Rozovian

Thread moved to recruit&collab. Guys, stop trolling the guy. If you don't have anything reasonable to offer, get out of the thread. SJSOFT, provide some screenshots or something. A lot of developers drop by with little more than a concept, and most don't get off the ground. Is there a game, or is there just "gonna be" a game? You need to provide more information.

How to make a preview: Pick songs. In my case, pick from a set of 59 tracks. Eliminate tracks the artists have requested we not include in previews and things. Eliminate legacy tracks. We do wanna keep them on the album, but maybe they needn't be on the preview. Eliminate similar tracks. Yes, we have a lot of big epic orchestra. Yes we have a fair amount of metal. We only have one waltz and one ska track. We don't wanna reveal everything just yet. We also don't want to make the preview too monotonous. Pick one track per artist. Yes, Archangel, The Dual Dragons, and Meteo Xavier all have plenty of tracks. They're also awesome. No, it's not just their project. No more than one track per artist. Eliminate source overlap. Medleys, cameos, the source itself using another source... That stuff. Frivolously reduce the number of remaining tracks arbitrarily. In my case, that leaves 24 tracks left. Make up a playlist of how to show tracks in the preview. Make it long. End up with 10 tracks. Consider making 6-7 preview vids. Reject that idea. -- So that's my progress on the preview. I'll keep screwing with the tracklist for the preview some more. The plan is to end up with something like 15 tracks that sound good together, and save the rest for subsequent previews. That'll give our amazing artists a bit more time for the preview art, and will keep me from trying to do an all-nighter while it's still Sunday in some time zone to stick to my promise. I need to learn to phrase my promises more ambiguously.

Hey! Super-lazy mega-unproductive ppl ultra-delaying the music side of the project... like Rozovian, Archangel, Usa... Whatevs, you know who you are and whether your track is blue or not. Get your tracks done! We're so close, it's silly to not get this thing finished now. Reminders coming to your inboxes soon. btw, hakstock... did you send a wav? I don't think I have it. Preview is coming. I'll do it this week with whatever art we have. Promise.

No, compare it to other tracks, other music in similar styles. Is their bass as loud in the mix as yours is in your mix? Are their guitars as loud in the mix as yours? This isn't about headphones or listening gear, this is about how the sounds fit together. I think the best explanation for dynamics is intensity. To the audio engineer, it simply means how much the loudness varies over the course of the track. Classical music is very dynamic. Dance-y pop music and plenty of electronica isn't very dynamic at all. A track should have both softer parts and louder parts, less intense and more intense parts. And this applies to the smaller parts of the mix, too. A drum loop can be very flat, dynamically, which means it doesn't have much change in loudness and every note is the same level; or it can have a natural groove, where some notes are softer than others to make the rhythm more alive.

Compare. Find something in a style similar to what you wanna do, something mixed and produced well, and compare. Don't expect to be able to match everything, just focus on the general sound. Is your bass too bassy, or not bassy enough? Is it too loud or too soft? Is the background stuff too far in the background, or not far enough? Is the lead too loud and upfront, or is it too far back or too soft? Do your drums punch through enough, or too much? There's clearly a few effects here, it's all about using them to put everything in their place. You won't necessarily know where that place is, so listening to other ppl's work and figuring out their mix helps a lot in figuring out what works and what doesn't, and how everything should sit well... Or possibly, what they did wrong that you can avoid. Here I hear the drums lacking processing, they don't have enough power. Guitars are loud. Bass is loud. Then there's dynamics, humanization and all kinds of other things that'd improve the track, but there's a start. Hope that's helpful.

One of my fav Halo tracks. Right off the bat, I notice the drums being a simple loop. Not only isn't there that much dynamics to it as it goes on (except an extreme one before the B part), but there's not a lot of dynamics to the loop itself, either. The original has a cool groove because the drums vary in strength. Do that. Arrangement isn't for ocr, it's too conservative. It's a good source to play with, because it only has four elements - the drum rhythm, the choir part, the B part bass and pad melodies. Once you know those elements, you can work out how you wanna arrange them. For a non-ocr remix, this isn't necessary. Sound design could use some work. there's nothing wrong with using a raw waveform synth, but it does stand out as the one sound that feels out of place here. I'm sure it can be done well, but that'd take plenty of screwing with the mix. I would suggest going for some overall sound, either something organic (the drums and choir count) or something synthetic (like the synth melody here), and picking individual instruments that fit that sound and work well together. Find a cohesive sound. Overall, it just feels like a remix made just to make a remix rather than something based on an idea. What is it you're trying to do with this track? Have fun with the rhythms? Play with the bassline? Convey a specific emotion or hint at a story? You're new at this, so I wouldn't expect everything to be excellent. And this isn't terrible. It just isn't interesting either. Keep at it. You'll get there.

