Gario

...now I have to kill you in your sleep - congratulations . Well, you have to admit, the other breaks are considerably shorter than the original at 1:27, thus making them quicker (unless you actually mean a tempo increase, which I'd love to do throughout but Reason 3 doesn't support it at all ). Perhaps this song is a bit long - I'll see if there is anything I can do to prune it (probably taking more from the beginning than the middle/end - I like the material past 2:33 far better than before 2:33). I'll see what I can do to the long notes to make them more bearable, and work with the centering of all the instruments and such - that's the point I'm at now, anyhow . I think I hear what your talking about at 2:34 - 2:46... I need the change in 'texture' for the texture, myself (if that makes sense) - other parts are doing that shape throughout the song, but if I leave it in one instrument throughout the whole song it drives me nuts... Like I said, I'll see if I can make it a bit shorter, or at least make it sound less repetitive - the source isn't that long, so it starts to get difficult to make it fresh, after a while.

Sweet, another update (although getting it to this point today has prevented me from doing an analysis, today... much sadness - I'll get one up tomorrow, instead). I've finished the structure, so now it actually has a beginning, middle and real end - check it out . I got rid of one voice clip (Dennis) and added another in order to frame the song better (so it does have a purpose now, everyone ), and I added over another minute of music to the whole thing, capping it off at over 6 minutes. Listening to the music up to 2:40 I'm not really happy with how it sounds, at the moment (RK's sentiments are the same as my own, about that), but that'll change soon enough. I also decreased the bit rate so it's less than 6mgs, but now I'm afraid a significant amount quality is lost, so I need to figure out a better way to encode it. Enjoy, and don't forget to let me know what to fix!

Umm... this song? I don't know, really. Just compare to other tracks on this site; I meant the genre to be a sort of joke, but I have a knack for running those into the ground so they're not funny anymore . I think I have your first WIP lying around somewhere - I'll take a look around (I gave my old computer away, though, so if it as there I won't have it anymore )

Oi, I almost didn't catch your birthday on here, 'cause I was celebrating my sister's birthday today, too... and your the same age as her, too. Freaky. Anyhow, happy birthday, man - and may many more of your 80's rock / awesome synth remixes get posted on OC before you hit 20!

lol, well, that's the opinion most people hold, too - but seriously, the intro NEEDS that clip (all others are subject to change ). I'm glad the bass is passing, though - it was my major hurdle, for this song - it should go smoothly, now (and I'll lower the bitrate so it's under 6mbs, in the end ).

Congratulations - by one point (wow, that's close - I take it the voting stage went far better than the remixing stage )! Can't wait to see what the next ORC will be Good luck!

I did a quick runthrough of your original, just now, and immediately I can tell you whatever you did to the drums in the EQ'd version made them far better - do it again Otherwise, the EQ on the other instruments were fine in the un-EQ'd version. Overall, the sound is too quite on everything - not the worst thing in the world (people can just turn their speakers up to hear it) but it's best to try to match the sound with whatever else is going to be on their playlist (check out other 'Neblixsa' style music on this site and compare the volumes - you'll find yours is significantly quieter than other music that sounds like yours). Generally, people will be listening to the music in conjunction with other OCR music, so you'd better find out if your music sounds good when placed next to other music, and adjusting the volume helps greatly in that regard. I'll say it again - have you considered tweaking with the mastering of the song? That will help give you the volume (by raising the levels on the compressors and such) and can clean up the overall sound (using an EQ on the whole song - tweak the highs and a little on the bass, here). Check it out - it would help a lot.

Woo, an update (finally). It's taken me this long to find a bass drum and snare/clap that I was finally satisfied with and integrate it into the mix without it sounding like a muddy mess. So, here's what's different... -Voice clips added (not too many, but enough to give it flavor) -Better intro -A hell of a lot of tweaking with the mastering (particularly with the bass) -New drum samples and such (although the pattern is still rather boring, through most of it) -A few new sections (anything after 3:13 ) -I tried to adjust the hats so they were centered better (it's hard to hear, though - You've got some sensitive ears for panning, Rozo) I have not changed the bassline up much until the new material starts coming in, so if it sounded boring and bland before it will this time around - that's something I'm gonna get in the post-production (along with the drum pattern). The first post is updated, so check it out .

