Synthony

Harsh? I love getting constructive feedback xD I wanted to know what could make this better and that's exactly what you have me ^^ As far as the mix and master... I'm gonna have to get rid of my studio phones cuz they aren't doing the trick. It sounded pristine on my studio phones, but in the car and on my fiancée's phone headset, the clipping is obvious and ghastly. I definitely need to make some adjustments >.< As for the arrangement, I started toying with melodies from "Guide You Home", which is a much richer source than the two I've already got -- if I throw that into the medley, I'll have a solid basis for more chord progression and rhythm changes that should make all the difference once implemented. I don't know when I'll get around to it, but I'll update when I've made significant progress. Thank you for the feedback!

Actually, thanks to terrible mixing, you may not have heard the lead that's introduced at 1:14 -- still a good chunk in, but not nearly as bad as over two minutes. ^^; Here's an updated mix I've been toying with for the last few hours: http://soundcloud.com/vincevolpyne/wip-spyro-among-the-stars And yeah, I know a few hours doesn't make a good remix... I didn't back when I started it in October '11. I've improved tremendously at music production and composition since then, believe you me. The only real problem as far as the repetition goes is that the source material is pretty sparse in itself -- aside from the choir and the two (count 'em, TWO) lead melodies, there's nothing interesting going on in either of the source tracks, just simple orchestral chords. The Legend of Spyro score wasn't really made for focused listening. I'm doing what I can with what's there, and I'll study the sources a bit more to see if there's anything else I can use to make it more interesting. That's part of the reason I went with trance, though -- trance generally has repetitive leads, and the progression occurs in the rhythm section instead. Unfortunately, OCR doesn't seem to like that too much D:

Old version: http://www.soundcloud.com/vincevolpyne/among-the-stars-spyro-remix UPDATE 10/5/12: http://soundcloud.com/vincevolpyne/wip-spyro-among-the-stars Source: Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning "End Credits (with Choir)" by Rebecca Knuebuhl and The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon "Valley of Avalar" by Rebecca Knuebuhl and Gabriel Mann I made this well over a year ago, and had it rejected by the judges' panel on the grounds of poor production and repetition. I want to update it now that I've improved a hundredfold in production, but frankly, I don't know what to do with it... can haz feedback? :3c UPDATE 10/5/12: I've made a lot of adjustments to the mix and master, tweaked some sounds and added a couple new elements to make it a little more interesting. Feedback please? ^^;

I don't use Harmor :v The bass synths in this were made with 3xOsc and various basic effects plugins. All-in-one softsynths are just clunky and unnecessary to me. I build my sounds from the ground up. B3 I can't for the life of me figure out how to make a kick drum punch through the bass, short of using a peak controller to duck the volume of the sub bass, which turns out too obvious by the time the kicks make it through... Sidechaining doesn't seem to want to work in my favor, like, ever, and it irritates the hell out of me. As for the EQing tips... thank you for being so very specific xD Equalization flies right over my head, I usually just tinker around til something sounds good xD As for the bitcrushing... I don't know how else to get the "ya" sound D: I can tinker all I want with multiple different bitcrushers but they all produce that annoying high-pitched drone and I want rid of that >.< I just can't figure out how...

Okay, after waaaaaay too much procrastination, I finally went back and remastered "Of Men and Monsters" one more time. This time, I've overhauled the previously repetitive drumlines, tremendously improved the mixing and mastering, and added some stereo madness to the lead synth, among other little tweaks here and there. An old mix of this tune was submitted to and rejected by the OverClocked ReMix judges' panel, who told me the arrangement was awesome but the audio quality... not so much. In the process of revamping this medley, I learned a TON about mixing and mastering which has proven valuable to my original productions as well, and now I think I'm about where I want to be in terms of production skill. Hopefully they'll agree. I'm gonna post this for a last round of feedback from the OCR forum community before submitting it to the judges' panel once again. "Of Men and Monsters" is a brostep medley of five tracks from the Pokémon video game series, spanning every model of GameBoy and the best years of my childhood. Source material is as follows: Pokémon Red/Green/Blue: "Team Rocket Hideout"; " "Pokémon Gold/Silver: "Rocket Hideout"; "Unown Tune" Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire: " "Download from SoundCloud! http://soundcloud.com/synthony/of-men-and-monsters-pokemon

Derp. Fixed. Also updated the mix per some of Rozovian's and A.COE's suggestions. http://soundcloud.com/synthony/pokmon-of-men-and-monsters

Much better this time around! Good luck with the Judges' Panel! We definitely need more Pokémon mixes here! >w> By the way, have you given my dubstep Pokémon medley a listen yet? :3

i c wut u did thar <3

That... is hilarious. In the old version, all the drums were sampled from an actual kit. In this version, I used kick and snare samples from a couple of mainstream dubstep songs. And not they sound too real?! xD I kinda see what you're getting at, but a lot of the criticism I received on previous versions was that it didn't sound 'dubstep' enough. Mainstream American dubstep has a heavy focus on loud, punchy drums and distroted, talkative synths. What the old version lacked was punchy enough drums ^^;

I can take that as a compliment, cuz I understand it's hard to respect something that's outside your usual interests. Thank you. I'm glad you don't completely hate it.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys! I've updated the mix. Same link will take you to it.