Your link was bad. I fixed it for you.

It's a pretty cool sound.I think I'd start with a slow bass drop, maybe not even that bassy, and run it through a long karplus-strong algorithm to get that raw string/twang tone. It'd probably get me in the ballpark, so I could tweak the source sound or the algorithm (probably the filter settings or feedback amount) to get something closer. REAKTOR could do it. You might have some luck with ohysical modeling synths. It should be possible to get something similar with a really short delay outside of physical modelings synths as well. You'd just have to work out what the tone you want is in milliseconds. I think there was a thread for that, although the math isn't that hard.

The best way to get involved in a music-making community is to make music and share it. We've got two subforums for that, for vgm remixes and for everything else. When it comes to projects, it completely depends on the project director. Maybe the project director just wants remixers from the first few years of ocr, or maybe the ones that joined about the same time as he did. Maybe he wants only established electronic remixers, or only wants ppl from outside of ocr. Or, usually, he starts by inviting some ppl he knows and whom he knows makes ocr-level music, and then opens the project for anyone to apply. Obviously, he can still say no to applicants, if he doesn't think they're good enough yet, if their work doesn't match the style and direction of the project, or if he arbitrarily doesn't feel like having them on board. Most project leads aren't such asshats, tho, and usually welcome anyone that can make stuff that fits the project direction and expected quality. So when it comes to remix projects, check out the project thread and/or shoot a PM to the project director and ask. As for competitions, it depends on the type of competition. The Mega Man compos DarkeSword has run has had a fixed number of entrants, because of how the compo elimination works. Other compos are open to any number of ppl. Just check out the info on each compo and see when you can join. Anyone that's made a track enjoys reading what ppl thought of it. If it's an official, posted ocremix remix, you can leave comments in the track's review thread. If it's in one of the aforementioned subforums, it might be a work in progress, where feedback might help make the track better. Besides, interest in a track tends to motivate new remixers, so if you have nothing to say besides that you like an unfinished track, even that can be helpful. If you have some constructive criticism, that's also appreciated. Even better if you have both. Beyond that, ppl enjoy talking about stuff. Games, music, and a whole lot of other things. Join a discussion on something you like. Just do stuff and get to know ppl here.

Pretty kickass stuff.

Dat bass... ...is a bit too loud. The low end could be a bit more controlled, which might yield a little more headroom for a little more loudness. As if this track needed to be louder. Not sure I like the choice of bass drum, but that's me. Not sure about the more or less sourceless verse parts. It's undoubtedly a remix of Goron City, but Larry's stopwatch might have an issue with it. Flows well (bass drum oddities aside), overall mix is fine, lyrics are fun... So yeah, possibly too bassy, possibly too much sourceless stuff, but beyond that, I don't see why this wouldn't pass. Also, it's barrels of fun. /mr

Xylophone is a tricky thing to work with, it never sounds quite right, whether it's the mixing or the timing. I'm not at all bothered by the timing here, it works fine. It's quite bright and annoying tho. Notice how the track becomes so much more pleasant at 1:38 when the piano takes over. But that's not the xylophone's fault, sounds like the bells are a bigger problem. Those could be a lot softer and probably have their harshest frequencies cut with a really narrow 10dB cut. I do that on bell-like sounds that are too shrill, and it sounds like you could use that trick here. So yeah, xylophone is fine. Works well. If it has any glaring problems, they're currently masked by the loud bells and other things. The rain effect is a bit loud, and I wonder if the piano melody would work better an octave down. Not my call, but I thought I'd suggest it. The part after the break has a lot of loud instruments, you could probably spend some ear time figuring out what's too loud there and do some subtle level edits. Drums feel clunky. You could probably work with their timing a bit. Sounds quite conservative. There's a lot added behind the melody, but I'm not sure it's enough to get posted. Only one way to find out, tho. Soundwise, this is some of the best stuff I've heard from you. Keep going.

