timaeus222

Ooh that bass is tight! I also really like the way the acoustic and electric parts were mixed in the first half!

Can I just say I first read this to say Love instead of Lowe?

Excellent, dramatic orchestral work with a lot of dynamic contrast! You don't hear that a lot on OCR. The 3:30 mark or so was very cool and much like the battle charge you wanted to convey.

Did you check your Sound Settings if you are on Windows, and see if Windows is applying "Enhancements"? Here's an example... I right-clicked my Speaker icon, went to Sounds > Playback tab and chose the appropriate Output Device, then went to Properties > Enhancements. I have turned this off for a long time, because the "Loudness Equalization" option would attempt to change your music volumes depending on its actual loudness. That may be going on.

Ooh, this is sick! I can't believe I missed this one. Probably coulda cut the last 6 seconds which were total silence, but that's okay.

The atmosphere is awesome in this! Loved the distorted textures, and cool time signature shift about 1:30 in.

Just the rhythm sounds like trap - the samples are acoustic, which is usable for rock music for example. Sometimes I beatbox to visualize drum parts.

Hm... on the first listen, here's what I'm noticing: The sequencing throughout is robotic because each note is exactly on the grid, and the intensity of each note is very similar. This matters because the instruments are supposed to be real. Sometimes the panning is weird. The guitar at 0:14 is on the left and then suddenly jumps to the right for example, which can feel awkward. Typically the bass and drums are in the center, and maybe the guitar could be a bit wide, but almost never panning back and forth. Although the drums sound like they're supposed to be acoustic, they are rhythmically written as if it was trap music, so it can make the listener conflicted. Those are the main things that stand out to me. I don't have much else to say because you mentioned you were relatively new and I don't want to overwhelm you. Basically, these are the key techniques I would recommend you work on: humanization - maybe teach yourself how to play a bit of piano so that you get a feel for musical phrasing. That way, you can have a better idea of when notes can get softer and when they can get louder, and also how in real life, musical phrases don't have exactly perfect rhythm for every single note. Examples: 100% Robotic Piano - https://app.box.com/s/pmwybgad4who5679p9xvuxdnnmqshas5 Only Robotic Rhythm Piano - https://app.box.com/s/lr9nxha1zbg5vfcxufqqvuiz9vjnliyu Only Robotic Intensities Piano - https://app.box.com/s/ndt9vz26mjhdul6sreqgkvf6eqlp2qfy Humanized Piano - https://app.box.com/s/jjapuupib9zfypwoew1ecr31nlq8siw4 You might notice that fixing the intensity of each note will do more than fixing the rhythms. Hopefully this helps train your ear! spatial awareness - pretty much just listen closely to regular music to spot where instruments are in space. That way you can place yours in a more conventional way so that the listener may not feel as awkward about how you panned your instruments. This is a pretty good example with lots of noticeable panning decisions: drumming style - establish to yourself what you want to accomplish with your drums. Are you writing trap music? Rock music? Dubstep music? Other? Adapt the way the drum rhythm is written to match the genre you want to go for, and choose your drum samples to match that genre.

Just something I made for fun. Hope you enjoy! Sample Libraries / VSTs used: Evolution Acoustic Guitar Shreddage 3 Precision Bass Shreddage Drums PEARL Concert Grand Neo Soul Keys u-he Zebra2

What satisfying vocals to hear! Very uplifting!

I can't get enough of this.

You can always rely on PirateCrab for headbang-worthy metal. \m/

I'm surprised there are this few replies to this. It's important to know how to mix loudly, but well. What I do is mark down what frequency ranges are strongest in each instrument (depending on the number of instruments, it may be more or less manageable), and if they overlap, decide what you want to come through and scoop the EQ for the instrument you want to bring down. I always recommend that you EQ in the context of instruments playing together, and in that case, even if you scoop a frequency range, the net result may sound similar, although a single scooped instrument may be noticeably more hollow by itself. Also keep in mind that if you overlay 2 instruments, the overall amplitude will be additive to some extent, so two instruments peaking at about -3 dB won't necessarily stack to become exactly -3 dB again because not all of the overlap cancels out perfectly. Try adjusting instrument loudness in pairs, or in combinations of 3, like this. You can do this more easily with a spectroscope like the free s(M)exoscope. So basically, keep these things in mind: - Scoop out frequencies in an instrument that is mid-heavy, and do so in context with other instruments so that you don't drastically alter the overall heaviness of the collection of sound. - Look in a spectroscope that displays your waveform to see how your instruments' amplitudes stack together, and try adjusting instrument loudness in pairs.

I hardly ever comment twice like this, but I do think this will become a classic to return to in the future. It's up there with zircon's "The End" and Juan Medrano's "The Unholy Wars".

