blue.nocturne

I don't think I can finish a song this time. I have finals next week, so I probably won't be able to put together a song unless it was extended another week. I will still vote of course, best of luck to everyone this round.

Those numbers confuse me. The odds seem to add up way past 100% and some people have greater than 100% odds.

Well, this was more of a remake version for people that may possibly be interested in hearing Sinister Sundown with better synths and different articulations. More of a personal experiment I guess because I am having trouble balancing certain pieces, and I decided to do something less original to learn about proper instrument positions and etc. If you want to hear an arrangement, I have this: http://files.filefront.com/Dr+Wily+Symphonicmp3/;11922864;/fileinfo.html <-- completely different song I felt that it was way too bright and that articulations could have been a lot better. I know the balance isn't terrible, but I'm really not sure how to make it "awesome." Well not quite, I guess I was unclear. I'm just putting it out there to see if the orchestration sounds good enough, or if I'm seriously missing something/should do something better. The project itself is important, since I actually want to make this a remix or part of a remix someday.

In an attempt to refine my orchestral techniques, I decided to remake Sinister Sundown from KHII. Now it's a REMAKE not a REMIX, at least in this phase of the project... I may consider making it a remix later on, but for now it's just a remake. I mainly practiced more on balance and articulations for this piece, instead of just forcefully trying to get a sound out of my VSTs. Overall the version is as conservative as it can possibly get, as all the instruments are pretty much the same. I did not know what kind of synths Shimomura used for the background and timbre, so I just used something close enough to match it. Here's the link: http://files.filefront.com/Sinister+Sundown+Remakemp3/;12159633;/fileinfo.html For now, it's not going to be submitted or anything.. but if anyone starts a Kingdom Hearts Album project then it could be used for that.

It's really nice despite how some parts sound unnatural. It's really a shame how you chose to do it small ensemble, because it could easily be done in a large orchestra too. Then again, it does shift to a somewhat fuller orchestra toward the end... Overall, it's very good, but it seems it's lacking a strong bass presence in some certain sections. Especially toward the full ensemble section, it sounds great, but seems to be really lacking bass. The timpani sounds like it's struggling to be heard against the orchestra. Yeah, but don't stress too much that you cannot achieve perfect realism with synths. We wouldn't want to obsolete real orchestras now would we?

It sounds really different from the original, so I bet you could make it into a remix if you want. It's pretty good!

I don't want to lose the round that's based off my own alias. : (

Hehe, sounds very much like my alias. The funny thing is I've haven't wrote any nocturnes before, so this will be most interesting.

Lol, audio results were funny. It's like a CMC commercial! Just a side note though, I had trouble recognizing this CMC at first because it was written as "CMC" instead of "Conceptual Music Competition" as you did in the past. I think it stands out more in the forum with that longer name and it gets more easily recognized, since everyone else uses 3 letter abbreviations.

1. Yes, sometimes useful, sometimes not, because most of the work I do is orchestral and there are not a lot of resources for my style of remixing. 2. Criticism, nitpicking, and of course encouragement. If I only get criticism, then it gets depressing, having a mix of encouragement plus thoughtful criticism is what is like. Although, it's really difficult to find help on HOW to fix things, because the more I listen to my own songs, the more mistakes I notice. Like I can often hear "something sounds funny at 1:42," although it's a critic, the problem is I don't know whether he means the balance of the instruments or if it's a bad choice of a lead instrument, etc. 3. I honestly like to review people who review my songs, so it can get frustrating when people ONLY post for themselves and over time I don't feel like reviewing for them. I also tend to review for people who really need reviews, or if people do not respond at all to their thread. Of course, I tend to review songs that I actually recognize in order to give a fair review. Although I think there is a problem with thread popularity, as some remixes can sink into obscurity when threads get bumped up too much. 4. My idea for improving the WIP board would be to force 3 reviews per new forum topic in the WIP forums. That would make everyone have to review if they want their own song topic opened up. If people end up making one gigantic post of music about themselves, then I believe it should be 2 reviews per post on their on own thread. This would make the WIP boards a lot more constructive because no matter how many resources, warnings, guidelines, etc. are laid out, there will always be proper reviews and improper unsatisfying reviews. I think this idea would work since it would generate a good ratio between new threads and reviews, as sometimes it seems that new threads (and posts by their owners) are more in number than actual reviews. Of course the major downside to it will be the increase of one word reviews such as "nice," "good," and etc. Since people will and may spam this in order to post in their own thread. This could be addressed by a word minimum of around 10-12 words.

