Rozovian

I think we all go through different periods in our creative lives. Sometimes we need something new, sometimes we need to go back to our roots, sometimes we just need a goal to work for, and sometimes we just need to make music to see what it becomes. I found that I'm currently in the state where I have loads to gain by learning how to produce music that'll get accepted on ocr. You're probably in a different state. I agree with the advice given, read it all and try it out. Good luck!

Something I personally encourage you to do, as a fan more than as an aspiring remixer, is to find underappreciated games, composers, remixers, and most importantly, remixes, and gather an album of those. Rather than going with everyone favourite game, composer, and remixers, find a remix that nobody has listened to for years, from a game nobody has heard of for just about as long. That is a project deserving attention on ocr. Dunno if a "most overlooked" album is much more preferable than a "best of" album, but I do feel it's more useful.

Here's why there's no official "best of" lists, and why stuff like that is discouraged. Not forbidden, anyone can make their own remix cds with their favorites. OCR's official position is that everything on the site is good. No rankings. No top lists. No "best of". That's why they're all judged. Beautiful artwork tho. Maybe you should ask project leaders if there's any need of album art and if they feel your style is appropriate for their project.

Not gonna go into details as this is pretty early. Towards the end, things start sounding decent, because there you're using drums+pad+bleeps+bass. Before then, it was a bit sparse, only bass and drums, or lead and drums. It sounds like you're fairly new to the remix process, but there's hope for you. Start off simple, using the pads for texture and the bass and drums for rhythm, and add a real lead to play melody. Then develop things from there. This ain't so bad. Dunno if I noticed it before, but the intro does take the piece from 16ths to 8ths, so even tho I'm not a fan of the wave and filtering, I do like the result. Yeah, looking forward to your 10th wip here, tho it may take a while. As for being cohesive, it's too short to say. For me anyway.

Hm... Best I can say this early is that it needs more bass and the individual notes should be more clear. That's the feedback I can give you. As for ideas, think about what you wanna say with this. Imagery. It's something that works great if you come up with it early on, but is much harder to incorporate once you have several minutes of nice music already done. Once you have an image, animate it, and see how the music could illustrate it. As I see it, this is a typical hero running in the rain, or hero fighting random enemies music. It'll either end triumphantly, epically, or in a bigger fight/action sequence. See what you can build from that. Your nchoice of instruments and genre makes it an interesting take on the source track, one I'm not that fond of, but it could turn out pretty neat regardless. See what you can do, and good luck.

They're afraid of age. Most people into trackers haven't hit their twenties.

Thouight I already replied about this. Oh well... Fix the lead panning! Please! It almost hurts to hear this with headphones. Checked out the source. As I've spend an unhealthy amount of time playing SSBM, I should have recognized the theme in the remix. I didn't. What does that tell you? Weak transitions - there's rarely anything that bridges different sections. The drum rolls may be cliched, but there's a reason they're used everywhere - they work. They're not what I was talking about. As for individual transitions: 0:43 is a weird transition. 0:58 is a weak one, it's essentially an instrument replacement, which makes it sound lame. 1:12 is a good one. 1:41 needs to be bigger, it works, but it should be bigger. 1:56 feels too abrupt. Oh and, you need an ending. I think the current one would work as a break, followed by a full force chorus section and a big finish. You could do that in about 30 seconds, thus avoiding making this too long.

At 1:21 some melody comes in. I don't recognize it. If it's from a source, list the source. If not, make it. There's those two last notes before the short lil source loop loops again, if you'd emphasize those, you'd be playing source all over, and I'd stop bothering you about it. For a while, anyway. But it could be from another source track,but if that's the case, let me know. I'm not gonna dig through vgmusic to find it. What, recording noise at the end of the track? Cool! Not necessarily very suitable, but cool nevertheless. You just need to end it properly, either fade it out of cut it off harder. If you cut it off, raise the volume just before killing it. That way, we hear it's intentional. Anyway, 3:42 might be something of a stretch, so you should consider cutting out some of the repetition. 0:37-0:46-0:58 is pretty much the same, we heard it before. The following two sections are just repetition+one track. Cut stuff out here. And vary the melodies a bit more, jsut drop notes or move them up or down someplace, jsut so it doesn't feel like audio loops all over. Also, the guitar sounds better now, but it needs more life. Vary velocity and tone length, and add some reverb to it. Try dropping the fifth note every once in a while, it might help too. But this is cool. I'm hearing improvements all over. Keep it up!

All I can say is, sorry man. Come hang out on the WIP board, dunno if you've been there. Come listen to other people's wips, let them know what they're doing wrong. Just because you're not doing it right doesn't mean you can't hear what's wrong in a piece you're not making yourself. It's a great way to learn how to listen to your own tracks, and might get you some inspiration too. (What's this doing in tutorials?)

