DrumUltimA

yeah, i can't get on. wtf

BIG OL UPDATE!!! http://drumultima.googlepages.com/volcanojuice.mp3 I didn't like how little I elaborated on the A section material of the source so I put a new solo section in lol. u liek?

Wow, I really like this. ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION [x] Too conservative - sticks too close to the source STRUCTURE [x] Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough) [x] Too repetitive PERSONAL COMMENTS (positive feedback, specifics on checklist criticisms, any other thoughts) So yeah, unfortunately there's not nearly enough interpretation to make it to ocr, and it's pretty repetitive--I have to wait way too long for what you do at 1:44. Also, your sound set is pretty static, I'd like to hear a change to, perhaps, more electronic instruments more closely aligned with hip hop. I don't mean to scrap the instruments you have now, because those are good--maybe when you start a new verse, go to the electric instruments for a change. The mix seems so long because of the repetition. Now, this would be awesome for the end of a sonic fan movie or fan game or something like that. But the 15 seconds in, I was totally expecting somebody to start rapping--this is totally the instrumental track to a rap piece. I would LOVE to hear this turn into a rap remix--it would sound SO HOT. Get the chorus with the epic orchestral sound, widdle the texture down into a lighter electronic sound, and vary it up a bit for the verses... I don't know, I'd love to hear this as rap. I know a rapper who's been wanting to do a sonic remix too... but whatever. This is really cool and I'd love to hear it become rap, despite how much I dislike the genre as a whole.

rofl sorry i'm broken

I'm definitely not referring to the guitar part, that part is killer. I guess it would be the flute thing? It's not as much that the melody is repetitive as it is the chord progression/harmonic rhythm. Actually, now that I'm listening to it again, I do hear that opening ostinato a LOT... tell you what, when I get a chance I'll go through this timestamp by timestamp and let you know what's going through my head.

Gar, i missed it this month! I got pretty close in electronic, though, placing #51. I'll be votin for ya'll!!

lol I dunno, it's fine for me I'm not expert when it comes to acoustics.

Alright, I'm home so I set up my music room to look real nice. This is MY percussion studio, pre-timpani: Pearl Cheapo Drumset Yamaha Steve Jordan signature snare drum Pearl Symphonic concert snare drum Black Swamp tambourine Abel Wagner/Mahler Triangle Mirror with my name on it Musser Vibraphone Adams 5 Octave marimba, Robert Van Sice model Musser Xylophone Yamaha piano I WILL have timpani! Will update then

NICE NICE NICE NICE NICE!!! First of all, I think you could add a little more to the texture in general, something to charactarize each verse a little better. I love what you did with the third verse!!! The increase in texture after the 2nd chorus is awesome. In the recording of your chorus, on "Now I know I'm not the only one", you're a bit out of tune on "Now I know", and only there. Any chance you could re record just that? This is sounding fantastic. Awesome work!!!

Ah, finale arrangements. I have some critique for your arrangement: There's a lot of meandering going on in here, no clear direction and because of it the source material really doesn't permeate very well. What's this written for, string quartet and piano? Or is it supposed to be string orchestra and piano? I know this is pre-production but I'm having trouble telling what's going on with those instruments. You have some cool individual ideas, but one thought is strung into the next with no consideration for transition. And to make matters worse, this is a long remix. If you're looking to submit, I'm not sure if you'd want to send this out for production yet--I think the arrangement still needs work. See if you can sort out your ideas a bit more, try to make it very clear what you're trying to say. Clarity of intention!!

I can't really take any pics now, but I guess I have a few "studios". This one isn't exactly mine though... it's the Peabody Percussion studio: and when I'm home this is what my studio (aka bedroom) looks like: the desktop is now located in my apartment in baltimore though.

lol i like this post the best

I'm more inclined that it does have to do with heart rate. I experience this phenomena all the time-- when I'm working out, pieces I thought were fast suddenly are not fast at all. Same when I was playing DDR--songs that I thought were fast while watching weren't all that fast while playing. I'm more inclined to think that if it has to do with the human body at all, it would have to do with heart rate--or perhaps the amount of adrenaline in the body, or something. Heart rate is a rhythm that we're subconsciously hearing constantly. Having a faster heart rate doesn't mean that we will hear music more slowly, but rather will seem slower in comparison to our heightened heart rate. That's a fairly minute change in heart rate, and if you're listening to music while you're getting up you won't notice a difference because you're hearing your heart rate change gradually. It's the same sort of effect as if you were to listen to like, 5 dragonforce songs in a row and then immediately go to a slower song that you still considered fast--it would sound very slow to your ears.

this show sucks so far but it's a great idea, more on that later--i just had a wonderful surprise in episode seven edit: just saw everything so far--the first seven episodes blow, but i can see why she used them. Things got a lot better in the last few episodes. First few episodes need moar plot, more consistent film direction, better acting, and better script for sure--because the whole time it was "i'm in pain"--no development whatsoever.

lol u tk him 2 da bar|? HAPPY BDAY ZIRCON!!!

just watched the first episode... was a bit schizo for my tastes but seems like a cool idea. I'll check out the rest of them.

