Rozovian

DarkeSword pointed out in some older thread that compression artifacts usually remain after applying an inverted track with just the music on a track with both music and song. afaik, most professional remix artists work with a studio with the studio recordings of the individual recorded tracks, or at least get the song audio and the full track in high quality so there's far less artifacts when they do it. Note that we're talking big formats here, not mp3s.

This is what I miss while vacationing offline - wips! No headphones, so laptop-speaker-feedback is what you'll be getting from me. It's kind'a empty. Sure, it fits the theme of a grotto, but as music goes, it gets a bit too weak. The foreground writing could use some humanization. You should also work on how you end the loops towards the end of the track - they kind'a just stop. The guitar could use some longer notes, possibly some more processing to make it fit in better, it stands out in a bad way. Try dropping it an octave, see if it's any better. As for source, there's stuff I recognize from the source I dug up. At least in the first half of the track. Couldn't connect the choir to anything, but it could just be a failure on my part. Can't say much about the technical details like reverb, EQ, sample quality while on laptop speakers, but it doesn't sound bad. I'm fairly sure you'll get a NO from the Judges tho, given how empty the track is. Source is also gonna be a problem, unless I missed something. Also, they'll probably complain about the lack of humanization, especially in the strings in the second half of the track. Still, there's something about it that I like. It reminds me a bit of Destiny's solo pieces. Her works are more refined with a lot of nuances. Learn from them, and from the wips other people post. Learn to listen for things your should improve about your track. And post your improvements, it's what the WIP board is all about.

Even after the update, I have to echo all Sengin's criticisms. The repetitive sections are too long, or need to be varied more. My quick listen through source suggests you're essentially just adding beats, changing instrumentation and increasing tempo. You need to do more than that. AFAIK, you need more original material in this, more interpretation and original additions to the existing stuff. You should also deviate from the source's progression. Put stuff in another order. There's a recurring high frequency that's really painful and annoying. You should lower it with EQ. Could be resonance, could be frequency interference, whatever. It's annoying. The stereo placement is ok. How about distance perception? It sounds a bit cramped. Use reverbs, delay the signal (signal delay isn't the same thing as applying a delay (echo) to the signal) to get a little more distance. You've also got a very busy soundscape. There's one thing to use that in contrast with a calm source, but this doesn't feel that deliberate. The tempo and beat are the likely culprits, tho you should be able to work around it without changing either of them by making the lead woodwinds and the guitar chords more dominating. When both rhythm and melody is this fast, it feels rushed. Bring forth the background stuff, take back the foreground stuff. See how it sounds. This is also a way of varying the sound. This is a cool source, a cool track, a cool approach, but it's got both technical and creative problems that you need to work on. Good luck with it.

Most tunes in the Smash Bros series are remixed songs from other games, in this case Zelda II. You're looking for these remixes. And then there's this version of Temple Trance too.

Must be the compression - the soft bit is actually painful to listen to. If this is supposed to be smooth, you'll have to soften the drums significantly. See how it sounds without compression. If you're using compressed audio loops, use other loops. The track sounds like separate bits and pieces stacked in succession. This seems to be a recurring problem for you, which means it'll improve a lot of tracks once you learn how to deal with it. The change in hihat texture is a dead giveaway for a change in repeated segments. The intro could use something other than just the pinao to keep the rhythm. The 6-chord rthythm in a 4/4 song makes it screw with the rhythm a little. Great for jazz, but not everyone can hear the intended rhythm until the hihats come in. Consider using some faint hihats or shakers for the intro to even it out. Still, that's a minor issue compared to the above ones. Aside from pulling out the compression issue, this does sound like an improvement. Less looping of melodies, more transitions, and fix the drum compression, and you'll have improved this way more. Doing great, man, doing great.

Whatever you've done, this sounds much more exposed now, revealing some new issues. At least for me. You shopuld vary the choir volume while it's being filler. Having it barely there sometimes, prominently there at other times varies the track soundscape. The lead could use some lower frequencies, you could even drop it an octave part of the track. Try doubling it, have it play an octave down as well as where it is now, see if it sounds fuller without being too dominating. My ears think you've overdone the EQing a little, you've got the highs, but you've got a little too much of them. More bass, or low mids... or mid mids, something you're not having enough of in the lower half of the range imo. Just critiques, because you should know by now that I like this without me having to say it.

