timaeus222

No problem. Actually, some of the great OC ReMixes, in my opinion, seem to have done a huge amount of rearrangement work. I looked at sources for those, and the sources appear to sound a lot different, but are still recognizable even after listening to the remix first. Just some examples: - Halo 3: 'Immortalized' by Sole Signal - Pokemon Diamond: 'Home is Where the Luvdisc Is' by ProtoDome - Final Fantasy VI: 'Dirt Devil' by zircon

FYI, if it's a cover, OCR probably won't accept it unless you rework the arrangement to be different from the original. It also seems really quiet, and youtube is not a good music host.

Check this out! I made this in about 3 days! Thanks to Andrew Aversa for composing the song and to Jillian for singing it! The vocal samples were provided with FL Studio 9+. https://www.box.com/s/ia83487mrnitg7dc3n1y (WIP) I made some of the Zebra2 patches again. xD i.e. The wind, some pads, the effects at each bar during some verses (it's hard to explain; maybe it's like when an LFO is really quick, and an envelope is applied to gradually decrease its speed. Like at 0:51 and 1:16), the basses, and some others. zircon made the leads during the instrumental sections, the white noise hit patch, and one of the pads I layered in the breakdown section, among others. EDIT: Ultimately it's not finished, and I'm going back to fix up stuff later. It's close, though.

Yeah, I do kind of want to find a good low end snare to layer on, but I haven't really found one yet in my collection. It's probably somewhere in there. There are some sections where I don't want a strong snare, though, like 0:56 and 1:41. In those sections, they're kind of like "transitions between dynamics" so it's not just "tack in a reverse cymbal and call it good". The cymbals and hats are EWQL, but I'll try to replace them with the individual types of NKIs rather than the full kit NKIs so I can manually pan or not pan them. The kits automatically pan the samples which is weird to me. Sometimes it's a bit much. Well, at 3:17, it's almost the same as 0:25. I guess I could layer it with something else, but I just don't want it to overpower other things in amplitude, so I had left it as one layer. Maybe I could just figure something out with one layer. There has to be something else going on but I can't hear it.

At 0:19, 0:24, and 0:28, I'm hearing dissonance. You might want to change up the composition. Don't stay too conservative. Some quirks only work well for the source. That's all I can really say. The rest is more or less repetition.

Man. Okay, after 4 months of waiting for the judges, I took in their feedback and spent about two weeks working on it again. I think I've completely overhauled it and blasted it beyond what I originally intended, and there's some really cool stuff happening here now. What I'm surprised about is that none of the judges said anything about the remix getting "washed in reverb" (which I think it was) or "overly boosted" (I actually heard the distortion from the toms in the intro). I was apparently waveshaping really unnecessarily and had a LOT of EQ overboosts, so I'm surprised they said nothing on that. Maybe they knew that I knew? Maybe they agreed with the levels I had and I somehow got lucky? Hm. The main critiques were "little low end" (sure, in the main action-y sections I would say), "weak drums, work on the sound and also how it flows with the music" (agreeable), "lack of sonic variance" (agreed), "odd transition at 1:35 and similar repeats" (maybe, but I thought it was interesting), and "abrupt ending" (kind of true because of the snare roll). Well, I believe I've fixed everything except the "odd transition at 1:35 and similar repeats", but that's only because I like it. In fact, Palpable said he liked it. I'm hoping the new section I added pushes it over the top and makes those time-signature-bending transitions negligible. At 1:35, I actually did a transition consisting of 1.75 bars then 2.25 bars. I shifted the midpoint of the 4 bars left by 1/4 bar. I thought it would make the transition more interesting. I'll change it, though, if anyone objects. Basically, I did a boatload of production fixes, added a new section (with humanized piano, mind you), and (hopefully) consequently made the ending less abrupt. I request feedback on: - Drumwork - Clarity of instruments - The two "awkward" transitions where I left out a measure and put it back in later. I basically changed it from [4/4, 4/4] to [7/8, 9/8]. This was one of my "creative" injections into the arrangement. This is at 1:33. I dunno, I really like that measure offset. xD If anyone wants me to fix that, then I will. I just have to fill in 1/4 measure and then take out the last 1/4 measure. Less basically: - Removed excessive waveshaping - Fixed EQ overboosts and excessive reverb - Did proper compression work - Fixed sections for dynamic contrast - Gave way more oomph to the first section's kick (brand new kick), and introduced new drums in the new section (1:41) that have a much less "stale" sound to them (My favorite TR percs). - Of course, the new section at 1:41. New instruments all around. I also designed the majority of them. Pads, leads, basses, and arpeggios are custom Z2 patches. https://www.box.com/s/nwc9c2a97t1mksy96edm - V3 https://www.box.com/s/51902283176a34f60bbe - V2 - Source Mirror 1 - Source Mirror 2

Actually, the aim is not to be "true to the original". The aim is to take the source and use it in a creative way, keeping it recognizable but still sufficiently interpretive.

It might help you to know that the idea of seeing other instrument channels in the same pattern is called "Ghost Channels".

The intro's a bit long, but once the drums come in at 0:38, it's very funky and the soundscape is unique and intriguing. The squelchy acid bass is cool. Now there's a sound I have yet to create on Zebra2. That said, the kick is feeling a bit weak. The snare is sufficient, but the kick is hard to hear; maybe you could try sidechaining the kick to the bass, or possibly even layering more kick samples on there to give it a wider character. Rather than just low end punch, perhaps a high end click? The saw pads you have appear to be slightly too loud, as they're obscuring the piano somewhat until 1:25. The transitions work. I especially liked 1:34. The saw lead at 1:36 appears to sound a bit mechanical. Yeah, synth leads have more lenience associated with them, but try not to make it seem machine-gun like. Maybe you could think about how a keyboardist would emphasize certain notes, and write your notes that way? The timbre of the lead works just fine. Aside from that, great ideas going there!

