Rozovian

An interesting track you've made of an interesting source. The remix is most definitely tied to source, but I'm concerned about the amount of interpretation. At times, it just sounds like a slowed down version with the instruments changed around and with some additional backing and rhythm, but I wonder if that's enough. Too much reverb on the piano. The synth in the bg in the intro, is louder than the piano, it seems. It steals the attention. It also doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the soundscape, at least at that point. You may want to tweak it, or use another instrument for the intro backing. Bass in the dnb-ish section :14-27 can barely be heard, and that section comes as too much of a surprise to work, imo. Going from a rich high-range piano melody to processed drums is too sharp a transition to sound good. If you'd have a section with both, either where the dnb is instroduced or where the piano is still around, you might have a betetr transition, but I recommend rewriting the intro to give the listener a more clear idea of the soundscape of the track. The following section is repetitive and messy, and tho the :48 piano serves as a good clear lead, the rest of the soundscape remains... boring. There's some interesting synths, but it all blends together into a mess that doesn't sound good. You could clear it up with some panning and a lot of EQ, but I'd vary the writing too. At 1:15, a new rhythm comes in, one I enjoy. It lasts for 7 seconds. Then another section of dnb-influenced stuff, followed by halftempo of the same with a chippy synth. Throughout, you've got some of the great stuff buried by other layers. You really need to get those up front... or at least up out of the mud. Do EQ cuts on stuff that's just backing, volume cuts if you have to, and raise the more elaborate things if you have to. Work on separating the tracks from each other in the soundscape. The big problems I can hear in this are 1) sound design and choices that don't work well together, 2) uninteresting writing or writing that makes it difficult to listen to it and/or 3) poor mixing. Source content seems ok, but the arrangement seems to stick a bit too close to source. The writing is different, but the arrangement not so much. There are a lot of interesting bits a pieces in this, and I hope you back this version up so you'll be able to go back to those and copypasta into a newer version, one rearranged and not just rewritten, one mixed more clearly, one consisted of more coherent instrumentation. It's a source worth working on, and there's a number of things in your wip that I feel would work well in a remix of this. Don't misread me, I think you could make this great, especially now that you know some of the problems with it. Good luck!

Just to make sure you don't get me wrong, there's lots of good stuff in what you had. Make sure to save this version before you do anything drastic. Always take backups before making big changes. You can go back and copy-paste the good bit, as well as use it for reference.

Some synths and samplers have the option of controlling some parameters via lfo and/or envelopes (other than volume and pitch, thatis). You'll find this a good way of spicing up a lead, or to jsut add humanzation, depending on how you use it. Another Soundascape used it here to spice up the lead in a very evident way in this remix. Using it a subtle way would make long sustained notes overcome the sound of the samples of being looped. What I meant was that you'd have a long sustained note. Towards the end of it, an envelope would allow it to start a volume modulation (tremolo) along the waveform of an lfo. It takes some trial and error, but if your sampler has the option of routing stuff together like that, learn to use it. You're right about medley-itis. It's probably a term OCR has coined. It's when a medley doesn't blend the themes together, effectively making it several different songs stacked after one another without a coherent structure or possibly even a unifying soundscape. In your case, it's mostly the structure and some transitional issues that get your mix that label (for now, anyway). My favourite medley is the protrific BrainsickMetal, which has a unifying sound and fairly good transitions. It doesn't blend the themes together, but with a unifying sound and decent transitions, it doesn't have to. The name "Princess Suite" is actually a good one, as this features the female characters' themes. Your idea for transitions might work, tho I recommend you also consider the pacing in the transitions, making sure it doesn't stand out as a "there's a transition again"-type segment. Two types of good transitions, might be more, but these I know: buildup into the next section (or a reverse buildup), and a blend where an element of the old continues with an element of the new. Anyway, I'm looking foward to the update. Good luck.

Well, unless I missed something or forgot one, there hasn't been a wip of this source since... last month, Willrock's take on it. Overall, this is enjoyable, but it got repetitive. The first synth could use some delay or longer release (compensate by dropping sustain and/or decay a little). Delay on individual drums... well, could work, but the order doesn't quite make sense to me. I'd expect the snare to come in the middle instead of last. The accordion-like synth at 1:08 suffers from the same problem, in fact, most your synths do. Long decay, high sustain. Some have the release ok, some don't. The accordion might even use a drop in volume, it's loud compared to the next section. The synths also don't sound like they've been separated from each other by EQ. You could do a quick scope run on your stuff, figure out where thelead and the bass are, and drop that area for the rest ('cept drums, of course). Then you could check how they fit together overall, when you've got overlapping backing synths. The 2:32-3:25 section is long and repetitive. It either needs something interesting, or needs to be cut. Some really nice mellow writing would sit well here, and you could do some cool filter sweeps on the drums. Backwards piano, bringing back the delay-drums, having a pad in the background... something. The synth that comes in about half way through chirps too loud in my ears, you could drop the resonance a bit on that one. Fade-out is long, and the annoying chirping thing is there throughout. You could rewrite the ending to be more interesting, even if you do use a fade-out. Going back to the chords and the sound of the intro might work. Overall, a pretty good wip. The writing could use some more original stuff matching the source in feel, completing it. Some synth and EQ tweaks, some minor level fixes... and you should have a track that's submittable, or at least close.

