DarkSim

Hey there Jolly, I like how you leave previous versions up so we can compare. Right off the bat I'd say I prefer the Spanish guitar as an instrument choice over the piano. It sounds a lot more natural - the piano sounds very rigid, as do the plucked strings. The overall loudness in the original version is also lower, adding to the suspenseful buildup which I vastly prefer over the WIP 3 version - sorry! For me, the first 30 seconds are way better in the first version. From 0:45 in the WIP 3 it starts getting much better though, despite me still wishing you'd kept that Spanish guitar. Nice build to 1:50 but 1:50-2:06 seems like you could delete it and not miss it from the arrangement. I'd like that beat to kick in after the build, and it seems like those 16 seconds are unnecessarily teasing. When the beat does come in though it's absolutely my favourite section of the track. You said you find it hard to program drums in 3/4, and what it feels like here is you've tried to do a 4/4 style beat in a 3/4 project. That might not be the easiest thing to do, but the result is this really rhythmically interesting composition that has me trying to work out the time signature. There's a nice break 2:44-3:15 with some more good synth work, and then that cool polyrhythm kicks back in for a bit. Man, I could listen to those bits all day. Solid outro with some nice textural effects and a gritty timbre to finish it off. OK to summarise, try taking the first 30 seconds of the original one (hope you saved the file!), keep the guitar instead of the piano/plucks, and then pretty much leave the rest as it is. Would love to hear you finish this one off, it's got a lot of potential.

Hey, welcome to the boards! This is great! Really rich textures and timbres from all the world instruments, and a graceful yet urgent pace to the song. Definitely evokes a dance in the forest, like some ancient springtime ritual. Have you submitted this?

In short - yes! Here's the source, for anyone interested: I really like the textures and detail in the percussion, and you've got some good synths working in the mix. It's a good groove, and it's mixed such that you can push the compression to give it that loud, industrial sound without it becoming muddy or grating to the ears. I'd say it could perhaps do with a little more dynamic range to accentuate the drops and chorus sections, and personally I'd like some more exploration of a stronger melody line, but what you have here is solid and well produced, with enough variation to keep me interested throughout. Nice job, good luck with the judges

Mm, this is absolutely beautiful. Nice review from The Damned, I agree with everything. Would love to hear more Pokémon music done like this.

Just now discovering this! I played this game as a kid - it was released as "Cosmic Spacehead" in the UK, which is why it's flown under my radar so long. Really nice flow to the song, and a big nostalgia trip for me. 1/10 not techno enough

Solid debut from a great game!

Ha! I'm getting a reputation, eh? Same here dude. I'm procrastinating by leaving feedback on these boards Just copy/paste the URL to your track, it automatically embeds. Leave it a few seconds when you're writing your message and you'll see it come up.

Honest feedback, eh? Let's have a listen... OK the intro could do with either being shorter by about 50 seconds, or making those first 50 seconds build better and create more of an interesting soundscape/atmosphere. When the claps come in at 1:02 they sound super thin and don't suit the other sounds at all. I like the vocal pad and the chopping you've done to it, and things really start to get good when that bass arp comes in. Really weak plucks for the melody line, but I love the background glitchy effects you've got going on there with the other pluck at 1:47. Glitch/beat repeat effects are used well later on too. Where did the snare/clap go after the first verse? Ah, 2:51-3:22! I know I said I didn't like the clap, but you gotta get a snare in there somewhere, especially for the final drop. That hihat is also way too loud in the mix, and so static in terms of velocity and panning that it begins to grate towards the end of the track. Kick is nice and punchy though. Interesting jazz flute sound towards the end, as well - sounds a bit like a half-idea at the moment. I'd say either double down on it and bring it into a proper lead, or switch it out for a more synthetic sound. It's a decent start, but the arrangement and instrumentation needs some work. You've got a great foundation with the kick, bass arp, vocal pad, some nice plucks in the build, and good use of glitch effects to add some detail. I'd say work on the atmosphere a bit more, adding more detail and variation to your sounds. I'd like to hear more from that vocal pad, which is really nice, and definitely some better lead synths. That clap can probably be saved by layering it and dropping it down in the mix, maybe less reverb, but you may as well try different samples as well. There isn't much build and transition between sections, especially for the final chorus at about 3:22 - you want that to be the focal point of your track that everything has been building to, so make it count and save your best stuff for this section. Hope you improve this one, as I'd like to hear more!

Mm, nice and chilled cover. By far the best part is the guitar playing, especially the embellishments from 3:02, but the synth backing is solid and allows the guitar to shine.

Goes really well with the video!

