timaeus222

Reiterating this. I actually only have 5 GB RAM, and I've never needed more than that. Of course, I generally write electronic music, but I did write an FFCC track recently that used the most RAM I've ever used (2.8GB unbridged just because), and even then it wasn't too much. I've never reached above 3GB RAM used, with or without bridging. So obviously, YMMV, and just figure out how you want to use libraries you want to get, and make your judgments based on that.

This is really helpful! I didn't know you could tag patches like you can in Guitar Rig, though I was really hoping you could!

That's true, though it just means they're being realistic and fair, IMO. After getting my first pass (which actually isn't posted yet), I looked into the production, and it actually did have some flaws, especially because I'm much more objective about my own music than I used to be, but the important thing is, it was surprisingly well-received by Larry, even with those flaws. I'm not going to say the OCR bar is low, but I'm also not going to say it's too high. They're high to beginners and intermediates, but not to those people who have figured out how to be objective with their own music. It actually made me reflect on which flaws I point out at certain times in anyone's music, including mine, are big or not-so-big deals. After that, I actually realized that not everything has to be perfect. If it nearly is, then great, and that's why I'm so picky, yet helpful in intention. Personally though, I do feel the judges, or at least the younger ones (who have a wider frequency range of hearing), like Vig and WillRock, are on par with those "real mixing/mastering engineers", using your wording, but being more lenient and humble about it so that it's not impossible to get a mixpost. As you learn to mix, eventually it gets to the point where whether or not you dive into the extremes of bass and treble mixing (if you're a perfectionist), and how much, determines how much of an overall perspective you have about "high-level" producers because you start to hear more of a distinction between very subtle aspects of production. Sound design helps in that aspect of distinguishing subtle aspects of production too---in training your ears to like what could sound good to many people. It's kind of out there (I don't really want to call it "exclusive" or "obscure", per se), but if you get serious about the extreme ends of the frequency spectrum, you do get a clearer idea of who has more technical know-how or resources than who when you hear the subtle differences in treble and bass clarity because it would have to mean that they hear it too, and you just have to dial it down a bit to keep your reservations within the realm of what people [who aren't into that] know and to stay modest, basically. Those "real mixing/mastering engineers", I believe, are at that "level", and that "level" is what I believe those OC ReMixers with "killer studio chops" are at, because they're so detail-oriented and meticulous and picky and want to continually improve (like me, apparently, personality-wise; though I'm actually a nice guy), so that's why I think those OC ReMixers at least on par with those professional engineers. However, although context usually matters, it's what you do with that context that actually matters. Using your example, people who take in others' feedback, whether from compos or workshop, just to get on OCR aren't necessarily heavily influenced by the OCR standards. If those people can step away from conforming to guidelines and get objective about their music, they can get a clearer perspective of what the bar truly is---a "level" where the average listener has no major issues with the music they're presented with. In a sense, and you're certainly right about this, the context of remixing for OCR is, in fact, a barrier to really becoming "professional", and you really only get past that barrier when you can critique your own music to continually get better objectively and of your own accord, like zircon once said on an OCR Talkback, rather than simply to get on OCR. Actually, if you look in the About page on my website, I go into detail on the progression of my music production experiences with months and who helped me and stuff, and eventually you'll see that I start to get independent with my learning; that's approximately when objectivity started for me. I hope you guys don't take this as sort of a hierarchical statement about OCR; I'm just trying to provide a larger perspective for people to consider and contextualize. Not trying to be arrogant here, either.

Okay. And I would be referring to people like zircon, bLiNd, Joshua Morse, and PrototypeRaptor (among others) when I say "killer studio chops". That said, I honestly strongly believe the judges panel definitely know what they're doing in both arrangement and production.

Exactly what I was thinking. I was like, "Man, Jordan, why you go and win djp over? You're making us pale in comparison. D=<"

Dunno if you have anyone mastering this album yet, but I would be up for it if you don't have anyone already. Probably won't have time to actually write a track, but I can at least contribute that. Music examples on my website in my signature (not necessarily the mastering examples). Hear them how you will; that's why there's a whole bunch of examples. The Free ReMixes page has the largest variety you'll find on there, so if I were to suggest any page that best represents what kind of songs I've finalized before, that would be the one.

I said this earlier, but that's something that I started working on a few months ago, so there's something to look forward to. Probably won't be done for another two years or so, but eh, it's on the way, and I'm very excited to work on it with Chimpazilla. That said, I actually haven't read any actual books on what I learned in the past two years and 9 months. It was either internet articles, experimentation, or the OCR Workshop Forums. The last textbook I read, or book of any sort, on music production was an old textbook from when my sister took music production in the early 2000's. I still have it, but it's definitely way too general for what you're looking for. It's certainly interesting, but you already know about half of it. The other half is like microphone setup, reverb, delay, EQ, etc., but in the sense of helping people get to grips with it rather than the kind of case-by-case application you want to know. Lest I make the statement that OCR producers and composers have some killer studio chops in comparison to some pop music producers and composers (most pop artists got their fame by connections, marketing, and sheer timing, IMO). If any books are available that show you how to do what you want to do, they'll probably be written by one of us.

Yeah, but then you have to think about who's using which hand... and for what.

