list.

Cut whatever repetition you need, rewrite parts if necessary... it's a remix, there's room for artistic liberties, personal creative changes, stuff like that. Lemme hear it when you can show me.

Everything at the same volume? lol That's not a good mix. For a number of reasons, like how high frequencies are easier to hear than low ones, and for the simple reason that if you arrange it to have a lead and a beat, those parts should stand out more. Volume is a way to make them stand out. IMO good EQ-ing is like good volume mixing: you give the right tracks the right volumes, except now you think about which frequencies in the tracks you want to have loud and which ones you want soft. The usual example: a pad and a lead. The pad has highs, lows, and mids. The lead has mostly mids and some highs. Cut a few dB from the pad's mids and highs so the lead sounds more clear. When you have more instruments than that, you have to listen for the EQ fixes you need to make. bass drum and bass need their balance, harmonic backing needs its place, snare needs its place... It's more complicated because you have more tracks to consider, but it doesn't actually change what you do much. And in case it wasn't clear, every track you EQ will need its own EQ. Master EQ-ing doesn't separate tracks the way individual EQ-ing does. For further help, google it. A lot of the hits I got from a quick trip to google were about recorded instruments, but the principles behind the sound are the same. You don't have to worry about mic bleed and stuff like that tho. Also, check out the guides and tutorials on ocr, iirc zircon had something about effects, including eq, in his remixing compendium.

Not a video game, but after having spent few to many evening playing Blokus (board game) with friends, we all kind'a saw colored blocks and patterns everywhere. Like in wallpapers, drapes, clothes... Paying a visit to the bright colors and geometric arena of Megazone made things worse. It makes its way into ppl's dreams. At least one of my friends managed to combine the two in a dream. Not sure I did so myself too, or if I just pictured it hearing about his dream... but lemme tell you picturing it wasn't hard then. Also, I've had a moment hearing Israfel's Pacman remix while being in a grocery story, and it just felt wrong to walk around the hallways picking snacks for a bus ride, with that remix too loud in my ears.

Okay... uh... Hm... Snare and kick are weak. They need a specific frequency band to be louder - which you do with EQ. if you open a parametric EQ and add a 5dB boost which you move around between 50 and 180Hz you should hear when they get more punch. When they do, you've found it. Narrow band means you don't just "boost lows", you're supposed to find a specific frequency range. And when it comes to the other instruments... Say you have a pad and a lead. The pad covers a lot of frequencies, the lead only some. The lead takes up, let's say, 1200-4000Hz, so you can bring those frequencies down on the pad so the lead sounds more clear. Layman's terms enough? I guess google could help you too.

How many judges are currently on honeymoon? I count one, yet not a lot seems to be happening on the panel from where I'm looking.

The bass drum in the intro bothers me, it sounds like something I used 8 years ago when i had just picked up a tracker. And it wasn't good. The backing is overall kind'a weak. Vocals are pretty cool, but there's something off. Have you sued any reverb on them, cuz I would suggest you need more reverb. You might also want to even them out, the female voice sounds like she's holding back and makes it a little too soft to make out what she's singing sometimes. The backing sounds a little weak. Doug's Moon Rhapsody has a lot of strength in it, despite being a pretty soft track. Learn from it. Source is undoubtedly there, used well. The vocal melodies first felt a little forced, but there's been worse forced vocals posted on ocr. I don't have a problem with them here. The lyrics are pretty cool, closely tied to the game. I'd say this mostly needs better backing, tho some further vocals processing wouldn't hurt. Great track, good luck with it.

Some cool sounds, sequencing sounds cool too. Some cleaning up wouldn't hurt. Methinks you're not aiming for ocr with it, so no worries about it not being an ocr-type arrangement. if you were, then you're probably best off starting from scratch and writing your own arrangement for it, copy-pasting melodies and stuff from this version. but when it comes to sound, you should read up on EQ and how to give each track their own space. That's the only problem I noticed after one and a half listens. Nice work.

