Rozovian

Terrible "guitar" tone, really fakey choir... The stuff behind those sounds ok, but it's hard to judge since those are really hogging all the attention and aren't good enough to do that in a good way. Finding yourself better sounds for those two parts should solve a lot of the problems with this mix, but just using better sounds isn't gonna be enough as you might end up with too loud or too soft (or just unfitting) sounds. Listen to music with whatever production ears you've got, try to hear how it's _mixed_, how the sounds fit together, how loud they all are, what frequencies stand out on each of them. Learning to listen is probably the most important step in making music.

Not spectacular, with my experience of just Logic Express and the World and Orchestra Jam Packs, but they'll get the job done. Ultrabeat, one of Logic's synths, is a drum synth and comes with a bunch of cool electronic kits, some more useful than others. You might have a harder time making realistic sounding rock or jazz drums, but you do get samples for those too. Besides, I have no idea what's in the other Jam Packs and other samples you get with Logic Studio.

Leaking project tracks, are we? Well, it's not audio so I say it's fine and am not gonna bitch about it. (at work, gonna let you know what I think when I get home)

I replaced my now YESed Mega Man X sub so there is definitely a way. It better not become a habit, tho. If you do like I did after talking to Liontamer, you sould send the fixed version to submissions@ocremix.org with REPLACEMENT in the subject field. ...and of course the name of the remix/game/source/remixer/other info so he knows which remix you're replacing.

Just fyi, .sf2 soundfonts work fine in EXS24 (Logic's built-in sampler). .sfz and/or .sfpack soundfonts don't work with Logic directly.

2.53GHz sounds like more than enough. I've got 2.4 on my desktop mac, and I've never had much trouble with it, can't remember any audio-related. Logic 8 went for a "clutter-free" design, screwing with what I was used to and making it pretty annoying to work with on a 1280*768 (or whatever my laptop resolution is, don't remember), but probably more so because I was used with Logic 7. Since you're probably starting from no Logic experience you probably won't get as annoyed. As for what it comes with, Logic Studio gives you the Jam Packs which are pretty good sample packs, plus a bunch of synths. Express comes without those jam Packs and with only some of the synths, but the included ES2 can do lots of cool sounds and have a library of different, mostly useful, presets; and it's not the only synth you get. Besides, you can find some useful free Audio Unit synths out there. Anyway, you should look up whatever sound demos you can find on apple's Logic pages. They're at least bragging about having 1300 sampled instruments. Studio Express Out of the two, I'd recommend Studio. You get so much more for not that much higher a cost. I got Express. Stupid.

So save-disabled demos make you want to support the guys who made the program that didn't let you save your first masterpiece? I know I hate stuff like that. GB worked fine for me for years. For most of that time I had no need to export midi, so the absence of that function wasn't bothering me. I've made a lot of fun tracks with what's essentially a demo for Logic, whereas I've stayed clear of save-disabled demos because I couldn't create anything lasting with them. I don't get why leaving out functions that most ppl don't use and might not even know about is lame since GB isn't a pro-level DAW anyway. ppl can create their songs without problem, and if they decide to go serious, they can upgrade to Logic. Besides, there's some midi data in the end of midi-made Apple Loops aifs in /user/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/User Loops/ , someone with more experience in how midi is written could probably figure out how to make a working midi out of that.

noob, no, newb, maybe. Don't let that stop you, there are several remixes here that are made with GB. Let me cite someone who said it well: I used GB for a few years before upgrading to Logic. It's probably the best introduction to computer music that I can think of, since it comes with a little of everything: samples, synths, sequencing, mixing... And when you find something missing, there are usually ways around it. Haven't used it much lately, but with the automation support and all the other stuff in the newer versions you'll have a lot of fun making music before coming across any of the limitations the program does have.

Well, there's these. The bottom two contains all the official ocremixes. As far as I know, there are torrent clients that let you pick which files in the torrent to download, though you'd be better off downloading all the songs. More surprises, lotta good stuff you might miss otherwise.

Basically, the delay I was talking about was a right-channel hihat sound. Probably a part of the sample or some auto-function in the pan knob to have the right channel delayed slightly to make the thing sound like it's coming from the left side. Phase shift. It's an additional technique to just changing the channels' volumes (which is what the pan knob does). If there's nothing like that on it, I'm just gonna assume my speaker setup is messing with me. In any case, it's not an echo-type delay which is probably what confused you.

Argh, loud and harsh and distorted and really upfront. As far as an island sound goes, it sounds like sand in my ears. Nice groove, but you have to dampen the sound a lot. Especially if this is gonna be the backing, it's way too foreground-y to be backing. Dunno what the problem is, it could be just velocities (bring them down... a lot) or volume (clipping), the samples themselves, or just the lack of reverb and other front-back placement techniques/effects. Once you do get the sound right, you might want to humanize it, it sounds mechanical. The arrangement sounds like it's gonna be a great backing, very enjoyable.

Harp is loud and in the foreground, too much compared to the flute and strings that are much more subtle. Bells kind'a suffer the same. Sounds like I'm sitting next to the bells while the flute in in the other end of the house. Needs some front-back placement work. It's sweet and has a nice mood. Reminds me of a couple of sd3 tracks, must be the harp. Repetition might be a problem, and I'm guessing this is kind'a conservative (which, if I'm right, is also a problem if you're aiming for ocr).

