Rozovian

Song of Storms in 4/4. Raw drums on top of a repetition. Mario melody on a muffled synth brass. Harsh synth zither melody added. Piercing high-frequency high-resonance thing. DKC source in the background. Lots of stuff happening at once with little separation. Zither finally stopped. Track ends rather abruptly. The sources work together better than expected. I was expecting a medley, not... whatever this is. But it's a very blocky arrangement, based around adding another layer on top of loops of previous parts. At the very least, expressive instruments like the piano shouldn't just be looped, they should be dynamically appropriate for the overall track dynamics. At the very least, use filter automation to bring forward or push back synths. At the very least, have some variation in the drums. Arrangements in layers of loops like this aren't bad, but they're hard to do well. You should also consider which source is the dominant one that this would primarily be listed under, if it got accepted sometime, and probably give that a little more focus. Go over your track levels and then use EQ to further separate them and control the focus of the listener. Listen through this again and ask yourself what the listener will be focused on (hint: the zither-like synth is very loud and bright). The sound is too raw, the mix is too haphazard, the arrangement is blocky and lacks direction and focus. Not fit for ocr like this. I think this is an excellent track to practice your production skills on, work with the sound, get the mix just right. Good luck and have fun.

This is a pre-mod review review, so not a full one. My initial impression is that it's bright and brittle, and needs some proper bass. A lot of it is repetition with some sharp wubs, strange tempo changing breaks, or annoying effects. Track level and eq should probably be looked at some more. Compare it with well-mixed tracks of the same style and figure out how to balance it accordingly. I think the arrangement is rather good, but I mostly know the source from other remixes and not form the original so I can't say how much is your arrangement and how much is the source. Proper mod review coming soon.

I wrote a guide to remixing, making music, whatever. The Workshop has plenty of resources as well, like zircon's Getting Started thread. The hard part is the first note, the first sound, the first instrument, the first of everything. We're not gonna hold your hand and pat you on the back for every step of the way. Look through these guides, get started with getting some sound out of your software, and you're well on your way already.

If the drums are otherwise strong enough to stand on their own, you can just drop out the previous drums and use something lighter. I imagine a breakbeat could easily be interrupted with a filtered percussion loop for a measure before going into full gear... without a cymbal even starting it off. The psychological effect you're after is to signal the listener that you're approach the end of a passage and something big is going to happen, whether this is a big breakdown or a big chorus. So you have to signal this change somehow. You can give you last snare hit (or even the last beat or the whole measure's drums) a glitchy stretch effect, where instead of remaining percussive, they morph into a glitchy texture instead. You can drop out the main drums and use a lighter or filtered kit. You can write a fill using non-cymbal elements of a drum kit. You can reverse everything but the kickdrum (or reverse that one too). Non-drum solutions, like the backwards piano Argle suggested, also work. The trick here is that you have to pick a note or chord that is going to lead into the next part well. Unlike cymbals and white noise, which doesn't have a lot of tonal information and is instead noise with a particular timbre (to our ears, anyway), you have to pick something that won't clash with the key the preceding nor following part, and it has to work, tonally, even if it wasn't reversed. In C major, you can start your chorus on an F, so Em, G or Am should work well. Dm will be more awkward, C might not be much of a change from the preceding part (depending on the chords there, of course), and Bm generally doesn't agree with F particularly well. If you know how to move between keys and scales, you can apply that here. Theory and my guesswork won't take you all the way, use your ears. It's all about signaling the listener.

First post edited. it's time for album evals once we get the last track in. After that, we'll see what judges and mods say about it all. I suspect a number of tracks will need some refinement, and I fear a track or two might not meet the standards at all, but if they can't be fixed, they'll be bonus tracks. No more delays, if it can be helped. Also, this album is going to be spectacularly awesome. You guys have no idea how much awesome we've kept secret from you all.

That source is a remix of Fear Factory, so at least parts of it has been remixed.

The ostinato ties it together well. Spectacular work... as usual? hwere u downlaod skill?

Shaggy is right. Switch to mono, separate your keyboards with levels, eq and whatever else you need, switch back to stereo, pan if you want to. We need more odd time sigs. Sweet stuff.

If it's not marked for mod review, I'm under no obligation to review anything. If I feel like it, and have time, I might listen and comment anyway. Funny how all the mods are around, and nobody marks anything for mod review. Also, dudes, I added a useful little link to the first post. Cmd-f "mod rev" cmd-g-g-g-g, next page cmd-g-g-g repeat has worked for me, never had to use the sort/filter thing.

For me, it's a few reasons. Accessibility. The old stuff didn't have as much sound design to fall back on, the instruments sound the same for most games, so it's easier to analyze. Modern soundtracks can have just about any sound, no matter how complex, and that makes half the job of figuring out a source just sifting through sound design looking for notes. That older games have been covered and remixed before, and that there are midi and note resources around makes older stuff easier. The lower polyphony of the old stuff also helps. The older stuff is also shorter, usually. On the flip side, the adaptive soundtracks of today aren't so much individual songs as it's individual elements of a soundscape, eg a combat loop, a puzzle loop, an action loop, and a neutral loop; rather than a single looping song, which makes finding a good source for the music harder, makes the whole thing harder to analyze (again), and makes the whole thing less likely to get stuck in your head. It all adds up to older stuff simply being easier to work with. On a prior note, memorability. Not all soundtracks today stick in your head. Adaptive soundtracks, cinematic soundscaping over melody, less exposure to the same songs, shorter games... it all adds up to the newer stuff just not sticking in your head as well. And there's a feedback effect here too. We hear remixes of older stuff, so we're reminded of older stuff, so we look up older stuff, so we think more about older stuff, so we remix more older stuff, so people hear more remixes of older stuff. And finally nostalgia. We not only remember old stuff, we like how we feel about it. It takes us back to simpler times; and to better games, we might think. We like that one old game, so we want to show our appreciation for it. We might like a much newer game too, but it's harder to remix, and we don't have all the memories of it, not yet anyway. My F-Zero GX mix is of a 4-5 year old game at the time. That's the most fresh source I've finished a remix of. By now, my Mirror's Edge remix would be about as fresh, if I could just find a vocalist for it. We could probably raise ocr's profile a bit by remixing newer games, but it's entirely up to the remixers what they want to remix.

