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dummy

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  1. Interesting thinking! When I wrote it, I also hadn't thought 'this has no feeling' but one people had mentioned it and put it into my head it does seem that way. However, I can't nail down why exactly - there's a mixture of dynamics, instruments and melody to try to keep it interesting. Right now my hunch is that it's the rhythm of the actual piece.

    Perhaps it just needs to be a sepia-toned photo. Dusty, brown, dry, eroding desert is what I get when I think 'Fallout New Vegas'

  2. I did another remix/orchestration this morning. I actually started with the choir bit that's in the middle of the song, testing out a library I'm working on. The rest was then built around it. I wanted to keep the melody quite close to the original as it's such an iconic theme to me. I did make it a little more action-packed and faster, though.

    or SoundCloud

    As with all my other pieces, it's finished but I'm always trying to improve so any criticism, comments or opinions are welcome. One particular thing I've had so far with this is that it lacks 'feeling' so I'd definitely like thoughts on that. Things I personally wasn't happy with is the brass. It's CineBrass blended with my own library. I think the blending muddies it a little too much. I am my own worst critic and tend to think everything could be better, so outside perspective would be great.

  3. Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I really appreciate it.

    So... Where the fuck did you come from? You're pretty good hahaha.

    From what I can tell production wise, this would be close to DP, can't say on arrangement tho, would need a source link for that :)

    Aha, I've been around for a while. I'm actually a sample developer foremost, composer mostly as a hobby. If you're seriously into orchestral music, chances are you'll have used a sample library I've been involved in development-wise.

    I've got a good 150 odd video game remixes/orchestrations. Just many of them tend to be too short or to similar to the original to post up on OCR. If you're interested, the whole lot are online and categorised here.

  4. I hadn't made a Zelda orchestration in a while, and wanted to test to CineWinds this morning. This is an orchestration of Departure from Wind Waker. You can find it on

    or SoundCloud.

    It stays pretty true to the original but I did add little touches of my own style here and there. It's more of a cover than a remix, hence me posting here rather than submitting.

    The video has info on software/samples/techniques that I added as people really seem to like know that kinda stuff. As with my others I consider it finished, but I'm always trying to improve each orchestration so any criticism/comments/opinions welcome (especially realism, but anything else to).

  5. How is that cheating??? I do that quite a bit. I think it makes it interesting! I typically select two or sometimes three complimentary themes from one game and mash them up in some way... use a backing groove from one song and the melody from another, or as I mentioned write a transition or bridge or passage using a separate tune. As long as they blend and transition well, and as long as you have personalized it all sufficiently and made it into a cohesive mix, I think this is a great strategy. For me at least, it has made creating arrangements easier and faster. Not cheating at all.

    edit: caveat - make sure the song isn't a straight "medley." This won't work. If you use a completely separate source tune in the middle, make sure to return to the original you started with for the ending.

    Your work is absolute quality... you belong on OCR! Check out their submission standards and jump in here. I predict you will get posted in no time.

    Thanks, I appreciate the kind words! I have a piece on OCR at the moment (Do Droids Dream of Ramboids?) and I have a Portal 2 remix I did being posted soon. I definitely want to get more things posted in the future though.

  6. Hey guys,

    My remix from this morning was a Banjo-Kazooie track, Treasure Trove Cove. It's such an awesome soundtrack I couldn't resist having a try at orchestrating it. I tried to keep the 'changing-based-on-context' theme the game has and jump between styles/instruments. Also played with the piano a bit in the middle.

    or SoundCloud

    As always, any criticism/comments are welcome, especially related to the realism of the piece. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out though the woodwinds feel a bit ropey here and there. I also think I need to make more interesting percussive rhythms in future. Feel free to chip in with anything you feel you'd do differently or could be improved if I was to do it again.

  7. I agree that the choir sounds out of place. More concerning to me, however, like I said on the YouTube page, is the bass. It's far too loud for me to enjoy the rest of the remix to its fullest, and the instrumentation choice just doesn't do it for me. It's far too gruff. I'd have gone with some low bouncy strings and maybe a quiet contrabassoon to compliment them. Otherwise, the remix is fantastic and I have no complaints.

    Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I think the instrument choice is a bit of a mix of personal preference and the style of the piece - I'm a bit of a brass person so the tuba felt natural to me to use, and the close micing of it gives it a nice raspy gruff sound. I don't seem to have problems with the bass - it sits okay on my monitors and headphones.

    I have low spicc strings in there, but I like the idea of the contrabassoon on top as I bet that could just equally as raspy, though a little softer - I might try this if I remix a similar piece. I don't have a close-mic'd CB to give it a try in this piece, though.

    Wow, cool and cute!!! Yes it does have an intimate "crazy orchestra" feel. I like the purposeful "mistakes." I didn't find the bass too loud on my monitors. Very nicely produced. The choir however seems better suited for a darker piece, even with the staccato phrases, it is reminding me of the
    Even the attack is wrong on the choir, too slow, not keeping up with the super upbeat instruments. Hhhmmm, something is needed there, but maybe something more lighthearted. Nice track! But probably too coverish if you are planning to submit it... can you add some original stuff, or throw in parts of a second melody?

    Thanks, glad you liked it! The choir definitely doesn't sit right. As you said, it'd work better on a darker, softer piece. Perhaps what would have been better is maybe a recorder or piccolo flute - something high and playful.

    Definitely too coverish to submit - that's the thing with most of my remixes. They're either too short or too faithful - just figured I would share here on the forums.

