rig1015

(I didn't look for a tutorial) Gating my friend. Gate, gate, gate... Then! NR (noise reduction) to try and cut out any ambiance (scoring from the movie / TV show, sound FX's, etc.) You can EQ after this to try and compensate for any spectral degridation due to NR, or if the actual track needs it. 3kHz is a magical tonal for vocals. Of course I'm assuming you are eventually going to run this through some delay and then reverb so that also helps with hiding erroneous sounds from the sample. Whatever plugs you use for this adventure I recommend a gate with a "hold" feature, and a really hi-quality NR plug. Of course if the sample is crap... well... you can polish it, and then have polished crap. Hope it helps.

Plan on spinning self produced tracks? I would recommend Ableton Live! Pro (DAW) run through the M-Audio Torq Xponent. I'm bias to Ableton because when I learned how to produce live, DJ Origin showed me the ins and outs of that software, however Torq is it's own software and interface. With a laptop and this setup you should be able to do ANYTHING; from just cross fading your MP3's in your iTunes library to re-remixing your own self produced tracks just for the feel of the party night. Nothing sucks more than to buy gear, master it, only to realize one thing you can't do with your setup. Just an idea for ya' Biznut.

PM'd I'm saying I want you to hold the note for... I dunno maybe another 4 count... that might sound good. It just feels to fast when you let go there... a better time is ~3:01 / 3:02 that last chord... hold it for another count. This is a artistic crit so still feel free to do whatever you want. It's a Chrono Trigger mix... I'm always down to help with those.

LOL. Ahh. I thought it seemed silly.

Shit. Did the Onion say something like that? Whatever

A great start. I look forward to you hopefully adding more orchestral instruments in. Your strings are your driving force so just use other orchestral instruments as a garnish to that main course. Are you bussing your reverb for this or are you putting reverb on each instrument? ... Cause I would do both. Your strings sound.... I would try and clean-up the sound by placing an impluse reverb plug on the strings then an EQ plug, then I would buss out on a send to another reverb (more for polish that atmosphere). Also edit your note velocities on you strings more, when it is soft and quiet your strings should not sound like someone is hard bowing. This sounds different than just turning down your fader, makes it sound more real. ~3:00 hold that sustained note before you start the cello work. Felt you shifted to fast into another feel without letting us linger on the power of the one before it... and let it tale out (the notes not being held but you still hear the acoustics of the sound ringing in the atmosphere). All in all not bad. If you need DAW pointers with what I said in my crit, PM me with what DAW you're using. Always happy to help.

Gario not trying to stomp on your boner err anything... The Wheel?!? You can still type.... but it just takes a lot longer... and with that cricket battery you got what, 20min's before it expires. Probably couldn't even finish two sentences of your message like that. It just seems silly... like trying to mix without speakers.

I use soundflower but I have a Mac... I don't know if there is a Windows equivalent. I loved that feature on my SoundBlaster Live actually is what got me into recording things.

I hide all the mechnicalism of tracks with transition sound FX's. Cymbal washes, sweeps, swells, etc. You could also try wobbling your tempo (most DAW's have trouble doing this with delay plugs) start at 110 bpm, bend to 105 by about 2mins in, and then back to 110 bpm by the end. You could also do this as a dynamic part of the song rather than something to make it sound played, so like before a break down (or during) you could change up from 100 bpm to 70. If you are always just using MIDI triggered sample bank synths this can mess with you so you might want to render your stems of those.

Condenser or Dynamic? If Dynamic you can't go wrong with a simple pop filter and an Sure SM58. They look like the stereotypical mic you see in all live performances, they are tough, sturdy, and have a really good sound quality. They average about $100, but they are the cheapest good microphone out there. If you want something more you could try the Sennhiesr e906, or any of the 900 series. It is dynamic and has an adjustable cardioid pattern so you can change the focus of the mic's pick-up field. It is about $200 bucks but still a great dynamic mic. Condenser mics are more $$$ but most engineers tend to agree that they have a richer warmer sound.

It migrated into a journey... Anyway, Working in Hollywood I learned I wasn't a good teacher, failed teaching audio engineering to +18yo. Couldn't stand the repetitiveness of it all, always having to go over the fundamentals of electronics, always being asked the same questions... oh and the 18yo's who already knew everything those were great. *** Disclaimer *** I know nothing... for the record. So yeah failed there bad.

Honestly, composing like that would just be weird for me. I do make "other" remixes from VG's just for my own sense of love / appreciation / etc. but they seem so... lacking in appeal (or at least what I think would appeal) that I lose desire to share / polish / finish. I got D-Corrupted (on hold till 19th when I can record choir vocals) and the only reason I share it / work on it, is because I know that theme, would have great appeal. I guess I'm thinking about the back end too much; it isn't JUST about getting accepted it is also about being there & being a desire to download... does that just make it a product TOO be consumed? Nase you make a great point too.

I know, right?

Audible connoisseurs, interesting term Harmony. So I guess a good OCRemix comes from the ability to proportion these points for the two types of typical listeners.

