Tyler Gill

Well, I'm glad to have been able to follow this from start to finish - Dire, Dire Docks can never get enough love. The fact that there are like 3 different songs with variations on it floating around right now in the WIP forums is proof enough of that. Anyway, I think the mastering came out really good - I don't think the percussion needs to be louder personally, mainly because you can hear it in the parts where its need, but it doesn't draw unnecessary attention to itself. As for the rest, there are a few parts where I really like the almost secret parts hidden in the background, and I think this draws them out a little by hiding them, if that makes sense. I don't see a single reason for this to not be put to Mod Review, and then hopefully submitted soon after. Congrats on all the hard work!

Well, I'm not much of a dubstep fan (generally) either, but I am an avid Chrono fan. And in your defense, I can hear some Chrono in there, though I will also admit that there could be more. For example, in that first part (where I'm pretty sure you were inspired by the Undersea Palace bass line), you could have a run or two of the original melody to start off, to show how it lead to the more original variant that you then continued. And I would also agree that there could be more mid-range things - possibly some more traditional instruments, or a synthesized keyboard or something. But, for this style of music, your production is really good so far - most songs that follow this style just lay down a ton of bass and it gets all muddy. Well, those are my thoughts, hope they help.

It sounds ok so far, but seems to be a bit lacking to me. The structure that is there gets a little repetitive, which, with a source this short is an easy error to fall into. I think more than anything it needs some more substance - some more harmony and melody to offset the bass, and a bit more variation from the original. Don't be afraid to modify or tweak the original melody, or expand upon it. Or, in this styles case, do more variation with the bass. I did like when you brought out a bit different instrumentation at like 0:50 - you could try doing some more with that, either there or on top of the rest.

Well, thanks everyone for the feedback so far - I've been looking at some of these issues and will try to record a new version in the next few days if I get the chance (things have gotten kinda hectic for me at the moment.) @aeolus - Glad you like it! And I took a look at 1:16 - do you think replacing it with a little 1up type motif would work? (It seems to fit for me, I'll put it in next time I record this and see if that sounds better). And where exactly did you think you heard Kakariko Village? I didn't try to put it in, but I honestly wouldn't be too surprised if I subconsciously slipped something from it in. There are a few other source tunes I tried to incorporate stuff from though too, see below. @M249-M4A1 - For that middle section (1:40 - 3:00ish), I was originally trying to draw a bit from the original Mario's underwater theme - kinda like the main theme in the first bit. That's where the underlying chord progression there came from, and the melody is (mostly) drawn from the second section of Dire, Dire Docks (the part where the chord progression changes there too), though I did add a few notes in and change the rhythm around. I guess maybe a bit too much. I'll see if I can make it a bit more recognizable though - cut out some of the new notes and try to draw out the original melody and rhythm. But I also don't know if pointing that out makes that section a bit more recognizable or not - if not, I'll work on drawing that bit out. Thanks for the feedback, and I'll see if I can get another version of this out soon! Edit: Slightly updated version. Changes: A few tweaks, mainly a few extra measures with a closer representation of the source's second melody in the middle section. Here's the link: http://ocrwip.fireslash.net/?fid=1130 @aeolus and M249-M4A1 - Does this address what you were referring too enough? Or should I rework it more drastically to make the original melodies stand out better?

I must admit, this surprised me at first - I never would have imagined this tune in chamber music style, but it fits surprisingly well. I really like the overall style. So far, I think the main thing this still needs is just to continue to progress. The bass line continues throughout the whole song, and by about the 1:40 mark it starts to sound a little repetitive. If you could find some way to spice things up between the two piano sections, I think it'd help clean that up. Maybe shift the instrumentation around and put the strings on the melody, or bring the choir pads back from the beginning. I do really like the piano improvish sounding section around 1:10 - it gives a nice, mellow feel to the melody, without making a verbatim copy. Keep it up! I'm interested to see how this keeps developing.

Yes, I agree with you on the remastering - I had to bump up the volume on my headphones to be able to hear all of this songs awesomeness in it's entirety. But I must say, I think it sounds excellent! I'd seen some of the progression on this song, and more than any other improvement, it just feels less cluttered than some of the early versions did. And you have tons of variation, so it never feels like its simply repeating. I also like the little hints you have blended throughout of other themes and sound effects in the background - it adds to the semi-chaotic, but still controlled, feel of a storm. I think the name Thunder Synthony (or Thunder Symphony? this is the one I'd prefer, but its totally your call) fits it perfectly. The whole song has the intensity of a storm, but at the same time, it has the calmness that is Dire, Dire Docks. I can't think of a single thing to change. Very well done.

