Flexstyle

I use the Fruity PEQ2 on most stuff, but if I want more flavor I'll break out the Slate Digital subscription (they've got some gorgeous vintage-modeled ones) or Leftover Lasagne's freebie Pushteq EQ. It's just about knowing your tools, mostly.

I feel like this is actually a fairly conservative arrangement, and a lot of the backing instrumentation doesn't really change up as much as I'd like, but there's just enough variation there to where it doesn't get old before the song is over. The chord change halfway through was a welcome addition, and helped the song avoid overstaying its welcome. It's simple, but I'm hearing plenty of source in there, and it's nice to see a Tiny Barbarian mix up in here. Great soundtrack! Mix is clean and nothing is harsh or grating, per usual HL standards. I'm sold. YES

Kung Fury: best movie, or BEST MOVIE?

I don't know if this will end up being helpful, and as I recall it's still 32-bit only, but this might be worth looking at as well: http://www.fx-max.com/fxt/product.html

Emu already stopwatched this one, so can I just please say HELL YES and get this over with? TBH, I'm surprised this one's even being submitted to OCR, that's how good it is. Can't wait to see this on the front page! For anyone else: in case you haven't seen the sweet awesome music vid, here that is, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4BRC0obexg EDIT: I'm not going to give this a NO vote, so I'll just retract my yes.

Awesome! I was a bit nervous since I hadn't seen a post here yet. Super glad these help your collection out properly! The Chemical Brothers album is honestly a bit of a left-fielder, in that it (like most of the breakbeat albums of that era) relies on sampling techniques, chopped breakbeats, and interesting sounds to carry it, rather than melodies and more "musical" content. The Chemical Brothers undoubtedly influenced me highly, though, and I can pretty much guarantee you that Rob Swire of Pendulum would name them as a big influence as well. Cheers!

What Emu said, basically. The album I directed was the fruit of a year and a half of hard labor, and wouldn't have been possible without the many relationships I'd built over the course of my tenure here at OCR. Mine was a short album, too, by OCR standards, and it was still intense enough that I'm being very careful about how I approach my next directorial effort. The Undertale OST is certainly a fabulous one, but just gauging interest isn't going to get it done, and you don't want to lock up people's time if you're not deadly serious about following things through. Definitely don't direct more than one album at a time, either.

Yeah, this song is basically a clinic in "how to make dancefloor-filler material 101." Wanna know how a song should be structured for EDM? This is one you should study.

Bandcamp is great. Loudr is great, especially since you can use their service to sell on iTunes, Spotify, etc., as well. Why not use them both? It's not like you're paying anything extra, and you'll theoretically get your music in front of more ears that way. 'Course, you have to be good for anyone to care, but hey, that'll happen with enough practice and luck.

I promise it's stupidly loaded with source. If this is in fact too many sources for an OCR track, might as well be me that we start drawing that line on, since I won't be offended like other potential submitters could be, haha.

This is a longtime standby for my wedding DJ sets. Played it yesterday and saw this in the recent reviews and had to share. Brilliant piano piece!

Yeah, Omnisphere 2 is just the same program (even the vst file stays the same, so all your projects will open O2 instead of O1 no matter what), just with upgrades and tons more sounds. No issues from upgrading for me. And definitely +1 for Harmor! That's a brilliant synth and the sound design potential is HUGE.

To my secret santa recipient: I sent you some music, but I went straight from the place I purchased it to the post office, and didn't have the ability to include a note to explain each CD in there. Post here when you get it, and I can let you know why I picked each one!

