gravitygauntlet

Hi all, I'm going to be in the market for new desktop headphones soon - for day-to-day use and to do basic mixing with. They don't have to be anything fancy - my current ones are just Logitech G433s - but I'm looking for: - Price of $100-300 - Not fully noise-canceling. Some mild noise cancellation is fine. - Better bass / low end definition than the G433s - Not much sibilance. A lot of "gaming headphones" have been too tinny or too loud in the 3-8khz range, etc. - Durability! I've had the G433s for 5+ years and they still haven't fallen apart, even with use on most days. Mixing-wise the bass thing is starting to become noticeable, to the point that I have to test on other systems (ex. car stereo) to make sure everything below 100hz sounds fine. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Hi QSO, we looked at this one in the Office Hours. The first 30ish seconds feel a little empty when the kick isn't hitting, like the reverse of a ducking/sidechain effect. Adding a little more texture or reverb would be beneficial imo. I'd also say the two stab chord things around 2:55 feel a little loud/sudden - reducing the velocity on them a bit would probably be sufficient. Overall mood is nice, the EWI/synth flute instrument is fun but it feels like it could use some more automation/articulation at points. There's places (like the bridge, I think around 2 mins in) where it works in an Aquatic Ambience kind of way without it, but some vibrato and pitchbends would help.

I'll be busy on and off through August but my schedule should free up after that, I'd be happy to join either way.

Hey Xaleph, I think you've pulled some of my VSTs from the Discord server anyway, but here's a list of some stuff I use commonly: VST Instruments u-he's Zebra2, Hive, Diva. All the u-he synths are notable for having free versions with very limited paywall restrictions; the free versions don't limit settings at all, they just play static or randomize notes intermittently after 20 minutes of rendering/use. This can be worked around by reloading the instance, and it's obviously an easy workaround for final mixdown. FM8 by Native Instruments - goes on sale a lot FMDrive - very cheap Genesis/Mega Drive synth that can read the original instrument files Roland Sound Canvas - not free but essential for a lot of GBA/SNES type sounds. A lot of them make up GBA soundfonts unaltered; Golden Sun, Pokemon, etc. Sforzando and Samplelord are both worth bringing up as soundfont interfaces; the former is free and the latter can notably read some proprietary instrument files used in E-mu kits like the Proteus. Performance Samples has paid VSTs but also a lot of freebies; I use the strings and percussion a lot. They just require a certain version of Kontakt. VST FX Guitar Rig - I use Guitar Rig 5 specifically. Its amps/cabinets are really diverse and convincing and I use the reverb effects on pretty much everything. Convology XT has a free version with a lot of convolution reverb presets. I use them in conjunction with these Impulse Responses a lot to emulate how reverb effects were achieved on the PS1. EliteReducer 2 and CMT Bitcrusher are both free bitcrushers. MeldaProduction has a lot of versatile free FX; I use MCompressor for sidechaining and MVibrato for gated/tremolo effects. ToneBoosters has a lot of free legacy FX i.e. Barricade. Tokyo Dawn Records has some good free/paid FX like Kotelnikov; I use the paid version on my master bus pretty much all the time.

Edited this one last time to include the version of the mix being used in the submission/judging process.

I'll claim Validate, it's a 2022 VN I did a bunch of stuff for, including producing some of the music from its demos/beta, and ghostwriting a couple of the retail tracks. I have a remix I've barely started for it that I could contribute. I don't want to claim anything else yet, but a recent Halo or Metroid Dread could be fun. I probably won't have the time, though. EDIT: I'll claim Halo Combat Evolved too.

Hi OCR! I've been posting WIPs in the discord for some time but this one is far enough along that I wanted to post to the forums to get some last-minute feedback before submitting. Here's a link to the source tune: Genre-wise I didn't want to stray too far from the original so a lot of the instrumentation are FM synth recreations. The more faithful instruments are being recreated in either FM8 or FMDrive; the only direct sample is the "bongo" sound layered in that starts around 0:51 and even then it's been processed a lot. The other synths are being done through a combination of u-he's Diva/Hive/Zebra2 and a MicroKorg. The idea was to remake and extend the source tune to have it be more in line with the production on Streets of Rage 4, but retain the downtempo/funky pacing of the original (source and remix are both 90BPM) since a lot of the SoR4 tracks are a lot more fast-paced. There are a couple other Yuzo Koshiro references as well: - It's subtle but the "charang" hits from 0:08 of Ninja Step (Revenge of Shinobi) start getting used around the 3:21 mark; - Around 3:31, the "bongo" rhythm from Stealthy Steps is used melodically by the piano and the guitar; - The square lead from 1:08 of Attack the Barbarian (Streets of Rage) gets referenced/modulated around 3:23 and 3:41; - The bassline, also from 0:08 of Ninja Step, gets used for bass and piano starting around 3:50. It's a pretty dense mix so I'm mainly trying to avoid any excessive muddiness or anything sounding too compressed. Edit: replaced the mix to be the same one from my 3/10 comment Edit 2: file attached to OP is the latest version from 3/12. Edit 4/5: replaced with mix that is currently in the Submission thread, mainly to cut some additional lows and extreme highs. sormix-ss-low-kill-6.mp3

The only real glaring bit of this to me is that the guitar segment at 4:16 doesn't sound like it was interpreted too much (I know for sure that the Dark Samus remix in BadAss III - Twisted Rebirth - uses the Dark Samus MIDI off VGMusic because the guitar solo is lifted verbatim, and it sounds like this track uses the same one) but it's at least easier to get lost in it with the backmasked kicks and piano and everything going on in addition to it. Everything sounds fantastic otherwise, and the production was clearly given a lot of attention as far as achieving a Metroid Prime-esque "low fidelity" feel to some of the instrumentation while still clearly feeling intentional and without sacrificing sound quality.

With how "slow" the opening is and how thematically different it is from the drop, I almost wish the two were a little more directly integrated, because while they're both interesting, it does feel a bit jarring to not only have it flip on its head halfway through, but to not include the original synth bell-esque segment of the first part in the second one. Again, regarding the speed, getting to hear the melody with the string pad kick in is nice, but with how relatively short the track is, it almost feels like it takes a bit too long getting there. It's a neat take on the source track, though - it's not really something I'd expect to be done with it tonally. Is the clavinet bass thing in the second part using an arp at all for the melody, or is it completely custom?

Link (can be streamed or downloaded) For those not aware, Sinjoh Ruins itself is already a medley of several tracks from Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum for the DS. Both Sinjoh Ruins and its main source, Mt. Coronet, are unusually quick and complicated for Pokemon area music (only really rivaled by some of the important battle themes, i.e. Giratina's), while this remix looks to expand on segments that don't get as much presence as they could have (the second half of Mt. Coronet, Giratina's theme, etc.) and also adds in some new stuff (Arceus, Distortion World). There's also the Pokéathlon Finals theme in there as a liquid DnB-esque segment to pick up the pace and conversely provide some levity before the bombastic stuff at the end. Source tracks: Platinum Battle! Giratina Distortion World Mt. Coronet Spear Pillar HeartGold & SoulSilver: Arceus Pokéathlon Finals Sinjoh Ruins