Pander

I like the melody synths. Panning is high but fun halfway in. Violin sample feels a bit high pitched at times. It's not the volume that bugs me, it's the pitch. The high-pitched synths notes afterward work fine, but that violin doesn't work well high. The snare drum sample is rough-sounding. Compared to the fine kick and vibrant synths, it sounds like FL demo snare. Love the interplay at 2:20-2:40. This is the high point of the mix. The woodwind around 3:00 starts nice. I appreciate trying to meld it together with the violin, but... Keyboard around 3:20 seems to hit offkey notes, and playing in conjuction with the violin and flute the mix gets cacophonous at times towards the end. I love PW music, and I love where you take this mix. You really slow down the source and give it a different life. For everything between 2:00-3:10 you have me absolutely sold. The arrangement is killer and the sound is tight. It's just past the stuff before and after that has a few loose ends that don't sound quite right (a FEW loose ends, the bulk sounds great). But yeah, to re-iterate, I love.

If you're old enough, plunk down $100 on a beginner's guitar or keyboard (if you don't already have one) and find an appropriate tutor (Local colleges or craiglist should point the right direction). If you're too young, get your parents to get you one if you really have a strong interest in music. The reason being is that while you CAN learn things online, it is (as Rozovian said) really difficult. You can't just wiki up music theory and expect to be able to suddenly write coherent music. You'll get an understanding of some things, but music is a matter of practice and self-initiative. Another cheap tool I might recommend for learning sequencing and how to 'create' samples would be Korg DS-10 if you have a Nintendo DS. It's about $25-$35 and it simulates a synthesizer pretty well. There are definitely limits to it and sequencing an actual multi-synth song is laborious at best, but in terms of quickly seeing how to fit notes into a tempo it's very nice. The best part really is creating your own samples, which is a fascinating study in music theory in and of itself (did you know that since sound travels via sine waves you can effectively create ANY sound given precise enough control over the wave? Amplitude and frequency are the foundations of sound, and in the sample creator you can modify these are many other settings in real-time to witness sound in its most primal form). For $30 you can do a lot worse than a synth-creator on the go.

I can pick out the source from almost the first notes. It's not literal, but it's definitely there. I like everything up to the intro of the synth at 1:08. It's a bit too loud and high-pitched for the rest of the song. Let the guitar(?) playing along with it up til 1:52 occupy the high ground. I like the idea of the piano at 1:53, but the arrangement has a couple aberrations. It sounds like an offkey note got hit around 2:04 or something, almost like two keys hit at once when only one should have been. It's too fast for me to really discern what's going on, but something sounds off. If anything, I'd say relegate the piano to a smaller role. It's a chill remix, you really don't need to have any complexity there so long as the melody is nice. When it started up it actually reminded me of the piano arrangement of Kingdom Heart's Simple and Clean. I was HOPING it'd go in that direction actually. Have the piano be an uplifting part, going against the grain rather than blending in, some contrast. The criticisms levied here are offered with the caveat that everything not mentioned was really tight. Atmosphere is outstanding.

I couldn't tell if you were going for a more African or Asian tone with this remix. The strongest part is the very high quality samples (nice flute) and well-mixed arrangement of the background. The weakest is obviously the note-for-note matching of the melody, which barring some interpretive elements later in the song would preclude it from passing OCR muster. I dig it, but with this song before over-remixed as it is, it needs more to stand out. Pretty. (edit: Maybe I should read the part where you mention you aren't focused on arrangement. Nice job me. If you're mostly concerned about atmosphere and sound, I like where you're going a LOT. You could go a lot of directions from where you're at, actually, any idea?)

Not a prob. -Good piano reverb. Background synth comes in as piano dies down really well. -Nice trell on the flute. -I can't find any faults with techno except for that one sound that hits twice, waits, hits twice, waits, then occasionally triple taps. It's got a pretty high attack and medium delay, higher pitched than the rest of the instruments, and it sounds like it's trying to provide a percussive element to the beat. It just doesn't sound right to me. Rather than an shrill beat I'd rather hear a low-freq more buzzy bass line, more in line with the cool chill nature of the song.

