notMe

dug this out a little bit ago, life's been busy, lots of changes, blah blah blah... Anyway, I filled out the beginning a bit, changed the ending a little, want some feedback. Also, I haven't touched the snare as per Timaeus's comment, but will likely do so, if further prompted by someone. Also, I know there's a chord in the piano near the end that gets held out funny, sometimes I have trouble rendering stuff and that happens. https://soundcloud.com/mark-fuhrman/jfg-remix-unfinished love some feedback, want to sub this sometime soon, especially since I'll be moving at the end of the month and won't have my equiptment after that for potentially a year.

Honestly, I really dig this. Maybe not everybody's cup of tea, but I guess I've had a little exposure to music similar to this. My only complaint is it's too short. Love it, want more of it! Great job!

sweet. so I have more or less finished the arrangement. still got a lot of mixing and tweaking to do, but I'd love any feedback you have! the song gradually morphed away from the "sneaky" stuff near the end, but I kinda like where it went. So... let me know what you think! https://soundcloud.com/mark-fuhrman/jfg-remix-unfinished

Absolutely stunning! Performance, arrangement, even the presentation of the video- amazing! I have no ideas for you. I only wanted to post and say I love it! I guess in an effort to have something critical/helpful to say, I would perhaps suggest limiting the use of playing in unison near the end. To me, at least in a small trio ensemble like that, unison should be left for very short phrases, almost as punctuation or occasional accents. However, you pulled it off well, so if you didn't change that, I would still be extremely happy. Well done!

Love it! And I agree, the piano could be bumped up just a touch. Arrangement-wise, it's stellar; I guess I would perhaps enjoy a tad bit more length. Two ideas for length, take 'em or leave 'em: you could cut the soloing out around 1:58ish with the piano, and just comp around on those chords for a few loops, and afterwards come back in (either full-blown or reduced, depending on how you do your comping). OR You could extend the breakdown section a little bit. I guess to me the only thing detracting from the song so far is how relentlessly energetic it is, so it could stand to have a break from the (admittedly amazing) soloing for me to have a chance to catch my breath.

hey there! First of all, i really like all the different stuff you do with stutters and effects. It's easy to see you put some work into it. Also, (and I'm certainly no professional in this area), the production is nice- it's easy to hear all the different elements and nothing sticks out too much. That being said, however, my principal beef is with the arrangement. For such a well-known tune, I really think you need to go somewhere with your source. When it comes down to it, your mix is a loop of the tune over and over, just with different effects. It actually gets a little tiresome after a few times through the melody. So to me, what this needs is some variation. Try some different instrumentation every once in a while playing the melody. Add some solos or background riffs (besides all the effects). Change it up a bit. Again, I like the stuff you did, it just got boring and repetitive after a few times. Hopefully I'm not sounding too harsh. And it's only my opinion- maybe others don't think it is that bad.

Hey All! was recently inspired by Light_of_Aether's JFG re-orchestration (and also the acquisition of some new instruments) to do a JFG mix. original: [uPDATED 8-10-14] my mix:https://soundcloud.com/mark-fuhrman/jfg-remix-unfinished Obviously it's not finished yet, but I had a question before I went too far with it- Is the arrangement too conservative? Assuming that I mostly stick with the kind of stuff I'm already doing, would this pass as a "remix", or be tossed because it was too close to the original? Thanks in advance, and I'm definitely open to other comments/feedback- just know that I'm probably not even 50% done yet.

ooooh! I love me some JFG! Always wanted to do some myself, but I'm afraid to touch it, since it sounds awesome in its original composition. Anyway, great job so far. Love it! As far as arrangement goes, I can't tell that you deviated at all from the original, so no comments there. From a first listen, the crescendos between 1:45 and 2:15-ish were kind of awkward and unrealistic. They happened a little too quickly and died back down too much, almost like you tried to give every note an individual crescendo. This is just me, but I would maybe try to make that section a little more of a cohesive-overarching crescendo, with the volume gradually building. Don't take that too far, though- you DO want to give each short phrase a little bit of life, but just smooth it out a little. Also, not sure what instrument it was (possibly low strings?), but it was pretty quiet in the intro; kind of overshadowed by the brass and percussion. Obviously it wasn't meant to steal the show, but I didn't even notice it until I listened again, and had to strain to hear it. Otherwise, great stuff so far! I'm sure there are better ears than me to give more constructive feedback, but keep it up!

