Rozovian

I like it. When you expand on it, you could stray a bit more from the source melodies/harmonies/arrangement. You've successfully given this a very different feel. I'm not hearing a bass, tho. Bass is important, especially in a style like that. The organ could be a little more elaborately written, you could add left-hand writing, or just give the right hand two notes at a time. A real organist/keyboard player wouldn't play like that, he/she'd probably add some melodies to it to back up the sax. The organ doesn't sound _that_ bad, considering the overall level of the remix. I suggest you focus on the writing for the time being, and worry about optimizing the instruments later. If not else, you'll end up with a more elaborate midi that you can ask someone to handle production for. Good luck.

No source link, no source comment. There's a nice synth rhythm here, but not much in terms of melody. Get rid of those drums and add new ones. See if you can find another track in the game with a melody you can add to this, something short and simple that you're comfortable with tweaking to fit the chords you've got here. Don't be afraid to change the chords here to something else, if the melody sounds better that way. If the above doesn't work, start a new remix. Don't start by getting the source, start by writing your own versions of it, even if it's just altered little melodies. Good luck.

No... the whole thing sounds a bit like midi, might be unprocessed simple synths, sounds a bit like some GarageBand presets. From what I can remember, there's not much interpretation put into the track, it could be a midi rip. I don't remember the source well enough to really tell, but remember it well enough to feel like I don't have to look it up. Not enough interpretation. That's the crits. As for advice, listen to music, and try to hear how the production sounds. Stuff like if you can hear a faint echo or reverb after a lead, the differences between low notes and normal notes with their high frequencies cut... Learn the production aspect of mixing. Here's some stuff for you to read. OCR wants remixes that aren't just remakes with different instruments, there should be some significant arrangement changes. Compare some remixes to the originals, and you should hear quite a difference, especially with remixes from the past few years. I hope this doesn't discourage you.

Original works either finished or in progress belong in this forum. I rarely watch that forum, so if you want my feedback on something, PM me with a link. Or post a remix.

Seems to be two EQ plugins included with it (Classic EQ and Acoustica EQ... if you've got Mixcraft 4 thatis). More info in the manual. I suggest you download it, unless you got it with the install. Oh, and read it. Whenever you're wondering about it, check the manual and do a quick search on Google. Might be faster than asking people, especially if you're the type that'd often ask stuff. Make sure to post something you're working on in the WIP/Releases forum to get some helpful feedback on what to improve. Hopefully.

Depending on when the other projects are released and we can have our first release, we might be able to release more than one disc in that release. Work on it when you get back.

This is just a gentle reminder for you people to get your tracks done. And, there's still available tracks, for anyone interested. Our release probably won't be until the other projects in queue are released, so there's time... But not much. I'm starting to agree with whoever said the projects forum is where projects go to die.

Update: WIP Source Thanks for the suggestions (they did help) and source upload. The arrangement is, I think, pretty much done ('cept it has no ending yet), tho I'll probably tweak melodies and chords and stuff. Production still hasn't been touched much. Comment on whatever you like.

Old info: Mentioned in another thread that I was working on a remix of the Chill Penguin stage in MMX. Here it is. While I don't mind any type of feedback, I'm mostly interested in ideas on what to do after the 1:36 mark. Haven't done that much EQ work or anything, there's still lots of production stuff to do, so rant all you want about those, I'm probably aware of them already. So... ideas? While you're at it, make sure to head over to KaltNacht's wip of the same track. At the time of writing, it's something of a midi rip/genre adaptation, but give him some quality feedback once he updates the wip. Two versions, can't decide which one I should focus on. Any particular issues that stand out in them. Comments on either of them? Pretty much done by now. Now what do I do? New 2009 update. Version SO Version ES Old wip Here's the first wip Source Youtube source link:

BlackPanther's right, original content+source isn't the same thing as the interpretation the Js are looking for. Instead of adding original content before the source, add it to the source, stretch the source, change the order of parts, modify the melodies, change the chords, stuff like that are more interpretive and will do better with the Js. Good luck.

I've been playing Starcraft recently, and I gotta agree with psychophan7, all I recognize are the sound effects. Doesn't count as a remix, imo. The music is fairly well mixed, as far as I can tell, but it's not very interesting. Not the writing or instrumentations, so if you'd submit this to ocr, you'd get the form rejection letter. Sorry.

lol, I only complain if I don't know the source. We had this game way back. Still, there's chunks of this that I recognize and chunks that I don't. Either I've missed a source, or it does need more source. I like this, got a nice rhythm. A little weird at times tho, not much support for the higher-range melodies as they're quite separate from the bassline.

Drums sound passable, but the rest of it is soft and not interesting enough. The others say it's too close to source, and I'm not surprised. Arrange this more interestingly, and try finding more suited instruments for the parts. Good luck Lindar.

