timaeus222

I'm gonna add to this. *1 --- Be careful when you say to use compressors on everything. I used to do that way too much, and it sounded pretty bad. However, it was back when I knew nothing about compressors other than the fact that they push down loudness (like a year ago, before the month that I considered my "turning point"). When you use compressors, remember to do a strict before-and-after comparison. Either you have an A/B function in your compressor, or you can switch the compressor on/off and compare like that. If it truly sounds better to you, then of course keep it. If it doesn't sound quite right and you don't know why, try looking for examples of what you were aiming to accomplish. *2 --- I do this notching/boosting with my kicks/basses, and I personally think it's a great idea. Also, signal chains will certainly make a difference in how things sound, depending on the elements in the chain. For example, compression after reverb is different from reverb after compression. Generally speaking, reverb after compression sounds more natural. If you compress a reverbed sound, it'll be more obvious since the reverb tail will be affected too. On the other hand, if you reverb a compressed sound, it'll simply sound nice and big, depending on the tones you use for the instrument or reverb. *3 --- Absolutely. Drops like those are such fun to do. Two examples: My Metroid ReMix with AngelCityOutlaw (1:22) (2:04)

That would be a cool twist, no joke. A tie leading to a team battle against two other competitors. Wouldn't that be epic? xD

3:51 has a really nice atmosphere. I kinda wish more of that was in this, but regardless, a pretty enjoyable track.

Best track on this album, hands down. Also, I predicted the last few seconds correctly! <3 lol @ the h's being lowercase. HALC TRIBUTE!

I want to claim Bio Hazard ~ Snatcher. I've been writing some nuanced dissonant music lately, so I'm feeling up to the challenge with this one. It'll be horror-like, probably with some industrial and atonal percussion, granular synthesis, FM bass (of course), creepy guitars, and pseudo-bells. Examples of my work are on my website in Audio Reels. The intro to my Gunstar Heroes ReMix is an example of possible granular synthesis, and something that accurately represents my vision of this track is this.

Nah, average as in common. The average listener = the common listener = the general audience. i.e. Casual listeners---for enjoyment, for fun, etc. It's just an estimation/guess (mostly a guess) at how people *may* be perceiving music these days---arrangement first then production second or so. Arrangement is the easier aspect to connect with for more people, IMO, as it's more accessible to the casual listener ("does it work?", "does it sound weird?", etc.). Production is more of... an acquired taste. If you try listening to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring", it's a given that it's really strange in structure and melodic content, but the production could be liked by some and not liked by others.Also, Darke, we're just playing around as you know, and I personally am not trying to sway the votes either way actually. Just... adding info to try to make it easier to decide, especially because apparently Kristina's and my entries are more borderline than we each originally thought, at least from what I've gathered with recent votes.

orly? But I used close to 3.6GB of RAM for my entry. I didn't even bother to bridge anything. Silly me. xD That said, yeah, Kristina did full Orchestral while I did Jazz/Ambient/Cinematic/Orchestral-esque. Quite different thar. Now which is harder or more impressive? YOU DECIDE!

I forget if I even said this yet, but with all of Cosmic Sounds' entries, I was carrying out his arrangements and doing the production as well because he had some sort of troubles (that he didn't even tell me about, so I dunno what they were) and didn't have access to his computer or somethin'. So the orchestral entries gave me a good amount of orchestral experience. Yay.

You analyze waveforms too? WAVEFORM BUDDIES! Seriously though, that's a sign of a perfectionist mentality. Compression on your track, meaning... Master track compression, if I'm understanding you correctly. That should be done last to make your edits accurate to the pre-compression mixdown. If that's what you did, it'd help to turn it off and mix while it's off. If you ease off on the compression enough so that you don't get overcompression, I'm assuming you mean the mix won't easily peak near -0.2dB or so like you want due to the hard knee limiter you use. My suggestion is that you try looking for a soft knee limiter you could like, and see if that changes your perspective of hard vs. soft knee. Personally I love soft knee because the only drawback to using it is if things are too loud, there's overcrowding, but never overcompression. From what I've done with it, it seems to function like a very tolerant soft clipper. You'd have to try really hard to clip with a soft knee limiter, but you'd still have to realize when the mix overall is louder than 0dB. Instead of overcompression, the thing to look for while using soft knee would be loss of transients due to overcrowding. However, if you're the type of person I think you are, this may be a good fit. We both look at waveforms, and I would have suggested you look at waveforms anyway if I were to give the suggestion to try a soft knee limiter.

dat our skillz are so close from the average listener's perspective.

