Rozovian

Usa's having some freak technical difficulties with user privileges and such, and can't reply on the boards. He really appreciates your ongoing support for the project, Sinewav. MaliceX wanted to drop off the project, and Usa thought you were the one who let him know. As for Sixto, he has left the project. His songs haven't. Ask him if he's still interested. Assuming the forums get into the holiday spirit enough to find some love for Usa and let him post, he will update the project info soon, now that his vacation has started. Due to inactivity and a number of ppl having dropped out of the project, I felt the need to ask Usa about the number of tracks available and the number of remixers that could join. His answer:

There's some noise in some instruments, sometimes white, sometimes a more ringing kind of noise. Also, it's really repetitive, and I recognize one of my problems in this: lots of cool ideas but not really a dramatic curve to how they're arranged together. I didn't even realize the ending was the ending, I thought it was a second break. It's a good ending, if it'd come after some real climax, right now, it's more of a drumless fade-out from repetition. You've got a good mix, only it's ridculously long and very repitive. I'd cut out at least a minute, maybe two, and make the stuff leading up to the ending grander and more massive, give it a sense of it being the grande finale, the climax, the punchline... You know? Mixing-wise, it's great, so tighten up the arrangement and give it a climax, and it'll be really cool. And come back with what you've got. I heard a lot of good stuff on your site, so with some fixes, this'll be great!

Linking to MIDI - GOOD IDEA! It certainly helps. The first sound is much better than the rest. Sorry man. at 0:19, I was already expecting something else to come in, and when the drums come in, they come alone. Quick cut from 0:19 to 0:38. It'll kill some length, but it'll make it more interesting when you don't have to wait for stuff to happen. The bass that comes in soon after seem to suffer some key issues on the second half of the region. The soundscape gets pretty cool after that, and I like what you've done with the snare. The hihat is just reallly annoying. Give it more life and make it less annoying. When it finally stops, it just feels so much easier to listen to. More life or less annoying. Use more hihats, open, closed, half open... And don't be afraid to use crashes or rides. The sounds you've used are pretty cool, and they've got loads of life. Get rid of the hihat form the 3:02-3:05 snare roll. Please! it sounds completely ridiculous. The part that it leads into also needs to be more different from the previous section. A change in key, a change in isntruments, a change in rhythm (please), something. The ending is a little long too, and the whole piece felt like it never got to the point. Make the 3:07-3:58 section be the big finale. First half build-up, second half grande finale. Then you could shorten the ending or keep it, but the whole thing would feel more complete. And see if you can cut stuff out of repetition whenever you can. I do like the sound of this, but it's still in such a stage that I can't listen to it as a finished piece without thinking "oh, that's from inexperience, that's from budget samples, that's from limited musical knowledge". So, more work needed, but great job so far. Listen to some other pieces in this style. And make sure to come back with a better version of this! Because that's gonna be great. You've mastered the "filling up of the soundscape", you should now focus on "cutting out redundant stuff" and "direction". So far, great work!

The first second is really attention-grabbing, so kudos on that! It's a little too sudden, but adding a some soft-attack pad to back it up, just 1/16 before the currently first note could fix that. You'd have to move everything forward, tho, unless you can move the timeline back without causing any problems. Then, 0:21-0:41, is really weak, generic, and newb-ish. Still after that, the drums are really in need of some serious re-arranging. Even within what's possible for the average drummer, there's a lot that can be done about the drums. Much more hihat action would be cool, as would ghost hits on the snare and a more active kick. Then there's toms, crashes, rides, splashes, and all kinds of drums that can add to it. Already doing a proper mix on the drums would help, as I think the hihat is way too high, the kick is too short for this piece as well as seeming to push the master compression. A louder and more active bass would be nice, as it's a bit lacking in that range. Aside from filling the low end of the frequency range and provide a drive for this tune, a bass also makes the kick sound less dry and more intergrated into the overall piece. While it's interesting overall, the soundscape is pretty much the same throughout, with some minor breaks that blur the lines between more lasting changes. You should consider cutting it a little shorter, to kill some repetition. There's some subtle changes when an instrument fades in and such, but you could make those fade in faster and then cut out the repetition. You've also used a lot of fairly simple synths, which add to a kind'a newb feel, at least with drums like these. Dull, odd and unfitting drums are your biggest problem, a repetitive soundscape being your second biggest. Try other drum samples, and do a proper mix on the drums. The soundscape could be cleaned up by just cutting it a little shorter, and doing a proper mix on it all, deciding what's important overall as well as in each frequency range and letting everything else be background. I'm not saying this is bad music, because I enjoyed listening to it, but it's not finished music. There's some mix and arrangement issues that need to be dealt with, at least if you want it on OCR. So, good luck and come back!

