Rozovian

Hah, knew you were a finn when I saw your url. Waay too much reverb on the piano. Piano just sounds weird, not distant. Takes a while before this gets trancey. It has the length, but not a proper buildup or the right sound for trance. Needs to be harder and bigger to be trance. Hihat sounds too vanillla, kick sounds too weak, synths sound too bassy, bass sounds too high... You should compare yours to some well-produced trance, see what they're doing different and figure out what you're doing wrong. The synths sound ok, tho should be mixed better. The trance writing should work all right, but it could contain more source, a lot of time it just feels like a generic trance backing transposed to the right chord. Break around 3:20 is cool, but breaks the speed a little too much. Also, transition from the breakdown section needs work. Structurally, it seems aimless. I'd suggest keeping the patterns that work and redoing it based on how you wanna place those. Has potential, but needs work. Do the work. For a first remix, this is pretty good. Make it better.

When it comes to your High Tension Wire sketch, I'd suggest taking the last iteration of the first part, 1:34, and playing it soft, maybe with just one or two instruments, then repeating it loud to make a bigger statement of it. A repeat of the 2 (4 in the backing) last notes after a longer sustain and with a longer sustain might make a decent ending, as might a final statement of the seven first notes in the first part, followed by a sustain with crescendo and... done. Some rhythmic , chordal, or even modal variations would make it interesting, but as an arrangement/adaptation for a brass group it works fine this conservative too. Just some random thoughts./suggestions Anyway, keep me informed by pm or something. Whether or not any of this will get done in time for the album / the album be done in time for any of this, I wanna hear how it turns out. All your sd3 works.

Human. Could be a spammer, could be a fan. Don't you love it when ppl start talking about you in your own thread as if you weren't there?

I like the idea. Can't write for rl orchestral instruments, but if this gets done, make sure I get to hear it. The source is a special track, and a treatment like the one you describe would be awesome. If you want it on the album, and if they're done about the same time (as in, not holding the project back / not holding your own release back), I'd gladly include it. The source was iirc recently claimed, but double coverage isn't a problem for me. I'm unfortunately away from my project notes so I can't check atm. edit: Yes, track was claimed already. Still not a problem to have another take on it on the album. if you're interested in that.

Cutscenes, character development... plzdontruinthecharacter plzdontruinthecharacter plzdontruinthecharacter plzdontruinthecharacter plzdontruinthecharacter plzdontruinthecharacter plzdontruinthecharacter plzdontruinthecharacter

The solad name is fine. It was fine before I joined the project, it'll be fine when I get fed up and ragequit. I mean when it's done. Released. Shutup.

Tony, the Prince of Darkness... Juxtaposed much?

If we're changing the project name, it's gonna be sd3: Songs of Archangel and the Dual Dragons. Cuz they're all awesome _and_ prolific, unlike the rest of you awesome ppl. Also, that would make it SD3SoAatDD.

Yeah, you can send it to my hotmail account, see my messenger contact info for that one (right side of the post header, or check my forum profile). Not gonna write the gmail one on here. I'll upload the wav when it's done and mail you the link. Also, any preference asto how you want the piano to sound? Close or distant, warm or cold, resonant or... whatever...? Some of that stuff is best done in the instrument itself. I'll render it and get it to you tomorrow when I get to my "studio". (why is there suddenly so much that I could do there now and rarely anything when I'm actually there?) edit: uploaded and emailed.

For great justice. And great inconvenience.

If you're comfortable with your midi performance, I can render it for you. I got a few good-sounding options. If you understand the human performance well enough you should be able to humanize a stiff performance/writing or tighten up a sloppy performance (without quantizing/making it mechanical). It won't make it awesome, but it should make it passable.

Another file corruption/hard drive issue (we've had a few of those on the project) left us with an mp3 of a track that's close enough to be called finished. Don't think I've mentioned that before - +1 done. ...And I got an almost finished track yesterday. But we've still got tracks to do. I know there's stuff going on behind the scenes, but I wanna know about what's going on with your tracks. Where are you ppl?