I hear a few instruments that could use some more high-ends, as right now I hear a lot of mids. That organ instrument and piano are specifically where you could use more highs (the drums wouldn't benefit from the highs too much ). Have you messed with the mastering, at all? You could make up some of the highs with your mastering equipment rather than individual instruments, but you always need to be careful with mastering, as your raising the sound of all you instruments, when you do so. I haven't heard the un-EQ'd version, so I can't really say anything about the EQ on it (as my internet is acting incredibly slow, atm - took me about 20 minutes just to get the EQ'd version ).

Man, when someone told me this yesterday I thought they were shitting me. No, that was the sad, real truth of the matter - it's surreal. Not only will I miss the music, I'll miss the choreography - he was a master of that, as well . Goodbye, MJ.

I don't have FL studio, so I can't help you with specifics - use your ears, and if the dynamics sound the same then change them up until they don't. To my ears, some of them still sound the same, so I still say some of it is still a bit mechanical. Sometimes looking at the numbers and the program doesn't help - your ears will probably be the most helpful tool you have, at this point. Oh, and don't be hasty - you aren't accepted at OCR yet... but if you are soon I'm pretty sure you'll be the youngest accepted remixer here .

Alas, my 'Jackal' song didn't get through either (it is, in fact, the one I analyzed here a few days ago)... Ah well, I'll get to work on my source soon - it's very rich so it'll be fun to work with .

Hey, look at some of the songs that get accepted... I don't think any of those names (or even the weird suggestion of mine) would get rejected, if the music was good enough . It is now, bizatch - it needs to be included in all lists of genres. That's a philosophy that I used to hold, as well... the big problem with it, though, is that if you don't catch some things early, it becomes hell to fix them later. The replacement of the sax was a good call - I didn't listen to it last time, but I did now. I think the sax could have worked still, but the change wasn't a bad call, at all. Now your music doesn't sound like jazz at all... it sounds like pure, unadulterated Neblixsa. Yeah, I agree with you on a lot of what you said, Rozo - although I'm terrible when it comes to the shrillness of notes (you noticed that in my own music often enough, lol). The bass is pretty quiet (I personally don't mind how high it is, per se - as long as it's recognizable as a bass) - I'd bring that out a little bit more. Rozo is absolutely right about the drums, though - they sound great, but they have no punch. Keep them down, like you have them, but bring out some of the mid-lower frequencies more. Compared to before, though, the performance sounds a lot better (I can tell you spent a lot of time with the velocities). There are some cases where more work is needed (like the keyboard at 1:05 - it still is a bit 'mechanical', although the attacks are nice). A rule of thumb - if the volume of an instrument is the exact same from one place to another immediately next to it, then it'll sound mechanical. Varying the sound even by a little bit from note to note will improve the performance dramatically . If you could bring up the volume overall (without clipping, of course), that would be great, and bringing out the melodies would help the music, too. It's not terrible, what you've got now - but it does sound like ambient music, at the moment, as you use the melodies as the textures of the song (which is cool, by the way), so it's difficult to tell what you want the melody of your song to be. If you didn't want a melody for the listener to stick to, then you've done an outstanding job (actually, I don't mind the lack of melody, as long as that was what you wanted - but I doubt it). Oh, and I like the length of it better, now - that's a perfectly acceptable length for OCR.

Dude, I think he has more than enough 'I have voted' stickers to go around .

Umm... actually there is no panning work in this, yet (except at the part you mentioned, of course), so I'll take a look at what your talking about and see what I can do. I didn't put the panning in there on purpose, anyhow, so thanks for catching it.The drums suck, I agree - they're temporary, for sure. The transition, though - that's something you don't hear very often (the sudden change), and it's an aesthetic I really enjoy, as long as it's not overused in a song. I'm actually upset that people don't do it more often . Thanks for the comments, though .

Okay, nothing works... and I mean nothing works (Diablo II, Warcraft 3, etc.) on any online server. I'm beginning to suspect that the problem is much larger than I had first anticipated, as these things used to work (a few months ago I played DII with Tensei, so it worked, then). Yeah, in short, I'm really up a creek with this tourney... I suspect that it's something to do with my connection, as it's incredibly unreliable with live feedback and such on the internet (I can't connect on IRC either, for example), so I really think I can't do anything about this one. Sorry, but I really do need to forfeit this (I really did try to get it working though ) - by the time I get this working again you guys will be done with the tourney. Thanks for trying to help though, Garian and Battousai.

Zircon, who is this 'Zircon'? Why do unknowns keep getting their birthdays posted, here!? Ah well, happy birthday, anyhow .