I haven't listened to your remix, might to that later, just wanted to say something about the judges and their preferences. Don't let the genre stop you. the J's might be biased towards certain genres, perhaps because the submission standards lend themselves better to those genres, but that's not a valid reason not to submit something. A valid reason would be because there's not much interpretation to the remix, or that you've already have a remix in the submission queue. I don't know if either is the case. Just don't assume the judges will reject a mix because of genre.

Piano seems to be missing its high range. The mixing (how the tracks are mixed together) isn't good, they're all competing for attention aqnd cluttering up the sound. You need to work on separating them from each other, as well as choosing when and how well each track needs to be heard. Using EQ (equalizer) to drop the high frequencies of instruments that need to be in the lower range (and the opposite for higher range instruments) is one way to give the other isntruments more room for their thing. If you need something to sound louder without making it physically louder, use a compressor, it'll cut louder stuff but leave softer stuff alone. Then there's panning, which you've used already. Finally, there's the simplest way, turning down their volume. It's not a cure-all for clutter, but it does serve its purpose. Chip section is great. Transition to a much slower section works surprisingly well. I think you'll do just fine, despite being "pretty new to the whole 'digital arranging' thing". This isn't on OCR's level of production, but it's not far. As for the arrangement and creative choices you've made, I think it's in the green there. I'm not a judge, so I can't say for sure how far from the submission standards you are, but for a newb, this is great stuff.

lol bad horribly I doubt it'll get onto OCR under any circumstances unless it's significantly cleaned up, especially the intro. Your voice acting hurt significantly by the processing, and it seems a little too... human, for Ganon anyway. The singing was fun, tho, and there's some writing in this that's just a little more than a serious tune away from OCR-level material.

The tom-like perucssion could use more punch and/or bass. It's also hard to get a good grip of the track since it's short atm. Still, it has loads of potential, and the source tune had loads of great stuff to use. Gonna be great.

Skullbullet, you're doing fine with your feedback. Now, the wip... Intro choir and strings clash. Not pretty, despite the effect you were going for. And they're both kind'a high, you could bring the choir down into a lower range. I recommend finding other choir samples too, stuff that don't sound so sampled on the short notes. Flute gets a bit to sampled-sounding when sustained, add an envelope-controlled volume modulation via lfo if you can, it'd give it a more human quality. Drums are a little too sampled-sunding too, tho the drum writing is really cool. Transitions are a little too harsh, you might want to work on blending stuff together better. The flute that starts with Midna's theme is dragging, which makes it sound terribly out of synch with the rest of the track. Around then, the drum writing take a turn for the worse, and are more weird than serving theire purpose. Ending feels a bit tame compared to the range of themes you've used. The overall sound is okay, but you'll need to make it more cohesive. Many of the individual parts are great, but the way they're meshed together isn't. It follows an intelligent progression (for most part, last transition felt forced), but the transitions themselves are a bit too harsh and the sections having too little in common, making the track an example of emdley-itis. I recommend tieing together the segments with overlapping drum rhythms and other backing writing, as well as getting rid of the current ending and going back to the Ordon theme (or whatever the birdsong segment was). You should probably also revise the Midna segment, making it sound more fitting for the overall sound. The intro might need some additional instruments or revising, as its sound quality is far less than that of the rest of the track. Still, it's a good track, and has potential to get on OCR, but it needs to be far more cohesive. You seem to know what you're doing, tho, so good luck with the track.

Panning is a bit annoying in the intro, there's nothing in the center, and most of everything's in the left channel. Bad. The writing is great, tho. Varied, tied to source but not too closely, never repetitive. You're missing a drum serving as a snare, it bothered me around 1:30 when the drums come in more. From there to 1:56 or so, you could use a snare-ish drum. I think you could squeeze in a dB or two by using a limiter, or better yet a multiband compressor. That'd give your low range more punch, the mids and highs more bite. Depending on the tool, you might be able to make some fine adjustments to the overall EQ, but even if you can't, you'll at least be able to push the volume up a little without clipping. Good stuff.