Great point.

I tend to notice that when a company becomes a fortune 500 company they start doing things that 1 consumer might find weird but 1000's of others don't. Apple always strives to make the future with computer technology, and a lot of us think that the future of computers is smaller and smaller. I can't blame Apple for thinking smaller, cleaner, tighter, is better. Maybe they know something about hands we don't.

Wow Jewbei, this has a definite Above & Beyond feel to it! Awesome. The only engineering thing I can say is I felt as I listened on headphones and my monitors that you "air" levels on you main EQ sound ... dull. It might be the maximizer plug on the main out, but something is taking away your shine / glitter freqs on the track. As for the production... five star. Love your synths. Love how you're doing your layering. Love how your moods move from one place to the next. I would love a DJ friendly version of this regardless of approval... 6min, 8min, I don't care as long as you keep it hype! Good work.

I had a rapper do Chrono Trigger related lyrics to mine... but I had to have a vocal for the project... just another idea.

Mods help out. I wasn't sure if this was a workshop topic or community one. This has been a topic on my mind since I got here. I've noticed some members subtle suggestions to never use anything mainstream. To that I say- Absolutely! We should never compare anything here to mainstream because if we did it would only show us what an audience likes to hear within certain genre archetypes. And damn-it, OCR doesn't fit into any genre archetype... except video-game soundtrack... remixes... within a styled genre ... (damn-it there is that genre thing again ) BUT! our remixes don't have to follow any sort of genre archetype... unless you want to do a Rock styled remix... then you might take ideas for your remix from various MAINSTREAM Rock bands to help you get ideas... (and by main stream I mean anything published) Seriously? I'm not saying make a mainstream product, but I am saying look at it so you have your bearings before you remix. Who should a OC'R look at when getting an idea for better drum patterns? Only OCRemixers? ... Why only them...? so they can regurgitate a sequencing idea that has already passed the panel? ... Are we that afraid of sharing new engineering ideas based on the mainstream? OCR is #1 because I've noticed it presses a sense of inventiveness upon its remixers. If we only stay in our own little world every remix will begin to taste stale on our ears. Where are we to get our ideas if not from another more main stream source? So what is it; Mainstream / OCR (only) / or Genre Pioneering?

I hate the MM and use a LogiTech wireless mouse instead, but I do use a full keyed razor thin keyboard and I like it better that traditional keyboards... just wish the keys lit up like the MacPro's keys.

Inside those programs (ACID & ProTools) they have built in beat mappers. All I was saying is I use both of those programs beat mapper apps to do my beat mapping, one for the PC side of my MAC and one for the OSX side of my MAC. I was also saying that whenever I ran my loop(s) through the ACID beat mapper (starting from ACID ver3.0 on) the "loop data" would be understood by all my other DAW applications so they would know the beats in the loop as well. When I worked with DJ Origin we always called it ACID'izing your loops. Another thing, the ProTools beat mapper is pretty sweet because it will chop up the region for you by count if need be. Totally awesome for waveform editing drums.

Just throwing this out there again. To loop or not to loop IS that the question? Show me a drum line that never repeats its rhythm and I'll show you a song that is tricky to get into. Repetition is sooooo ingrained in us because it is in SO MUCH of our everyday music, so I can understand the one side that one would be quick to say, "loops are bad." And I also understand how loops are good (1st point). Sweendrix as long as the drums don't sound hokey I'm sure you could get away with looping a four count! I wouldn't because everyone here (on the thread) will shit kittens on the "your drums sound looped" crit. You're not a drum'n'bass composer... or a breakbeat artist... and the songs mood doesn't call for bigger drums... Do a 32 count pattern and set it on a loop, do break downs and build ups as need according to the arrangement of your track, that should be plenty. I worry this is going to become one of those topics that you (the creator) hates because the help pulls in all the wrong ways.

I change all my hot-keys to the ProTools hot-keys in all my DAW's. Most decent ones will let you rebuild the whole key-stroke set-up... I just wish the key-stroke files where all the same file-type in the system folders for each DAW, then it would be just copy & paste.

Nice job here. Drums are a nice touch, I like how gentle yet apparent they sound. The track had a lot of challenges as menu music (not the most ideal area to compose for) so it is pretty awesome how you've done so far. Your song has this breathing feeling from the beginning till the end of 1:08 then you kick the drums up a bit and take the song to the next part... IMO I would love it if you could find a way to some how highlight that effect your doing dynamically. Longer tailing is what I would suggest in order to get the effect I'm describing. 1:24 there should have been more musically here or at least I wanted more here. 1:36 I think the saw sine ad-lib instrument needs more Delay / Reverb, I think it would sound more "produced." As-it-is dry it has a more Retro-Gaming soundtrack sound which is cool if that is what you are going for. As I let you drums keep going I felt like asking, "Ever thought of putting a Low pass filter over these and just automating the frequency before break downs and build ups?" Just an idea.

Sorry to be off topic here... Awesome, I've only ever ROM'd that game.