timaeus222

Just a quick nudge/reminder about this. So, if the people that are done can send me their WAVs, I can get going on getting them to sound consistent so the album flows well and is as polished as possible.

I love this kind of idea. I'd love to do something for Sceptile. Besides texture, would these necessarily build off of the "unevolved form" in style and structure, or can we simply write something that's just for mostly the same source(s), but potentially different style and/or structure (just to keep things from getting too rigid/same-y)?

Strangely enough, I like using compos to experiment *out* of my comfort zone sometimes. My Round 2 and Round 7 tracks were styles I don't usually write with. My Round 4 entry was more "me" in that it had dubstep, but even that one was mainly similar to the "me" you last heard -once- in late 2013 (metal + glitch in Gunstar Heroes), not the "me" today. TBH, the music I'm most comfortable writing is probably funky EDM, but I don't want to do that *all* the time, so I branch out into variations on dubstep, glitch, and cinematic sometimes too.

Mod Review is when an actual Moderator (who was appointed by the Judges) gives a review, rather than any random member. They have explicit credibility with regards to understanding what makes a ReMix a good fit for OC ReMix. You mark "Mod Review" on a topic to tell them you want one, or you can message one of them and ask. Someone like Rozovian, XPRTNovice, or Gario is more active these days and could give you a review. OCR submission is simply a process to get the ReMix on the site. It usually takes about 9 months to a year to get something posted on the site. You can find the guidelines here: http://ocremix.org/info/Submission_Standards_and_Instructions

This is a good start, but there are definitely some things to look into. If you listen more closely at 0:24 and 0:37 for example, notice how the notes on the violins and/or violas is detached. A real violinist would keep the bow on the strings when playing a long phrase. What you had at 0:30-0:31 was a good example of how I would recommend the notes at 0:24 and 0:37 be executed. Similarly, in other spots where such notes are detached, it's worth trying to overlap them. I mentioned these two spots because they were the most obvious, but there are probably other spots that you should check. At 0:41, the piano that comes in feels dry. In other words it sticks out too much. I can somewhat hear a midrange reflection indicating that you do have reverb on it, but having a touch of low-mids reflections in the reverb would help glue it into the mix better. You might be able to accomplish that by lowering the Low Cut on the reverb a bit. You can also improve this further by having the piano play actual chords. At 1:36, the piano is somewhat competing with the brass. The brass sounds like it's supposed to be "softly" leading (meaning without the "blatty" tone), so maybe you can slightly lower the velocities on the piano by the same amount at 1:36 - 1:57 and slightly raise the velocities on the brass. Good transition at 2:02 with the harp roll, and I like the textural development from 2:02 to 2:44. It helped accent the descending arp to use that xylophone/marimba and use some more-active low-end percussion. Cool chord progressions. At 2:44, I hear more of those detached violin+viola notes, so try overlapping them more to make a more natural phrasing. ----- Overall, you do have a pretty good understanding of using automation to add swells to your longer notes, and for the most part the reverb is pretty cohesive. Production-wise, the mixing is a little distant, but is on the right track IMO. Just some minor balance issues with the brass+piano, the piano sticking out of the mix a bit too much at 0:41 (maybe have it play chords, too?), and some more major issues with the detached high strings notes wherever they should be more overlapped, such as 0:24, 0:37, and right after 2:44. Arrangement-wise, this follows the original pretty closely, but you did add an original intro and expand on each section in the original. Based on the straightforward arrangement and good (but not great) mixing, I would definitely recommend getting a Mod Review before submitting this to OCR. It's getting there, but I do believe it's borderline. ----- As for "EBU128", I wouldn't worry too much about it. If your music currently sounds good to you, keep mixing the way you're doing it. I have never heard of "EBU128" until a few weeks ago, and I've never used it. I still turned out fine.

Just fyi, "Slime" is the indicator of how many posts you've gotten. You meant brokenbirthday.

The arrangement here is actually really good. It's hampered by the production and samples, but compositionally it's got a +1 from me.

Hey guys, Kristina wanted me to start taking the reins for PvZ. I really want to see this finished, so I'm pushing for you guys to get going! Anyone with updates, send them to Kristina, me, and Brandon! I'm looking for updates from Brandon, djp, Sir Jordanius, WillRock, Rexy! Redg, you're so close --- I know you can finish your track up! Wizard of Lakmir --- how's your track going? I know you just gave an update recently, though, so keep it up! And ToN, wanna show us up with a wicked WIP and counter your moniker with some existence?

Hot damn, that's oozing with emotion!

Yeah, I did find the controller cord kinda odd, and perhaps the tattoo could seem unprofessional, but otherwise it's a great start IMO.

This amazing Final Fantasy tribute album. Arrangement by Stephen Anderson, and violin by Lindsey Stirling.

Actually, I really like it. Keep going with it!