When you guys make decisions between Kristina's and my tracks, please consider both arrangement and production carefully. I consider our production values to be rather close (from the general perspective), while arrangement is closer (from the general perspective), hence why the decision turns out to be rather tough. Those criteria are both in the OP too. Personally, I would choose based more on production, as I think the gap there is slightly larger than in arrangement, but I suppose it appears subjective to many people, so I'll just let whatever happens to occur. Honestly, the first thing I learned from these compos is that the general listener's votes are completely unpredictable.

Mah mix gon' be L-O-U-D. In a good way of course.

Rabcandy nailed the vocals on this one. This arrangement also felt complete even at this length.

I did write down ReMix comments, but I'll leave those for if I sub this to OCR later. This is my first FF remix evar lol. Feel free to say any comments you want. Final Fantasy XII & IV DS - 'Crystal Gradient' [Penelo vs. Edward] Sources: Source Breakdown: 0:00 - 0:22 = Penelo 0:22 - 0:39 = Penelo 0:39 - 0:42 = Edward (Sine Wave) 0:41 - 0:45 = Penelo 0:47 - 0:51 = Edward (Sine Wave) 0:51 - 0:54 = Penelo 0:56 - 1:11 = Edward 1:11 - 1:26 = Edward + Penelo (Sine Wave) 1:28 - 1:45 = Edward 1:45 - 2:01 = Penelo 2:02 - 2:05 = Edward (Sine Wave) 2:06 - 2:10 = Penelo 2:10 - 2:13 = Edward (Sine Wave) 2:11 - 2:19 = Penelo 2:19 - 2:32 = Penelo 22+17+4+3+15+16+4+8+13 => 102/152 secs Penelo 3+4+15+15+17+3+3 => 60/152 secs Edward There are overlaps, so these percentages are with respect to the entire track. 67.11% Penelo 39.47% Edward

Since Kristina's and my sources got pretty intertwined in my entry, I decided to do a quick source breakdown for you guys: Source Breakdown: 0:00 - 0:22 = Penelo 0:22 - 0:39 = Penelo 0:39 - 0:42 = Edward (Sine Wave) 0:41 - 0:45 = Penelo 0:47 - 0:51 = Edward (Sine Wave) 0:51 - 0:54 = Penelo 0:56 - 1:11 = Edward 1:11 - 1:26 = Edward + Penelo (Sine Wave) 1:28 - 1:45 = Edward 1:45 - 2:01 = Penelo 2:02 - 2:05 = Edward (Sine Wave) 2:06 - 2:10 = Penelo 2:10 - 2:13 = Edward (Sine Wave) 2:11 - 2:19 = Penelo 2:19 - 2:32 = Penelo 22+17+4+3+15+16+4+8+13 => 102/152 secs Penelo 3+4+15+15+17+3+3 => 60/152 secs Edward There are overlaps, so these percentages are with respect to the entire track. 67.11% Penelo 39.47% Edward

Nah, my saying that implies my belief that he was aware of it; it's not an insult, it's a defense in his favor. Please don't assume I ever mean to insult anyone. Oh, right; now I remember. Yeah, it's fine man.

I'll have finals on Dec. 16~19. That's... Darkness 3rd week. If you can post the brackets on Sunday Morning, then that would be great. I'd just start remixing on Sunday, then Friday~Sunday. V_V

I'm befuddled by whatever happened to Arrow's entry. I looked at it in an audio editor, and it was peaking at -16dB. That can't possibly be on purpose.

This sounds better than the original. Honestly, it does, without any subjectivity. Your vocoder tone has more body than the original so it's not quite the same, but it's really close for sure. The drums are closer, and I like how you didn't have as much sub bass as in the original's kick.

Ignoring every other condition, yes, a 16 minute piece is acceptable, but not recommended unless you are confident in your source breakdown abilities and can accurately write out the source usages where the claims are viable to act as true source usage. In fact, source breakdowns are recommended for remixes longer than 7 minutes, though for 4 minutes it's still very helpful.

Just so you know.

My theory is that Shuffle works like granular synthesis. It reads at random segments of specific lengths in a particular time frame while adding minimal fades to merge those segments together without clicks. Not quite as flexible as true granular synthesis, but eh, kinda similar, I think. While yes, it doesn't truly slice, Glitch has functions that work similarly to slicing. In general, Geist is a more accurate fit, but Glitch is also a fun tool to work with.

You're in no way limited from using soundfonts, but if you do, production will probably be held at a higher regard. Regardless, direct MIDI instrument replacements aren't accepted. http://ocremix.org/info/Submission_Standards_and_Instructions

Pretty sweet remix dude. Nasty bass, and some boss drums.