Pretty sweet source, the remix isn't what I expected of it. And it's much further along than most wips here are at the first post. Hat panning is a little too strong, and the right channel seems too delayed. Not sure what, but something's off about the panning. I'm wondering how much source there is in the middle of the wip, cuz I couldn't recognize much there. There's a lead melody but that's about it. If the rhythm guitar uses source then you'd probably be in the green as far as ocr's source quota is concerned. And there's a weird frequency balance issue that I can't quite put my finger on. Can't help you with much else, but I suggest you take this to #ocrwip and ask the guitar guys for their feedback on it.

Intro sounds much like the game... which had a pretty specific bad choir synth sound that worked well in the game, but probably won't fly on ocr. Everything sounds like foreground stuff, you'll probably have to position the parts more front-back. The detuned piano in the background is well placed, but sounds kind'a exposed anyway. A bit of reverb could probably fix that. You're using the lead melody as something of a chorus, but it's gotta be bigger, stronger, more intense that it currently is. The sample/synth you're using for the lead e-piano is kind'a thin, or it's simply not loud enough. The whole mix sounds kinda quiet. More strength for the "chorus" part. The Prime 1 lead is rhythmically rewritten from it's 6/4 source, and it sounds random. Needs a better rhythm, more pauses. The arrangement is ok to me, just needs to have the melodies more directed, and more dynamics, especially around the "chorus" parts. Production needs a bit of work, but production is easier to fix and can be fixed at any time. You're getting better.

Unrealistic sequencing means it's supposed to sound human but doesn't. Maybe it takes too many hands/fingers, it's too fast, or just really mechanical. Then again, it could probably be applied to the opposite, where it's supposed to sound straight and mechanical but isn't. That would be unfitting for the style and not something that "real" music in said style sounds like.

0:24 too abrupt change, needs something else. The solo instrument there could use louder highs and lower bass/mids. Panning sounds asinine. Dude, what were you thinking? Great use of the source, doesn't sound like any of the other remixes of it, yet there's references and bits and pieces of it throughout. Great job on that. Was expecting more repetitions at 2:31. Great place to annoy ppl by having one too many repetitions, but I'm not sure how many is too many. Again, a different mood in the end, seems to be a WIllrock thing. And there's more repetitions. Great stuff, man, keep at it.

Percussive synths and a dampened bass drum groove. Works fine. Doesn't _need_ more drum beat. The rest you're right about, neblix.

Ditto, bLiNd, finish it. It's great. Hm... another finn. Welcome. Personally I don't like voice clips in music, so that doesn't score high with me. Others might have less of an issue with it. The lead is pretty loud, actually. You could easily drop it a few dB. Pretty nice groove you've got going, tho it would be nice to have more variation on top of it, maybe a pad slowly fading in through an opening filter. A little more action, a little more stuff happening. It sounds a little empty. Empty isn't bad, but you could fill it up for part of the track. The track has a nice build-up, but once it hits a high point it just sits there. Some filtered backings would fill it up more. Promising, tho I can't comment on source use. No source link.

Would you post a link to the source? From what I can tell, this is sounding amateurish because so much of it is trying to be in the foreground and because it doesn't have much dynamics to it. Some filter sweeps and other cutoff automation should give it a more pro sound. The lead might need replacing, it doesn't fit and doesn't even sound very good. About half way through, there's something clashing, you might need to write a second bassline to fit, or just change the new ostinato track that comes in. There's some clashes before that too, but somehow they didn't stand out as much, maybe because of the lead. Watch the clashes and EQ it right and it should sound a lot less amateurish. It's got some col ideas and sounds, just needs to be refined right.

The piano parts are pretty cool, somehow they make more sense to me than the rest of the mess. Maybe it's just because they're mixed clear, while the rest of the instruments aren't. The oboe is especially messy, might just be that it's sound makes every other note sound like it's from a different instrument. With so much piano I don't think that'd be a problem anyway. I can hear a few repeated themes, and they're probably source. I get a little lost in the dynamics, it just turns into a soundscape of different notes. Again, dunno what idea you had behind that or if you simply haven't given the dynamic structure that much attention yet, but somewhere I fell off the wagon and had no idea if I was in the beginning or the end of the track.

No comment on source/interpretation, but let's have a look at the production. It sounds pretty good. Nice bass, balanced sounds. I like the percussion. Strings could be a little more interesting, they're pretty static when sustained. Dunno if it's enough to just automate the intensity, and it might be to much to write something more elabrate for them. Dunno, but they need something imo. It progresses nicely, but repeats itself a little too blatantly. More intense the second time around would be standard route to go, but I suspect the progression is pretty close to source so you might need to create a more interpreted bit for the second iteration. Can't say for sure without comparing to source, tho. Sound is cool, arrangement repeats itself. Nice track. Can't say whether it has a shot on ocr without knowing the source, tho.

These by Sixto and Tensei come to mind, but there's a lot of non-boss music that also rocks. Perhaps you should be a little more specific about style or sound or something.

lol @ lack of option C, wtg glasfen A. No doubt. btw, I want more pretzel music.

This could answer your first question.