Skyline Drop

I would drop everything but the vocal track down. It's almost impossible to actually hear the vocals over the hi-hats, let alone the entire remainder of the track. The whole mix is really top-heavy, too, I think, but it might just be me. The kick drum is really quiet compared to the snare, and to the hi-hats even, when it should be holding down the groove in a song like this. I'm gonna have to disagree with the delay comment on the drums. It *can* be useful, but I think it also makes mixing the drums in a lot more difficult because they become so much busier. Plus, everything's already drowned in too much reverb as is. Adding a whole bunch of delay will only make things blend together more.

Seconded on the comment about the Reason interface. I know a lot of people dig that sort of thing, but I'm not really from a hardware background, so having to navigate an ever expanding synth rack to tweak the filter on one bloody instrument is starting to wear thin on me. I'm working in Renoise mostly now, but just the demo, since I have yet to obtain the money for a license key.

This looks pretty hilarious and fun.

This one's got a nice, chill, sort of minimal soundscape to it. I feel like it would fit really nicely as background music to some sort of Mega Man themed puzzle game, or something.

A Parappa remix is currently in the judging process, I think, so hopefully you'll get your request

As far as I know, sfz(+) is probably the best option out there. But if you have a look at this page, I'm sure some of those are good. Don't look at me, though. Really, I figure having good soundfonts is more important than having a good soundfont player.

So by coincidence, I actually just listened to each of your posted remixes on the site tonight. I'm already a pretty big fan. I said your Splatterhouse orchestration was the best, but having heard this, I've changed my mind.

Well... This mix is absolutely chilling - to great effect, of course. I've listened to all of your other remixes tonight, too, and they've all successfully captured that film score-y kind of vibe. This one, however, I think is best if only for the fact that it really emphasizes mood and texture over melody, which makes it stand out from a lot of the other remixes on the site, while sticking true to its film score inspiration.

Not gonna lie. This is pretty epic all around. Great orchestration, superbly handled samples, and a just overall good sound. The only issue I have is that the transitions are all pretty abrupt for my tastes. I dunno.

I think a pretty popular one here is sfz or sfz+, both of which are free. I use the latter and it's usually more than good enough, but I've had some glitches with it when running more than two instances, but I figure that's an issue with Renoise more than sfz+.

Well, it started out as just the Blue Moon army theme, but that's kind of lacking melody, so I'm trying to slap Sasha's theme on top of it. Blue Moon was hands down my favorite army, so it was a pretty easy choice.

You'll probably want to search Google for something called a soundfont. I'm using one called Cambridge Concert Flute, which is pretty passable, and free, but I have no idea where I got it. I'm also not entirely certain whether FL Studio has a built in soundfont player (I'm fairly positive it does, though). If not, sfz+ is free and more than good enough.

Decided to take some initiative and start work on something myself. It's coming along decently. Now I just need to buy myself a Renoise license so I can get the WAV exported

All the glitchy stutter edits and that wicked pitch bend around 3:33 really contrast with the softer orchestral elements in this one. A very dynamic mix overall

This one was good and simple. Reminded me that I still need to sit down and finish this game sometime.

Slightly off topic, but did you know the smell of freshly cut grass is actually the grass releasing cyanide in an attempt to kill whatever is attacking them? So, yeah. Don't whiff it too much

Personally, I'd rather they have solid acting and cheesy special effects. Although, they got the cheesy special effects pretty well. Lots of wholly unnecessary slow motion while people were doing their danci-er, "bending"...

Tried my hand at freestyle once, but I was using a really cheap foam pad and playing in my socks. Slipped and almost busted my head open on the floor. Not fun

Evidently, man. I want to hear some Super Mario Bros. on an ice cream truck in my neighborhood. But then, there aren't any ice cream trucks anywhere near my neighborhood, so I guess that's pretty unlikely from the get-go, huh?

I don't think you should give up, dude. You've got something good here, now that your sound is worked out. In my opinion, that's the hard part. All you've got to do now is figure out some new material to splice into your arrangement. You've got good stuff here.