Okay, well, I'm pretty sure you summed up the OP as: "Is there some resource out there that can tell me how to write and produce music using a DAW that sounds good in the objective sense, both in production and arrangement?" (honestly, writing good music in the subjective sense is too hard to predictably do, no matter how good you are. It's literally luck here) And at some point you wanted one way each to do certain things generally, allowing you to get the hang of it and do it multiple times yourself, and from there you can experiment with that and adapt it to other contexts. As far as I know, there aren't books for this, but then again, I did actually figure it out myself just from reading online articles. It may be a bit of a cop-out, but all I did was learn the ins and outs of my DAW (FL Studio) and any plugins I download or buy, and get some help from OCR over the years. It's not that complicated of a process, actually. I could honestly describe this way of learning production as simply trial-and-error. It's such a modern thing that I'm pretty sure people haven't written "guides" for this. Some examples: To learn how to EQ quickly in FL, I worked to connect what I see on the Fruity Parametric EQ 2 to what I hear on it. Since I'm a visual person, I could shape the EQ how I picture it in my head, and based on that, it ends up sounding how I want it to sound. That's one way, and it worked for me. To learn how to use compressors (or any other plugin), I downloaded smexoscope and studied how the waveform changes when I tweak knobs on a compressor. Practice that enough, and it registers into muscle memory. Then, I put that all together to do something specific. I do an A/B comparison and toggle on/off to get the difference in my head, and after doing it so many times, your brain just wants that quality of compression to be applied to everything similar to what you just did it to. If I were to refer you to any sort of production resource, http://soundonsound.com/ articles are fantastic for production values and sound design. I've found stuff on synthesizer basics, FM synthesis, compressors, EQ, reverb, delay, speakers vs. headphones, etc. I haven't even read everything there yet. For example, something on parallel compression on the master track. As for arrangement, generic answer incoming: I studied other people's music and recomposed it by ear, learning what type of harmonies and melodies make it sound good at particular points in the song. I go into melodic contour and harmonic sensibility, and once I've done that, I just repeat this process until my ears are used to the stuff I deem good. I don't think there's a book out there with the kind of advice you're looking for because everyone learns with different methods. Some people are more visual than others, and some are lazier than others, etc. If a book were to sum all that up, it may have to present multiple methods for each general situation, which would be quite long, like Neblix hinted at.

It may just be me, but I'd rather receive very few nitpicks on a mixpost whenever possible. Obviously, the less nitpicks, the more passable, so... you know, every little bit counts. I think that if you choose to not fix a significant nitpick, then there may be a chance of you missing that detail again.

I think the toms and kick are actually really good to begin with. Some transient shaping on the kick would help tame the subs tail, but other than that, those are some good samples.

Not sure the dubstep part really clicked IMO, but maybe it's just my personal bias against excessive use of bitcrush-y "yai" basses. Elements were generally distinct enough. Noticed the Cinematic Synthetic Drums drop. Guitars were a little bit hollow and the drums were a little mids-heavy, but not enough to really detract from this. The production is a little hot overall, like at 2:28, but it's Ivan's best mix thus far. You and your seven sources. Great job man. Keep on improving!

Hm... I dunno, the octave-playing seems really hard to do in real life. I just tried to do that at the rhythm and tempo you wrote it, and I feel like it would be way more sloppy if played live, especially at 0:56 - 0:57 and 1:00 - 1:01. I liked the change of dynamics after 1:26. Great chords near 2:00, and the rhythmic variations at 2:24 were slick. At 3:20, it makes me think there's not much reverb on the piano. Maybe a more auditorium-like reverb could add more live-ness to this. The ending was pretty snazzy. The only thing I would change about it is the last note at 4:23. Personally, I would have liked it to just fade out after the big scale up. Sounding great, man! Loved the personalization on this. Harmonies and rhythmic shifts were fantastic. Keep it up. If you want, I could master it for ya.

Yes, but only if it's not used excessively (up to judges' discretion) and not from something belonging to Square Enix.

Super birthday mode activate!

Haha, that's kind of how it was going with Esperado and I for like the first week. Finally getting something good going though and it's somehow working pretty well. And I think a short solo section would be basically a section solely composed by the star.

It's weird, because I know at least *I* PMed him my comments before Nov. 30.

So, how long is a "short solo section", in terms of percentages? 10~20% of the whole track?

Hip-Hop isn't within my realm of interests, but I will say that compared to other Hip-Hop, this does sound awesome, and it would sound awesome to those who do like it.

I've actually provided stems for my last two major compo entries. I submitted both of them already. I think that counts. Anyways, I'd support a compo with an emphasis on mixing. Production values seem less arbitrary than arrangement, to me. Sometimes people can perceive dynamics differently than what the remixer expected based on how their production conveys their arrangement, but if we just focus on production, it's a form of ear training for both the remixer and the person giving feedback. There are times when subjectivity gets in the way of true (objective-only) production critique, but that's something else that can be worked on too. Example conversation (this happened once, in some form or another):

If anything, I would try that first. Any tutorial zircon made has always been useful to me. I keep learning something from watching even his livestreams. Chimpazilla was kind of thinking about a mentor program for OCR in the future. So maybe.

Oh yeah, I hear the clicking from the contrabass. LASS is indeed awesome. I found 0:38 had a weird harmony when considering what chord it came after. I looked at what notes you actually wrote, and although it makes sense, it sounds off. I'm not sure, but maybe it's because you went from a major chord to a minor chord. If I were to write the chord for that section, I'd write a root position triad with an added fourth instead. That's all.

Personally, I interpreted the question as "how can I efficiently write music", rather than "how can I confidently write music without fear of it not being to my expectations". Inspiration does help, but if you're inspired and you are hindered by your workflow, for example, the inspiration just goes away before you can write out what you were thinking of. Therefore, with good workflow, the inspiration is more likely to be retained long enough for you to write it out.

I'm just wondering, why are there only director's and artist's comments for 5 tracks (OCA + 2 tracks)?

I agree, actually. I've learned to do chord progressions on the piano roll that I don't even know how to explain with music theory at all, yet I have that feeling when it sounds good.