Rozovian

Overall, I had trouble finding thje parts that are from source. Either I haven't quite memorized Kefka's theme, or that's not where it's from. Or, they're sneakishly hiddened someplacewhere in somekinda form. Anyway, this is a nice deviation from the usual newb techno I've heard a little too much of lately. I like the rythm the bass sets up, and props for using an organ instead of a standard synth. I like its sound, tho the same theme over and over again gets a little repetitive, but there's still variation enough to keep it from being more than moderately annoyingly so. You might want to find some piece of the original to fit in somewhere, break away from the two/three chords' progression you've used throughout. Also, when the drums come in, keep the hihat doing something, it sounds a little too empty to have just bass and snare. Note that it doesn't have to be the same as when it does come in the current version. Here's an idea, switch from pizzicato to staccato when you want to power up the mix. Break away from rhythm and beat just before letting everything crash down into a grande finale. Then, end the mix. It'll be a little short, but since there's just the same theme repetated with different instruments, you'd either have to add something (possible remove something as well), or keep it short. Overall, sound quality is all nice. You might want to avoid repeating yourself as much as you currently do. The hihat could need some kind of fill every once in a while, and you should keep an ear out for dynamics - less intense and more intense areas of the song. Dynamics is good. But more importantly, relisten to the original and incorporate more of that into this. It'll give you a better idea of what to add - even if it's just to end it - without repeating what you've played so far. This is a piece I'd gladly download once it's finished, so keep working on it.

It's a great source to remix, beautiful, and I can imagine a number of different ways to go with it. I'm not a big fan of bleepy synths, and while I find it annoyingly repetitive, it doesn't sound bad. The piano intro is beautiful, but the hihat doesn't quite fit in, at least not in the intro. The snare seems to have something of a plate reverb that doesn't sound good. Whatever it is, tweak it, or use another sample. Towards the end, it gets a more epic feel, whatever voxy synth you've got really adds a sense of scope. You should build towards a grande finale using that. And I'm really liking the break 1:12-1:20. This is all nice. I'd prefer to have this orchestral, but that's me. This is a good piece, worth developing further, and submitting.

1:35, when the first thing I recognize comes in... I'll be blunt. It sounds terrible. It clashes with the rest of it. Either you need some music theory, or you need to set your samples to the right tone. Otherwise, it's a decent tune. It's not too short, and it's not too long either, as many tend to be. And you've got an ending. Not all WIPs have one. The ending might be a little too long for some, tho, but I think that's just musical humor - I like it. Dancey and simple, while not musically impressive, is a nice way to start out. It's not too simple for my taste. It's just one horribly tuned instrument that puts me off. So, improvements. Find something recognizable to fit in earlier in the mix. You've got some harmonics problems already at 0:55, I guess it's the same instrument that the theme is played with. So fix those parts, because they don't fit harmonically. If you know what I mean but don't know what to do about it, just move all notes on that track a seminote up or down, and keep doing that until it sounds better. This kind of harmonic nightmare is very reminiscent of what I did when I started out with music... except the samples are higher quality. You'll learn. Just, listen and fix what you can, and post it here again. I want to hear how this _should_ sound.

I like the lo-fi effect at the start. It makes me expect a cheap techno mix, poorly encoded, so when at about 0:30 the song gets out of its intro, it sounds so much better. 3/4 techno has a very cool sound, tho I'm not sure this technically is 3/4. I'd probably refer to it as 3/4 too, tho, so what do I know? Compositionwise, I'd try to spice it up a bit more with slight deviations from what you've got right now, to make it less repetative. Not by adding instruments or parts, just by adding little breaks and... well, making it more varying. I'd also work a little more on dynamics and pacing. The rythm this piece has makes it a little choppy, and there are ways to counter that. Sometimes, it gets boring with the same rythm, so in parts where the theme isn't as clar, you might want to spread the sounds into the breaks you've otherwise got after every bass drum hit. Also, many of the best songs and remixes I've heard have had sections with less volume and intensity, and sections with more volume and intensity. It's called dynamics. I advice you to explore that. I wouldn't add sound effects. Some people do that, and not all of them do it well. The Wingless has a wonderful mix of Super Metroid that begins with rain and thunder, but that's only in the intro. Sound effects in songs tend to sound a little too cheesy, effectively saying "look at me, I'm pretending to be in-game soundtrack". I advice against it, but if you can make it sound good, don't let my advice stop you. Good luck. If and when you can make it sound good, do submit it to ocr.

