Gario

Ha, it's a little on the conservative side (for you, Hoboka), which means the interpretation is probably just right Like I said before, though, it is a bit too static for me to wrap myself around right now. When I talk about texture, I'm speaking about how the instruments shape themselves arounds the notes... kind of hard to explain. If the choir is singing in block chords, then starts to arpeggiate the chords, then your changing the texture. I seriously recommend changing up the texture of this piece from time to time. The mix is muddy when all of the instruments are out. Seperate them using the powers of EQ or of panning. Right now, they sounds like one massive instrument. I actually like this one better than the original. Yay, keep up the good work. Sorry about the review that wasn't addressed to you earlier. He wouldn't have posted his stuff otherwise - Hope you all understand!

Hah! I got you! Seeing as you posted this in it's own forum, I feel obligated to give some more depth to my review ) First, the submission standards are... (More detail on that is here, http://www.ocremix.org/info/Submission_Standards_and_Instructions) Now, onto the music... Like I said before, the bassy swells are nice where they are (for now), but in the middle/end they get a little boring. Cut them out sometimes - that will keep them interesting while they are there. Also, the drums are very good right now, but there's no dynamics in them at all. Play around with the velocity to change the dynamics around for each part. When you play drums, each strike of the hats isn't the same, is it? When the melody comes in, the instruments and effects are neat, but it's too loud right now. Turn them down so they don't contrast the rest of the song so much. The bass instrument at 0:45 is bland. Use a different sample, add reverb or delay, or something to make it more striking - it carries the chord, but as is the swells dominate and make the chords sound weird there. The polysynth at 0:58 has a 5th parallel built into it. As it moves, it ends up sounding bad, due to parallel 5ths... Change the synth settings (not necessarily the synth) so there is no more line above the original line. The triplets at 1:23 work. Cool switch up there At 1:30, I don't think the swells should come back quite yet. It makes the part a bit stale. Try bringing them back at 1:56, instead; it'll make the two sections vary ever so slightly - variety is the spice of life Of course, it ends pretty quickly. It could be longer, so... ya. Like I said, neat interpretation of the mix. I never thought of this song sounding like this before - and it works well too (an added bonus, I'm sure). I'll restate that the EQ isn't too bad in the mix - it's the level issues I believe your hearing. Nice in general - now get to work on another mix BTW - I didn't want to post all of this in Hoboka's thread - it wouldn't've been polite Keep them coming )

Making RPGs are a lot of fun, but I never use the XP... I'm afraid that I'm stuck on 2k3. However, it's a choice. I'm fond of the battle system that's only used on that version (side view battles, like the FF series). It makes for much more colorful battles than the other makers can do (due to the single battle animation limit). Yup, I'm working on something with my brother right now, which will be very good if it ever gets finished... Well, I'm doin' the music for it right now (all MIDI for the sake of space, but I may change that later), and it was coming along great until I lost my program to write MIDI's on (and the free programs out there don't offer the options that I need). Someday, I'll post a link to it here ). Until then, I'll just send my music for it via submissions of ORC that I win

... 'Tis an oldie, all right Really, this game had some really GREAT tracks (this wasn't one of them, IMO, but still alright). People should be jumping in to mix more Dragon Seed! Ok, enough ranting; needless to say, the instrument quality was TERRIBLE! Then again, welcome to OCR 1 - 500 . The orchestration was a bit boring, even for the time. The interpretation of the original is interesting, as it was an upbeat piece originally, but it doesn't quite work for me. Meh, an interesting piece of history, for me, but that's about it, here. LOL, I just read the comment from the reviewer himself. I salute you, Juverna. You've got the right attitude on Reviews! I'll try to make a Dragon Seed Remix someday in your honor! This forum is old, but entertaining, nonetheless

I can't get to the link! You should probably fix that. oO (0)

