Calum

sounds much better!

I like it! I think this version is much improved. Though it's been a while since listening to the last version this exceeds my memories. Though some of the guitars are ever so slightly out of time in places. It's not a huge issue though. The choir sounds do sound distinctly MIDI in comparison to the rest of the track at times - it's mostly in the upper register where it sounds a little more fake. Also when it has the melody in the middle somewhere, you could layer a synth or something to play along with it. I like the kind of brassy/strings breakdown in the middle, it really slows down the pace. Again the solo/other guitars sound great at the rock out section. I like the half-time choir section but where the choir or it might be string play a quickly moving high part it sounds a little MIDIish towards the end of that section. It's nice how it comes back to the relaxedness of the intro. After that relaxedness it feels like a bit of an anti-climax when it comes back into it with the guitars, perhaps add more instruments there. I know it's kind of another build up but it comes in with the guitars all of a sudden so you think OH WE'RE BACK IN but it kinda sounds a bit weak there to me. I think the distorted guitar chord towards the end fades out too quickly as it transitions into the ending. Also the very ending with the two notes sounds quite unresolved. It sounds as thought you just copied and pasted like the intro. perhaps have that leading to a final chord or... it's just the final two notes in the piano seem to be leading somewhere then it just stopped. At least to me it does. Hope this helps!

oh, I liked it! the bell sounds certainly in the lower register (in greek minimal 2) certainly are classy! But yeah, the first one was very relaxing although I did do a bit of skipping.

I agree, it needs some kind of melody or something to take it somewhere. The enjoyable thing about the FF battle themes for me was that they were long and by fighting an epic battle you are rewarded with the extra sections of the track. Though some battles may be short in long boss battles (i don't really know how your game will work) it will become a chore to listen to that 30 seconds over and over again. I'd certainly say build things up a little more and look for some kind of direction melodically to take you to different sections! It really does have a sense of urgency to it though and feels pretty exciting and battle'y so keep working on it!

very relaxing, does the job of a save screen! enjoyed it

The slight adjustments to the melody at around 0:45 and 0:50ish, the slight rhythmic change feels kinda forced to me and I'd leave it to the original perhaps. Though that's just my opinion. Also the fast section following this sounds quite unnatural for two reasons: 1. it sounds like it would be impossible to play or atleast very problematic as you have the 5th in the middle of the piano (presumably the left hand) and then the right hand running around but you also have this lower note being played at the start of each bar which makes it sound unnatural and I don't believe you'd be able to play that. 2. the constant 5ths sound like they would work on a guitar but it's a weird technique to use for piano I find. It just sounds quite strange. So perhaps write something more flowing in the left hand, it can still be exciting but in this way you can include the lower bass note and the other fifths and whatever other notes you want and it might sound more "piano"y. If you don't like this idea even changing the open fifths (I think most of them are) to full chords would sound far more realistic. The transition at 1:26 or so is still quite strange. I reckon you could rack your brains and find a way to smoothly run into that, if not you should take off the ending notes of the phrase and instead just stop on the chord before moving onto the next section as it sounds like you just copied and pasted the left hand then started a new section. If it sounds like it has ended then it will flow better, I believe! I'm not sure if I've explain myself very well, but I hope this helps! Keep working on it!

thank you!

I've only listened to business trip so far but I'm just loving this so much! Great, tight and absolutely funky! Look forward to listening to the album! Ps. Got any tips on obtaining Piston Collage? It seems pretty hard to find!

Oh man, that means a lot! I joined OCR a few months ago really looking to improve on my production skills and I guess I'm making headway! Thanks for the feedback!

A few more jingle-type things. I've noticed on an awful lot of adverts they seem to have these cutesy songs with ukeleles and glockenspiels and children singing. Well I tried my hand at it: Advert 1: Advert 2:

the drums seem to be not completely quantized. I don't know whether the original is slightly swung or in straight 8s but it seems like the drums are slightly swung and the rest of the instruments are playing straight 8s and it ruins the groove! So i'd maybe have a look at that, maybe just snapping the drums to straight 8s! I don't particularly know the original source but this ReMix seems to have one section and doesn't appear to go anywhere really, so perhaps thing about other sections you could include. The fade out isn't the most creative ending either. I can't really give you constructive tips on the production but everything seems quite forward in the mix, so perhaps decide what is most important and least important and mix accordingly for more clarity. Good first ReMix though, keep working on it!

often depends, for me, on what's broken or has strings! I never changed the strings on my acoustic for years until about a week ago and now I can't handle the action on it so I'm sticking with my electric until my fingers can deal with the stress of playing my acoustic! but as said before - It's all good!

I just get a mic, if i'm feeling organised make a pop-shield out of some tights then sing my heart out! Not a particularly professional set-up. I'm not sure specifically what information you're after?

Not a problem! I completely get where you're coming from, it was just an instant reaction to listening to that part! Keep it up!

This is an enjoyable mix, at 02:42 I really wanted that to go to a major chord! I know it's probably far too late to be adding in major sections BUT, that was what I wanted. That said, it kept me entertained throughout and then in anticipation at the very end. If you go with my major section then you could have a lovely tierce de picardie at the end, maybe. Except ignore all of that! Perhaps you could end it with a series of guitar chords, considering your guitar sound is apparently a sample (it fooled me) maybe that wouldn't sound too great? I'm not sure, you tell me! But that may be a good way to slow everything down and end it. Good work anyway!

