timaeus222

Okay, I've checked out the source... Yeah! 6/8 is real flexible. I'll give a stab at it later! Ideas be in my head and be stayin'. =D 3 and a half months? Totally doable. Example of work: https://soundcloud.com/chimpazilla/cloudhopping-yoshi-touch-go-by I'll probably be going with a metal/dubstep/glitch/electronica mix. ;D And this will likely be the last simultaneous mix I'll be doing, lol. I'll have... let's see... 4 WIPs going on at once. xD

Since you appear rather new, I wouldn't suggest using multi-band compressors. I've been doing this remixing schtick for almost two years now, and I've never touched a multi-band compressor and stuck with it, nor have I ever wanted to. I'd suggest turning it off for now and working without it. Then when you think the remix is all done, turn it on and see if you like it; if you don't, just take it off. It's not necessary. Why compress when you can manually adjust volumes and EQs yourself? Hm, that guitar just might be from Omnisphere; just sequenced half-decently. You should try some overlapping notes. Not entirely sure, but that might give you a fret slide if it's indeed an Omnisphere guitar. 2:20 and 2:47 could benefit from that, amongst other places. The snare/clap layer is pretty good. Stylistically, it's not what I would lean towards, but it's not bad, objectively. The sub bass drone isn't necessary, and it's probably what is driving your track to overcompression. Obviously, lower frequencies are "louder" relative to higher frequencies. In this context, louder just means its amplitude is generally much larger at any relatively similar volume perception. The kick is actually a bit too bassy. Try layering something more punchy on the kick before 0:54. Then, if you can, shorten the tail on the bassy kick layer just a little bit, so it doesn't interfere with any basses you happen to have. More drum variation would be great too. 2:07 - It could just be my preference, but the guitar either sounded off rhythm or it was on the first beat with the first note rather than the expected second note. Same at 2:12. Maybe you could shift the whole chunk of notes left by one note. 2:53 - The kick buildup there could be more gradual rather than "terraced rhythmic changes". How about two half notes, then four quarter notes, then 4 eighth notes, then 4 16th notes? Something like that. Or a snare could be better and less muddy. 3:36 - I can't really tell that the strings are the lead. I know they are, but they don't sound like it. Maybe more intentional articulations there? 4:19 and 4:23 - the drop could be more obvious. The rest doesn't sound like an outtro to me. Try leading in to the ending. Sounds are good, just refine the arrangement and articulations.

I can't resist either. After reading this: "When SEGA threw down the gauntlet and Larry made the challenge for ReMixers to create arrangements from the Sega Pico platform, [zircon] couldn't resist..." I feel like Andy actually said to himself... "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED."

Maybe I can put this in a less demeaning way, since your wording sounds just a tad harsh. Not every song absolutely has to be composed within 3 hours ("Picolescence" by zircon), or 9 hours ("Expansive Networking" by me), or 24 hours (One of my remixes for GBC 25th Anniversary album), or 3 days ("Time to Oil Up!" by zircon), or 9 days ("Cloudhopping" by Chimpazilla and me), or 2 months (a few of my older, kinda bad remixes), or 4 months (a few of my better remixes), or 6 months (this SoR remix). If you've spent 6 months on a remix without a 1-2 week break, that's too much time. Even 4 months is too much. Limit yourself to 2 months max on something. Arrangements tend to come along better as you're writing a song, not when the whole arrangement is already done and needs to be adjusted somehow. You know how humans are; "change is bad" and all that. You can most definitely think your remix is good simply because you're used to it. Just because you're used to your remix doesn't mean it's good. If it's not getting good quality crits (which can absolutely sound negative or positive) after 6 months, just move on and start another remix. Writing music is about learning the process and having fun. Have that fun. Time doesn't decide how good a song is. The better you get, the faster you might be able to compose a song. Inspiration doesn't come right away. You just have to know when inspiration happens to be good enough to carry you through an entire song and have it sound good. Conversely, spending a lot of time doesn't mean it'll be good, either. You just have to gauge your skill level as you go so that your expectations aren't too high above your abilities. Don't rank yourself higher than your capacity, or you'll be disappointed in yourself for no sufficient reason. "Why am I not as good as him?" "How is it she can do that and I can't?" Who cares? Develop your own skills. When you can figure out for yourself how those people did that, you're probably close to how good they are anyways. Maybe even better if you give that extra effort. Keep writing music and getting feedback. So Rozo made a mistake saying your SoR arrangement was good enough. Rozo doesn't always do arrangement crits, so it's totally possible he could be wrong sometimes on arrangement crits. I don't do arrangement crits often either, but if I really like a remix WIP, sometimes I take a shot at examining the arrangement. I personally tend to lean towards the more negative end of crits because being too optimistic could bring false hope. That way, if something good happens to a WIP given mostly helpful yet negative crits, the remixer will just feel even more awesome when it turns out to be better than he/she thought. Life is all about risks. You know the rest.