I'm re-listening to see if I can spot some other things to comment on, and more advice than comments. Since I'm too lazy to find my earplugs and don't have any headphones with me, I can't judge the details of the remix, but the square lead either has the just right settings for ADSR - or you've got the right kind of reverb on it. If you have another flute, preverably one that's got a lesser breath or just a different sound, try using that instead of the square. The beat is less annoying this time through, but I'd still spice it up with fills, breaks, or added parts. If you got the bass-snare and the hihats as separate loops, you can change hihat loop. You should also try adding a loop with hihats on top of the current one. I'm not saying it sounds better, I'm saying it might. It could sound worse, tho, so use your own ears for that. When I do a varied enough peice, I try to re-use the same instruments. Even if it's for occational sections (like in your remix), it quickly establishes the sound from the isntruments introduced early, and when those instruments return later in the remix, they don't sound as out of place as they otherwise might. The at the break section stand out a little more this time through. I like them. You might want to consider setting the Decay to a little sooner, or the Sustain to a little lower (the ADSR setting - if you don't know what that is, ask or google). That'll make them fade towards the end. Shortening the notes and using the right Release setting also works. This will make them sound even better... unless you screw up the settings. If you have a more hi-fi piano, use it. Before (and after) the beat, the song sounds too lo-fi. While it's a pleasant surprise to have it rise in quality after only a few seconds, it's a bit annoying, especially when it goes back to that sound at the end of it. Raising the high frequencies on an EQ _might_ work, but it could just make it sound crappy. So try it out, and listen if it gets better. square section -1:31 backing synth intro -1:49 backed by synths -2:04 with windfish theme on piano -2:21 followed by theme with square... Anyway, this area here could be much tighter. The same chord progression doesn't quite give it enough deviation to make this listener appreciate the theme the second time it plays with the square. You could change the third chord to something else, to give it a little more variation. You should probably raise the volume on the piano in the -2:21 part. Also, this is a great place to shave a few seconds off the remix so it doesn't become tiresome to listen to. That's what it is, at its current >5 minutes. The backing synth could intro in during the square section that ends at 1:31, and the piano, as repetative as it is, could intro in after half the new "backed by synths" section . The "backing synth intro" part can be deleted, and voilà, it's all tightened up a bit. Try the same analysis on other parts and - without yet doing anything - think of ways to improve. This is the most painful part of the process, because you might have to throw out some of your favourite parts to make the song, as a whole, sound better. When editing movies, and when revising fiction - kill your favourites. You might have to do it here too. Note that this is advice, suggestions, guidance - NOT orders of any kind. It's _YOUR_ remix. The WIP section is here to give you advice, not to tell you how to turn your song into one of mine, or anyone else's.