Oh, I see; I thought you happened to notice the major second moving into the major third that lasted for like half a second at 1:19. That would have been unbelievable. Well, for some reason, those notes are symbolic of the Mega Man Battle Network and Star Force series; they apparently denote pressure and tension. After all, this is the final battle to save the world from Andromeda, a space-themed war engine with the power to destroy planets. xD Cool, thank you for the feedback, and woah, you have a son.

I took a closer look at the waveform, and honestly, you have room to spare. It appears you're at -1.9dB! Some people boost their dB to -0.2! So since you have the headroom to boost certain instruments, do so (But not in the intro)!

Okay! I've fixed the dissonance at 1:19 (very quick and ephemeral but I'm surprised you noticed. xD), fixed/improved the bass (frequencies and pitch envelope), some fills, (velocities) the kick (punch), snare (volume), the first PWM lead (envelope sustain), and added some note variations to the formant-like lead at 1:30. I'd say it's completely ready for that video. ;D https://www.box.com/s/uy3b3hjhb8dt6ydlqytl - V2 https://www.box.com/s/n6s730lcl7fk3cwy15at - V1 Source:

Just to clarify, DnB is defined with really quick drums that have action-heavy fills, plus a really powerful bass. True, there should be a bit more low end to the bass. I did sidechain though! But oddly enough, I sent it to a different mixer track for a later drum timbre variation and that nullified the sidechaining. xD Whoops. Sure, why not? xD

I wrote this for a very specific purpose: to make my 1337th Youtube video badass. xD No, seriously. Anyways: Remix: https://www.box.com/s/n6s730lcl7fk3cwy15at - V1 Source: I finished this in 8 hours with breaks, and I really like how it turned out. I made half the non-percussion instrument patches myself in Zebra2 (including the strings lead patch!). This is my first DnB remix evar. Oh, and there is no MIDI of this source anywhere, so I did it all by ear. It's not intended to be OCR-level, but I still added some variations to keep it interesting, and of course, I paid extra close attention to EQ, dynamics, etc.

I agree, the reverb is very high. It makes everything blend a little too well, and it sounds excessively ambient. Reduce it some; it sounds like every single instrument is in one poorly constructed auditorium, kind of like a high school's gym, if you know what I mean. ;D Otherwise, sounds great.

After REALLY closely comparing the remix and the source, I'm proud to say that I hear the source in your arrangement enough for it to pass on the panel. I'd say the arrangement aspect in terms of amount of source usage is fantastic and really creative! The soundscape is another thing, but I'd say that's actually really close right now.

hm... There should be a better way to get the sound you want. Clipping on purpose is simply unheard of on OCR for the most part.

I started using a new compressor---Density MKIII. I personally think it sounds amazing on drums, especially when combined with TesslaSE (saturator). They're both free, but I seem to get a really great sound out of them. It could just be the samples I used, but I was satisfied within, like, 10 minutes. https://www.box.com/s/bavp93ekd2hph750rxgp - my (vFinal) VST test on a track in an OST being written by AngelCityOutlaw---Only drums were affected. He wrote it, and I mastered it. I put in a bass from Trilian and added reverb. http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/ - You can find Density MKIII 3.0 and TesslaSE 1.2.1 here. Can I ask someone to try those two themselves and see if they like the quality? I like them, and people who gave reviews to the two of those liked them, but I'd like the opinion from a more experienced musician who loves using compressors and saturators. e.g. people who love strong drums.

Hm, I just want to clear this up. I believe when you increase the volume of a stereo system, it only multiplies the volume, and doesn't add to the dB. e.g. -0.2dB peaks will always be -0.2dB peaks, but you'll hear it at a louder volume. Or were you saying something different?

I found Variety of Sound makes some really good, free VSTs. http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/downloads/ There's stuff like compressors (capable of parallel compression), saturators, pre-amps, reverb, chorus, etc. I particularly like Density MKIII. Combine that with TesslaSE and you've got yourself some pretty darn punchy drums.

I agree that it sounds like a wood block hit. I do think that there's some slight delay too, because I hear "two" hits.

What you said.

I agree with the 5 day timeframe, but I personally do it every morning. Since he didn't specify when in the day... I'll add that in the morning it appears to be best. Lots of people think better in the morning; at least, that's what I've found a lot of people saying on random google searches. Another thing is to close your eyes and only listen to a rendered audio file, not the project itself. Then see what stands out too much and write down notes on what to fix. Wait a day and see if you still want to fix that the next morning. If so, keep whatever you still want to fix and add anything new. You just do this four times, and then on the fifth morning, do your edits and take a fifth listen. I don't actually do that, but that's just because I feel decently confident about my ears. xD

I'd say the kick and snare need to cut through better, and the rhythm guitar should be a bit softer while the leads should be a bit louder. It feels like the rhythm guitar is overpowering the leads. Try sidechaining the kick and bass, notching the EQ of the bass where the kick is, and using a compressor to lower the volume of the rhythm guitar and raise the volume of the leads (for the compressor, try 0.5dB to the leads and -0.5dB to the rhythm guitar.

You know, there's a difference between sufficient saturation and audio clipping. Audio clipping is when it gets above 0dB without a limiter, and sufficient saturation simply gives you a more powerful sound at <=0dB with a limiter. Check to make sure your sounds aren't being limited and THEN going above 0dB. The order of FX in the mixer matters. Top first. What I'm hearing sounds more like clipping than saturation. You ought to check that out and lower the "clipping effect" or whatever YOU would call it. If you are aware that it's clipping "safely", then you should make it so everyone else will believe you by keeping the "clipping effect" minimalistic so that it's only sufficient, not oversaturated.