To me, this sounds like a beat with some source added to it. Repetitive, monotonous, and ultimately boring once you've heard it for a few loops. Needs a lot more variation. You could vary the track overall, it could be enough. You're essentially stacking sections in succession rather than blending them together. That means that we're hearing the same thing over and over again, possibly with some minor variation. Transitions, alternative versions, solos, breaks... Just do something other than stacking stuff. Not only does your lead suffer from not being prominent as Darke already pointed out, all the drive in the track comes from the beats. If you'd mute the bass and beats, you should hear how boring the lead really is. Try that, see what you can do about it. And while you're at it, work on the writing too. It's repetitive. Lead writing and sitar writing. The sitar sounds awful. I know I detuned a sitar in a previous wip of mine, but not this far. Go with the recommendation of _not_ detuning it. I'm repeating myself as well as the previous posters, so I'm gonna stop now. The bass and drums sound good, the rest decent (aside from tuning). Fix the sitar and lead. Work on your writing. This could be awesome.

Stereo balance needs work (Haas effect might be useful here, instead of just panning). And it's cut off. It also has a bit of an empty sound, tho with this style that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Don't know source, so I'll let someone else comment on that. Little to say, because you got some comments before, and aside from hearing this better this time, not much has changed. Sounds very promising, but it needs length as well as a more balanced stereo soundscape.

Kyle, this could help you guys out. Worked for the sd3 project forum, we haven't had a single spambot since I put in an extra question. You can check it out for yourself.

I got the answer right too. Lower quality version sounded a little rough around the edges, I hope the JPEG-compression analogy makes any sense to you.

This could be a useful resource.

Can't say if it fits OCR's standards or not, as I had too much trouble getting to the file. Use a more browser-friendly host, preferably one where the listener can choose to download the file in case the streaming doesn't work. I have to second the suggestion to put this on tindeck. What I got from trying to listen was a sliced/staggering 1:01 long quality piece. Could be some streaming issues. If not, the track needs to be longer and less sliced. Slicing is usually cool, but it can get annoying when done excessively. You also have you drums pretty exposed. Might be a genre thing, but it gives it a quite empty sound. Panning of the guitar also bother me, the first note in the right channel and the rest in the left. I think what you've got is something great, or at least approaching great. Sadly, that's not what I got. Host it elsewhere.

Currently working on other wips, but I can at least second the request. An spc with the music is available on zophar's.

I like the genre. I'm currently at the end of a feedbvack run, so I'm too tired to check source, but you know how close/far it is yourself. The noise is annoying. Did you record stuff? See if you can get rid of the noise, most prominent in the left channel. Panning, overall, could need some work. It's repetitive, but it has some cool ideas that I think you could use. Work on transitions and redoing repeated lead lines. Subtle little things, like velocities, slight timing changes, , to more noticeable stuff like rhythm, chords, solos... The bass is a little too thick. More notes, more pauses, or... something. See if it sounds better. I like the parts where the bass is quiet better, actually. Feels more restful. Don't be afraid to move the bass an octave - _sometimes_. The beepy thing with the delay is too loud and plain annoying. See if you can rework it into something less annoying. The tremolo effect you're using on the soft keyboards could be more subtle... or the track more centered. The piano seems like it's just slightly lagging. The sax sounds great to me. The theremin works well in the track. Overall, it's repetitive, but that's really the biggest problem with it. This could be a really cool track, but it needs some work to get there.

It's got a very humorous sound, so it's definitely worth developing. Progression is pretty much the same as source, tho, and melody's following as closely as jazz can. The arrangement could use some unexpected progression changes. Go back to the main theme in the middle of the verse, change time sig, change key, change scale from minor to major...or something else, play something at half speed, do some new things. I'm not a jazz person, but you seem to be. Turn this into more of a rearrangement than a jazzed up cover. Production sounds... it sounds like you haven't done that much. Right-ear mallet is way too soft, lead keyboards is way too loud. Applying some reverb, delays, or other effects could spice up the soundscape, but I think you're actually missing an entire instrument. You need more bass. Lower bass than what you've got. You could achieve that by adding a bass amp-like effect on the bass to boost it's lower range. An octaver would work well, too. Then you need to add left-hand writing to the lead keyboards. Sure, say the keyboardist is playing on the right-ear synth with the other hand... Then balance their levels more, and put them closer to center. Too big body of text. En sak i taget: Bass - Needs to be lower. An octaver or bass amp could do this. EQ alone is hardly enough, and pulling EQ up is just gonna screw with the sound. Lead keyboard - Needs to be softer. Too loud. Ity also needs left-hand writing. If nothing else, at least use chords. Or you could give his left hands to anotehr keyboard - a pad. Also chords. Also, don't pan your lead, unless you've got another in the other ear. You don't. Backing keyboard/mallets - Great idea... but it's barely audible. Up the levels, fix the panning, or balance it out with something in the other ear or about the same frequency range. Drums - Sounds fairly food. Got nothing to say there. It sounds a little empty at times. Have a look at DarkeSword's newb advice. Everyone knows something from there, but not everyone knows everything. It's not long. I like the idea, and you've already accomplished enough to make me like the track. It does need more work, but you seem to know what you're doing.

