Rozovian

Someone added Sky Diver, Inside Her to the recently rejected list without moving the decision. Oh wait it's "ASK a judge"... In the form of a question: Someone added Sky Diver, Inside Her to the recently rejected list without moving the decision, yes?

So the rumors were true... about OA being the next judge. Been waiting for this for a while now. Congrats man. Go judge! Go judge! seriously, go judge. now.

Yeah, GB is great for newbs. Unfortunately it's mac only. Most ppl wouldn't buy a mac just to try their hand at computer music. You should probably put together a package on cd or dvd with all they need and hand that out instead of having them pick stuff from various sites on the net. Aside from the daw, that would probably be a few effects, some soundfonts or other samples + sample/soundfont player, some synths...

You can probably find something useful in zircon's guide to free music apps. Not everything is free free, but... well, details in the post. Not having tried it, I'm not sure I should recommend Reaper (see above link), but it looks good.

Now that there's a thread... +1 "I told you before so I don't have to now" point. For me.

Haha, I recognize the metal hit sound in the source. Rare sound, pun intended. I barely noticed when the snare came in, you gotta make change like that more noticeable. Hihat is really loud. There's a whiny synth in there that doesn't fit imo. Some weird melody clashes around 1:25. Clashes at 1:16, 1:33, 1:43... You probably have to change the ostinato backing melody to fit the chords. 2 minutes in, I'm getting sick of it. This has got to get more interesting to work. As far as I can tell, it hasnt done much but changed the sound of the source and repeated stuff. Yeah, the source isn't very varied either, but there's a spin on the 007 theme and all kinds of melodies in there. You've got a nice beat going, but nothing happens. It stays on the same level from 0:30 until 3:37 when there's a crash and it starts to fade. No matter where in there you listen you hear pretty much the same thing. I'd say this is a nice start and a good foundation to build on, but it's not interesting enough to stand on its own as it doesn't go anywhere. Add some layers of melody, some new chord progressions, breakdowns... make it more interesting, make it go somewhere, and you'll have a pretty nice remix. Currently... it doesn't.

I suggest bringing in a stronger lead and stronger drums after the first iteration, since it's the more intro-y of the two, the other half just sounds like a repetition of it. As for sound, what you've got works as an intro, but for a whole track it'd have to be stronger. That's the only direction I see this going at this point. Sure, you could redo the sounds and change the bpm and turn this into something soft, but I think it'd be easier to go loud and rude with it. Whether stronger means rock, dance, techno, dnb, or something else; I don't know. What can you do? What do you want to do?

Something weird with the link. A little bit of work with other mediafire links got me this, which works. I like it. This is the kind of chip/lofi stuff that could get on ocr, given the necessary fixes and additional writing. It's not without its problems, tho: Around 1:08 you got an e- piano coming that sounds terrible detuned and sometimes clashing. You should also go over the organ and clean up any clashes with it. 1:44 comes in way too abruptly. it also needs a bigger ending, even for a short piece like this... I dunno how long you're aiming to make it but if you make it much longer you're probably gonna run into problems with keeping it interesting. Lofi can only go so far. Also, there's very little clipping in this. Zooming in on the waves reveal it does hit the ceiling, you should probably drop it a little, Proto. The samples themselves don't clip, they're just distorted. neblix, you could load it up in Audacity or another audio editor and have a look.

Yeah, the sound is pretty repetitive, and I don't think this combination of synths and orchestral samples work. If mixed and processed different, at the very least using a more fitting synth it might work, but not in its current state, imo. I'm not familiar with FF8's music, so I'd have to listen over and over to the source before i could say for sure, but I can't find anything from source after one listen. If you're aiming to get it on ocr, the source would have to be more prominent. The others, more familiar with the source, seem to have the same issue with it. It's a sweet tune that I could easily picture as being in-game background music, but as a standalone song it'd have to be more interesting. The basic idea here (pizzicato, bass, and backing) could very well work if you'd get some dynamics into it and fix the sounds (see first paragraph).

Yes, raising highs means making highs louder. You should just make a random track with a pad or white noise or something, and just play with the eq effects, see what they do. Playing with it is definitely the best way to learn if you really don't know how to EQ. Just take a backup if you're gonna be screwing with the remix. Patterns are more analogous to loops than tracks. In a pattern, you still have several tracks of different synths and samples and audio files, etc..