I could be lazy and do a Flex review too. Cuz this doesn't need much more than that. But I keep hearing these little weird noises. It shouldn't be clipping, but I'm hearing some kind of distortion or noise on the loud notes in the intro. At 0:46 and on, there's like a snare hitting on every other beat. Maybe it's just a bad piano with clipping samples and odd noises and no round robins. Maybe you thought it was appropriate to put a soft snare sound under every other beat. I don't know. But I keep hearing it, and it bothers me. There's some timing things that bother me too, but those seem more like artistic choice things. I'm not gonna nitpick about that. See if I'm imagining those noises, what you can do about them if I'm not, before subbing. I don't think they'd get in the way of getting this posted, but I'm pretty sure they'd bother you once this was posted and you noticed them. Unless I'm imagining them.

Yeah, plenty of vanilla sounds, but that's not a big problem if the track is engaging. I'm missing crashes and other punctuation between parts. Each part just comes and goes without a lot of transitioning. They're not big abrupt changes, but it feels like it's missing something. I think some crashes and other end/beginning "punctuation" between parts would help. The track is essentially drums + sync lead + background stuff. The individual instruments don't quite sit right as a cohesive whole. Maybe a softer bass drum, a more muffled bass, and a softer sync lead would make the parts sit better. Softening things means you can make the whole track a tad louder, tho that's secondary to making the mix better. I'd also screw a bit with EQ to give each instruments its own space in the frequency range. Not too much, just enough to make them sit better together. Source is there, and it's a nice take on the source. Track overall flows well. Feels a bit short, but it's better than feeling too long. Step back from knowing how you've mixed the sounds and just listen and compare this to modern electronic tracks (or whatever sound you're going for). How is it different, and what can you do about that? I'm not talking about copying another sound, just the principles behind how it's mixed, how loud, prominent, wide, sharp etc different instruments are, and what their roles are. You can learn a lot from just quick comparisons. Not quite there yet, but not a lot in the way of getting there, either. /mr

That snare is superweak. Chip stuff might be too loud. Not sure about the juxtaposition of simple chip sounds and the motion in the dubstep synths synths. I'm sure there's a good middle ground that works fine, but I this isn't it. Not sure how big a problem it is, but it bothers me. The track moves well, although the first half feels a little repetitive when the breaks in the bass get predictable. Not a big problem, but it could be more interesting. Ending doesn't come with much of a payoff. It's not a bad ending, it's just not a good ending either. Source is there. I like how different this feels form the Zeromus thing on the Ff4 album. Not much else to say. I think it works well. A few edits and you should have something to sub. /mr

Argh, multiple unknown sources! It might just be my ears, but the whole thing sounds a little too loud, pushed a bit too hard, a bit too bright and harsh. This is especially bothersome towards the end when there's a lot going on. There's an oddly loud pad at 1:21. I'd say you've got a few mixing fixes left. The harmonies there are quite weird, but I think that only fits the mood of the track. Mostly. There's a few instances of the bass and the chords not being a good fit, and I'm not getting a good grasp of where in that part I am at any given moment. It's like the wrong chords are the wrong length, as if you had taken lessons from a 2009 HoboKa. It might work to just clean up the levels and make the rhythm a bit more obvious over the chords, but it's possible you need to screw with the writing a bit too. Hard to say. I can clearly hear the ostinato from the first part of KnG. I can hear what I assume are parts from the NG source around 1:40, the two and three note arpeggio things. I'm not finding the title theme from KnG. Am I just being source-deaf or is it hiding? The rhythm is weird. I get that it's a 6/4 thing going, but there's plenty of odd transitions and things that don't flow quite right. I'm not quite feeling this track. It's too thick to get a good grip of. There's nothing to really drive the track, so it kind'a just pulls the listener along without a clear idea of where it's going. Idunno, direction is probably the main problem, source might be a problem (or I'm having one of those source-deaf days), and it's a bit too loud for its own good. imo, at least. /mr

It's just a case of there being multiple remixes done for those tracks, for whatever reasons. No remix is "the" remix for any track on the ost, and we're not kicking anyone off the project for having done a mix of a track that was already in progress. I've always said that we're open to multiple remixes of the same sources, but the priority is obviously getting the whole tracklist covered. So if anyone shows up with a third take on Weird Counterpoint, I'm inclined to accept it, but not at the expense of delaying the project further. We've got plenty of delays already. I'm one of them. I've got some time without work, so I'm gonna go over what we've got, what we need, and start filling ppl's inboxes with reminders. We're not done yet, but we're super close.

