Flexstyle

Oh man, I feel like this one is super-close. I love the arrangement, for the most part, and I like the compressed feel, personally. I like the tone you're using, and I like those little synth bits in the background. I'm still thinking resub on this one, though. Why is that? It's mainly because of one simple thing: drum realism. The sequencing, while pretty well done in terms of velocity writing, is still clearly locked to the grid. Get this humanized a bit, and it'll have the loose, gritty feel that the guitars are giving off so nicely. I'd also recommend not just sticking to 16th notes for some of your snare rolls--get some 32nd note ghosts in there or something, as a real drummer would get bored playing that slowly really quickly. Finally, drums-wise, there are spots where your drummer is playing with three hands at once--crash cymbal, snare, and hi-hat. Gotta fix that. I'd also love to see something a bit more exciting than the fade-out ending, cos it felt an awful lot like a cop-out to me. Maybe do a drum build-up to ending with a bang or something, I dunno. Anyways. Get those drums straightened out and I'm ready to sign off on this one! NO (resubmit, please!)

Let's see--there's obviously a lot of source here, and I can definitely see the direction you've gone with it. While I think the repetition would work just fine on a dancefloor--indeed, that seems to be what you've aimed for with the long intro--I don't think it quite works for the purposes of an OC ReMix. Basically, I'll just pile on to what the other judges have already mentioned--that lack of variation during long stretches of the song is what's holding this thing back. I personally would have liked to see some percussion more percussive changeups as the song progressed, too, as that tends to add flavor. As it stands, it's a sweet track, with above-average production and some great ideas--I especially like the sample you grabbed (was that from the cartoon?) with Joker and Harley. Great way to prepare us for the transition between themes. However, it's just too repetitive to make it onto the front page. Personally, I think that even something like a radio edit might do the trick, since we are working with some repetitive source material in the first place. If this does end up getting NO'd more than YES'd, I'd hope we see this one back soon! NO (Resubmit)

Oh, it's a Strader remix? NO RESUB ETC. Actually, I'm digging the time signature conversion. The instrumentation is full, and I can hear the source throughout for the most part. Nice and clean production, I'm digging it. I do have a few nitpicks: 1. Slightly unrealistic drums - sometimes multiple parts of the kit are playing at once that might necessitate more than two hands, namely during some of the tom fills that somehow keep the hats going as well. 2. Tuning and sequencing/performing issues on a couple parts, mainly the flutes - there are some spots where a wind instrument is a bit out of tune by a few cents, and of course it's clear that a lot of the wind work is sampled. Kinda fitting, though, I think, what with the source's lead instrument being the sampled flute as well. In any case, I can hear plenty of source, the production is pristine, and the nitpicks I have aren't enough to really hurt this one. YES

Ooh, trance! This is one of my favorite genres, so I'm always happy to hear more of it. There's a lot to like here. I think I can feel the type of atmosphere you're going for, with the etherial pads and the piano 'n such. I like that little arp that comes in during the breakdown, adds some cool flavor. Here's my thing: I think this arrangement could be a LOT better if you were to take better care of the genre itself. Let me explain. Trance is a genre that relies on the flow of the song. Abrupt stops don't really do it any favors, and a well-placed buildup will do wonders for a song. Every element needs to follow the flow of the song that has been created, otherwise the energy level suffers. A few things in this arrangement that go against this ethos, to me, include the bassline and some of your drum fills, as well as your abrupt re-entry into the song from the breakdown. First off, the tempo could stand to be changed a bit. With the tempo you're at--I'd guess high 140s to low 150s, without actually tapping it out--you're dealing with the kick covering a large portion of each beat. What I mean by that is that the decay of the kick drum covers more than half a beat, which automatically creates problems for anything that's trying to be in that same frequency range. It's not necessarily something that needs to be changed, but try experimenting with different tempos and see if that helps a bit. The bassline is a bit thin, although that's somewhat necessitated by the super-thick kick drum. If you were to change up the patterns so that the kick complements the kick drum, rather than trying to be its own rhythmic element at the same time--sort of a call and response thing--that would help the flow of the song a lot. Even adding some sidechain to the bassline would really help. Thickening it up, yet allowing it to live in harmony with that kick drum, would give this song a lot more body and character, I think. Your breakdown is pretty abrupt, with not so much as a snare roll to signify that something's coming. Same thing goes for the entry from the breakdown into the rest of the song--even though you've got a soft sound effect going in there, it's the kind of effect that would signal for more breakdown (to my ears, at least), rather than adding the kick drum and the rest of the elements in there. More sound effects would help your case, adding atmosphere, as well as maybe a secondary lead that mirrors the melody that the pad is already carrying. During the last portion of the song, you really haven't given us much variation on your original ideas. At least give me some amped up percussion--busier hats or something, make it sound like it's a true climax of a trance piece! Doing a bit of variation on the themes would help, too. I do hear the countermelody you've put in there, but it occupies the same frequency spectrum as everything else, making everything become a bit messy in that high-midrange EQ spectrum. In summary, here's what NEEDS to be fixed: - Kick drum is too hot, creating distortion at parts (especially during kick rolls). - Give me more variation or something during the end, allowing it to stand by itself as a final part of the song. The rest of the advice is yours to take or leave, but I think this piece will become something spectacular if you take the time to give it the detailing it deserves. NO, please resubmit!

