AngelCityOutlaw

Agreed 100%. I find it's easiest to get shit done first thing in the morning. There are also studies out there that show people tend to be most productive for the first few hours in the morning.

All that I remember of XII is that it had sexy rabbit women; I thought it was Disney and Playboy's job to make me attracted to rabbits? It's just wrong. Anyway, I dunno, A/Bing them I wouldn't really say that the re-orchestrated soundtrack is as dramatically better as you're hoping for. In fact, I'd go as far to say "Battle With An Esper" actually sounds worse.

Trying out one of those 90s RPG type of fantasy tunes.

The only thing I'm aware of is an add-on for Finale But my question is...why?

Gave it a shot at some strings inspired by DS

I'd never buy any physical, expensive piece of music gear from an online retailer unless it also has an actual retail location. Mostly for this reason. In terms of software, buy as much as possible from the 1st party vendor. Lots of fishy "distributors" out there or just a pain in the ass. Like, I had bought Cinebrass on a Best Service sale. But to get the updates, I had to go through this BS with my receipt because Best Service doesn't distribute the updates. Luckily, I thought to keep the email with the proof of purchase.

Hey, thanks! The thing that kills me about Dead Men Tell No Tales is the gaping plothole it retroactively tears into the first film =(

Time for pirates!

I hate to be "that guy", but you could have solved this with a 5 second Google search. They list the recommended specs right on Dolphin's website where you get the emulator. https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/faq/#what-operating-systems-are-supported

Hey thanks for listening. You forgot to mention that the arrangement is kinda crap and was done in one night XD Since it wasn't a super serious business thing, I tried screwing around with "blending" a different rhythmic ideas, but in hindsight I shouldn't have tried to be different and just kept everything in its own pitch range, counterpoint etc. Oh well, I'm saving that for a more in-depth version of Rey's theme I'm working on.

Not seeing Last Jedi until the 23rd, but I'll be damned if I'm not stoked as hell. In the meantime, I did a little John Williams tribute.

So the first thing that jumps out at me is that the piano has a number of harsh resonances that are hurting my ears. Just do a sweep with a paratmetric EQ with the Q set high and lower the offending sounds when you find them. Listening onward this is actually happening with a lot of the sounds. The horns are way too loud and if realism is what you're going for, there is no way some of those elements (I think I hear a harp?) would be very audible with brass playing at the kind of dynamic. By the way, forte or louder is actually not played that often in most orchestral pieces. Especially for this tune, I'd keep the horns/brass at a more "choral" kind of dynamic except toward the end. They also seem to crescendo way too much and too sharply. To demonstrate what I mean, here is a good example of brass writing; in a chase scene, no less. Aside from when it's just the section by itself, the brass are generally playing at a lower dynamic suitable for the other instrumentation. I'm not sure what you're using for samples, but the strings especially sound noticeably fake. Toward the end, the arrangement gets pretty cluttered and I can't clearly hear all the different lines. The harp, lower brass, celli, trumpets, high strings, etc. all sound like at least some of the time they're overlapping frequencies and it muddies the arrangement. I'm not familiar with the source, so I can't really comment on how faithful or not it is, etc. I saw you posted the link, but tbh it doesn't matter to me if it is or not; I'd rather just listen to the remix and crit but overall, I'd say it's not a bad first remix.

Not really, tbh. People just forgot about all the bad (VG)Music written by people who didn't know what they were doing at the time. I'd assume and hope they've improved since then, of course. But nowadays most games have Hollywood-or-better level scores and in the 20th century, VGM offered arguably the best exercise in part-writing and counterpoint outside of neoclassical music. Good luck creating either of those style effectively without knowing your stuff. Theory being an all encompassing term for everything to do with the mechanics of music. Many of the successful VGM composers, new and old, that come to mind I know for a fact have master's degrees in composition and many of the ones who don't, still know all the relevant concepts that go into creating a good composition, arrangement and orchestration even if they don't know the technical terms. The same is true in the pop world, but there it's more about how marketable the track and artist is, so a bad song can still get played a lot with the right connections and catering to the right demographic; internet has made a lot of careers in pop that previously probably wouldn't have existed so easily. But many pop artists are, contrary to popular belief, expert composers. Behold, the composer of all of Britney and the Backstreet Boys, etc.'s 90s hits. Max definitely knows his stuff, from funk to metal to barbershop quartets, and I doubt he'd have written so many hits (second-most in the world iirc) without theory chops.

Unleashing some "Mummy" vibes on a track I did for a music library. Let me know what you think!

Oh yeah and, of course — feel free to monetize my stuff with Tim. and forthcoming things.

As I recall, the main arguments were • It was basically flown in under the radar • YouTube is a service that doesn't actually cost OCR anything • Some feel that the ads are more a "part of the mix" on YouTube and a lot more invasive (unskippable ads)...which they are. • Additional Brandon Strader conspiracy theories. Personally, I still tend to agree more with the naysayers, but the energy involved in caring and bitching about it just isn't worth it.

Track I wrote for a production music library focusing on the video game industry. Went for an MGS kind of vibe.

