Flexstyle

Hard to say what we think if you don't link, man!

Careful when converting. Byte = 8 bits, not 10 bits. Makes a small difference, at least.

MW, you might want to check the numbers in your comparison post. Pretty sure SATA3 is only 6 Gb/s, etc. So, Thunderbolt should be a 10 Gb/s connection, which is actually faster than SATA3. You should be able to run an SSD through Thunderbolt without much problem, if you really want to have an external drive. If you're going with a hard drive, Firewire 800 (which I'd assume your Mac has) would be plenty fast for that application. And sorry, I have to say from personal experience: my load times were cut by a factor of 10 (at minimum) once I switched from a 7200 RPM hard drive to my SSD for EWQLSO. I still stand by my recommendation for buying the biggest possible SSD you can find, and then making that your only drive in the Mac. So basically: 1. Buy as big of an SSD as you can. 2. Clone your current hard drive to this SSD, thereby making it your sole drive. CarbonCopyCloner makes this stupidly easy. 3. Copy the EastWest samples to the SSD. 4. Revel in blazing fast load times. Plus, keep in mind that EastWest will be doing a lot of disk streaming, since its libraries are just THAT huge. That's why they recommend the faster interface for their hard drive. The SSD will help a lot more with that, too. As far as limited lifetime on SSDs: you should be able to squeeze five years out of whichever one you get without much issue. With all the algorithms in place for cleanup, plus the fact that they do technically include much more storage than is quoted, you shouldn't have a problem at all. Or you could just build a custom Windows box with RAID0 and get tons of space and lots of speed for much less cost. There's that, too.

Yeah, I've (a) gotten a lot better at singing and ( gotten a lot better at vocal mixing since I created this track. It's something like three years old at this point, if you can believe that. Still holds a special spot in my heart, though!

I'd never heard of Parasite Eve before, so this was an interesting listen. Good source tunes, actually, now that I've listened to bits and pieces of the OST. So hey, this remix: it's clearly laden with source, and arranged pretty nicely. No problems there. I like how you tend to keep the frantic energy of the original soundtrack in your mix as much as possible. Unfortunately, my problem with this remix comes with the fact that it's mixed so loud--there's almost no dynamic range to speak of, and it's almost painfully compressed. With as much ambiance as you've got going, you're really hurting yourself more than helping with all that master compression. I'm also personally not a fan of the drum sounds, but that's not necessarily a dealbreaker. The kick in particular, though, sounds incredibly compressed, and probably doesn't really need that. Basically, I'd clean up the mix, give some of the ambient stuff room to breathe, and take that master compressor down a couple notches. After that, I think I'd be comfortable passing this one. NO (resubmit)

So. I thought about this for a while, checked the guidelines, drank some water, etc. I'm going to vote in the affirmative on this one. The performances are tight, the production conveys a very intimate feel, and it's definitely on point in all technical areas to my ears. As far as the arrangement goes: yes, it's clearly a medley, but we've posted those before (what is it with Castlevania and great live medley-mixes?). I think the playing chops make up for medley-itis in this case. Plus, a few musical motifs are re-visited towards the end, so it's not like it's just playing straight through and ignoring everything once it's been touched. YES, and I'm downloading it to my folder of Good Mixes regardless.

For earbuds, I have a pair of Skullcandy Smokin' Buds that I bought in a hurry at the campus store for $45 two years ago. Considering how long they've lasted me and how decent they sound, that actually wasn't terrible. I've carried them around the world and around campus, and they're still in excellent shape. They're only $10.xx on Amazon though, so for that price I can absolutely recommend them.