Intro bells sound too simple. Longer release (compensate by dropping decay if necessary) might help it. Some stereo placement would be nice. Reverse crash is way too short for the effect I assume you want - start it earlier. It's also repetitive. The source is too, but the source has more bite, so it's less bothersome there. It seems to be way too close to source a lot of the time, reiterating sections from source time after time. There's additions, and they're good, but I think you need a different structure and overall progression for it. Also, youtube is killing the sound quality, it sounds like it's straight from a snes or n64-era machine. Not good. I recommend using tindeck.

Repetitive. And I wasn't hearing nearly as much source as I was hoping for. Also, my lazy typing last time made me omit something important: I was talking about the harp or piano and the strings in the intro. The point still stands. You need percussion, and more source. Aside from the rhythm of the dark world theme, I'm not hearing any source from 1:07 to nearly the end. It's also very repetitive. No matter how pretty, it's not going to OCR like that. Two minutes worth of near sourcelessness... Not good. Repetition for most of that length. Not good. That's the perfect place to change the chord progression, add orchestral/ethno percussion, do all kinds of things, but... you didn't. The sound is nice, but the writing is boring, for most part. It's pretty, but boring. Fix the latter part, and it'll be on its way to awesome.

I agree on the source issue - too close, at least for the first part of it. It sounds dry. Add reverb, tweak EQ to give it more warmth and wetness. Don't overdo it. Mixing isn't good either, sorry, you'll need to balance stuff out so the interesting parts are foreground and the less interesting are bg. Consider using a multiband compressor on the master to raise some of your highs (not sure about the exact range, but I guess somewhere in the 1-8kHz range might work). The writing itself sometimes seem cluttered when there's two intricate things competing for my attention. Some notes, like the low strings in the intro, drag behind. Move those back to compensate for the slow attack of the samples, or find yourself new samples. Also, you should use percussion as well, it kind'a loses its punctuation without it. Overall, the additions you've made, from my memory of the source, make it seem like you'll be able to handle the creative aspect of making this track OCR material, but I'm not sure about your technical skills. I guess we'll see. Good luck with it.

No source comments from me today, but you've got your own analysis. The repetition is really gonna hurt this. There's some really cool bits and pieces of this, such as the bass close to 1:00. Adding lyrics would help with the repetition, but there's still a bit of a risk making it cheesy that way. Plus you need good text, good voice, good recording stuff, and good processing to make it all work. If you're up for it, go ahead. Worth trying regardless. There needs to be more stuff happening, and you can add more source through that. Adding backing tracks, especially pads, can really change the sound of a track, so add them, vary them, and don't use them everywhere - that should take care of some of your repetition issues. Drums add to the repetitive nature of the track. Add fills, have more stuff going on with the drums, ghost hits... Pan the ride, and have a crash or something panned opposite it that you can use. Avoid hardpanning anything - the wah guitar is just noise in the right channel when it's that far right. Sound choices are fine, as far as I can tell. The autopan on the electric piano is a little annoying, but it works in the soundscape. Adding an echo could improve it, but it could just as well wreck the sound. Experiment, see what works. You seem to have gotten a good start. If you say this is too liberal, you only need to add source to fix that. People who copy the source have to work in original stuff to make it work. You've already got that done. Still, you need more stuff, more variation, more length... I don't think it sounds the same throughout, and by using different chords, different keys, moving stuff up or down an octave, or simply leaving something out you're changing the overall sound throughout the progression. You don't need a dozen different sounds to make a good remix, all you need to do is to vary how you use them. So far, so good.

Gonna take on a lot of wips today, so I'm not gonna spend any time looking for the source. Eino can revisit this with more source analysis, someone else could, I'm not going to. There's a bit of noise when the file starts. Probably alooping artifact. Don't cut off a song without a quiet tail, the tails are otherwise gonna end up in the beginning of the file. It's a bit quiet, it feels a little off-center at times, you should probably split the rhythm guitar to cover both sides. Delaying one side a few hundred samples is one way to get a stereo effect without using panning. The lofi synth used in the end of the intro and a few other places feels like it doesn't belong, you might want to upgrade that to something a bit more suited for the overall sound. You could also add another, very different lofi instrument to make the chip sound a more integral part of the track. Overall, it's got a nice progression, cool sound... I have no doubt this'll be great when its done. It's already good.

