BloomingLate

Hey I'm having a similar situation with a new remix I posted. Upon further investigation it appears that seemingly random posts are targeted (presumably by some bot) and get a massively inflated view count that is not reflected by the number of plays on mp3 / video. I PM-ed the moderator and site administrator to inquire about it. As for your arrangement: I'm not too familiar with the source material but it is definitely worth the time to listen to it and I found the whole thing to be very enjoyable from beginning to end. I'm not using headphones right now so I can't tell if you're using real instruments or samples, but I thought it sounded realistic and convincing (even without them!), so good job on that . Looking forward to your future works!

Soooo... more than 1000 views within 18 hours, but only 10 plays (2 of which are probably mine). Is the Soundcloud player even showing up? Is the thing so horrible that people drop out within 30 seconds? What gives? I don't understand the Internet... Update: more than 5000 views and the play count hasn't changed between yesterday and today. I've PM'ed djpretzel and DarkeSword asking to investigate This better not be some bot artificially boosting the view count. Update 2: upon further investigation it turns out more people have had their post "viewed" thousands of times. Seemingly random posts (perhaps also the sticky posts on the rules) appear to get targeted by a bot that creates an insane amount of views. The plot thickens!

REQUEST: please listen to at least 30 seconds of the track to increase the play counter. This way I can tell someone has actually listened to it, rather than being left wondering why this post has so many views that doesn't result in more plays. I've been working on a new remix for some time and think its about ready for a first feedback round. I've created an alternative version of Aquatic Ambience (Donkey Kong Country) to go with the polluted version of the underwater stage. It includes bits from Kremlantis Submerged from Donkey Kong Land and I wrote an original ending to it. I went for a more dark and dramatic mood in the harmony while retaining most of the original melodies and sound FX. The whole thing kind of happened by accident when I was playing around with chords after trying to figure out what David Wise did with the original to make it so awesome sounding. I'm quite happy with it, but this time I want to go beyond where I usually give up, so I'm asking for feedback on these specific areas: * Overall mixing levels (any problematic areas?) * Transitions (do they work well enough?) Feel free to remark on any other important areas that I missed. I've spent a lot more time learning about and mixing and EQ-ing and stuff, but I'm still finding the whole thing difficult Anyway, here it is: https://soundcloud.com/bloominglatemusic/polluted-paradise-aquatic-ambience-from-dkc-cover Enjoy! Source tracks: Aquatic Ambience: Kremlantis Submerged:

:D Yes! Congratulations on getting it this far! Now I will forget about it, only to be pleasantly surprised again when the final announcement lands in my mailbox :D

My country's government is allowing a little more activity outdoors, but there's still a lot of restrictions (some of which seem absolutely ridiculous!) Where are you at? Can you at least take walks around the block where you live? I want to encourage you to resist temptations to stay in bed all day. Doing that will likely lead to messing up your biological clock and/or depression. Try to get whatever excercise you can and find things to do to keep you motivated. Maybe start learning something new? I don't know your situation, but I hope there is more to do for you than just staying in bed. Hang in there! :D PS: I won't be able to reply until next week.

Yes, you can find it here: "To find work you love, don't follow your passions" - Benjamin Todd I just listened to it again. The comment about burning out is around 7:00 minutes. The context is a little different than I remembered, but there ya go.

Welcome Starson! Finishing songs can be difficult, I know this too well. I'm sure you'll find some useful support here. Don't get discouraged if you don't get any responses to posted works right away. It can take a while and sometimes people don't know what to say. It helps to ask specific people for feedback. I'd say browse around on the feedback forum and see who you think has the insights you need.

Hey, sounds like you're at the start of an interesting process. I hope you'll find what you seek. Two things came to mind when I read your post: 1. I heard a sermon once where the speaker talked about this paradox. He suggested that when we look for happiness, we won't find it. But when we're not looking for it, happiness tends to come alongside. I thought that was interesting. 2. I also remember a TED talk in which the speaker talked about how people who turn their hobby into their work - that is to say: their job is to do what they like to do the most - are the most likely people to burn out. His suggested remedy was to go find a need in the community and to do something to meet that need. A side effect of that may well be that feeling of happiness and finding meaning. Maybe these thoughts can benefit you on your quest. :) Personally, I'm starting to see that the most important and meaningful things in life involve serving/helping other people. Most of my hobbies and interests are fairly self-oriented, so I'm trying to find things that help people other than myself. I'm doing some translation work on a voluntary basis and found that this is really appreciated by others. As a bonus effect I feel more useful and happy, knowing that what I'm doing actually has some impact somewhere (before, I always felt like I was disconnected from the world around me and that what I did, either good or bad, had no effect on my surroundings whatsoever).

