Kat

Started on Oct. 8th and goes until Oct. 12th. It's free to play during this time, but will release on Nov.12th for $59.99. So I've been playing it on the PC. Not sure how I feel right now though. It feels more like a reskinned Battlefield. I've mostly played Drop Pod so far, but it's very twitch-based and death filled. You spawn in a random location(or can choose "Partner Spawn" to respawn near an ally), which often means you'll be in a prime position to be gunned down by someone else. You might be lucky enough to spawn behind an enemy, but I rarely see that happen. It's not terrible though - It does get rid of most spawn camping issues. Not sure if the 50/50 chance of being killed seconds after spawning is worth it though. I regularly find myself having trouble hitting anyone, while others seem to hit me every single time and often from a great range(with non-sniper weapons, even). We're talking ranges where on my end I can't even get them in my pin-sized targeting reticule before being gunned down, yet they can hit me perfectly while I'm moving. I could shoot someone multiple times from behind, and more often than not they turn and headshot me before I can even react. I probably just suck though. I haven't played a proper FPS(outside of Splatoon) in ages. It does makes me wonder what the value of the different weapons is - Why should I bother using the sniper styled weapons if I can snipe from the same distance with a normal rapid-fire blaster(and more effectively, apparently)? The close-range rapid-fire low damage blaster pistol seems similarly useless, because the longer ranged higher damage slightly-less-rapid fire rifle can do the same thing and any distance. Despite this issues, there's still some entertainment. Walker Takedown is awesome if you get your team on track. It doesn't explain anything, much less the "how" of how to take down an Empire Walker. I mean, we all know how you do that, they just changed it up a lot. You have to activate two beacons to get a bomber to attack the walker(lowering it's shields), and -then- you can tie it's legs and potentially insta-kill it or just bombard it to death. Even if your team doesn't get this down, that whole map is pretty fun. At this point I probably won't buy it. Too many issues. Still somewhat entertaining, I guess.

I forgot about Logic, though I haven't actually used it. If you only intend to use the samples you have and don't want anything else, I'd still suggest Cubase. But $200 for a working full-version DAW and a large amount of samples that you might find a use for? Can't beat that.

Cubase is an excellent, stable DAW that works on both Windows and Mac. You can get the "Elements" version of it for $99. It doesn't have as many features as the full version(which is over $500), but it has the necessities. It's a little hard to get used to though You can find a trial version of Elements here: http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/cubase/trial.html You can run FL Studio(which has a $99 version as well) if you have Boot Camp and a copy of Windows, but I assume that doesn't apply here. There's also GarageBand or Ableton Live, neither of which I have any experience with.

How about...Suck it, Square. Or would that be too gauche? Speaking of song names that would make great album names, I'm partial to Hard-Working Moles Are Good Moles or Long Long Ago.... Or you could go with a hybrid, something like OC Remix and Toadofski Create Exquisite Music. Original names? I dunno. 'Shrooms n' Goombas?

I would direct you to this topic, in which I asked much the same question: http://ocremix.org/community/topic/41403-looking-for-orchestral-samples/ Spitfire Audio's Albion I is on a closeout sale for £149, but only until October 1st(so it's just about to vanish forever). It's mostly premade ensembles, but it has a natural reverb. No dry samples. I've found that Kontakt 5's included library has some pretty nice orchestra sounds, some of which are older Vienna Symphonic Library sounds. Kontakt 5 clocks in at about $400 though, or $250 if you have a qualifying product registered to your Native Instruments account(there are a few free ones that qualify). It also opens you up to a world of affordable, quality libraries. But I wouldn't say you need real orchestra sounds. You're getting an awesome sound out of what you have right now, so unless your goal is to emulate a real orchestra I wouldn't stress over it too much.

Yes. I haven't had any sleep and don't know what I'm typing anymore. But yeah, that's what I mean.

It applies to everything, I think. I was watching a streamer play through one of my levels and he outright ignored two doors that led to moderately safe rooms with power ups. In most of the levels before that, most of the doors had led to inescapable death traps. I think it's safe to say that the kanzei-esque levels flooding Expert mode are conditioning people to expect death traps, blind jumps and luck-based challenges in every level.

Today I got 3 letters from State Farm Insurance - each from a different agent - advertising insurance. I've gotten about 14 of them so far in this month alone. Local offices say they can't do anything about it because it's corporate. Corporate office says they can't do anything about it, but that I could call/write their customer service center(Oh joy!) and possibly reduce the amount I'm getting. So I'm just going to use the prepaid envelopes they kindly included to send them the other junk mail I get instead. Aside from that, I'm doing a few compositions/arrangements for practice and replaying Final Fantasy 8 in my spare time.

Tempted to give it a shot if I have time after MnP.

I was disappointed with the big and natural sounding drum ensemble, which was more of a simple loop. It didn't vary nearly enough, though it was a nice addition. I must complain about the snare drum in that portion though - It's got a very distorted, static sound to it that in my opinion takes away from the track. It certainly distracted me from the rest of it. Really, you have a nice enough soundscape going on. My biggest complaint(and most common among your stuff) is the lack of personal touches - little embellishments and alterations that would really make it your own. I don't mind that it more or less follows the source to the letter, as I'm a very conservative arranger myself, but it just feels like it should branch out from the source a bit more. The drums were a nice idea, for example. But what if you changed up the main melody a bit at that point? Maybe switched up the drum patterns a bit to keep it fresh?

