DarkSim

Ahh, this is beautiful indeed! Made especially impressive by the fact it's all done live. Excellent work!

Hey, welcome to OCR! I love hearing electro house remixes of this source - it's a perfect candidate for this genre. As for your remix, it seems nice and cohesive as it is, although there are some issues I think you could improve upon. The synths seem a bit generic, and some of them are covered in a bit too much reverb and it's muddying things up a bit. The bass drum also sounds a bit far back in the mix. When the bass synth comes in (huge synth btw, nice), it needs a bit of space from the kick so you can really get the most out of it. Make sure the reverb is kept in check on the bass especially. Your percussion could also use a bit more variation - there are some nice fills, but the overall beat is a simple bum-tss-cha-tss, so try and slap a loop on it or add a few more (subtle) hats to make it a bit more interesting. Like I said, it's a decent mix, but you have the misfortune to be following in PrototypeRaptor's footsteps, so I use Chemixtrixx as a benchmark for my critiques on this one! Keep improving though, we can never have enough remixes of this source!

Haha! I enjoyed this immensely. Quick, make a short album for April Fools Day Including such classics as: Bubble Bobble! Mario Bros 3 Card Game! Yoshi's Island Athletic Theme! Ice Cap Zone! Schala's Theme! It's a winner.

I love Twitch TV, and the fact that good gamers can make a living from playing games they enjoy. I watch a stream pretty much every day, just to see what people are playing and if they're any good. That said, there are plenty of people who are terrible at the game they're playing, or painfully unfunny, or both. The main appeal for me when watching is to see someone who is significantly better than me play a game, hence why I enjoy watching the pro StarCraft 2/HoN gamers. I turn off if I get frustrated with how bad they are at the game and I know I could do better. If you consider gaming as a sport of sorts - it's certainly competitive, whether you're playing against another human or the game itself - then the question can be extended to anything. Why watch people play football if you enjoy playing yourself? Why watch athletics? Why watch videos of people skateboarding? It's all about entertainment, and if you're interested in a particular game or subject, you are much more likely to be entertained by someone engaging in that activity, and especially moreso if they are good at what they do, like the top footballers, athletes and skateboarders. Even if they're not that good, I guess it's still entertaining to some people, which is why bad football teams still have fans

Absolutely fantastic speech from Dave Grohl. If you're an aspiring musician, or appreciate his work, definitely worth checking out. Watch it here

I heard this whilst listening to this radio show, and it was an instant download! Some of the finest flows ever to be found on this fair fansite. Really natural, organic feel to the beat, and it's just so damn cool.

I agree with Kammo - this is very repetitive and I feel like you could cut it down drastically and not lose anything unique in the arrangement. Also, is this the actual Lavender Town theme? Cos I'm not hearing any of the actual melody in this. Try trimming it down, adding more variation, and putting in some melodic lines. That should help.

What a difference this recording makes! It's just a shame the toy piano is so quiet. Any way you can gain that up without it sounding horrible?

You had me at 'soggy'. This, like your Kakariko Village one, is fantastic. The recording is an issue though, much more so than your previous sub. I don't do live stuff so I can't comment on how to make it better, maybe someone else can help with that. So, that clicking sound at the start/end is a Pokemon card hitting the spokes of a bicycle wheel?! Bizarre! I get the feeling if you videoed this you'd probably get a million YouTube views faster than you can say "Go around, go around!!!" As for actual crits, hmmm, the arrangement seems really cool, I think there should definitely be enough interpretation for it to pass. The clicking sound is a bit weird, and I'm not sure it works totally well in the background of the mix, or maybe it's just the way it's mixed right now. Love that tempo change midway through - looks like that kid played that bloody song again!

Hi there, I wasn't familiar with the source, but I've just had a quick listen, and it sounds like you've stayed pretty close to it. You should try adding some chords with some background pads, and being a bit more adventurous with the percussion. The more filled-out parts with the bass and tenor sax and the organ noodling round about 2:30 sounds the best, so try and get the rest of the song up to that level.

