SuperiorX

I know, I just like inciting chaos. CHAOS! MADNESS!!!

oh nooooooooooo! THIS IS UTTER CHAOS!!!!

You need to VOTE FOR THE SONGS TOOOO!!!!!!! HURRY!!!!

Yeah that is curious... none of them have voted and they've been mysteriously quiet in the thread this week too? dun dun duuunnnnnnnn......

Yeah I don't know what I was thinking. I have all your Sonic mixes from OCR and a few of your other old ones and they are definitely a different style. I guess I'm just so used to all the 80s retro stuff you've been doing for the Mega Man compos that it only seemed like that's all I've heard Regardless, keep up the good work!

Jade has said the djp himself confirmed that the album would release on 12/20 so it would coincide with the 15th year anniversary of the game. So we should be good! I can't believe we're under a month till release!

Where's all the voters this week? This round is nearly over!

I'm digging this. This source can never get old. I like the glitchy break house beat going on here. Great stuff!

Oh damn great trailer! And I died laughing when I saw the Spaceballs quote. That's like my favorite movie of all time. Well done!

Can I vote for these two instead? I like them both a lot better. The Overlocked University one wasn't bad, but I like these more.

Yeah a lot of people seemed to like it, so it's probably just me lol Like I said, it's nothing against you or your abilities, I just don't like that particular Nirvana song or riff after hearing it 329381646876871219843 times. Meh, whateva. I was thinking it sounded like the intro part of Search Man. Either way, I liked it.

So I wasn't planning on writing reviews this week, but then I was going to complain about not getting more reviews on my own song, so I figured that would be awfully hypocritical of me if I didn't give reviews. So here we go: Liquid Metal: Easily my favorite of the round. It was one of the most original mixes I've heard in the compo, so it really stuck out to me. It also doesn't hurt that I do enjoy myself some metal (in moderation). The guitar work was stellar throughout and sounded well mixed. The lyrics were goofy, but I loved them for it. Most of the vocals seemed to be recorded quite well and I thought the performances were great. I loved it guys! Satch Man: Pretty good mix overall. The pace felt a bit slow and it felt like the track never really got going. I enjoyed it overall though. I like the "traditional halc" chiptuny style and Willrock's solo was well done as well (WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT WILLROCK WOULD HAVE DONE ANOTHER SOLO??? Completely unexpected ). Cold Dreams: Cool soundscape here. I think this is the first non-80s mix I've ever heard from SirNuts! I really like the instrumention throughout, and the "windy" sound effects were used well throughout. I didnt have time to write this entire song name: I liked what you had going here Main Finger! It is a shame you had a bad week, I would've liked to hear how Gemini Man would've been incorporated. Passing of the Knight: That was a fun song. Seemed a bit quiet overall. And sometimes the guitar and synth seem to muddy one another up in the EQ ranges. But overall I did enjoy this song. I particularly like the rendition of Knight man here. Electrostatic: This had a pretty quirky arrangement. I liked some of the effects used and instrumentation, it really kept me guessing on what was gonna come next. I think with a little more development with backing instruments/melodies that this would be a particularly fun little song. The Death of Mr. X: I'm sorry AMT, but I just couldn't get into this song. The Nirvana guitar riff just really bugged me. I think I heard "It Smells like Teen Spirit" overplayed on the radio growing up one too many times. So hearing it again here brought back terrible memories. Getting past that, the arrangement itself seemed pretty original and in general I liked the rest of the song (although the lead and melody guitars sounded like they could've been mixed a bit better). Dayquil, Nyquil: It took me awhile to get into this song, but after a few play-throughs I really like it, and I really appreciate the various instruments and sound design choices throughout. This one stood out from a lot of the other mixes thus far! I Dreamt of a Man with Two Heads: Big improvement from you ZTM! Nice work. I like the catchy hook with Search Man's theme that plays through a lot of the song. Piano break was good too! Overall the song was a little repetitive, but you're making a lot of progress. Copperhead Drumstep: Another fun chippytune from Ben. Not a lot of complaints here. Overall a well done song. Nearly my third place vote, but SirNuts won out by just a bit. Smooth Operator: Now this is what I'm talking about. This is some sexy goodness here, and my oh my who is that guest remixer on the drums? hahah. Honestly I really like my track this round, I think it's easily the best I've made. So I hope you guys post some more reviews cause I'm really interested in your opinions! Thanks! ZERO to ROBO: I like this one a lot more than your previous mix. Another really quirky soundscape, which I do enjoy. I also think you blended the themes a bit better in this mix too. Interesting percussion choices too! Good round everyone! And I apologize for my rather lackluster reviews, it's been a long week and I'm dead tired.

