Gario

We all win for participating! YAY!

http://kotaku.com/players-who-pirated-pokemon-sun-and-moon-say-nintendo-i-1789039343 AAaahhahahahahahahaaahaaha... *Breaths* HA. Don't feel the least bit sorry for them. I mean, wow, pirating Nintendo games before their release has consequences. Who would've thought?

This so much. In fact, this applies to any instrument you try to humanize - shape your phrasing with dynamics. One more piece of advice for Piano specifically is to emulate the damper pedal, which sustains notes until you release the pedal in real life. One way to do do this, max the sustain envelope on the sampler to simulate the pedal being "pressed", then hard set it to zero every time it's "not pressed". That in combination with shaping dynamics with phrasing is how I get the piano to sound the way it does at the end of my FF9 track"Terraforming Gaia", for example. It's a unique feature of the piano, so it's a good idea to look up how a damper pedal works to see why I suggested what I did. It helps a whole lot, though.

Oooh, I think it sounds really cool, as in a "This would be an amazing Playstation 2 / GC / XBox track" sort of way. Listening to the source it's obviously a cover (as you intended), but you have a very clean way of handling your samples that make the whole thing sound... clean. Well done. The samples sound sampled (as you mentioned), but overall it IS well sequenced, and generally handled in a way that it doesn't sound bothersome. The bass is nice and strong in there, and it's very animated. I like it, nice work. Also, damn Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon does have a pretty amazing soundtrack, who'd have thought.

EVAL Very interesting harmonic approach to the source - it sounds like you pretty much rework the harmonies to get a whole new mood to it, and that approach works quite well. I've got to say, there are a lot of instruments in this that are very wet. Pads, delay on the guitars, etc., and when too many are going at once it creates a very washed background. You lost a lot of the harmonies and synths when they all start blending together. On one synth in particular (the one that comes in at 0:05, ends up carrying the theme) it sounds like the release of the synth itself is exceeding 1-2 seconds, which is a recipe for creating lots of unintentional mud. The drums, by contrast, actually need a little more reverb to them, to help match the room ambience of the other instruments. Not too much, but just enough to make it sound like it's in the same room as the other instruments. The drums should also be mixed a little more to the front of the mix, too, as they're virtually drown by the other instruments, at the moment. The hard panning in the beginning is quite distracting. It's no dealbreaker due to how short the offending panning lasts, but it is a bit annoying. Consider centering that left panned synth a little more in the beginning. It doesn't need to go full center, but pulling it a little away from the left would help considerably. The instrument quality seems to be improving, from what I gather (there were prior comments to the guitar quality, for example), as it doesn't sound too terrible. There are a few ways that you could improve it further, though. Ironically, in light of my comments of much of the track being too wet, adding a little more reverb (not delay, but reverb) to the guitar part can hide the releases better. Not your fault, but the release of the sample sounds strangely inhuman - a hint of reverb can help hide that. Another interesting point is how you handle volume envelops - moments like 2:14 - 2:16 sound like you're simply playing with the volume knob rather than a natural result of the guitarist playing notes at different volumes. Swelling can work as a technique (Metallica did this for the opening of "Justice for All", for example), but you've got to study and understand how guitarists use such volume envelops in their own music before applying them as such. If you want to humanize the overdrive guitar, use different velocities for a few of the notes, and have the velocity affect the levels. That's the best way to humanize volume for that instrument. The more acoustic part, in contrast, is pretty darn top notch. It sounds natural, and it really takes the track to a different level. Great work on that. There's a lot of wetness that is occurring in the background of the music - enough so to where I'd send it back if it were on the panel. The arrangement is pretty sweet, though, so it'd be pretty solid on that front. Hopefully some of my advice on humanizing the guitar helps, too, as I'm sure this would still be called out for not having enough proper humanization on some of the instruments.

I'd be mighty sad if Liontamer denied one of the Follin brothers on an album called 'Dirge of the Follin'. I mean, c'mon Liontamer. Gotta love their absolute mastery over the NES hardware.

Here's my favorite battle that I can recall, though I do feel a little guilt on it. I IV/EV'd the shit out of a Shuckle, made it tanky as shit (252HP, 128DEF, 128SDEF). Fought a friend and his legendaries with it, did the "Toxic/Rest/Stealth Rock/Shell Smash" crap with the hidden ability that reverses the effects of Shell Smash. Always fun to see Dalgia, Ho-oh and the two XY legendaries fall to that stupid slug rock thing. He was cool with it, though, so it wasn't THAT bad. Still funny as hell, though.

Haha, this is pretty clever. Really fun way to manipulate the source on this one - splicing and rearranging. Neat how the tonality of that source is so darn ambiguous, and yet you seem to make some sense out of it. Your music is your music, and I'll look forward to the finished product. I will, however, add one little known detail on this (more just a general reminder than anything, for those that don't know): While a clever idea, prior precedent has established system music (like Gamecube's opening, Wii's homepage music, PS1 opening chime, etc.) doesn't count as a videogame soundtrack for OCR's purposes, so if (and only if) you plan on ever submitting, don't be too disappointed if it gets straight rejected on those grounds. For the sake of the WIP boards, though, I'll make the judgment call and say it's alright in here... primarily because I want to see where you take this, 'cause it's pretty cool. Nice work so far.

