melody

that's all very correct, thanks rexy! thanks for the kind words alcino! chrono suite also made the cut onto our (materia) debut album, released through overclocked records! you can check it out at www.materiavgm.com!

man, i want to hop in here and say how much i appreciate the kind words coming from everyone in this thread. thanks for giving me your ears, your time, and your thoughts; they're humbling gifts to receive. and thanks to dave and all of the ocr staff for toiling over this site, to give video game music the platform it truly deserves, as well as the constructive criticism and undue praise you all have given to me over the years. much love everyone, and hope you all have a merry Christmas. - peter/melody

haha, i'm glad you asked. i think this guy's a little too enamored with the idea of lowercase letters, but when he's not overreaching he gets the point across well. http://thoughtcatalog.com/ethan-ryan/2012/09/lowercase-is-cool/

haha, it's good to hear from you matt! literally laughed out loud, guilty as charged. belated congrats on temporal duality as well man! i used to sit at my computer replaying the intro video over and over as a kid. very much appreciate the kind words, be well!

digging the feel and vibe man! chunky rhythm guitars and thick palm mutes. definitely transforms my image of crono into a g with an indifferent rockstar attitude. i can see him sporting cliff burton's torn jean jacket as well (rest in peace). your treatment of the b-section at 2:46 is anthemic. would really like to hear this with you taking a few bars to rip a solo.

it certainly is. appreciate the kind words my friend! edit: op updated with a rough master and a few small cleanups.

good look mike! and definitely wouldn't mind turning up the bass at all, let me know timaeus! appreciate all the feedback folks! edit: op updated after eqing/playing with some levels.

very much appreciate the kind words brother. can totally dig making the kick thump harder. does anyone else feel the same regarding the soft kick? i tend to overcompensate these days after getting blasted on many previous occasions for just the opposite, haha. i was confronted with being that guy in the last part of your comment in early 2008 and took my first sabbatical from guitar. i had an average knowledge of the guitar but it was really at the expense of, or continuing at my pace, going to be at the expense of, a more holistic understanding of music (the compositional/production, and experiential sides). and i'm certainly guilty of still being that guy, but i've made a conscious effort to try not to be. sixto, house, and snapple.. now those guys are killer players.

appreciate it dollmaster! and good to hear from you wes, it's been a minute! the pleasure is all mine. the mix does seem to be noticeably lacking in low-mid. spent the past few hours recording the guitar part and i'll probably be spending the next week or so continuing to polish. please keep the feedback coming! op updated!

source (you don't need this): what's up everyone, it's been a minute. wanted to drop in here with a rough wip before heading off to dinner. there's no melody yet.. i need to change these six-month old strings on my strat before recording anything. your honest thoughts are welcomed! - peter/melody edit: link: subbed! thanks to everyone for the feedback!

not a problem at all man! the writing is great, and while i personally think you could take this arrangement to another level by taking another look at the drums, most of the areas that need touching up are, in my humble opinion, production-related. i can personally attest to the soundness of shaggy and rozovian's ears and would take a look at everything they're talking about; i'm certain that their crits would be more accurate and in-depth than mine if they had the time to write paragraph upon paragraph.

