DarkSim

So happy to see this being updated, and glad you added a few of my suggestions too! That guitar playing is so nice, it fits in really well with the rest of the instruments now, and the percussion is spot on. The snare rolls gave me goosebumps! Not really sure if I can give you any more ideas really. It sounds like you've got the feel of the track perfectly - the struggle of the enslaved tribals working in the mine - and so I say good luck with submission

You're thinking of Piranesi. It's a pretty large map and not great for bringing people in. The maps you need to get people in are pretty much Dust2 and Office, as they are the most balanced. Then other staples are Aztec, Dust, Nuke, Cobble, Italy, Inferno, Train - pretty much anything that was in the original rotation. All the other maps should be taken off rotation to begin with, in order to build popularity. I might jump on later in the week but being in the UK it's a bit hard to get on at the right times. Had a great session the other night though

Hate to bump my own thread, but this is my finished mix and I'd really appreciate some comments before I change this to Mod Review. Thanks

Thoroughly awesome. Brilliant changes, and I absolutely love the build from 1:23-1:36. Only thing I'm not entirely sold on is the "Hey" bit from 1:36. I don't mind it later on, but it seemed to stick out from 1:36 onward. Might just be personal taste, but I'd consider lowering the volume or removing every other "Hey" from this section. Only that minor observation though, everything else is superb! Can you get a mod review?

http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?p=691114#691114 hover over the links in the sig as well... acai berries, dental whitening... all spam.

I'm on the server now if anyone wants a warmup

Hell yes. Been playing CS nearly a decade

Check out "Roller Disco" from the Serious Monkey Business DKC2 album by Zylance - it's only 3:15 long but very dancey

Hi there, just posting to say this is AWESOME! Thought I'd check it out cos I liked your Frantic Factory WiP, and this blew me away! Seriously good stuff - definitely Pendulum influenced, but unmistakably different. Those choir pads are great, and I have no issues with the drums at all. Didn't hear the first version, so I dunno how much they've been changed up, but good job on that. Also, totally agree with you about your defense of the drums - I was listening to Granite, and even though the track is absolutely pounding, the drums hardly change at all. That said, I'm sure the changes you made were for the better.

Wow, really interesting take on the source! I like the idea here, and you build a nice soundscape with bags of atmosphere. I'd say it lacks a bit of direction - it builds up so well and you think it's going to really kick off with a melody in there, but the Kokiri Forest melody doesn't seem to be enough on its own. Would the Lost Woods theme fit in here somewhere? Might be worth trying to incorporate it somehow. Not sure about the end part - it doesn't really add anything to the rest of the track, so maybe consider cutting it, or taking the synth (sounds very Chemical Brothers - nice) and adding it to the main part of the track. Other than that, I don't really have any issues with the mixing or mastering (not that I'm an expert), and I really like the subtle panned percussion at the start - sounds exactly like the Forest Temple - is that straight from the game? It segues very well into the Indian style. Really nice work, definitely try and improve it, would love to hear it finished!

Another amazing remix from zircon... this has been sitting at the top of my most played list for a month - I just can't stop listening to it! Reading zircon's comment from earlier gives an interesting insight into the creative and technical process behind this track. The lack of repetition makes this track so more-ish that I'm more likely to listen to it than if there were an extra 16 bars of the house-style beat put in there just for the sake of it. I also think that this track is kind of like the Avatar of music, in that where Avatar just looked so good, the instruments in this tune sound so good. I'm listening not just to the overall tune, but to each individual component on each listen. Right from the off it's just so interesting to listen to - everything is produced and balanced perfectly. That bass at 0:10 just tickles your eardrums letting you know you're going to be in for a treat, and the track doesn't disappoint. Incredibly interesting stuff here. Now I need to go install TF2...

After Rozovian posted comments on my WiP I thought I'd check out his work, and I'm so glad I did! This track's been in my head for weeks now. Absolutely love this style, and when the guitar positively growls in at 1:12, you know it means business. 1:25 is my favourite part, and it just stays awesome for the rest of the track. Great song to drive to as well. 1 thing I'm dying to know... is that shaky-egg recorded live?! Please tell me it is...

Very enjoyable mix, although it's a remix of the film's theme, rather than the game, which slightly disappointed me! Reminds me of AmIEvil's "Battle Rocks" tune on here. I felt the lead was a bit overpowering at times (esp. around 1:30), but I really liked all the synths you used for this track. What I'd really like to hear is a breakdown in the middle, utilising some of that cool percussion in the intro, before bringing the rest of it for a final chorus or something. Not sure you'd have much chance of getting it accepted as a remix due to it being a remix of the Tina Turner song, but it's a funky tune anyway!

