Rozovian

Big problem with the levels. The bass drum gets softer when the bass and lows-heavy rhythm synth comes in. When the filter opens on the rhythm synth you've got a clear levels conflict where the bass drum is pushed down. Bolero of Fire is there, but it's basically a verbatim quote that's repeated in separate bits. It gets a little more interesting when it starts to modulate more, but it's still on the conservative side. Basically, original track+source quote. The Serenade of Water bits that come in seem like they're in the wrong mode, you can try transposing them 5 or 7 seminotes down, see if it fits better. Or you could alter the writing of the other tracks to fit that mode. if that's what it is., can't say for sure, but that's what it sounds like to me. Too liberal, with too conservative quotes. Gets better towards the end where it blends into the progression, but you need more source and it should be less verbatim. imho. Source could be built into the groove more. The track overall is nice and groovy. The source parts' instruments are a bit thin compared to the heavier backing ones (a disparity you need to fix), but the groove works and the sound is cool. I think it's got potential for ocr. Nice work.

With the many listeners that go "wtf" when the track changes to triplets, we were bound to find someone who just has to be a contrarian. Did you just want to cement "Hey look at me, I'm reviewingz and finding big faults and problems with this mixz, postcount +1, reiviews +1 I'm awsome lol". I can take criticism just fine, I got no problem with opinion, personal taste and preference, but I don't have much patience for this kind of ridiculous conjecture about why I did what I did with it. Welcome to the superjoe30&vig club of completely missing the point. A proper response would be to redo this WITHOUT the triplets, without the quirk and all that - which was my original idea anyway. I'm not big on proper when I have a backlog of project mixes to do tho. This quick distraction from my other projects was fun, and if you can't handle that, that's your problem. - Also, Sorceror's comment is lol for a completely different reason.

Acoustic guitar sample is lol. So's the timing issue at 0:19 - the voice comes in just too late to line up properly. Too much bass in bg in 1:16-2:00 part (and the whole thing could stand to lose a few dB of lows). Rock part is too loud (clipping!!). Rhythm guitar is too soft, distant and reverby (and fake-y, obviously). Additional guitar melody at 3:19 too loud. The volume edits I was talking about before were the sudden stops of the tracks at 3:34. The reverb makes those a bit softer, but they're still too drastic, as if you killed the volume on half the tracks. It's too disjointed for ocr. I still like your ideas, just not the way you've tried to fit every idea you've had in here. It's like you stitched together two distinct mixes of the source, one that's atmospheric and slow (0:00-1:55), and one that's a slow rock thing that would rock if done right (1:55-end). Not saying this kind of style medley can't be done (it's being done all the time on this site), just saying it's not gonna work like this. But whatever. You've made significant progress with your update, that says something about your ability to apply critique and/or your critical listening skill. Keep improving.

Everything sounds really heavy on the lows, you could mix it lighter than this. Aside from most sounds having too much lows, there's a few that sound too loud overall, and some that have some resonances that you might want to cut down to keep them from wrecking your listeners' ears. Some more changes to the chords would be cool when you hit the 0:58 mark and repeat the melody. It's not like you don't do something there already, but it feels like a repeat. 2:11 sounds like a tv news jingle... which isn't a problem. The problem is that it's unexpected and a bit too loud to transition smoothly. The transition to the last part is a bit sudden too, but not as big of a problem. Ends well. Less bass and some volume edits and it'll shine. Nice work. I want it (when it's fixed ). When you've gotten it as good as you can get it, sub it to ocr.

Ouch, that intro guitar is terrible. Doesn't get better in the middle, but by now I'm expecting it to be terrible and now it's "only" bad. Some drastic velocity edits should help, how much depends on how the instruments responds to velocity. Outro is... weird. The instrumentation is otherwise okay. Nothing really interesting and exciting, but nothing terrible. As for the mixing, the bass is way too loud for a balanced mix and even with the bass down to sane levels the overall volume is too high and it's screwing with the compression. Your lead comping synth could use some bass reduction, it's muddying up the sound a bit. Bass drum could use more mids/highs - not sure since much is lost by the compression, dunno how it'd sound without it. It can't be finished. Seriously. Not with these mixing problems. For a non-ocr mix it's pretty cool (too conservative for the site, but you know that already) - if you'd get the levels under control. Also, I wanna know why you think those levels were good.