Thanks for the source, dude, but now we can't listen to the track How sad. BTW Hewhoisiam, I just listened to your most recent track. You don't want it peer reviewed, but I'm going to anyway, so brace yourself! I don't see why you don't post up here - this isn't half bad, IMO. This is Norfair II from Super Metroid, right? The interpretation is slightly conservative, but the style is interesting enough niterpretation for this, so no problem there. The deep swells are interesting and keep the song together, but should be used a little more sparing than they are. Sometimes the harmony is odd, but tweeking the harmonies isn't too hard. I'd recommend sticking to the original harmonies a bit more until you get an ear for what works and what doesn't (which just takes time, practice and some peer reviews to guide you). The lead starting at 1:01 is odd, I'd change the instrument there to something with less built-in polyphony. Your drums are very well done - I'd recommend some dynamic work, but still very nice. The EQing is very well done, as well - something I don't normally say, so kudos Not OC material, but still an interesting interpretation of the piece. See, that didn't hurt, right? Post your stuff here on the WIP forums - it's what it's there for! Please, I love looking over other people's stuff and helping when I can... ..and sorry, Hoboka, for reviewing someone else's music on your thread. I'd love to give you more feedback when you fix the link. Post more, Hewhoisiam, and fix the link, Hoboka!

Well, I've sent my song in. I said I'd TRY to make it simpler, so I tried... the melody is catchy, at least See you all in ORC 116!

Understandably, it is your preference, though I do need to disagree, there. Changing the melody around in an improvising sort of way is a great way to keep to the original while adding some originality to the music. Just thought I'd throw a second opinion in here.

It sounds like you followed up with a piano ballad type song with synth, here, right? It works well here. The main melody is... not easy to hear most of the time, and when you do hear it, the dynamics vary too much (loud/soft/loud/... I either can't hear it or it is too loud ). Try to make the dynamics a little more static than this. The piano is nice, and I personally think the drums are good, too (although holding back a little bit in the earlier parts isn't a bad idea, either). The mix is muddy, so you'll need to work up the EQing and the volumes a lot to make things clearer. Sounds good, though. Keep it going! BTW - Hewhoisiam, your quote from Dom Famularo was originally a quote from Igor Stravinsky... I don't know who Dom is, but I thought I'd let you know where he got it

Hoboka... you have no source. How am I gonna yell at you for being too liberal (or conservative, but knowing you... lol)? You take the fun out of my life Anyhow, not bad at all. The swelling strings shouldn't swell for every note, as they are now, so I'd change the sample used. The drums are good, but not for the style your going for. I'd look for a more 'electronica' or 'techno' sounding drumset. The synths you use sound great. After a while, though, they get stale, so I would change the texture up every so often - it'll help. This is good, as it is, even though I can't compare to the source... Post the source and I can give some better feedback

It's sounding a lot better. The intro was a neat change, BTW, and keeps the listener engaged better. The lead is a bit loud, right now, but only a little. I'd turn it down 5 notches or so - having it drown by the other instruments is worse, so if you can't change it without losing it, don't I understand what you were doing with the fat oboe, but dropping the drums seemed to be enough to make that part work well. I liked the oboe the way it was before... Actually, if you want something a little more striking than the oboe, try using an English horn. Trust me, it's not a horn - it's an oboe with some bite if you need it. The fat oboe seems a little much in that part, though, so I'd change it around again. The violin at 3:22 splinter was talking about was a connection to earlier in the piece. I think you should use it still, but at this point amplify it (so you can hear it over the texture) and add someting like reverb or delay so it doesn't sound so dry against the rest of the music. Sounding great, keep it up!

