Gario

I legit find it hilarious that a user named Cole Train didn't immediately listen to a jazz album. Just a tasty bit of irony to that, I think. The album as a whole is pretty damn great, by the way - it all comes together in a nice, jazz'd up package that never really breaks the overall atmosphere. If you like jazz, regardless of your feelings about the game music itself, you'll enjoy this album a whole lot. It's rich, the improv is great and overall the performances are tight. I mean, if you like Chronotrigger you'll love this album, too, but that almost goes without saying, at this point.

Is this WIP not reach the end? It can be pretty tough to guage how a lot of what you've got going here affects the track as a whole. Sounds like it trails off at the end, so you're probably not done yet. You're probably aware, but the master of this is VERY quiet. You're likely doing this for the sake of the album (I assume this is for the Lylat System CLEAR album), but on the boards here I do suggest maxing out the volume in Audacity (using the Amplify tool) prior to posting it. It lets people hear whether or not there are issues with the EQ or limiting easier; if it's not amp'd to the maximum, it can be tough to tell whether raising the volume would cause production issues. In this case you're lucky - I can push 14 dBs without issue - but it can be an issue for other tracks, and it's impossible for others to tell without the right tools at hand. I like the overall soundscape, though. Synthwave sounds like a natural fit for this source. You've got to be careful with your instrument blend, though - with so much going on in the background it can be tricky to make the theme/melodies stand out without having them be crowded out by the other instruments. I hear some pulsing from time to time in the theme, so be careful with your mix and be sure the most important elements are coming through clean. The introduction wears its welcome out pretty quickly, and it never feels like it picks up the pace to make up for it. It's tought to guage, though, since this might be an incomplete arrangement; in a 6-7 minute song the introduction could be satisfying, but a 3-4 minute song would suffer greatly because of it. Just as a rule of thumb: 20% is a decent length for an intro, and 25% should be the absolute cap. Anything longer will leave the listener unsatisfied with the rest of the track; long build-ups need large resolutions. This doesn't feel like a grand enough resolution for such a long intro. There are some wrong notes in this arrangement. The passing note in the guitar at 0:18 is a half step too low, and every similar occurence (such as in the orchestra hits, at 0:41 for example) is also the wrong note. Compare to the actual source and listen to the difference - it's pretty stark. If you were using a MIDI for reference, always compare it to the actual source as well, whenever possible. The bass has a few oddities in it, as well. At 1:30 it leaps up a tritone, which sounds pretty... janky. You should avoid leaps like that in the bass in particular, as they're difficult to lead into and out of in a way that doesn't sound disjointed and random. Following that, from 1:32 - 1:34 the bass clashes poorly against the theme, being a half-step higher than what's being played above it. I don't QUITE suggest moving the bass a half step lower, since that would be the exact same note as it was two chords ago, but it does need to be changed to something different. I'm being pretty tough on it, but it does have a lot going for it. I like the soundscape of it, the arrangement has a lot of slick flourishes to keep it interesting and overall the production isn't too bad. I look forward to hearing a more complete version of it.

Wow, almost have all the parts covered. All we actually need now is two sopranos and we'll technically have enough to make magic happen. Of course, choirs are better the more people are involved, so please don't shy away just because we technically have enough in your section - bigger sections means better sounding choral music! Glad to almost see the initial threshold is almost crossed, though. Gets me pumped to get some real work started sooner rather than later.

If you joined I would be very happy. As far as the range, you're right - I mis-typed that part. As it reads now the tenor goes lower than the bass, lol. I'll fix it to make it correct, thank you.

And I caught my first Sun/Moon shiny - a motherfuckin' Bagen. I was actually trying to fish for a lv. 12 Salemance with the SOS system, but I saw the shiny and temptation got the best of me. So I guess I settled on a shiny pseudo-Legendary... I think I'll live.

This is not a bad start at all - definitely have enough to have a male quartet going on here, if we wanted. I'll start delivering some of the music packages soon (very happy to have you guys on here!), and I'll start making contact with at least a few other people to see if they're interested (or still interested, as I've false-started on this once before). Thanks to you guys who're showing interest so far; here's hoping we get more of the opposite sex to represent!

Well, having the bass section covered is certainly a good start. Once this weekend rolls around I'll start checking out who's still around, who I know, etc., and see how much support I can garner outside of just people who stumble across this post. By the way, do you guys read scores? @DS394 @The Nikanoru It's a good thing to know, considering that's the primary way to get people to read the music.

Correct, SOS battles seem to cover EV training fairly well. They also have an increased chance of shinys occurring, as well, and they provide you with the chance to get hidden abilities, too (again, much like the group battles in XY). I still enjoyed the big ol' 5v1 pokemon battles that you could get, though.

