timaeus222

So awesome. Have you tried a lighter color for the text on the bottom?

That one movie about soup-making rats? [/sarcasm] (I love that movie)

OCR Talkback #54: Return of Talkback

I've already been in the process of submitting all of them to OCR. One to go!

I love the diversity of moods here, from the transportive and expansive atmospheres of Sam Dillard, to the ambitious unsettling vibes from Slimy, to the overdriven metal of PirateCrab, Sbeast, Existence Zero, etc.! Thanks for a great album!

I found that this shifted nicely between solemn+atonal and more positive+tonal moods. Neat meditative feel, indeed!

Eventually, it would be ideal for you to be able to transcribe by ear so that you can personalize your music more, but MIDI imports are indeed a nice way to start getting used to working with your DAW, rather than doing that AND figuring out the compositional aspects at the same time.

Both are tomorrow.

What if you added to that sheen by lightening it up and blurring the edges? To me that currently looks like see-through glasses with no eyes. xD

Looking good so far! Any reason why Satoru has sheen on his glasses?

Audacity isn't really a DAW; it's more like an audio editor for post-processing. In other words, it'd be nice as a supplementary software but isn't sufficient for complete music composition. I think you're better off trying out some of the suggestions above! You might also find this a good read: http://music.tutsplus.com/articles/what-is-the-best-daw-for-beginners--audio-11773

You mean like this? http://ocremix.org/info/Submission_Standards_and_Instructions and this? http://ocremix.org/info/Direct_Rejection_Letter

Thank you for an awesome compo! I tend to have a lot of fun with these.

(1) Exactly! I think that's even the point of the reviews---to help the remixer improve. Not necessarily on the specific posted track (which might be a popular misconception apparently), but it can be applicable or generalized to current WIPs, or even just kept in mind. (2) I agree! I really think that it would be very difficult to figure things out on your own, and Plato agrees (Meno 80d, Paradox of Learning)! (3) Gee, thanks! (4) YES! It's just as helpful to yourself as it is to others that you give feedback. Not only does it allow a fresh perspective to someone else, but it also gives you the practice in writing refined advice. Being able to take advice is one thing, but how capable you are at articulating advice to others can influence how well they understand what you mean, or perhaps even how likely people will trust you.

I think this is coming along pretty well! I'm starting to get a sense of what direction the arrangement is going, how the dynamics evolve and the energy drops off, etc. I sometimes see remixers write something that has an unclear sense of direction, and this is improving in that aspect. You do have transitions at certain spots, but I'd argue that you can use a few more in particular spots, whether making it more obvious or just putting one at all. Specifically, I'd like to suggest the following: At 0:49, I get this short "breakdown"/low-energy section, but it doesn't quite connect with the previous section. I think it's because the reverse and regular cymbals can be louder there. I can kind of tell they're there, but only if I listen for them after initially noticing them. At 1:03 - 1:17, I think it would help if you made the drums less involved/busy here, while having a more explicit transition into 1:17. At 1:30, you've got that lone steel drum there, and it could be led into, for example, with a reverse cymbal or something similar (but maybe no regular cymbal). That way 1:30 could function as a "bridge" to switch up the mood you had going before to the one you have at 1:38. Nice transition at 1:36. At 1:52, the lead you have going right now is lacking the expression that I think it needs to attract attention as a lead. You could add some vibrato to it to add some motion to the tone, and that can accomplish part of the goal. If you imagine leads as choir members, have you ever seen choir members sing with no facial expression, but still you believe that they're interested enough in the song or that they understand the message of the song? My high school choir teacher said that if you're not smiling while singing a happy song, you don't understand that it's a happy song or you aren't really interested in the song as a song. Maybe think about it from that perspective and see how you approach writing for lead lines in your ReMixes. Also, it would help for that lead to be raised an octave to distinguish it from the frequency range of the other instruments. Right now it's blending in a little "too well". Lastly, I think the ending can be foreshadowed more; maybe slowly remove some drum parts as a "builddown" of textures? Right now it sounds like the last note is all that ends the ReMix.