Maybe it has to be a full youtube url, not shortened? Source: Hmmm, listening to your version next to the source, it's a decent cover, but given that you've chosen to use FM sounds and cover it in the same style, it doesn't add much. It's always going to be a challenge when you make a cover in this way. Still, it's a good learning experience. Are you committed to an FM style, or would you consider making a more liberal arrangement with more modern synths and production?

Kinda reminds me of this KLF tune, at least the riff at that point, not the weird video...

Hey, great to see you tackling this theme 12 years after requesting it! Love the organ here, it sounds great. I'm not sure about the synths - although there is side-to-side panning in the original source, it's on a pad texture, and it's a really disorienting feeling to put that side-to-side effect on the bass synth. Once the panning stops at 0:53 it sounds a whole lot better. I like to use a similar fat sawtooth sound for a lot of my bass sounds, but you definitely don't want to be panning it like that. I'm pretty surprised you've got this kind of sound out of GarageBand, but I think in order to elevate it to the next level, you really need a better DAW to get into the finer details of mixing. Also, a fadeout ending? Boooo!

Link doesn't seem to work, but I found it on Spotify. Original source here: I've taken a break from OCR for a few years, but one thing I noticed when I came back recently was how high the standards are these days. With that in mind, I'd say your mix would have had a good chance of making it on to OCR some years ago, but I think there are some fixes you could make to it that would give it a much better shot nowadays. I'll be extra critical because you've marked it as 'ready for review'. That arp that is present for the majority of the mix reminds me of bLiNd's Dance Nation track from 2009, but listening to them side by side you can clearly hear the difference in mixing quality. Now I know bLiNd is pretty much the gold standard in mixing, but your mix does seem excessively limited in the stereo field, as well as very muddy - could be a reverb issue? Comparing it to the original source tune as well, your mix sounds a bit too distant and not as clean. At 6:19 in length, for me there wasn't enough variation in sound design and arrangement to justify the last 2 minutes. The drop at 3:14 felt like it was leading into the final chorus for me, however the build was pretty weak and exposed some of the mixing issues I mentioned earlier. I would say that in its current state, it would get rejected on those grounds, however I am neither a judge nor a workshop moderator, so take what I say with a grain of salt! I hope you can see areas you could improve this track, and maybe give it a revamp for OCR.

Whoa, this is so much cleaner! Really like all the tweaks you've made to this. The pitchbends, the little extra detail in the break sections, the cleaner kick and bass, nice risers and auxiliary percussion. Everything sounds really spacious and has its own place within the mix. There are still a few minor tweaks I'd make personally to the overall master, but at this point it's just a personal taste thing so I'll just say well done, and good luck if you decide to submit. Great job on this, it's come a long way!

Looks like between you and TAIKOI, we've got a load of rock themes covered! That run at 1:34... nice

Looks like you enjoyed that one! Good stuff

Mmmm yes, I love this source! I see you've taken quite a few sections from the original and chosen to sample them, speeding it up and adding some hard drums and synths to it. It seems to me like you're trying to go in one direction with this, but the original source samples are pulling in another. The original sound design seems a little too chill for your urgent remix, but I like where you're going with it. Maybe you could try adding some distortion or other effects to the samples to make them grittier, and more fitting with your additions.

Sounds pretty cool! While I was looking for the source on youtube, I found some pretty sweet remixes of this same source. One guy who remixed it in 2015 actually was hired to compose for Sonic Mania

OK so I was trying to do this track justice with some drums, but it's so beautiful and natural sounding that I wasn't getting too far. Instead I came up with this... I just love your piece Juke, this is just a bit of fun Those flute samples sound incredible btw. Pretty much indistinguishable from a live performance.

I feel like this is way better than it has any right to be, having been made on a phone! I guess if you pick presets from a small selection, they won't clash too much. Does the app only allow 4 channels at once?

Hey, the permissions on your Google drive aren't letting me listen

Nice arrangement, it's quite a bold switch to put this source into solo piano because it's a relatively sparse piece. I feel like maybe you've over-corrected some of the jazzier sections, which might benefit from being a little looser with the timings on the right-hand parts. My favourite section is actually the part from 3:22, because it feels more suited to piano.

Damn, nice playing! I like your Pokemon Gym one too.

I agree with Souperion here - there's a lot going on and it all sounds very crowded. You can see the waveform of the audio in the bottom left - it's very similar the whole way through, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but listening all the way through is quite tiring on the ears because there are no break sections. The frequency spectrum in the top right is virtually maxed out on all frequencies the whole time too. It feels like one 3+ minute long section, so you should maybe try and break it up a little so that the listener doesn't fatigue before the end.