Awesome! 8D I'm excited to hear it! x3 Sucks about the roster changes though D;

Love this cover. In my opinion, it's better than the original! So how's the live brass coming along? :3

Not bad ^-^ I kinda feel like the hats should be a bit louder, to give a better sense of speed and energy to the track, but that's just nitpicking really. I'm not sure this one'll be up to snuff for OCR like This Treasure was, but it's still a good listen!

http://soundcloud.com/synthony/pokmon-of-men-and-monsters I sent this in to the judges a while back and it was rejected on the grounds of poor mixing quality, drum sample selection, etc. though they encouraged me to resubmit, as it's a well-arranged medley ^^; So here it is, with better drums, bass, and mastering. I'd like to get some feedback before I resubmit, however, both from Pokémon music fans and dubstep enthusiasts. Source tracks are: Pokémon R/G/B/Y/FR/LG -- Team Rocket's hidout; Pokémon G/S/C/HG/SS -- Team Rocket's hideout; Unown radio interference Pokémon R/S/E --

Happy Halloween, everybody! Here's a couple spooky-themed tunes for you to add to your blaring trick-or-treater playlist. Ectoplasm -- A strange experimental piece I made for Mixit 65 back in 2008 by sequencing samples and loops in a drum sequencer on my PSP. Ectoplasm, pt. II -- The dubstep sequel to Ectoplasm. Don't be fooled by the repetitiveness and poor mixing of the first song -- this one is my latest and greatest work, and only borrows portions of Ectoplasm I for familiarity before turning you on your head. ;D Some Kind of Monster -- A dance/horror/rock thing I did in early 2010. Still proud of it, despite how low-quality it is compared to what I can do now. I still like the overall sound of the track though, it has its charm. :3 Comments and criticism on any and all of them would be greatly appreciated!

Heh. It's one thing to sample/steal original works, but when it comes to game remixes/covers, nobody's gonna sample your stuff into their own work, and theft won't get them anywhere. I wouldn't worry about it. Hell, I looked at your other song, and it sounds like you're emailing people the FLStudio project file -- that gives them the source material, which they can easily change and release as their own, with 'proof' that it's theirs! Believe me, just uploading an MP3 somewhere would be so much easier.

Sad indeed.

I appreciate your feedback. It's not too often anyone separates critique from opinions, from what I've seen, so it's quite refreshing to hear someone say "It's pretty good, but I didn't like it". I can see where you're coming from, too, since I've come across plenty of dubstep tracks that didn't really do it for me. Everyone has different tastes, and I can respect that. Thank you for your honest feedback.

Fixed the stereo derp mentioned above, and changed a sub bass line toward the end to match the wobble bass instead of doing its own thing. ^^; http://soundcloud.com/synthony/of-men-and-monsters

The bass has been the biggest pain in the ass to mix here. If I turn it up, the drums lose their punch. If I turn the drums up then, the rest of the track gets compressed by the kicks and it just sounds awful. I'm really trying here but I just can't quite get a strong, loud, AND clean mix. @~@

CCR, now that you mention, I do feel silly for not messing with stereo hardly at all. Before I figured out such tricks as the wobble bass and other effects automations, stereo foolery was a must in my music. ^^; Lately I haven't really bothered working in stereo, I just make the music sound good to me on my big speakers. As far as the drums and bass levels go, it's been quite the challenge just to get it to sound as good as it does now. I constantly have issues with the bass compressing the rest of the track... If I want the bass up, the drums get muddy. If I want the drums to punch through, the bass has to come down. I can't find a happier medium than what I've got, unless there's some magical trick I'm unaware of that will stop the bass from compressing everything. >.<

At last you understand. >w> Glad you like it. ^^ I'm thinking I'll probably send it to the judges' panel within the next couple days, but I wanna see if I can squeeze any more feedback out of the forums first.

Crap. >.< Didn't think the site would block hotlinks.... Okay, reupped to SoundCloud, link fixed. http://soundcloud.com/synthony/of-men-and-monsters