Hey OCR! Today marks the date of my new album's release! It has a bunch of different stuff on there- electronic, groove, rap, soundtrack, and more. I'd love it if you guys would check it out! You can find it here: http://www.noisetrade.com/notme/piddlefits If you like, you can click on the name of the songs to listen before you download. Also, if you guys have any feedback, especially on mixing/sound design which are weak areas for me, I would be grateful for that as well! Enjoy!

Haven't listened to all of it yet, but of what I have I've enjoyed. Good stuff! Like you said, nothing too crazy, but just some tunes to chill to. I like it!

Okay. Update time! here it is: https://soundcloud.com/mark-fuhrman/monkey-flight-remix-unfinished Still a ways to go, but the piece is mostly written at least. Still got a HUGE amount of mixing to do- that's going to be a headache. Also haven't really touched the drums- they will be much more varied and interesting later. Might re-record the vocals too, but at least I have the whole song's worth this time:) Thanks Brandon for the advice on the distortion- after listening more I agreed that it was too much- especially with the s's, which I have no clue how to fix. I'm not a huge fan of my voice, and I think that's why I was hesitant to change. Any new thoughts?

thanks all for your input! I think I posted this in the philosophy/etc. forum mainly because I was also interested in getting some critique on my lyrics, which, towards the end, will get pretty blatantly Christian, and I would like feedback from other Christians on how to word things so my message is clear but not pushy. I guess i may not have said that in the OP, don't remember. But I'm willing to either post a draft of the text, or I could PM it to someone if they wanted.

Thanks! actually those vocals are going to be completely scrapped- that was just a one-take to get a feel for how they'll fit with the piece. I agree less distortion could certainly help in some areas, but I actually kind of like it- it gives the sense of it feeling like you're in a cockpit listening to them over a radio. I don't know, that's the picture I get. Actually, now that I think of it, maybe switching between distorted/clear could be a nice effect to give a section some extra punch when the text calls for it.

Okay. So maybe the song I picked isn't a super well known song, but I'm pretty sure that as far as the source being in my mix, its almost all that's is there. I actually feel I went a little conservative so far on the arrangement. Second, the lyrics, to me are inseparable from the music. I tried to create an atmosphere of flying through the sky over an ocean, and the lyrics are basically relating the gospel message to that picture. However, I'm not sure that others won't be able to see that.

dang! Nice flute playing! and I love the background textures- really sparse, open, echoes, all lend well to that ruins feel. Don't know if I have a whole lot for constructive criticism, but I'll try- the flute, again, is awesome, but maybe you could give it a slightly longer rest every now and again. once it gets going, it keeps your attention, but since it is mostly wandering around the chords, there isn't much of a "melody", or not one I can hear easily. that makes it almost tiresome to listen to for an extended period. So one idea could be to give it a 10+ second rest every so often, and throw a secondary melodic instrument in those sections- perhaps some dulcimer or zither sound sounds like it would fit, even just rolling around on a couple notes.

I'm really diggin the rhythms, especially percussion- definitely gives off a very cheerful, lighthearted vibe. Before I go further, a questions for you though: Are you intentionally staying away from an easily identifiable harmonic structure and an accessible melody? It's hard for me to really get a feel for where notes should be landing, what I should be listening for in the melody/harmony. And if this is indeed music for kids, you almost always need to have the music accessible (i.e. a melody you can hum along with, simple harmonic progressions like I-IV-V). I think part of the problem may be the organ, especially the first time through, before you add the bell hits. First of all, I think it's a touch too loud and steals the focus (which would be alright if it was playing a more accessible melody, though). The other thing that was a little unsettling to me about the organ was all of its long, held out notes. Those notes really felt like they went on forever. Again, I think they would actually be fine IF the organ was softer, and not the focus of the song- maybe as a background to a melody? Anyway, those are my initial thoughts, and I'm by no means an expert.