It helps dramatically if you post the source in the thread; otherwise if people who haven't heard the soundtrack of the game (or, as in my case, of the game itself), we can still compare the source to the original... Anyhow... Listening to this, it is a verse/chorus structure with a standard solo in the middle, right? I can't say for sure without the source, but i think it might follow the original a little close. I only say that because you seem to repeat a lot of material without too much variation... and I'm going to assume that the material is the source, itself. Vary your verses - without singing and decent lyrics to boot, this form gets boring real fast. Play around with different textures, change the harmonies, do something different in the repetitions so they don't sound like repetitions. In the solo, it sound's like your using the wrong scale from 2:55 - 3:05. Try performing that part up a whole step from the scale you used previously. The EQ could use some brightening up, IMO, as well... It's ok, to be honest, but it's a little boring right now. It needs some spice to bring it to life as it is. Edit: Thanks for the source, dude. Listen to that intro in the game, before the melody comes in! It's in 7/8 meter! You don't come across that very often (in the VG world)... Try playing around with that meter with the intro and with the melody; it may help bring more life into this! I hope I don't come across as being an ass about your music; I feel it's more helpful to give criticism when needed than to send you off with nothing helpful. I hope this helps. Good luck!

The mix has gotten louder in general when you raised some of the EQ's, and clipage has resulted. Of course, this is what happens when dealing with EQ. Take a look at your levels and adjust them accordingly. The lead in the beginning, as it stands now, is a little bit 'punchy'. The attack env. should be tweaked so there isn't such a prominent strike for every note. The 'meow' sound mentioned by Orpheon sounds like an osillation option that is set on the sample. It gets in the way of the mix, so I'd change that, too (or follow Orpheon's advice and bring the original lead back in - we thought it was fine before...). I like the song, and I like your arrangement. PrototypeRaptor is right, however; the production is the killer. This will be a great piece to get a lot of practice with that, so take advantage of this! Wantin' to hear v10, now...

Thanks, Bundeslang. I'll be sending my song over to Doulifee as soon as I can. I'll try not to post something as complex as Sir Nuts' piece, so everyone can join in (lookin' at you Hoboka ). It'll still be good, don't worry

#1 I knew everything EXCEPT the irc channel... I'm gonna try to make it work ASAP; it sounds like something I'm missing out on right now. #2 That would depend on what I put up on the board, but if I have to choose, it would be criticism and advice over anything else. I may SEEM to go on the defensive every time someone gives any feedback, but it's just me making sure I understand what they are saying #3 Honestly, I'm just trying to help everyone. It also keeps me in musical shape - I've finished school for now, so reviewing keeps my ears musically fit. Think about it - if you look over successful music, you'll know what success sounds like in the end, but if you listen to music that needs work or is imperfect, then you know what mistakes to listen for in your own music. It's a win-win for everyone, isn't it? Can't say anything for #4 that will help any... #5 The biggest thing that bothers me is that people don't post NEARLY enough! Then again, what can I say? That's probably everyone's biggest biff against it. Personally, I think it needs some more advertisement. )

It's alright as it is. However, there are two things wrong right now that would be easy to fix and make it better. 1. The EQ is too dull. Bring up both the low and high ends of the spectrum. It'll help brighten the sound a lot. Raising the volumes in general will help, also, because it's a bit quite right now. Exporting the file at 196kb/s or bringing the hz to 44.1k would be good, too, if it isn't already. 2. The samples used are not very good. Look for some different samples to use, or enhance those that are used using reverb, delay, etc. I think you using a little already, but it's not enough to mask the sample quality right now... and don't just 'add more reverb' either! That will screw with what you've got! Just try to use some better samples. A final note is that this is very, very close to the source. Understandably, you aren't asking to be posted on OC, as you said you've been to other sites and just want feedback, so that isn't bad at all. However, if you wanted to make this more interesting, adding some more originality to this will help a lot I hope this helps! BTW - Descent was awesome. I only ever had the demo, but in 1995, that was the shit!

WHAT... THE... FUCK!!!?!?!? MY EARS BLEED TO THIS AWESOMENESS!!! ...Ok, seriously, what the fuck? Why did I ever think OCR was awesome ever before listening to THIS!?! At first it was... Ok, cool, twisting the themes and textures in original sf... then I was rick-rolled, then LAUGHED AT by the great KEFKA! From there, you lose it; it's like you were just holding EVERYTHING BACK up to that point, then orgasmed all over the listener with the sweet sound of SNES... ...I can't say anything. I must... have... this...