I...can't really tell what you're doing in the intro. Okay, after a minute I sort of get where you're going, it just sounds like someone who doesn't really know what they're doing has been hitting a lot of semi-random sustained notes for a minute. And it keeps going. I would say there are missed notes, but it sounds like you hit bad notes intentional. I agree with Neblix...rhythm is missing here. You sustain every note and its brother at bad pitches in the first half of the song, then when you hit a recognizable melody begging for a sustain at the end of the measure, you drop it. I'd say cut out the first 2 and a half minutes, which sound like experimentation with a new keyboard, and go straight with the snare, or at least an abbreviated intro. If you could layer in a strings synth in the background it would do a lot to fill the soundscape. Right now it's a xylophone sample tapping a few notes, a snare (which is probably the theme you should go with for the remix: a military march built on Terra's Theme), and the lead, which isn't sounding all that hot. If you INSIST on keeping the intro, play with it until it SOUNDS good, and I'd really recommend some form of bass popping in and out for diversity. Even when you think you finally get it sounding 'good', it probably won't stand on its own enough to fill two minutes. Sounding good isn't enough, it has to be interesting, and the intro doesn't sound like it'd ever be interesting short of massive aural surgery. I'd say ditch everything except for the snare pattern and the sequencing for the lead melody. Work with those bare bones and re-develop the theme of the mix. Add layers, because if you only have one woodwind going at a time it would have to sound way better than the samples you're using. Don't make it crazy with like 20 things at once, but using only 3 instruments at once exposes both shaky arranging and mediocre samples.

Absolutely fantastic. I'll listen to it a bunch I know, there are no tracks I dislike. Listening to Dr. Wily We Presumed right now, and the 2nd half gives a strong Godspeed you Black Emperor vibe. AWESOME.

Reminds me a lot of Deus Ex, actually (and not just cause of the new DE remix). Drumming is very nice, but there's a somewhat higher pitch percussion sample I can't really distinguish that hits two times each measure that seems to exude a whining noise that seems familiar from Sonic levels. It doesn't really fit with the rest of your beat. The melody joining the drums is very good, and definitely takes the source in a different direction. The source is a soulful flute/acoustic type number, this is a much colder techno number. Not a criticism here, very interesting. The piano joining halfway through could use a little more complexity during the flute melody. Glad you filled the soundscape after the first ten seconds. I was a afraid the drums would be left on their own more often. I love the harmony synth effect that comes as you end it, and obviously hope when you expand the song you play with it, maybe take it to a different key or something.

3+ years now? =( This is a fantastic mix. It was always hard to justify getting SoE for xmas while my brother got Chrono Trigger...which one of us won the battle of "better game"? He did, obviously. But sibling rivalry commanded me to squeeze every ounce of good out of this one, and I think I did. The score is absolutely unique for an SNES game, centered around mystery, loss, and desperation. It was so good that I tended to hate the game because of its long stretches without any BGM playing, regardless of gameplay elements (although frequent and lengthy mazes were frustrating on their own accord). I love all 3 of the remixes up here, all evince terrific emotion in the spirit of the source. Mazedude's percussion is fantastic, like a well-measured case of ADD knocking pads and bells in an entrancing rhythm. For some reason, the melding of synths and percussion reminds me of a more electronica version of the latest Muse album's symphonic suite (sans guitar). Beautiful stuff. I agree with the criticism that the ending jumps out of nowhere.

First of all, I like what I hear. It's pretty clean, and the guitars rock. You take what the songs give you and work up a nice rockstorm. However, I don't see these as all really fitting as OC Remixes. Most have arrangements that are far too close to the original. For instance, the Doom/Duke Nukem song sounds like a better-sampled version of the original, with little variation. While the bump up from general midi to your nice riffs is very welcome, it's nowhere near what I was hoping for after hearing Evil Horde's Hangarmageddon ballsy rendition of E1M1. Another song like this is the Dr Wily jam. The intro and outro are fantastic, with judicious use of reverb on the well-known melody to give it a softer and more progressive tone, but the middle three minutes don't go a single second without a guitar plowing away at riffs. If you could incorporate more of the sounds you created in the intro/outro into the middle of the song, change the tempo a little, it'd go a long way to giving the song a much more layered feel, rather than intro/ROCKROCKRCORKCORKCROCKRCOKROCK/outro. I love me some rock, but without any breaks the riffs lose their power and can become tiresome. The repetitiveness of many riff progressions also contributes to the sensation that the arrangement is neither complex enough or straying from the originals enough to merit mass submission. It seems as though 80% of the time in each song is almost note-for-note, with the arrangment changes being largely composed of layering the melodies at slightly different times. In Crash Man I don't think I could really point out a part of the song as truly unique. A lot more work is needed on that front. You've shown that you can rock and make the good ole themes sound awesome, I just think it's too straightforward an interpretation at this stage for site submission.