The Rock is starting to become the Adam Sandler of action films. Just crap movie after crap movie.

The thing is, those other choices aren't as attractive options. While it's true that like I said, OCR isn't the end-all-be-all of VGM remixing and that a lowered bar wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for a hobbyist website, it is by far and away the VGM community — a very niche thing btw — that cares the most about what it does and I think this is mostly thanks to being somewhat of a "gated community" as you describe it. An anecdote that I think demonstrates this, I very recently managed to get offered a deal with a new production music company. That's a great example of a "gated community" in music as many don't generally accept unsolicited submissions at all. Sure, I COULD have gone to AudioJungle or something like that (which I think only recently added some sort of quality control) where library-music composers go to die and have my tracks buried among a sea of others, BUT this way I'm among people who are pros at what they do, can and will give me real advice because they and their clients demand a certain standard from them, they have connections that can get placements in stuff that people will actually enjoy, you have people representing you across the world, etc. and your odds at success are a lot better than if it was just you out there in the wilds — alone. Now you might say, "Yeah, but that's about music for money and OCR isn't about that!" To which I say, ignore the $ aspect and you'll see it's the same thing — a somewhat exclusive community creates opportunity and is a more enjoyable experience. OCR is the only VGM community I am aware of who: Hosts panels at things like MAGfest, puts out multi-disc albums of remixes for free, has had numerous of its users go on to become professional composers; has what easily amounts to thousands of hours of music from nearly 20 years back available on YouTube, with millions of plays total, each one DJP has written a mini essay on, and all for $0.00; launched its own record label, collaborated with Capcom to produce the first official fan-made community Megaman album; it supported the development of the definitive VGM virtual instrument, developed by community members; and about *ten years ago, they made the first entirely fanmade soundtrack to a video game. This is only made possible by having a power structure of some kind. While it's true that OCR is a gated community, they are always willing to let people in. Everywhere else? It's either an open floodgate or the gate is electrified. *OMFG I was 16 when this came out and was before I actually discovered the community. Holy shit, I'm getting old fast.

Honestly, you seem to have a great many of grand plans, but none pan out — just my observation. Perhaps you should take a moment to consider that the legal hurdles and the costs involved in producing a CD of video game remixes when no one even buys CDs anymore is a lofty goal that should maybe not be pursued further. I also don't see why one would want to do this when OCR produces FF albums pretty regularly that get tons of promotion, lots of listeners, etc. Why not just get on one of those or try and start up one? So yes, I think you're going about it the wrong way and dreaming to big compared to what you've proven you can do. Start small.

Exactly Which is why I still say that the initial talking point is the most practical compromise that would result in a mixpost. Lo-fi tracks, regardless of intent, are either acceptable or not — full stop. The part I bolded of your quote is also good, IMO, but really is just a more constructive and polite way of saying "make it like this instead". All depends on how badly the person wants to be OCR-approved, I suppose.

Mickey's conquest continues.

IMO, networking is less about "who you know" and more about "who knows you". I can't be bothered to find it atm, but some years ago I saw a forum post written by Laura Shigihara (Plants Vs. Zombies composer) where she said that the trouble with networking is that it causes you to see people as a means to an end and most people can pick up on that. Meeting people means little to them; your work is what matters. So the takeaway from her post was essentially that word of mouth is more important than actually meeting people after a pretty short while. Every successful composer out there who is repeatedly scoring worthwhile games, films and TV shows doesn't actually have to go to every developer conference and stuff. What happens is that they meet enough people in local scenes so that everyone knows "he/she is the composer" and if they do a project and it (or at least the music) turns some heads, because those are the heads who may call them when they're looking for a composer for their project. Do well enough and maybe an agency who frequently works with big names in entertainment will pick you up. I learned it myself: I only had to attend nearby conferences and such a few times before all the regulars knew me as "the music guy" and if they're interested in having me do something, they'll call and if they like what I do they'll hopefully tell their friends. The same goes with referrals from other musicians and sound people. The lesson to be learned here is that networking is important for getting your foot in the door, but once you do...do the best fucking job you can, because it's important that people notice.

My entry for their contest this year.

As can we all I know what you mean. I was a "Jack of all trades" type, but the problem was is that it's really expensive to get all the instruments or good virtual instruments to do a lot of different genres and there is a lot of esoteric knowledge involved in producing any kind of music. As such, I cheaped out on a lot of things and never spent enough time trying to get really good at anything in particular and I definitely paid for it...I'm also just never satisfied with my guitar sound and my passion for the instrument and metal music has died out, so I just play guitar for fun now and only occasionally feel like listening to rock. I spent the last year and some change working on improving my skills with composing contrapuntally, orchestration, cinematic sound design and buying quality libraries. As of one month ago, I at last have a template that I'm really happy with and it can easily play anything I throw at it and it sounds great. I may not be able to compose every genre of music, but what I can do I have a lot of fun with and always feel inspired to compose more and while those VSTis may have made my wallet cry, it really is awesome not having to surrender so many musical ideas to the mercy of mediocre samples.