ocr's reckoning

I think this got covered in one of the OCR Talkback episodes. The short answer is no, if the song has already been posted. If it hasn't yet been posted, I'm not sure--I think we've had retractions before, but I can't remember how that went. I'll let someone else give a longer answer if they really feel like it.

I took a while to actually get this review together, as my brain and the source you picked simply don’t work together very well. That said, I think I can give a few pieces of advice here. My first crit would be that the percussion is a bit mechanical, and very obviously sequenced. It’s a bit too “pattern-y,” if that makes sense. The timpani sounds a bit too busy to me to really work, and I’m a bit concerned about sticking the bongo loop into what’s trying to be a purely orchestral mix. If you were to give this more of an electronic edge, I’m not sure that would be as much of an issue. My second crit is that you definitely need to clean up the strings. A real violin doesn’t tail off at the end of every single bow swipe—it needs to cut off as soon as the next note hits. Thirdly, I’m noticing that there’s a bit of overcompression showing, since everything’s kinda getting a bit crowded in that upper midrange. Not sure if it’s the fact that your string samples are a bit underutilized (too much release on each note), or what. If you were to back off the amount of instruments playing in the same spectrum at the same time, you might be a bit better off. Finally (and this one is more personal taste), I think this arrangement would benefit from a stronger bass presence. This could be a stronger, deeper string part, or maybe just giving the timpani hits some more “oomph.” Overall, I think I see what you’re trying to get at here, with that building tension powered by those string risers ‘n such. It reminds me of a film score piece for a psychological thriller or something, so there’s definitely a place for it--even the abrupt cutoff works for that kind of application. However, it needs some sample cleanup and a bit of production polish (and perhaps some more electronic flavors to go with the more "looped" elements) to be quite over the bar. Hope to see it again soon! NO (Resubmit)

Ask and you shall receive! Here, have an FLP file. It's also on my Soundcloud somewhere. Honestly, I don't plan on resubbing it, as it was meant more as a technical exercise than anything else. I still think it's a sick track and it tends to find its way into all my DJ sets (including MAGFest upcoming, if you're there!), but I don't really feel the need to add more source. That said, it'll probably also be on my next album, so it's not going to be forgotten by any means! Officially, it's an original track that's inspired by Starcraft.

