Calum

i like it, very slow paced. as soon as the drum beat came in i sort of felt like it lost its character. Perhaps it was the drum samples themselves which sounded out of place in an orchestral piece or just the style in which they were played. I'd say stick with some orchestral percussion - big ol' bass drums and rollin' snares 'n' cymbals. But it's up to you.

loving all the spacey extended chords. i love the vibe on all of your songs, keep posting and keep it up! is there anyway i can download any of these?

i'm in love with the source and the heavy side-chaining kick/pads/half-time drums are really suitable. the start does sound a bit like a bad harpsichord sample, i can get over it but it doesn't create the best first impression. In terms of arrangement, i would save the chord changing bit until one more repeat of the first melody with perhaps a few variations or something. And perhaps cut out the drums in the middle somewhere. Maybe add a new section, repeat some other stuff and you're done! I can't really give you tips on the productions but I really like the style and source, i'd be really interested to hear this as it progresses Calum

hey, i'm really enjoying this version of dire dire docks. One thing i found is when you're throwing the melody around all the instruments, which is great, sometimes it starts with something mega loud like a trumpet or something and then is passed to a glockenspiel and the melody feels lost. I don't know if that's what you were trying to achieve, but i just felt like perhaps you could turn up the answering melody thing or change it to something more prominent. I was also looking for some half-time drum variations, i don't know if that happened already, maybe it did. Yeah, sometimes you drop out the drum kit and have just like a bass drum or no percussion at all and that's sweet but perhaps some variation on the kick snare kick snare beat might be nice. The arrangement keeps my attention the whole way through and it certainly builds on the original but i often sit here thinking i'm not sure where it's going. The sections in themselves are distinct but i don't feel the overall journey, it just seems to be going from one thing to the next. I was racking my brain for things to say so congratulations and keep it up! Calum

hey, i'd say that the tambourine in the first part playing on every beat is a bit distracting - either turn it down or get rid of it or maybe make it a little more subtle. The piece really picked up towards the end with the cymbals/brass entry. When the tamb/snare were rolling, it really seemed to work. another issue is quantizing - it kinda just sounds like you were trying to play all the parts on the keyboard and they're all a bit out of time and that kinda throws it all off. But yeah, half way through or so with the tamb rolls and snare rolls and stuff, it sounds a lot more subtle and in time. The song at the bottom... hmm, i suppose it works without it but just experiment and see what you think sounds good. I wouldn't just add something because you think it should have it. You're as good a judge as anyone else! If you want specifics i can help, because i'm a percussionist but i'm a bit in a rush so i was just giving a general overview. I guess my final word is keep it tight and keep it subtle. Make it confident, yeah, that's what it seems to be lacking, it feels like someone hesitantly playing it on a keyboard at the start and that's not what we want! Give it your all! Keep it up, Calum

thank you, I sampled them a lot on the first album, so this makes sense!

http://worldmaplostandfound.bandcamp.com I've got one complete album i did a year ago and one which i'm constantly (twice) adding to. Please listen and comment Calum

Here is a very quickly put together chinese-sounding piece I composed earlier. I would be able to make something a little more dramatic or appropriate for whatever scenes there were. If this is the kind of thing you were looking for email me on calum111@hotmail.com and we can discuss things!

thank you both. I will turn the bass up! Regarding the fade-out it was sort of a temporary thing as I planned on having more sections but didn't get them done. Also I used the fade out as I kind of imagined it as a looped track but it could have an ending. But your explanation of the ending made sense and I will bear that in mind as I try to end it! Ah as I was starting to thing the pizzicato strings were a bit cheesy! I'll definitely leave them in now. Thanks for the feedback, i'll get on with the next version soon!

ha ha! well you've drawn me in now! I'll keep listening out.

I agree, I was shocked to see the main classes as - magic, fighting, agriculture and crafting! I very much enjoyed the first few hours of being a little fisherman in a big world, though I didn't get very far due to the lag and the fact that the only way I could bare playing was to put the graphics on the lowest of the low, I had a fun time being what I believed was a bit of a stupid decision in character creation! I'll be waiting for the PS3 version as my laptop cannot handle this one single bit!

I love the source, one of my faves from the soundtrack. Very laid back as with the other one. I would love to hear the whole album when it's done! You're right it is repetitive! But it works well as an interlude. However, I hate to see the other section not included, that's my favourite bit! I know it wouldn't really fit if this is an interlude, but the other section is great! (it comes in at 0:22 on the youtube source) Anyway, good stuff still! What other tracks from the soundtrack are you working on? ps. i'm unconvinced that it's a bossa nova!

I'm very much enjoying this. The samples at the beginning are great and them returning towards the end was also good. It's all very chilled. I admitedly can't give you any tips on this style/production. I find it's a little repetitive though I in terms of production techniques etc. you keep the interest. Perhaps it's just the chord sequence which remains unaltered throughout the whole thing, correct me if I'm wrong though, wait at 1:53 things change up which is cool. I'd say maybe go a bit more extreme. Like in that section things seem to get a little more "chopped" up maybe you can take that further and then return to the smoothness. Create a journey! This is good stuff! So i get the FFXIII bit but what is project r?

an album of latin/jazz covers of songs from studio ghibli films. It's on spotify under "Hayao Miyazaki on Bossa", definitely worth a listen!