Long time bump. And to go with that, here's the most recent update! As promised, this is a recorded version, which took a while as I didn't know my university had an open piano lab. Wish I could have figured that out sooner. Anyway, while I don't think the quality is perfect on this version either (it was recorded on an electric piano, not a real one), I don't think its nearly as bad as it was before. So this update has had some major overhauls in the arrangement of the second half as well, which I think work a lot better than the last few version I posted. This recording isn't perfect, but it conveys most of what my ideas are at the moment. I still plan on recording (and/or doing some minor editing to make) a more perfect version before submitting, but what are the thoughts on where it stands now? Does the quality sound ok? Recommendations? More powerful dynamics? Does it need more variety in the bass? Thanks again to anyone that gives this a listen. Link

Well, here's to you, good ol' Legend of Zelda. A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Master Quest, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, so many good games, so many good memories. And more particularly, so much awesome music. I first got into video game music by listening to the title music on A Link to the Past/Four Swords' and figuring it out on the piano. I probably spent as much time on that title screen as I did in some of the dungeons. Good times.....

Well, this is another of my favorite songs, so it only feels right giving a few of my thoughts. First, the guitar sound seems really unrealistic, especially for the first minute or so, and keeps flipping between a headvoice-like high synth-ish sound and regular. If this were smoothed up like metal songs like to do, I think it could work, but it needs some work first. The bass sounds kinda mushy too, and doesn't flow into the treble regions at all. The balance doesn't seem to have been fixed up over the whole thing, the synth lead at just past the halfway point seemed kinda buried, and overall, the mixing and EQ needs some work. Exactly how to do that, I am far from the best person to ask, but while parts sound good, some parts don't blend together well. The guitar solo around the 3 minute mark seemed good though. One other thing I liked overall is the fact that while when people usually remix this song in heavy guitar, they speed it up a lot. You did a good job of keeping it a little bit slower. So take all of this at whatever value you want, but these are my thoughts.

This is one of my favorite songs to be remixed, so I'm glad to see it here . But here are my thoughts... For starters, some quick business. If you want a good place to host your music, the most recommended places would be a place like tindeck (where you can have music that stays available forever, I believe) or the OCR WIP storage by Fireslash (which I like because its quick and easy to both upload and listen, and the songs automatically delete after a few weeks, so only the most updated version is still around.) Oh, and for people unfamiliar with the tune, it's a good idea to link to the source on YouTube or OCR's chiptune archives. And even though it shames me that someone here might not recognize this song, here is is for this one. Also, I assume this is the judge's response to the submission, correct? Usually, their advice is the best to follow (as they're the ones in the end who, well, judge it). And I must say, my main critiques would be along the same lines as theirs. The bass is almost non-existent throughout most of the song, which for this genre is a problem. It doesn't need to be a blow-your-ears-out loud bass, but increasing the EQ or even just the volume on some of the bass parts would really help to balance the song out. I hear hints of some background accompaniment, but usually its being drowned out by the lead. Personally, I really like the arrangement. It's not super different from the source, but it does feel like there are some variations (like the great solo around 1:50). But you can never go wrong with changing it up even more if you have more ideas. Production-wise, I'm far from an expert, but I'd say the main problem is just the EQing. Bring out some bass somewhere, and balance the mix out, and I think it has a TON of potential. (To be honest, I'm impressed for a first submission to the WIP boards. My own have all been much worse ) And finally, welcome to the board!

It sounds like you've obviously put lots of work into this, and it sounds to me like it has potential. My biggest critique for the moment would be that it sounds very close to the original. It takes 40 seconds into the song for any major variation from the source to pop in. And then the main variation of the song is the addition of bass and drum. With the basis you've already established, try to work some more variation in the song - change the sequence the song follows, add some alternate harmony, change the key, change the style for a section, or add something else to make this really your song.