Hrm, let’s see—there are a bunch of issues with this track, so I’ll name a few glaring ones. 1. Most of your instruments are fighting with each other for sonic space. The sitar, vocals, didgeridoo, and synth vibes all occupy generally the same spectrum, so you’re going to have to balance each one’s airtime so that they don’t all crowd each other. Even the bassline is skewed towards the midrange, and that doesn’t help either. 2. I feel like it’s a bit disjointed, melodically. This may be just me, but the vocal sample doesn’t really mesh well with everything else, as it doesn’t resolve to the root note at any point, and is usually kinda dissonant with whatever else is playing. 3. The arrangement overall needs a lot of polish, as well. You’d do well to incorporate a lot more melodic variation, as you seem to re-use a decent amount of patterns (the bass and the synth vibe come to mind). Get some new sounds in there, and don’t make the synth vibe do all the heavy lifting--keep it fresh! I think you tried to do this a bit with the sitar, but it ended up just clogging the mix, since it's part of the same sonic space as everything else that's going, too. There’s probably more, but I’d say you’d do well to spend time working on the issues here, and then take it over to the Workshop forums. That way, you’ll be able to get a bunch more feedback. Even if this particular arrangement doesn’t end up making it through, try and learn as much as you can while improving it—you’ve got some cool ideas (seriously, we need more didgeridoo around here), so I’d love to see you learn how to put those good ideas into a fluid, polished track. NO

Echoing what Larry said, it's obvious that this song was sequenced, and yet it doesn't take away at all from its enjoyability. The soundscape is filled beautifully, and this seems like just the right genre to do a remix of the source in. I was nodding my head withing the first couple measures--nice 'n catchy! The only gripe I'd have would be that some of the tempo changes were a bit awkward, and a bit more care could have been taken in some of the sequencing. For instance, some of the notes, because of the sample's attack speed, come in just a biiiiit too late to work as well as they could. If they'd been moved back just a teensy bit in the sequencer, I feel like they'd be even better. A couple examples would be that lead flute at around 0:22 and some of the horns around the 1:20 area. The slow-down around 1:15 is also just a bit awkward, since it only gets that one snare hit in there to signify the tempo change. Kinda hard to follow along with--maybe having some notes run through there as it slows down would help. Overall EQ-wise, I think it could use a bit more boost on the low-mid range, but that's not a huge deal. Sequencing nitpicks aside, I still think this is a beautiful, enjoyable mix that deserves a spot on the front page. Nice work! YES

With this song, I feel like it’s a case of a bunch of little things that need to be tweaked. The song structure is pretty good overall, and I like a lot of the melodic elements you’ve created. However, I’m not feeling your sound choices for the most part. The bassline isn’t too dynamic, and could use a patch that’s less “mud” (thick in the low-mids by a bit too much) and stands out a bit more. The drums could use a bit more stereo separation, but aren’t too bad. They could also use a bit more “tightening,” maybe by cutting the decay time of the kick and snare and then compressing ‘em a bit so they stand out a bit more. The sitar just feels like it needs to be replaced with a sound that’s a little less “uncertain,” and by that I mean something that’s got a bit more polished attack and maybe a more defined (either longer or shorter decay, but preferably more in monophonic mode than the polyphonic overlapping tails). Basically, either sustain the notes for their full duration until the next note hits, or make it a bit more staccato, but don't let the notes overlap either way. The piano sounds like a Casio keyboard, and I’m not really feeling it. There are a bunch of other good freebie piano sounds out there, so look around and see if you can’t improve it. The mix overall is a bit muffled and lacking in low end. It needs more sheen at the high end (could be as simple as a treble boost) and more definition in the low end. The low end definition will be the tough part, but the best place to start is to do some hard EQ roll-offs on anything that isn’t a kick drum or bass instrument. That’ll clear that space out so it’s easier to balance everything. Also, as a final though, it feels as if you’re trying to do an electronica-style arrangement with organic instruments. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—however, you’re going to want to watch out for repetitiveness as the arrangement goes on. Add some variation in the parts towards the end of the song, instead of copy-pasting parts too much. I think you’ve added a bit of layering as it progresses, so I’d say you’re on the right track. Just gotta push it a bit further. I feel like with a bit more polish, this could be really good, but you’re going to need better sound choices and a bit more arrangement. Make sure everything meshes with everything else, and don’t stick too many instruments in the same sonic spectrum at the same time. Also, remember: just because a sound is cool by itself, that doesn’t mean that it’ll work great in a mix. Make sure everything goes together. NO, Resubmit