Can you raise highs? Can you drop highs? Can you do it with other frequencies? Then you can EQ. Figuring out HOW to eq is the next step, and that's when you gotta do research and experiment. Figure out how to make it sound better. We'll tell you when you do it wrong. My general advice about EQ would be to use it to give every track its own space, and bring out the important parts of the tracks that need to be heard well.

Some things you can't be told, you gotta figure them out yourself... especially when it's your mix and you can easily experiment with EQ on it, which the rest of us can't. It usually helps if you play with the EQ settings according to some philosophy (like "give every track a boost somewhere", "don't let loud frequencies overlap", "only give leads and hats highs", "cut all frequencies except each tracks' central ones" or something), listen to what works best. Do something, take a backup, re-EQ everything according to another philosophy, compare. Ask Google. You could just make a different test track to play with EQ and figure out which approach and eq philosophy works best for you and gets you the results you want. it also helps to train your ears. Pick some well mixed tracks in the same or a similar style to compare with, such as fairly recent ocremixes. Find one ith a sound you like, and figure out what makes it sound better (or what doesn't). As for compression, it's that your leads is so loud that they push the master compression. When it's noticeable, it's too much. I noticed it.

It's not the pluck that bothers me, it's the notes. As for dynamics, drop out the drums sometimes, automate the cutoff on the synths, do a low pass or high pass sweep on the whole mix, something. Just making pads more dynamic isn't really gonna do much unless the rest of the mix is treated to fit. Dynamics isn't just about volume, it's about intensity. Once the mix starts, it doesn't really get any more or any less intense. Listen to Moon Rhapsody, it's one of my favorites partly because of the dynamics. You'll hear the intensity change a little everywhere. Fru's Heatman is much more subtle, but steadily changes throughout. Dynamics, intensity... life.

You're not gonna like what I have to say, but I now hear _more_ problems. Then again, it means you've cleaned it up enough for me to hear those things. The five first notes are fine, but when you have more of them it sounds mechanical. Tap on the desk as if playing, try to figure out which ones you should make louder, which ones you should make softer. Bass is weird, sounds like you have two basses sometimes. And it's still not low enough imo. Drop it an octave, at least for part of the track. I think you did that for part of it, but you migh want to use a different bass or EQ it. I can hear compression on the lead. That's not good. You need it to be clear, but not that loud. Drop it a few dB, give it a few dB of boost in the high range instead. Drums are pretty cool, but it seems like they're missing something. Dropping the bass an octave might help with that, but if not, you could also use a kick regularly to keep the beat a little more clear. Doesn't have to be a very elaborate beat. If you're familiar with Orn, the unofficial metroid remake, it's theme track had a single kick at the start of every... measure. I think. I keep confusing those terms. You could do something like that if lowering the bass isn't enough. Not for the entire track, but for parts of it, the parts with a lot of other drums. As for cclutter, I think dropping the bass an octave and making the rhythm more clear (see the kick drum suggestion) should clean it up enough. As for the all mids issue, I kind'a agree. I'd EQ it, give the leads more highs. Seems to me like all the frequencies are tehre, just not in the right balance. EQ should do it. As for it being dry... not anymore. Some of the instruments perhaps, and only when they jump at you when the others are quiet. On the whole, I don't have a problem with that. Doing good, neblix. Heading the right direction.

Wrong reason to not submit. It takes a while before your submission is evaluated and judged anyway, and djp posts the remixes when he feels like, so some of them sometimes end up spending a year in wait. To me, this seems like it's stuck between styles. You have a synth soundscape, whatshallwecallitnormal drums, and violin. The individual tracks, especially the synths, don't sound mixed right imo, they sound too wide and not focused enough. You could probably mute the other tracks and make a cool mix out of jsut the synth elements, then add the drums, make whatever changes to the mix you need, then add the strings, and mix that in. It sounds like they're just stacked on top of one another, not really cut to fit. Dynamically, it's kind'a flat. it gets up to a pretty nice level but then stays there for the whole track. imo it needs more variation, be that another lead, a breakdown, a big orchestral grand finale, a chiptune section, a key change... something. There's also something about the file quality bothering me. Use 120 kbps, less than that makes the quality noticeably low. If you don't have any control over the rate it's streamed at, put it somewhere we can download it. Not a big deal now, but it would help the critique. It also sounds like the violin doesn't quite belong. With the right work, it could probably be made to fit better, but it's soft and dynamic, whereas the rest of the track isn't. Dunno if that means you should rewrite the backing or use a lead more fit for the backing, but it bothers me. Some of the melodies sound a little arbitrary (eg the synth pluck melody at 3:30 left of the track). There's also some timing issues with that instrument sometimes. Sounds like you've recorded it and not really gone over and corrected stuff like that. btw, if I hadn't been looking at the playlist when the track changed from one version to the other I wouldn't have noticed that it ended. That's a problem. All this being said, I have no doubt you have what it takes to turn this around and make it awesome. Currently, I'd call it messy. Sorry if this all seems overly negative, I'm actually surprised myself how long and this post got and how many problems I found.