Well, I really like the way this song has progressed, so here are my final thoughts (really trying to nitpick, so I have something to say): In the intro section, there seems to be a lot of reverb on, I think its the percussion. And just after, the tom-tom has a bit much reverb too. Actually, it just seems that most of the percussion has a bit much. The percussion sounds like its in a giant amphitheater, while the strings, guitar, and flute are all up close and personal. The dynamic change at 1:48 seems a little quick, possibly spread it out over a few more notes, or time the jump with a specific chord or note. And again, if you can bring out the guitar at 2:15 more, it sounds like its carrying the melody there, but other instruments are kinda drowning it out. The hi-hat at 2:35 seems a bit too dominant to me. But thats just my picky stuff. I really like the way this has gone. Thanks for never giving up! Edit: I like the new name for it. File Select just lacks a certain ring to it.

Yeah, it does kinda defeat the purpose. Looking around, it looks like sourceforge has the most up-to-date source code, but they don't get around to uploading the compiled versions there for some reason. It might also be that there seems to be a new version of vgmstream every 5 days or so, so keeping it perfectly up to date in Chipamp forever probably won't be possible. But its revisions usually only fix one or two specific files or formats, so being a little out of date isn't usually that big of an issue.

Woo-hoo! Nice to see that this handy little plugin pack hasn't been forgotten. djp, you spoil us all. However, I did notice that the included vgmstream isn't the most recent version. r659, the version included, is the most recent on the sourceforge page, but at hcs' site (http://hcs64.com/files/vgmstream/) they have the most recent versions compiled. Right now, it looks like r898 is the newest version they have.

OK, I agree that the tempo and other updates here work really well, but you have asked for things to fix, so I'll do my best to nit-pick (though really, overall I think it sounds fantastic right now) The main thing that it seems to me is that the melody doesn't always stand out lots from the bass synths and strings. Places of particular interest: 0:45-1:02 - the piano and bells (?) are almost buried in the bass parts at times. When the trumpet comes in, it stands out well. You could try to make the piano and bells parts stand out like that in that section. 2:40-2:50 - again, the strings carrying the melody get buried You could also do more like at 4:00, where you drop out the heavy bass synth, which might make it feel less muddy too. It feels like that part repeats through most of the song, and doesn't really sound bad, but just starts to sound repetetive before 4:00. Skimming back through it all, it looks like thats the first time the bass drops out completely for pretty much the whole song. On some of the other more calm sections (0:45-1:00, 1:42-1:51, etc.), you could try dropping it out or EQing it down and the trebble parts so they stand out more. Well, I hope this helps, as production is not my strength, but those are my thoughts. Take them at whatever value you want, but good work so far. One of the best upbeat versions of the best song ever

One of my favorite songs on the site. I first heard it while listening to Radical Dreamers, because it was a Chrono series game, so I was expecting something good. Then I came to this song. WOW. I heard the amazing piano solo at 2:00, and thought then that it was good, but then IT ENDS WITH A MUSIC BOX SOLO! As a smooth song that still manages to stay upbeat, this is a great one for OCR.

I feel like its just an echo of what was already said, but this is an amazing work of orchestration. Even though its short, there is a lot of variety in the sound. I dig the choir at 0:45, it feels like something out of a horror movie, and then jumps right on into some smooth jazz. I hope there are more mixes coming from you, Sergiu...

Congratulations! Family's the best thing we get in this life, so I wish you both luck on this new adventure!

Wow, there's a new piano layer now! I like the added harmonies. Though at 1:49 it seems a little confused as to what is the main melody. You have the counter melody you had originally (the one from 0:44), the original tune, and dire, dire docks, without any of them standing out to me as the main melody until things come back together at about 2:12 and the original melody stands back out on its own. I like what you've done there, and you've done a great job of adding other melodies in, but try to focus on one of those melodies and bring it out on top of the others. Maybe its a previous bias, but I feel like the 0:44 melody would fit well on top with the others staying about at their same levels in the background from 1:49-2:00, and then maybe bumping up the dire, dire docks piano motif that starts at 2:01 to bring that melody to the forefront until 2:12 when the original comes back out, and leave the balance levels on the rest about where they are now. Basically, just change from 0:49-2:12 to bring those different parts out. If you would do that, it would be probably one of the best things to happen in the week. Other than that, it sounds really good to me. I hope this keeps getting better and can make the cut. If you're feeling ready with this, switch it over to mod review and let some of the moderators give their opinion of it. And as its the season of thanks, thanks again for listening to make that built-up part more powerful