It’s a strong arrangement, some super shredding, and I love the Oriental flavor Mokram added to it. I do have a few issues, though: I’m not hearing any bassline at all. I think if you were to write in a good bassline and make room for it in the mix, it would sound a lot more full. You’ve tried to compensate with your guitar tone, but to my ears it kinda just makes it a little muddy. Plus, as it stands, the guitars and the drums are fighting for that low-mid area. You’ll want to roll off the low end of the guitar, and then maybe sharpen up the higher-midrange of the drums as well. I’m also a bit concerned that the drums are somewhat mechanical—they’re just a bit *too* perfect in terms of timing, so you can tell that they were played by a piano roll. DusK, you also know my issues with the default FPC drum samples (my faaaaaaavorite….yeah….that!), but I don’t think I can make that a dealbreaker crit. Overall, I think this is just a bassline away from being a great metal track, and any other tweaks would be the icing on the proverbial cake. I know there are a lot of YES votes here already, so this could be a moot point in any case, but I’d love to hear this with those additions. NO, Resubmit

Oh man, this source. I really love the Starcraft II soundtrack, so I’m excited to hear what you’ve done with it. Couple things off the bat here: 3:15 or so, the ride cymbal is a wee bit harsh. The strings at 3:55 or thereabouts are a bit slow on the attack, and obviously sampled. They work just fine as background, but not so much as a lead instrument. I’m also starting to sense just a bit of overcompression at about 4:25 or so in the main mix, as the midrange is starting to just get a little crowded. Overall I love the flow of the song and dig most of the sound choices. I’m hearing a ton of source in here, too, so I really can’t complain about that at all. I do have a couple things I want to dig into, though. First off, while I feel like the piano works pretty well in the mix, it does stand out as being a bit mechanical whenever it’s exposed. With a bit of velocity tweaking to make it a bit more human, I think that can be mitigated easily. Also, I gotta note that whenever the instrumentation gets any kind of dense, there’s a good bit of crowding in the midrange. This is making the limiter work pretty hard in those areas, and as a result the song sounds squished and almost a bit distorted at times. I absolutely love this arrangement, and my heart really wants to put it on the front page of OCR. The Starcraft II soundtrack—as mentioned—is one of my favorite OSTs of all time. However, I think fixing the mixing and piano issues would bring this to new heights, and make this mix truly worthy of being posted. PLEASE COME BACK I WANT TO SEE THIS SOON! NO (Resubmit)

Oh man. I feel like this song is just a few tweaks away from being solid. Here’s why: 1. While I think I can sense what you’re trying to do with the very slow start and very gradual buildup, it doesn’t make enough use of the material to my ears to work quite that way. I feel like the song really takes off at about 3:06, and by that time you’re already more than halfway through. If you were to condense the intro—shave it into about a half or a quarter of what’s there, by cutting sections and combining some of your instrumentation (“squashing” that section together, as it were), you’d be on the right track. (Also, what’s with the sudden drop out at 4:55? I was just starting to get into it, dagnabbit!) Basically, to me, even though it's obvious you're using a lot of source all the way through, I'd like to see it used in a way that progresses the song forward without dragging too much. 2. The production isn’t terrible, but electronic music suffers if the production is anything but utterly pristine, generally speaking. Your kick drum is super-boomy on the low end, and rather “boxy”-sounding; that is, it’s got too much action in the low-mids somewhere, too. I’d recommend finding a tighter kick sample if you can, and maybe watch the EQ on it a bit closer. Also, some of the instruments are fighting each other for sonic space. Remember, a saw wave takes up a LOT of spectrum, and you’ll want to be careful when you have a saw plus anything else. The saw pad in particular will take up a lot of room, so maybe back it off, add some careful EQ to cut out the midrange mess, or re-think the instruments that play along with it. All that said, I really love some of your instrument choices. That violin is superb, and the little harmony melodies you’ve cooked up work really nicely. Clean up the production, clean up the intro, and please come back with it — I want to hear what you can do! NO, Resubmit

Wow, that actually looks really intriguing. The included plugins with the paid versions are kinda the extra icing--Ohmforce makes some pretty good stuff. Wonder if you get the VST versions with purchase, or if that's what they are in the first place? I'm tempted to pick it up just because of that, and then let the software mature over time. EDIT: And Ecto, I think this is a bit different, in that you won't have to worry about a net connection distorting the sound necessarily. Parts would just kinda show up.