Bass sounds a bit too staggering, and for some reason, it sounds more sequenced that stuff that's sequenced, all same velocity and length, but not as staggering. See if you can improve there. Drums work well, tho. Once the track gets started with the piano, you seem to have a hard time deciding which key you're in. Happens. Not bad, but it should sound more deliberate. Bass is also too soft and the rhythmic pad thing is too loud. Piano could use some more (or louder/lower) left-hand writing to sound more real. There seems to be some instrument with a slight swing to it, not meshing with the rest of the track's rhythm. Flute also sounds kind'a mechanical. Some levels need some redoing (especially rhythmic pad vs bass), but I do have to say the production is pretty decent. I'm with Doug on both the repetitive nature of the track and soundscape and the medley-itis the track suffers from. Save this version, and start working on one or two more entwined sources. It's not submittable, the J's are gonna cry MEDLEY! and NO! it. However, it has some great stuff in it, so make sure to scavenge this track for parts for your future Maple Story, CT, SMW, ZMM, and FFVII remixes... whenever you do any of those.

I guess vgmix doesn't allow direct linking to download links. Use this link instead. As I hear it, it's waaaay into the liberal side, I'm having a hard time connecting stuff to source. It's also simplsitic, tho that could be a genre thing. Pads, countermelodies, additional rhythmic instruments would spice this up a lot, and depending how you mix it, it might not change the genre. The stuff you have is a little on the weak side of decent. The rhythm is insteresting, but hard to follow because there's so little to follow, just kick, clap, and some ticking thing. The source has a great sense of rhythm, see if you can be inspired by that. Pad sounds fine, but it could use a little more elaborate writing. More notes, broader range. Leads meander around and are a little too simple sounding to work, imo. Use an envelope on the cutoff (be subtle, tho), and don't have it pan forth and back, it's annoying. Melodies are repetitive. A little variation would be good. Bass could be way deeper and harder. Some of this could just be a genre thing that I don't get, but at least you've got some feedback to work with now. This could be interesting.

Put little delayed snippets of the lead melody in the intro, it could work. Maybe you'd have to change the key scale of the melody or transpose it, perhaps both. A long intro is fine, but it shouldn't get repetitive. Leftnoise is there during the breaks and softer parts. Probably a part of a pad you've used. See if you cna cut back on the noise sometimes. It's a cool effect if used sparingly. 'Tis good, tho, the track, imo.

By rigid, I mean that it doesn't sound like it's being played. It sounds like it's all the same velocity, and that's full velocity. With orchestral isntruments, you need dynamics - changes in intensity between notes as well as between sections. Using the dawn theme isn't a bad idea, if you can convey night in a more tangible way. Try to imagine how night sounds like, try to write it more nightlike. It's ambiguous atm. The voice work... While your friend might have a great voice later, it now just sounds too young to work, imo. I prefer songs without a narrator. If you have to telll the story like that, the music isn't good enough to work on its own. So work on the music instead. The best tracks make the listener imagine his or her own story. If you buddy can sing some vocals without lyrics, see if you can utilize that somehow. The human voice is more articulate than any instrument I know, and if you want a creepy night-feeling, some background vocal workcould really provide it. This is an example of what the human voice can do to a track. Still, if you're aiming to have this on OCR, or practicing for OCR, do incorporate a more obvious source usage. You can use pretty much any instrument for the melody - and it doesn't even have to be the entire melody. Break it up, play it at half speed, just make it more obvious. Also, don't be afraid to use more than one source, if you use it wisely. A minor scale version of the Minuet of Woods, broken up, could fit it nicely. btw, I still don't hear the source. Did the game have a separate music for night-time that I don't remember and can't find?

Your S's are cutting my eardrums. Other sounds too, but it's most painful with sibilants. Use a de-esser or similar effect to drop the sharpness of your voice. It could just be my headphones, but it's worth a little work regardless, as not everyone's gonna listen to this on good headphones or studio monitors. I've come to realize how to listen to stereo positioning and distance and stuff like that in mixes. The voice is either too loud or it needs to be just a little bit later. Or both. Some stereo effect would be great for the other voices, a little bit of panning would be the simplest. Can't remember production from before, but it sounds good to me (with the exception of the voice). If it's an improvement, it went from great to greater.