I love that I can hear the raw clicks on the woodwinds!

Phenomenal! I love me some good ol' dueling guitars. A true Hakštokian masterpiece.

I don't hear a lot of Big Band around here, but this is really jammin'!

This is sick! One of the gems from 2021 for sure!

[This is an automatically generated message] I've reviewed your remix and have returned it to Work-in-Progress status, indicating that I think there are some things you still need to work on. After you work on your track and feel that it's ready for submission to OCR, please change the prefix back to Ready for Review and someone will review it again. Good luck!

My first impression is that while this has some good ideas going on, it'll take more than 1 revision going forward. I'm hoping the examples at the end help inspire you to add new stuff to this. MOD REVIEW Arrangement (Melody, Harmonies, Structure, etc.) The overall arrangement doesn't feel complete to me because at 2:06, what you have so far has me expecting a newly-written breakdown section that brings down the energy and allows you to feature maybe another new lead instrument, or just lets us breathe after already hearing the melody many times earlier. Also, the current 'ending' has no lead-in that would indicate an ending is coming. Assume the listener has no idea where they are in the song, and the only way they know where they are is by the way you write. To indicate an ending here, you may want to slowly peel off layers of instruments until the song would end. Something else to consider is that 2:06 and on sounds very similar to 0:14 - 1:06, which is about half the song. Try to differentiate revisited sections, whether you put in a new lead instrument or introduce new harmonies, etc. Production (Sound Design, Panning, etc.) The panning is one of the first things that I noticed; the flute at 0:06 is nearly 100% panned to the left, not sure why. I usually restrain myself from panning anything 100% left or right, because it's awkward on headphones if I do. As rules of thumb: A melodic instrument should be somewhere close to the middle (0%/0% L/R) of the stereo field. A bass should also be centered, as should the kick and snare in a drumkit. Chordal instruments can be wider, as well as other background-like instruments. Then, when the drums and low arpeggio synth come in at 0:13 - 0:46, they are dry, sticking out compared to the background elements like the pads and other atmospheric sounds because they probably don't have any reverb (most importantly the snare, clap, and overhead parts of the drumkit like the shaker and any hi hats you might use, because they often provide songs with life), and as a result, they don't mesh with the atmospheric background elements at all, which have plenty of reverb and delay themselves. Also, the acoustic tone of the snare doesn't seem to fit whatever feel you're going for; you might see this kind of snare in jazz/funk music for example, but not really relaxing music like what this is coming off to be. What does sound good are the dulcimer around 0:30 and the piano around 0:46. Those have a good amount of reverb/delay processing to make the soundscape cohesive amongst the more washed-out instruments. They each have a wide frequency range of around 1000 ~ 10000 Hz, which is why they are good melodic sound choices in general. In fact, I think the pads are also well-selected. Summary Most importantly, arrangement feels incomplete at the moment. Consider a breakdown section that pulls in more interesting instruments that can personalize your approach. High priority: the last 30 seconds sound very similar to the first minute, so try to differentiate it, whether with new melodies or harmonies, etc. Low priority: adjust the panning so that it's not so extreme, following the above suggested rules of thumb, like bass/drums/melody being centered. Maybe medium priority: add reverb to the snare/shaker/etc and consider swapping out the snare sample so that it fits more in atmospheric/ambient music. Possible Inspiration Ice Cap Zone (DigiE) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64bBCd8MVp8 Ice Cap Zone (Joshua Morse) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-F3DHQCIcs Ice Cap Zone (WillRock) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyfDseBXOvc Ice Cap Zone (Big Giant Circles) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3jnPQsbuag END OF MOD REVIEW

Good to see this make it on the front page! Definitely one of the more involved/evolving remixes I've heard.

Sometimes lofi music can sound forced, but this isn't that. Enjoyable all the way through!

This reminds me of a final stage theme, in the style of Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon. Awesome!

Ooh, love me some good ol' head-bangin' metal. Sick bass tone.

MOD REVIEW Honestly, I didn't have much to say, but let's see. Arrangement Seems to stick to the structure of the original for the most part, and is almost note-for-note the same on the piano and some of the choir. The main distinguishing features are the additional atmospheric elements and the elevation of sound quality. On the first listen, I do hear a good sense of progression, and a clear dynamic curve, so I think this does separate itself from the original enough, despite that. Mixing/Production Mostly very enjoyable. The only thing I'd say is at 2:38 - 2:43 you have some clipping due to the sub bass being dominated there. A suggestion I have is that the reversed sounds could take more advantage of the stereo field; they feel narrow, so maybe you could use some automation clips to pan them left and right. Overall I think this is actually really good already, and can just use a few final polishing touches. In terms of a stereo image, I think this would be good to compare to. END OF MOD REVIEW