Overcompressed in the midrange, doesn't exactly scream "holidays" to me, repetition is close but not too big an issue. Overall soundscape is really nice, the pads and vocals combined with guitars works nicely. Source-heavy. Good to see some Aquaria love here! Worth passing. YES

Dat stereo field got me trippin', boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii er. anyways. I literally just posted a vote on another track where the dealbreaker was the stereo field usage, and this one is really close to that for me, but I think what makes it stay on the side of tolerable is that there's always something going on BOTH sides of the headphones. I really wish you hadn't hard-panned certain things, but whenever there's something hard-panned there's always a counterpoint on the other side. The arrangement is conservative but the added instrumentation (guitar, etc.) puts it into proper arrangement territory for me. Mix is a little dry and compressed but honestly it feels nice that way, sounds like it's live in a small bar or something. Overall just a "fun" sound, too! I'm sold. YES

I'm gonna second Liontamer and push for a re-think of the stereo field. Let your lead instruments take center stage, with backing instrumentation balanced around them. I've got no EQ issues (okay, maybe the low mids could use a *bit* less), and the drums sound pretty cool to me--yeah, super compressed, but it works. Wouldn't hurt to back off a bit on the comp but not gonna kill my vote as-is. Should be some really simple fixes, honestly. I look forward to seeing this one back soon! NO (please resub!)

Definitely gonna have to check out Punch Brothers, then, since I'm officially now a big fan of Nickel Creek. I grew up listening to a lot of bluegrass as a kid, and it remains one of my favorite genres. I'm super happy that you got me that record, despite my reputation as "the EDM guy" here on OCR. My vinyl collection is solely comprised of either albums that have some sort of cultural and historical significance, or things that are oddball and interesting (such as the set of barbershop quartet records Stevo gave me this year), or albums that have earned a place in my "favorites of all time" list. This, I think, will be falling squarely into that last category. And like I said, there are some specialty shops here in Phoenix that carry Cheerwine, as well as a ton of other great specialty sodas, and I spent a lot of money in my late teens and very early twenties on various kinds of soda. Still a total soda junkie, but it's a luxury item that has taken a back seat to a lot of other things now that I'm a "responsible adult" or something (and by that I mean I actually have bills now, lol). However, that means that when I do receive something like a whole four-pack of the stuff, I'm super thrilled! I'm saving the hot chocolate for when I have an evening to sit down and relax. It sounds amazing and I'm looking forward to it! Seriously, this was a fantastic gift, and I'm incredibly grateful. You, sir Burr, are a gentleman and a scholar.

I just received my Secret Santa gift box today, and I'm a little blown away. - four-pack of Cheerwine - Mexican hot chocolate - Nickel Creek album on vinyl I'm not quite sure who my Secret Santa was (please, do tell!), but you freaking knocked it out of the park on this one. I love Cheerwine, but it's only available at expensive specialty shops around here. Hot chocolate is always a good idea, and this Nickel Creek album is incredible thus far. I'm actually a big fan of bluegrass, and this has got a lot of that great Appalachian flavor to it--super thanks! Pix because it did happen:

That.

I use a Tascam DR-40 for all my field recording needs. Zero complaints thus far.

Yeah, this just needs a revisit on the mixing desk. Lose some of the compression (vibes especially), give the mix room to breathe, don't try and force so many elements into the same volume levels. It's like there was a really good arrangement and really good sound design and then the volume faders just weren't touched at all. There's too much trying to live in the midrange--some careful EQing and volume automation should fix this right up. Another thing that may help is a little more attention to the dynamics of the instruments as well--sequence them in such a way that the energy is managed more carefully, not all at the same velocity (or at least that's how it currently sounds). It's close, let's see this one back soon! NO (resub!)

I have shipped the box for my gift recipient! Should be arriving this week if all goes well.

I just got a Wii U! Add me! NID: Vortexxian

There's nothing that really stands out glaringly on this one, but I'm not feeling the fact that it's nearly an exact cover of the original, just with metal instead of a symphony. There's no personalization given to the structure or the melodies. Even a solo that riffed on the original melody would have helped, and I was waiting for it as is typical for the YouTube metal scene, but even that never happened. Production is also just so-so. Drums are probably overcompressed (and that's coming from someone who compresses the snot out of his drums), the horns seem to be fighting with the guitars for sonic space, and nothing's given any finesse at all. Orchestral sequencing is also stiff and could use a bit more help, although I realize it's hard to get horns right sometimes. Same stiffness critique goes for the drums--they're locked to the grid, and while that can work, a little humanization goes a long way. I'm sure it works well on YouTube but I don't think it's quite up to the needs of OCR yet. More in-depth arrangement would be helpful, for sure! NO (resub)