MindWanderer

I personally don't need an insane number of presets, I just wish they were organized and described better. Usually all you have to go with is a general category (lead, pad, atmo, arp, bass--and a lot of synths' ideas of "bass" is a lead or arp tuned a couple of octaves down) and a name that might be vaguely descriptive (e.g. "aluminum chickens," "organic galaxy") or not (e.g. "I love this one," "useless"). I either waste way too much time going through them all, or just go with one I used once before, or build something really simple from scratch.

Thanks! Looks good.sequencer_baby and arpbangzero make my eyes glaze over... those look like they need fairly extensive tutorials to make any sense of. At least, unless you have some idea in advance of what they're supposed to be used for.

Sweet. So if the Light bracket is battling Gilgamesh, who's in the Darkness bracket...? To keep things fair for Brandon, and give us more than one thing to vote on this week, we could vote on it.

Beautiful, just the sort of tips I was looking for. That'll help my productivity immensely. I've never used dual monitors at all before, so some of these ideas never would have occurred to me. Another action I make too much use of is H, the "Humanize" key in the MIDI editor. I know humanization != randomization, and randomizing is what it does, but in a time crunch it can be better than nothing.

5 to 2 isn't really close, but I'm cool with that. I'm just happy that so many people thought it was close, when I felt mine was totally half-assed. Very encouraged for next time, knowing that if I'd submitted something up to my own standards I probably would have won, and I respect the hell out of Garpocalypse. Hoping to get a rematch someday when we're both more on our game.

Fun stuff, this source needs more treatment. The opening lines repeat more times than I'd like, but that's what trance does, I suppose. I like the cowbell. Very dirty sound, like you're already listening to it on club speakers, again I'm not a big fan but I guess it's an aesthetic choice. Not much in the way of dynamics, except for one breakdown, even trance usually has a changeup every once in a while.

Not sure I'd call this an "orchestral" remix, it's a piano backed up by a handful of orchestra instruments. The piano sounds amazing, and is almost enough to carry this mix by itself. The violins don't sound so great, though--they're a bit mechanical in many places and need some EQ or panning to not sound quite so dry. The transition to the song's main hook is a bit odd--it has a bit of a buildup, but not enough to really raise the tension. I'd use either more buildup or, if you wanted to try something different, none at all. I know it isn't done, but the "ending" is almost cool the way it is. A measure of silence right there and then a crash back into the melody would be fun. This is shaping up to be a great arrangement, and I'm looking forward to more!

I'd also like to mention that if you have a "dream idea," don't start with it! Your early remixes are going to suck. Practice on remixes that won't be heartbreaking when you chuck them in the trash. I personally have a bucket of brilliant remix ideas that are all queued up in my brain for when I'm decent enough to get something past the panel.

Well, yeah. There are many ways of doing the same thing, and since this is a thread specifically about Reaper, an option that uses its native features seemed appropriate--especially when the suggestion on the table comes from an $85 plugin. Especially since Reaper is a prime choice for people who don't want to spend a lot on a DAW. Although, as I said, TAL-Filter can do this as well. And sidechain compression, and sidechain gating, can be much more powerful tools when used creatively.

So... this is basically a recording of the original, sped up, re-EQ'ed, and clipping? That's... pretty far removed from what is done on OCR. I don't think you'll get a lot of feedback. But for what it's worth, this sounds considerably worse than the original to me. The clipping/distortion sounds terrible, the highs are piercing, and the mids are muffled. If you want to practice your mastering skills without doing any arranging, I recommend starting [thread=44793]here[/thread] instead.

Cinematic Synthetic Drums is available as a set of raw WAV samples as well. Use them as-is or whip up an .sfz (my preference).Piano One is pretty popular, but there are lots of great piano soundfonts as well. Soundfonts are fine for triangles, too. Rock guitars are hard--the best free one I've found is part of Independence, but I get called out for using crappy guitar when I use it. I do really like Mini Dizi, Mini Erhu, and BTS Theremin--they're niche but sound great.

Great stuff, Argle. I'm installing a brand-new computer this weekend, so I'll get to put a bunch of your customization suggestions to use from scratch. It'll be a dual-monitor setup, so I'm looking forward to figuring out how to optimize my visual space. And actually, Metal Man's tip for how to quickly play back an imported MIDI without having to assign all the tracks to instruments was pretty great, too (although I haven't tried it yet). One suggestion: Can you organize the tips by category? E.g. Shortcuts, Display/Layout, and Features? I find tips that let me do completely new things much more valuable than ones that let me save a few seconds. Also, I saw this: You don't necessarily need an LFO plugin for this, since Reaper lets you use an LFO in place of an automation envelope. It's not as versatile as the LFO options that come with some plugins (I use TAL-Filter), but it's there, and, usefully, it applies to anything you can assign to an envelope. I particularly find it fun to apply an LFO to the LFO (useful for wobble effects).

