timaeus222

Nice use of Cinematic Synthetic Drums (or Juggernaut-free)! Personally I think there's a bit too much treble going on; the snare is lofi, and it mixes in with the digital arp (from 0:40) and creates a constant, upfront lofi texture that ultimately gets grating. I think you should pick something you want to keep that trebly, and low pass the other instruments near perhaps 12000 Hz or so. This sounds to me like it wants to be a chippy, ambient, chillout style. You might want to try bringing that snare (the one that has more treble) back further by lowering the reverb dry mix a touch so that the drums are closer to each other in terms of depth in the stereo field. I do agree with you that there's definitely still clutter. I don't think it's too washed out, but I do think there is currently a large amount of midrange going on. Anything that's not leading, you can stand to lower the midrange even a little bit. Anything background definitely counts towards something that doesn't need a whole ton of midrange; just enough to not be too hollow is all they need. I can kind of hear what's going on if I really try, but the treble clutter is distracting me from doing that properly. Arrangement-wise, you're probably valid on the source breakdown, but I would take another look at the flow. The dynamics need to change more to give the listener a break from the "main" portions. If I look at what you have to drop off the dynamics, you have 2:01 - 2:03, 2:21 - 2:43, and 3:00 - 3:02. On top of that, I hear hardly any obvious transitions, and partly due to that and partly due to the way the arrangement goes, it's hard to tell where the remix wants to go; there's a lack of direction. That seems to be a common issue. Try not to have wandering melodies, or new sections that don't start with a transition element of some sort. And as a general rule of thumb, I try to have a 'breakdown section' at least halfway through the song if not earlier. Usually I have one at about a minute in and about halfway; whatever feels right for the particular remix. For example, in this remix---one of my personal favorite arrangements I wrote/contributed to, there's a dynamic dropoff about 3/8 of the way through for about 24 seconds, and another one (a breakdown with a solo) a little over halfway through for about 24 seconds (like earlier).

Just leaving some major tips I could have given, or ended up giving to Necrox: Watch your harmonizations in your low notes; those tend to harmonize less well even for theoretically correct (in terms of music theory) harmonies. The nitty-gritty reason is that the harmonic series correspond to an increase in the rate at which the fundamental frequency increases when you go up octaves, so the spacing between each harmonic increases as you go up in pitch. See the line spectra here for an analogy. Therefore, at lower notes, the harmonics are closer together, and your harmonizations should feel more clashing because chances are, each note that is harmonizing at that low octave will have overlapping harmonics, making the chord "quiver". Play any bass sound in polyphonic mode and play a major 3rd at a low octave, and you'll be doing what I'm describing. If you think of writing a chord like that with harmonizing low notes, try bumping the second and/or third-to-bottom notes up an octave, or removing them to clean up the bass frequencies. It's very messy when you combine this with a washed-out reverbed soundscape. When you add a new instrument, try starting at volume = 0, and raising the volume until it's just about right. That way it's harder to put in something too loud. I used to find it easier to detect volume changes from volume increases than from volume decreases. Mix not in isolation (single instrument, i.e. soloing an instrument), but in context (groups of instruments enabled for playback). However, it does not mean mix with everything going on at the same time. For example, if you have a song with bass, two chordal instruments, a lead, and drums, group together the two chordal instruments, get the mixing down on those, then perhaps enable the bass as well and mix in that new context, enable the lead and mix in that new context, mix with only the drums and bass enabled (sidechaining, perhaps), and then see how it sounds overall with everything playing once that's done too. Unless your headphones are pretty dry (adjust the wet mix on your reverb and listen to how the sound changes; if nothing much feels different for, say, -20~-10 dB wet mix, it's pretty dry), use a bit less reverb than you would prefer. A lot of headphones have a "reverb response", which means that they give a natural ambience to compensate for their close-up output to your ears (whereas speakers just respond to the natural ambience of your room). Some headphones have high reverb responses, so they sound wetter than better, drier headphones. So... mixing with less reverb than usual helps to ensure that you are using an amount of reverb that sounds about the same on most headphones. For example, my Shure SRH440A's are pretty washy, but my Grado SR-60i's are drier, and my Beyerdynamic DT-880's are even drier than that. So if I mix on my Beyers a minimum amount of reverb, it sounds about the same on the Grados and on the Shures, but if I mix a minimum amount of reverb on my Shures, it will appear drier when I listen on my Beyers.