Heh, I'll admit that rap is certainly not my favorite genre... but this caught my ear in a good way. I thought the mash was quite clever, how you spliced the FF6 track to coincide with the rap. If nothing else, it helped the rap track greatly... sadly, I personally think the rap brought down the FF6 track, but what can you do? That's just an opinion, here; I don't like rap, so adding rap to anything is bad to my ears Great job, anyhow!

Nice remix... but that's about it, right now. It's a decent source, decent mixing, decent arrangement, etc. The problem is that overall, while there are no problems, per se, it is a little bland as it is. Working with the dynamics, like Hewhoisiam suggested, may help, but I think it needs something... else. I don't even know what (which isn't helpful, sorry!), but this needs more of an attention-getter in order to catch the eye of the people (an probably the J's, too). This shouldn't be too much of a 'problem', FireSlash, because, according to OCR rules submissions MUST be 44.1kHz if they are to be accepted. Remixers working on WIP's should be exporting their work in this format so there are no surprises in the final product. BTW, I love your quote, FireSlash... it's so true

Consider that this midi was submitted right after the winter break, it was probably just bad timing for everybody (celebrating new year, starting school/work again, presidential inauguration, etc.). You can also notice a considerable slowdown in the forums in general because of these things. Regulars are coming back to the forums in greater numbers again, so they will probably give this more attention than this last month.Edit: Looking at other competitions, it looks like it has a lot of periods of 'ups' and 'downs'. What would you expect? Unlike the PRC or anything else out there, the things that get posted here have absolutely no restrictions, implied or not. Thus, the music that needs to be mixed may sometimes be very difficult to do so (as was the case this time around, due to the relatively complex harmonies and disjoint melody). I'm not saying that anything posted here is bad, just difficult to remix. Imagine if someone posted this for the PRC. Few (if any) would mix it due to the difficulty of remixing it, and the competition would die that time around. That's why fewer of the PRC's die out like this - people don't post much music there that would be ultimately too difficult to do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m4JEuOUXd0 (I'd get a better quality one, but can't find one right now ) ORC, on the other hand, people make what they can, and if it's too difficult to mix, tough! They can't generally help what they write, so there are many cases (like this one) where the mix is too difficult to handle, and the competitiongoes down that month. I'm just saying, don't let one bad competition ruin the entire thing for everyone... I just found this, and I love it. It would be depressing if it died out now

I really like the extension to the song - it sounds much more complete overall The EQing did help me hear all of the parts much, much better. Before, I thought it was catchy and cool, now I realize that you have a whole lot of action going on down there! That's good, believe me. I think your EQ work was a little overshot, so as weird as this sounds, I think the mix in general needs to be just a little higher in the EQing (Drums and lead, in particular). The drums need a little more bass to it, too. I'd be more specific, but it's hard for me to imagine exactly what needs EQing (as I am relatively new to that)... Play with the mids, perhaps even automating them, tailoring them for each section of the song as it needs. Go go go! I want to hear the next update!