Max, if you're gonna rant, do it so we understand what you're talking about. What's this 'format" are you talking about. Also, the most remixed game on ocr is Chrono Trigger. Anyway, I'm with Gario on this. Drums should be a little softer so the guitar can get through. I like how the drums are punchy and clear, so avoid losing that when you fix the levels on it. You could drop the kick level a bit and take out some of the low frequencies of it and the toms with an eq, they're screwing with the compression (just listen to how the crashes' volume dodge the kick and snare). Not sure if the snare also needs this procedure, your own ears should tell you so if the drums end up poorly balanced after my suggestion (or any similar edits to them). Your lead synth is shrill (EQ/filter it), and there's some weird static around where the kick comes in (which is a cool effect but doesn't quite fit here imo). On my first listen (btw, that was before your rant, but on poor speakers so I didn't comment then), I was surprised at how long it took for the track to actually get to the metal part. There's some thoughts for fixing it up. Yes I know I'm contradicting Gario on the overall EQ. You should find yourself a metal track that's mixed well and use that for comparison, that should tell you both levels and frequency balance better than we can on a quick listen or two. Not familiar with the source, but your track reminds me of other Ecco mixes I've heard (mostly one by wildfire ). I guess that puts the source in a more or less prominent position, but don't take my word for it.

+1! For great justice!

No prob. Would be cool to see what approaches other posted remixers have used and recommend, and how they built their tracks. My names intimidating? Braincooler is a chill name, Lacrima means tear (as in crying, not as in tearing stuff apart) in Latin, the eye of the storm is the calm middle of it, No Escape No Hurry means you can take your time, Aurora Borealis is the northern lights. Intimidating? Really?

The vgm you linked to has some distinct rhythms that could be used (the pitch of the noise and other sound design bits could be treated as timbre or even a melody, same with the howling wind-like sounds), then there's the 1:25 6-note melody and the bassline that follows (especially the second iteration, with some additional sounds). Not a good source, but it can be done. Because the useable elements are so simple, it might actually be a good source to work with, but you'd have to get the elements out of it first. A problem newbs often have is that they want to start by recreating the source. Maybe in a new genre, new style, but they still want to stick to the original arrangement. Not that it can't be remixed conservatively and still be creatively interpreted, but it can get in the way. One of my approaches, taking the bits and pieces of the source and stitching them back together, might not be the best approach to all sources (or for all remixers for that matter) but sometimes it works. By stitching I mean I took a melody or rhythm from source, put it somewhere, and played with it until it did something I wanted. Beyond Velocity was done by stitching source bits together. Lacrima was built on a three-note arpeggio based on the four note ostinato in the original. Eye of the Storm was partly built on putting the third note on the beat instead of the first (as in the source), also it's adapted to 4/4. It's probably the best example of how I've stitched together a song out of a source. No Escape, No Hurry started off (original intro aside) like the source but then turned into a triplet beat with source-based melodies on top. Interpretation is about taking the source and doing something new with it. Sometimes it's just a new instrument, sometimes it's a completely new thing. You should listen to remixes from games you know well, think about what they do different than the original. My other mixes have been more conservative, but still done different. Eat Your Own Dust was built on the bassline and a shaker rhythm. Braincooler was built on the beat. Aurora Borealis was built on the staccato strings and ostinatos of the source, and given more flavor by the DnB-ish drums. These are all rhythm-based tracks that I could just play with the source on top of. No Escape, No Hurry is an even better example of that, where I actually just played some source-like things on top of the rhythms I had made. There's some thoughts as to how I've made my remixes. The posted ones anyway. Hope they shed some light on these mysterious "interpretation" and "arrangement" things.

http://ocremix.org/forums/member.php?u=38148 OCR a game creation forum?