I can definitely hear some Massive Attack in here, and the tense pulse of the Objection theme meshes perfectly. I loved the PW Concert and CADENZA, and I love this as much.

Woo Urbana! Yeah! I'm game there, not so much Chitown, too much class going on for me, even during the summer. If y'all in the UIUC area wanna hang out sometime lemme know.

Just caught this now for the first time (been out of the loop a while), missed all the querying about samples and whatnot. It's interesting listening only to the latest 320kbps version while reading the posts from October complaining about sample quality. The samples sound great. All the effects seem massaged so well, this is the quality Nobuo probably wishes he could have gotten on the PS1. This brings to my mind A Falcon, A Whale, and an Unknown Land in terms of pacing. I love how the last half of each go, and here specifically how the voices from Liberi Fatali are adjusted, they sound as though they were almost different takes. Should be posted. Incredibly done.

Just a shot in the dark here, having not seen the link while it was up... Why not save the midi you made, take it home, and work on it at home to somehow create a richer-sounding MP3, as opposed to posting a midi? It'd have to be a HELL of an arrangement to impress as a midi.

The mix of synths and bandrock reminds me strongly of Black Mages, in a good way. This is some very good stuff! Great twisting of themes, fitting in the Fiends theme, on the FFIV song.

Holy shit this is GOOD. I'm not a valid authority on rapping at all, but I know what I like and here it is. Outstanding job mixing chiptunes and vocals.

Not bad for a first go. Sneak hit it on the head. Try something different. My favorite part of your mix was the xylophone. Maybe you could slow the beat down, aim for a more touching rendition. "Ace Attorney: C-minored" perhaps (what a cheesy twist on cornered, huh). Build a slower melody built around the xylophone parts, less technoey. It'd sure instantly improve the quality, given how weak the bass you got there is. It could provide you a very easy way to make a remix that you can call yours. And definitely stick with phoenix wright, I love that game's music.

I'd really recommend upgrading to something that you can save with. Right now it's gotta feel like Groundhog Day, you keep re-creating the same thing from scratch every day. That's hell, don't put yourself through that. It's certainly the kind of repetition that'll help you get faster at building in FLDemo, but eventually you'll want the kind of time that's required to adjust every note and effect that you can't get with the demo.

It sounds like you're aiming for the right goal: Improving your knowledge about the mechanics of mixing. This is definitely better than the first mix. It still sort of suffers from the same thematic problem of the first piece. It has the underground theme's melody mixing and adjusted nine ways from sunday and strewn together in a way that doesn't suggest a cohesive vision of a song. It's just a bunch of different effects and samples of the same general melody, with a few periods of original alterations. But like I said above, that's perfectly fine because your primary job right now is to build your skill. Sorry for being too harsh earlier, it's always easier to criticize than create (fun too sometimes!), you've got the right idea. Your mix is still both too haphazard and too close to the source to be an OCR. It's definitely tighter than the original, keep working on it as you have. If you like mixing, read everything you can to help lessen the learning curve. An hour spent reading is an hour you don't pull your hair out wondering why that track isn't playing right. I don't know if you have a version you can save your songs on (I thought FL demo didn't let you), but for your own edification here are a few notes I had on some parts of the song. Intro - 0:20 - Note for note replication...you can get away with this for a few seconds, sometimes longer if it's apt or you layer an instrument on top or change a pattern slightly, but this is absolutely note for note with minimal adjustment. 20s is too long. BUILD ON 1:50-2:22! That was your money segment right there. It got way too chaotic towards the end there, but you have the right idea in layering multiple instruments, building towards a good groovey beat. It was cacaphony, too many conflicting rhythms and synths, but it was a welcome relief from the last version that seemed to enforce a "one sound at a time" rule. 2:25-2:39 has a synth that's waaaaay louder than the rest of the piece, it's the one with the huge amount of echo (sounds like it was run through an "indoor" or "bathroom" filter). Might want to adjust the levels there. Better job!