What party? First half sounded relatively good, but I couldn't hear any source. Am I missing something there? Third quarter sounded terrible, worse than the N64 originals. Sorry Dash, too rigid notes. It sure had source, but it sounded like a midi rip. Last part sounded... mildly bad. It had source and wasn't too rigid. The whole thing does need to find middle ground, methinks, somewhere in between the original stuff and the source. You've got some really cool drum ideas here. You could use some better hihat samples. Lace the drum part of the song with source melody, lose or redo the morning tune part, and you would have improved the track significantly. You do have the story there, but the until sunrise, the story could jsut as well be in the Amazon, or on another planet. Nothing to tie it to Lost Woods, unless you used a theme I'm just not familar with. The idea, to write a story with music, works nicely. You've gto a good progression (at least conceptually). The music itself needs work, tho. Bad, but not too bad. More source, more life, and a number of production tweaks, and you'd have something great.

The lead sounds more attention-grabbing now, tho it could be sharper. If you can base it more on triangle or saw waves rather than square, you'll get a sharper sound. Then you may have to close the cutoff filter a bit. You've already got it automated so you can open and close it, tho I think it should be more saw than what it currently is. What you've got is functional, tho. Not good, but not bad. I'm a little bothered by the accompanying filtered... thing, the one also playing source. While its sequencing isn't bad, and it's filter controlled by an lfo (a guess, tho), it gets a little too sharp. Consider taking it down an octave or closing its cutoff filter more. Automation wouldn't be bad here, you could let it be this sharp sometimes, and less so at other times. The pad in the background is a great filler. I like what you've got there. Consider changing it for strings or a warm pad or something else for part of the track. It's variation, and variation is usually a good thing. Your snare could use a little more power. Compression or levels, I don't know which you should use. Bells and stuff doesn't sound painful anymore, so good job with that. You could drop the bells' level a _little_, same goes for the lead. You've got a little too much resonance on the drums (or at least the snare). It sounds especially painful during the fade by the break in the middle. See what frequencies the break mallets occupy, and drop those _slightly_ from drums, bass, and choir. Overall, this is getting good. I'm hear both source and interpretation here, and you've improved the track so far. You're not done yet, tho.

I'm hearing source that I recognize from the game. I'll just leave it at that. It's really drenched in reverb. Loooong reverbs. Then again, it's really just the dry signal mixed with loads of reverb, which makes it sound unreal, sort'a like sitting in the middle of the orchestra in a big cave. Experiment with delaying and EQing the dry signal, applying a reverb to the dry signal, stuff like that. Subtle is usually good, keep that in mind, tho. Stereo placement also needs a bit of attention. The brass is in an even greater need of attention, there's the same three notes in succession (e.g. 0:44) that just sound way too artificial. See if you can work on their lengths and velocities to make them a bit more real. Slow attacks make it sound a bit lagging too, see if moving the notes back a little would help. Can't recall any of your previous work and am too lazy to look any of it up, but it does have a nice sound. I have a feelling it's too simple for OCR, tho, and it's also very repetitive. As a step on the way, it's good. Keep at it!

Either my headphones are subpar or there's a few frequency/compression issues with this. The flute and strings before the melodic break sound... too harsh, or... something. A little painful on my heapdhones. The left-panned phased noise, while being good soundscaping, sound a little too lofi, consider getting rid of it in some places. The high notes on the piano cut through a little too well at times, at other times they don't. Consider cutting their range from the other instruments while they're around. It's also a bit repetitive, at least in the intro. While I wouldn't mind a long intro, or getting the track going on something other than the intro loops, doind both doesn't work well imo. It sounds too repetitive with the intro playing, followed by the track getting started for real yet still sounding like the intro (just with more instruments). Cutting length or changing the latter part of the intro might solve this. I've only got minor gripes like that. Overall, this is pretty cool. Good luck submitting it.

Having everything in the high range panned center or left means it's unbalanced. Even at 1:02 when the shaker-like sound comes in, there's still nothing in the high range in my right ear, which makes it feel like the stereo soundscape is leaning left. Divide things a little more between the left and right channels. Just make sure to keep kick, snare, bass, and lead in or near the center. The 1:53 section has a couple of backing piano notes that sound out of key, clashing with the key signature of the track. Just move those notes a seminote up or down and they'll work. It's a little repetitive in places you could have great interpretations of source. While on the topic of source, could you provide a link to source. I found a vgmusic file with it, but I'm not sure it's the right track. I tend to be source-deaf at times, and I'd rather not comment on the source 'til I'm sure I got the right source. I like the progression... I like the whole track, it's pretty. You should be a bit more mindful of the piano's sound. Towards the end it sounds a little too loud, not its volume but its sound. The ending is also a bit sudden. Fairly hard piano notes, and then it's over. Fading velocities would be awesome there, methinks. I think this could get YESes from the Judges after some refinements, possibly needing more source. It's got a nice sound, but it needs to be clearer imo. Cut some frequencies, fix the panning, work a little with velocities, and fix those clashing notes, and it'd be pretty good already then. So to answer your ultimate question: you don't suck. This could be great, it's already close imo.