Here's the thing--this is a really awkwardly-handled electronic mix, to my ears. I get that it's a good arrangement, but let's see if I can really vocalize why this track bugs me so much. - That kick drum is so. freaking. compressed. I mean, it sounds like it's distorting when its tail comes through, that's how compressed it is. It's hogging the entire bass spectrum, leaving no room for any kind of legitimate bassline, and it's mixed very far forward. I get that the genre requires that, but it's not working when it's this hot. - The snare isn't really helping, either. It's a long snare, and it's used a lot, which means that what is essentially white noise is crowding a ton of the song. - The hat pattern is killin' me. It doesn't flow very well, as if it can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a rock-style (every beat) or electronic style (every off-eighth) hat. Sounds jarring. It's also taking up a lot of that upper midrange spectrum, which tends to be a problem since that's where the meat of every single one of your synth patches is, too. - It (the hat) is also pretty repetitive, and that also goes for a lot of the drums. What would help a lot is if you introduced new percussive elements as the song goes on, instead of throwing everything at us all at once. Start with just the kick and snare, add the hats in and out, etc. - There are only so many ways to do a mostly-clean detuned saw, and it gets really boring after a while. I mean, there are other kinds of patches out there, honestly! A square wave? Maybe some distorted sines? Something with a bit of character? That would be nice. Part of the problem this creates is that every synth patch occupies the same spectrum, since they're all using the same set of harmonics. This makes it sound messy, especially in the upper-midrange. It also doesn't help that a lot of the synths sound like they're at the same volume, giving no room for the mix to breathe at all. So yeah, get that overcompression cleaned up, get the mix cleaned up (give every instrument its own space, and don't let the kick take up your entire bass range), and then I'll be happier. I'll be especially happy if you can get some more interesting synths going to really give this song the character it deserves. NO (resubmit)

Mmm, good to know. Well, hopefully the fact that (a) I'm not really taxing it terribly and ( it's plugged into a monstrous APC UPS will mitigate some of that.

Well, like I said, I stuck everything big-sample-related (Kontakt libraries, EastWest libraries, etc.) on a 500 GB SSD. Load times aren't determined by RAM, but rather by the storage medium. Your iMac probably has a 7200 RPM hard drive in it, so load times will be pretty slow for EastWest patches. Honestly at this point, it won't hurt you to buy a new PC, since your current rig is at the 3-year-old mark. If you're not looking forward to building your own, there's a guy on this forum who's done a lot of PC builds for various OCR folks. That said, if you would like to try and squeeze a bit of life out of your current iMac, the first thing I'd do would be buy the biggest SSD I could afford (I recommend the Samsung Evo) and upgrade the RAM to as big as it'll hold. It's cheaper than buying a new PC, and you can always use the new SSD in your next PC build once that happens.

FWIW, I'm running a PC that was built back in 2011 with 8 GB of RAM, and ever since I stuck all my EastWest samples on an SSD, I've had no trouble. You really don't need more than 8 GB of RAM for 99% of music production. 16GB if you're feeling skittish, but that's honestly still overkill.

Sweet merciful mother of pearl--Vinnie, drop a warning for long songs? Ahem. Anyways. Let's tackle this monstrosity! Right off the bat I've got some key issues: - Drums - Quantization - Mixing - Pauses/Transitions/Arrangement Let's tackle these one by one. 1. Drums: The kit you're using has very very little in the way of dynamics. What I mean by that is that no matter how hard you play the sample, it's still the same static sample--no variation at all. There are a ton of great drum kits out there that allow you a much more realistic sound without breaking the bank. That's assuming these were sequenced--and if they were played on a drum machine or electric kit, you might want to consider sequencing drums instead, as you'll probably get a lot more options that way. 2. Quantization: I'm noticing that basically everything that isn't a guitar or bass guitar is heavily quantized, meaning all the notes are rigidly snapped to exact timing. That's not what we need to have in a rock song, and in fact, it tends to clash with the other "natural" sounds of the guitars. No human can play precisely on beat for every single beat, so give it a bit of loosening up! Don't make every snare hit on exactly every other quarter note, and don't make the organ hit perfect sixteenth notes. Give it some soul! 3. Mixing: Just a couple issues I'd prefer to point out here. I'm feeling like some of the guitars may be a bit imbalanced--the lead guitar is a bit too quiet, and I'm feeling like everything just a bit dull on that end. Not enough sheen to the sound. A bit of EQ love might help your case there. That goes for both the lead and the rhythm guitars. Also, ya gotta bring the guitars (all of them) up in the mix to compete with the drums, which are definitely the loudest instrument right now. The drums: the hat is way too loud, even for the way it's currently mixed, during parts of the song (starts at 0:30). Definitely need to get that toned down if the drums were to be redone. 4. Arrangement, etc: So, correct me if I'm wrong here, judges, but this seems a bit medley- and cover-esque. I'm not sensing a lot of actual original arrangement here. Usually we need some more original interpretation besides just instrument changes and a solo on top. I'm hearing a pause between sections (e.g. source tune switches), and not a lot to really tie anything together. The thing tends to drag just a bit as well, without a lot of variation in drum patterns during many sections--I found myself just waiting for the section to end so I could hear something new a few times. I know you're working with four sources, but you might be better off shaving entire minutes of this song off in order to make it less tedious to listen to. Compress some sections, maybe even consider losing a couple source tunes and focusing your efforts on one specific or two specific source tunes. Finally, a fadeout ending? Gotta give me something better than that after you've thrown seven and a half minutes at me--surely you can do it! Yeah, definitely a lot of issues here, and I didn't cover everything. I dig the guitar chops, and this wasn't a bad listen, but you may want to take this to the workshop forums after giving it another whirl. NO