A few months, huh? Who knows, I might give "Defeat them all!" a shot later. I haven't heard the source yet, I don't think. Maybe I'll have time to take a look at home tonight and brainstorm. Forgot to bring headphones with me today.

I personally wouldn't suggest that until the end, and only if it's a REALLY good quality compressor like The Glue or something. I'd suggest switching to a soft limiter like TLs-Pocket Limiter or NoLimits (although NoLimits is admittedly a bit unstable).

You should try again anyway. Meh, the judges were being nice with the crits, just read between the lines. If you're a person that can bear to adjust an arrangement you already finalized, go ahead. Worth a try. Then ask someone to comment on that again in this topic. Arrangement is a tough judgment call, can't get it perfect right away every time, not when you've just recently become "good" (I'd call myself "good" as of New Year's Day 2013, after 1.66 years). You probably just didn't have all that much time on your hands to practice, or did much of the same level stuff without looking for new and interesting techniques, or something tough in your DAW, or something. It also helps to have the ability to envision a mix in your head, so you can just try out ideas in your head and then use your sense of judgment to decide what to use and what to scrap. So yeah. Stay here dude. Don't expect to get something posted within less than 50 OCR forum posts and the rather minimal amounts of advice that you can get within that amount of time on OCR. Not extremely likely IMO. You need more time here to improve your skills in the right direction. I think if you came here earlier than your apparent sign-up date, you probably could have had a mix on the site by now, but wutchagunnado.

Well, for one, you could give it a title that doesn't have "medley" in it. Smooth out the transitions, upgrade the sounds. Start there.

Holy cow, this sounds really muddy on skullcandies. I also hear loads of clipping. o.o Hopefully it would sound better on good headphones. Left those at home. EDIT: My bad. I actually had two windows open at the same time, each playing offsetted (apparently Firefox things offsetted isn't a word) youtube video previews, and they screwed up the sound. xD Yeah, sounds great.

You probably still need to assign velocity responses to the amplitude knobs in each oscillator. Right click in one of the three tiny squares below each "Amp" knob and link to a yellow "V", then click-drag up, starting from the V as it is inside the square. Go to about... the 1:00 position. It should highlight a partial yellow ring. And yeah, I did hear that there might be a whole ton of subs. I heard a little bit on headphones, so it's likely people with subwoofers will almost freak out. xD

I think there's too much reverb on all the instruments. I can't hear anything, really, because it's all bleeding into each other. I can't really hear the snare/clap layer either. Organ is poking through barely. Pads might be the issue.

I can't really hear the hi hats most of the time when the Massive bass comes in. I'm thinking the bass might actually be too loud, and it's obscuring certain other soft instruments. 1:30 - Something weird happened there and the vibraslap got compressed or something. Same at 3:36, but with the cymbal (and other cymbal instances). 2:12 - the offbeat square-wave-hybrid keys instrument sounds like all of the notes in those chords are the same velocity. Try changing the velocities to make each note a more natural volume. Try imagining yourself playing a piano. Bass glitch improv sounded pretty cool! Great job! 4:15 - the lead there is somewhere under all the choir stuff, but it feels distant there. Maybe you could do a more upfront lead that kinda fades out slowly?