You got my comments in #ocrwip. Just be careful about repetition, especially harmonically. You're relying a lot of texture, instrumentation, tempo, and counterpoint for variation--which are all great things to use. I'd like to hear some original melodies and chord progressions--especially chord progressions. And while you're taking the rock approach, how bout a solo? Also, you may want to consider shortening the amount of layering you do to save on the length of the mix. Just an idea though. Your ideas are solid, instrumentation is fantastic, it shows a lot of musicality. Post an update and I'll give you a checklist review Nice work so far, this has some great potential.

FLAMING NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dear mr soule i heard ur remix on ocr and i thought it wuiz SOOO COOOL!!! u are totally cool i love ur music!!! i was wondering if you could listen to some of my remixes that i mdade of ur music i've got about 25 remixes and counting right now can u listen to them!! if u think there good u can put them in a game under ur name idont care lol u can find them on jeremeysouleluvr.googlepages.com thx for listening! I LOVE U!!!!!!!!!!!!! -souleluvr25

nice nice nice nice nice!!! I've always liked this track from the game too. You worked really well with the latter parts of the source (which were the parts I didn't like, the chromatic stuff). That bass line is kicking some major ass as well. I thought what you did with the opening melody was really interesting, on my first listen through I didn't even realize that was what the guitar was playing. This is going on my playlist for sure, I will be working out to this mix Great work!!!

Well, a lot of that depends on what's happening in the mix! Sometimes a plain old electric bass works really well, I'm particularly fond of the sound of a fretless. Having a nice long orchestral double bass can sound good for the more lush sections, and I often find a lot of versatility in electric settings with a simple sine wave Be creative! As someone who's never spent a nickel on soundfonts, I find often that good mixing can really help make a sample sound more realistic. If you spent money on them, I hope they are good. Part of the problem was that they were so soft, I could hardly hear them, the other part is that they seemed to have no reverb and had no definable equalization. Perhaps maybe even more velocity work on those could help. Saxophones are VERY difficult to emulate, however. Do some messing around with equalization and balance on those, perhaps that'll help. The intro has some of the strongest instrumentation in the entire mix, for sure. Use it as an example for building the rest of the mix perhaps? I understand, sometimes I take that approach too. Although I find that I have a tendency to not want to deal with mixing by the end of writing the arrangement, and I often have greater success working with it as I go. But whatever works for you Yeah, the difference between 100 and 90 is actually pretty slim. I go all over the place with velocity. It's most noticeable in the fast parts--the glissandi and such, it sounds like each note is being hammered out at equal volume which most of the time isn't the case . I think I remember the end sounding pretty good. But you can definitely be more extreme. When you say that hydrocity is so much more rhythmically unpredictable than ice cap, I find that the contention between the two could prove to be very interesting. Maybe experiment with layering one theme over the other? You'd have to change some chords and some notes, but having the ice cap theme soaring over the rhythmic drive of hydrocity could be VERY cool. Just an idea I do believe interpretation and creativity, as well as improvisation in general, is unbelievably important-especially for a pianist. Keep messing with music I do think you could stand to change up the texture. I know what it's like to love a sound, but don't spoil yourself