Crystal is pretty fun. It's like an older, less advanced Omnisphere. Sounds quite breathy. Could be a short string sample/waveform in some kind of granular synthesis, or just a good loop with loads of reverb baked into the sample. What I'd do for creating something like it is to start from something similar, either a physical modeling synth or start screwing with an ehru sample, and see what I can do with just that, then add effects to get it closer to what I need for whatever track I'm doing.

If the pop has an echo, then it happened in or before the echo effect. Check your signal chain working your way back... You can disable that echo and put another echo as the first effect in the chain, so that if the pop is from a different effect in the chain, it won't have an echo, but if it's in the echo or the samples/sampler, then you know to check those next. Or you can just turn off all the effects on that track and see if it still pops.

Read a little, wrote a lot, read a little more, didn't wanna delete my writing. Skip to the end for what I've got. Commence blah blah: Obviously, the first is writing. This guy knows that stuff a whole lot better than I do, so keep an eye on that thread for more on that. Soak up everything that guy says about this stuff. The writing basics that I wanna bring up are just to write realistic (don't write boring parts, don't write impossible parts), position them realistically, and... (I need a third item to make this a list...) Write something that makes sense, arrangement-wise. There's actually a lot you can do with soundfonts. Here's what you _can't_ do without an advanced sampler or a lot of effects work and some insane amount of fiddling with details: change their timbre beyond basic effects eg filtering, true legato for ensembles, realistic ensemble polyphony, the characteristic attack sound of loud brass (I keep forgetting the real term for it), bowing technique, and just a lot of things you don't have the samples for. I'm still looking for something affordable with spiccato samples. Anyway, what you _can_ do is route different midi cc to different parameters in your sampler (well, if it's any bit a decent sampler, thatis). Modulation wheel and Expression are probably the two most important ones, but breath control and a few others can also be applicable. That's if we're only going by their default uses, you can technically route pretty much any cc to any parameter. That way, even if you don't have control over the realistic motion that goes on in actual sustained notes, you can control the sustain level. You can bend trombones. You can give tremolo to brass and woodwinds, vibrato to string instruments. Lots of things to do for more realism. In addition, creative use of layering creates a richer and less static sound. It also lets you get around the problem of no sound having all the qualities you like, eg trumpet sound with good attack but is too short + trumpet sound without a lot o good attack but good sustain. This doesn't technically have to be limited to the real instruments (or what the samples are named, anyway), so if a violin soundfont sounds like bagpipes, feel free to make it bagpipes. Then there's effects. If you're faking a guitar, you'd want not only a good, clean guitar sound but also a good amp for all that gritty, badass distortion. Likewise, if you want an electric organ, so much is in the speaker sim and whether it can rotate or not. When creating a semi-realistic orchestra sound, you want good reverb. You can layer reverbs to mask bad samples, but the strongest reverb (which still shouldn't be particularly strong, tho) should be the main hall reverb, bouncing from the stage out into and all around the hall. Or chamber. Or church. Or tunnel. This is best achieved with a good convolution reverb, just load two different room samples (impulse responses, or IRs) from the same room, make sure not to get left and right mixed up, and you should have your semi-realistic orchestra performing exactly as instructed (that's what computers do) as if recorded right there. Other effects are also useful, whether it's taming and melding the sounds you're using (with compression and eq) or shaping the overall sound (same effects, probably). My stuff: Miroslav, the Kontakt factory VSL from whatever version I have, GPO, some GarageBand Jam Packs, and then for occasional flavor Modelonia, Reaktor, Omnisphere or Pianoteq (for assorted physical modeling things, ditto, strings or fun percussion, pianos and chromatic percussion).