Phrygian means it's practically major except it's based on the third chord instead of the first... and it's practically minor, and based on the fifth chord. It feels different, epic, something. I bet Gario or one of the other theory geeks can explain it better. Yeah, it gets boring with just those two chords, but you should also vary rhythms and stuff, have more than one beat in there. Well, at least you have fills and stuff. If you'd just change the chords and fit the melodies to the new chords, you'd still have a pretty repetitive rhythm and sound, so you gotta vary that stuff more. Give the track a couple of different sections, not necessarily a chorus part but a B part which can be anything from another source to just another spin on the melody, a different chord progression, an original part... Something to keep it from being 3 minutes of the same. The production sounds decent, but it also sounds kind'a dated, like OCR in its earlier days. This would probably get a NO if subbed, methinks, partly because of the repetition but also for the production. I don't know what, but there's something about it that sounds unrefined. Maybe someone else picks up on that and figure out what exactly it is. Cool that this is from some unknown game out there. Sounds nice, but... you're looking for crits. btw, I keep thinking of Secret of Spram when listening to your remix.

Just telling you what I think. I don't have a problem with the source use, that was a subjective crit rather than an objective one. Don't apologize for that. You haven't been getting enough crits in this thread, mostly there's been genre talk and sax issues, lol. Gario had an issue with the mechanical sequencing, like I do. No-one has said much about the production stuff. Let's see if ppl agree now that I've pointed it out.

Careful with the highs in the intro, gets a little shrill especially the dissonance when the first chord is fading over the second one. Snare/clap is terrible. 1:27 transition to breakdown.... you need a transition! The bells in the breakdown could be more humanized, or at least a little more varied, dynamically. Hihat panned center? Especially with the cool 2:30 instrument's panning the hihat panning just sounds stupid. Pan it a bit one way, give it an echo or something in the other direction to keep the sound balanced. Nice to hear you take advantage of this part of source, I was expecting the more memorable melody from source. Drums, transitions, shrill frequencies... that's about it. Great work man.

Sounds pretty promising imo. The mix is a bit messy, you could probably do some EQ separation to clean it up a bit. I'm not sure how well panning the piano is working. I can hear the source you provided easily, and it's a nice interpretation of it. Just watch out for making it too much of a medley. Keep up the good work.

Nothing like appealing to my ego with a pm to get me to post. Intro is pretty mechanical, bass is pretty high (it's called bass for a reason), drums are nicely written tho they could use some more EQ to bring out the punch (50-200Hz somewhere). The intro instruments have some shrill frequencies, see if you can figure out which ones those are and EQ them down a bit. Might have to change the synth/sampler filter to do it for all notes, depending on what's actually causing it. This is nice play on the the source, sounds like there's a source presence throughout, tho I'd like to hear the source melody more, not just your rewritten versions of it. Whatever, source/interpretation sounds fine imo. I like the arrangement, but it needs to sound more like a performance, more human. Especially the lead. Nice work, neblix, good luck with it.

Dropdowns are lookin' good. Maybe I should start using them instead of just the sidebar and search box. Maybe. Upper right corner of the dropdowns' shadow looks a little weird, tho.

Got pu_freak's wip, gonna talkto Usa before getting back to you about it. Jago recently got us his second wav. Where are the rest of you?

Don't you mean civ 2? (I feel old)

How about solo marimba? Track 14 on the OCR RD album. Yeah, it's not exactly what you had in mind, but it's already out there, and I for one have a hard time imagining a more summery instrument than marimba.

I'll be waiting. Looks good in your sig. Yep, gotta update that release date mention, been a while since I gave it much thought.