timaeus222

I think you'll be fine if you submit this, tbh. I could hear some complaints on the panel come up about some random mixing elements or another, or someone else might say the drums are a hair static, but I doubt it'll be turned away as long as a decent time stamp is sent with it (still not an easy track to parse the source from, lol).
Looking forward to it!

Not exactly offtopic; so I moved it to Community. @bLiNd has been a significant part of our community. Let's help him get back on his feet!

Not exactly offtopic; so I moved it to Community. @bLiNd has been a significant part of our community. Let's help him get back on his feet!

Not exactly offtopic; so I moved it to Community. @bLiNd has been a significant part of our community. Let's help him get back on his feet!

Not exactly offtopic; so I moved it to Community. @bLiNd has been a significant part of our community. Let's help him get back on his feet!

Not sure if I'd call myself a pro, but I've done quite a few collabs, and as a matter of fact work is in progress to wrap up another collab, with me using Logic Pro and my collab partner using Pro Tools.
As you said, you probably have to resign to sending audio back and forth, but that doesn't mean you have to commit to something right away. What we did for the aforementioned collab is up front get a rough sense of who would roughly do what. Essentially who would focus on arrangement, who would do mixing & production, who would take what parts (e.g. leads, drums, bass). 
It ended up with me doing the bulk of the arrangement work, after my collab partner started me off with a very bare bones MIDI piano part that I rearranged, restructured, expanded upon, etc. Typically I'd work on it for a bit and share a rough WIP render that we would discuss a bit about on what needed changing, and then I would work on it some more. After the arrangement was fleshed out enough, we both would soup up our parts (polishing up the midi, recorded performances, etc) and I sent over my finalised parts for my collab partner to mix.
The big reason why this works well is that we had good communication throughout the process and up front were able to divide the work without getting in each others way. That's also what I suggested.
Another approach I tried once is a bit Frankensteinian; I did a collab where I did have the DAW the other guy was using (Renoise), but I didn't feel like leaving Logic Pro and switch back to a tracker. So I simply loaded up his project in Renoise, rewired Renoise into Logic so I would have the audio of his parts in my own DAW, and simply wrote my own parts and did the full track mixing in Logic. A bit cumbersome, but it worked.
Hope it helps!

This is a good method that works for me a lot of times.  In fact I think most of my most transformative mixes come from "shower humming".

Were you actually looking for a mod review? (If not, just pretend this is regular critique.)
ARRANGEMENT
I'm not very familiar with these sources, but after listening to this back and forth, it seems to be a fairly conservative arrangement. Not necessarily an issue in and of itself, but in terms of OCR guidelines, a ReMix that sounds too close to the original generally doesn't demonstrate as much interpretation as it could. What I would suggest is deviation in the (i) structure, (ii) rhythm, (iii) harmonies, and so on.
I have this feeling that you maybe listened to the original and tried to be faithful to it, and ended up having very similar note sequences on each instrument; from what I can tell, this ended up being not too far from an instrument switch on a nearly exact transcription.
A nice analogy is plagiarism (sans the connotation); if you look at someone else's work and just try to reword it, chances are you might not really reword it that much if you really like their wording. But if you don't have that person's work in front of you, and you just try to come up with the same ideas in your own words, you have a much better chance of making a more original work that satisfies the assignment.
OVERALL
I like the result personally, and I can appreciate the melodic variation you tried later on in the track. The pacing is alright, and I didn't find it all that repetitive. [In terms of "would this be accepted on OCR?" though, probably not.]
-----
ADVICE?
If I were to have remixed these two sources, my approach would be to listen to each source and try to internalize the melodies over a few days or weeks. From the melody, I would imagine my own harmonies, or perhaps try to hum one melody on top while the other source is playing. When I come up with something neat, then I start writing from scratch with no pre-loaded MIDI.
As an easy example, try humming the "chorus" from the Super Mario 64 credits theme on top of the Pokemon GSC Goldenrod City theme. That's one I found recently!

lowering/cutting is not gonna hurt your track as much as you'd think. I have this piccolo right now that plays some very VERY high notes on one of my tracks - the original bleeds your ear. I EQ'd some of the nastier sounds in there but still made sure it sounded like a piccolo.
 here's a series about EQ. nobody is telling you to cut something entirely or make an instrument not sound the way it's supposed to; that's for sound design. It's all about making it the best possible for the listener (without completely sacrificing your vision)

Yeah - the bass with reverb (plugins) topic makes a good point.
In a less technological world of an ancient orchestra you would - if the sound is halling so much that you can't hear single sound events clearly anymore - probably change the surroundings until you have found an opera house or open air location where the hall/echo reflexions won't blend the frequencies of the individual instruments into sound mud anymore.