1. I like the sax, personally - I don't think you need to change the instrument, there. 2. I thought I gave you a suggestion for that . 3. Perhaps a bit too short, but it's not that bad (~3:30 is the average, you can base it on that number). I didn't listen to your edit (and I may not be able to, right now), so I don't know what your sax replacement sounds like. Next time, I guess. If I have a choice on the title, I'd go with Slippery Stars of Spiritual Superstition .

He's Cory Harbak, obviously... *pfft*.

Who'd want to be kicking in their 90's? Besides, his birthday was two days ago - get with the times .

Heh heh, the sample you've got up right now loops perfectly - I didn't even notice the break point. Is that good, bad or what? Well, it's really not anything - just an interesting thing about this current version . I'm not going to put a label on this, as I'm generally bad at that sort of thing... Instead I'll make a genre up - Neblixsa. That is the genre of this song now . Okay, listening to it... very interesting instrument choice - they work rather well together. They could use a lot of dynamic work, though - the instruments sound very mechanical without the dynamic variations. For example, the sax from the beginning to 1:00... it would sound more animated if you vary the dynamics, either by having them diminuendo (decrease in volume in order to bring out the other instruments that come in throughout) or crescendo (increase the volume in order to increase he intensity before it goes silent) - that brings another dimension to the music. Overall dynamics are the first step - then play around with the individual notes wherever it may sound too mechanical (the celesta at 2:03 is an example of this, although I probably would take out the repeating notes - it sounds weird from such a resonant instrument). I like the overall vibe, though (even if it isn't jazz - not that I'd know, I don't work with Jazz much) - and the variation of such a short song is quite well done. Good job on incorporating the Spirit theme, as well . Keep it up!

Yeah, I agree a lot of it is boring... I'll change it up when I get the structure complete. Priorities, though - it's probably best for me to get the structure done first, then change up the bass/ beef up the drums/ get the production up to standards/ etc. I might get to some of it earlier (like the lack of bass in the bass) before I finish, though. Thanks for letting me know, though - like I said before, it's why I post here . lol, the Sega version of the game has absolutely no relation to the snes version, dude; one's a platformer (Sega) while the other is a top down adventure game (snes) - I'm surprised you'd be able to recognize any of it at all. I posted the source link so you could compare.The Sega version did have a lot of blood, though - gotta give them props for that .

