Rozovian

I didn't put "just gimme the wav already" on it for nothing. You're good for it when I get the wav, B. Archangel, and it's a really cool track. Speaking of which, feel free to sub your tracks, folks. If they don't pass, at least you get feedback. If they do, it makes this project look good. And btw, wav for your track due this month, or I'll open it. We need this project finished.

Logic's built-in pitch changing tools let you adjust both pitch and formant, makes for some fun voice effects. Check out some pitch adjustment/shifting tools, there's probably some freebies out there worth the download.

One week into Feb, that's one week less until the end of Feb deadline where we open up everything that isn't finished, unless we have a _really_ good reason not to. Also, we're a couple of nitpicks away from having a couple more finished tracks. Progress is being made, are you in on it? Progress has not been made on the teaser. Nothing tangible, anyway.

Show me, dude. I assume it's in my inbox by the time I check it. My inbox somewhere. And yes, it's an i.

As someone who's had a 100% source remix rejected for being too _liberal_ (and boring drums), I can safely say you're wrong. There's no such thing as too much source for ocr. It's about interpretation and personalization, your own arrangement of the source. Too little is too little, but you can't have too much. A mix can be too similar to the original, too conservative, too close to source. But there can't be too much source. Important detail. - As you mentioned in your pm, nobody's complained about the arrangement yet, so I can say something about that. I have to say that this feels a bit like a medley, but I don't think it's too much of that for ocr - it's an arrangement and it works imo. Just re-using sources in the end does a lot here. While the Ganon part felt a bit too conservative for my liking, the first two minute go by well enough, followed by a 15 second break that seems completely arbitrary. Ganon's theme, Hyrule Castle, and the Dark World all have some nice writing and work well here. The only things that messes up the arrangement are the transition at 0:55 and the Beast Ganon part. 3:54 sounds like an ending. It may be a little long, but I think it works, it kind'a winds down from there. Gonna echo the lack of mids. You'd think you need more bass and more treble for impact and clarity, but human ears are most sensitive to the mids so those are no less important. I'm also gonna echo Monobrow's issue with the samples, altho I think much of it can be remedied by the right mixing and effects. The electronic drums seem weak (zircon's new drum tutorial might help you with that), the orchestral samples are very sample-y, and the piano sounds terrible in the intro (you should probably use a different piano for that part, one that sounds better on its own). I'm most skeptical towards the orchestral elements, the rest of it seems like an easy fit. Dunno what you should do with the more orchestral parts tho. Take a copy, experiment. So there's some thoughts for you. The production needs work, but I think this may have a decent shot at getting posted. It doesn't feel long or get dull, it doesn't seem like a random meandering thing nor feel repetitive, there's source and there's significant arrangement of the source. Learn the production.

There's also the possibility of simulating an uneven or not quite exact playback speed. A pitch modulation effect (chorus and phaser come to mind as good candidates) can be used for this, at 100% wet signal. Or, more work and more control, you can export the part you want this effect on as an audio file and play it back in a sampler, using pitch bend to adjust the detuning. This will probably screw with timing, but if like your example it's for an intro, you can adjust the timing of the entire intro to make it's ending fit where the real track begins.

Gotta start somewhere. You learn faster if you both read and do stuff. Don't put off trying just because there's stuff you don't know or understand. I started writing before I knew anything about the effects, and I started using effects long before I knew how to use them properly. Every artist is a work in progress. I've been doing this for maybe ten years now, I still have things to learn, but I wasn't learning on the internet during the first half, either. (feedback on my guide is welcome - when it gets too complicated, skips something, or whatever, write it down, let me know)

Yup, EQ out highs and lows. Also, add occasional noise. The free LFX-1310 has an LP Noise effect that does just that.

mod rev: No source links, no source/arrangment evaluation. The whole thing is distorted, and not in a good way. Pushing for extra bass gives this track a bad case of overcompression. The highs seems a bit exaggerated as well, most of the stuff in the high range seems extra shrill, but the 2:24 and 2:47 melodies especially so. The whole 2:17 part seems to be on the proper level in regards to the loud parts of the track, something to look into concerning the intro levels. Interestingly, the drums still sound weak. It could be that they're pushed under the bass, it could be that layered samples give you a way too loud transient that then compresses the rest of the sound, it could be excessive lows, it could be anything. Mute everything else and get your drums loud, then add stuff until you notice the drums getting weak. Then fix that. Needs some basic track mixing work too. The intro screwing sound is louder than the subsequent melody. The 2:18 level is way louder than the intro. The sound design is pretty cool, the bit-crushed, voxy-y filtering makes it appropriately dirty. The arrangement is blocky but fairly varied. Unless it's just a source medley, the track has some nice potential. - ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION Can't say. PRODUCTION - Too loud - and yet... - Too quiet - ...this - Drums have no energy - Overcompressed (pumping/no dynamics) STRUCTURE - Pace too plodding - it gets like this towards the end... it's not that it's dubstep; I may not like dubstep much, but I've heard more engaging dubstep