So in other words, you and I, lol. Apologies, I didn't see the eval tag when I first saw this. Also, I'll add that I look forward to the rap that will overlay it (and, in fact, the track DOES seem well designed for it), but it's tough to give you any guarantees on whether it'll be accepted until I hear it with vocals on it - if something were off with the vocals (mixed poorly, clashes against notes, etc.) it would be missed until it hit the panel. I'm having a difficult time downloading it - that's something that I like to be able to do with tracks with more complex or unfamiliar EQ spaces (like, say, Trap and it's bass - I can't hear it effectively on my current setup). I love NG to death (have my own artist profile there, in fact, lurk the Politics section quite a lot after PPR died down here), but sometimes their audio portal makes things tricky. An outside link to an Mp3 would be appreciated, such as a box.net or dropbox link. All that being said, here's a mini 'eval' - I can't really make any promises without looking at the waveform, hearing how the lyrics work with it, etc., so I'll need the external link and the version where you rap over it before I can give a proper evaluation. A basic look over it, though, looks like you have a pretty decent backing to your vocals, though. There are some elements that stick out as being repeated for too long (such as the repeating quarter note sine in the background that never lets up the entire song), and it's difficult to see if the soundscape is filled properly (again, difficult to hear this very bass heavy style on my setup without looking at a waveform). I imagine that there will be a lot of variety added to the track with some vocals above the track, which would greatly alleviate some of the static nature of the track currently. I like a lot of the elements that come in and out - there's quite a bit of subtle motion that occurs throughout that keep it pretty interesting even without the vocals. I think you really need to drop your rapping skills on this before I can have a solid idea of how it all ties together, but I see this potentially being an awesome trap/hip hop track. Keep me updated on it!

Hey there, beautiful OCR people! OverChoral ReMix! It's an idea that I've been juggling for many years, and yet I've either never had the time or got too distracted with other projects and such to get it off the ground. Since I've been in pretty solid shape over the last year, though, I've decided to give this a real shot. There is a LOT of talent on here, and this is something that I can see coming together and really creating some spectacular music that no one in the community has ever heard before, but it's also something that no one can do alone, either. We need an OCR community choir, and I'm here to offer direction to this group. I will likely be messaging a few people that have shown some form of interest in this effort in the past, but I'm also inviting anyone and everyone to give this a chance, if they have any inclination to do so. If you've ever sung in anything in the past, you will most certainly help. If you can read sheet music to any degree, you will be an absolute asset to this initiative (though I'll work with you if you can't read sheet music). If you can compose and want to supply the group with a VG arrangement, I absolutely insist you send it our way (once we've become established, of course!). To give you an idea of how this will work: If someone produces a solid choral VG arrangement (score, lyrics, etc.), we will sing it, and I will mix it to make it sound like we're singing in a choir. If needed, I will figure out a way to conduct for everyone (brushin' up on my conducting skills!), and I will help with diction (pronunciation), as necessary. To make something like this work, we need to have a solid mix of voices. This includes: - Sopranos (Presumptive range: Middle "C" to "A" two octaves above) - Altos (Presumptive range: "F" below middle C to middle "C" an octave above) - Tenors (Presumptive range: "C" below middle C to "G" above middle C) - Bass (Presumptive range: "E" an octave and a half below middle C to Middle "C") This will not work without at least two people per range, though we can use more than that if others decide to participate (and I hope that they do). This sort of thing has been done before (think FF4 album's Fabul's Men's Choir), and I won't lie that this idea was inspired by this, in some sense. It has also been done on a far larger scale by Eric Whitacre (which turned out beautifully, by the way). This will hopefully be somewhere in between those two examples in terms of scope. I absolutely look forward to working with anyone and everyone that is willing to be involved in this. Currently, I have one arrangement that we can work through, in order to see how well this works in practice (and, let's face it, to make a kick-ass choral VG arrangement, to boot), and I'm hoping that in time we can make more music like it if it works out well. Post in here or PM me if you're at all interested! Be sure to provide your vocal range that you can work comfortably in. Let's make this happen. Members so far: Sopranos: Peíorele* Altos: Rexy* Wildfire* Final Kingdom* Tenors: Gario* Flexstyle* Bowlerhat* Wiesty* Basses: DS394* The Nikanoru* Anorax(?)* Note: Those marked with * have confirmed that they can read sheet music.

I'll have to pay more attention to that Pelego place, it seems. I've caught a number of shinys in XY while doing hardcore EV training with those group battles (they show up a lot more often in those, it seemed), but they don't have those in Sun/Moon, unfortunately.

Go Virt, keep being an awesome dude.

Nobody likes your commie attitude and taste, Modus you commie.