Almost any song is doable, but some require a lot more work to dig up the essence of a source. There's the occasional except which is more sound design/ambience than music but for most part any song will do. That doesn't mean it's easy. The underground bgm from Super Mario Bros is short and a bit irregular, so it's gonna take some serious reworking to get it on the site. I'd say it's all about how accessible the melodies are. Brinstar Red Soil from Super Metroid is an easy source, it has several easily accessible melodies. Get the chiptune for the game, it's got examples of both easily remixes sources and ambient stuff you can't really do much with. (and of course, if it wasn't written for the game, it's not a valid source for ocremix - but fans of the game can of course still enjoy it, so don't let that stop you) Also, there is no 50% rule, that's just a minimum requirement that Liontamer likes to go by when he judges. There certainly is no rule for there to be 50% original material in a remix here. OCR isn't about original material mixed with vgm, it's about interpreting vgm. Sometimes you need original stuff for that. Most of the time you can do it by adapting the melodies to new rhythms, modes, or chords, and using them in new creative ways (like using an expressive bassline for lead or something).

I decided to go through my catalogue of freebies I've found. For users of GarageBand, Logic, and other AU-compatible DAWs. Synths, samplers, stuff. Note that the AU format is Mac-only! last update: Aug 19th 2010 -- alphakanal: Automat subtractive synth Capable 3xOSC. 9 modulation vector envelopes that can be routed to different oscillator and filter parameters. A lot of parameters to tweak if you're into sound design, but if you're not it might be a bit intimidating. It comes with a handful of presets, but you can just as use its randomizing feature until you find something you like and then tweak that to your needs. personal comment: I really should learn this one. I was a fan of its predecessor buzzer2, and Automat is a lot more versatile and capable. - AudioSpillage: MiniSpillage drum synth A simple drum synth, with three different models of drums to customize, each with its own set of parameters and effects. Nice for pure synth percussion. Not much to say. personal comment: Okay so with just three different drum sounds it's not the most useful, but that's not to say it's useless either. You just have to use multiple instances of it. - Big Tick: Cheeze Machine string machine One saw oscillator fed through a filter, a phaser, an ensemble effect, and reverb. That's it. Supposed to be an old strings machine, it seems. Can make some nice retro pads. personal notes: Bothers me that there's only one waveform to work with, and it's some king of saw. A choice of waveform, and some PWM modulation would be nice. I don't use this, I can make these kinds of sounds with the synths I'm more used to, and with more tweakability. Ticky Clav clavinet synth Like Cheeze Machine, limited. CM was a retro strings machine, Ticky Clav is a clavinet synth with a funky sound. Good for jazz and funk. personal notes: I don't do much funk. I'm not good at keyboards either, so this isn't for me. Fun sound tho. note: the mac ports of the above are available on apulsoft, scroll down to find them. - FXpansion: Orca monophonic subtractive synth Simple monophonic synth with a really cool filter as it's main feature (and a really cool interface). You can get some phat basslines or leads out of it, that's it. Key-sensitive, so the limited number of paramteres to tweak is made up for at least a bit. personal comments: I find myself distracted by the interface, it's... hypnotic. Anyway, just 6 parameters, monophonic only, and yet... funky. You have to sign up to get it tho. - Green Oak Software: Crystal ensemble synth I'd best describe Crystal as an ensemble synth, it has three oscillators but can load a variety of samples into those oscillators so it can do more than just your run-on-the-mill variations of sawtooth waves and square pwm. Each oscillator has its own filter and vector amp envelope. Finally, all oscillators meet up in a big mixer. Aside from a large collection of useful presets, Crystal also has a feature of blending those presets together. personal comments: it reminds me of Omnisphere. Omnisphere takes a samples and runs them through its STEAM engine to produce something new. Kind'a what crystal does, too. Just with smaller samples and a free engine. Can be a bit buggy, so make sure to save backups often. - GSi: MrTramp2 e-piano model Not everyone needs a Wurlitzer, but if you do, here's one. Some tweakbility, all parameters controllable by midi cc. personal comments: Sounds pretty sweet, even with my limited keyboard skills. - LinPLug: FreeAlpha subtractive synth High points for a clean interface, comes with a lot of interesting presets. 2 oscillators each with two waveforms and a large variety of different waveforms to chose from. Easy to use, easy to learn. personal comment: I like recommending this to ppl new to synths. It's cross-platform which is always a plus, it's got a really neat and clean interface, and it's fast. It doesn't take a lot of work to make a cool new sound with it. note: FreeAlpha is in the bottom right of the linked page. Click the download buttons, not the image. - Martinic: Combo Model V additive organ An electric organ with a simple interface and (only) 4 octaves to play (C2-C6). Built-in vibrato, and individual tuning of keys. Not terribly complicated, not very advanced features. personal notes: I'm no keyboardist by any means other than playing the occasional bassline, melody or series of 7th chords, but this is something I'm thinking keyboardists would enjoy. At least if they like jazz and/or church music... and stay within those 4 octaves. What's with that, anyway? - Native Instruments: KORE Player synth/sampler interface So, KORE isn't so much a sampler or synth as it is a controller for one. Yeah, but