I liked the thought, but the high-quality cocking sound followed by a muffled, low-fi gunshot was jarring. I imagine you ran into loudness problems with that.

Results! There were two entries and two votes, one for each entry. So Esperado, shadow24, Trism, and DusK share victory, such as it is. For myself, I thought both entries were pretty good; Trism's was a fun arrangement but I wasn't thrilled with the production (and it sounded like he agreed). Esperado's was a really solid remix all around, and I'd love to see it go through the workshop, I think it's a potential OCR candidate.

I have received zero votes, and the deadline is in just over four hours. Clearly interest is not high. I may start running these again if there's a lengthy dry spell in compos.

So... because I'm a noob, how do you create something like that? I'm sure it involves some moderately costly tools, but is it based on a ton of samples somehow, or is it yourself pitch-shifted and chorus'ed, or what?

Oh, that Batman one is catchy once it gets into the meat of it. And, if my ears do not deceive me, the Assassin's Creed one actually uses almost the exact same chord progression! These will go nicely together. My new CPU and RAM arrived today, so with luck I may have time to make something for this on my new system.

My turn. Falling from Heaven: There's some really nice stuff here; I especailly like the main "hook," and the interplay between instruments during it. Other times (e.g. 1:33-1:47), the instruments really don't blend well at all IMO. Also, I'm a proponent of the idea that each part of a piece should be distinct; it's OK to repeat the main chorus, but it should be switched up a little bit when you do. I'm not a big fan of the intro, especially that retro-analog synth which doesn't seem to know what key to play in, and it doesn't go with the rest of the piece at all. (Of course, mine does a similar thing.) Winged Salamander: I agree with all aforementioned complaints. Also it ends abruptly, having clearly run out of good ideas. It has a groovy bass beat that I still like, but that's the only thing I can say for it. Tuberz McGee: Holy crap. I don't have the ear or experience for this: it doesn't sound quite like a real choir, but I haven't the slightest idea how you'd go about achieving this synthetically. I really like where Lenna's theme comes out; I always prefer more catchy, melodic stuff. Ending is a little abrupt. Eclipse: Awesome sounds here. The main part where Kain's theme kicks in doesn't sound quite like it belongs; the low-fi synth just doesn't sound right with the rest of those full-bodied synths, and too many of the backing instruments cut out. The riffed second time through doesn't sit quite right, either. But everything else is just fantastic; this could easily be reworked to be just a Sazh remix and subbed to OCR. Brother From Another Mother: Interesting. I tried something like this using only Chinese instruments once; I think Japanese instruments have a bit more range and work better for our Western sensibilities. Although the one Balinese instrument is a bit of a cheat. Very well executed. Kain's theme isn't readily apparent to me, and what I think is supposed to be it sounds more like the Transylvania stage from Duck Tales to me. Otherwise, nice, ambient stuff.

Yeah, I never have enough time on these things to do panning properly. Making sure each sound is balanced by another sound at a similar frequency in the other ear, while parts come in and out, requires automation that I usually run out of time for.Also, my own idiosyncratic preference is for no panning; having any sound noticeably stronger in one ear just feels wrong, like my headphones are broken, and I find LFO panning to be wildly distracting. I have a similar problem with soundfonts; I actually like the sound of synthetic instruments, with their precision and consistency, so adding humanization to appeal to other listeners makes them sound worse to me. In both cases I have a hard time making myself do as much as I should.

Yeah, volume levels are an ongoing struggle for me. Not sure if I just suck that much at hearing comparative loudness levels when I do A/B comparisons or if my speakers and headphones are somehow inadequate. Also, I keep finding myself overdoing reverb and end up overcorrecting. Glad you liked it to some extent, though.

Well, you sort of suggested it yourself, just not to me: Seeing as how I worked on it basically Wednesday through Sunday, just in the wrong week, I feel guilt-free about it. Plus I scrapped my whole original idea after it didn't gel for two days, and my second idea was pretty random, plus I suck anyway. If Garpocalypse submits at all I'm sure he'll win. I'm just hoping there are parts of it that some people find enjoyable.

I submitted mine days ago, I knew I wouldn't have any more time this week. The PM is in my Sent folder, did you not get it?

And then next round would be Penelo and Edward vs. Zorn and Thorn. Which would be... interesting.

Just manhandle both of them into the same time signature, it'll be easier in the long run. I think that with Amarant thrown in, about half of my remixes now involve one or more sources changed from 4/4 into 3/4 or vice versa.Edward and Penelo go so well together anyway, those two tracks were both excellent (and hard to compare). Chimpz, I may hit you up for some advice at some point; I wrote a waltz for B4C2 where I'm mostly happy with the arrangement, but the production needs a lot of work. Laguna and Cait Sith, however, are two great tastes that taste like ass together. Edit: That's not a comment on the remixes, which did well with what they were given, but it was a horrible source combination.

Right, I didn't change the voting rules, but there's no sense voting if the only vote you can place is for your opponent. And there's no sense in using a point system, either; winner will be by simple majority.