Actually, a perfectly fair question; it's difficult to put into few words. Fortunately, someone actually asked me the exact same question yesterday (because of my comment here, no less!), so I'll share what I explained with him (with a few edits, for clarity): "Plain, unimaginative and/or boring sound design" is what vanilla generally means. There's some subjectivity to it, of course, but it does have some objective base to it. It's helpful to think of it using a basic litmus test: A. Is it an easily recognized, overused preset (like Supersaw) or a pure waveform (saw, square, etc.)? If so... B. Is there a particular reason for it, like trying to emulate a particular sound (squares to emulate NES) or style (Supersaws for old school electronic music)? If not... C. Is there anything in the texture that makes them otherwise interesting (Quick arps, gating, etc) that might be muddy or messy with more complex instruments, or against itself? If the answer to the first is 'YES' and the other two is 'NO', doing something with the sound design of the simpler instruments will objectively make your music sound more rich and complete, without losing something in the arrangement in return. Do know, though, that this does NOT mean use a different sampler/synthesizer/etc.; it means do something with your tools (envelops, layering, etc.) that makes the instruments more interesting. Consider two of the three points in that litmus test in some detail: if you're actually going for a particular sound, then that not only justifies the use of simpler sounds, it may even require them ("8-bit" and "Fake-bit" is a genre that requires square waves for that sound, for example). Also, sometimes the use of pure sounds is necessary in order to apply more complex textures: doing hyper-fast 64th or 128th note arpeggios with virtually anything other than basic square or sines WILL sound like trash with more complex instruments. One final point that sums all of this nicely: Above all else, make your choices sound intentional rather than incidental. If it sounds like the composer made a purposeful choice on the sound design/synth/instrument rather than chose an instrument/synth just to carry the notes, it'll probably sound correct.

This is the best return to OCR ever.

That is something that is very, very cool that I had no idea existed. Always great to learn new things - the e-bow is quite unique. You used it well, I have to say.

I'll admit, this is one thing Sun and Moon handles with a bit more grace than the prior generations. Story integration with more consequence than just "being the very best" is tricky to pull off when you set out on an adventure that is defined by such a strict structure (eight gyms, elite four, champion). The structural layout for Sun and Moon is considerably more flexible, which makes for a more organic experience. Still love XY, though - it's a great game, too.

Depending on the arrangement (as in, if it would fit), I can offer some elaborate chiptune leads and/or wankery, if you would like. It would be fun.

Only finished my first play through last night, actually. It's not a bad thing to just take your time on it, in my opinion - it's pretty enjoyable. It's not like the lion's share of competitive online play will start until the Pokebanks open up, anyway.

Sorry that your track hasn't been judged quite yet; it does take some time for something to get to the panel (I think we're about 5 months behind, atm), and another bout of time for the judges to actually listen, critique and give their YES or NO on it. It's done the old fashion way (with people listening and figuring out if there's anything that makes it unacceptable), so that can take some time, as well. If you're ever curious to how it'd do on the panel prior to submitting it, you can post a track in here next time, and when you feel the track is in good shape to submit tag the thread with "EVAL". You'll get relatively immediate feedback from one of the Workshop Mods (a.k.a. Rozovian and myself, lawl), so you won't have to wait until it gets to and through the judges panel before you find out how it did. It's a nice little system for things like this, and it might help for next time. On a QUICK listen, I would gather this would likely be sent back for the vanilla synth design in the first half and sometimes off putting rhythms (particularly the bass against the arpeggiation at 0:25 - 0:40 - it might be purposeful, but it's quite off-putting; later it doesn't sound as out of place), but the arrangement ideas are pretty sound past 0:40, and the production and mixing are solid. In all honesty it may or may not pass the panel, though I'd lean toward asking for a resubmission based on the off putting rhythm as listed and rather plain sound design. Glad to see it on here, though - nice to be able to hear it before it gets to the panel.

Huh, this actually rocks pretty hard. I like the arrangement, and I think the production is relatively well done. You've got some great tone on your instruments, and everything sounds well humanized (well, except perhaps the piano, but it's hard to tell since it's hard to hear). I like the guitar work in this, though the mixing is pretty unbalanced. It's hard to hear things like the organ work, lead guitar, synth, etc. while the rhythm guitar is mixed so close to the front. This would benefit greatly from a re-mixing and remastering across the board. Bring out the lead instruments while they lead, and push the background elements so that they don't dominate (though are still easily distinguishable). Great work so far - I hope to hear a re-balanced version of this soon!

You got some nice piano chops goin' for you. I recognize that form, too - looks like you have some formal piano education behind you, too. I'm not at all familiar with the source (which is a trailer), but it's a very pretty song. Thanks for sharing!

So wait, did you use a bow to get that swelling effect? That'd be pretty slick if that were the case - never heard of a bow being used for a remix before. The album was consistently good overall. I felt the rhythm guitar's tone sometimes didn't feel very defined, but otherwise it was a solid experience. Thanks for sharing!

Wait, you're Amazing Brando? ... Awesome, a fan of both your solo work and infamous pairing with Duane. As for the Metroid 3 album, I haven't gotten through it all yet, but it seems like a pretty tight series of covers. I'm actually pretty surprised how you apply the guitar to most of the sounds throughout - the volume swells and such actually sound kind of alien. I'll keep listening, see how it all is. EDIT: Oh, I like what you did with that mini-boss theme. It's a very minimal source that I've worked with once, I know that one is quite tricky to keep interesting, so I give extra kudos to your handling of it. That "Wrecked Ship" track. Damn, it develops very nice throughout. While it sticks pretty close, it changes things up just enough to keep it interesting throughout the track. Might be my favorite of the album, unless one of the tracks later catch my ear in a similar way.