mod rev: There are melodies that seem more keyboard-y than string-y. The sustained high string note in the intro might benefit from some expression automation, but I'd be more concerned about the melodies later on. Their slow attack give some semblance of a human performance, but they're still distractingly fake. The panning seems a bit excessive, especially in the parts where you have one melody centered and another panned - such as the piano and high strings melody at 1:39. Don't remember the positioning of a real orchestral, but this track would benefit from a more even stereo balance. The level is too low. It doesn't really get close to max until the ending, and even there it feels soft. The mid strings in the finale seem a little too loud, so those could be lowered a little. Removing lows from instruments that don't need them could give you a little more headroom, and some soft compression, both on the low strings and on the track overall, could give you some more. Repeat: SOFT compression. And a little eq. It's pretty conservative. On the other hand, it's a far cry from a midi rip. Hard to say. This is what I get for not playing Minecraft. - ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION - Too conservative - I don't dare say either way, but it's possible PRODUCTION - Too quiet - see above - Unrealistic sequencing - needs some humanization STRUCTURE - Abrupt ending - doesn't need much, but it currently just ends.

mod rev: Cool new name, dawg. The drums have some timing problems when they first come in, and there are some fills that don't quite line up. Not sure if the double kick notes make sense, it works in the chorus, but seems odd in the verses and the ending solo part. Drums are way back, but aside from the stereo balance thing below, the rest of the mixing seems ok. There are some timing problems with other instruments as well, I noticed 0:37 has some background plucking/picking not in sync with the lead synth. It's not a great sound imo, that pluck/pick thing, it's a bit too thin. You could probably fatten it with a touch of reverb, some form of distortion and eq, just make sure the sounds remains a background one. 1:36 has a weird stereo balance, you've got a center lead and a melody in the left channel, but nothing in the right to balance it out. A touch of pan automation to push the center lead a little to the right could solve that, as could some delay or something else hardpanned that way in the range of those two melodies. The arrangement works well, and the source usage seems ok. I don't dare say more, because Knight Man just doesn't stick in my head well enough to listen for. Source-deafness strikes again, this time selectively. I just realized that Mr. X's theme sounds quite a bit like Kikuta's Mana tracks, especially the A-B transition (around 0:23). PRODUCTION - Drums have no energy PERFORMANCE (live recorded audio/MIDI parts) - Timing not tight enough

Probably avatars. Probably not this.

What kind of arrangement are you going for? If you're going for a kind of mainstream electronic remix style, a lot of the track can be a repeated rhythm part with a lot of build-up until you get to the actual melody. Slow it down. Playing it at half speed takes twice as long. You just gotta make sure to keep things interesting instead of making the arrangement sound like you just dropped the bpm by half. You can also rewrite the melody to be longer. Just make sure it works well on its own, so ppl hear it as a cool melody rather than as the melody made longer or played twice with some modification. Tyler Heath made a pretty cool change to the melody in his Wind Waker remix, and while he didn't make it longer, it's a good study of what you can do with a single source. You can look at the background elements of the source and see if any of them can be made into a lead melody. You can take any such melody, or the original lead melody, and give it new chords, or play it in a new mode or scale. For practice understanding this, take Frère Jacques or some Zelda ocarina melody or some other simple song, write it in a key consisted of only the white keys - then move the whole thing up or down and change the notes so it still only plays on the white keys. To make sure I'm not just making stuff up, I just tried playing the aforementioned song in Am instead of C - a minor scale instead of the original major - which changes its mood. You can do the same with any scale or mode. This can be used together with new chords to really change things up, or it can be used for more subtle changes. You can also chop up the melody into little bits and move those around, like I did in my OoT remix. Actually, just look up what ppl have done with those same old ocarina melodies and other short and simple sources. There's some techniques. I don't think there are songs that can't be remixed, you just gotta do it right.

Really sweet track. Weren't you crap at this stuff a year ago?