Sorry for not replying to everyone individually. I guess I didn't expect so many responses. I easily get overwhelmed. For those suffering depressions or other mental problems: I hope you still have access to professional help, even if it has to be via phone or something. This is not a good time to be left to your own devices. Also: this may be a good time for people to think about life, death and your relationship with God. We recently celebrated Jesus' resurrection in church ("Easter"). As a believer, I am not surprised or shocked by the whole Corona event (that's not to say I don't think its terrible that so many people got sick and died, not to mention the effects on the economy). Whatever happens, I know God is in control and eventually, all sin, sickness and death will be conquered when Jesus returns from heaven. In the mean time, the crisis is taking away securities that are not really securities. So our trust in God needs to be all the stronger. Seek Him while you still can.

Good to hear most of you are doing alright, all things considered. There have been concerns about our culture's saturation in social media and an increase in loneliness before all this. I find it interesting how it is exactly those social media outlets that keep people connected now. But when you don't have a smart phone and are not using all those platforms (like me and my wife) you will find yourself increasingly isolated. Everything social is now via chat and video calls or live stream. Almost no one has sought to contact us by phone or by card. My family has a family chat on WhatsApp, but I don't participate and so I don't know whats going on and they tend to forget to let me know stuff. I really miss just phone calls and visits. At first I felt really useless and wanted to help people out (for example grandparents). But no one really seems to need my help, or any help at all (that may actually be a good thing). I think a time like this is a good test to see how strong our relationships really were. And with almost no one seeking to contact me or even asking me how I'm doing, I'm starting to think they weren't that strong to begin with. Which is partly my own fault and I'm not necessarily bitter over it. I learned some time ago that if you want something (in terms of social interaction) you need to go look for it yourself, not passively wait for someone to remember to call you. So our social investments (or lack thereof) are being paid out now. On the other hand: maybe other people are not really seeing this as a very serious situation and so they don't see a need to contact people more than usually. When things eventually do go back to normal, I hope people will have learned to slow down a little. One of the reasons relationships didn't blossom is because most people are so darn busy all the time. Maybe that will change.

I'm sure you're all aware of the global situation regarding the Corona-virus outbreak. Most of us have been stuck at home due to measures to prevent further contamination. I first heard of these measures halfway through March when I was in piano class (I'm in the Netherlands by the way). That was also the last time I've been in piano class :P Because of my chronic condition and since the burn-out in 2016 I'm used to being at home most of the time. In a sense, the Corona-measures make little difference for me life. That said, it did take away a couple of things that I'm starting to miss: church, visits to my grandparents and piano lessons (which I still get, but through the phone! Its not the same...) All in all I'm managing alright. My wife and I can still do walks around the neighborhood and there is always plenty to do around the house. I have to say I haven't been working on any personal music projects or remixes. The last time I worked on something was months ago and I got frustrated and now I'm afraid to go back to it. I keep hitting obstacles with my productions and its just driving me nuts. I did spend some time learning music theory (specifically harmony) and I watched some videos on how to listen to Classical Music. That lead me to purchase the book Classical Music for Dummies, which is somewhat helpful to get me started. By some stroke of coincidence I found a cheap CD of Dvorak's New World Symphony shortly after having watched a analysis video and listening to a performance of it online. Nice :D I really like it. I may have a new piano piece coming up, which will hopefully motivate me to get back in the saddle. Some companies have been generously handing out free Virtual Instruments during the crisis and I want to give those a try too. What have you been up to these days? How are you handling the Corona-measures? Has the time home been good for your creative exploits?

This has to be one of my all time favorite remixes on OCR. I listened to it quite a lot between 2005 and 2009, especially after my girlfriend broke up with me. The emotion and the tension just make for a perfect wallow-in-your-sadness session. More to the point: I love the vocals and all the different directions the piece goes in terms of instruments and effects. Its just a very enjoyable listening experience! I think I actually heard the remix before I played the game. When I first heard the track with the vocal stuff in the actual game I was like: 0_0; "Dude, that's that remix I love!" Definitely one to keep holding on to.

Hey, thanks for the comment :) It made my day! I just realized I forgot to mention that the story takes place sometime in the past when there are no cellphones or internet and the trains are steam engines. The scenario isn't likely to happen in our age of modern communication tools! :P Also, I don't know what railroad crossing signals sound like in other countries, but that's what the repeating chords at the start are supposed to represent.