Hey eveyone! Like I said, I plan to do my own analysis every Monday of the week myself, but feel free to post something of your own - I enjoy seeing what other people think of music, as you will always have a different outlook from myself and I could learn some new stuff from you guys. Another week, another analysis for me. What's the flavor of the week? - if you haven't played this game, go out and shoot yourself... then go play it, as it is one of the best top down shooters in history. The graphics were great, the story was perfect ('This battle will make your blood boil. Good luck!'... priceless), and the music really did get your blood boiling. What is it about the music that made you want to rip the Russians/Germans/North Koreans/whatever-enemy-we're-dealing-with a new asshole? That first level especially is an epic piece of work, there - Seriously, it just feels like battle music. Why is that?I'd attribute the battle sound to one element - the incredibly teleocentric harmonies they use. For those that don't know, teleocentric means 'goal oriented' (vs 'Centric', where the harmonies don't move towards anything, they just move around a center, or 'Generative', where the harmonies are all continually developed from the previous chord). Oddly enough, it never actually reaches a goal; it always sounds like it's moving towards one, though. There is actually a 'Shepard Tone' effect throughout the whole thing, as it never seems to relieve that tension the goal oriented music creates - it sounds like it's forever increasing in energy. The music is freaking insane. How did they do it? Let's take a look at the tonal structure. Music that sounds teleocentric more often than not follows a tonal syntax, and this song isn't any different. The notes sound mixolydian, at first, but the harmonic structure feels like Major that borrows from the parallel minor mode. From the beginning to the looping point, it sound like... (from 0:08 on...) BM: V/v (no third) - I - V - vi - IV - V - vi - IV - V - bVII- I - II# - V - (IV) - V - (IV) - Passing... Interesting harmonies, to say the least - if anyone is confused, I can make it into specific chords rather than Roman Numerals by request. Now, what is going on, there, and why does it feel like it's continually building up? The first two harmonies (three, if the intro is included) are textbook harmonies for a tonal song (I - V, or starting the song off with the dominant, to give it spice, V - I - V), and the move to vi isn't uncommon at all (it's called a 'deceptive cadence', because the dominant doesn't move to the tonic, but to a chord that has a single note difference from the tonic, the sub-mediant... okay, a deceptive cadence normally uses the 6/3 position of vi instead of the root, but more on that in a second). However, following that harmonic progression the music moves around vi as if it's the harmonic center of the music now. Thus, it makes more sense to analyze it like this... (From 0:16 on...) BM: V - vi - IV - V - vi - IV - V - bVII- I - II# - V - IV - V - IV - Passing... g#m: VII - i - VI - VII - i - VI - VII - bII - III - VI# ... For those that use Roman Numeral Analysis often, you may be wondering why I placed the pivot on the dominant rather than the sub-mediant (The 'pivot chord' is the exact chord that I begin to analyse the song in more than one key)? Here's the answer - common in modern 'tonal' music (but not in 'classical' music), the progression VII - i / bVII - I often replaces the traditional V# - i / V - I as the cadential pattern of the piece - and this song exemplifies this tendency throughout (in fact, I'd say roughly 90% of the music is driven by it). Thus, it makes more sense retrospectively to label the V a VII chord leading up to the implied tonic, especially since the pattern VI - VII - i follows. That's great for a little while, but it hits a snag when it get to bII. Now, bII is actually a common chord used in the minor mode (the Phrygian or Neopolitan bII), but it doesn't resolve like that at all. Instead, it makes more sense to analyse it as functioning in yet another new 'key'... (0:24 - 0:30) BM: bVII - I - II# - V g#m: bII - III - IV# C#M: VI - VII - I Now, what is significant about C#M? That is the applied dominant of the original key's dominant chord, which is, in fact, exactly where that chord goes - that's why I don't follow it any farther than that. It leads back into the original key again, but because of the time it spends on the dominant it almost establishes itself as the key center for a while. I don't label the chords after that point because they are very open (actually, they often are just octaves), meaning it's a scale degree passing motion rather than a harmonic one (hence, the label). It reduces to the scale degrees b3 - b5 - b6 - b7, which then leads back into the beginning of the song (or at least the programmed loop point, the tonic). For those that are interested, it moves from the 'key centers' I - vi - V/V - V - I, which is a textbook progression you'd easily learn about in second semester music theory. It just moves to these areas in unconventional ways . Notice, also, that the song never stays in one key for very long at all - it just moves from one place to another. There's a current debate about this, but many theorists (including myself) would call these 'Tonicizations' rather than true 'modulations' - the difference being how long the music stays in the area. This may all be very well and interesting, but how does this create the Shepard Tone effect explained earlier? The beauty of this whole song is that the harmonic motion essentially follows the infamous Circle of Fifths - meaning it sounds like a whole bunch of cadences stacked next to each other, with no way to disambiguate it, in this case. This ambiguity in the structure is further confused by the fact that this song actually rarely uses a real cadence throughout - it generally sticks to resolving the music with the bVII - I progression, which is not nearly as conclusive as the classic cadential formula (V - I or V# - i). The only two places in the music that contain the classic cadential formula is the very first chord to the second chord (which is the introduction to the loop point, which is never heard again throughout the song) and the applied dominant to the dominant chord in the middle of the song (0:28 - 0:31). Everything else uses the bVII - I pattern, which sounds inconclusive - even the motion back to the actual tonic. Combine this with the fact that the overall harmonic structure is highly ambiguous without a clear tonic and the result is music that sounds like it's always moving forward, yet never actually ending anywhere. This constant motion towards a goal without ever reaching it is the 'Shepard Tone' that I described earlier - it always feels like it's increasing in energy without ever letting up. Perfect for battle - it makes my blood boil every time I hear it. Funny, I didn't want this to be as long as it was last week... Oh well.

I'm glad you like it, Giga Bowser - always nice to know people enjoy what I do . Hewhoisiam, which break are you talking about? The break in the middle there does have a dramatic dynamic change before it goes into the meat and potatoes... . My drum track is already split into multiple channels - I never write a track without separating the drums, don't worry . I don't know if I will fatten up that lead for a few reasons (mainly, though, because the thin sound is coming from the register rather than from the instrument, and it needs to be at that register for spacial reasons - listen to the texture from 0:55 - 1:25, as that is the exact same instrument without any modifications to the sound; it's not thin, like it is when it's up high). Thanks for the feedback, though - it's why I post here . Sorry, no update right now .

Thanks for cleaning that up, DS... Great ocarina playing, there - I especially like the DKC Krool performance, there. You don't see that kind of stuff everyday.