Gario   Judges ⚖️

MOD REVIEW Dunno if it's ponies or whatnot, but you really have an improved sound to your remixing, as of late. I'mma liking this one quite a bit. Just a note about the singing - while it's a neat tone (sounds a little like Symphony X when they're singing a more pure tone, to me), and the raw, non-autotuned sound is refreshing to hear (not that you ever autotuned, I'm just sayin' overall), you have a tendency to sing a hint flat over time (and every once in a while, really flat, like the attack at 1:08 ). It's not enough to make the song hard to listen to, but it's enough to color the entire track just a little droopy. Don't worry about it as much, here, but for future tracks keep that in mind and brighten your sound up, maybe even sing a hint sharp for you, it'll make a big impact on your music. The synth work is excellent, and the guitar playing is effective. I would've liked a more distinct tone to the rhythm guitar guitar, though (the rhythm sounds a little like guitar soup, as it stands). If at all possible, give the rhythm guitar a more distinct tone, or accent the rhythm better in the performance. I can understand that you don't want to re-record any guitar work for this track, so if not for this track, then I'd like to see that for the next track, at the very least. The arrangement is pretty neat, but with that fade-out ending it sounds... incomplete. Sometimes a F/O works, and sometimes it doesn't, and this is one of those cases where closing off the song would've been far more effective. Find a way to close this track off better, I suspect the judges wouldn't be too impressed with this ending. Other than that, this is a sexy beast. Fix that ending in particular and maybe the guitar tone for this one and I could see a front page track, on your hands.

Sir_nutS, Ben Briggs, Halc, AkumajoBelmont, Main Finger... One by one all of the people I thought would've been favored to win have seemed to drop off of this compo. It's kind of invigorating to think that this is truly an open competition, now, where pretty much anyone can win. Lotsa talent going into this thing, ladies and gents, let's close these next three rounds strong!

... yes. Syllix vs Chernabogue was very close, and both songs were great, but deep down I secretly wanted Syllix to win this round, 'cause I had some fun plans for this source. This is going to make this week very fun. Launch Base Zone, Round Two, baby. Kind of funny that this is the second time I'm going to remix this source into Sky Sanctuary Zone (I had little references to it in the first round, too). Alright, have fun, everyone.

Oh sweet, a Dj Morkam (Mokram... I can never get that right, to this day) remix. The ethnic sounds in this track are clean and well used. There's a clarity to this track that I don't normally hear in your tracks, and I like it. This is a sexy beast, and I hope to hear more get posted by you, man.

Oh neat, I made it on the list. Only track on the site so far, and it's an OCQR. Go figure.

Depends on what is causing the peak. If it's a fault in the recording (and is one that you can't re-record) then EQ'ing the peak down or limiting the sound is will be what you need to resort to. Oftentimes, though, a peak means that an instrument is too loud, and you should mix the instrument levels down (generally for the entire phrase - suddenly getting soft and loud can be jarring). Compression, limiting and EQ'ing can create unintended artifacts in the mix, if you're not careful, while adjusting the volumes will not. I personally recommend messing with levels before resorting to other tools to fix peaks, if you can at all help it.

Someone hurry up and vote for Syllix so that the universe doesn't collapse onto itself due to the infamous Voting Chivalry Paradox. For realz.

Ack, sorry to hear about your loss, Brandon. We will all persevere while you spend time you need to yourself. Personally, I wouldn't mind Willrock coming in the compo, at this point - it'd be kind of fun taking him down a few rounds down the road...

I'mma promote myself and link you to these two tracks. http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02372/ http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/450350 I mean, the Chrono Trigger track is even called 'Feels Good', though that's less chill than the other track. Nonetheless, it's gotta count for something.

Submitted. Prepare to ate pamcakes.

Alrighty, got mine fimished. As soon as I can rrach a spot where my computer can upload it I'll semd it your way, SuperiorX.

Urgh, won't be able to vote. I've literally spent every non-working moment composing, and I'm just getting things done with the skin of my teeth. Like this track that I'll be submitting at the last possible moment. Hope you don't mind getting your pamcake roasted, King Tiger.