Answering your last question first, yes this is up to OCRemix standards. I recommend submission on March 30th or 31st. On a more serious examination and critique... I think you are probably aware about the problems with the samples. The bulk of them simply sound bad or abrasive. The volumes are way off, with a lot of the higher freqs way too loud (and headache inducing). The panning effects should be a bit more subtle (and not simply a sledgehammer of "I'm doing panning right now" a la 1:30). And yes, it is one of the most repetitive remixes I've ever heard. You've basically repeated the same 20 second melody over a dozen times with slight variations each time in samples and drum patterns. In short, this song is the aural equivalent of steel wool having its way with my ears sexually. You have options here, however. One is to break from the source. Be creative, invent something, take it somewhere else. You cannot play the same melody over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. The samples are simply bad most of the time. You've got the right idea with "drums + lead synth" = good thing, but maybe layer it a bit more. And with stuff that doesn't clash, like 2:55 does. 3:20 just sounds bad. You're trying to transition between synths it sounds like, but they go together horrible. Probably related to the sample quality. The background effect hanging around at 3:40-3:45 is actually a really good launching point for a creative take on the source. It sounds murky, like tar bubbling. That fits thematically with the whole idea of mario being in underground plumbing. Why not try to work that into a remix, rather than creating 20 different ways of hearing the same theme? Good luck. Keep at it.

Intro is slow, neat vibrating synths. Very Jouni Airaksinen sound here. Melody intro is sudden in a good way, breaks up the slow pace with good reverb background effects. Tons of layers of sounds but still pretty focused. Like Vagrance says, 1:59-2:28 is kinda frustrating. I'd kill for that bass to come in a bit stronger here, maybe play off the lead synth more than hang back. About 3:30 starts a slowdown, bringing back the sound from early in the mix, great job of bringing the beat back around 3:55. So many odd SFX contributing to the ambiance here. Tres chaud.

off-song note: I hate rapidshare. I click on the 'free' link, it tells me to wait 30 seconds, I look at a different tab while waiting, forget about song, then it tells me I have to wait 30s again. Repeat several times.

Lead synth (when it enters) isn't bad. The quality of the instruments by and large is rather low. There's a weak bass synth in the background that hangs around, but the lack of depth in the kick and the tinny hi-hats make it feel like this song has almost no bass at all, let alone balance. You seem to follow the original arrangement verbatim, with a couple synths dancing around instead of the original instruments. I couldn't find Synth at 0:40-1:04 before the lead enters, the "whoaaaa" synth...it sounds pretty bad. Low quality and off-putting. I'd recommend finding something else to plug that gap. Just before 2:05 I'd like to hear more piano. You lead into it eventually, and honestly the piano (while verbatim per the original score) is one of the best parts of the mix. When that 'bad synth' comes back at 2:38, ugh. It sounds like it's offkey or something. The lead isn't bad, the piano works, the drums define 'basic' but are workable. Fix up some of the stuff that didn't fit. Like the ending. What are those two last sound effects, they sound like cables snapping before the voice sample closeout. Not a strong ending. Very confusing, actually, it's like the brain tries to process what those noises are, and then the song's over. Other than that, it just seems way too close to the source to fit the guidelines here. You've thrown a trance drumline and a few mediocre synths over the original at this point, you need some more creative adaptations now.

I think he's just saying he likes it, he wants to see it in Super Metroid when he plays it. Facetious praise. 1:45-3:25 - Vicious drum arrangement keeps the song going, bass synth csontrols the atmosphere, lead synth pops in every so often and guides the song along...awesome. The voicework does fit better here than in the TP song starting at 3:25. I'm not a tremendous fan of non-traditional voicework, but you set up the song in a way that makes your voice fit, and the sampling you do with it fits pretty well later in the song. And it does help break up the song a bit. Good shit. Love your synths and drumwork.

Using the Item Acquisition theme as a the dramatic swell around 1:00 is freaking ridiculous. You've mixed the sources together like an art. The whole song is very good, but I'm just left stunned after the first minute, the weaving of the prologue into other themes in a way that hides the fact they're totally different fanfares. A+ for arrangement.