I'd suggest just finding a synth that can make the type of sounds you want. More control over the sound is what I always look for. Arpeggiator voice modes are just a 'lazy' way of quickly testing arpeggios simply by playing chords, (or a way of playing in live, I suppose). Yes, you can write your own pitch shifter patterns in an arpeggio sequencer, but those are pitch shifts. You can't just play a whole bunch of long single notes and automatically get a pattern that fits every situation. Much more flexible to just write your own arpeggios.

That's true, it's fine in non-solo-piano arrangements or arrangements with the piano relatively non-exposed. Still good to have some reverb to mask the mechanical sound, just to be safe.

I don't think I've ever heard of a purposefully mechanical-sounding piano. It's not technically wrong, but the Judges would reject the mix on that for sure.

I think what you were going for was a gradual increase in excitement, but it turned out to be flat and then suddenly EXCITEMENT! at the last moment of the buildup.

Pretty obviously mechanical-sounding, and the sound quality could be better. Some notes are muddy as well at about 1:20. Try to get a better sample, and try to play it in with a MIDI keyboard or something.

Not entirely sure, but it might be muddy in the 200-300Hz range. Try dipping it a little there for your guitars if you haven't already, or wherever it is your bass is strongest.

Well, it definitely sounds cleaner. The dryness is a huge problem but you know about it. I think the kick should be layered. It's a moderately good acoustic kick, but it needs a bit more strength than that. Try to go for a sample that has that thump. The solo at 2:12 is better, but the pad playing alongside is pretty narrow in terms of sound design quality. It would probably work best panned center, though. It currently sounds somewhat panned right, but I'm not entirely sure. Not really digging the constant cymbals starting at 2:48, as they're playing a bit too often. For example, at 3:14, it's pretty much playing on every significant beat, rather than as bridges between multiples of 4 bars. I think this could work out better once the reverb and delay is added.

The percussion is pretty good. I think the snare could be a bit more tight, though. The decay is a bit long, and I was thinking you could shorten it a bit and give it more of a smack or thwap. The kick is close to a pitch envelope kick, but it's not super awesome. Try finding another similar kick that sounds better, or layer on a more thump-like kick and make that a bit louder in the layering. The square-ish lead at 0:36 is a bit soft and unexpressive. Try adding some vibrato and ambience, and raise the volume. 1:25 - The poly-saw synth that acts like spiccato strings could use more impact. It's kind of buried behind the acid-bass-like synth playing at the same time. The drums could use a bit more variation and transition work. The ending is nonexistent. Sounds like a copy+paste to me. Lead sounds bare at the end by itself, needs more TLC.

Before 1:05, the drums are pretty weak. I can barely hear the kick, and the kick is mainly low frequencies. Afterwards, the snare starts coming in, but the kick is still barely audible. Just choose better samples, and that would help a lot. Layer your drums. If you have good samples, you don't need too much processing other than a little bit of compression and room reverb. The arrangement has kind of a plodding pace. The drums need much more variation, and the pace feels constant almost the entire time. Replacing some sections could work.

Fantastic. Energy remains awesome, breakdowns are really nice, especially that first one. I wasn't really feeling the second one at 1:45, but it was still good! Solid mix.

Loved the mandolin breakdown and the instrument interplay. Great job, Vurez!

The snare is fine to me, it's just too soft IMO. The toms are a bit weak though. Either make those louder too or layer them. 1:52 feels a bit bare. Try to add a few more things there, like fret slides, or neck scrapes, or something. 2:14 feels either muddy or overcompressed. The bass might be too loud there, or maybe you forgot to sidechain. It's happened to me before; one time I thought I sidechained, but I forgot to select the sidechain signal number, so it's like it wasn't actually doing anything. The lead guitar feels a bit distant most of the time, so see if you can bring it out a bit more. The open hi hats and cymbals too, near the end. The ending feels a bit weird since you had toms end it, and still left in a tail. Personally I would have ended it after those tom hits. Sounds good so far!