What I wanted to say is that:


1) Natural beings have often sharper senses than beings that lost their connection to nature over generations. It's mostly a matter of species-appropriate nutrition, natural and healthy development (or degradation at the non-natural way) of the body and vital life force that makes the big difference.
And the more people (or even animals) get restrained from vital nature the more they' ll lose their potencial, vitality, their fine senses (neurological development) and their health. And lots of humans of the modern age got very far away from nature with all the painful consequences.


2) Lots of essential knowledge of former times died literally out in the core of the society and has been replaced by mere (commercial) informations of big companies and profit-over-life structures that often dumb down the people's minds and bend truth into lies for their financial sake.
You can say that - for example the pretty wise Greek doctor Hippokrates of Cos - had more essential knowledge about health than most pharma-schooled doctors - guided by pharma-sponsored universities - have nowadays.
That's something like a wisdom-versus between "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." (in this case a pretty grounded old school teaching) and "Just take these pills to win the war against those dangerous enemies in your body" (in this case a pretty contrary, small-minded new school teaching).
It's not always like this. But it's an example that new teachings don't have to be always better than old teachings - especially if mindless greed becomes more important than the devout quest for truth.


3) It can be really fatal if technological advancement & possibilities surpass the knowledge und sanity of the users.
And not every trend or technological achievement is a good one.

Just to come back to the music stuff...
Let's face what dynamic compression in the age of loudness war has done to the sound quality of modern music.
It might not blow your head off if you listen to the soundtracks with the mastering standards of today. I kinda like lots of modern tracks - but mostly because of the composition & interesting sound design, not because of the unnecessary dynamic compression and kinda deadly sound surgery (nah, no bad jokes about surgeons and the quest for the lost limbs, livers or lives at this point).

If you compare the music standards of the 80s with the music industry standards of today you might hear a perceptible decrease at the hi-fi sound quality over the years.

...just because the salesmen, marketing agents and even some producers in the music industry started the unhealthy, mindless trend of competing in loudness instead of competing in musical content, interesting compositions and sound quality.

>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcKDMBuGodU

Not sure if this tidbit of advice will help, but here's how I finished American Pixels. That was a 5+ year project, tons of excitement at the front-end, and then it turned into... work. And here's the problem, I have a family and a full-time job, so I kept hitting the snag where I'd work all day, spend time with the family, have a pocket of free time at night, and then... not have any energy left. That, or there'd be this sense of "yay, I have time to work on music... and oh no, I feel obligated to work on that project and I'm really not in the mood..."
So, that happened over and over, and occasionally I'd have a magic day off (holiday, whatever) where I'd get a wonderful 4 hours in a row to myself... and during those moments, I could tap into the creative juices and get it going again... but man, those little magical windows were rare. Like, once every few months rare. It got really frustrating seeing an album inch to completion in those sporadic bursts.
The answer for me: wake up earlier. I'd set my alarm for 4:30am, be in my studio by 5am, and get in a solid hour, hour and a half every morning. My brain wasn't yet tired from the day job, I was rested and fresh, and the stuff that seemed like work before now seemed fun again. And, it actually helped my happiness level, so even though I was sleepy, I was giddy at work considering the progress I made in the early morning hours. And then I just had to ride and chase that feeling until things were done. It was tough to get started, but then it became strangely addicting.

So... you're saying that people's ears got... worse... over time? o_o Even a person like me, who can't really stand pop music, can admit that whoever's doing the production for each pop artist generally does quite a pristine job.
Anyways, I get your point that orchestration didn't require EQ for performances to the general public in the past, but we're talking about a digital context here. We can (and do!) use orchestral instruments in a digital setting now, and in that setting, EQ (and volume and panning tweaks) is necessary to even out the orchestral performances, which are necessarily recorded to be produced into a song in the first place.
An example that immediately comes to mind is that maybe a contrabass recording picked up too much bass, and would make the mix muddy (bass + reverb = mud!); then it would require some cutting to clear out the low end in the context of the mix.

But the orchestra exists much longer than microphones, EQs or digital music production.

So they had to solve the frequency issue with the things they had there (right choice of instruments, fitting octaves/pitch, fitting articulations, greater use of volume and timing of each sound event, right "panning"/deployment of the musicians/players of the instruments) if they played the orchestra live for the public.

I don't think that those ancient orchestras and ensemble sounded bad without this high tech stuff - maybe rather the opposite.
But I think that the people in those days could have had sharper senses, sharper minds and probably a greater knowledge of acoustic sound design within the technological possibilities the had in those days. 