If you're not confident that you know what you're doing, that's okay. I think you should comment anyway, and if you feel the need to ensure that the other person knows you're not confident, maybe make a disclaimer for instance, like "I could be wrong, but...", "Take my advice with a grain of salt, but...", etc. The more perspectives the better, IMO. Gives a broader view of what people think, and doesn't expose the ReMixer to only one or two peoples' methods. There are many ways/approaches to accomplish similar results, and some ways/approaches work more easily than others.

To more specifically answer these questions personally: 1. I usually do, but when I don't, it's because: I have to go do something else important and I put it off for the moment; then I might forget I don't have much of a reaction to the ReMix; I don't need an emotional reaction to feel the need to comment, but if I think the ReMix is so-so or "heard this before," I might not say anything; indifference, basically, but not dislike 2. This is a very difficult question. Any number of actions might help, but we can only hope it'll work. Here's what I would say or agree with: Instigate reviews through making some yourself, leading the way (WillRock) "Featured" or "Great" comments was a good idea (k-wix) and that's what I would suggest too; gives incentive to try harder Another judge tryout to get more on the panel? Tell your friends about OCR Integrate social media comment widgets/platforms/whatever as a possible option within the reviews forum (TO, Jorito) Have an "all comments received on reviews" page accessible (from your profile, for instance; Rozovian) Yeah, I definitely agree; I've been seeing some ReMixes that got people all excited over on YouTube, with very few comments on OCR.

Bruce Faulconer is the man when it comes to classic DBZ.

I'm just getting this feeling of lifelessness from the strings in the intro here. They're just sustaining. Try to inject some emotion into them with some volume swells, because real orchestral strings instrumentalists (violinists, violists, etc) change their note intensity within the same note. Honestly, the part where you start bringing in the acoustic drums and muted rhythm guitar is better than the orchestral intro before it. It's more texturally developed and more realistic. The leading guitars, though, are rather narrow, and feel like they're in a different room. They can use some slight room reverb to make them fit into the mix a bit better. Also, arrangement-wise, this section, while more developed texturally and more realistic, is lacking in that the drums are fairly autopilot and the muted rhythm guitar arpeggio just drones on throughout most of the passage. What that does to the mix is make it sound repetitive; the drums don't do anything particularly exciting, and essentially are "beat-keeping", while the rhythm guitarist sounds bored, in the sense of "going through the motions". I do like the subtle tibetan bell in the lower-energy "bridge". The transition into the rock section afterwards was a bit... cheesy. Like pop-dance-music-cheesy. Maybe incorporate some syncopation and rapid rolls/fills, in the way a more enthusiastic drummer would do it, to make it more exciting. The actual rock section kind of sounds like an "upgrade" to the previous "clean rock" section, but only in tone IMO. I'm just hearing not as much emotion as I thought I would hear at what I thought was supposed to be the climax. Where's the vibrato in the lead guitar? What about doing a solo? Overall, you do have some development in the dynamics, and a good start in the arrangement, but I think there needs to be more TLC in the orchestral intro using volume swells, the amount of emotion you give in the guitar performances, drum variations to reduce repetition and make things more exciting, and less copy+paste of the muted rhythm guitars, and a solo near the end would really help this.

One thing I should mention is that the instrumentation is fairly close to the original, and while that gives you an easy way of retaining the feel of the original, it would be nice if you tried to reinterpret the notes as well to personalize the track and make it your own. You have some pretty decent samples to use, and I think you should work with them more and figure out how to make as best use of them as you can.

I thought about that being a possibility... Let's give it a shot, eh?

Yes to all of this, even 6. A different website centered on being a Q&A educational site just started trying a similar "Great Answer!" feature to motivate dedication to teaching.

Nice, I see by this point you're starting to make greater use of Juggernaut and Damage. For me the production was a bit too distant, but otherwise I liked the action-heavy style you brought for this. (Sidenote: there's a click at 2:46.) One thing I'd say is that you could pay closer attention to how much low end you do get from Damage and Juggernaut; that guitar section towards the end had some low end clutter from those two libraries.

The stop-and-go feel of this is rather interesting. At first I thought it was going to be straight punk rock or something, but the beat gets varied at apt times. I also like the "roughness" to the production. Not rough in the poorly-polished sense, but rather, in the grungy/crunchy sense.

This is a mix that basically takes its sweet time on a fairly simple oscillating melody, but to great effect. Well-developed dynamics, and though it has some somewhat stiff lead sequencing, still some good stuff!