Hey, no problem! Everyone has to start somewhere! If you're serious about it, I'd recommend just reading some wikipedia articles on scales, key signatures, time signatures, stuff like that. It should give you a good overview of some of the basics. There are also tons of videos on music, music theory & composition, and digital music creation in general, on YouTube that would probably be helpful even if you're not all that familiar with English.

So for one, there really isn't a way of "finding" the key signature of the song, at least not if you are referring to importing a MIDI file and having the key signature tagged in some way. There are two ways you can deduce the key sig tho: By ear. If you're trained in music or music theory, you might be able to just tell by listening which notes are sharp or flat, and deduce the key sig from that. By looking at the MIDI notes. If you aren't trained in music, then you could just load up a MIDI of the song you are looking to remix in whichever DAW you use. The easiest thing would be to just look at the channel that has the main melody. Open up the piano roll and look at which notes the main melody is playing. If you aren't familiar with which keys are which notes on a keyboard, you should familiarize yourself with that first. Then, specifically look for which notes are sharp (the black keys). For example, if the main melody always plays F#, C#, and G#, then you know your song is in either A major of F# minor (like Needle Man, my RM in the WCRG). You can tell major or minor from what is the core, or base, note of the scale. Also major scales tend to have that more "happy" sound, while minor scales have more of a "darker" tone to them. Here's a link to a wiki article on relative scales and key sigs in general. Music theory will teach you wonders! If you want to change the key sig, you could either adjust each note up or down however many half-steps you need until both sources are in the same key sig. Or just adjust the entire channel up or down however many semi-tones. This is different for each DAW, but I know in Sony ACID (which I use), I can just hover up a MIDI and press "+" or "-" to move the MIDI up or down however many semi-tones I want. Then just re-open the piano roll and re-check your notes to make sure you are doing it right. Once both sources are (generally) playing the same sharp notes (for example if F is F# in both sources each time), then you know you are on the right track. Also just playing both sources overlapping, if you hear notes that clash or sound really out-of-tune, that should be a giveaway that they are in different key sigs. In regards to instruments, it can be really difficult to find what fits, especially depending on what instrument libraries you have access to. Another thing you can do with the instruments you do have, is mess around with sound design. There are countless aspects of an instrument you can adjust (vibrato, tremolo, brightness, reverb, various filters, etc.) that can alter how a single preset instrument sounds. Mess around and see what you come up with! This is one area I'm just now becoming more familiar with and there is really so so sooooo much stuff you can do to existing samples to make them "your own". In regards to background melodies... maybe start with something simple? Take a background melody from one of the sources you are mixing and adjust some of the notes and structure of the melody to make it mesh with your main melody. Or write your own background melody within the chord structure of your key sig, to serve as a countpoint to your main melody. Even something like a long pad sound (just a long held note) that corresponds with a note change in your main melody (every 4, 8, 12, beats etc., if your song is in 4/4 time) will add some depth to your sound scape and "fit" with your song. I hope that helps! Definitely read as much as you can about music theory (if it interests you, it will help immensely) or just play around trying out different things until it sounds right. There are a lot of helpful sources in some of the Music Composition & Production forums here too that should be able to help you out!

Awesome stuff here! I'm not familiar with this Castlevania game, but this tune is rockin! It's good to see some more stuff from TGH getting posted!

Oh my god, this video was absolutely hilarious I'd been meaning to ask how you two went about recording the vocals. I wasn't sure if you actually scream and growl like that when recording metal lyrics or if there was some heavy vocal modulation going on post-recording. Either way, good stuff. "Liquid Metal" has been getting me pumped up for work this week during my morning drive. What better way to start your day then screaming along with Brandon & Rexy? Oooh, I'm an Honourable Mention. Which is way cooler than an Honorable Mention. That additional "u" just does it Thanks for taking the time to join and post man!

Excuse me guys, my songs are neither 80s synth pop or Kirby chiptunes, so you can feel free to vote for them

Sounding good Rexy. The flute (or whatever it is now) sounds the best in this new version. Sounds like it has been EQed a bit better and the layering effect seems more present and up-front in this version. I like it. And if OA says it's okay, then it must be

That's what I was expecting to see as well... you could just hyperlink to whatever you want and say with DarkeSword's approval otherwise.