If we suppose that you had a 3/4 piece at some quarter-note-based tempo and a 3/8 piece at the same quarter-note-based tempo, the 3/8 piece would feel twice as fast because you're "subdividing" the way you count the beats into 8th-note counts, essentially (therefore playing twice as many notes), under the same tempo. If I were to notate a song and I wanted to decide between 3/4 and 6/8, I would consider which one makes the sheet music look nicer. If you have a bunch of recurring tied 8th notes in spots where the first 8th note is hardly ever carried onto the next measure or hardly ever lands on an upbeat (which could produce syncopation), it's worth considering changing those tied 8th-note pairs to single quarter notes. Then, if you have resultant sheet music with many more quarter notes than 8th notes, I think it would make more sense to change the time signature to 3/4 rather than 6/8. To me, 6/8 implies that you are supposed to count in terms of 8th note divisions, but IMO, there would be less practical reason to if there are not that many 8th notes. Let's say we looked at this example: You can see a tied 8th-note pair in the first measure. If you look at the second measure, you may realize that both measures are played the same way. However, the first measure emphasizes the syncopated feel more because it explicitly shows the full length of the note-hold, whereas a quarter note would ask you to recall how long a quarter note is. If you count out the first measure, you get 1 +2 +3+ 4+, but on the second measure, you count it out as 1 +2 +3 + 4+. Does that make sense?

With regards to the production, yeah, the electric rhythm guitar could have been heavier, but the tone was still full *enough* IMO. The 8/4+7/4 section was the highlight for me. Although I didn't think the wobbles fit that section, I liked the intent---I would have made the wobble tone thicker, removed the rhythmic LFO, and just drawn a cutoff automation curve that was adapted to fit the dynamics along the way. I thought the folk outtro was an unusual contrast in mood with the more chaotic sections that came before, but ultimately I'm OK with it. The arrangement is quite elaborate, yet cohesive, and the overall track was fairly well-executed. Great work!

timaeus222 Madness, Exploration, and Pointed Beaks (Storm Eagle in Sigma Stage 2 [X3]) Splash Supafly (Splash Warfly in Sigma Stage 2 [X3]) Temporal Bliss (Magna Centipede in Sigma Stage 2 [X3]) Zero Tolerance

Fixed.

Of course, but let's give multiple artists a shot.

I would say that's normal. I think you should give an artist a shot, and compare the results based on what you get, not whether you think it might match your (undetermined) vision or not. I would still recommend either Jessie Lam or rnn, but I'm more leaning towards Jessie Lam. I'm just blown away by the amount of detail and finesse in these.

At 0:32, the ascension that comes in sounds like it's in a clashing key. I think it would help to take out the internal harmonies in the first synth you use. It sounds as if you have a patch that is already pre-harmonized into major thirds, which doesn't help if you want to use minor thirds every now and then. Until 1:04, it doesn't sound to me like the track really develops a soundscape that isn't empty. Before then, it is literally drums + two synths. I'm surprised that you have no padding elements. At 1:04, the high passed lead sounds a bit weird and a bit painful. Why is so much low end cut out? It's as if it isn't supposed to be a lead and the bass is the focus. You seem to have changed key at 1:36 without realizing it. You went up a perfect fourth into a new key. Just thought I'd let you know. Then at 1:47, the bass that comes in also feels like it's in another key. It makes more sense once it fully comes in, but initially it didn't feel right. Finally, at 2:10, you have a substantial soundscape. The lead could be louder, but this is a good spot to build up to. At 2:47, it's a bit crowded, so consider rebalancing the bass and lead. And uh... fadeout? I think there could be some sort of ending near 3:35, or at least a more creative way to fade. Overall, not too bad. A bit meandering, and sometimes empty-sounding (one of the major issues). You have multiple keys overlayed here sometimes, which is strange and is another major issue here. But it's a fun listen.

What did you think about Jessie Lam? Or are you still looking for an artist?

Yeah, the algorithm for fret choice is pretty good, and that's one of the bigger challenges of scripting a good lead guitar library. One of the things I really appreciate about IBZ though is that it shows the hand reach, and allows for a fret-span limitation. Realism down to the particular person!

I haven't heard a better lead guitar, honestly. Second to Shreddage AFAIK and IMO is Evolution Electric Guitar Strawberry, and I think Shreddage trumps it on rock leads. Perhaps a really diverse demo on the flexibility of Shreddage 2X (which is very similar at least in the capability to play lead and obviously made by the same people) would be this.

Yeah, I'm not getting "town theme" from this. To me it seems like it could function as a theme of reminiscence, being fairly sad, or a love theme, suggestive of remembrance. When I think "town theme", I imagine something that evokes the idea that it's supposed to be memorable---chimes, flutes, guitar(?), a catchy melody (I know, catchiness might be subjective), etc.---because you'll be coming back to or going through the town pretty often. Another way to say it is that perhaps, you would want to keep coming back to the town in-game just to listen to it. Some of the people above have said that it "makes you feel at home," which, yeah, it should IMO, if it's specifically a "home town" theme. If it feels too "lovey-dovey" though, like what I think this is, it almost but doesn't quite register for me as a town theme, but rather, as a piece about someone missing a loved one or something like that.

I like The Window of the Stars.