I'd have to agree, I think that's a little stroke of genius there! You could certainly open it up to new instrumentation or style but if you plan on keeping it just piano, possible ideas for extention of the dire dire docks theme may be: call & response left hand & right hand section. One time round stating the original melody to remind us. You could have a slower section playing only chords in the left hand instead of the flowing accompaniment that it has throughout. Key change? Tempo change? change of time signature? Perhaps to re-echo the mario theme/dire dire docks thing, as you have played a little motif from the mario theme in the dire dire docks calm style, you could perhaps thing about playing dire dire docks in a more upbeat mario theme-like style or include more little mario motifs in your calm arrangement! Keep it up. Can't wait to hear this finished.

First of all congrats on all of that! I listened to On That Day 5 Years Ago and although you added some nice new interpretations of the theme from around 00:26. I don't believe it went far enough! Perhaps a whole complete change of style or instrumentation in addition to the new material. If not, I believe there'd have to be more new material. Though I am in no way an OCR veteran, this is what I'd suggest

Great game! I'd be absolutely interested in this! There aren't enough music-based game ReMixes on here! parappa, gitaroo man, bust-a-groove, vib ribbon etc.

alright, well no FFXIV for me!

I'm finding it difficult to play. Reducing the buffer size and texture filter/quality reduce to lag so that it's just about bearable but the graphics then look really quite horrible and ruin the game experience as I can barely make out the NPCs or their names. I'm using NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS graphics card and have 25.1GB free on my laptop. Does anyone know of any ways in which to decrease lag? I also chose to be a fisherman as my main, so I may not have had the best start in FFXIV life.

brilliant I will send you something as soon as I can

This is my version of the legendary theme. It's slightly chippy/chill-out. This is a very early WIP, I haven't fully mixed much at all and the arrangement isn't finished. Just want to get opinions on the piece at the early stages.

I would like to claim Zelda's Lullaby with Great Fairy Fountain from OoT. I understand there would be a lot of interest in this track so it's all up for grabs until I send you a WIP and you can decide . Just lettin' ya know those are my plans. I will PM you a WIP as soon as I can.

I'm a little confused as to how original the battle theme is. It's great and clearly inspired by the final fantasy series. The overall sound isn't amazing and it sounds like it's peaking at times (around 1:37) but I could be mistaken! So this is using the melodies of the game, but the game isn't out yet?... but the arrangement and rest of the song etc. are original? I agree with one of the youtube comments that it sounds more like a boss battle than the usual battle theme that would occur every time you battle. It's far too grandiose for that. But this is really good original work, keep it up!

OK, i'm going to do a huge reply here. First off I'll say I'm not a huge electronica-head and I won't be able to give you a huge amount of feedback on productions and such but I shall give you my opinion. Track 1: Good start, enjoying it. Although I do get the feeling that the ideas behind it aren't completely solid. Like it hasn't got a distinct direction. It works but at times I felt it was dawdling around a little bit. That's only a tiny thing and i'm not suggesting you change it at all. When the bass came in it was a bit overbearing and a little too 'synthy' for my taste. I would have rather had a quieter or warmer bass sound enter. Perhaps the bass-line could be more slow-moving to suit the intro but if you're going for a kind of change in feel or up-tempo section as you have added the drums here this seems fine. The drum-beat itself is quite odd, you often have 4 snares on each beat, which appears strange. It comes across as more of an orchestral snare part towards the end but in the section around 2:30 it seems a little distracting like the bass. 03:24 it feels like there is little clarity in direction of the writing, as though you weren't sure what chords you were using. In general for this song I would suggest using a half-time beat instead with some quite reverberant drums and a warmer slower-moving bass. I like the idea, if it was intentional, that the some of sound quality decreases or it becomes more electronic towards the end, as though it is breaking down. This leads well into the next song. Track 2 - Very distorted, i like the whispering delayed voices. And you're right, I cannot grasp the true form of this song! I'm finding it hard to give feedback on this song. I really am. Any feedback I would give would be to make the song more "graspable", but it doesn't seem like that's what you want. I enjoyed the 02:02 arpeggios, but that sound seemed to come from no-where out from the distortion, perhaps think about putting some effects on it or fading it in more. The chromatic bass lines from 3:40 or so seem quite arbitrary. Track 3 - quite unconvincing piano sound. The staccatto at times is a little too short and seems quite unauthentic. At the start there appears to be some "wrong" sounding chords which disappear after a while, I don't know what the reason for them is. The guitar-line seems to include many repetitions of either single notes or two note patterns which seems quite unnaturally and unmelodic, maybe try and keep it more fluid. The drums are a similar affair to track 1 with the snare on everyone beat or every quaver (depending on your tempo). They don't "not fit" but they don't particularly add much to the song, I don't feel. Track 4 - synth intro again seems quite indistinct and arbitrary. Strange chord sequence at 1:30ish and particularly dissonant synthy (sounds like an oboe/clarinet) line following that. It is not particularly flowing, perhaps this isn't what you want. I found my mind "unraped" by the end of it, though not intact! Track 5 - interesting wobbly sound. Everything is very dissonant again. At 00:50ish the 'melody' is quite repetitively going nowhere, if that makes sense. Ah i'm gonna stop here as it's a similar tale for most of the songs. Perhaps all this feedback is unnecessary as you may be intending to make "unmusik" as one of your previous albums is named. If that's not the case, my main suggestions would be improve melodic clarity - you often have melodies that repeat single notes and don't have particular shape to them. The sounds - bass/drums/guitar are the best either, but I'm not one to comment on production too much. I'd generally say just shape and direction to the songs is the main issue I have. But considering one of your songs is called "You cannot grasp the true form of this song" maybe that's beside the point. BUT FOR ME TO LIKE IT, i'd stick by these suggestions! Hope this helps.