timaeus222

So Zen! I just played this game for the first time recently and was surprised how good the BGM was which is a good thing since you'll hear it looped so much.

Contact Information
Username: timaeus222
Name: Truong-Son Nguyen

http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222
https://hand-held-thumbs.hostingerapp.com/
ID: 24526
Submission Information
Games: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links
ReMix Title: The Arc That Spans The Heavens
Consoles/Platforms: Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows OST Composers: uncredited/unknown (previously discussed with Larry) Source Tunes: Zuzu Boyle Theme (attached)   Comments: "I've been having a lot of fun with Yu-Gi-Oh lately, both Duel Links and Master Duel (released early January 2022). Basically, Duel Links uses ~60% the board size of the real life game, with half of the Life Points and about half the deck size. The meta of this game changes fairly quickly, but right now it's rather diverse. The Melodious deck was part of the meta few months ago but is still semi-relevant (the current meta consists of several Arc-V decks like Odd-Eyes, D/D/D, and Galaxy). The character who uses the deck is Zuzu Boyle, whose theme is used in this ReMix.
The title is based on the phrase the main character of the Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V anime says when he performs a 'Pendulum Summon': "Swing! Pendulum of the Souls! Draw an arc of light on the skies! Pendulum Summon!"
  I haven't done Jazz Fusion in a really long time, but I instantly felt that kind of inspiration from this theme, and wrote this in about 3 days, using a similar sound pool to the Kirby ReMix "Kirbland" I did as a Twitter challenge. You might hear references to zircon and Joshua Morse here and there. Out of all the elements in this mix, I enjoyed writing the drum (Groove Bias) and bass (Trilian Jaco Bass) parts the most, especially the bass solo! Hope you guys stay well, and keep on ReMixing! No source breakdown this time, as I think there are fairly direct connections to be made. :-)"   Extra Info: As previously discussed, I have no idea who the music artist is and Konami doesn't seem to be very open with revealing the composer name. Very weird.  

Lovely, floaty space-jazz here. There's quite a lot of reverb on the drums, and I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it certainly adds to the spaciness of the track. Sumptuous bass anchors the piece, and gets a chance to shine on its own during the solo at 1:52. Some more soft-sounding analogue synths fill out the soundscape, and it all adds up to create a very warm and fuzzy atmosphere.
Nothing will really jump out at you in this piece, but that's perhaps a good thing. The smooth production and instrumentation let you close your eyes and drift along with it, without any surprises bringing you back to Earth.
YES

I dig flexing some new instrumentation approaches here, and I hear the obvious influence of zircon with "Ragol Weather". The drums feel tepid relative to the energy of the rest of the track, so IMO the synergy's not there, but I still dig this. The pervasive fuzziness around 2:55 is intentional, but doesn't come off that way until the very, very end; not sure how the effect could be tweaked to not sound like an accident. Otherwise, solid; I dig it! Does timaeus ever NOT bring the goods? C'mon.

YES

meaty synth keys in the opening with lots of verb. the bass tone is instantly recognizable - love what it's doing right off the bat. the drums kind of noodle around initially, and it feels real loud here with the initial melodic content, but it's clearly from Duel Links. the leads sound great and are stylistically appropriate. i especially liked the layered leads at about 1:05.
there's a break at 1:20 with some neat late-attack synths, and that leads back into some noodling in the bass at 1:50. there's an awkward note at 2:06 in the bass vs. the extended chord in the background. at 2:21, the melody comes back in and there's some ramen around the melodic content as we go through the last big blow. there's another breakdown at 2:53 and an extended outro with some bitcrushed fuzz to end it.
it sounds great, instrument choice and execution is excellent, and the arrangement is clearly solid. this is an easy vote.
 
 
YES

Very clean synth jazz.  Nothing groundbreaking here, but it's a straightforwardly enjoyable piece.  Solid writing, solid production.  I can't see any reason not to post this.
YES

I might return with something more detailed, but the simplest way I think is to take your leitmotif and repeat it in a higher mode. Basically a similar melodic contour on a higher 'key' with the appropriate adjusted chords. This came to mind:
 
This video also talks about using this technique, not necessarily to feel like you're floating, but just as it was used in its time:
 

I don't think I could have become who I am today without OCR. You guys helped me develop my character as well as my musical ability.

I don`t know exactly what I want to say, and none of this is planed out, but I think its wild this place is still around. For one reason or another Ill check the remixes and get a wave of "the good old days"  and not just from the music but this community, Which Ill admit, I was not super active, but from the time when I first came across it, I think maybe a  TechTv show sent me this way? Its wild people are still mixing Aquatic ambiance, and it still puts a smile on my face. 

I remember the first album I watched get released was Kong In Concert, I burned it to a disc (mp3 cd players were so cool) and would listen to it in Algebra 1, perhaps its why  took algebra one twice.  
I always wanted to be musical I would love to be able to contribute in that way. Thank you to everyone that still makes music for this community even If it gets said once or thousands of time it's very appreciated. 