The levels for the first track are pretty close to perfect, there - loud and clean. That's the ideal that you need to start with, and you have it covered. The tune is interesting, though when it repeats for so long it becomes hard to listen to. Nice drum work, as well. You don't need to work on the levels much on this one. For a track like that one, you would be using EQ to give the guitar a certain flavor. Want a warmer feel to the track? Lower the higher end a touch and possibly bring the lower-mid end up a touch. Looking for more of a bright sound? Raising the higher end of the EQ a decibel or two would be a good idea. Tinker around with it and just use your ear to catch any possible clipping and such. The second track, though... that bass is causing all sorts of problems. Notice when it comes in everything else distorts or cuts out - that is clipping. This is when levels are great to tinker with - adjust the bass so that it doesn't ruin the spectrum for everything else. If you wanted it to be loud in comparison to everything else, lower the other instruments with it and try to raise the master level to a point where it's loud, but not clipping. Messing with the levels is a great way to achieve the balance that you want in a track before raising the sound to it's ideal limits. EQ can be used to balance sounds in a track, too, by lowering certain spectrum in individual instruments, but it'll also change the timbre of the instruments, as well, so use EQ for leveling with caution. Hope that helps you out a bit.

Got ya covered. This is pretty sexy stuff, as usual. I'm hoping you have at least some of this solo cello music heading OCR's way, even though the video showing the recording makes it about 10x more impressive. I mean, the site wouldn't be able to show you get up and leave the recording looping on it's own, which was pretty funny. Also loved the Final Fantasy & Lion King guest themes in there. Very tasteful.

And it is, indeed, sexy. Sounds like you have a challenge set out. I'll accept that challenge - get my two tracks finished before your next two (which I'm surprisingly close to having time to finish, now). May the best man win.

I don't think there's risk of that happening (I mean, the deadline is two weeks away), but just in case, yeah, I won't be able to vote on the music until sometime next week, so it'd suck if he got enough people for a cutoff before then.

I've been busy. I hope you don't mop the floor with your mix, there - pancakes that've been on the floor taste all nasty.

When it comes to mixing on headphones, I mix at levels closer to 20-30. At higher levels, I'm afraid that my phones are going to blow before the track has a chance to clip, when I'm mixing my stuff on headphone. I'm sure it's different from user to user, but because of the proximity of one's ears to the output lower levels are preferred. On that note, though, this track is pretty quiet. Have you compared your mix to other songs? Pushing your levels shouldn't be too hard - simply pushing the master up a few decibels should get you up to snuff without any production pops. I personally don't mind the empty sound that this has, as it gives it some nice atmosphere, but at moments like 1:11 I'd like to see the soundscape fill up a little bit more as to contrast the section previous better. The synth at 0:57 is neat, but I think it would work a little better if there was less release and a bit more volume on it when it comes in. I think it's a nice atmospheric track, overall. I'd give more advice, but I'm working on finishing my track for this myself so it's a bit tough to break away, for the moment.

Wow, that's pretty sexy guitar work. I really like the slow, steady jam that's going through my headphones right now. Nice work.

I'd recommend downloading all of the mixes and listening to them at one's own leisure, voting on a separate notepad and doing the survey in one sitting, if it's not possible to dedicate too much time in a single sitting. That's if you can't do it in a single sitting, that is. EDIT: Er... we can't download them, can we?

LAN is still the primary way I play multiplayer games, actually. I'm not knocking DIII for not supporting it, but since the rest of my family cannot get good high speed internet that was (and still is, when I'm around) the primary way we plau with one another. The lag otherwise is pretty tough to deal with.

I don't think he'll mind if our votes are affected by personal taste. With enough people voting it'll all balance out - we're not from the judges panel, so I don't think he'll expect us to vote like we were.

Hmm, so you're sending out these remixes for everyone involved in the compo? Two thoughts on that. First, if you're randomizing the list for everyone, why not remove their own track from the list? That would remove the redundant high vote from everyone, at worst, and possibly remove a situation where a mixer might not feel perfect about their mix and feels guilt for voting a 5 for themselves (or in the worst case, votes less for the sake of honesty and hinders him/herself in the process). If you're sending a private package that we need to vote on anyway then tgere's no reason not to. Second, is the voting process going to be available to the public at all, or is it only among the participants? I feel that this competition would benefit from outside opinion as well as from the opinion of the participants, so if possible it'd be nice to see some randomized packages for people yo pick up, or alternatively allow them to PM you and request a package if they want to vote. You didn't mention the public opinion in your address there, so I might be drawing conclusions, but if you're thinking of keeping this private I'd recommend giving others a chance to participate. Those are my thoughts - I like the system you came up with, here.