Someone wanted to see a legitimate Cheetah speed course, so this is my attempt at one. I was working on a longer parkour themed cheetah course, but this was more entertaining. Luigi Time! 5395-0000-008-4AE6

Probably Embertone's Friedlander Violin. I'd been mostly using free samples up to that point and hadn't properly been introduced to the wonders of round robin and velocity layers. And in turn Kontakt, because it opened up a world of affordable, expressive samples to me while also providing me with a nice set of samples for just about anything I need. I don't work with synths much though. I have dabbled a bit in Retro Machines MKII, but I couldn't tell you how it stacks up to other plugins.

From personal experience? Ditch the meter and rely on your ears. Don't turn the harp down 2dB just because your meter implies that to be the solution. Make very slight adjustments and listen to the results on a variety of mediums(open speakers, headphones, earbuds, monitors if available) and get a feel for how it sounds. People are going to listen to it in different ways, so you should approach it in different ways. For that you'll need your ears, not a meter. A meter is certainly helpful, but don't let it make the decisions for you.

I dunno, I think Trism's vote should go through. It's an excellent piano arrangement and well deserving of the win. I got preoccupied and didn't get as much work into mine as I should've in the first place.

This is pretty awesome. It has a very PS1-era feel to it, like some of those soundtracks that went for "orchestral", but not "played by a live orchestra". Everything about it feels right. I especially like how the writing seems to match the samples perfectly. It feels very organic, not forced. Excellent work.

Writing this as I listen: The piano at the beginning was nice enough, but I think you could do more with it. Maybe add some chords or counter melodies/harmonies. I can understand if you just wanted that single melody, though. Once the rest of the instrumentation kicked in, the harp stuck out a lot. Seems sort of loud to me, but this is on a pair of monitors. It could also be that it has a fair amount of reverb while the rest is pretty dry. If you added reverb to it I'd tone it down a bit. If that's the sample's natural reverb, a little bit added to the drums and bass might help. That's not my forte though. At 2:20, the acoustic guitar was exposed(moreso than it already is) and the strumming sounded very fake. As I usually record my own guitar when needed, I can't really help you with adding realism to the sample beyond telling you how I'd play it. When playing like that, a guitarist will usually be alternating strums up and down. As it is right now, it sounds like what would happen if you only down-strummed(something I often did when first starting out). I'd suggest adjusting the velocity and volume a bit so it sounds like down/up strumming, and occasionally accenting down strums that are on beat. Really, if you're going to go acoustic I'd suggest having someone record it or investing in a good sample. You could even pick up a relatively cheap acoustic guitar and learn yourself - Unlike a lot of instruments out there(brass and winds, violins/viola/cello, vocals) the guitar is relatively easy to pick up and play. And you've got a whole internet full of tabs(including ones for this song's rhythm guitar) to work with. My biggest complaint would be the repetition, though. After the piano intro, everything just sort of looped with more elements being added every 4-8 measures. That's more of a dance/trance music technique that doesn't really work well if you're going for a ballad. It needs more variety, more dynamic variance. It needs a break from the usual chord progression. At 3:07 when the second electric guitar comes in, you had the perfect chance to kick everything up and go into a heartfelt original solo. I was honestly a bit disappointed that you didn't.

Just finished another level. I think I've sort of been doing my world is reverse, so I made the first official course this time. I also focused on making it more on the entertaining side and less on the difficult side. Has a couple secrets. 1-1: Koopa Krusade: 4951-0000-0048-1B52 Also going to be playing through a lot of these right now and dropping some feedback here. Also stars.

When I opened the midi file(the one that was originally provided), it worked fine for me. Nine channels(although they're numbered to 1-10, but missing #9) with individual parts and nothing jumbled up.

Uploaded a new level. I think this one turned out pretty well, and isn't absurdly difficult. Fear Factory: 0DEE-0000-0043-BCEB On another note, I'm hoping they do some updates to add...well, a lot of things. I'd love to see a lot of the backgrounds from Super Mario World(winter, desert, etc.) along with a lot of the enemies. What about good ol' Mouser? Nobody throws bombs as good as he does. Or even those...football players, I guess. There are a lot of enemies missing. It'd also be nice to be able to adjust enemy and object behavior. Things only activate when they're on screen, making it difficult to make floating platforms and such that stay appropriately spaced so the challenge is always as intended, and not sometimes easy and sometimes near impossible. Tracks help, but I don't always want to use tracks.

Played Follow That shell!. It was pretty entertaining.

Uploaded another one. I got a little more creative and there's a lot of breathing room in this one. Just be patient. Storming The Gates: 7865-0000-003D-08C8

Good idea, actually. I'll get to work on indexing these levels. I'm also finishing up another stage right now. A successor to my last one that is far less frustrating and clustered. Has a few little puzzles I'm happy with.

I may have to tone mine down. It borders on infuriating levels of Nintendo Hard sometimes, and so far no one has even made it halfway, or found the secret alternate route(which isn't any easier.) Really though, the trick is patience. It auto-scrolls slowly, but that's just false urgency.

I've got something, I'm just touching it up a bit and/or being addicted to Super Mario Maker. It'll be submitted though.