OK, here's that promised (but somewhat delayed repeat review. Thanksgiving happened, along with major snow storms at home.) First off, the dynamics for the first part sound kinda flat. The initial buildup is good, but then once its started, it stays mostly the same volume even as other instruments are layered in. I think a little more dynamic variation there wouldn't hurt, mainly through that first 0:06-0:35 part. There is a little variation, but its not very strongly marked. From 1:01-1:08ish, the bass string still sounds a little off the beat of the rest of the melodies layered on top of it. It throws it a little off to me, not sure what others think. I just noticed it now, so it doesn't stand up that much to me, but the percusion track sounds a little MIDI-ish. Personally, I don't mind that much, as I don't hardly pay attention to the percusion specifically, and its a part I have almost no experience with. But it might be something to have in mind. But in my opinion it's use and the rhythms and places the percusion is used bring out the song well, so maybe just try to find some other samples. As for other stuff, I stand by what I said earlier - the transitions feel more natural to me now, and the choir sounds on beat. The production overall feels better to me, though I'd say a moderator review would still be a good idea, as my knowledge of production quality is pretty lacking. But very good work even still.

From http://www.id3.org/id3v2.3.0 - The ID3.org spec for ID3v2.3 defines it (even though, yes, it is technically an informal standard), but yeah, no one supports it. It's kinda sad to see that even good programs like Winamp don't do it, but oh well. Not much we can do. Personally I just use commas and &s and figure then I can just search for them in iTunes if I want to retag it ever.

I like the changes a lot - nice work. And yes, the happy part sounds like it fits a lot better now. I also like the brass (tuba? trombone?) that I don't remember about at 0:50. But it's getting late here, so I'll take another look at this tomorrow. The overall production does seem much better to me though, so way to go! (Hopefully its not just sleep deprivation...)

Ah, Doopliss... good memories. What game other than Mario would have people turning into pigs as a normal part of the plot? In fact, why would even Mario have that? Anway, I like what you've got here so far. Here are some of the things I noticed though, after listening through a few times. 0:10 - I like the bells - very reminiscent of PM:TTYD . You might want to bring them back at some other point too, to remind the listener that time is running out.... 0:32 - the choir that comes in here seems to be very slightly behind - almost like the instrument takes a few extra milliseconds after the note transitions before it really changes. Try sliding the transitions back a tiny bit (fractions of a second), to see if that helps them change more on the beat. 1:04-1:24 - the strings in the back seem a little off beat too, and might be going to fast for one string instrument alone to do - you could possibly try alternating between two different instruments for each note, so they have a chance to start their sound fully. And at about 1:20, when you have the little happy tune pop in, the background rhythm just doesn't seem to fit very well to me. Overall, a few of the transitions seem a little abrupt, namely right before and after the happy melody comes in. I really LOVE little cameos of other songs, and blending two different melodies together really can be awesome, but that part needs a bit more arrangement work to not sound forced. I like the concept though, as it reminds me of SM64 and the haunted merry-go-round, (which I suppose I could suggest as another possible semi-happy tune there). But I'm sure you can figure something out to make that part fit in perfectly. But keep it up! You've done good so far, so keep working out those kinks. You've done a pretty good job so far on dynamics (something forgotten far too often), so keep going on this. PS: Here's a link to the source, as I'd kinda forgotten how it went:

OK, critiques from headphones: The bass beat seems very loud, and on headphones started giving me a headache and really distracted from the melodies going on, especially for the first minute or so. The startup sound at 1:42 sounded a bit off. I like the idea of putting the classic startup sound in, but it sounds really chip-tunish compared to the rest of the track. I think it could be made to fit in, maybe with some tweaking of its eq and other effects, but it kinda jumps out right now. The high synth from 1:53ish on sounds a little shrill to me, very high pitched and not very well blended into the rest of the piece. Also, the dynamics along the entire song seem pretty static. Try to add some variations - some quieting down right before the startup sound, some slow panning as the trance rolls around (that makes sense in my head, not sure typed out...), just some more rise and fall. Overall, I think you've done pretty good so far. It is definitely different from all other Rainbow Road remixes I've heard . Mainly fix up some of those production issues and keep it up!

It's a pain sometimes. The ID3v2.3 standard uses / to separate artists, but unfortunately, WMP is (sadly) the only media player I've see that supports it. It might be nice to have that built in for the complete retagged OCR collection, just in case anything else ever comes around to support it though.