I agree about this sounding like bgm, tho there's nothing wrong about that. I'm not really liking the dry and blatty brass, so if you don't get a yes, consider fixing that. It really stands out in a few places. Other than that, there's little I dislike about it. It's got great feel. I sometimes weren't sure what was from source and what wasn't, but the J's are gonna look into that way more in-depth. Looking forward to seeing this on the front page, but there's a few things about this that make me wonder how soon that'll be. Its bgm sound, the brass, possibly the source use. Still, it's a great track. I'll add that I've also enjoyed your Super Metroid remix.

The lack of a clear lead in the soundscape is a temporary issue. Once everything is written, I'll mix it to push stuff into the foreground as I see fit. I doubt we'll remove much, but we'll certainly mix it more clear than this. A lot of backing tracks are gonna end up as ambience for a lot of the time. Mud, presence, and lead should all spring out of the mixing process, we're still arranging. Special thanks for the comment on the piano, DJA, since that was one of my parts. Humanization is something I've spent some time doing on some of the tracks in this, but I don't recall humanizing the piano. Thanks for bringing it up. Thanks y'all for the feedback. Much of it is stuff we agree with, some we were already aware of, and a little was stuff that we either forgot or never paid enough attention to.

Hm... The source has a lot of really cool elements to it, good choice. Your remix follows its progression kind'a closely (at least from what I remember from one listen). You need to work on transitioning more between the parts, as well as making it more cohesive. it's a medley, a trip through the different bits and peices of the source, but it should sound like a single track, even if styles, melodies, themes... even if everything changes. The medley-itis is really what hurts this track the most, repetition within the individual segments would be the second culprit. The track has some potential, but the arrangement needs to be overhauled imo. Sound-wise it sounds decent. It's loud enough, and the synths all sound fairly well. There's some tweaks you could do, tho, such as opening the cutoff filter on the 3:46 lead, stuff like that. Drums could ahve a little more punch, but they work as they are. The distorted ones get a bit repetitive during their iterations, so see if you could use them more sparingly. Overall, this sounds more like a sound upgrade than a remix in the OCR sense of the word. It shows promise in the sound design/choices, but it'll take some seriosu rearrangement to get it on OCR. Fortunately, you have a lot of source to pick and choose from. Work on transitions and on finding elements that you can keep through the different segments, and you'll have done half the job of rewriting the arrangement to be a more cohesive thing. Good luck with it.

Sorry it took a while to comment, you fell off the first page. It's the flip side of the current wip board speed. I'm surprised your samples are this bad. Dunno where you could get samples, but I'm sure there's something in the guides or somewhere. And then there's google. MM3? Sure. A bit repetitive, you could probably squeeze it together to half its length and only lose repettition. Please do, then see where you can add stuff. I like the rhythm you used. Some of it feels like a midi rip, so get you own stuff in there. You're also pushing the ceiling with that one pad sweep. You should deviate from source more, see what chord progressions work with a remodeled version of the melody, see what chord progressions work with the bassline. See what arrangements work. Just... deviate more than this ...from the source you used. It's also a bit cluttered, so see how you could fix that. Blurring together the bass line with reverb as well as filtering out the high stuff could be one way, another would be to write another bassline for the busier sections. Closing the cutoff on the existing bassline might also work. The rapid tempo certainly contributes to the clutter, but also to the rhythm. See if you can smoothen the rapid piano sections by varying vcelocity, that could clean up some of it. Quick comments, but comments regardless.

I like it. Well mixed as far as I can tell. Progression is enjoyable and sensible, and varied enough to change before it gets old. The higher crash cymbal was a little short and a little too loud, model it more after the one rising in, or the second crash. Some of the sustained string notes (0:39-1:15) sound a little too synthy, especially the higher ones, see if you have another sample to use for those. The same could be said about some of the woodwinds. Overall, there's little more than that that I could say that'd be helpful. It's a good track, as far as I can tell. I'm not gonna comment on source today, maybe someone else will. Maybe I'll revisit this and comment on that then. Dunno what the orchestra-oriented J's would say about this, but to my less orchestral ears, it's really great stuff.