it still works and makes pretty sounds. It's best feature is the navigation, it's easy to find the sounds you want, assuming you have them. KORE can be supplemented by a couple of free compilations of sounds from various NI products. Yeah, also free. It's varied, has good sounds, and despite that it only has 8 tweakable parameters per instrument, you do have a lot of control over those sounds. personal comments: Pretty good for a freebie, but it's intended to be a gateway drug to other NI products. No matter, nice sounds are nice sounds, and even better when they're free. - NUSofting: Modelonia Player physical modeling A weird synth that combined plucked string and blown instrument models. Very limited controls, but some interesting sounds. Some of the presets could fit into an orchestra (just add reverb), some are more synthetic sounding but complex enough to not sound like your average 3osc with a filter or two. personal notes: I want more parameters, and I hate the stiff sound and not being able to do anything about that. I want more tweakability. Also, you must sign up for their newsletter to get it. Annoying, I know, but it's worth it just to check it out. - Ohm Force: Symptohm Melohman Performer Edition syncgrain synth Another weird synth. 2 SGOs, a sub osc, a noise gen, ring mod, 4 filters... Has good sounds, but it's main attraction would be its various morphing features, controlled by keyswitches. As such, this is probably a tool (or toy, it's a lot of fun) for musicians more than for composers, or for those who are a little of both. personal notes: Apparently, you can also load your own samples into this and hear them disassembled and repurposed by the synth. I gotta learn this one. - Sam: Chip32 wavetable synth One filter, adsr volume envelope, and a bitcrusher. Oh and a fully customizable wavetable. Draw your own waveform, see how it sounds. personal notes: Would be nice if this could be routed into a more advanced synth with pitch control, multiple oscillators, and stuff like that, but as-is, it's a toy. As a toy, it's fun. As a tool for simple, chippy music, it's useful. note: Mac port on apulsoft again. Scroll down to get it. - TAL - Togu Audio Line: TAL-BassLine monophonic subtractive synth Monophonic bass synth. Built-in arpeggiator, portamento, and a set of nice presets. Its interface mimics a hardware keyboard synth, which on one hand can be useful if you don't have a keyboard. personal notes: The keyboard is fine but the rest of the synth doesn't have to be dressed like hardware. It looks good, but it's design above function, and I don't like that. Aside from that this also does phat bass, it's the opposite of Orca. TAL-Elek7ro, TAL-Elek7ro II subtractive synth Two oscillators, mixer, filter, 2 LFOs... It's actually a pretty simple synth since everything is clearly marked and grouped. Monophonic or polyphonic, lots of presets... And it's crossplatform. personal notes: I'm combining the two into the same entry, because aside from some behind the scenes changes they're about the same. Also, seems like TAL likes this kind of hardware-lookalike interface. Also, the interface is simple and the synth is easy to use, so I can recommend this for beginners. note: vII is an update with a sound distinct enough for TAL to consider it a separate version. Otherwise they're pretty much the same. TAL-U-No-62 subtractive synth Based on the Juno 60 synth, U-No-62 is... like an old synth. Three waveforms (plus noise), multiple filters... Not spectacular, but useful for more analog sounds. personal notes: Yup, TAL likes that kind of interface. No keyboard this time tho. TAL NoiseMaker Plugin subtractive synth This is basically TAL-Ekec7ro... but with a face replacement and remodeled insides. Capable of really cool sounds. Two oscillators+sub, ring mod, multiple filters, simple controls for velocity-sensitive filter and volume and stuff, built-in chorus, reverb, even a basic bitcrusher. One major drawback is severley hampered polyphony. Six notes max. personal notes: These guys need to learn to name their products better. Anyway, limited polyphony means those sweet pad presets that otherwise sound great are gonna go unused. I like having a lot of notes in my chords. This just won't do. Great for leads and basses tho, this one. - u-he: TripleCheese comb synthesizer 3 oscillators and lost of tweakability for each, Various built-in effects. A great variety of mostly ugly presets. Mostly. I know what comb filter is, what's a comb synth, really? personal notes: Looots of parameters. I should like this. I really should. - Yellow Tools: Independence Free sample player Okay so the freebie doesn't have a thousand instruments, no strings section, no regular piano, but it does have a lot of nice instruments. It has synths, but synths are all over the place. What's cool about this is the percussion. Not because it has lots of it, but because it has a lot of each. It comes with a nice guitar and a bunch of other instruments. personal notes: This was my introduction to keyswitches. A word of warning, the interface is pretty cluttered and ugly, so ignore that for now and just load some nice instrument to play with. - YMCK: magical8bitplug chip synth Simple waveforms, adsr amp envelope, and a sweep feature. It's almost as simple as it gets. A bit of a cheat, as it's polyphonic, then again, Chip32 had a filter. personal notes: meh. I'd take simple waveforms into PlayerPRO or something, screwing with them there. More freedom, more control. If you're lazy or in a hurry, or otherwise can't do it outside your DAW of choice, this might be for you. -- I'm also working on a similar thing for other effects. We'll see how that turns out. It's a lot of effects, and I've only covered reverb, delay, and distortions so far. And i haven't been as eager to pick up everything, either. Anyway, do you have a favorite AU freebie from somewhere, some thoughts about any of these, found a mistake I've made, disagree with me, other related thoughts?