Oh man this is brilliant! Reminds me of the "Corn-Fed Kong" song from the DKC3 album, and also I'm picturing the Soggy Bottom Boys dancing on stage at the end of O Brother, Where Art Thou? I agree that the harmonica feels a little bit overpowering at times, but other than that, I can totally appreciate the "jam" feel you've got going on, and I love it!

Hey Joe! Really enjoyed this one, but a couple of things that I think could be improved are a little more mid-low presence in the strings, particularly in the intro. Also the panning could be a little wider - you could either turn up the master stereo spread, or change it individually, but with orchestral pieces you can generally hear quite a bit of stereo separation, as if each person was in front of you on a stage playing their instrument. The outro was excellent - sounds very "Russian".

Hey, great source tune! This remix sounds a lot like a cover though - you add some of your own stuff at 2:50 but there's not enough interpretation to make it really unique at the moment. Also the mixing sounds a bit muddy. Do you have reverb on your bass drum? The bass seems really lost in the mix. I can hear there is some bass, but I think too many sounds are bleeding into the low-end (reverb usually does this, especially on the bass drum) to make the bass sound very quiet. I noticed the feedback on your other track mentioned a muddiness problem as well. Have a listen to http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01976/ for an example of how you can have reverb on sounds, but also get really tight-sounding bass and drums. Keep working on your production skills!

Thanks for the kind comments, people! I didn't actually realise Hogs of War was a game... woops! Jewbei: yeah, you never know who is listening to and being inspired by your music, and that's one of the things that makes sharing stuff so rewarding.

Beautifully played! I'd love for you to fill out this arrangement and make it your own. This is one of the best VGM sources ever

Confirmed awesome

Ah the flute just came in... it sounds very clear compared to the rest of the mix. If you can make the rest of the mix as clear and present as the flute, that'd be great. The rest of it sounds a bit like it's being played through a radio. I also agree that the grace notes appear far too often, so try and trim them down. Otherwise, pretty nice to listen to

Yeah this sounds like a great idea, I'd definitely watch as I like reading the reviews in the judging thread to see what common mistakes are - if you were explaining them whilst we were listening that would help a lot with identifying problems with mixes.

Grüß dich Tobias! I listened to your DKC remixes, and they're more like straight covers really. In fact, I don't hear a single note that's different from the originals. If you're looking to get something on OCReMix, it has to be your own interpretation of the material, and not a cover. Have a listen to some of the remixes of those source tunes already on the site and you'll get an idea of what sort of thing to aim for if you want to be posted.

Thanks a lot mate! Really glad you liked that track as it was something of an experiment. I've a feeling you're going to really dig my next OCR post if you like my trance stuff

Oh yeahhhh! 8 original tracks, and one remix from halc. Pay what you want, because free music is awesome

I endorse the Briggs boson.

This is brilliant! Just when I thought it was feeling a bit too conservative for OCR, the transition at 1:25 hit and it went all kinds of crazy. This is right up there with the Plaid Muffins

This has to be one of the most perfectly crafted viral releases ever! The website was excellently designed, and I found myself staring at the mask for 10 minutes listening to the music, slowly becoming more and more despondent. The album as well moved me in a way that I haven't felt for a long time when listening to music - it's sad, yes, but it's more than that - it's utterly tragic in the purest sense, as everything is crashing down, enveloping the entire world. Most games convey a sense of hope and courage, however Majora's Mask was one of the very few games to promote the very opposite of this, and this album just hits that feeling perfectly. I don't know what else to say - it's utterly fantastic.

In answer to your original question - you can get away with loads of melody in EDM. Just listen to Drive Hard by PrototypeRaptor, or The Ecstasy of Life by DDRKirby. They're both hugely memorable EDM tunes with 4x4 beats, but have strong melodic hooks to them. The general trend is away from melody into more rhythmic music for clubs, but that's not to say it doesn't have a place. And just to touch on anterroir's point - it's generally a bad idea to make music just because you want fans. You should make music that you like to listen to yourself, and if other people do as well, that's cool. If you don't want to admit liking popular music like David Guetta or deadmau5, then don't make music just because you think it'll make you popular - at least admit to liking it first! That way when you do get fans and try changing styles, they'll hate you for getting all experimental!