"Only Link can do the Duck Walk" That is your new title, lol. I think this is a pretty slick arrangement. I'm loving the combination of FM synths and NES style chiptunes. The source is clear, and it blends spectacularly well with the Zelda title source. I know you asked for extra ears, and it doesn't help much when someone says they can't hear anything that they think would improve it, but there's not much I can say. It's beautiful ear candy, and it's a neat idea to blend the Wand of Gamelon with the original Zelda source like that. The absolute cheese factor of many of those synths just adds to the appeal, as well. Solid stuff, I hope to hear it on the panel.

Hey, it's my favorite track of the album. Neat-o. I think Yoshiblade's arrangement style works wonders for a track like this one - rather than significantly changing the structure, he adds more and more over the sparse source that was giving, changing the original feel of the track quite a bit. It's a very effective method in getting more out of something that didn't provide much. Them wubs were pretty tasty, too, as were most of the effects he sprinkles throughout. The beginning does a great job giving this a more haunting atmosphere than normal, too. It's some quality stuff, here. I never knew that tidbit about Fritz, either - that was a pretty cool bit of trivia provided as a bonus. Great track all around!

(As a side note this sounds way more amazing on my nice headphones, I don't regret checking it on them) To be honest, I thought there might've been some production heat on it, but it was actually my piss-poor headphones at work. This sounds pretty darn good, actually, on my decent set-up.

Mmm hmm, I certainly do see your point, on the one hand - the builds and drops throughout are inherent to the genre. On the other hand (because I have two hands, see? Haha... ha... bad joke), your builds and drop aren't devoid of music - they're devoid of melody. There's no rule stating that source melodies and themes can't be textures and background elements instead of melodies and themes in an arrangement. You've got arpeggios and such in the background that could as easily be source themes transformed into background elements instead. It sounds great either way, so you don't have to do more to the track, but I do want to point out that putting source into something isn't impossible to get close or past the threshold I'm thinking about. Trickier, due to genre limitations, but not inherently impossible.

While I still have the numbers up (and before I listen on my other headphones), I thought I'd point out those numbers, as far as source usage goes. I calculate 68 seconds of source in this bad boy. That puts it at about 36% source in the arrangement. I have no idea whether or not you planned on submitting the track (you very well could just be showing off in here, which is great, in my book), but IF you were, you'd definitely be called out for the track being too liberal. That doesn't take anything away from the track in its own right, as it still sounds pretty damn good, but I thought I'd point that out, in case you ever, maybe, possibly wanted to submit the track. I kind of hope you do, since real, raw dubstep is sorely misrepresented on the site, at the moment.

That's not necessarily a mistake - there are EDM styles that do this sort of cutting intentionally, which adds to the meat of the track. There are a few elements that I may or may not have comments on regardless, but I want to give this a listen on my better headphones at home before I give any comment on it. I do like this, though - it's definitely an improvement on the other version.

You're very welcome for the help on it - I'm glad that we were able to publish it in said short amount of time. More good music for OCR to host is always a great thing, so thanks for letting us publish it. It's a short, tight little project that is quite high-quality. I do recommend it for anyone who isn't feint-of-heart. And for those that are, too; y'all could use a good spook when good music is involved.

Oh, you CAN use plasma on Phantoom, but that's even HARDER to do than getting it for Kraid, and you HAVE to have ice and grapple. I'm working on a run to do that now, but it's incredibly difficult to do, and requires a little glitching at one point (that's the part I'm stuck at, now). I still wanna plasma Phantoom, though, so yeah.

Hey, six years later and it's still one of my favorite albums on here, no joke (Cartography and probably the FF albums compete, but it's not a clear case of 'best album', in any case). Don't worry, Curtis, you're not alone on that opinion; this is an awesome album.

Super missiles are your friend; kill them geemers and it makes that portion a breeze. Honestly, my favorite skip is against the Varia suit. Hard as shit to do, though, and it's not good at all for speed running for me (Get to one room that doesn't kill you, then stock up on health the old fashioned way). I know there are better ways to do it, but whatevs - I'm not looking to get on Speedrun archives anytime soon. It DOES allow you to get the wave beam and plasma before Kraid, which makes for a hilarious fight against him later.

Smooth4Lye + NoTux collab, I can already hear it. I know you guys weren't thinkin' it, but I am, and now I want to hear Smooth4Lyfe sing over it. Nice, smooth, gentle take on it, by the way. I like the processing effects you use on the guitar throughout. The piano is pretty stiff, but otherwise the track does some nice things with the source.

I have no idea why, but I love every second of this. Even the "choir ah" vocals. Especially the "choir ah" vocals.