In regards to fleshing out songs I guess if you, although it may be laborious, work out and write down some notes maybe with little diagrams all the sections and everything so you can be completely open minded and aware of every aspect of the song. Also when I think about making something my own or changing it/fleshing it out in some way I try to see the music as objectively as I can, trying to detach it from the way I hear it, then hone on in certain aspects. You may want to take the melody and completely throw away the chords it previously hand underneath it and make up your own completely oblivious to those that had gone before. Or you may want to isolate the chords and do something interesting with that. The main way I think about a ReMix is by detaching myself from the source so that I can see it's full potential in all aspects! Though obviously you should definitely keep all the aspects you love about the original in mind and try and display them as correctly as possible. Something which completely loses all that the original has to offer is as bad as a straight cover in my opinion! Though neither are all that bad ha ha. But for this purpose, yeah they are! I don't know who blind is and I only joined the site about a month ago. I'd been on it a few times before but found it too hard to navigate and confusing. I had done tons of VGmusic but only became aware of them when they added me on youtube! ANYWAY, enough of my life story. Well take this inspiration to drive you to improve. Honestly i think you're being way too hard on yourself though, I'm in no way an electronic music wiz/enthusiast but what you had done was certainly not novice work and you will keep improving. I've improved my production skills an awful lot since joining! It's great. By continuing to make stuff you will become far more able to make what you feel. I'd suggest listening to what others have done, trying to recreate that and make note of particular techniques they've made use of, be it a chord-sequence, a production technique whatever. If you just enjoy what you're doing learning will come naturally. Well enough of this inspirational speech! Keep working at everything and hopefully see you soon with more ReMixes and originals!

I think The Sims franchise (EDIT: on second listen perhaps only Sims 1!) has got some great music! And none yet on the site. I think it would be quite hard to work with by and large being some form of jazz/lounge which in my opinion is a good genre to change something to but changing something from that would be quite difficult. If anyone were to submit a ReMix from The Sims that'd be great. I might think about it myself, it's certainly up my alleyway and in the front door and in my bed. That is a sign that I should now end this post.

I think you shouldn't worry about it. I'm the opposite, my really quite boring first name is bereft of the air of mystery a pseudonym might give and it kinda gives you all sorts of perks, at least it does to those who have them in my mind! But I don't think I'd ever happily decide on anything other than the name i've been given so I'll use that! It's kind of more "professional" but who needs that. I am my name out of saving myself the hassle of racking my brain for hours then regretting it later. Though i'd love to be the mystical "EnergyTiger" or something like that... but maybe not that.

at 0:58 something weird seems to be happening. It's like you have one bar of an irregular time-signature in that little synth flourish! I don't know if that was intended but it sounds quite jerky when it comes back in. I don't know the original at all so I can't comment much on that. I love the build up to "Let's do it!" at 0:27, I don't know if that's a sample from the game, if it is GREAT! This seems to be distincly lacking a melody in some form or another, I don't know if the original is mainly based on chord or something, but yeah I'm kinda listening out looking for somethin' to hum along to! Also, as you're probably aware there are some timing issues at the end where everything seems quite bare as well! keep it up! EDIT: I've now listened to the source and there's all kinda melodies and other sections going on there! There's a lot to be fleshed out. The style remains quite consistent to the original, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's not the most creative way of interpreting this song. In your version the melody and bass move together which it seems like in the original the bass often stays the same, like a pedal underneath while the melody changes. That might be why I couldn't discern the melody from your version. I think i'm just a little confused. Sorry, anyway, OK! that's all.

I enjoyed this! I'm not too familiar with the source but it kept me occupied. I guess the main thing with this style is production and I can't help you there all that much. I have to agree that when the drums were panning between L and R it seemed quite unnecessary and annoying and the samples weren't the best. If you are going for a fake brass sound that's fine but maybe replace that with another synth sound. I think the acoustic guitar need some humanisation and perhaps a little reverb and maybe a little bit of subtle delay if you want as it sounds very synthetic when played on it's own at the end of some of the phrases. Perhaps you could have a pad/string section where the drums cut down and you play the chords etc. blah blah blah and then you come back in with everything maybe in the little gap at 2:02. That's probably quite cheesey but i think it'd mix things up a bit and give the mix a little sense of journey.

I certainly not well-versed in the country drum patterns but the military kinda drum beat you put in there seemed quite weird for me. I was expecting a classic ride, alternating kick and rim-click 6/8 type thing if that makes any sense at all! The snare rolling didn't fit for me at least at this early stage in the song. It sounded more like a kind of build-up thing. But you know, that's just me! I enjoyed it though. I feel the themes themselves are quite removed from the original, mainly because of the chord changes you've made! Which ain't a bad thing but the first time round I couldn't hear the ilia theme so perhaps you could have one section that returned to the original chords or somethin' to solidify the themes, if you want. Keep it up!

I would suggest sherbet land from mario kart 64/wii/whatever it was on. I spent hours and hours on end time trailing that level to try and get the world record... it never happened but as it turns out I bloody love the song now! edit: when i say "i would suggest" i mean I WANT TO DO!

I've just done a completely MIDI version of "Cave of Mystery" whereas before it was completely live. I think it fares better in MIDI. Let me know what you think.

I disagree, I think it fits. The little mario theme isn't particularly diatonic so the changes you'd make to make it "fit" with the harmony of the dire dire docks at 1:10 would make it not the super mario theme. The piano sample isn't the best, though I'm not one to give tips on the production/tech side of things.

This is an interesting concept. I think it'd be more captivating with a fuller sound/the inclusion of live instruments, also I find these kind of things are really enhanced by virtuousic performance though with sequenced sounds there's little sense of a "performance". Those aside, it made a nice listen, though sometimes I wanted it to be a bit more sparing with the dissonance and irregular time signatures as at times it could feel a little arbitrary. I guess a lot of this is personal preference and also instant reactions to this kind of music aren't necessarily the best as they're often a grower! Congrats on making this album, though.