I find myself agreeing that it's probably a typo, although not one of mine. And squished wasn't my word either. lol Fute, however, is. I meant flute. Humanization is the process of setting velocities, note lengths, and note position so that it's less perfect, less mechanical, less sequenced and more...human. Generally, fixing velocities does a lot, but the rest is good to keep in mind. Making some notes longer than others works wonders for a stiff piece. Try to imagine how it'd sound if a human played it, that should give you enough of an idea of how to fix it. In instruments settings, I often set a random factor to each note, letting it randomly be _roughly_ the right pitch. While this is suicidal for electronica, it works wonders for orchestral works. If there's a similar feature in whatever app you're using, use it. Just don't overdo it. Maybe you should add some reverb to the orchestral tracks. I recommend using a bus and then just setting bus send levels, it's faster. If it doesn't sound good, there's always the possibility of using multiple buses. In instrument settings, you set your preferences. In Soviet Russia, instrument set preferences on YOU! Anyway, you need a more organic guitar sample for the higher pitch notes in the end of the remix. I'm hearing and am bothered by them. Reducing Attack just slightly, by 30-100 ms could be enough, and add 20-50 ms of glide time. If you can't, see if you can tweak the amp sim. If you can't, add a new track, and play the last, higheest sections, on that one instead. Mimic the settings but give it more life somehow. Another possibility would be to set the guitar to be legato. If it works, it works, if not, then don't. But see if you can give the guitar more life. Whoa, lots and lots of advice, hopefully good advice, but I make no promises. Just see what you can do, and report or submit when you feel it's ready. Some tweaks and I'd YES it, but I'm no judge. I recommend coming back here with an updated version, to see if we can spot any other flaws or fixes to be made. I said it before, I'l say it again: it'll be great!

Yup, it all sounds better now. Some odd dysharmony around 1:23. The snare at 2:20 is mechanical, add some ghost hits to it, maybe a hint of echo, really short. The pre-3:14 section is a loop too long, so see how much of it you can cut out without making it too short either. The melody that comes in at 3:37, played on the harp, it could be a little louder, as could the flute that comes in a little later. Overall, the biggest problem with this _could_ be the same as I'm having with one of my WIPs - the lack of a clear lead. it's easily fixed, just give the piano, harp, and flute a little more volume when it's their time to shine. While I have no problem with the somewhat withdrawn leads, the judges might. But this is sounding pretty good. I feel it's got a lot in common with the source, it doesn't suffer any kind of medley-itis as multi-source remixes easily do, so if _I_ was a judge, I'd give this a RESUBMIT to get you to tweak those things mentioned above. At least until someone else would hit me over the head with a good reason not to.

The only flaw I'm hearing is one note (1:36) that feels off key. But like Avaris is saying, it could be more complex which would give it a richer soundscape and make it more interesting. I'm also thinking you could extend it a little at the end, about ten seconds or so, maybe play the theme on a solo instrument or just chill with chords, something.

The square wave makes it cheesy. If you could swap that for some more modern synth, you'd improve the sound a lot. I think the count-in would be better if it was 1-2-3-4 instead of 1-2-1234. Try it. The slow piano melody, especially when doubled by the bells, sound a little lame. Try making either of the instruments play some other notes in between, even softly. There's a lot of instruments playing that of another an octave or two up. It makes it sound a little cheap. The section with the guitar playing the theme is really cool, and the doubling isn't as much of a problem here as the guitar plays it. Still, that bell is bothering me, it sounds essentially like a kid playing along with some band. Give the bell a more active part in this, not just doubling. Or, whatever instrument ('cept the guitar, 'cause that one's okay) is being doubled. So, that's improvements. Overall, I think this is a pretty cool piece. The drums fit in well. Good sounds, nice panning, overall okay. It just has a kind'a childish feel to it because of the doubling. Oh and, since I keep getting the numbers confused and can't find anything for reference, could you, or someone else, link to a MIDI for comparison?