Two words: sustain pedal. Seriously, a $15 investment in something as simple as this will do you a lot of good when it comes to solo piano work. Even with a kind of cheesy piano sound like you get from the CTK-900, your playing will sound a bit smoother and more professional with some pedaling. If you scour the web for a bit, you'll likely find cheap deals on similar pedals like that, or you can spend closer to $25 dollars for one that feels a bit more like the pedals on a real piano. Gonna second the suggestion that you record into a DAW so you can easily get some better sounds and effects like reverb and whatnot. I think the CTK-900 does MIDI over USB, so you could just plug it straight into your computer and go to town with something like the FL Studio demo and not spend a cent. If not, you'll have to get a MIDI interface; really basic ones run as low as about $40 dollars, I think. You can, of course, just record the sound straight out of your keyboard, which it sounds like you did (I have a Casio WK-3800, and they essentially just transplanted the sound engine from the CTK-900 into a bigger case with more keys, better speakers, and an on-board sequencer that, frankly, sucks). In either case, you're gonna need some reverb on that thing to make it sound smoother. I think the CTK has onboard effects, so noodle a bit with those. You might want to consider changing the left hand up some, too. You play essentially the same arpeggios the entire time, and it gets a little boring. What I would do is use the left hand to play some static chords in the beginning for an intro, moving the whole thing into the higher register and slowing the tempo down a lot. As you pick up to the middle of the song, you can move down to the middle register and play the arpeggios like you do. For the climax, I'd maybe try playing the bass as octaves, maybe stating the melody in the left hand while the right hand does some random noodling over it. Basically, the issue is there's no real forward motion in this arrangement. It's a whole lot of the same over and over again, you know? The easy way to fix that is to use more of the range of the piano. The higher register tends to be quieter than the rest, so you can use it towards the beginning, and emphasize its natural tone by playing softly. The lower register has more strings and is therefore louder and more aggressive, so use that towards the climax. I know that's tough with only 61 keys to work with, but you'll figure something out. Best of luck

That's my one year of AP Music Theory kicking in from senior year of high school. I really ought to take another few classes in theory for the kicks

I went to go see this last night with my family. My mother thought it would be pretty entertaining, I guess. I didn't mind, since that meant I could still see the movie, but wouldn't be wasting my own cash if it turned out wack. Well, I was certainly disappointed, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the worst movie I've seen. Had I not been such a fan of the original series, I probably wouldn't have thought it was quite so bad. The tone of the movie is considerably less dynamic, and the pacing is kind of awkward, too, since they tried to capture so many different plotlines into one movie. Honestly, it would probably be a real pain to follow if I didn't already know what was happening. Anyway, I've definitely seen much, much worse movies in my day. I still wouldn't recommend this to others, though.

Uh... Well, long story short, it's chromaticism. It shouldn't sound right, if there were any law that said you have to stick to the key of g minor the whole time, but there really isn't. In this case, it's just a nice sound, and it works because of the fairly regular, downward motion in the bass. Not just any chord would have worked in that situation, but the e-minor (that 6# you're referring to) does because the E in the bass is right below the F in the bass of the previous chord, and right above the Eb in the bass of the next. You can try a number of different chords that have an E in the bass (C/E is a fun one) and they'll work even though none of them belong to the key or serve any definite function harmonically speaking. I don't really see anything here that would suggest the VI is acting as the dominant. If anything, there's evidence to suggest that the VII is acting as the dominant, since it's what resolves back to the i in this case. One could argue, however, that the song is actually not in g minor, but rather, in Bb Major, and that that VII > i progression at the end of each phrase is actually a V > vi in Bb (aka a deceptive cadence). This argument is kind of sketchy though, because Bb as tonic doesn't appear anywhere in this progression. Let's see... I'm not gonna try and analyze their scale choices at the end there, because, quite frankly, I can't come up with a better answer than "it sounds good, so it works." Just as a bit of advice, however, I think you're taking the wrong approach to chord-scale relationships. Even though the chord playing is an Eb major, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to use an Eb major scale over it. You have to consider the general mode that the song uses - if we're in the key of g minor, an Eb Major chord actually implies the Lydian mode and not the Ionian (major) mode. All this, of course, is moot, because the scale used at the end isn't Eb Lydian, so if anyone with a bit more knowledge wants to step in and cover that, by all means, go ahead.

Street Fighter II was the first game I played where the music really stood out to me as a big feature. Guile's theme was pretty much the coolest song a four year old goofball like me could dream of