pokemoneinstein

Well it is all Pokémon. I'm just unclear as to whether that's becoming a spinoff album, or if the spinoff album is something completely new and separate.

So, is Pikablu Edition going to be for spinoffs now, or is that going to go ahead as was planned, and spinoff album will take a different name?

Does Special Pikablu Edition have any specific goal at the moment? I know D/P and B/W could use some remixes, but I think at this point, a Pokémon spinoff album would be much more fun. Colosseum, Snap, Mystery Dungeon, there's a lot of great Pokémon music to be heard outside of the main regions.

Any ideas for what you'd like? I've got one in mind, but if you have one, by all means tell me. Side note: If anyone's looking for a whistler, I've got a pretty good set of lips, if I do say so myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE3dL9uS_xs How can you live on this earth?!

I can try to get the album cover art going if you still need that.

I was going to suggest a MissingNo sequel as opposed to a G/S album. Glad to see it's already being considered. The other games have a lot of great music that MissingNo missed out on. Sootopolis comes to mind, as does Eterna City. And it seems everyone forgot all about the Orre Region, home to some of the best music in the franchise!

Maybe. We'll see. By OCR's standards, Pokémon's got a lot of remixes. For now, I'd love to see Pikmin or Luigi's Mansion or Fire Emblem get some attention. Or maybe an album of songs from Mario RPGs

It needs a lot of humanization, but it's got got potential. I say keep working.

It's asking for log in because you folder is private

Yeah, it's just you two and PixelPanic.

Well, the deadline's up, guys. I'm disappointed in most of you.

WIPs are due today! Get them in!

No, play around with velocities and volume automations. Make it sound more like someone's using instruments instead of a DAW with a vst.

In terms of games, I'd say yes, in general. As game platforms support higher and higher quality sounds, game companies seem to opt for orchestras and other cool sounds quite frequently. And I think it's safe to say that in general, modern games don't have themes that are nearly as memorable as the classic ones we grew up with. Certainly there are standouts like Halo, MGS, and Skyrim, whose main themes are very recognizable, but I wouldn't say I'm familiar with much else from those games. When game music used to be very low-quality, composers would focus on making memorable tunes to compensate for the low-quality instruments. I think just as a general trend, composers of a lot of today's themes tend to feel like the instruments can just do the work for them, and don't really bother to make something we can familiarize ourselves all too much with. Don't get me wrong, a lot of today's music is very well done, but beautiful production and beautiful melodies aren't mutually exclusive, and I just wish that's something that more of today's writers would recognize.

You've got a great start here. I was expecting a lot less, but you've got a pretty good sound library here, and the arrangement is a very nice one. Going forward, I'd say you should use your woodwinds more, and try not to focus so much on staccato strings. You could also do a lot more with your percussion. For one, the snares are way too powerful, especially later on in the song. Furthermore, it seems a bit empty as it is, you can definitely have more going on with countermelodies etc, but as you said, "it's more of a sketch of the arrangement," so I expect you'll be fleshing it out more later on. Great start here, and I'm excited to listen to the finished result!

I wouldn't say you need to add other themes, or even extend it, per sé. Just flesh out what you've already got. It's a good basic structure, but it needs more going on that flows with itself, rather than stuff that comes from elsewhere. You also need to humanize it, it sounds very mechanical. Just curious, what did you use to make this?

Again, way too original. Throw leads into pre-existing parts of the song, to expand outwards. Once you've done that, if it doesn't mesh, rearrange the rest of the instruments to work with the lead there. There's a long time in the beginning that just sounds like an original song. Stick a lead in around 30 seconds or so and see where it takes you. Specifically, go for the DD menu theme. There's a lead later that sounds like it's can't really decide what it is, and I've got a feeling it's supposed to be the menu theme. But make it more defined. You've got a good start on a song, but again, it doesn't sound like a remix. Just an original piece with a little Mario Kart cameo.

WIP Deadline is this Saturday! Spend this last week touching up your mixes and post them by midnight on May 5th

I'm sure you'll find someone, but just in case you don't, I'm a fantastic whistler. I'd be happy to help. If you've spent too long searching and gotten nowhere, let me know. (assuming your arrangement works for whistling)

It sounds like nothing more than a MIDI remaster. There aren't a whole lot of interesting things going on. It sounds like you took some things away and didn't add anything of your own. I'm going to save you the whole "too conservative" thing because it doesn't seem like you're trying to get this on OCR. This version cuts it for a few hundred views on YouTube, but it's really nothing special. In order to keep things interesting, you've got to go for a much bigger sound. You can't just choose a one instrument to play a part and call it done, you've got to have things changing up. I'd also suggest saving up for a better sound library if you're going to go orchestral. This one isn't doing you many favors. I've heard most of your other remixes, and you definitely know how to add your own original stuff. It's just such a shame you didn't do it for this, because you have a good start, but I wouldn't call this song complete.

That's fine, but remember: the goal is to get the mix accepted. In its current state, your remix's source usage alone is enough to prevent that from happening

Even still, the only source I heard is the Title Theme, and that seems more like a cameo. If you want this to be a remix as opposed to an original, you've got to focus a lot more on mixing the sources into your work. Right now, you're making a song out of what you've built and it seems like you're forcing the source into it. Try building everything else around the source, instead of going the other way around.

It's got a good feeling going, but I don't think you use the sources anywhere near enough. It sounds like a similar vibe and key, but I can't recognize any familiar melodies going on. Going forward, that's what you should consider the most.

I've updated the file with some guitar chords during the vocal section and a few more adjustments to the various existing tracks, as well as a transition to the chorus.