Intro has a lot of more or less unprocessed percussion. Drums overall are weak, and the intro seems mostly like one where tracks are just added to one another, not really written to be an intro. Bass is terribly high, needs go at least one octave down, probably best to give it a bass amp sim or something to give it a more processed sound. That actually seems to be the case with most of the tracks, they're not focused enough. Focus can be achieved with EQ, reverb, and other effects to bring out the important tracks and push the others back. That takes a bit of practice before you know how, tho. This seems to be a pretty blocky arrangement, not many lead-ins, transitions and such, mostly the same writing with different layers coming in or out. It gets repetitive. Repetitive arrangement and unprocessed sound means you should take a backup of this, practice different effects, changes, stuff. Don't take this the wrong way, but this track is quite a way from having a shot at getting on ocr. That said, it's an original arrangement, a cool idea, and worth working on, if only for the practice. I hope these crits don't get you down. Good luck with the track. Oh and what's Zelda's Lullaby doing in the end of a Mario remix?

Very emotional, lots of detail in the strings and places. I'm not very familiar with source after one listen but I have a feeling the harp/piano backing alone won't cut it on the judges panel. Dunno how much the strings and other instruments use the source tho, but if there's a risk there's not enough source, there's plenty to take from the source. The bass is the only instrument I have a problem with, it just doesn't sound right to me to have an occasional note like that in a track like this. Cello, perhaps, or low marimba, but a bass like that doesn't sound right to me. Good luck with this, guys, it's a beautiful track.

The metallic percussion sounds a little too lo-fi to work as an ice cave for me. Something cleaner, more bell/vibes-like might work better, like the arpeggio you add just after the drums come in. I gotta agree with Doug about the kick, the drums are really loud compared to the other tracks... mostly because all the other tracks are so soft. Bring the drums down a bit, and work with their sound - it sounds completely unprocessed. Same with the mono synth line, sound unprocessed, but nice work writing your own take on it. When you finally get into the groove there's a lot of stuff going on all over, making the track pretty messy. Picking/making a more crystalline ice cave sound might clean it up a bit. The panning bothers me the most, or perhaps the timbre of the metallic perc, but I'm sure you can use EQ and other tools as well to clean it up. Doug's idea of using a pad is a god one. Even softly at -20dB or something it suports the tracks and fills up those empty parts well. besides, adding a layer of chords isn't a bad idea since you can control the emotion of the piece with them. Cool to have the item jingle at the end. This is a pretty cool track, but you gotta clean it up and polish it a bit more before it has a shot on ocr.

Yep, source is there. There's a few really harsh resonating frequencies in it, you might want to make some narrow cuts in the tracks' EQ to make sure you don't annoy your listeners. The repetitive backing and not very progressive arrangement makes it sound like a loop despite that the lead melody changes. Chord changes, pauses, bringing in more instruments or dropping some out, stuff like that should make it more dynamic. Yeah I know you have a softer section, but you need more stuff like that - more stuff that's different from the bulk of the track. All chromatic percussion is a pretty cool idea, hope you don't have a problem going back and fixing it up a bit further.

Others can comment on source and arrangement and stuff, I'm more bothered by the production here. Drums are weak, and the other instruments are wide. As in, the bass drum could use more weight, more punch, the snare/clap also, and the hihats sound phased or something, probably due to low bitrate. No crashes? Anyway, punch is usually improved by boosting a narrow band in the 50-180Hz region of the bass drum and clap/snare. Whre exactly that band is depends on the sound itself. As for the other instruments, they need to give each other more room. Make EQ cuts to give each of them their own area where the others aren't as loud. This is especially important to do on wide instruments like the pads, and on far back instruments so they don't try to hog the attention. Hope that helps you. Good luck with it.

PMd. 10chars

Nothing that wasn't fixed. Just a stray project remix.

*ahem* Not here either, sorry. We use email, PMs, and stuff. Learning curve... it depends on your workflow. if you use patterns a lot you might have some problem adapting to regions/loops... or not, totally depends on your workflow. Depends on what new DAW you get too. In any case, you'll have to learn the interface and probably find new favorite instruments to use (or figure out how to import your old ones, if possible). Same with effects. It should be more a nuisance than a problem, tho - they all read midi and make music. Listening to your wip now, PM you a response in a bit.

*ahem* Not here.

Hmm.... Kontakt, or Logic 9.... What should I get next? I was hoping they'd give the EXS24 an update so it can do round robins properly. Apparently not.