What's with the drop-like bass drum? Might fit into electronica, but not something trying to be rock. Guitar tone is terribly dry, and terrible inorganic, needs to be more human. Transitions are simply bad, too sudden and too drastic. A lot of the time you've only got guitars playing, making the track very empty sounding. Txai put it well, tho rather than quiet, I'd use the word sparse. Not enough instruments to keep the track balanced. No processing... etc. You need to learn your tools better before trying to something as ambitious as rock (ambitious in the sense that it's hard to fake). Make some radom original tracks in various styles, play with EQ, reverb, read through our tutorials. Listen to ocremixes and you should be hearing something quite different from what you just posted here. Remixing isn't easy. I wish you luck.

Yeah, takes a while for tracks to be posted. You should make your wip downloadable, boomp3 doesn't let me play it. Plus it's easier to monitor frequency balance and volume if you've got the file itself and aren't listening to it streamed from the net.

Drums are weak, especially the kick. Guitar doesn't seem entirely synched at times. You should go on #ocrwip and ask for the guitar remixers like Tensei-San, Nekofrog, Sixto if he's there, and the finns. lol, sounds like a band: X and the Finns. Anyway, what bothers me about this track is the lack of good drive. The guitar isn't always tight enough to carry the track, and the drums are, as already mentioned, weak. the track also gets repetitive pretty fast, throwing in an organ and organ solo would spice it up. That's what I've got. It's acool track, tho, good luck with the album.

From what I've found, repetition isn't just repetition, there's filters opening and closing, additional tracks fading in and out, and other differences in non-ocr electronica. Repetition is a staple of the genres, yeah, but that's not a reason to bore the listener. There's a lot fo repetition in ocremixes as well, but those come with subtle differences (or are used in a soundscape where they fit more). A highly repetitive ocr example is Fru's remix, but there's those subtle things changing all the time. There's nothing wrong with having many different sections if they're tied together well or progress naturally from one to another. There's a bunch of ocremixes that start as something and end as something else, some can go through many different styles to get there. If it's well tied into the progression of the track and overall soundscape; if it works, it's all good. Your remix has a very distinct sound, and as I haven't run into any transition problems in your track, so it might be worth a try (take a backup first) to make it a progression through the sections (section a, b, c, d...) rather than a more typical song structure (intro, verse, prechorus, chorus, interlude, verse, prechorus chorus, bridge, whatever). And no, you're not coming off as defending your mix to the point where it's ridiculou, it's a valid point you bring up: genre conventions. Still, this is ocremix. The idea of the wip boards, and the consensus of the wip board survey thing I held a while ago (the link's in my sig, take the survey if you want to) is that the feedback here should be aiming to get stuff to ocr-level. So yeah, we try to critique following the ocr standards. Thats writing enough. Short version: Boring is bad, repetitive can be boring. Make changes through the repetition. Listen to this track. We try to get tracks ocr-worthy, so we judge along the ocr standards.

Gonna have a quick listen to this because I'm working on a remix of this same source. Sounds quite similar to source, except the obvious genre adaptation changes. Gonna need more than a genre adaptation to make this get on ocr, tho. Write a progression for it, which sections comes in where, how they change... make sure you don't just copy and repeat the original. And listen to other trance, whether it's ocr electronica or other stuff, listen to the mix, the drums, the levels, that stuff, and learn from it. The overall sound is pretty good, so I'm looking forward to hearing an update. Good luck.

Still haven't bothered to get the vgm player installed on this machine. No source comment, sorry. Dunno if you added stuff or how much EQ work you've done, but this sounds fuller on speakers than I recall it sounding on headphones. 3:34 section feels emptier, so it seems to be the sustained bass notes that's filling the frequency range. You might want to use some additional sound to even it out. Around 1:00 there's some redundant repetition. 2:20 again unnecessary repetition that easily bores the listener. 2:42 again. 4:12 a bit too. Track could end at 4:33 or something and not really lose anything. Still a lot of repetition listeners can find annoying. Good improvement, tho.

The sustained note in the intro reminded me a bit of Darude's Sandstorm. Then the whole track went orchestral. Then it had drums. Gotta agree with Meteo on how empty it sounds, tho I have less of a problem with the intro and more with 00:47 and forth. It's a little hard to critique something this short and early. TEH ENDING SUX!!!!! TEH RMIX IS 2 SHORT!!!!!!! But it sounds promising. Good stuff bro.

I agree with RT, too much noise in the drum, should be cleaner for trance. Some melody lines on the intro lead synth thing end a little too soon. Lead synth is a little too noisy too, so it sounds a little out of place with this nice and clean backing. Arrangement is pretty. The melodies are well interpreted, and it doesn't sound like a rehash of any of the other remixes of this. Gonna give you a more in-depth critique when I've got a downloadable version of this. 'Til then, good luck.