I was just thinking FF:CC had a great soundtrack and couldn't remember any remixes on here. Nice to see your submission! I really enjoyed your take on this theme. Very playful and just beautiful. Some parts do feel a bit hammer-y (f.e. 3:10 onwards), but overall I found it enjoyable enough. So...good job!

Hello I'd like to share a piece I first created in 2016 and just finished polishing up. I vaguely recall posting the first MIDI version but couldn't find the post, so I'm making a new one. This time I'm using recorded piano bits so you no longer have to suffer through MIDI hammering! Here's part of the description from the Sound Cloud page: I envisioned this piece to go with a short story involving a young woman and her soldier boyfriend. Part 1: A train arrives at a train station where the young lady is waiting. She's hoping to find her boyfriend on the train, seeing how rumor has it that he was wounded and is on his way to another station. Part 2-3: The crowd is making it difficult for the woman to find the man, but finally their eyes meet and a hasty conversation takes place. There is exchanging of gifts, but the man can hardly utter a word to his chatty girl. The train is only there for a brief moment before it starts moving again. She has to step aside to make room for new passengers, abruptly ending the conversation. As the train leaves off, she chases it down the platform as best she can, until it is out of reach and out of sight. Part 4: Saddened, she holds onto a letter that her boyfriend managed to give her before departure. Upon reading it she learns that he will soon return home to her. His time to serve is over. Then they can start planning their future together at last. https://soundcloud.com/user-227517766/04-arrivaldeparture-rene-mulder I recently invested in a new Strings library but for the life of me I cannot get it to NOT sound lame (yet). For this piece I resorted back to the initial free sample thing I used in 2016 which actually captures the mood I'm looking for perfectly. What do you think? Can you see the story unfolding as you're listening?

I have been following the progress on your project with anticipation for some time now and am definitely looking forward to the end result! I would have loved to join in by providing a track of my own, but I didn't feel my skill level is there yet. Plus, deadlines will kill me So I'll patiently wait to see/hear what other people will make of the soundtrack.

Thanks for the encouragement :) I mentioned that I often have a problem with the lack of "standard" by which to go, but I realized that the feedback list (somewhere on this site) is actually pretty helpful as a guide. It deals with the most common and obvious mistakes or areas of attention. I understand that we're all going through a process of learning and so naturally we will get a lot of 'discouraging' (but not ill-intended) feedback at first. For me, the challenge is to not get overwhelmed or insecure about it and to keep on trying to implement the feedback that I get. I am looking forward to that point in my development when the beginners' mistakes don't show up anymore :)

I'll keep that in mind. My perfectionism originates for the most part from the lack of knowing when something is good enough. This has plagued me my entire life. Basically, if no one tells me what the standard of completion is, I have to assume it is perfection. When I worked as a web developer this was often confirmed when the boss or client gave their feedback. There was always something that needed to be tweaked or fixed or changed. So for me that says things need to be perfect. Because of the stress this produces, I tend to either burn out before completing a project or get stuck in a loop of starting over from scratch. Or I end up deciding it is good enough for me. Then when I share things, people will point out all the mistakes, which then reinforces the idea that perfection is the standard. And later when I go back to listen, I have to agree with people that these are problems that do need to be fixed. "Most glaring problems" is something I can work with. There are often piano mistakes that are really obvious and bothersome, or badly done ritardando's or annoying balancing issues. If I can at least commit to working those out, that would be a big improvement. Basically, if something bothers me every time I listen to the song that's a sign I need to go in and fix it. I wish I had someone around (physically) who could help me with musical projects. I honestly don't know anyone close to me who is also into music production.

That sounds like a good idea. By doing experiments like that I'll likely not get overwhelmed or stuck in perfectionism (which is what tends to happen now). Without any pressure to finish with a completely polished song I suspect the learning process will go smoother. The book I got is the one that DJPretzel recommended in another thread: "The Secrets of dance music production". It is a nicely organized and illustrated volume that introduces just the right amount of stuff in each section, without being overwhelming. Like I said, it comes with step by step tutorials and has some stuff you can download and work with. I haven't read it a lot yet, but I plan to do so in the near future. My beef with most other tutorials that I've come across is that they suffer from what I call the "Bob Ross" effect. They pretend to be really easy, but pretty much come down to "do this and it will be awesome". Yet the "doing this" is the part that I'm supposed to learn from the tutorial in the first place! They're about as useful as saying "Just play all these notes" when asking "How to write a piano sonata?" I'll give your suggestion a try and maybe I'll be able to share a few results with you when the time comes. :)

Sorry for the late reply. I've been a little preoccupied with other things. Anyway, thanks for the tips. All those different terms are a little mind boggling at the moment, but I've recently purchased a helpful book that might help me out in that area. It contains some step by step tutorials so I can better understand what I'm doing. I have a number of tracks in the making that will benefit from this information. :)