GOOD!!! itsaboutdamntime

lol, I can't blame him. It is ridiculously hard. I love writing jazz/big band music, but I just can't do it justice with sampled brass/winds. Oh yeah I forgot the demo of WIVI has some annoying keyboard restrictions. It really does sound remarkable though. And yeah I wasn't expecting you to go buy more software, I was just merely pointing out the only good wind/brass library I've found. It wouldn't be worth purchasing unless you plan on sequencing wind/brass ALL THE TIME, or if it was like your job or something. It sounds like you cleaned up that rushed phrase I commented on below, I don't hear it anymore. Those little trill notes at 1:24 & 1:26 (and where that phrase repeats) still stick out to me, but I don't think it's a big deal. The synth at 1:52-1:56 sounds better now too IMO. I think the flute-like synth sounds a bit better, but now it almost sounds like you wanted a flute, but had no flute samples, so went with the next best thing So I really don't know what to tell you. I'd just go with whatever you like better because wind instrument samples are so subjective, they bother some people a lot more than others. Maybe try asking some mods and/or judges their impression of the flute to see if it would be a make or break thing for the panel? Or find a friend that can play flute and make them record it! But, I guess that would defeat your goal of getting a solo mix posted. Either way, I think this is a solid mix and may already be good to go regardless of if you go with the flute or the flute synth. Good luck!

Hey Rexy, I've been meaning to comment on this because I did really enjoy this mix. My main concerns with the compo version was that there seemed to be quite the disparity in sample quality. For example, the synth and drums sounded very well done, but the flute and piano sounded very mechanical in parts. The arrangement, on the other hand was great: I absolutely love how you blended the two themes and took some creative liberties with both. With that said, I think this new version is much improved. The new flute sounds more natural than the original. It's also mixed better than in the original version, as it looks like you did some EQing based on your earlier posts. Unfortunately I think the flute is still the weak link here in the mix. Flutes, and wind instruments in general are just so damn hard to emulate. Wallander Instruments (WIVI) is the only wind library (wind & brass) I've ever heard that actually sounds decent. Their instruments are physically modelled, instead of sample based, so the expression sounds 100% more accurate and realistic. But it's sorta expensive (but there is a free demo on their website if you want to try it out), but I digress. This flute sounds much better, but there are still parts of the flute in this new version that stick out as trouble spots: some of the articulations in the 0:24 - 0:46 still seem abrupt. Maybe either reduce some of the attack velocities, or overlap your notes and increase the portamento time so the note rises up to the next note. It might make it sound more realistic At 1:24 and 1:26 precisely, the little 16th note that rises up to the meet the next note doesn't sound natural. The attack velocity may be too high? Maybe just try a slide up? This problem repeats itself when this Wily theme is repeated later in the song (2:57, 2:59). The flute section from 1:12 - 1:32, particularly where the beginning of each phrase begins (1:12, 1:22) sound a little rushed, like the "player" is attacking the note too hard or is every so slightly off beat. It's hard to pinpoint but it sounds like the note that plays precisely at 1:12.5 is like a quarter (or eighth) of a beat late and needs to come in ever so slightly sooner so the remainder of the phrase isn't rushed. The same is true for each section where this phrase repeats. The synth at 1:52 - 1:56 also sounds a little shrill. Is the instrument being detuned? Or has too much vibrato? I think the synth at 2:20 has a much more pleasant sound to it. Other than that, I'm really liking this. And I'm only nitpicking because I really want to see you improve this and get it posted. I hope my comments were helpful!

Hey Ecto, I liked this mix a lot last round. The only thing that kept me voting for it was those shrilly high freqs. This version does sound a lot better. Some areas are still rather shrill, particularly the 1:50 - 2:20 section, but it sounds A LOT better than the compo version. I just think having frequencies that high up, there won't really be anything more you could do, it's just a nature of the instrument choices and frequency range. The section right after 5:00 is still pretty high up there too, but again it's significantly better than the compo version. It's no longer painful to listen to on quality speakers/headphones. Good luck with the panel. I'm not sure if you plan on doing anything more with this, but as is, it's much better than the previous version. Can I get a copy of this one, cause I'd like to replace the compo version in my playlist if possible (I didn't see a download link in soundcloud)? I plan on throwing up my song from this round, "Smooth Operator", up here in the forum after this week, cause I feel it's the first song I made that might be OCR worthy, after I do a few more touchups. As for file hosting, I like box.net. It's not as music-oriented like soundcloud, but it does time stamp files accurately and you can upload new versions to the same link, so if you update things later you don't have to resend a new link or edit posts.

I'm glad my music was able to capture the vibe I was going for perfectly