Any decent DAW will typically have some way of moving automation along with the writing. If it's a pattern-based DAW like FL or just about anything tracker-derived, you should just avoid writing everything in the same pattern so you can move stuff around without worrying about screwing up the automation. I'm not an FL person so I can't say what other means FL has for moving automation. If it's a region-based DAW like Cubase or Logic, you should be able to lock the automation to the regions or have the option to move the automation along with the regions you move. There may be some abrupt changes, such as volume jumps, if the automation doesn't line up close enough, but this can usually be fiddled with after the move. And yeah, automation isn't final until the track is final, so you'll likely have to fiddle with it a lot anyway.

I've been working a mix of the same source. Mirror's Edge needs more attention, it's a beautiful game with an amazing soundtrack. Too bad the other tracks make it so hard to grasp the melodies that are there. There's a whistly lead that's kind'a painful, and a lot of excessive and odd filtering on stuff, like the wrong things sounding muffled or hipassed, or just filtered too much. Too much is actually a good description of a lot of what's wrong with this on the mixing level. The amount of side-chaining becomes awkwardly at 2:17. The sounds themselves are pretty, especially in the break. Arrangement-wise, it took me almost a minute to recognize the source. The recurring little melody might be source, but it's a bit too generic imo, it made me think Robert Miles rather than Lisa Miskovsky or the guy that made most of the soundtrack. Once past that, it works fine. The bass is a little overly active. Might work, but it messes with the rhythm a bit too much. It doesn't have to blindly follow the beat or anything, but it should behave a little more consistently. The leads are buried. I get that they're supposed to be soft, but they're a bit too soft when plenty of other instruments, like the rhythmic pad and the bass dominate the frequency range the leads should have. Source in the intro, fixing mixing. Pretty cool stuff. .D

Most of it is actually the writing. Minor chords and not a lot going on will sound more empty and nightly. You don't have to block out the entire chord either; if the melody already contains C and E, you only need the A note in the bass to have a chord. Low velocities will sound more contemplative and vulnerable. High keys will sound bright and lack presence. Low keys, on the other hand, will sound darker. As already covered, reverb will make it sound emptier and more distant, creating that lonely sound that implies sadness and night. Delays can also be used like this, giving some rhythm to gaps in the playing and letting you write even more minimalistic melodies. Think about how the piano melodies repeat in DKC's Aquatic Ambience. Done with a delay, most of those could just be single four-note melodies and the rest echoes of those. If you have a midi keyboard, a real piano, or a guitar or something, experiment with the melodies there. Then, as has already been touched on, the frequency balance of the piano sample you're using. There's a band of warm frequencies around 500Hz. If you EQ those down a little and perhaps brighten the sound a bit higher instead, you should get a more cold, clear, crystalline piano sound. We associate those sounds with night and darkness, while warmer sounds imply daytime or lit indoors. Whether you EQ the entire piano sound, or use an already thin, bright, cold sample, or both, this temperature helps you build a more solitary mood. Combining these gets you that sad night time vibe you're looking for. Play soft, high notes; simple minimal melodies, implied minor chords and minor key melodies, with a cold sounding piano. Once you have the writing down, transpose it to see how it sounds in different octaves. Maybe it'll sound better in the low range, with the bass EQ'd out; or in the high range. Maybe it'll sound best with the left and right hand writing split far apart, or kept really close. There's some thoughts on it. Hope this helps.

Nothing's really stopping you from gathering whatever remixes you think fit from ocr, rts, newgrounds, youtube, and whatever other sources you want, for you enjoyment. If the tags are intact, nothing's stopping you from passing ocr tracks on to others (can't say for other remix sources). Nothing's really stopping you from requesting or organizing an album, either. This doens't have to be something just for ocr, either, there's ZREO and MREO already, and as long as you're focused on games that have enough following to have some music folks among the fans, you can probably do the same with any game. I'm sure there are others that wanna hear more movie score-like takes on their favorite games. Drum up some interest in the idea and see where that takes you.

I even thought about Keen the other day, but didn't make this connection. Was thinking more arcade-style games. Yeah, Keen might work. I think the pace should work for switching players mid-level. More, anyone?