Yes please, send in your WIPs as soon as you get something, let's say, around a minute or so done (personally I consider a minute 'rough', 2 minutes 'well into it', 3 minutes 'substantial', more or less). Or even if you have less than a minute done... at least let us know you've finished SOMETHING! Something leaving you inspired enough to get it done! Good luck!

Yeah, but regardless, it still has to be submitted at all, I would think. I don't know if the Bubble Bobble track was already submitted before the DP consideration, but I would guess that it was. (Not to mention it had a cool video. Because that's important. ) Plucking a finished track off of a random thread and thinking "WOW! We have to post this, and let's do it now!" ... I'm pretty sure that considering whether or not it was actually submitted is important. The OCR Guidelines explicitly say that a submitted remix must be submitted by the remixer and no one else (don't submit on someone else's behalf, etc). ...so that the remixer is aware, I'm assuming.

inorite? This confuses me. It's not an OC ReMix before it's... submitted... and... accepted... at all. Presumably he meant a WIP on the OCR forums...

I think the chord at 1:31 sounds a little weird; you should check that again. Also, 1:53 has an early/rushed note on the chorused rhodes (still sounds like a piano to me on the chords; the higher notes are more obviously rhodes), by a few ms. I'd agree with Emunator that the arrangement gets to sound a little similar throughout. I think it's in part to do with the way the rhodes plays three notes, then a chord, then pauses, and plays very similarly a great deal of the way through. Changing that up later on can really help make the listener understand how far along in the track he or she is without looking at the timestamp. Whatever criticisms on the humanization feels fine now for the most part. I think the hand-bell-like sound (with the delayed note) at 2:02 - 2:27 sounds odd playing those faster notes, and arguably they feel mechanical. I'll say something on the actual production later.

Sounds like it. "EWQLSO"

Yeah, multi-band compressors are definitely tough to use. I used to have trouble using regular compressors, and I did similar things that you did here, adding compressors to keep things from getting too loud. What should have been done is simply looking at the Master volume meter and seeing how loud that is, seeing what the sum total of the instrument volumes becomes by the time it reaches the Master track, and lowering the volumes of instruments that don't need to be so loud, cutting unnecessary frequencies from your instruments, etc. So maybe high passing non-bassy instruments near 200 Hz, scooping the midrange (500~2000Hz) of background instruments a little bit to let the leads cut through, and so on. Since multi-band compressors are essentially three compressors in one, separated by frequency ranges under which they work to push down or bring up your sound, I would recommend that you spend more time to figure out how regular compressors work first, before you try out the multi-band ones. With both compression and EQ in one, it's a complicated plugin to use.

This part feels a little weird.Does it mean that only at certain times is that action possible, or does it mean that at one point in time Dark Samus did that? Should "is" have been "was" to keep the tense of the sentence consistent? Also, This can be made more concise and on-point, to parallel "she can absorb, use, and...": or

I have even LOWER standards! For me, you just have to play as someone other than yourself, have stats, and be able to level up in a story (so Fruit Ninja doesn't count)! Role-playing! C'mon.