Yes, Symphony X is progressive metal, and I wouldn't dare tell you to change your style, as it is really good (Even better than Sixto in many ways... ). I was actually referring to their use of the 'symphony' during one of their album's, 'Odyssey'. Sorry if that wasn't clear before - I forgot the name of the album at the time of the last post. The samples for their instruments are... terrible, but he guitar/bass/drum work is integrated nicely in the orchestra, which consists of brass, WW's, percussion, and strings. I haven't listened to them in a while (like, for a year now?), so I can't say how well it was really done. I've got to give them another go tonight... Perhaps a better example would be the FF7 Advent Children mix of the One-Winged Angel song, and how Nobuo uses the guitar with the orchestra (as he can do no wrong!). Now, I'm not saying this is a bad remix by any stretch of the imagination, but frankly the strings in the background sound like reverb from the guitar overtones as it is (which is why, I admit, I missed them before). Also, using only strings isn't quite classified as 'symphonic' to me... I'd actually like to hear more from the other instrument groups as well (woodwinds, keyboards, perhaps a touch of brass), as the strings are getting lost in the mix. Also, if the orchestra was moving against the guitar every so often (in counter motion or as a counter melody), the texture was varied (the 'block chord' texture is used very heavily in the strings right now), and the chord structure changed every so often (as is, the only chord structures that I hear are open root chords with the root on top), the listener would hear it better. You said that your next WIP includes more orchestral work in it... I'm looking forward to that! I'm just trying to help with everything I'm saying; hopefully I clarified my last post with this one. Again, I really like the remix. The guitar is great, the drums are clear, the mix is clean, the vocalist is (*hem*, will be) great, and the source is an excellent choice. I'm just saying if you want an orchestral part behind (or, preferably, with) the guitar, you may need to work on the orchestration a bit. BTW, even if it had no orchestra in it, I think this would have a great chance of being accepted in OCR when your done with it (and the strings do help the piece, by the way ). Edit: I can' really tell if your being sarcastic with the strings in the comment, so if you are, then, well, you probably already know the stuff I said in this post

The guitar... it is too thin. If you can up the mids and lows in the EQ I think it might help a bit. It's really a bigger problem when it is naked rather than when it has the accompaniment, but fixing it will help the entire song. Interesting choice of drums. At first the bass bothered me, but after a few listens they seemed to be just about right. The 'clicky' sound of the bass reminds me of something my brother's drummer did in his band - he added a metal bar to the head of his bass and used plastic beaters. It was neat, but this isn't as extreme (which is probably a good thing, here...). Otherwise, it's great. I really like the chiptune pieces that are sprinkled throughout. The synthwork is very well done. This song is quite short; it leaves me wanting more. According to your comment, though, it doesn't look like you want to add length to this song . I'd make a few tweaks before subbing, but great job so far!

Well, I know this is a month old, but here's my 2 cents... Learn to write and orchestrate on real staff paper if your serious about orchestrating before moving on to programs; it'll help a whole lot in learning the human limits of the orchestra. Talk to instrumentalists and performers about their limits and ask them to play parts for you. If your in a band in high school or in a conservatory or university setting where musicians are readily available, talk to them. If you are not in those settings, put yourself there, then ask around. Most musicians will be more than willing to tell you what they are capable of. Of course, you can also learn a lot about timbre and things by tinkering with programs and SF's (not to mention listening to other orchestral music), but learning the instruments you write for will help dramatically in how 'real' something will sound in the end. If you write a bassoon in the c6 - c8 range or flute in the c1 - c2 range, it'll sound terrible no matter what program you use, as those instruments can never play in those ranges (most SF's won't let you play those ranges, anyway, but I've seen some that do... *cough* *Reasonorchestersoundfont* *cough*). DZComposer's got pretty much the rest down, so read his comments, too; they're important I know scifiknux probably won't read this, but I thought it might help others if they're still reading this forum ...

I'll echo what everyone else has said - it's really good so far. I was expecting, well, something symphonic in it, and missed it entirely . I'm thinking Symphony X kind of symphonic or something, but it only has guitar (really great guitar work BTW, but still only guitar). It's a small detail and doesn't take away from what's here, but it would've been cool. The music is down, however, and slapping an orchestra behind your music will do more harm than good at this point, so moving on... ... ya, I'm just complaining about the thread title. Having Starla sing over this will help the track greatly, as the guitar sounds more like an accompaniment rather than the lead, so it will complete the direction of the piece. Lufia has some very great music to mix. I'm glad your picking the best of the best here and treating it with your talent. I hope to hear this finished soon!