Calum

Ah, top notes... well, i can't offer you an awful lot of help here at all! I know there's another violinist (probably many) called amaterasu chris (clearly an okami fan! ) anyway, maybe he'll turn up after seeing his name and offer you some advice but I cannot. Maybe someone else will as well? Yeah, that's the thing about the pizzicato. I felt like you just used to to make the song different which is fair enough but it didn't really work for me. I enjoy your covers but from an OCR perspective (which might not be what you're going for at all) they are too conservative as you've demonstrated by telling us that the process is to split a midi track and play that. Anyway, keep up the playing but i'd love to see more creative arrangements from you

http://soundcloud.com/calumbowen/space-float This is a new track which i thought i'd post here because it might end up being the music for one of the new levels on up up ubi. But also because i always make new threads - so screw that. This track started as something that sounded a bit like super mario galaxy soundtrack but then also went in a PSO-direction (Image of a hero). Hope you enjoy it.

You've got some pretty unpleasant/clunky sounding dissonances in there, particularly at the strange break at 1ish minutes. We're good again at about 1:20 - things are on the up! I hear the humanisation in the piano - good job on that... the sample isn't amazing but it seems like you've worked fairly well with what you've got. It seems like you're suffering from the common condition of randomly taking out loops and putting them back in for no reason, particularly with the drums. It sounds random and doesn't create any more interest or keep peoples attention (maybe it does but not in a good way). I like the piano ending - some interesting harmonic interpretations - would be nice to hear this kind of material in the fully orchestrated parts. Think about layering some of the instruments (maybe the drums) and sticking a limiter on the master/some individual tracks. I think the drums could be a bit fuller and louder as well as most of the other tracks. Main advice - sort out the horrible dissonances at the start/middle-ish. Don't take out and put in parts for no reason (mainly with drums). Try to get a grand scale simple structure and stick to it. At the moment it sounds a little directionless. This is pretty good - i like some of the melody-lines and the harmonies at the very end.

This is a pretty cool idea - putting city of ancients in 4/4 and then chocobo theme in minor key. Interesting use of the sources! The drums sound pretty good - perhaps they are loops though? The sax sounds pretty good - is it live? It sounds live... You use the two sources pretty well. I'm feeling the potential for a dub/half-time section with this sound and all the reverb! It's all pretty playful with the vinyl-rip! Doesn't sound like you're all that timid! I like the playfulness. There are some distortion issues - stick a limiter on the master to avoid this. And also the bass/melody's quantisation and note length sound a little clunky. It's clear that the bass is looping at a particular point. Needs more groove, more humanisation in those parts. This is a good start! Stick in a half time section and see what you can do with the rest of the chocobo melody and other parts of the city of the ancients. Lots of potential here. I'd suggest trying to work with making your own drum parts (assuming i'm right in thinking that they are loops). The loops sound good here but the more comfortable you are with making your own and making them sound good the more options you'll have available to yourself with a very important instrument! Looking forward to hearing more from this.

Nice work matt! It's always great to hear from new musicians such as yourself. I play violin really badly but i often record my housemate who is an excellent violinist. I have trouble being satisfied with the sound which i'm pretty certain is to do with my mic'ing. Your playing sounds pretty solid. As you say you're not a pro. You hit all the notes and the intonation is pretty good most of the time! The main thing to me was a lack of emotion in the playing, not to say your emotions weren't in it but the playing lacked that trademark heavy-vibrato style which just sounds so great! Some of the melody lines you played seem to go in strange places because perhaps you were playing the top notes of an accompanying line which sounds ok on the piano but kinda strange on a solo instrument (like 0:38 ish - you play the countermelody after you play the melody - you're taking on all the melody lines! ) Or perhaps I wrong... that stood out to me though anyway. I liked the idea of the pizzicato but it seemed a little weak when it came in. To me pizzicato on high strings rarely sounds all that great on a solo instrument unless it's for a particular effect but that's just my taste. And the ending was a little sudden. Anyway, i'm critical because i care hahaha... I thought this was great playing - miles ahead of my own! There's little i can say on the arrangement because it's basically a straight cover. I mentioned a few things about you taking every melody line and not really having a place to breath or having a conversation with rest of the instruments. It's very much backing track + solo instrument! But these are covers. ANYWAY - i managed to talk for a really long time. Great covers, welcome to the community - i'm sure there'll be a bunch of people well up for a collab if you are (me included ) and keep at it Look forward to hearing more.

Good stuff again ruku. No complaints here. I'm gonna message you on soundcloud in a minute!

Thanks yapyap! Most of the short ones are loops Actually they're all loops apart from powerup!

Yeah sure, send me a link and i'll let you know what i think!

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/up-up-ubi/id496389249?mt=8 The game has been released! It's a hectic arcade multi-tasker! Keep ubi afloat, kill the (not angry) birds & collect coins! Full soundtrack can be found here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/up-up-ubi-official-soundtrack/id498271172 or just my tracks here: http://calumbowen.bandcamp.com/album/up-up-ubi-un-official-soundtrack android & free lite versions coming soon

This is a really big improvement from what I last heard. It still feels a little directionless to me. loose variations on midna's theme. It's all very static - perhaps cos you have that drone going through the whole piece. It might add a little drama to the piece to change the harmony at some point - move that drone to different notes! The samples aren't amazing but i'm not going to tell you to spend loads of money to get better! I believe there's still a lot you could do with what you've got. The arpeggio type figure which starts off is just there and never comes back or evolves in anyway. As soon as the melody comes in that figure disappears. Also there's a lot of the midna track which has been left untouched (mostly harmonically) in this version - perhaps these could act as different sections. You hint at the second section of the source in your version but never truly go to it. I hope this makes sense. Compositionally it seems extremely repetitive, vague and structureless. That would be for me the main thing to work on. Try writing it out on a piece of paper - here's section A with this variation & instruments etc, section B has same melody different instrumentation, section C has same instrumentaton different bit ETC. ETC. Just some kind of structure instead of a big flowy nothing (In the nicest possible way). You get some nice (gamalan-esque) textures at the end but it stops so suddenly.