I know it's worthy, and I think you'll do something that'll fit just fine. Usa and I still need to hear it, in case there's something about it we don't feel fits. I'm busy this weekend, but I'll have a look when it's over. Dunno when Usa'sa got time. Email us both the link.

All right. 0:00-0:28 - The little silence at the beginning is a little too long. The accordion/drawbar organ doesn't quite sound like either of them. The bell or chime or whatever in the background is way too hard on its high frequencies, and is pretty repetitive. gets old fast. Bass in this part is okay-ish, but sounds pretty mechanical. Would be nice to ehar it humanized, which means volume/velocity automation. Not just changing note velocity, but automating it during the sustained notes. I do like the distant cymbal, but only the first time. Might work if it was softer the second time. 0:28-1:29 - The toms are hollow and not panned in a way that makes sense with the rest of the percussion. Drums sound a little weak, you could give the kick an EQ boost of a few dB somewhere in the 80-150Hz range to give it more punch. A similar process could work for the snare, but I can't remember where it's punch range is, and am not sure if low punch is what the snare really needs. The bass that comes in is pretty dry sounding, and its high range interferes with the rest of the sounds. The bass simply needs more bass and less treble. It runs over the other sounds a bit, takes over the show, and while that's great in some styles, this isn't one of those. Not like this, anyway. Drum writing is decent for a 3/4, but the drum sounds aren't, and the repetition in the writing highlights the snare's sound. And it's not pretty. More fills, longer drum loop, stuff like that might help you with that problem. The bass writing is kind'a boring. The synths are cool (metroid prime, anyone?), but seem a bit redundant. They also don't quite fit with the general soundscape. Might work if you'd establish the style earlier, not take us through the first iteration of the source in a style that's got very little in common with the main part of the remix. Making the overall sound more synthy might work in your favor, tho I should warn you that relying too much on cool synth effects doesn't make up for uninterpretive writing, and the Judges™ are gonna pick interpretation over effects every time. A lot of this seems to be loop-based. There's no variation between the iterations. Each part seems to play the exact same thing, making the overall progression pretty static. In pretty much every genre, you need dynamics, you need variation. Even in the most repetitive genres, there's filters and stuff changing the sound and intensity of it. You should write more than one part for each instrument. Mixing is overall pretty decent, but there's EQ needed to put each track in its place. Like I said before, the bass is getting into the high range and stealing the show. You don't have a clear lead driving the track, either, and the melody from source gets run over by the bass and drums. The synth effects are pretty loud compared to the more important parts of the track. It's one thing to make the source serve as backing for something else, or take an ambient approach, but here they feel more like a crutch. Making them softer would alleviate that a bit, but you still need to write a more interpretive arrangement. There's also a weird pan effect that seems to come from right-panned string notes shorter than what's played on the woodwind. That's an interesting effect, but it doesn't quite work. Just pushing one of them an octave up or down could solve this, and writing a more interpretive counterpoint melody would be even better. Shaker and tambourine is a nice combo, and certainly better than using just the high-range bell sound from before. You might need to add some more typical drums, like hihat and crash, to make this fit with the kick and snare. 1:30-end - Pretty. The arrangement here is probably the ore interpretive in the whole track. it's not just added rhythms, the source takes on a whole new feel because of the different backing. Some piano notes feels a little too strong. Yes, dynamics, realism, but this seems to be more of a sample-related problem. Use the dry and punchy notes for emphasis, and the softer ones for the rest. -- There, a more technical analysis of the track. Hope this helps. Keep in mind that I think you should focus on the arrangement at this point. Good luck.

It has. But there are other time signatures.

No source link, just source memory... which might not be as good as it should. The guitar in the intro needs more reverb, it's pretty dry atm. It's pretty much the same thing over and over, the track could benefit from some creative original writing, as well as changes to the chord progression during the iterations. Changing from minor to major key would make for an interesting change. Change something more than just the rhythms and stuff. This is a problem during the first half of the track, I'm hearing a fair amount of that stuff later on. Still, past 4 minutes, the guitar still plays the same old theme we've all heard over and over by now. Interpret _that_ more. Sorry to hear the old file got corrupted. Well, this time you're better at this stuff. Basically, the technical crits I have are mostly about the dry sound some of the instruments have. Can't actually think of anything but that. Arrangement crits are about the lack of rewriting of the main theme through its many iterations. Those things aside, there's a lot of stuff in this that I enjoy, like the carousel-type music at 3:14. Once again a repetition issue there, but that one was nicely rewritten. Needs some work to really fit into the rest of the track, but it's probably the best interpretation of the source in the whole track. The rising and falling arpeggios that backs up the following iteration of the theme are nice too, gives it a more interpreted feel. Still... needs _more_ stuff like that. More interpretation. Keep a backup this time, just in case. I'd hate to see this develop and then... poof, corrputed. Good luck with it.