Yes, I remember this. Now quite improved, if memory serves. The pitch bend is fun. Makes me a little mentally queasy, but it suits the track, imo. The track strays a bit from the source at times, and the times it doesn't, it follows the source a bit too closely. Not the melody, but the rhythm and progression. It gets repetitive with just variations of the same melody. See if you can rework it to another rhythm , another chord progression, another bassline, something else. The time signature adaptation is okay, tho I prefer 3/4 and have a hard time imagining this as anything else. You do pull off a nice 4/4, but I could see some 1__4__7_ rhythms instead of the 1_3_5_7_ you've used. Not at all instances, but some of them, just to vary the rhythm of the melody more. It's a bit low on bass, you could drop the saw "bass" an octave, possibly close the cutoff a bit to get it softer in the high range. I recommend using a 6 or 12 dB LP filter (or EQing it to that extent). You'll have to see where to cut frequencies yourself. You also need some more stereo presence. The storm and snare roll have great stereo presence, but some instruments sound dead center, even tho I can make out that they're stereo synths/samples. See if you can spread those a bit more (the individual track stereo width, not pan stuff left and right as much). The drums are a little boring. The clap is really exposed, so you could EQ it a bit. You could also use some additional hihats, not just the annoying ticks. There's some pointers for you. I think this shows something of what you've learned. While the track might never make it to OCR, it's worth finishing, simply because you're learning from it. I can tell (assuming I remember your old version well enough). Great job man, keep at it.

A bit tame, a bit too soft, a bit too repetitive, and I'd think it's too close to source (but I didn't listen to source so I have no idea). Here's some random thoughts that crop up during my listens of it: I'm wondering how necessary the bass drum is. You need to work on stereo placement. I could imagine some nice little piano embellishments on the left-hand writing. The repetition makes it a little annoying. The repeated chimes are really annoying Why is there little bass, even in the bass instrument? The piano could go way lower at times, would make it more varied. Why's the 2:04 notes way louder than all the other piano notes? The clap is kind'a lame, you need to make it less exposed, perhaps with EQ. Hard to give detailed critiques on something that's so far out of the genres I know. Hard to critique something soft at all. I hope these comments will be useful for something, tho. Good luck with it, man.

Drums and ambience... Yeah, for a self-proclaimed newb it's great, tho I get the feeling you've done a fair share of music before this, in other apps or in rl. My crits would mostly be opinions rather than musical standard. The one technical criticism I could give you is the volume. You might be able to squeeze in a dB or two by using a multiband compressor or limiter, preferably the former. The 1:48 section differs too much imo, the transition could be smoother, the section use some more pad width, something to keep it the same track. Overall, you've got a pretty consistant soundscape, but that one transition is too sharp for my liking. You could use some more substance. It takes about a third of the track to get into the track itself, which is a little too much, even for this genre. The source can be heard at 0:52, but you could use some more before then. Inserting a more clear version of the second melody in the first half minute would clear up the source usage more and prepare the listener for the second melody at 1:48. Be subtle. I'm a little bothered by how ticky the hihats sound, you could drop some of their mid frequencies, scan for the right one. Don't overdo it, tho. The progression is a little difficult to follow, mostly due to the 1:48 transition. Everything up 'til then was just fine imo, and everything after that works too, tho the ending feels a bit abrupt. Overall, this is the stuff that I'd give a RESUB for if I was a judge, but I'm not, and the J's probably have more crits should you submit it. See what other people say about it before submitting, but know that if it's not already there it's not far from the level OCR accepts.

Sounds a lot like some of my second-app tunes (way back) using tracker software, both style and sound choices. Makes me want to try that style again. It's a bit too far from source. I'm recognizing little bits and pieces, but never heard "the theme". Since the chords are already there, throw in the melody on top. The arrangement is fine, aside from the lack of theme, but the sounds aren't very advanced, and the mixing isn't close to good. Sorry. As for the arrangement, it felt like too much intro without hearing anything substantial, so throw in a snippet of the melody somewhere in there. And the whole thing, remodeled or not later. Some of the sound choices need their cutoff controlled by an envelope, some need ambience (reverb, delays, stereo spread), some need some serious EQ tweaking. Drums could use compression, and the kick could use a bit of a boost. Compare it to some remixes on the site for some idea of how synths should sound. Actually, that's the best advice I can give you. Stylistic choices aside, listen to recent remixes on OCR, and listen to their sound, the individual bits, how it's all mixed together. I'd love to hear something in this style on OCR, but you're not yet at a point where you can do it. However, the ideas in this sound pretty good, and the arrangement overall is far from the midi rips that sometimes appear on the wip board, so you've got at least part of what it takes atm, and I have no doubt you'll be able to get further. Work on the sounds and the mixing, and you'll have taken one giant leap towards making great music.

lol It's very.... you. On a more serious note, it's a little heavy on the lows, it's got some clashing between ambience/sfx and melody (when it finally comes in), the organ seems to be a minor chord as-is, and I don't get the direction of the track. Still, it's got some nice mixing choices, and the pression seems like it could make sense once after some instrument/dynamics fixes. Unfortunately, it's a source I neither know or care to dig up atm.