Or, you could actually try the advice first and make judgment calls afterwards... If you don't want the critique, then don't ask for it.
If you never cut frequencies and you boost instead, then I can almost guarantee that your music will sound resonant somewhere in the midrange. If you neither cut nor boost, then you'll likely get midrange clutter that makes your lead compete for attention. I get that you can adjust volumes, velocities, and panning. But those are not the prominent issues here. In fact, even real orchestras need EQ to sound right. It's often not because the instruments were faulty... it's generally because the microphone(s) used were, and EQ is often necessary to even out the frequency pickup of the microphone(s) used.

Or, you could actually try the advice first and make judgment calls afterwards... If you don't want the critique, then don't ask for it.
If you never cut frequencies and you boost instead, then I can almost guarantee that your music will sound resonant somewhere in the midrange. If you neither cut nor boost, then you'll likely get midrange clutter that makes your lead compete for attention. I get that you can adjust volumes, velocities, and panning. But those are not the prominent issues here. In fact, even real orchestras need EQ to sound right. It's often not because the instruments were faulty... it's generally because the microphone(s) used were, and EQ is often necessary to even out the frequency pickup of the microphone(s) used.

Or, you could actually try the advice first and make judgment calls afterwards... If you don't want the critique, then don't ask for it.
If you never cut frequencies and you boost instead, then I can almost guarantee that your music will sound resonant somewhere in the midrange. If you neither cut nor boost, then you'll likely get midrange clutter that makes your lead compete for attention. I get that you can adjust volumes, velocities, and panning. But those are not the prominent issues here. In fact, even real orchestras need EQ to sound right. It's often not because the instruments were faulty... it's generally because the microphone(s) used were, and EQ is often necessary to even out the frequency pickup of the microphone(s) used.

This is fun indeed.  Is the pop at the very beginning intentional?  I'm going to guess not... perhaps we can just chop that off before posting.  I agree with Larry about the vocal and hats competing, it is because the hats are mixed dead center and the vocal is also primarily in the center... imo the vocals are mixed well enough to get the job done, but the hats need to be much more stereo-separated, that will remove that competition, and take focus off of the repetition of the toploop.  The arrangement is great, although the soundscape is quite samey throughout; a proper breakdown besides the Bowflex interlude would have really helped.  The vocals are funny and well enough performed, and do bring smiles.  The track could definitely use a mixing cleanup and the vocals could be mixed for much more presence and impact... but what is here works well enough and it is super fun.  Gotta go with it.
YES

The drum programming sounded too repetitive over time, which dragged this down. Along with that, I'm not a fan of the vocal mixing, with the drums sort of smothering the lyrics instead of the singing being more upfront; it just draws more attention to the step-above-metronome feeling of the drums.
Vocals ain't the best by traditional measures, but the cheese is thick with this one.
Whatever vocal layering happened from 2:15-2:22, then later from 3:35-4:00 was just muddy. The bass work was particularly good, but got obscured for the most part due to the mixing.
The Bowflex ad at 4:32-4:45 was fun, but the voice work should have been de-essed, so the inclusion felt sloppy.
The arrangement was fun & spirited, so it carries this. That said, the mixing lacked clarity, which undermined the writing, and the drum writing droned, which left this dynamically flatter than it should have been. We don't need perfection, but I also don't think it should have been a mixed bag with the production and drums.
YES

Ah, I've been enjoying this one quite a bit. I didn't feel it was all THAT cheezy overall - if that bowflex ad wasn't in the middle of the track, I would've actually taken it at face value. Also, Ab Solution... I just got it. HA!
Anyhoo, it's much bouncier than the source, seeming to take you on a less serious, more fun filled adventure, and I'm digging it. The production is pretty solid, save for a rendering error in the beginning of the track (it sounds like the mic was being turned on). The arrangement is pretty spot on, with some pretty neat cameos thrown in there (I'm thinking of the 'Moves like Jagger' reference at 2:20).
Yeah, it's really good - you certainly earned Bentley Jones' praise. Let's see this one go up!
YES 

If you cut the right frequencies, it definitely will not make the sound dull, but it will make it more clear and also more bright and audible (depending on circumstances of course). Cutting at the right place is usually a better solution than boosting; typically in the 200-500Hz area. Give it a shot

You would add your external hard drive as another directory for FL to search when you want to install a new plugin. When it finds the plugin, checkmark it and it should show up.

