Flexstyle

<MODREVIEW> First off, I REALLY like the way you've blended your trumpet, flute, and strings together. Nicely arranged. You can tell that the samples aren't the greatest, but they're passable and you use them pretty well. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about the piano or the drums. Those feel very mechanical and "same-ey," with very little tonal differentiation between loud and soft notes. Also, the sequencing feels very "stuck-to-the-piano-roll," with very little humanization to those parts. At close to 3:00 in the song, the strings and trumpet also start to suffer from this malady as well. For the drums: consider the fact that a drummer only has two hands and two feet. Try and write a realistic beat based off of this fact. Otherwise, it's hard to listen to. Plus, the samples really aren't in your favor. They're dry and thin, without much body at all to them. If you can get a different drum kit and rely less on the snare drum, that might help you out a lot. The alternative might be to forgo trying to make a "kit" drum and just pursue a more traditional, "orchestral" set. Big cymbal crashes, concert snare drums, and a bass drum. That way, you can still get a lot of snare action in there, but you're not losing touch with reality, since the snare is the *only* instrument played by that musician in an orchestral setting. Piano: You might want to try and find a darker-sounding piano, and maybe give it a bit more action in the lower registers. Not sure if I'm really able to pinpoint it, but it's missing "something." Overall I really enjoyed the song, but the mix felt like it was missing something most of the way through. I'm not sure if it was the fact that you hard-panned a lot of your instruments and left the middle of the soundscape wide open, or just that there wasn't a lot of low-end to the track, but there's something missing. Again, I enjoyed it, and I think it's close. Just gotta polish off those last few things. I can tell you spent a lot of time getting the flute, violins, and trumpet "just so." Let's get the drums and the piano to the same level of polish, and I think we'll be on the right track. Hopefully this gives you some good stuff to go off of. </MODREVIEW>

Hey all, I just got done playing at Kikori Con in Flagstaff, AZ. This was my first time playing at an anime convention, and I had a blast. Here's the set, if you want to hear tons of OC ReMixes mixed together! https://soundcloud.com/flexstyle/live-dj-set-kikori-con-2013

I'm also available if wanted, and most of my contact information should be in my forum profile. 13 posted ReMixes, lead producer on the DKC3 album, workshop moderator, and counsel for various other albums.

I recommend this nightmarish track: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02243/

OA is sending me his stuff either tonight or later this week. Shouldn't have any trouble getting something spectacular done by the end of November.

I was worried about that. Thanks for the info; I might actually pick this sucker up now!

Oh man, I'm tempted. Let me see where my finances stand after I get the last couple paychecks I'm owed.

Thanks man, glad you're enjoying this one! This was actually an incredibly simple project, just maybe...seven mixer channels? I used a few different instances of each song for different processing, and also added a sub bass in a couple spots. I've had projects of non-mashup work that have exceeded 60 channels at times, though, but I've never had a problem with FL crashing for those. 'Course, I've got 8 GB of RAM and a couple SSDs that I'm loading all the really big stuff off of, so there's not a lot in the way of storage bottlenecks.

Right, so you're going to up and quit just because there were some jackasses in an IRC channel, even after all the incredibly helpful feedback you've gotten here and the incredibly nice people who have given you their time and effort? Doesn't seem like that's the best course of action. We'll still be here if you decide to grow up and deal with the internet like the rest of us do.

My dad's mom sold his collection of first-edition comic books a long time ago (like 30-40 years ago). He's still miffed about it, lol. She sold 'em for pennies when they'd be worth hundreds now.

I noticed we didn't have one of these yet (only for software), so I thought I'd go ahead and create one. First up: I'd never recommend these at the MSRP, but at $120, they're a steal. Beats Studio by Dr. Dre on Woot.com

I found this massive remix of Popeska - Diamonds, and decided to mash it up with PrototypeRaptor's Chemical Plant Zone ReMix. This is what happened.

I seem to recall that Computer Music Magazine did a little story on the ASAP/Binster collaboration that was posted waaaay back when. When I got here, the first thing I remember really hearing on the site that I liked (because I didn't really care for the aforementioned Dirty Mix) was bLiNd's White Skies. I'd also just recently started listening to the stuff some guy named zircon was posting over in the KVR forums. Started from a few different places, but they all eventually ended up over here!

I'd have to look around. However, you can't go wrong with an i5 CPU and a B85-based motherboard, which should give you the best bang for buck. Something like this CPU and this motherboard would be along the lines of what I'd recommend, based on what my experiences have been recently. An SSD is always a good investment. I wouldn't ever want to go back to booting off of a regular hard drive, now that I've got an SSD in both my main rig and my laptop. However, if you're mostly using this for studio use, and you're limited to the budget you mentioned, it would probably be cost-prohibitive to get one at this point. There might be room if you get a very small one, but I wouldn't recommend installing FL on it, as that wouldn't really net you a lot of extra benefit. Plus, remember, if you're doing any audio recording, FL's default directory is in its Program Files directory. That would eat up your space REALLY quickly. Instead of an SSD, I'd focus on getting a decent hard drive and maybe a backup system first. Put the rest of the money towards the case and power supply, unless you seem to have an extra $90 lying around afterwards. 16 GB is probably overkill. I'm not running into any bottlenecks, RAM-wise, with my 8 GB, and I tend to push this sucker a long way.