Just to make sure you're all aware of what we mods are for: Do not mark a track that's still a work in progress as mod review. The workshop mods are here to provide a good pair of ears before you submit your finished track to ocr, not to hold your hand through the whole process. A track you're not (yet) intending to sub to ocr is a waste of our time, time we could be spending on mixes intended for ocr, or, idunno, getting/having a life. - If you don't know what else to do to get feedback, here's some stuff from my remixing guide: - edit 4/23: I realize the writing might make it seem like we mods are superbusy irl-important ppl. Hah. It's really just to keep mod reviews as a thing specifically for ocr-submissions, as a pre-submission checkup. I also added a third suggestion from my guide to help.

I could just quote LoA. I'm not gonna. 32 seconds intro, weak synth keys, only modified modified melodies, looped melodies over looped drums... The mixing is decent, but the sound design could use some touching up and the writing should be a lot more interesting. While there's not a lot in the source to draw from, you can use the material that's there in different ways. Nice start.

Clashing notes, thin sounds, and the whole thing is a mess. Do some comparisons with similar, posted remixes (try stuff from 07 and on) and listen to how loud, how muffled, how distant different sounds are in those tracks. Apply to your track with levels, EQ, and reverb. Learn to listen critically to your own works, it'll help a lot.

Don't post so often, give ppl time to listen before you put a new version out there. Three updates in four days? Dude. mod rev: Vanilla sounds, repetitive and loop-y, mostly just a rehash of the source. The sounds you're using might work, but you'll have to use effects to advance the sound into something less midi-like and more professional. EQ separation, foreground-background separation with reverb, and some modulation effects (in this case, I'd suggest chorus on some of the backing tracks) can do this. The drum writing is interesting, but doesn't stand up to being looped this much. It also doesn't agree with the countermelody rhythm, listen to some ska and see what rhythm ideas that can give you. ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION - Too conservative - melody tweaks and some altered backings doesn't personalize it enough for ocr PRODUCTION - Low-quality samples - the aforementioned vanilla sounds, use more complex/varied sounds and/or apply effects to add complexity - Unrealistic sequencing - loopy and mechanical - Generic/cliche sound choices - sounds like a midi; see also low-quality samples STRUCTURE - Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough) - Too repetitive

mod rev: I don't mind the 0:32 lead, but I find the mid range of the track pretty empty. You have stuff playing in the mids, just bring those out a bit more, use the sustain pedal or a muffled delay or something to keep the notes around for a bit longer so they fill out the soundscape some more. That should also provide a little more meat so the drums and stuff don't stand out as much, I find them to be really distracting and messy. Just sort out what feedback you agree with and fix stuff, then sub it.

Way too much bass, work on your mixing ears. The strings could be humanized. Most of the sound design is really cool and creepy; the drums, guitar, and strings are kind'a bland by comparison. I didn't respond to that last version of your level up track, did I?

mod rev: The sax is too loud. Shaker is a little on the loud side too, it might stand out a bit too much when the sax gets softer. 1:23 bells are quite loud too. Some bass notes clash, so check to see that the bass agrees with the rest of the harmony. The sax could be more human, have you humanized it yet? Whether you humanize with grace notes or the expression cc or the stops Eino suggested (or all of them), be careful not to overcomplicate it. Iit might be a good idea to experiment a little with a single part or even a copy of the track before the "real" humanization, just to figure out which method yields the best results for this sax patch and this melody. I'm a little concerned with the source usage, it might be a bit too conservative for ocr. Hard to say. When the other problems are solved, you should still sub it. ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION - Too conservative - possibly PRODUCTION - Too loud - occasional instruments are - Unrealistic sequencing - sax needs humanization PERFORMANCE (live recorded audio/MIDI parts) - Wrong notes, general sloppiness - some bass notes seem to be in a different scale

Electronic, like orchestral, like anything, will take a while to learn. Don't expect to be awesome at it at first. Do stuff and have fun with it. Try to do something new every time, and you'll learn stuff. Read stuff to supplement your practical learning. Listen to stuff to come up with new things to try. Compare your stuff with that of others, and don't be discouraged when yours doesn't sound as awesome - instead, figure out what's different, and learn from it. Electronic is less about music theory (you can do well with just the basics) and more about groove, mixing and sound design. I've got Komplete, it's a great package of tools. I also recommend free stuff like FreeAlpha and TAL-Elek7ro II, two decent subtractive synths. Subtractive? Look it up, try them out. Your DAW will probably come with basic tools as well, everything you need, at least for a while. I have a link to my remixing guide in my sig, check that out for some of the basics (and some things a little beyond basics).

I think we're done now, it just has to be sent to Darke.

The arrangers still own, as Mustin said, the rights to the arrangement. If the site was legal, all the original stuff from bandcamp and elsewhere should also be yielding artists here some dough. Is it?

Which is what we should be telling their customers.