Realized I hadn't given this a listen. Heh, happens. Cool source. If you really like that snare, you should consider layering another snare on top of it. It could need more work, but it works as it is too. I suggest using another kick tho, as the one you've got is kind'a dense and fat and whatnot. The snare is just a bit weak, could use some more hi eq, but the kick really fattens the overall soundscape to the point where it's tough to listen. What also bothers me a bit is the choppy drums. I can hear it's intentional, but how choppy should they be? Well, less than they currently are, says I. Dunno if they're the only cause of the heavy listening, but when the nice 3:00 break comes, it's much needed pause for the ears to breathe. As for source content, I recognize the theme, and the overall feel matches fairly well despite the different sound. Around 1:14 there's a lot going on, and it's a little difficult to know what to listen to. Some clearing up of that part would be better. There's some metal pipes in the background at 2:30 that would be cool to hear more clearly, they're heaivly reverbed now, and way too soft. How about using those to add to the snare someplace? Not everywhere, but somewhere, for variation. This becomes quite heavy to listen to in a while. This is raw, in the sense that the game, as I remember it, is. It's great, and there's just those minor fixes to consider and possibly fix before submitting, says I. I'd YES this if you'd fix up the drums a bit, unfatten the kick and raise the high frequencies on the snare, or something, that's at least what I think would help. But dude, this is a great piece. Nice sound, nice progression, nice rawness... overall, this is music!

I think the guitar sample or whatever it was is a little flat, see if you can tune it up a few cents. I also didn't hear as much melody as I would have liked. There's not much to get from the source, but you cna merge it with another piece from the game, or jsut expand on the stuff you already had expanded on. A pizzicato-imitating synth, not unlike the crystal-mallet-like synth you already have, playing a more melodic part could add that, maybe you could just add notes to the one you've got to make it more reminiscent of the source. As it is, the bass is source, the rest is accompaniment... but accompanies bass opr nothing. OCR needs more Wii music, so get this YESable and submit. You might want to check back ehre a few times, tho. Nice work!

You've got some weird delay on the voice, whether it's because of the recording or some funky (bad) processing. It could use some more volume too. Good voice, by the way, a bit whining, but it suits the style. This sounds a lot like old Juliana Theory songs, sound, voice, everything. Dunno about source vs original content/interpretation, but I think you're clear on that. Re-record (the "broken mirror" part towards the end is in most need of re-recording) and properly process the voice and you should be ok. Drums might need some slight room reverb or other samples. That stuff isn't as tight as it could be, but it has a very honest and indie feel that I'd YES. If you'd re-record the voice at least.

Aside from some lead panning modulation and some weak transitions, and the need for a decent ending, this is close to submittable, I think. If the source vs original content ratio is what it should be, that is. I don't recognize the theme here, but I can be theme-deaf and am currently too lazy to look it up anywhere.

You've got stuff repeating over and over. Instead of repeating fully, you could change the last few beats of it to match the next section, or just to signify a change. Just by varying it a few seconds before and letting some isntruments fade into the 1:04 section, you could smoother than up. At 1:20, you could let the piano play a few notes more, while the hihat's counting in, just to show it's still the same song. Also, while the guitar just repeating over and over, nothing's stopping you from playing it differently for a few measures or something. Just for variation. Something that's still in the right key, but different. Long notes for a while, then back to the picking.

You're on the way to mastering time signatures, buddy. This is pretty. The bells at 1:36 something are too punchy, they need to bee longer, let them ring and then fade. Nice transition at 2:something. You're getting better at switching genres. There's some time sig trouble you need to work out 3:02 and forth, I guess it's the guitar causing trouble there. You're not in 3/4 anymore. The guitar sample is pretty slow too, which is really evident at the break before 3:50. There's some annoying quickly panning forth and back at the end, which you should soften, slow down, or just get rid of. But overall, this is nice. Loads of improvements, and maybe the first genre swap I've heard from you that I actually like.

It's a nice interpretation, tho it's lost loads of energy. it needs more variation, so reimagine it. More so than so far. Vary pacing, rhythms, instrumentation, stuff like that. Update the instrumentation, whether you go for acusoutic samples, electric samples plus effects, or synths, you gotta up the sound quality, this isn't much better than the original in terms of sound quality, and the original is kind'a old. It's a good start, seeing as it's not a midi rip with drums. Keep working, this could be good! And welcome to ocr!