Nice, this source needs some love. Your intro beeps all sound heavily compressed. If I'm not mistaken, the first sound is an FM sound, so the dynamics of the carrier signal might need adjusting. It seems to work fine later in the track, but when so exposed in the intro the lack of dynamics in the sounds themselves is so much more apparent. The first break feels weak to me. The slow attacking brass-y synth in the following part seems a bit too loud, and the square-ish lead doesn't quite have the bite the rest of the instrumentation suggests it should. I like the juxtaposition of these calm, square timbres with the aggressive synths and DnB stuff, but they don't work that well in the same parts. I'm not saying you can't use calmer timbres for leads, but it doesn't quite gel with the backing synths as those are more saw-like, sharp, rich and aggressive. Ending is too abrupt, and the last big part doesn't quite feel big enough. A change in lead synth might help, and a transition to a more square/triangle-dominated reprise of it might signal the end of the track more clearly than just using the ostinato from the beginning. It's got some nice power to it. The dynamics and sound choices could use some work. I'm not sure the arrangement makes sense atm, it's just "soft part hard part soft part hard part soft part hard part" end. The later hard parts should be bigger, and the soft parts could be more varied to control momentum and anticipation. Cool stuff.

Never heard of this game. Not bad. The formant filter is fun, but should probably have a bit more motion in it.

No worries. I'm glad it's useful. And here I thought it was all over the place. It's in my sig. Apparently people don't read sigs.

Pauses and rhythm.

You can use whatever you want for your remixes... but if you want it to become an ocremix, it can't contain sound effects from Square-Enix games - which includes Final Fantasy. As long as this requirement is met, sound effects shouldn't be a problem. Judges (and other listeners) can have different opinions of what constitutes good sound effect usage in remixes, but they can't reject it on stuff like that. If the remix meets the submission standards, it gets posted. As for other listeners, I'm generally opposed to sound effects in remixes. Generally.

That's the beauty of it. Most remixers have no idea what the others have done. Except those that saw the previews. More previews coming later.

The thing about mixing is that instruments in a good mix don't encroach on each other's territory. They all have their place, and will sound weird on their own. You might have to automate track levels or even some eq parameters or reverb mix to put instruments in place after they've had a solo part. You can't mix until you have things to mix. You can design your sounds, but you cant put them together until you have more than one of them. You can't mix piano if all you have is a piano. Once you have more instruments, you have to change their sound so they sound good together - and that's what mixing is. Get a few instruments together and make them sound good together. Write what you need to write to test, whether that's gonna be in the final song or not. If you're a melody-focused person, write the melodies and add the rest later. If you're an arrangement-focused person, write out the arrangement first and worry about the rest later. If you're a production-focused person, get your instruments t sound good first and worry about the rest later. Everyone does it differently, but there's some thoughts on how you can get started. You're overthinking it. Add instruments, add notes, mix, fix.

No problem. Merged them into this thread. Having 5 different tracks here means people might not know which one to focus on, so they don't give you a lot of feedback. Maybe it's too much to listen to. We have a rule about posting lots of songs in the same thread because it's usually more effective to focus on just one song. Perhaps more important is the rule we have about posting lots of threads, because that clutters up the forum.

Sounds less like a castle and more like a summer day at a shoreside café or something. Maybe that's something you can explore in a less cover-y arrangement, because ocr really needs more accordion. Friggin' synths and guitars all over the place. Supercool superstuff.

Really nice, jazzy arrangement. Not too sold on the lead, but it works ok. Percussion gets repetitive. Not sure how much longer the remix needs to be, as long as it has a good ending. Cool stuff.

Mike, maybe you should focus on just one or two of your tracks. You've got three threads in the forum now, for a total of 5 tracks.

The long guitar intro didn't quite gel with me, though I see how it works dynamically. It's not like it's the focus of the track, but the percussion stuff gets quite same-y. It gets a bit thick around 5:00, you could probably eq down the mids of the background stuff around there, or otherwise get them out of the way. 5:55 might be a little messy, but it's not a big deal, especially if you solve the issue at 5:00. It takes a while to get to the vgm parts (unless I'm missing something, it's been a while since I listened to either of the originals), so if you're thinking of submitting it to ocr, it might be too liberal. Didn't stopwatch it, though, so I dunno. That's not saying I didn't clearly hear the CT theme and the AA melodies later in the track - I did, and the whole thing is pretty sweet. Cool stuff.

Where can I download these skills?

Short and sweet.

I would assume it's a case of having convolution positions for a lot of locations in the orchestra. Convolution reverbs use "impulse responses", IRs, that are recordings of a single loud transient in a room, and using it means you get the sound of whatever you use it on _as if played from that position in that room as recorded_. The limitation is that everything would seem to come from the same point in the room. I don't think that's a big problem for most of us, but it wouldn't surprise me that a big production would warrant a more realistic and wide sound. Multiple convolution reverbs with different IRs based on different locations of the room would produce something more like a real orchestra's positioning of instruments, should you choose to space out your instruments that way. That might be what he did.