That's basically how I tend to see it. I also sometimes record parts and do some quantization if necessary. In general I don't even mind mechanical sounding stuff too much, but ever since Timaeus shared some examples of robotic versus humanized (piano) pieces I do see the superiority of the latter. So I try to make things sound more realistic, but often it is mostly out of fear for what other people might say. Yes, thank you very much for the tips and positive comments :) Maybe I will change my mind about it being completed. Perhaps I'm giving up too soon, just to rid myself of the anxiety that a project produces. This is an area I definitely need some direction in. With reverb, what would I need to do to make an instrument sound farther away without creating a ton of unnecessary "echoing". When applied to the drumkit it tends to really boost the kick and snare sound beyond what is desirable. Maybe I'm using too big a "room"? And as for panning, is it advisable to pan a drumkit or bass guitar or should they stay centered (and thus keeping that foreground feel)? Would it help to draw up a "plan" for a "stage" as it were, to determine where each instrument should go and pan accordingly? Its funny that you mentioned the percussion (which I also like a lot :) ), because one of the last things I did was boost its volume so it wouldn't disappear into the background :) Its so easy to overdo things. Love the shaker, sure. I'll keep that in mind. I recently created one out of a toilet paper roll and rice :P

This remix has been a work in progress for a long time. I wanted to mash together a number of favorite tracks from the Donkey Kong Country and Land series of games. I had a lot of trouble getting things to work well together and ended up pretty much abandoning the project (very disappointed). I decided to swap out a few instruments for the new FLEX synth in FL Studio and managed to at least finish the thing. It is definitely not at the quality level where I would have liked it but I don't want to really continue working on it either. I'm posting it anyway. I still find it personally enjoyable PS: ever since I started sharing tracks on OCR I've been having this nagging voice in my head that keeps saying "They're sure to point out the lack of humanization". This is one of the toughest things to get right for me and I don't need the added pressure from voices inside or outside my head Now, no one is actually putting that pressure on me; its just my insecurity. I'm trying to let it go, as well as weird ideas of supposed expectations people have of me.

I just looked for some sheet music on the web for the first track and one of the results reveals that the intro is actually in 3/4 time, which I suspected. What I didn't say in my initial post but also suspected was that there was probably going to be a lot of anti-metric figures in there too. These and combinations of (8th+16th) and 16th notes are what tend to throw me off. I think understand the concept of syncopation, and your video example I would be able to discern. However, just now listening to the second track again I just find myself overwhelmed by the amount of sounds that seem to go in all directions. It requires quite some concentration or the ability to filter out sounds in order to home in on the pattern. Its a good thing people with autism (like me) specialize in concentration and being able to filter out sounds... oh wait... :P So what I'm curious about is how you approached the count. Maybe you're so experienced it just instantly jumped out at you, but for me, I found different ways of attempting to count the intro and I ended up getting stuck. I suspected 6/8 at one point, which is comparable to 3/4, but I still couldn't find clear anchor points to latch onto. All I had to go by was the bass, which at once I tried counting as one bar per tone change, or an extended quarter note. The sheet-music that I found actually writes them as regular quarter notes. How accurate it is I don't know. One other file seemed to be completely off in its timing of everything. So there you go :) Simple and straightforward for some; not so simple and straightforward for others.

I would love to have an actual piano, but I live in an apartment building so I'll likely annoy everyone else with my playing (plus, there is little room for one, maybe an upright piano). CSS Piano is supposed to be good enough for what I'm trying to accomplish, I just need more experience with it and get my actual playing to a better level. I'm afraid that just getting the more professional tools isn't going to be enough :)

Thanks for the feedback on my three pieces I played them on my digital piano and recorded them with the built-in recording function. I then imported the MIDI into FL Studio, where the sound is replaced by the Cinematic Studio Series Piano. The uploaded files are MP3 at this point. This situation is far from ideal, because the digital piano doesn't have a lot of velocity layers and so I can't really put in the feeling that I want pieces to have. When I hook it up directly with the VST its a little better, but the VST triggers rather loud samples at a certain velocity, so I have to go in and manually fix those unintended loud parts. Unfortunately the next lower level is often too soft. I don't always get the pedal right either and unwanted results can happen when legato or non-legato notes are triggered at the wrong moment. I really wish my playing was so good that I could do perfect recording takes each time and had the right piano and recording methods to do it. Now I have to piece together parts sometimes and that's when inconsistencies arise. Thanks for the positive comments anyway