first off, this is sick!! i don't know if you'll even read this, and i can't pretend to know your end goal for this (whether you intend to submit it to ocr or not), but i'm going to leave a long non-mod review anyways because of how much i liked your arrangement, haha. the bass/b3 writing during the turnaround at 1:03 is really slick and the whole chord progression sets up the solo section around 1:19 nicely. though the snare sample you're using isn't particularly strong, and is also more exposed since all you have essentially are the b3 comping chords and electric bass locking in with the groove.. i'd recommend maybe side sticking over snare for that specific section. it'd also help to reinforce the identity of the solo section as such. i feel the drum writing in general could stand to use more variety.. especially alongside your harmonic/melodic writing, which is killer. simpler drums are fine for establishing the groove, but after the third or even second time through the vamp, the beat starts to lose momentum, and the listener, expecting development, loses his will to groove/live. maybe fill some of the gaps between hat hits with 16th note hat hits, irregularly, so your hat pattern gets the double benefit of sounding more syncopated and not like a two - four bar loop, and use some quick open-to-close hat hits for good measure! most of your fills last about two to three beats before the upcoming first bar of the repeated vamp and could be more developed; give your fills a space of the last measure or measure and a half before the vamp repeats! treat your fills (and more macroscopically, your percussion as a whole) the same way you'd treat the notes of a melody: carefully and deliberately. that way they will sound more intentional and less like an afterthought. ride-bell hits and flams over single snare hits are always stylish too, used sparingly of course. making the drums more exciting alone would introduce a lot of compositional energy into your arrangement. the improv is stellar. i've looped your piano and e. piano solo probably ten times already. the few parts where you slug the rhythm during your piano solo, and the first time through the melody, are really tasteful and clear indications that one, you would be awesome to jam with, and two, you probably like a lot of the same music that i do! so i hope at least some of what i'm writing hits home. this one is more of a personal preference. b3s ought to scream. where is the dirt, the crunch? i appreciate its mellower sound during the e. piano solo, but a more distorted sound could be contributing so much more energy to the previous section that builds up to it! the b3 sounds like you've slapped a lo-pass over it at around 2.2 khz, denying all frequencies above that the chance to see the light of day. tragic, i know. there's a disturbing lack of high frequencies in the mix balance. you have a lot of instruments already filling up the low to mid sections of your frequency spectrum (i count kick drum, bass, acoustic piano, e. piano, and currently the b3. the clavi sounds mid-hi to me), so lessening the chokehold on the b3 would also be a great way to restore balance to the force, and your mix! with respect to other mixing considerations, your levels sound fine, nothing seems to need reverb, and the separate tracks all sit in their frequencies nicely. the last step towards a more believable, a.k.a. samples-masquerading-as-live-musicians mix, aside from acquiring more realistic samples and hand-tweaking note velocities, would arguably be panning to cleverly emulate the stereo image of a live performance as live musicians occupy different areas of the stage/jam floor. also, is it just me, or are the hands of the supposed clavi player panned hard left and right, respectively? i'm guessing you haven't mastered this yet, because the overall level of the track is on the lower side. some slight mastering compression would go a long way in bonding the separate tracks. the instruments on the low end of the frequency spectrum (your kick drum and bass) could stand to be brought up with respect to the harmonic instruments. you might as well fix this in the mixing phase, or you can slightly compress the master track from around the 55 hz to 200 hz range with a multiband compressor and add some makeup gain, which will give your mix the buff "level 10 kick and bass tightness". non-dispellable. no expiration timer. the drums lack a bit of presence compared to the other instruments as well, most obviously at around 1:00. i'm bringing it up here because i'm not sure if they'll be better or worse off after the compression/limiting mastering phase, but there's a good chance that they'll benefit from a two to three db boost on its volume fader and some light compression. you definitely don't want to kill that live sound, so a 2:1 ratio and a threshold of around -15 to -18 db, with a quicker attack and medium release, should give them more punch while avoiding making them sound overly produced. the mix clocks in at just over two minutes; long enough to establish separate sections, and short enough to make me want to repeatedly hit the replay button. really hope you take another look at this man! best, peter/melody edit: for preserving star wars canon

appreciate the exceedingly kind words, crulex!

i am looking to sell: - my 50 watt marshall 1987x plexi mk. ii head, starting at $1450 - my 1960a marshall cab, starting at $350 the plexi is in perfect condition, and since i've only put around 10 hours on it during the four years i've had it, the tubes are in excellent shape. the cab is missing one of its four wheels so it's currently supported by a book from an obscure elective i took at virginia tech that has more value as an improvised wheel than as reading material. replacing the wheel proper with ernie ball casters is a simple, diy-able fix that will run you no more than $30, and the only reason i haven't done it myself is because i've only had to move the cab a handful of times while it's been in my collection. in light of today's date, i should mention that this is a serious listing. message me if you're interested! if you refer someone to me who ends up taking a piece off my hands, i will give you commission (good for one person only)!

congrats on this man! edit: this mix is fire!!