Dudes... This is pwnsome!

Piano too mechanical. Sounds written but not played. Not a fan of the vanilla sound either, but don't have good suggestion for how to fix that. Well, the weird harmonies are fixed, tho that brings out the vanilla sound and stiff writing even more. Humanize it. Weird ambiences and bg stuff, you should even those out more, imo. Now they're distracting. Ending is a problem too, I'm not listening to vgm remixes to hear a minute of ambience and bird sounds. The track overall is mostly just two instruments+ambience, and with something written as sparsely as this it just doesn't work (a really good performance could make it work, but this ain't that). Your sampled guitar thing sounds detuned. If you can make that sound more intentional, it could work. Now it just sounds like a bad sample. Note: making it excessive might not make it work better. Volume is a lot more controlled now, which is good. You're improving. Keep doing that.

You've mastered one thing that a lot of ppl struggle with: good sounds that work well together. Now, you should work those into better fitting their respective roles and filling their respective space. The first notes of the first synth in here made me go "nice sound, but the notes bleed together". The other sounds you're using have similar problems, like your string/bell-like lead being too plucky, your backing melody saws thing masking the sustainless lead, your bass drum being too loud, the rest of the drums being way too soft... well now I'm just talking about the mixing in general, which also needs work. Find yourself a bunch of well mixed tracks in similar styles/sounds and compare the respective levels. Learn from that. Also, arranging. You should do that too. You're in a good position to improve, make use of it. Also, welcome to ocr.

Indeed- Depending on whether it's gonna be fully random thing or just a randomized order playlist thing, it'll take either 2000 clicks or anywhere between 1 and infinity to find the one you were looking for. Torrents are a better options for finding stuff (or ocr's database, but with torrents you get everything ), just throw away the stuff you won't listen to (tho just putting your favorites in one playlist and all the other is a smarter option - you might discover something cool in the "others" playlist if you try it).

More like Logic&GB can't. Reaper loaded KORE Player just fine as a VST a while back when I tried. iirc. But as for the thread, Fishy's right. You can get good tools on either side, so there's no better platform for this kind of work. Look at the DAWs and go with what you're most comfortable with/suits your needs/preferences/convenience for (school)work and go with that. For samples, Komplete by Native Instruments should get you just about everything you need sample/synthwise, tho if you need really convincing specific instruments you should either get a product specifically designed for just that or get a live player which is probably easier than learning how to use another tool.

The intro and ending piano writing is terrible. It clashes with itself. Seems like you paid no attention to the volumes of the instruments. You kind'a should. Then there's the issue of the sounds themselves - they're not good and you're not even trying to do something about that. The arrangement is a stripped down verbatim take on the source, possibly with some minor alterations. While that can work, you'd need a good performance/sound design to make it work. If it's your first song ever, it's... well it's still not good, but better than my first ever. Most important thing to learn: listening. When you can tell what you're doing wrong, you know what you need to practice/research. That's how you improve. You could change the piano notes, see if it sounds better. You can look at what the other instruments are playing at the time to get an idea of what notes might work. Change the instrument volumes so you get better balance. Important stuff should be loud enough to be heard over the less important stuff. Experiment with effects and try more complex sounds/synths/samples/instruments. The more complex a siund is, the better it can fill up the mix, which makes things more balanced. You can always use an equalizer or other effects/filters to trim down any excessive richness, but adding richness to poor sounds is harder. That should get you started. You've stuff to learn and this is a great place for that. Welcome to ocr.

I suggest reading up on the modes (Ionian-Locrian) and practicing writing with those, then listening to cool tracks that have an interesting sound to them, seeing if you can identify the mode when you try to recreate it. That last part, trying to recreate it, should help the most. That's all the help I can offer. Besides google stuff.