Right, I'm pretty happy with my arrangement and mix now, so this is pretty much the final version. Thanks for all your comments - I've learnt a hell of a lot already! Rozovian - I've trimmed nearly a minute off it, so only the good stuff is left, and the dynamics are definitely improved as well. I changed up the bass as well, so it gets a little more freedom. phantasia - I think you'll like the improvements, as I've basically done everything you suggested!

Useful insight there zircon - it's interesting to hear you tried! Shame it didn't work out, but that's kinda the point I want to make. Smaller groups of talented people simply can't get a look-in because the industry moves so fast and by the time the hours have been invested your product looks crap compared to the new standard. Duke Nukem Forever anyone? Also Haze looked so dated when it came out, and now Free Radical are bust so no more Timesplitters. Whether these games would have been good or not we'll never know - and that's the tragedy - artists can lose out because it's the money that matters, not their skill.

OK so I just wikipedia'd it (solid source) and there's no such thing as a second-party developer. Only first or third. Actually thinking back to my Rare example, wasn't there an issue over licensing that led them to cancel the release of Goldeneye over XBLA despite the game being ready for release? If that doesn't hurt the gamers then I don't know what does.

Such a sorry state of affairs though, isn't it? The rich publishers get richer whilst robbing the developers of profit that they earned with their talent. All the publishers did was have the fortune to be rich in the first place (or have built it up from screwing over some other people). Same with the music and film industries, which is why big publishers absorbing little ones in the gaming industry worries me as a gamer. Soon enough EA and ActiBlizz will have bought out every developer and then they can basically do/charge what they like for their games, and no-one will be able to do anything about it.

But Rare own the rights to their games - hence why Perfect Dark has been released on XBLA. This has gone a bit off-topic but to try and bring it back, I'll say this: why don't more devs go with digital distribution like valve? Take EA out of the equation altogether.

Bungie is to Microsoft what Rare were to Nintendo (and now are to Microsoft). Is the term a 'second-party developer'? Independent, but exclusive to the publisher.

Skate was awesome (EA Black Box developed it), although Skate 2 didn't have the same wow factor as the first (but was probably better, although I only played it for a few hours), and Skate 3's just come out but I haven't had a go. My guess is they'll probably milk the franchise dry until it becomes an almost embarrassing annual release (see: Need for Speed, Tony Hawk's).

Hey nice start! It's a short piece and pretty conservative at the moment - I suppose you're going to elaborate on it after some feedback? Those drums could do with more volume, and that drone organ/keyboard sound definitely needs turning down or off after the intro (from 0:13 onwards). Other than that, it's a good starting point for a ReMix

Well, sadly, this had to happen one day. Games are a relatively new media (compared to film and music), and after 20 or so years of finding its feet, the industry is huge. With the size that it is, it attracts attention from big corporations - corporations like EA that have been bred from its own growth - and inevitably these corporations put pressure on the market to squeeze out as much profit as possible. Not that anyone apart from the people at the top really like this, but that's the perils of a capitalist society. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for giving people credit for their work in the form of sales, but as an artist, wouldn't you want your work to bring enjoyment to people? As long as you still had a job of course, but surely on a website like this that offers professional quality music entirely free, you see my point. I'm not sure where EA stands in the whole process either. My understanding of a publisher was that they distribute the material as well as promote it, then use the funds to finance another game from the developers. Surely a lot of developers nowadays can extricate themselves from this system, in the age of digital distribution? Valve seem to be doing OK with Steam, and the community feel is that Steam is a fair distribution platform in terms of price and service (God knows it wasn't at first, though!) Bypassing publishers like EA and ActiBlizz would surely give developers more freedom and allow for a better consumer experience, wouldn't it? I understand that games can take hundreds of people to make them, and they deserve rewarding for their work, but this just smacks of corporate greed. There is nothing wrong with the industry - only the shareholders' profits. The massive inconvenience to the consumer is not worth it, but sadly we only have ourselves to blame for allowing Gamestop etc to make such large profits from used games and make EA jealous. Just swap games with your friends, people! As an aside, I've never bought an EA sports title as I find any kind of team sporting game the most frustrating gaming experience in the world. So this doesn't affect me yet, but I can see it swiftly becoming an industry-wide thing.

Thanks for the comments Rozovian, I posted this cos I sort of hit a wall and needed someone else to listen to it - listening again I have to agree with you about the ending. I did just copy the section from earlier, so I might just cut out the first time I use it and go into the half-tempo section a lot sooner. That voice clip is also from the game, although it's kinda annoying so I might just lose it. I'll try and jazz up that bass as well - apart from some mixing and compression changes I didn't do anything to the bassline so there's room for improvement there.

Thanks for the feedback guys - I'm still new to this mixing lark so forgive my mistakes in the last one! I've tried to take your comments on board and basically overhauled most of the track so there's a lot of new stuff in this version. Hope you enjoy.