 

And here we are yet again. Another year has passed and the latest AOCC is done and ready for consuming. For the moment, it's a link to my Dropbox. But once Dyne gets the site ready, I'll change it go there.
From all of us who took part in the overclocking of Christmas this year, we all hope you enjoy the music
https://williammichael.info/aocc/

It's dancing time 🤠~. Thanks for the fun song Timaeus!

Good to be around! I'm still writing music, not much on remixes lately, but I've been doing a lot of arrangements of iconic songs like "Here Comes the Sun" and "Memory" (Cats).

No, you don't really. Heck, even if you have realistic sample libraries, you can still use them incorrectly and lack humanization in what you write, and that could actually not sound as good as a well-treated soundfont with careful note overlap and meticulous volume automation. The combination of good-enough sounds and hard work to make them sound realistic is what really counts. There is also the context - what platform are you writing for? (If it's something like 16-bit and 32-bit RPG music, then an old Roland-SC88 soundfont pool can work, even though it's not that realistic.)
This is something zircon made with realistic sample libraries:
And this is something that uses no sample libraries, only soundfonts and stuff:
Both of them still sound pretty darn good in their own way. It's about the way you treat the instruments, not how good they sound out of the box.

Hey, wasn't this one of those Castlevania Remix compo tracks? I knew I recognized it from somewhere, lol (nice job winning that compo, btw!).

Oh, I like the approach in the beginning of this; using the N64 castle center theme leaves you with more to work with when you get into the meat of the track (which is the SotN castle theme), and it doesn't sound like a different track being slapped onto the beginning. I could see some complain that the sources aren't integrated, but I think they compliment one another well enough side by side. The instruments are pretty clean and bouncy, too, which fits the theme of fightin' dancin' monsters.
That transition to Symphony of the Night wasn't my cup o' tea, though. I think it could've worked had the key changed been avoided by either transposing the intro or later material to match the other, but as it stands the key change sounds like something important is supposed to be happening, but the rest of the instrumentation and textures suggest otherwise. While I stand by my belief that these sources work quite well side by side as an intro to the main portion of the track, the key swap makes the two parts of the track sound disjointed.
I like the instruments and textures, once again, but I feel that texture at 1:28 is overpowering that lead. You can still hear everything well enough, but some mixing TLC could've helped make the leads stand out better. This doesn't affect the track much as the song moves along, and when the lead ain't there to overpower the texture at 2:38 sounds great, so it doesn't ultimately take this track down too much.
That bridging material at 2:53 is a really great way to make the returning material at 3:35 sound relatively fresh. I could slap you on the wrist for repetition, but I think it works well enough as a nice contrast to the bridging material. The melody playing over different harmonies at 2:59 was a really cool touch, too.
Overall I think this does a great job at what it wants to do, despite one or two hiccups. I think this'll work out well on the front page.
YES

I think from what I can tell, the mixing feels cleaner in the reverb, and the treble has a lot less clutter! I believe you also added a bit of an ending too which is nice. For the most part I think the arrangement has stayed pretty similar to what you had before, though I haven't exactly A/Bed it very much. Just looking at the waveform though, I can see the dynamics changing more effectively.
Overall, I still think it isn't easy to tell whether this would be a YES or not. The arrangement doesn't seem to have changed much since then (it's still tough to follow the melody and realize what direction it is going, imo), but as far as the mixing goes, it's a huge improvement. Much better on the dynamics and upper treble mixing. I'd say give it a shot and see what the panel thinks!

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).

Would be cool to see this actually played! Seems like a good arrangement, just not actually realistic-sounding (yet?).

Hi everybody!
Hope you all had a good New Year!  I've just completed a new arrangement; finally I've managed to turn my hand to Undertale!  Here's a short Rhapsody based on a few of the main themes in the piece just for Piano.  I'm making an extended Orchestral version soon!  In the meantime, enjoy!
 

Hope my comment in your Bandcamp is useful* and not too derp.  Well worth the purchase.  Cheers d00d!

Just released this atmospheric/ambient/electronic music album! Hope you find the time to check it out! ❤️


https://timaeusproductions.bandcamp.com/album/rising-above
I started writing the tracks for this album since 2016! With Graduate School studies going on simultaneously, and the recent worldwide fiasco, I feel the world needs motivation. The structure of this album is designed to depict a metaphorical ascension to greatness, to hopefully encourage you all to breathe, get up, and get air into your lungs by being an overall positive and outgoing person!
 

Here's what I could do to this in about an hour. BLORGx_2.flp
I just cleaned up the mixing, added some filler fx, and showed a trick with ride cymbals and pitch shifting.

Here's what I could do to this in about an hour. BLORGx_2.flp
I just cleaned up the mixing, added some filler fx, and showed a trick with ride cymbals and pitch shifting.

Here's what I could do to this in about an hour. BLORGx_2.flp
I just cleaned up the mixing, added some filler fx, and showed a trick with ride cymbals and pitch shifting.

Thank you! I hope things go better for you then!