brynolf11

Not sure if April fool's or if I should say "if your headphones don't sound their best in their intended shape, you should probably buy a different model. Which ones did you get?"

Thanks, that's a lot of adjectives! Yeah, length is a subjective thing I guess but I'd probably like to make this one at least a minute longer. We'll see what I can come up with.

Thanks! Yeah, the french horns come in and blast the cellos away a bit. Not sure anything should or could be done about that.

Thanks! Hm, I wonder what EQ stuff you might be talking about. The choir changes from "mmm" to "aaa" about halfway through. Could it be that the "mmm" sounds a bit more dull and muffled in contrast?

Regarding the stumbling brass, it mostly has to do with the attack time of the samples being too long for the speed you want them to play. The panning issue is most obvious in the low strings to the right. I know that's where they are sitting in the orchestra, but at least in headphones it sticks out a bit too much IMO.

Never heard the original but well done! Brass sounds god overall. Some faster runs stumbles a bit. Strings sound good, maybe a bit widely panned.

This is a sketch I made a couple of years ago but seemingly never posted here for some reason. Is it anything I should consider finishing? Thoughts/critique/suggestions welcome! Note that this is the intro from Belmont's revenge for the Gameboy, not Simon's quest for the NES. Original:

Hey, cool! Sounds very Floyd. Well done! Not sure about the panning of the drums though.

Nice! The brass sounds great but the strings lag behind a bit. The attack time of the strings samples are probably too long so maybe you'll have to drag the MIDI notes a bit to the left Drums are alright but feels too small and tight for this arrangement. Maybe experiment with other drum kits or try some more reverb on the drums or something.

Very creative and varied! I like the synth sounds but the drums sound a bit plastic. Maybe you could find another snare sample with more velocity layers or something to get away from the "sample drawn in at 127 velocity" feel.

Nice reimagining of this classic. You really nailed the "national anthem" feel. Great arrangement. The sounds you used sound cheap, but you use them to great effect.

Long time since I stopped by here. The pandemic at least allows for some studio time... Here is a metal version of "Epic war" from the first ever RTS, Dune 2 by Westwood. Not sure who wrote the original, but Frank Klepacki was involved even back then so lets say this is one of his. I think it sounds evil enough. Thoughts are welcome. Is the arrangement metal enough? Is the mix in the ballpark? Is it too short? Are vocals kosher around here? Other opinions? Original:

Thanks for the praise and the critique! I'm taking it all in. One day I might have time to resub this.

That didn't go very well, no. Am I supposed to change stuff and resub? Or does that only apply when the judging thread clearly says "resub"?

There are some variations between the parts, but yes. Much of it is cut n paste. I'll see how much tweaking is possible in the project's current state.

I like the atmosphere, the pads, bells and little FX. The drums don't quite fit in though. They sound a bit muffled in comparison to the rest, and probably at least 3db too loud. And maybe even too "simple"; the pads and stuff adds up to a rather complex sound image, while the drums sound like they were put in there as an afterthought, just using a factory hiphop drum beat from a casio keyboard. I would scrap the whole drum track and make a new one with less lows, more high end (some filter resonance perhaps) and a more varied and complex pattern.

Thanks for the comments. I've made some adjustments and will send to to the judges soon.

Great mix and performance. I'd wish for more variation in the drums department though. Bit much of the machine gun kicks right now. Other than that though, top notch!

Thanks, glad to hear it! Yeah, those two parts were even messier a couple of drafts ago so maybe I can blame mix fatigue. Trimming it down further would require killing off another couple of darlings. I'll see if I can bring myself to do it

What I meant was that the drum pattern might fit better with less realistic samples, so it doesn't sound like you're trying to make them sound like natural drums.

Yes, the arpeggio gets repetitive. Maybe if you lower it in the mix a bit after a while? The drums are great if you ask me. Maybe mix it up with some fills and vary the velocity of the kick and it will come to life more. Overall sounds really nice.

Cool! Nice arrangement. Not a huge fan of the drums though, the samples sound good in themselves but the way they play is too synthetic. I would probably have gone in a more drum&bass:y direction. But just replacing the samples with more synthy ones would work nicely.

Neat! The bass gets a bit boring just playing those long notes though. Why not mix it up a bit with some shorter ones? Pianos, mallets and such sound good, but the strings get a bit too loud from time to time. I would try a bit of shuffle/swing to see if the groove improves. It's a wee bit too straightly quantized right now.

Not familiar with synthwave, but this sounds neat! Like a slow Laserdance track. Great arrangement, cool sounds... I like!

Sounds great. Fat chords and chilled out grooves. A bit monotonous mayhaps, but I don't really mind.