Well, it wasn't done!! So don't say it's too short. 2:49 seems like a good enough length, so I consider it long enough now. Hopefully most if not all the problems are fixed. Now I consider it completely done, unless someone finds something wrong with a certain section. I really don't want to do any major edits though. The major changes made in this version is that I doubled certain parts that were too quiet, I changed the key from C minor to B minor (which I think fixed some balance issues and made bass better), and of course I added an original section and did a semi-repeat. The original sections are 1:27 to 1:59, and of course the ending. So I think it's in range of being original enough now... I don't know if the key change benefited the song or not, I personally think it sounds better with the key change, but that may be because I was playing it over and over again so I was getting really tired of the original key. Any last opinions would be nice before I submit this.

Well, it's okay. I'm over it now, so hopefully I get my vote in soon.

No comment, you really have offended me. @Abadoss: Do you think I could switch out that song for the alternate song I was going to submit?

Just because I use a 1,2,3,5 double octave arpeggio does not mean I'm trying to rip off the crystal theme from FF... but then because it's so famous no one can get away with using it nowadays. It's not exactly the same as that progression either, I used a 1,2,3,5,6 and other variations so it's very different from the crystal theme's use of it. Plus I have entered as many times as you have, so I don't know why you would even think I would submit something from FF claiming I did it.

I wouldn't let you win by default anyways. But that very first match was pretty close.

Okay, I updated the song. Link is in the first post and here: http://files.filefront.com/Dr+Wily+ver+2mp3/;11814433;/fileinfo.html Hopefully most of the problems brought up were fixed/compensated for. I decided to trade overall power for more quality (less compression damage), so it is slightly quieter. I changed the middle section to include a nice piano accompaniment and I fixed any strange sounding transitions. Also slightly extended, and it may sound concluded... but I hope I can transition it somehow to a repeat (with variations of course) and/or a solo section. I looked for alternate lead violins, but this one seems to work best, despite how it sticks out. It either sticks out, or can't be heard at all, so of course I have to take the first option. -I am having a lot of trouble adding any more realism, as this often results in the part becoming invisible, not fitting. Even though the new piano can sound a bit unrealistic at times, I think it works. -Slowing down certain sections resulted in drag, so more dynamic tempo will be planned in for the later sections hopefully. Oh yes, and if you have trouble identifying instruments, it's because I use a lot of blending. For instance flute will be often mixed with oboe, clarinet and piccolo. So even though it may sound like a "solo" it most likely is actually blended with something else.

Well you should pretty much expect HoboKa and me to enter something most of the time. But yeah, mine is in the works.

I've been busy all this summer, only having time for CMCs, so now that I have time I decided to do a remix! I know this is an extremely over-remixed song, but I don't think there is an orchestrated version yet. (or at least I hope so...) http://files.filefront.com/Okkusenmanmp3/;11749480;/fileinfo.html Ver 1.0 http://files.filefront.com/Dr+Wily+Stage+1mp3/;11757885;/fileinfo.html Ver 1.5 http://files.filefront.com/Dr+Wily+ver+2mp3/;11814433;/fileinfo.html Ver 2.0! Newest: http://files.filefront.com/Dr+Wily+Symphonicmp3/;11922864;/fileinfo.html FINAL I tried to be a lot more dynamic with my orchestration doing this piece. A few issues I am worried about are: -the possibility that the orchestration is a little too aggressive -that it may be too loud. (minimal compression is used) -not different enough from the original song's structure Hopefully the orchestration itself makes it unique enough to be considered OCR material. I plan to add a solo section after where it ends, so it's not quite done yet. Hope you guys like it so far.

I feel it works well as is, the only issue I find with it is that the background feel stays the same during the whole song. And at 3:38, when the snare comes back in, it makes an annoying click. It does fit the song, but that one part sticks out a little too much. Overall I think did yet again a nice job.

I hope you do Rainbow Castle, that was probably my favorite song out of the whole Mario Party series. MP1 definitely had the best music out of all of them, thanks to Yasunori Mitsuda of course.

I really don't think the organ works, at least that kind of organ you are using. It also feels really dry and mechanical. I would suggest sticking to piano, or to add more instruments, using the organ as the harmony rather than the main melody. As Rozovian mentioned, the main issue is keeping it interesting, so be sure to keep playing with it.

Hopefully they all enter again next round, I am going to do 110%!

Wow, I'm 99% certain I'm not going to win this round.

This theme puts you at a huge disadvantage. You might have to do something happy sounding.

Well $1100 may seem a lot, but that probably does not include insurance, stable income, benefits, etc. Sometimes by having insurance and benefits, it can curb pay and actually be better than being paid more, so you can avoid higher tax brackets. Also if you work a constant job, you'll make more money over time, but in the art industry, you make large bursts of income and practically nothing if you can't find work. So it seems you either make it big, or you really don't make it at all, so having a side-job might help. Also, I don't think she's trying to cheat us with this contest. Maybe it's just a low-scale project put together by friends and they're just trying to start off.