I'd be happy to put together a full build list if you like (because I like doing that sort of thing), but here are a few of my general guidelines: - ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI tend to be the ones with the best motherboards these days, as a general rule of thumb. - I'd probably recommend going with Intel, since you'll easily have room for an i5 in that budget, which should be a huge amount of horsepower for what you need. - Don't underestimate the need for quiet parts--skimping on CPU cooling, the power supply, and the case can come back to bite you later on. - Make sure that the motherboard you get still has at least one PCI slot (as opposed to PCI-E), as you'll need it for that M-Audio card. I've been building PCs for 10 years now, work as an IT technician, and tend to stay up on part reviews and build logs, so I think I'd be fair in saying that I know some stuff.

just bought my plane tickets so I'm actually reasonably sure I'm going for real this time ASDFLKJDSLAFKDJFSDFSOEXCITED also there's that whole "I'm playing during the DJ event" so ya know.

Let's see...I've been known to incorporate Pendulum influence on with my VGM stuff, and I've got a ton of original stuff as well. Past that, I have to give a +1 for zircon's stellar work, and you should also check out A_Rival, Celldweller, Seven Lions, Xilent, Noisia, and Madeon. All stellar stuff, and there's more recommendations where this came from if you dig what I've linked.

Sorry, I'm not trying to pile on. I'm mostly trying to contribute to the discussion about frequencies and subjectivity versus objectivity in mixing that your track has sparked. There's no harm in subbing it, but don't be offended if it (a) takes forever to be judged, and/or ( is rejected. It's enjoyable to someone who knows the source, but I'm not sure it's *quite* up to the official OCR standard.

Why a shorter snare/clap would be better in this context: the prolonged appearance of the high/mid frequencies emanating from said clap sample clash with the other high frequencies produced by the bassline, hats, and melodic elements. Remember, a clap is basically white noise with a bit of transient shaping and maybe some filtering. Therefore, it takes up a LOT of the spectrum. tl;dr long claps r moar muddy 4 mix.

I really don't like that clap at all. Too much sustain, not enough attack, and it's a bit muddy. You're going to run into people on the panel who think the same way, I'm fairly certain. It's leaking into the territory of the bass and kick without actually sounding like it belongs, sonically. Also, the entire song sounds a bit too overcompressed, and a bit too crowded in the low-mid in general. Arrangement-wise, I don't really see this passing the panel, as there's very little variation once the first half of the song passes by. The second drop is basically the same as the first one, which tends to be a no-no. Add some extra variation, or at least change up your bass and beat to give it some extra flair. Adding in some nods to other sources would really help, too, since Lavender Town is such a sparse source. The production is passable, although not super-tight. Definitely better than a few unfortunate dubstep OC ReMixes that have come before it, though, so history is on your side. Basically, the song feels a bit muddy to me, and the arrangement leaves me wanting more about halfway through. Give us some extra pizzazz, make it really pop!

Hey, fellow Arizonians! I've been invited to play two nights at Kikori Con over Veterans' Day Weekend (November 9-11). It's an anime and Asian culture convention, and I'll be reppin' OCR while I'm there. If you're nearby (or if you're a Valley resident), come on over and join me! 3-day pass is $45, and day passes are between $25-30, depending on the day. My sets are going to be somewhere between 10 PM and 2 AM on Saturday and Sunday night.

My general process includes (but is not limited to) the following methods: - Take the middle of the source track and use it as the intro. This lets listeners know that "hey, this is a familiar track, but WAT THIS IS A NEW ARRANGEMENT WAT WAT." Basically, just rearrange the source's sections to fit whatever structure you're going for. - On the note of that above, maybe even combine sections of the song. Take a melody from one, and then use another section of the song as the counter-melody. Even better, take another source and use THAT as an addition. This makes it seem like you're super-innovative when all you're really doing is a glorified mashup. - Take a recognizable melody and elaborate on it. Maybe elaborate a couple different variations with different instruments. This is helpful in two ways: it lets you squeeze more remix time out of a small section of source, and also lets the world know that you are creative and funky. - Take one instrument in the song (the bassline, for instance), and turn it into a lead line with some modifications. You can squeeze a TON out of a source if you just give each of its elements their own time in the spotlight. - Don't be afraid to add a little bit of original work interspersed with the source material. See previous comments re: creativity and funkadelicality. The above is phrased rather facetiously, but that's honestly the basics of how I approach a game remix. It's stupidly simple once you really boil it down, but the kiddos love it so I keep doing it.

I think with the animated .gif format, you might get a bigger audience once you simply *do* it. I say go for it.

As a non-guitarist who dials up guitar tones a lot for mixing purposes, I'd say one thing I've learned quickly is this: you never need as much distortion as you think you do. Remember that distortion tends to create harmonics of every frequency coming into it, which means that you can get muddy in a huge hurry. Also, reverb and delay, while they sound cool on a solo guitar, can make problems in a mix very quickly as well. Basically, less effects = more better. EDIT: Don't feel shy about posting an example for the purposes of getting technical feedback on a specific aspect of production. I don't see any problem with that, and everyone else should be able to help you a lot more easily if they have something to go off of.

This one took me a while, and I'm rather proud to share it around. Hope you dig it! https://soundcloud.com/flexstyle/policy-of-truth-flexstyle-vs