Guitar is the only thing that really bothers me, both an mechanical quality to it (timing/velocity or just in the samples, dunno), and (inhuman but could be because of sample repetition) how those special guitar technique thing samples repeat the same way. Doing some humanization (or more of it) should help with the first, and varying when and how prominently those whatever-they're-called samples. You might also have a problemn with the synth lead in the middle of the track, it might get a bit piercing on some speakers. A bit shrill on the laptop at least. It flows nice, guitar might use some added phat (hard to tell its low mids and lows on laptop speakers) but sounds ok, nice sound choices, rhythms, the lot. I'd say it's ocr material, just gotta fix the rough edges and stuff. And make a proper ending. Nice work. note: laptop speakers, I might find it terrible on proper listening gear.

Glad it makes sense/helps. Also, much of my music theory education. Also, be sure to not crowd any frequency range with those additions. When you have a lead suffering from mud/crowdedness, use a spectrum analyzer to see where on the spectrum it sits, and eq that part down on other tracks that might get in the way. Also, most strong-sounding instruments need bass, but they usually require less than you think. Again, a spectrum analyzer should tell you how loud an instrument's lows are. most of the time, you can cut 5-10dB from that. Just repeating that your comping synth had too much bass.

SoW is in Dorian mode (ie, minor with its 6th note a seminote higher - or white keys starting from D), so it has a different feel than your regular minor or major scale (aka Ionian/Aeolian mode) track. If using it together with something in minor in the same key, you have clashes on the sixth note because their sixth notes aren't the same. Moving it up or down 5 or 7 seminotes might solve this. What makes it more annoying is that the original likes to end with its 3rd note raised a seminote (making it mixolydian mode... modes are fun, aren't they?). Aquatic Ambience is old, the standards back then weren't as developed as they are today. The panel is more strict about source usage now, so you need to compare to more recent tracks. It's possible to do highly conservative tracks, and highly liberal, and to do stuff that's both too conservative and too liberal at the same time. Using verbatim parts isn't the problem, the problem is that they're floating atop the track. You need to build the source into the tracks, not just put it on top of them. In my OoT mix, I've got two simultaneous melodies playing that three-note thing - one starts before the beat, one starts on the beat. Otherwise it's a bit like your track, an original groove with some source stuff on top. Big difference is that mine makes use of the source in the backing tracks, you'll even hear the red brinstar-borrowed thing referencing the OoT source. I'm not suggesting you do something as messy as EotS, but you should integrate the source into the rest of the track, make it part of a bassline, part of the comping synth melody, part of a high-range ostinato, something. My FF4 mix takes a four-note pattern from source and turns it into a three-note pattern (and later quotes it verbatim sandwiched between the 3-note pattern and the lead melody from source). Lots of remixers scramble the source into difficult-to-hear little pieces, but it adds to the track being more tied to source. I got some further comments about my tracks and how I made them in this thread, fourth post. Original track+source is bad. Original track based on some source element+source is much better. Thin isn't necessarily about whether they fit or not, it's just an attribute of a sound. Other qualities like warm, lo-fi, hard, dry... they're all just describing the sound in different ways. In this case, you've got sounds that aren't strong enough to keep the source dominant when you have a much phatter comping synth that doesn't play source (as far as I could tell anyway). When it comes to crafting sounds/piecing sounds together, it's usually easiest to start with the central element - the lead. Anyway, if you'd phatten those sounds they should work better. A combination of delay/reverb, overdrive, and eq should help. trimming down the lows of the comping synth should also help. Örgh, too much text, too late at night. I hope this all makes sense and answers your questions. If not, ask again. I don't mind explaining my feedback, especially when you've got such a healthy attitude to it (i wanna understaaaand), but I'm finding 5 am to be a little late to detail my critique.

Stevold? Time for a real beard?

Click edit. Click Go advanced. Change.

Too quiet, needs to be mixed louder. The instrument levels overall need some overhauling, lead is too soft, bass drum is really heavy on the lows while the other instruments are thin and weak. Weird chords, you might want to have a look at those, see what went wrong... or emphasize them so they sound intentional. With the right effects, the thin/heavy instrumentation it might work in a hiphop direction (your drums imply something like that already), but otherwise you'll need to replace some of those instruments. Might be a good idea to replace some of them anyway. Nice to see someone doing some TP, we need more of that.