Look at the edit note on my first post. Taucer made me do it.

Tweek, come on, if he can fix those things, he should fix those things. Otherwise, it's not gonna be any better than _your_ Tetris Attack remix. You're not worried that some newb is gonna do better than you, are you? Or wait, are you jealous?

No expert on the production end of remixing, but if you're using a compressor on the kick, set the compressor attack to be much slower. Let the kick punch free before compressing it. The first snare roll or whatever it is sounds completely bizarre, dunno if you meant it to, but I'm not a fan of it. Crackling is really easy to spot at at about 1:00. Re-record, or use an audio editor to manually paint them away. I dunno, that's what I'd do. But man, I like where you're going with this.

Is it a harp? Is it a guitar? It sounds like it can't make up it's mind. Soften it more, either by adding reverb or by pulling back on Attack a little. The tambourine is too loud and the intro sounds too dry. The violin at 1:00 is a bit lagging and sounds sequenced. Around 1:15, everything's lagging a bit. While those strings sound good, they don't work well with melodies if they're always a little behind. Either move them back a bit or use other strings. 2:10 Whoa, weird strings usage, man! Not saying bad, but certainly interesting. The break at 2:30 is too silent. This is where you should have a faint reverb just echo. Put a weak but long reverb on everything in this to fill that gap. The brass around 2:50 sounds a little too sequenced. Dunno if the blaring brass sample is the problem or if it's too mechancially sequenced. Try to add life there. It's overall a bit toned down, like a massive lullaby. While it's got a mighty sound, you don't take advatage of it as much as I'd like to hear. This could easily be made into a real mighty piece, even as a form of lullaby. Why not toss in a really climactic chorus somewhere and then tone it down like a lullaby? There's some build up potential before 1:50, further on, there's 3:03. While there's nothing bad about how you instead tone these parts down, I don't quite like how you bring in the drums after the 3:03 section as that should be the calming, fading part. Towards the end of that, just before the last part where the woodwind comes in, there's room for a little build-up, only to make the last part appear even more calm. Speaking of which, the woodwind at the end sound really sequenced, so humanize it. It's a good arrangement, tho I'd like to see a big bad chorus part a little after the middle before everything is toned down. It fits its description as a rather lullaby-esque piece, but it could be grander and more epic. There's some sample tweaking to be done, and some humanization, but other than that it's good. I'm getting a sense of direction with this, although I can't put it in words. Direction is always good. In short: Arrangement ok, humanization, sample and effects tweaking required, climax requested. It's good. Make it better!

Go to the Utilities folder and open the Sound/MIDI app, whatever its english name may be. Select input there. I think I've always had to set mic inputs manually there, but I dunno, I rarely use a mic. At least checking there could help. Unless it's what you've been doing all along.

Like Fishy said, I said like Fishy said 3 times. I'm aware of it. And I agree.

Like Fishy said, the source is crackin'. Like Fishy said, you need bass here. Also, there's a lot more you can do in terms of arranging. Drums, for example, while cool and unusual, they could give so much more energy and life to the remix with more fills and more punch. Processing them right of course helps. As it's kind'a short, I'm not gonna comment anything on arranging further, just plan ahead. Trust me, it helps. Think of how you want the song to end, what the climax should be, how to lead up to that... all those things. The more ideas you have, the better. Good luck, and like Fishy said, it sounds like a promising first wip.