Ooo, this is really neat. I'm loving the direction you're taking this so far - that orchestra caught me off guard. It's dirty, it's interesting and it does have some Star Wolf in it, lol. The thing that catches me the most off the top is how the lead gets lost behind all of the sound. I know the sidechaining is to give yourself some room, but that lead does need to come out ahead some of your other elements. I hear a lot of dubby sounds that just overwhelm the lead, when the lead should be the thing grounding the listener to the source (such as at 2:07). Having the sidechaining affect it a bit less and mixing the other elements a little behind the lead when it's present would help considerably. Very neat approach, I'll be listening to where you take this.

Very clever blending of the sources in this one. Loving the approach overall - using Frost Walrus as the backing of Sigma was something I couldn't envision, but it works pretty damn well. The vocals are clean, well performed and full of Rick Ashley, which means all is right in the world. Considering how different the two sources are from one another, directly blending them like this is quite a feat, so great work on that. Chimp points to the overcrowding that occurs in this, from time to time, and I agree that it causes some issues. It gets very cluttered, for example at 2:26, with multiple instruments fighting for the front of the mix. It's loud, the instruments clash and overall it doesn't work as well as the cleaner portions of the arrangement. I find it funny that Chimp mentions vocoding, when in fact it's actually multiple singers in such harmony that it sounds like a vocoded blend - it's brilliant. It almost has a barbershop quality to it, which tempts me to ask if there's a recording of just the singing without the backing instruments. The gating is an interesting effect, which is a little distracting when it pops up, but that's more personal preference than anything. There seems to be a recording glitch that causes the vocals to skip a little at 1:35, so be careful about those little glitches. The gating hides it well enough, but just giving a heads up, there. Otherwise, great vocals on this one, all of you. The harmonies are pretty rich, almost jazz-like in their presence, but they don't come off to me as too dissonant. I like my harmonies rich and interesting, so nice work on those harmonic combinations. It won't be for everyone's taste, but there's nothing technically wrong with overly harmonic melody lines - it's just a different approach to the music. Not much else to say on this one. I agree that the mix gets crowded from time to time, but otherwise it's a pretty brilliant arrangement. Great work! YES

Love that talking bass, I've gotta say. Very cool source, too, and this has a really neat, almost chill approach to it. The production is clean (considering it's Mazedude, that's no surprise), and damn if it isn't an interesting arrangement (again, Mazedude, no surprise). It's not perfect, though. The arrangement, while strange, does tend to stay in the same place for long periods of time, utilizing the same instruments for the same purposes, which tends to wear on the listener after a while. There's some effort to drop instruments, bring them back, etc., which helps break things up, but that whole static feeling does linger. The drums do seem to groove for long periods of time, as Chimp says, but I don't think that's an issue with the drums themselves (I mean, I don't think 'Drums are playing throughout the whole track' would be a valid point against virtually any other track). However. due to the relatively static nature of the soundscape, it doesn't help that the groove contributes to that soundscape. I think it's less an issue with the drums, though, and more an issue with the rest of the soundscape in combination with it, which as mentioned above does sound static. All of that being said, the arrangement does have a very interesting sound to it, and the production is solid. I'm not 100% sold on the soundscape, but I don't think it's quite enough to bring it below the bar, since there are measures taken in the track to help alleviate this somewhat (the dropping of instruments from time to time, there are breaks in it, etc.). Especially considering how interesting the details of the track are, I think it would serve well on the front page. Nice to see more Mazedude, as always. YES

Jazzelda, that is not a bad idea. The harmonies are pretty rich, and the solo's and jams in this are reasonably sophisticated. I enjoyed this approach, and I think ultimately it's a great idea. That being said, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The instruments really don't come off as realistic at all. I hear a little bit of volume enveloping on the saxophone, but the piano and bass have incredibly static volumes. The articulations of all of the instruments are all static and inhuman. Obviously, if you could get live players it would be thousands of times better, but I understand that many people don't have that luxury; if you're going to use samples, you need to work hard to make sure they SOUND as close to a live performance as possible. Another element that's missing (which is thankfully a little easier to handle) is the lack of room reverb. Right now the entire performance sounds dry, when in real life there would be some reverb caused by the room the performers are in. Utilize some reverb, make it sound like they're playing in a space - that helps a great deal, when it comes to making the performance sound 'real'. That bass sticks out like a sore thumb. I understand it needs to repeat for a jazz performance (that's how jazz improve works), but don't mix it so close to the front. It's the least interesting element in the mix, so put it behind the sax and piano a little more. While it's a cool effect to have it play every quarter (it kind of has a 'walking' feeling), don't over rely on it - do some different motions to break it up from time to time. The beginning and end change it up a little, which helps, so don't be afraid to break up that rhythmic pattern a little in the middle, too. Even in live jazz performances changing up the rhythm won't throw off the improvisation much, as the other performers can still predict the harmonic relations their improv will have. It's a really cool little track, but I'm afraid the execution does knock it below the OCR bar. Thanks for the submission, though, and I hope some of what I said helps for your future tracks! NO