Only know the windfish theme from remixes, so I can't comment on that. And I haven't played chrono cross either, so I'm judging it from a more uninformed POV. Could someone point out which part is from chrono cross? Starts of sounding a little lo-fi. Once the beat comes it, it repeats a little too quickly, so might want to add something there, or cut off half the beat-backed intro. The theme comes in nicely, tho the flute and the crash blend together which doesn't sound good. Towards the end of the theme, you might want to start building towards a first small climax before the oldschool wave comes in. Pads might work there. The oldschool synth, btw, is cool, but a little too loud. 1:40, before the backing synth comes in - all nice departure from the oldschool synth which tends to dominate the soundscape, but with the beat all the same it feels very repetative. You might want to do something about that. 2:22, the theme is back, and now it doesn't have half the feel it had when it did the first time. It's the dang beat that does it. 3:00, nice electric piano sound, tho very repetative and too poorly arranged, and with no transition to the next section... ..Which lost the repetative beat! Yay! It better be building towards a grande finale here, but I like the sound of it. 4:00, theme, beat, the old stuff, with little or no climax-feel. Would be perfect to add a deeper bassline or lose one of the bleepier backing synths. 5:00 - beautiful. Why? No repetative beat... no beat at all. No bleepy stuff. Nice. Tho the piano reminds me of that lo-fi vibe I had when it all started. But I like the ending. There you go, an analysis of your remix. I like this thing, tho the windfish theme feels like it has been done to death. And beyond. You need to add stuff to the beat, possibly change the beat alltogether in some places. Also, avoid throwing in an instrument which does its thing briefly, prominently, and repetatively, only to vanish after its 10 seconds of fame. Instead, use it to bridge sections, build climaxes, or to back the melody for a longer time. If I was a judge, you'd get a no. But you've got a lot of stuff incorporated into this. If you'd just bridge them together and tighten this thing up... and give it more dynamic range (soft-loud), then you'd get very different feedback.

Can't remember what it sounded like in the game (don't have the game at the moment). All good, until the synth comes in at about 0:35. While it's cool to have the occational synth, it feels a bit out of place, since this isn't a modern or future era game. Not to say it sounds bad, it's really cool, but I feel the orchestra could do it just as well, and without feeling as out of place. But, it's a matter of preference, and mine generally doesn't include mixing electronica and orchestra. 1:05 - Nice. Real nice. 1:30, the friggin' synth is getting the way of hearing a real cool orchestral score. Since I don't remember what the game sounded like, I can't compare that aspect of it, and don't know how much of that is original and how much is straight from the game, but regardless, it's all great. And as mentioned by others, the percussion is amazing. Even through laptop speakers. What does that tell you? So, the judges? They'll be amazed. Depending on how much of this is your own works and how much in unmodified from the game, it's, at worst, a borderline no. I'd pass it, but I'm not a judge, I don't remember the game score, and I don't have proper speakers where I'm at right now. Borderline no to definite yes, that's where you're at, I think. Good luck.

Gotta agree with Knives on a lot of that. It's a crazy tune, and I don't mean that in a good way. To me, it sounds like you took a midi file and set every instrument to be a slow-attack, mid-range synth. Looking at midi files is a good way to start learning how to remix, but it's best not to change any isntruments or do anything before you know what direction you want to go with a remix. In this case, it sounds like an experiment, and I don't mean related to the genre "experimental". Try taking just the main melody from here, and creating different accompanying melodies, rythms, riffs, and beats. It would of course help if you could tell us what software you've used, so we can give more appropriate instructions. But the best advice I can give you is: listen to music, lots, lots, and lots of music - not just from OCR and video games in general, but listen to internet radio, ordinary radio, mtv, you parents', your grandparents' music... everything. While you're at it, be very critical about the music you find in the electronica genres, if that's where you're heading. Learn to spot flaws and find room for improvement. And don't forget to apply that to your own works. But for now, listen to music, listen to advice, and play around with what you've got. If it doesn't sound half as good as the stuff that gets approved to OCR, don't sweat it. My first songs sucked more than this one does. Just listen, compare, and learn.

Starts off a little mellow. The bass is a little weak (on my poor speakers at least), drums too. Not until the first snare hit does it seem like the song starts off. After that, it's okay - 'til 00:35 when it reall kicks off. The bass is maybe an octave too high at the 00:45-01:07 section, that part total lacks force. 01:35, the guitar sounds a little too high-freq, and a bit GM. Plus it eats the synth, so bring it down a bit there. And as you are probably full aware, you need an ending. I like it. I've been meaning to do a MMX song. This one is good enough to keep me from trying to top it... for now.