  8. I finished another remix this weekend, keeping faithful to the original while adding little bits of my own style to it. It's made to sound more closer and intimate than other remixes and less Hollywood. I was wanting to get the feel of sitting there listening to a smaller orchestra go crazy and play some Mario

    or SoundCloud

    As with my others, I consider it finished, but I'm always trying to learn from each orchestration so any criticism, comments or opinions welcome. I like to keep the mistakes in my music so that I remember the lessons learnt when I listen back to it.

    With this piece I felt that looking back it was a mistake to put the choir in there as it sounds out of place (perhaps it's the size, or the timing or just that they're too oomphy). Perhaps staccato woodwinds or strings, or maybe just nothing at all would have been better. Interested in any other crits/thoughts.

  9. I don't tend to post on here that frequently as I normally stick to YouTube, but I worked on a remix of Royal City of Light from Tales of the Abyss last night and thought I might share while reading the forums. You can find it on

    or SoundCloud.

    I half-and-half'd, starting off by staying close to the original, but freestyling quite a bit along the way. Descriptions on the sites contain some details as to the software/libraries used. Overall it's such a great soundtrack and piece that I didn't want to stray too far. The original piece can be found

    .

    I consider it finished, but I'm always trying to improve each orchestration so any criticism/comments/opinions welcome (especially if bits don't sound realistic, or plain wrong. One that I can think of is the bass choir sounding a bit too close compared to the rest of the orchestra - it's like he snuck in and sat down with the violas, and HollyWoodwinds is a bit overused).

  10. A little more playing around and practising with my orchestra sound. This time it's Zelda Ocarina of Time - Lost Woods. Kept close to the original (though feel I may have slightly over-bouncified it a bit).

    Video has info on software/samples/techniques that I added as people really seem to like those. As always, any feedback or criticism is really appreciated muchly!

  11. This is an original piece I wrote after some random seven-sea-sailing inspiration. Hopefully this conveys some kind of epic sea-faring, pirate-filled craziness.

    From initial tinkerings to the final piece posted on YouTube, it was around 3 hours work. It's up on my YouTube channel:

    It's finished, but any comments or criticism would be appreciated for future pieces (I actually already tamed down the snares and cymbals based on feedback from a few people).

  12. I was practicing/tweaking my orchestra template/workflow tonight and so did an orchestra cover of Megaman II's intro and theme.

    I actually have quite a ton of orchestra version remixes on my YouTube channel. I would post them here but they're a bit short (most are under 2-3 minutes) and some are quite faithful to the originals.

    Any feedback (particularly on realism) would be appreciated muchly!

  13. I hadn't made music in the past few week as I've been busy working. I sat down yesterday and today and have gone on a bit of a remix spree with Sonic 2. My aim was to keep really faithful to the old music but just have them sound a little more up to date, so they're really too similar to the originals to post as remixes on OCR, but I figured I would share. They took about an hour each from start to finish. I'm quite tempted to try finishing up the rest of the songs now to see if I can make a full remix album.

    The mp3s are available below:

    Chemical Plant Zone Remix

    Aquatic Ruin Zone Remix

    Hill Top Zone Remix

    Mystic Cave Zone Remix

    Oil Ocean Zone Remix

    Various bits Remix

    They're also up on YouTube:

  14. I have a name, ya know. :tomatoface:

    Sorry ;D - as neblix had said

    bump

    Alright so here's update number two. With this update I pretty much finished the layout of the track and decided how I want it to mainly flow. Right now it's mostly ideas that aren't exactly well formed, but I need other opinions.

    I even added a a small Chill Penguin cameo, but I'll probably take it out lol...

    Sounding great to me. The new section with just the bass/pads and then bass/drums adds some nice variation and the way it builds up before the end is good. Not much I can think to suggest other than refining what you have there now - maybe playing with ideas on how the different sections blend together? but that's all down to preference and how you want to experiment with it. It sounds great so far, though.

  15. Thanks - glad you enjoyed. It was sequenced in FL Studio with Kontakt 4 used as a sampler. I used WIVI 2 for the brass and LASS for the strings. Project SAM's True Strike was used for percussion - Symphobia and VSL Pro were used to fill up the background.

    It took around 5/6 hours from start to finish. I mocked up the whole thing with Symphobia at first so that I had an idea of how it would sound with an orchestra. I started with the song's main melody and figured out which bits I wanted to use and how they would link together. Then I padded in a counter-melody and finally started to add chords/arpeggios to the background to fill it out. I always seem to make my percussion last (might be a bad idea? I'm not sure - I try to plan the percussion as I'm going along). Once everything was in place I added some reverb to the strings/brass (they're dry libraries) and spent some time fiddling with the levels. Finally, I made some alternations of sections of the piece already made and used them to add some variation and lengthen the song a little.

  16. A few friends and I have been trying to outdo each other making C64 remixes this weekend. This was the result of 6 or so hours this morning. It's my interpretation of the old 'One man and his Droid' C64 theme tune.

    The mp3 can be grabbed from http://catpee.net/OneManAndHisDroid.mp3 or you can stream it at http://catpee.net/listen/?song=OneManAndHisDroid.mp3

    Any questions/comments/criticism/suggestions/niggles/anything would be more than appreciated.

  17. This is really nice. I love near the beginning with the bitey brass followed by sweeping strings. The choir on top of it all is really nice, too. Cool when everything kicks in too - really nice comopsing. Out of curiosity, what sample libraries do you use? Also, same from as the previous poster asked - sounds like a lot of low/mid freqs have been reduced - is this intended?

  18. I really like it too. The drums sound good and the instruments are nice. It changes enough that it never gets boring/old, too. Like the person before said, a more climatic ending would be nice to hear, either by building it up or slowly taking it down - maybe a section without the percussion? I'm not really sure, but lots to experiment with. Really nice so far, though.

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