Yeah, the bass makes it sound much better. Nice. I'm hearing some extra little melodies thrown in, that's great too, fitting real nice. Plus it gives the remix a better frequency range. The intro trumpet and the woodwinds in the first part sound very sequenced, so work on giving them some more life. The melodies are ok, but tweak the volume. Long notes could get louder towards the end, which makes them more organic. Some of the short notes should probably be shorter, at least in the intro. Also, the very first trumpet note is louder than the others. Whether it's due to compression, two notes on the same spot, or just a different velocity setting, it doesn't sound good. The tambourine sounds a little too loud and snares and crashes aren't loud enough. There's a lot of annoying crackling noise. If you're trying for a vinyl sound, don't let it run through the whole dang song. At 0:43, there's a low string note that I think feels a bit out of place. Your transition is a cool idea, but it has to be much tighter. I still think a fill would work better. It becomes too long this way, slows everything down, and a row of the same notes sounds all the more sampled when they're this exposed. Do you think it sounds good as it is now? The break overall is really killing the pacing, and it's way too loud. It comes in a bit too late, and when it's extended as it is now, it's really annoying. Why not make a "theremin" solo there? It's the coolest and most organic sound you have in the whole remix, why not exploit it a little more? Also, you could work on extending this to contain a finale after the break. Now it's just more of an elevated ending or something of a bonus mini-track. But as I said, the extra melodies you've thrown in really give it flavor. So far so good, soon further, soon better. Right?

The intro is ok, although a bit boring. I like the arrangement, but it's a little long-ish. I suffer a similar problem with one of my remixes, so I know how it is. Drums first come off as newby, but work better a little further in. The count-in sounds too wannabe. Maybe it'd help to remove that break where the count-in occurs and let them count in earlier? Some guitars are better than others, the foreground ones sound better than the bg ones. 2:20, no problem listening so far, still exciting. There's enough change in it. Second time through, I'm noticing the flute or whatever it was, so it works well to listen to more than once. The panning started getting annoying at 3:00. Maybe it's just me, but I think the extremes should be reserved for reverb only. The orchestra feels very unbalanced due to how it's panned. See if you can improve that. Fute loops real ugly around 3:20, too annoying when it's essentially the solo instrument of that part of the remix. Reduce modulation, crossfade the loop, find a better sample, I dunno, do something about it. 4:30, still okay to listen to. And the ending is good. Mostly, it's some minor issues to fix. I recognized a lot of CT in this. While I don't remember if it was all Magus' theme, it sounds like you've got the original vs source ratio right. Plus this is a really enjoyable listen as it is, with a few improvements, it'll be great.

The flutes sound really sequenced. The strings sound like pads rather than strings. Also, there's some key-issues in that first part. When the ct theme comes in, it doesn't have any punch. Listen to what Tyler Heath did with it in Predetermination. That's punch, and it's still fitting with the orchestral feel. The transition toward the end from one theme to another feels kind'a forced, but that's the only arrangement issue that really bothers me. Turn off the reverb and work on the sequencing and try out different samples. I can't say what needs to be done, arrangement-wise, as it sounds ok to me, but it's muddy because of the reverb, and some samples need to be tweaked or replaced. Then, when it starts to sound a bit more played rather than sequenced, put the reverb back on, and start tweaking that. It's not bad, but there's a bunch of production issues to deal with. Good luck.

Sucks when that happens. I don't think it's gonna be accepted, seeing as it's unfinished and still needs a lot of refinement before getting to ocr. But depending on software, you might be able to extract the MIDI from it and just put all the track settings and automation from memory. I don't think anything like this could be on the site today, the bar is too high for that. Then again, some remixers do submit half-done remixes, thinking they're good. The judges usually shoot them down (the remixers, not the remixes), but they sometimes make it onto the site. So sure, go ahead. Whatever man, it's your remix.

Thief, I said newb, not n00b. As in new beginner, not as in retard. Check out other ppl's wips and the feedback they've been given, listen to music done with the same or similar tools as you work with... Read the appropriate guides and tutorials, and listen to your own works to spot stuff you like and stuff you don't. Fix the stuff you don't like. It's all about learning to listen to your own works, really.