I officially declare myself awake too late... so late it's past early. I saw this WIP and thought: "nice, someone's made a secret of mana remix". Then I read the names of the themes, and clicked the song. Not until then did I notice, in the url, the name "Darkesword". I though: "What the h, who's getting hosted by Darkesword?" A lesson for y'all, read before you click. It starts off pretty neat, tho it feels the bells have been cut off a little too far. I know highh-freq instruments like those are difficult to mix, but this is a little too much. The choir samples are what they are - they're better than mine, but feel a little too dark. Anyone who's read more than one of my replies on the WIP forum should know by know what I think about mixing electronica and orchestral. This is yet another example of the kind of type mix I don't like. It's not bad, it's personal preference. The beat, tho, seems to suffer from the cutoff or some other effect. Is there a bitcrusher on it in some places? Arrangementwise, it's pretty. Real pretty. The bells don't always fit harmonically, but they're far enough in the background for it not to matter. Something that does bother me is a whispery noise that seems to follow the flute. The effects on the beat at the end of the song are cool, but clash a little with the overall feel of the song. The ending is a highpoint, both for the neat effects and for the bells at the end. About half way, the song takes a little pause, a well deserved - and beautiful - pause from the beat. I guess any edits would be personal preference-based edits, there's no technical flaws with this one. It's got dynamics, it's got variation, it's got good samples, it's got a nice arrangement, it's got two memorable themes... It's got it all. Just lose that noise.

Dont submit it yet, it'll be rejected for being repetitive. I like the sounds. Not sure how high-quality they are, but they're cool. The wave thing in the background, tho, I'd lose that, or only use it to bridge this with another part. I suggest you write a second part to this, preferably with a wider harmonic range (this one's just up in the high range). You can bring it down an octave, add a bass instrument, and make little breaks from the rythm a little here and there. Build that up to a grand finale, and end the song. As it is now, it's really nothing more than a nice little loop. Argh, second time listening it through, and I'm getting tired of it. What does that tell you?

Reverb makes anything orchestral sound better. Not too little, not too much. Unfortunately, GB doesn't have many effect slots, so set the reverb settings on the master track and apply the standard reverb to each track individually. And carefully. That's quick advice for using an orchestral setting for the music. Someone with more experience could probably whip up something more in-depth. I used GB before I got Logic Express. Aside from the lack of orchestral instruments, I didn't have any pressing need for any additional sounds to make music I was satisified with. Much in in the mix rather than the source samples. If the samples aren't bad, you can make good music even tho the samples aren't that good. I've heard a couple of cool darkworld ReMixes, and recently played the game again, too. It's a fairly easy theme to work with, at least if you get the MIDI from somewhere. It helps. GB can import MIDI, just drag n' drop into GB and it's done. Take what you need and rework it. Voilà, it's a ReMix.

If iTunes is set to use mp3 as the standard import format, you can convert m4a in iTunes. Using less app- or platform-specific software is usually a good thing if you want people to listen to it. On a mac, Safari's having no problem running it with Quicktime in-browser, tho. Anyway, the song begins with a solo voice being panned forth and back between the channels. The panning is a little annoying, but it's not as bad as it looks. Another voice joins in, it's all very epic, and while I try to avoid the human voice in remixes, this is a quality piece enough to be worth listening to. Then, the SNES darkworld theme comes in, played on, and along with others; synthy bleepy things - all backed with your everyday techno bass drum. The arrangement becomes quite repetative, and the mixing of genres doesn't work well here. Save up a hundred bucks and get yourself the Jam Packs and redo this with samples fitting the beginning. At least find some better instrument choices among the ones you've got, the bleepy synths are ruining this song for me. It's not impossible to make epic/ethereal techno, but this isn't it, and the two don't blend well in this one. GarageBand suggestion: use the analog pad, set it to be smooth, modulate slightly, set length to about 20%, play a melody, slowly, and use it to bridge the voice and the techno. That's something I'd try, anyway. And finally... You need and ending.