Terrible phase interference in the muffled intro. Dry sax and guitar vs really distant drums is a pretty interesting idea, but those foreground sounds must sound better for it to work. Unexpected rock section, might need better transitioning but I've heard worse. Terrible paper-thin guitar. No bass instrument? Volume edits towards the end do not sound intentional at all. Outro is cool tho. Seems like you're trying to do something way above what you have the tools or skills for. Also seems a bit random to go from an arpeggio-based calm bit to something that's supposed to rock. That calm thing you had going had some promise, and a rock version of the source is possible, but it's gonna be tricky to bridge them into a single track and still have the track make sense. It's a bit on the conservative side, so if you're aiming for ocr you'd best practice the creative interpretation side of arranging. I don't see this track going anywhere in its current shape, so I'd suggest you scavenge this tracks for ideas that'd work in the same arrangement. You had some good ones in here.

Hi newb! This is one of my best. You should read it. Also, why do a "best of" when we can make new music instead?

Myspace pages tend to be bloated with all the "cool" features of the site, so it's not really a great place to host tracks. The music player streams the tracks, and probably stream-ready compressed versions of it, so you might lose a bit of quality there. Just so you know for later. There's a thread about free hosts and stuff. Arrangement is cool, but the sounds and mixing are a bit newby. Too much bass, muffled bass drum, your leads could punch through better, clap sounds lofi and needs more punch too, the epiano sample could use some atmosphere, some space; etc.. Source-wise, you seem to have used the slow melody as a basis for your chords and in the background, and another section where the longer instances of the choir melody are played on the epiano, but those are the only dominant parts of source I hear. The source has some melodies that bring to mind russian folk music or something, but I'm not hearing any of that in your remix. If your main riff is based on source, it's some part of source I missed or it's interpreted beyond recognition. Needs more source than that. Is there? I'm guessing this'd get some RESUB votes from the panel. It's a really cool track, but needs some production fixes and more source. edit: chris, you ninja!