Challenge complete! :U I did a wind-down ending, reworked some part writing in the middle, and refined the kick and snare mixing. Total worktime: about 35 hours. Not too shabby! I may go back and adjust some of the bass playing, but otherwise it's about done! https://app.box.com/s/e2z9qst2rw7iozz85zcbqzstkr48g4tr ~ V2-3 Gonna be thinking of a name soon. EDIT: "Kirbland"! Yep, it's done! Final version (after slightly revised bass humanization): https://app.box.com/s/50yyxi6hzdwsjqzg9d44bfudh424ebd5 Grass Land 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLnqF9KKvTA (main) Sand Canyon 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt5arkk5lVo (cameo) Ripple Field 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub0iWyJYLko (main-ish) Flower Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=refalB4VM6o (cameo) --- Here's the source breakdown, and it's a doozy! Source Breakdown: 0:03.28 - 0:08.95, 0:09.77 - 0:13.84, 0:16.26 - 0:21.83 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) [bass and piano] 0:22.75 - 0:27.61 = Grass Land 2 (0:06.47 - 0:12.88) 0:29.24 - 0:38.96, 0:42.21 - 0:53.76 = Ripple Field 3 (0:00.00 - 0:25.36) 0:42.21 - 0:48.69 = Flower Garden (Yoshi) (0:00.00 - 0:26.70) [background sine wave] 1:04.90 - 1:06.91 = Sand Canyon 3 (0:00.00 - 0:02.45) [Different "mood"] 1:08.15 - 1:15.58 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) 1:17.88 - 1:19.91 = Sand Canyon 3 (0:00.00 - 0:02.45) [Different "mood"; bass] 1:21.13 - 1:32.68, 1:34.10 - 1:45.04 = Ripple Field 3 (0:00.00 - 0:25.36) [Mostly retained bass, with solos + interpretation] 1:47.07 - 2:13.01 = Wild solos! 2:00.05 - 2:01.66, 2:06.52 - 2:13.01 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) 2:13.01 - 2:22.34 = Grass Land 2 (0:12.88 - 0:24.09) [bass solo] 2:25.99 - 2:31.87 = Grass Land 2 (0:12.88 - 0:24.09) 2:35.71 - 2:37.75 = Sand Canyon 3 (0:00.00 - 0:02.45) [Different "mood"] 2:42.21 - 2:47.07, 2:48.70 - 2:52.75, 2:55.17 - 3:00.74 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) [bass and piano] 3:01.66 - 3:06.50 = Grass Land 2 (0:00.00 - 0:06.47) 3:06.50 - 3:32.09 = Havona-style ending Grass Land 2: 5.67 + 4.07 + 5.57 + 4.86 + 7.43 + 1.61 + 6.49 + 9.33 + 5.88 + 4.86 + 4.05 + 5.57 + 4.84 = 70.23 70.23/212.09 = 33.11% Ripple Field 3: 9.72 + 11.55 + 11.55 + 10.94 = 43.76 43.76/212.09 = 20.63% Sand Canyon 3: 2.01 + 2.03 + 2.04 = 6.08 6.08/212.09 = 2.87% Flower Garden: = 6.48 6.48/212.09 = 3.06% Total (note the Flower Garden overlap): 120.07/212.09 = 56.61%

I actually think all that detail is very helpful. You have to be willing to filter out what you don't yet understand, but still, I would recommend SOS on anything audio they publish.

Sounds good! I don't really get a "Casino-ish" feel, but it does sound pretty rockin'. My only gripes would be that the kick isn't all that punchy in the ~4000Hz range, and the guitar-playing is plain (lacking in emotion, a little rigid, like you left your fingers or pick near your strings before playing a chord and then casually rotated your wrist, rather than really flicking your wrist to give some hard strums where appropriate).

What about OCRMX?

Here is the revised version, with a changelog! https://app.box.com/s/a27tzottwe7v3rsyr33yprbzjra86fq2 If you have any questions, just ask.

I'm making some good progress on my track! Gonna be really creepy!

I haven't heard many of these CoT ReMixes that actually altered the source tune that much. This is one of those firsts that actually had some nice differentiation!

Yeah, the kick sounds centered now. This still sounds weird overall though. Can you just post your project file? I use FL, so maybe I can take a look at this, clean it up, send you a revised FLP with a list of the changes I would do, and have you take a look through it to see what's different. It's hard to tell what you actually did with the EQ, but as a result of what you did so far, the remix as a whole sounds like a strange stereo mixdown that is also a little distant. It almost sounds like you panned a lot of things really far left and right to separate them, but at the same time defied common mixing conventions. For example, I haven't encountered very many situations where the bass was supposed to be wide, or where orchestral instruments (or orchestral-emulation synths) are supposed to be very far-panned.

move that hyphen = giant ass-control rooms

Well, it's not specifically genre convention I'm referring to here; it's actual, general drum convention for any genre ever; I've never heard kicks and snares panned anywhere other than center in any situation other than a live recording.

? It still sounds like the kick isn't centered. It sounds slightly different, but not really that different. Or maybe it's just me; are those the same files? Did you have an idea of about what genre you wanted to try?

Get that Pork Chip

Hm... can I "un-claim" Kashiwagi and claim Festival Temple Castle instead? I'd feel more comfortable with that; I don't remember what I was inspired by earlier, but Festival Temple Castle would be a better fit for me.

It has nothing to do with any bias I have for zircon (which, by the way, I've never seen spelled with an umlaut ). It's just a purely logical thing. You can't expect someone to perform better than a human can do something. That IS what I said, though.