Two word of advice: Download demos.

You could put in the main theme at 1:05, at 1:34, 1:49, 2:05 (which is reminiscent of a section of Green Brinstar from Super Metroid); any of those places would work. 1:05 even sounds like the theme was there, for a note or so. The only place I recognize anything from the Darkworld music is at 0:36-1:05, so it does need the theme. This isn't the kind of techno I enjoy, it's a little too noisy and cluttered with notes. It's also mostly in the high frequencies, and while it doesn't sound bad, I'd like to hear something filling up the mid range as well. The cutoff section at around 2:30 is really enjoyable, as the sharpest stuff is cut. I think you could leave it at the level it was at about 2:40, it's just easier to listen to. That's all personal preference, though. I like this. A little too much in the high range and not having much recognizeable in it, but even so, it's listenable and enjoyable. But lose the Final Countdown part. Really.

I've been working on a mix of the Faron Woods music myself, tho that's far more an orchestral/non-electronic tune. It's a great source material to base something on. I don't like how the drums go in the transition at about 0:45, and since the drums are kind'a prominent in the mix, that could be a problem. What's good about it is that the recognizable background notes come into play there, as the drums step back. At 1:05 the m ain theme begins to play. You don't make a big deal out of it, it just appears. Further on, there's some harmonic problems with the higher-pitch piano notes, the background synth sounds, and the theme, it's most prominent at 1:28 and 1:35. 2:05 - enter the mid section. Nothing to say about that. It's not bad, but with the drums as loud as they are, they sort'a cover the rest of the music. That kills much of the dynamics that this material could do. 2:45 - finally, the drums stopped for ten seconds. Instantly, the song sounded better. What does that tell you? The drums are too loud. They're otherwise good sounding, they're just too loud. The ending is good, I like how you've found an original arrangement that fits the feel of the song. And that arrangement fits the ending perfectly. Dynamically, this song needs work. Bring down the drums and find some other instrument that can drive the song at different places. The drums are good (except in the transition at 0:45), just too loud, so bring them down and see what other instrument you could use to drive the song. The piano can do this quite well, and the woodwind playing the theme can do that as well - where it does play. I can't say I'm fond of this way of blending synthetic and orchestral instruments, but it works, and it's not half as bad as I thought it'd be when I started listening. That's a compliment. I'd say this song is worth submitting, once you've worked out these little issues, but do post here on the WIP forum first, just in case.

The arrangement is pretty much the same as the game, tho at 1:50, things start happening. Nice that you've thrown in the boss version as well, but the rest of the song is boring, repetative, and sound dull. Like Dafydd says, vary velocity. Tho I onder how much of these is just straight from the MIDI. You should consider reworking the first one and a half minutes of it, by swapping instruments around, or at least adding little events, like drum fills - just not with drums. Little things that happen to it. Listen to this. Most of the time it's the same theme over and over and over, but in so many different ways. WIth Luigi's Mansion theme, you can do the same, in different psooky styles (or whatever else you wanna go for). The sound sucks. Sorry buddy, but it does. I know it's not easy to get good samples (I spent a fair amount of money on mine), but that's not an excuse. There's some links on the remixing forum that might help you. Overall, it sounds very MIDI-ish. The samples don't have much articulation, they're boring, really. I don't know how GPO works (and don't have any need to, either), but there's good samples out there. They also sound a bit lo-fi. So this song being rejected isn't a wrong call from whomever was responsible for it. It needs more work. Try listening to a couple of songs in a similar sound, at least in terms of pacing and/or instruments, preferably more recent ones, so you won't get fooled by the lower quality of the older ones.