A friend of mine ahs been bothering me to remix the Extreme. You don't have particularily good transitions between sections, at least in the first half. It's a beautiful track, so you've got that working for you. To me, this seems to be needing more interpretation and betetr transitions, but at this point, that's about all I can say so far. Gonna have more to say when you've got the leads in. Good luck!

This is neat, man. Shame on me, I don't know the source, but unless this is compeltely something else, try submitting it. You could use some more bass, but that's about all I can say that's advice and not just opinion and observation. Speaking of observation and opinion, your gliding synth whines a little too much for my taste, but I think it's something I'm willing to overlook for the overall coolness of the track. The ending might need some more "grande finale"-feel, but other than that, I got nothing to say. Besides: Submit! (if it's up to the source vs original ratio standard)

Stop whining and just raise the volume on CHIPP's track.

Bass drum and snare could use some more work, hobo, but this is pretty neat. Not in a serious way, but enough. Square wave coming in later kills any chance of this being taken seriously, which only makes it easier to enjoy it as a non-serious piece. But the bass drum and snare need work. And it cuts off too soon. CHIPP, nice work. I got no criticisms... partly because you weren't loud enough, but that's hobo's fault.

Can reverb be dry? That's how I'd describe the sound of this, maybe it's just the percussion and brass that gives it that sound. I'm impressed, this is cinematic, this is amazing! I miss the time signatures from the Mother Brain theme, tho, and it's not hard to hear why his OotW was rejected for medley-itis.

Sounds like a midi rip with added drums. You need to work more on giving it depth and direction, and making it your own take on it. Listen to this version from way back to hear what can be done while still being quite conservative in terms of arrangement. Listen and learn from other remixes. Welcome to ocr! For a first try, this ain't so bad. I've heard worse.

It "sucks so hard" because you've used pretty simple waveform synths. More envelope and modulation effects on it. And with that, I don't mean random flangers and phasers, I mean cutoff stuff. I don't use FL so I dunno what synth tools you can use, but look up the guides&tutorials and the FL subforums in the ReMixing forum for more info. Another reason it "sucks so hard" is the bass drum is alone. Layer a bass on top of it to make it, well, better. The backing synth playing those three different notes per beat, it doesn't have to be as loud as it currently is, and it also could use more complex waveforms, a more advanced synth, simply put. That should get you started. Best for newbs is to play with whatever tools they've got until they can make it sound okay, and then try for a serious remix or original, tho that doesn't mean you'll have to stay away from here, as a number of newbs have put together pretty neat remixes with help from these forums, being/having been one of those newbs myself. Good luck!

One of the ideas behind it was to show the backing arrangement to the ALttP overworld theme, then I added drums and an original track on santoor and the rest is casual remixing. Detuning some of the instruments slightly is something I often do to add life, tho in the case of the sitar, heh, I went a little too far. I corrected it right after I heard my own wip, but didn't bother to render a new one. Dave, if you can use exs instruments in reason, get the world music jam pack from apple. If not, get a mac. That's what I've used. Anyway, I can list some instruments I've used in case you can find samples elsewhere: persian santoor, indian sitar, panpipes, marimba, harp, three different ethno drumkits and an orchestral one. Plus ordinary cello (legato & staccato), and a string ensemble. The only electric sample I have is from a latin baby bass, which I feel still suits the soundscape. Enough talk. Here's music. Now I cleared up the drums, threw in a few additional parts for each oisntrument to make it a bit less segmented, less instru-medley-itic. I also remastered it, think I did added a separate reverb bus for the drums, little fixes here and there. Let me know if it's cohesive enough to submit, and what else to fix before submitting. edit: Note that this verison is kind'a outdated by now, I'm working on the final submittable version now. Thanks for all the feedback ppl!

The strings could be a little softer in the beginning.The guitar needs some more articulation. At 0:54 it sounds like you've got two different time signatures going. Doesn't work, but you know that already. Normally, this is where you would have switched genre, and this is better. Once it's fixed, I mean. The strings you start using here would be much better suited for a more nightmare-ish piece, or electronica. Find something softer. And while on the topic of soft, at about 1:36 you've got a way too loud bell or something. Lower attack and soften it up, unless you can find softer samples. That goes for most sounds in this wip. You've got a way too punchy piano for a soft piece like this, whether it's compression or just the sample, it's too much. Compare it to some piano pieces here to get a feel for the softness you need. Or compare it to a less soft piece, for contrast. Overall, it sounds somewhat like you've been trying to get every track as loud as possible in here, and then added a master compression to make sure nothing peaks too high. Lose compression completely, and add a limiter to the master to kill any peaks. I won't bother to comment on how interpretive this is, not yet at least. Someone else can do that. Or you could link to midi yourself, make it easy for us lazy ppl.