A little heavy on the reverb, some triplet delays might work better. The drums in the intro might benefit from some soft delay as well to make them blend in better. There's quite a disparity between their electronic sound and the rest of the instrumentation. That piano isn't that great anyway, sounds thin, metallic (prob a bad reverb plugin) and sounds like it's missing bass. 1:44 first seemed like it was gonna pick up and get into more of a groove there. A bassline and double-tempo drums is something I imagine would work well, but that's me. Careful with the crescendos, I thought I heard some clipping on one of them. They're overly loud anyway, you could cut back on their volume by a couple of dB. The piano needs humanization, the track needs more of a backbone, you gotta work out the sound disparity. There's a lot in the instrumentation that's good, so figure out how to bring out the good and what to do about the bad. But it's another step forward. Nice work.

Chris, you're not listening close enough. Yeah, this is a lot calmer than the source, but some of your sound choices are highly questionable and others need to be mixed more clearly. Their quality can then become an issue. Anyway, the organ and other stuff in the background is really blurry and what little melody that's discernible is pretty distracting later on when there's other stuff going on. The long notes also end up clashing sometimes. Piano sounds quantized and not very dynamically sequenced anyway. Drums are completely drowned out by the dry guitar - which sounds a little too fake to work. The reverbed guitar is better, but still nothing compared to the real thing. The whole thing is too conservative for ocr, but with this level of production you're not getting on there any time soon anyway. Practice makes pancakes - the more you make, the better you get. It has a cool mood and sounds like a good track to hone your production skills on. Make it good. It'll make _you_ good.

If you want legato strings, you might want to look into the adsr settings, the volume envelope. Longer release means it takes longer for the notes to die out after the notes end - which should help them blend together. You won't get true legato easily, but you can get something passable that way. Shorter attack means they'll hit full volume sooner (sooner into each note), longer attack might make it easier to fade together but shorter attack makes them more. You could experiment with having two instances of the same strings with different envelope settings. New v is better, but you've still got a problem with thin leads. The rest of the instrumentation isn't awesome but I wouldn't care much about it. Leads are your problems, and you could improve the drums (both writing and sound) a bit. The 1:45 section seems like it's missing a big snare on every other beat to counter the big crashes. Also, end your fills with something (2:29). I now noticed the time signature, no wonder I like this track.

This is what I got out of it, with some serious bass reduction and other eq changes, a 10dB boost, and some limiting (0.1ms lookahead, 2ms release, -0.1dB ceiling) followed by normalizing. No transient processing, multiband maximizer whatever stuff going on, just eq and a limiter. (tw no esc, don't reply to spammers, just report them)

This gets a lol. And good luck guys.

Source is there, at least the obvious riff. Getting a headache so I'm not gonna evaluate much more. <- unrelated, not a criticism. You really need to redo the levels between the tracks. Sounds like there's some crazy compression going on here. Needs more highs from the drums (except the occasional highs that get through - overall volume problem methinks). Turn everything down and mix it properly on lower levels, then boost. Vocals are sloppy, could be timed better, maybe you can just cut them up and align them better with the rest of the track. Might be a good idea to expect to have to redo some of them tho. Cool track, you better finish this and finish it good.

0:23 high strings are waay too high. Just turns into some shrill noise. Then comes something that sounds like a whiny electric violin, not the best sound for this soundscape, at least the whining part. Agree about the cymbals at 1:45, sounds terrible. The same sample over and over becomes grating, and while it might work compositionally it doesn't work sonically. Same with the fake guitar. Better distortion/amp sim might improve it but it's clearly not the real thing. Some choir parts go way too low to sound good with those samples. That's some technical nitpicks. It's an interesting dynamic arrangement, and you should improve its sound. Not ocr material, but it's a good track to improve your production on. Good luck with it.

Piano sound is terrible. The higher notes sound ok-ish but the lower ones seem mechanical, and the whole thing is terribly dry. Sounds like you used a piano with unnaturally short release and no reverb. The piano instrument you're using might not have much support for dynamics, adding to the mechanical feel of the track. I hear instances where the notes don't line up exactly, so I know it's not quantized, but it still sounds very mechanical. See what you can do about that. Not familiar with the original, so can't comment on that. Overall, the arrangement seems to work, it has dynamics (it's the sound that doesn't) in how it's written/performed. Just gotta get the sound better. I wouldn't call it finished just yet.