My newbie has been basically MIA. SamAreAye, I gotta know what to help ya with, dude!

Aww man, I wish those lyrics weren't there--or rather, I almost wish that I just hadn't found out about them (as of today). This has always been one of my very favorite OCR classic tracks--super catchy arrangement, chewy drums, nice phat synths. Don't reeeeeally wanna be blastin' a demonic roll call, though.

They're not 80 minutes each, but I do post the recordings of my DJ sets on Soundcloud occasionally. I tend to use mostly OCR-related material when I play live. Grab the latest mixes from bLiNd and Ben Briggs while you're at it, too!

I think this song is greater than the sum of its parts. As has been mentioned above, that piano is definitely mechanical. The part is well-written, though, and that nearly makes up for it. I actually really like the fake lead guitar, since it kinda gives me a throwback to some older game OST sound choices. Seems appropriate for such a storied franchise like Street Fighter. The overall mix seems to have everything just a bit too prominent--part of that is because the stereo field is almost totally neglected--there are several instruments at about the same volume level in the same spot in the stereo field. Also, I think there's a bit of a midrange bump in there somewhere that makes it sound just a bit harsh. Might be the speakers/headphones you're mixing on. I do like the drum writing, even if I'm not personally a huge fan of the kit you used. So yeah, I'm comfortable passing this one. It may not be the single most technically-excellent mix we've ever gotten, but it's definitely above the bar, thanks to a great arrangement and a passable mixdown. YES

Y'all better get ready for some hard times, because winning this compo will be the happiest days of my life.

Created a if anyone wants it.

In no particular order: Ice Cap Zone (yes, I actually really want this source!) Hydrocity Zone (Sonic and Knuckles) Rusty Ruin Act 1 (Sonic 3D Blast Genesis) Panic Puppet Act 2 (3D Blast Genesis) Bridge Zone (Sonic 1 on Sega Master System)

It's not a picture or a video, but it IS a live set. If you'd care to hear my MAG set again, here it is!

Yeah, that's a fantastic soundtrack. I have it in one of my favorite Spotify playlists.

Hey SamAreAye, just hit me up via Skype or something and we can talk at your convenience. electromikebirch is the username.

This, minus the sleep schedule mess.

I'd have to say that overall, this track is...perfectly dark. *exits to chorus of boos* Actually, in all seriousness, I really enjoyed this one. It's clear there's a lot of source usage, although you didn't use all of the source, which made me a bit sad. That said, I'm a huge fan of those drums. They never get old, despite being essentially the same throughout the entire song. Fantastic work on the glitch processing to keep it fresh! My only nitpick on them would be that they seem to be just a tad too far forward in the mix, but that might be a personal thing. I will side with OA in that some of the lead sounds you used didn't really jive with the atmosphere of the song, being a bit dry and a bit bright, but the fact that the screencap you had as the album picture was all neon and stuff made me forgive it a bit more. The filtered/detuned saw lead would be what I'm referring to here, since they fit in nicely with that Blade Runner-esque vibe of the screencap. I don't mind that little dissonant section, as it resolves itself nicely. Yeah, I'm definitely comfortable passing this one. Source usage is go, the drums are fantastically glitchy, and the atmosphere is thick. Production across the board is definitely above the bar. YES

Special thanks to OA for actually being able to play an instrument live and therefore allowing our song to qualify for DoD in the first place.