Having said that, I also have a pair of Sony MDR 7506. They are very different from the DT880s:
The Sony is closed backed, whereas the DT880 is semi open. This makes the Sony great for recording (because no sound leaks out), but when mixing the DT880 gives a much better representation of the stereo field and it makes appropriate panning and how it translates to speakers a lot easier. Both have a more pronounced top end, but the DT880 is better at the low end. That makes mixing your bass easier on the DT880 and it also makes the Sony sound more toppy. There is still bass enough to work with, but you have to work harder at it. In all fairness you could probably mix on both of them, once you've spent enough time with them and know their characteristics. But the DT880 make it a lot easier and are -to my ears- overall more pleasant to listen to. For any headphones, pick something that you like the sound of, that fits your budget and spend the time to get very familiar with how they sound, I'd say.

Direct Download: https://ia601503.us.archive.org/2/items/OCPC79/OCPC%2079.mp3
This is the OverClocked PodCast, a regular dose of video game music and conversation from OC ReMix.org!
This week we gather ‘round with our segment contributors for batch of Secret Songs, journey to the depths of MAGFest for some on-the-scene interviews, and start the new year with 17 songs from 2017 in Playlist form!
Next Week's Playlist: My First VGM
ReMix ReWind
The Journey Never Ends - Super Mario Bros. 3 (JohnStacy, Juan Medrano) Beautiful Rise - NieR:Automata (RoeTaKa) Masters of Mischief - Secret of Mana (Jorito, Smooth4Lyfe) Morning Sunlight - Pokemon Gold Version (pu_freak, ilp0) Snowy Pines - Final Fantasy VI (RebeccaETripp) Secret Songs
Laura's Bryan's Stephen's Matthew's Alyssa's In Tune with MAGFest 2018
Andrew Luers (OceansAndrew) Shariq Ansari (Darkesword) Joe Zieja (XPRTNovice) Will Harby (WillRock) Amy Hsieh (Diodes) Scott (Fenix Down) Jackson Byrne (Flurry of Flames) Darren Korb Gareth Coker Alexander Brandon Emily McMillen Sam Bobinksi Peter Bobinski Karl Bruggemann Will Brueggemann Carlos The Playlist: The Best of 2017
Prime Time - Sonic Mania (JosephG) Life Will Change - Persona 5 (FenixDown) Home Menu - SNES Classic (Jorito) In the Halls of the King - Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Patchpen) On Fire - Originally from Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, ReMixed by Timaeus222 (Timaeus222)a Sapphire (SquarEvil) Jump Up, Super Star! - Super Mario Odyssey (sks316) Floral Fury - Cuphead (Snurfsnarf) Mid Boss Mayhem - Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Jack) Title Theme - Originally from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, ReMixed by Jillian Aversa feat. Erutan (Earth Kid) Cosmic Hero - Nex Machina (Stalky) Mor Ardain - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Sothen) Sayonara - Blue Reflection (Zachary) Infinite Azure: Round 1 - Tekken 7 (Carlos) In the Flame - Pyre (Flurry of Flames) Title Screen (Ribbon Girl Version) - ARMS (DRIFT) Sunshine Coastline - Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Brett Elston) Weight of the World (Japanese) - NieR:Automata (Bastiongolem) Bumper music:
Late Night Sneakin' - HappyBivouac Jet Set Groove #3 - Hideki Naganuma S.E. Tape - SEGA Oldies But Happies - Hideki Naganuma The Concept of Love - Hideki Naganuma Like It Like This Like That - Hideki Naganuma S.E. System01 - SEGA Extra info:
Twitter: @OCRpodcast Bryan: @LordMeldorr Stephen: @StephenKelly180 Laura: @LauraIntravia Matthew: @major_third Alyssa: @ACMenes Discord: https://discord.gg/KJfvAuF
Email: podcast@ocremix.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ocremix
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ivb42azxllrsxwg7zavtptcho2i

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/overclocked-podcast/id1057063792?mt=2
Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/overclocked-podcast
RSS: https://feeds.feedburner.com/OverclockedPodcast
OverClocked ReMix is dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form. Learn more at http://ocremix.org/info/About_Us!
View the full article

hey @DarkEco, if you want to bounce ideas off someone, let me know. i'm by no means some synthesis master but if nothing else i've got the music background to maybe explain stuff you're doing unintentionally.
music is hard. it's ok to admit that. it's also ok to make music you're not really into just to learn something about it. but i like rozo's comment from earlier - make more pancakes. just get something finished, and then keep finishing more stuff. the best artists compose enormous amounts of content and maybe 10% is what they'd consider to be good, no matter what others say. that's ok.

So cool to see this finally posted. I, too, have had the earlier version of this in rotation since the early 2000's, and I'd certainly never expected it to get a proper release. Awesome work guys