So, there are a few things that I want to point out with this one. First, the mix is a bit on the muddy side. That’s a fairly easy fix, though, as you should only need to sort out how the bass and the kick relate to each other, then adjust the balance of everything else. What I mean by that is that you gotta decide which one's going to be the very sub-bass frequency carrier, and which one's going to be a bit above it in the spectrum, and then EQ to taste. I gotta second Vig--the mix does have some distortion at times, and I'm thinking it could be because you're crowding your limiter with mid-range frequencies--or you're just not using a limiter at all. That could be helped if you take some of the harsher mids out of the Rhodes, I think, but careful how you go about it. Other mixing stuff: the chippy blips sounded decent, albeit just a bit piercing for the rest of the song's vibe (maybe roll off the high end a bit? not a huge deal, though) but the sax sounded buried and a bit too low in the mix. Speaking of the sax, it also sounded pretty artificial. There’s definitely a place for the sample you used, but you’d be helped by pitchbending some of those grace notes in there, rather than allowing the attack to hit each time, as that makes it sound noticeably unnatural. Finally, my biggest issue with this track is that I can skip around and hear basically the same thing each time. There’s almost zero variation between each time the main melody is playing: it’s the same lead instrument, the same bassline, the same basic beat, and this happens multiple times throughout the track. Gotta keep it interesting, yo! I’d advise that you shorten the song a bit, and focus on making each section stand out. It’s fine to revisit an idea, but give it some variation the second and third times around. Do some noodling on the melody, or at least introduce some extra percussive elements or something. Also, do keep in mind that you’ll want to pick out a new name for the track. OCR’s submission rules state that submissions can’t be named after the source track, game title, or yourself. If you’re having trouble thinking of a good title, just post around in the Workshop—I’m sure someone there would be happy to throw some words around for you. In summary: 1. "Naturalize" the saxophone with some pitchbending. 2. Clean up the distortion. 3. Add some extra variation as the song progresses. With those three big issues, you'll be in good shape--plus, if you take on some of the smaller stuff, I think this could be a fantastic, deep-jazz-house track for OCR's front page! NO (Resubmit)

Basically this, 100%. I've played in a couple bands before, and while I know I'm nowhere near the skill level of most of the people I see on stage, I know that I'm the right guy to be playing this part, right now.

The Frozen Synapse soundtrack by nervous_testpilot is a fantastic thing to hear while driving.

Strader, if you want me to set up a forum on my webspace, I'd be happy to do that.

OA and I will have ours done within a week.

Interesting article. I didn't realize that the '90s was where the shift to the "14-30 years old" demographic happened. I thought that was always the case, but what do I know--I was born in 1991. Good stuff, thanks for posting, Wes! (Side note: the web design for the article made it a joy to read.)

It's the scenario in which someone feels wronged by a company who hasn't actually done anything besides protect their intellectual property, I think. This whole attitude of "well, you're doing it wrong, so I deserve a copy of your software" that's so prevalent in the internet group-think. Okay I'm ranting a bit, but it's this entitled mindset that fuels the piracy, not the hardware.

Not necessarily. My understanding is that you can get a replacement, but it is a process. Thankfully, I've never had to deal with that process, so I'm still a happy camper--plus, I don't actually ever move my iLok around, so it's ALWAYS on my main studio rig. That concern is a legitimate one, I think. Thankfully, it's a stable piece of hardware, and the only concern I have is related to its physical, latitude-and-longitude location, which I religiously protect.

Yeah, basically just everything Avaris said. Moseph was praising hardware keys, not bashing them, if I'm reading it correctly. I'll just be over here continuing to make music when my system goes offline due to an ISP hiccup. Plus, I got my iLok for free when I got ProTools 7 way back when. Seriously, don't make life harder for yourself just because of some baseless pseudo-moralistic crap. It's cool if you don't want to fill a USB slot, but anyone who says it's any more of a hassle than that is just drinking some messed-up Kool-Aid.

Sweetwater is completely legit, so (without having seen the giveaway in question) I assume that whatever they're doing is on the level.