Nice to know I've said something useful. Note that what I said about GB was with an older version, one that didn't have mp3 export and a number of other fancy features. It's usually a good idea to check a program's feature list on the developer's website, so do that to see what your version of GB can do. But look for some free Audio Units if you want to use samples... unless GB nowadays come with a sampler instrument as well.

The past two posts, plus this one, should probably be its own thread. Maybe someone should do a guide to mac remixing software and tips. Anyway, I use Logic express. It costs a little, but works fine for me. It doesn't really come with a good way of importing your own samples (not that I've found, at least), but there's a free Audio Unit synth that can be used for those samples. Also, Logic is compatible with the Jam Packs, and I've only begun to explore what the two I've got can do. Even so, using the Jam Packs with Garageband probably works just as well. You can get a lot of different sounds from most of those instruments using the modulation wheel (or entering modulation wheel commands with the mouse). There's some manuals on apple's website that explains just what the Jam Pack instsruments can do. I don't think GarageBand can't do good music. Note that it can also import MIDI. Drag n' drop a MIDI file into GB and voilà, you've imported it. I don't have much, if any, experience with the other sortware Yoozer suggested, but if you're short on cash, I suggest getting a Jam Pack and using GarageBand.

MOD is a tracker format. There's probably a tracker app out there that can convert and/or export to MIDI. Learn more about MODs and trackers at Modarchive. There's mod players, and then there's trackers. Trackers are sequencers for mod and related formats (such as s3m, xm, it). I don't know how it is on the windows side, but the OS X tracker I've got has a number of export functions. Don't remember if MIDI is one of them, tho. A tracker is your best bet for converting mod to midi.

Nice, a Prime mix. Too few of those on here. You might want to consider changing the intro a little, it feels kind'a weak. You could be more selective as to how prominent the choir should be. It sort'a takes over during the first minute - save the loudest choir part of the choir climax, wherever you feel that is. What's going on at 2:30? It feels out of place. It might be because I haven't played Prime in quite some time, but even so, it feels out of place. I don't mind the rest of the crammed together themes, but it does feel like a megamix (or minimegamix) - which I'm not much of a fan of. At 2:20 I started feeling like the drums needed something more, so add some fills wherever appropriate before then. At 0:48 and 3:14, possibly at other places as well, I got a little annoyed with the repetative crashes/splashes. I doubt it's the only cymbal sample you have, so mix it up a little more. Also, for the final mix, I would turn down the drums a bit, as they get pretty repetative. Also, as they sound pretty mundane they don't really have the energy to drive the song. I'm not sure this accurately fits my experience with Prime. There's a few too many things going on, musically, to fit the mood. But experiences vary, so that's no big deal. That's what I think.

I like the arrangement, tho not the sounds themselves as much. As for continuing it, I would put in the next section of the original arrangement, however rearranged you want to make it; along with a fast hihat. But that's me.

I've made a remix and submitted it. In a few months or whenever our busy judges make the time to deal with the submissions, you might be getting a remix of it. That's up to the judges. Thanks, btw, for linking the original. It helped a lot.

I don't know what lines you're talking about, but I think it's the TV frame rate that's causing your problems. Try increasing shutter speed time on the camera (if the camera can do that). If you have some kind of hard drive recorder, you should plug the cube to that, and the recorder to the TV. If not, and you can't change the shutter speed, I can only suggest trying to plug the cube into another device. I doubt the camera can record an input signal.

Hello, my name is Rozovian, and I'm a video game remix downloader. (Hello, Rho.) I'm working on a couple of remixes I'm hoping to complete and submit soon, and thought I might as well join the forum. I'm mostly into Metroid and Zelda, but play most of the games my gamer brother buys. There's a number of nintendo consoles in our house, plus a ps2. Then there's a number of Macs, but that's not as important. I'm also an avid origin debater, but that's as irrelevant here as the length of my beard (which will remain a secret for now, more so than my sex). Greetings from Finland. Call me Rho.