It would be awesometastic if Tyler Heath or Jeremy Robson did it. But you're not them, so you're gonna find your own way of making it awesometastic. I'll give you a fix breakdown, but these are fixes remixers need to learn to spot themselves in their remixes. Myself included. 0:49 - Before this, the strings were a bit lagging. The strings sound too much like a pad and not like an orchestra. 1:07 - Loopy flute, the volume jumps too much. 1:30-1:34 - A bit too long and empty pause. pauses are good, but this one was empty. The one just before 1:50 is better. 2:00 - Around here, the strings sound lagging and pad-like again. 2:35 - The strings need a little more sharpness. If you have more strings samples, try those out. Nice build-up, tho. Works great until the higher strings come in, those are way too soft. 2:53 - Pizzicato panned to the left, strings at the right. In an orchestra, those are essentially the same instrument, just played differently. Higher strings are sitting somewhere, lower somewhere else, but pizzicato, legato, staccato, tremolo, all strings are played by the same instruments, even if they're played differently. 3:somewhere - What is the grande finale? Where is it? Some remixes put the action first, some put it last, and either of those work, but with an ending as long as yours, and no real payoff for the buildup mentioned before, this lacks that awesometasticality. 3:15-4:07 - Almost one minute of ending. It's beautiful, but not awesometastic. Awesometastic is a little more active, more energetic. I think it's your samples that are your biggest problem. These could be tweaked to work better. Some arrangement issues like no grande finale and a long ending, but mostly sample issues. Better samples, or better tweaked samples. That's improvements. However, this isn't bad, and you should really keep that in mind. It sounds unrefined, but not bad. Good luck!

I think the kick would fit better in metal, it's a bit too hard for this song. Try adding a bass that plays on the kick, just to give it some more flavor and make it less exposed. It's not a bad kick, but when it's laid bare like in this remix, it sounds unrefined. Follow the trombone's melody, but have the bass play on top of the kick. Also, the toms are terrible. Dude, come on. Tweak or replace. 0:21-0:47 - The melody is exactly the same. You could add small notes leading up to the next longer one. Try it out. If it doesn't end up sounding good, forget it and put the original melody back. But try it out. 1:04 - Add a fill to make drums more interesting. It doesn't have to be a series of toms, it can be some sudden stops or... well, something. See what you can come up with. 1:04 - I think you could lower the strings, possibly the trombone too. Works elsewhere, but there's a little too competition going on in this section. Also, see if you could add something to occupy the higher frequencies, like a hihat. Doesn't have to be a hihat, but every once in a while, this feels like everything it's cramped into the mids and lows, except the tambourine and the occational little crashes. Some rapid ride hits might work somewhere. And tweak the crashes, they're a little too soft and short. 1:31 - See if you can make this transition a little smoother with a cool fill. Could work well, since it's really simple and calm, then goes to fast and intense. Try it out. If it doesn't work, try something else. If nothing works, leave it as it is now. It could be more interesting, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, I'm still giving you lists of things to fix, but I'm impressed at how far you've come. Some ppl would have given up already. And btw, the theremin is really sounding cool now. Not saying it sounds like a theremin, but it sounds organic and fits in real well. Nice job!

Tweek, come on. Let the guy improve his work until he submits. Cleese, you're getting there, your work is close. Still has a bit of work left before it's good. Don't let anyone like Tweek tell you your stuff is perfect, 'cause nothing really is. But the stuff I mentioned before, plus Taucer's and Dafydd's criticisms, they're worth dealing with to improve this so it could get accepted.

I'm not gonna listen to it again until you fix those things I mentioned before. I'm looking forward to your next update.

I'm not familiar with source and am too lazy too look that up. There's some submission standards available on this site, it's good reading to know what the site is looking for in terms of arrangement and production. That said, I can't comment on the original content vs. source ratio and how interpreted the source is, but what I can tell you, I will. 0:10 - Wow, great samples so far. The first crash could be longer. 0:20 - Drums sound a bit empty when alone, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. 1:14, 1:34- You've incorporated the piano real good in this. I like it. 1:52 - Great break. Sounds a bit sampled here, tho. It needs a bit more life, more humanization. The half minute following this is a little repetitive, but still sounds ok to me. 2:50 - Panning is starting to bother me, especially that of the drums. 3:16 - Great break, once again, and the end of the break is really cool. 3:33 and forth - it's a little repetitive for a one minute finale and ending, and doesn't quite meet my expectations. It should be bigger, grander, and more climactic. It's not bad, but it's not quite great yet. Listen to this using headphones, you'll get a headache from the panning. That aside, there's really not much more I can say about how you can improve this. There's some humanization required at some places, some repetition to kill, either by cutting or by re-arranging, and then there's the finale that needs to sound like the ultimate finale. But this is a higher-quality wip. Sounds like it doesn't need much to meet the judges' approval. Then again, I haven't got any of mine approved yet. But great work and good luck submitting, whenever you do that!