Well i didn't suggest it had to be OVERLY-complicated or necessarily new. I only suggested those things because they were what i'd look for in a remix - a reason for it not to be the original. If this is just an extension of the original so that you can enjoy it more then sure, that's fine but i think the appeal may not be as broad as you'd hope it would be. I don't feel like the minor altercations and extension give me enough to want to listen to your version over the original. Open-minded doesn't mean "likes every idea ever" or "always agree with you" so I wouldn't get so bitter about the fact that i didn't really dig it. I mean, calling it a remix and posting it on OCR forums lead me to expect that this piece wanted to be judged on the same values that most OCR pieces do and those are generally some variation or personal touch which was lacking here. I can completely understand wanting to immerse yourself in such a great track so i don't want to discourage you but i imagine it would be generally more rewarding to add your own thing to it and you'll likely receive more favorable feedback here too .

Thanks for the link - i picked up the urban library - i'm a sucker for 80s/90s samples too!

I love source. It seems that your version doesn't stray from the original much at all! Is this a midi rip? It sounds so similar apart from the ocean noises. I didn't really dig the introduction - i thought it went on a little too long! The whole track is 6 minutes and it doesn't seem to deviate from the original material much at all. I got bored and skipped through to the other tracks. I'd say you really need to make this your own! Particularly as the style is basically exactly the same

I don't know if there's any musical-heads in here but maybe there's some chip heads or step heads! Either way, this is something i've been working on so I hope you enjoy it! http://soundcloud.com/calumbowen/wicked-no-good-deed-chiptune Any feedback (i don't know anything bout dubsteps) would be great

I agree with all the previous comments. Perhaps it was the limiting which blew them away but the drums were so quiet! I was listening on laptop speakers but i still couldn't hear a trace of a kick drum anywhere! Definitely work on smoothing the ends of phrases which sometimes suddenly drop out and moving away from that chord sequence.

Thanks guys. I'm working on a few little things here and there but the main thing is sound for the next Notion Games (who made up up ubi) game! My workload if fairly free though.

It sounds like you've got many many poorly interwoven lines. I would suggest that you do the whole piece on piano. Of course you can have more than just what two hands can play but then you might filter out and be able to hear things a little more clearly. So working outwards from the piano version instead of layering without any ideas about what it really is. This is a little harsh but i think that would dramatically improve the clarity of your writing. Keep it up though!

http://soundcloud.com/calumbowen/sets/up-up-ubi/ I wrote a few cues and a bonus track for the OST of notion game's up up ubi. Have a listen - it's mostly chiptune/dancey.

PM'd Hope you find what you're looking for.

Sondheim is the man! I wasn't really thinking that exact song but just an example of the kind of style I'm only really familiar with into the woods & sunday in the park with george - what are some other good ones?

You're good! Are you into Sondheim (you should be!)? I'd definitely be interested in some collabing some time in the near future. Maybe something like this?

I'm pretty interested in this - MK soundtracks are sweet as fuck

http://worldnoisescapeproject.tumblr.com/ the instructions for the project are here. First off, there is nothing to gain - this is a favour but i hope you're curious enough to get involved. This is a university project in which i'm collecting audio files from around the world to use as the sole material for a collage composition. You may upload anything you wish! For more detailed information check the link. This may be the wrong place to post this but it seemed the most appropriate. Thank you

Ah don't worry about the english - i understood you. I'm learning japanese so I completely understand the problems of speaking in another language. That said i think "floating" is a mistranslation for "coherent" - but yes - what i mean by this is that every small part of the piece is relevant. I'm glad i can offer motivation - i wouldn't mind some of that! I look forward to seeing the hearing the second song!

The intro and main kind of riff reminds me of Hell of a Life by Kanye West! I think this is pretty good for a first composition. The sounds your using aren't too bad. This has a pretty epic feel with some oriental elements. I feel there are some quite cliched chord sequences which lead me to be quite uninterested by the piece. It also felt a little directionless which it should at this stage - these are all things that plague beginners. That guitar surprised me at 3:20ish! I think you have some clipping problems. And also the hi-hat is really really loud which sounds weird when the huge electric guitar is real quiet in comparison. But in terms of the actual composition i'd say (and these are rules that after years and years and years of writing music i have to remind myself) always have these thoughts in your head "what is my melody? What are my chords? where are they going? what will tie them together" - ok that was supposed to be a real snappy advice line buut... Basically what i'm trying to get at is that a composition that will keep your attention and remain interesting and rewarding is one in which has a planned structure. Many beginners go about a piece by OK here's something i like then the next thing i like then the next thing i like and then oh crap ok i'll repeat the first bit again at the end maybe. And it comes off as meandering and a little uninteresting. It takes a long time to be able to get to a point where you kind of naturally write things that are connected and you instantly think OK i'm using this melody here under different chords in this section and i'm going to use the rhythms of the melody in the bassline here. It's all about coherence in order to keep interest. This is my perception anyway. I would say play something on whatever you jam on (perhaps piano) and then stop and thing about all of the possible things you can do with that or create something even unrelated (that's fine) and then think about how these elements can be used and manipulated in a coherent structure. OK i'm writing too much. This is really good for your first composition and just keep it up, never stop thinking and never stop enjoying it!