Hey all! I haven't really been around this forum before, don't know why not, as it's something rather important to me. Anyway, an introduction- I'm a Christian, and a musician, I guess that I would say that my faith informs my art, but also that art informs my faith. Anywho, that's a whole 'nother discussion. My purpose for this thread is I'd like a little feedback from the other Christians on this site. I guess I've kinda flung myself into making a remix for OCR that has a gospel message. Blatantly. My questions for you guys are: 1.) Has anything like that been attempted before on OCR? And if so, has anything been accepted by the judges panel? - I guess to me it seems that if it met the submission requirements and was a quality mix, they *might* accept it? They seem like a pretty decent bunch, so one could hope. Then again, the gospel is offensive, and it would probably stir lots of controversy, so maybe they'd like to avoid that? 2.) Whatever the answer to #1, I'm still planning on proceding with my remix. I have no clue how to classify it in a genre, I guess it's kind of like spoken word, but I suck at genres. If it never get's posted on this site, oh well. I've been praying that God would help me write a killer mix, with Spirit-infused text, and that people would be open to it on this site, but I'm prepared to maybe just plant seeds or something. Anyway, I'd absolutely loooove some feedback from fellow Christians on it (from anybody really, but only believers could really get me the critique on the text that I would like). So here's the thread I started in the remix workshop forums: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45216 as of this writing, there's only about 1/3 of the text in the mix so far, but I think I'm mostly done writing it. I could post the full text if anybody would be interested in taking a look. Thanks so much in advance! It really is encouraging to find that there are other brothers and sisters on this site!

Hey All! Got a mix from Super Monkey Ball 2 I started working on a few days ago... I'm really liking it so far. Here's the original: Here's my mix (updated): https://soundcloud.com/mark-fuhrman/monkey-flight-remix-unfinished It's maybe about 60% done. The vocals are really far from completed, haven't even finished writing em out yet... but I included the half I got just to give you an idea what they'll sound like later. Let me know what y'all think! Thanks!

Hey All! Been a while since I was around the forums here, but just noticed they posted a mix (Take My Hand) that gave me partial creds for the arrangement. Thought now might be a perfect time for me to advertise a little. Got a new original album coming out November 1- mostly electronic stuff, some soundtrack-y tunes, and it'll be available for FREE! Yay for free music! Anyway, I'd appreciate if you guys would maybe give it a download when it comes out and let me know what you think. For now, there's a short preview available at the site: http://www.noisetrade.com/notme/piddlefits-demo Awesome. And, if somehow i posted this in the wrong forum, would somebody please re-direct me? Thanks so much in advance!

thanks for the advice! I have looked into more portable audio recorders, and they appeal in some ways, but if I'm primarily looking to record for some instrumental stuff, will the quality suffer at all in comparison to a normal condenser mic? Is the basic difference just portability?

Hey all- I'm wanting to get into some recording stuff- does anyone have any recommendations for mics if I'm going to be doing some more acoustic stuff (so far a double bass, hand perc, cajon, hammered dulcimer, will expand more later). budget <$150 (hopefully) Thanks in advance! Oh, and noob question alert- will I need to get a mixer or other stuff, or can I record directly into my computer with mixing software?

Hey all- here's a track that starts ambient- kind of underwater or something, then transitions into a bit more of a "tune". However, I'm really new to mixing, and I can't seem to get levels right. I think I got them close, but everything sounds kinda flat (dynamic, not pitch)- did I use too much compression? When I bring levels up on the ambient synths, they go overboard and wash out the other instruments. Any tips? Thanks in advance! Free MP3 download: atmosphere 1.mp3

hey all! I was messing around with some earthbound soundfonts and come up with this little ditty- not a serious piece by any stretch. really just for practice, but since I'm so inexperienced, I would love me some feedback. especially on production, but comments on anything are welcome. Free MP3 download: Shuffle Groove 1.mp3 btw- it isn't all earthbound soundfonts, just layered into most instruments.

Hey all! I'm kinda struggling to get off of my feet with this music/computers stuff (although I enjoy it very much). Here's an original piece I just wrote- I would absolutely LOVE any comments/feedback on it- on writing, sound design, production, anything really. Thanks in advance! Free MP3 download: needs title.mp3