PRODUCTION [#] Too quiet [#] Low-quality samples [#] Unrealistic sequencing [#] Drums have no energy [#] Mixing is muddy (eg. too many sounds in the same range) PERFORMANCE (live recorded audio/MIDI parts) [#] Wrong notes, general sloppiness STRUCTURE [#] Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough) [#] Lacks coherence overall (no "flow") [#] Pace too plodding PERSONAL COMMENTS (positive feedback, specifics on checklist criticisms, any other thoughts) Jeeeeeesus that's a lot of music. A lot of good stuff and a lot of stuff I'd like to see changed! Therefore, a lot of stuff for me to say. Broad Criticisms: There are problems I have with both the arrangement and the production values. As far as production goes, this piece definitely suffers from midi-itis. Don't worry--I've been there Overall every instrument falls in one frequency range. Use your equalizer to emphasis different frequencies on each instrument depending on what kind of sound you want it to have (bright, dark, etc). Your piano is in dire need of some velocity work--all of those runs sound way too robotic. Edit the velocities of the piano midi so that the phrases come through. Also, your samples are once again (surprise) on the midi side of things. A lot can be done to help crappy samples with eq, reverb, and careful midi sequencing. Also, try using compressors on individual instruments--especially your percussive instruments. Effective use of a compressor can really make a part groove. As for the arrangement, because you go through so many styles and themes, it's coming off to be a bit schizophrenic and aimless. The individual pieces are really well done, but the organization of the package as a whole is sort of jumbled and disjunct. I would re approach the way you organize all these pieces, try to get a good rise and fall. Also, the way I approach composition in general is that "nothing appears only once"--so I would try alluding to the different styles that you go through in different sections. Also, throughout the whole mix, I noticed a DISTINCT lack of bass instrument--all we ever get is the kick drum and the piano, there are some parts of this mix that really suffer from lack of bass--your frequency spectrum isn't being evenly represented. Anyway, let me take this through with timestamps, and make more specific comments: Opening: sounds pretty cool, nice choice of sounds there. In terms of organizing your mix, I would start with something a little less dense here, like maybe the piano stuff that comes in next. The thing I don't like about this section is that it starts at a completely different tempo and feel than the next few sections, so it's not really setting the listener up for anything. At :22 I feel like the piano rambles on a bit with the embellishment. Jazz at :53 sounds good, but once again holds no continuity to the rest of the mix. That shaker sample needs some work. What's going on with those panning strings at 1:20? They aren't following the chord progression of the piano at all--is this intentional? I'm not crazy about it. 1:55 I'm feeling the piano is rambling a bit too much... Also I should note that by this point we still have had no signifigant bass activity--the staticity of the texture makes for this to sound repetitive and plodding. 2:12--I don't agree with the suddenly extremely thin texture--at least have the piano doing something with the left hand!! Also, I'm not crazy about that shaker--it isn't grooving to me at all, you could do more with velocity. I LOVE the introduction of hydrocity zone though, but I wish you had more intricately woven this theme into the ice cap theme. 2:45 - once again a jarring transition but I'm glad you incorporated the original source accompaniment in the piano--it sounds really cool. Here's a part that I think really suffers from lack of bass-- you're getting some bass notes in the piano, and the kick drum is pretty low, but your soundscape isn't very even. I'd really like to hear this stuff kick more--through use of percussion and other instruments, more rhythmic accompaniment, etc. Get a better sax sample too! 3:34-modulation sounds pretty good--still would like a different instrument doing bass stuff. Those rhythmic figures need to be punchier, and that piano needs some velocity work (as well as a better sample, better eq, reverb, etc) to make those fast runs sound realistic. Nice return to hydrocity at 4:00 but I'm still lacking in the bass department! Once again i appreciate the reference to hydrocity but I'd like to hear it more evenly intertwined throughout the rest of the mix. 4:48- finally some bass sounds, even if it is in the percussion! Do you hear how fresh that sounds compared to the rest of the mix! That's what I'm getting at. The rhythmic interplay here is cool but after a while it begins to ramble--also your percussion samples don't help with that--I'm not hearing enough variation in velocity as well as from sample to sample. 5:37- alright, I guess solo piano is fine but by this point I'm exhausted. Your mix is piano, piano, and more piano--maybe it's appropriate to end with piano then but I'd still like to hear more variation. I like the strings that come in, and the water drop at the end is BALLER. So basically what I'm getting at is your mix doesn't have a clear direction, and it's meandering is a result of a thin texture, low production quality, organization of ideas, and a narrow frequency spectrum represented (i.e. no bass) All of this being said, interpretation skills are EXCELLENT. In this mix, I feel like you have 5 different mixes of ice cap that if were developed, could hold their own as ice cap remixes. You should've joined this project But a lot of the choices within each section of this mix were GREAT, and the fact that you've used finale to make what could be narrowed down to a theme and variations of ice cap zone for solo piano--it makes me wonder if you consider yourself a "composer" more than a "remixer" or "producer". I could totally see this being performed. Remember, when you're producing music, you can't rely on the listener thinking "oh, well that's what it would sound like if someone was playing it". You, in the end, ARE the performer. This mix is long. It's huge, and it's JAM PACKED with musical ideas. You can keep going with it if you want, but I think it would be benificial to your "education" as an ocremixer is to take your favorite section of this arrangement and develop that. I wouldn't normally reccomend this, but this mix is a special exception. I hope you don't interpret this as "give up on your remix" because that's not what I mean at all. I just think you should change your approach a bit--isolate one musical idea you find to be really profound, and work with JUST that. Also, there's a good chance your remix would be over the 6MB mark anyway. It's very impressive to see that one can pack so many different musical ideas into 6:30 though, and have them ALL be different. As a composer, out of all of my suggestions, I implore you to practice fleshing out all the different possibilities from one very narrow musical idea. If you've ever listened to Bach, you'll find that the genius in his fugues lies in the fact that he treats each and every one of them as a study to use that musical theme in every possible way. There's a lot to be said for doing this. Coherence, my friend. Good luck with remixing--you've got tons of talent. It's over 9000!!!!

Sorry Sengin! I will do that!!! thank you for your feedback tho!!

Wow, I'm thrilled to see how quickly and thoroughly you responded to my feedback! This definitely has enough variation and use of the source now. However, I'm afraid perhaps you followed my advice too closely--it's beginning to sound a little less "you" than it was before, and I don't want my influence to permeate THAT deeply. So, let me break it down to show what works and what doesn't. Let's start at :15. I can clearly hear that you only put the melody in there because I said so, especially when the B part comes in. I think you can take a little more time to build the texture if you want--the one thing I liked about the first update I listened to was how smoothly it built up, even if it didn't have a good source balance--I think under my pressure you've built up too soon! So go ahead and layer things slowly like you had been doing, and introduce the altered melody more subtly--perhaps under a bunch of reverb, or in a lowpass filter, or something like that. Also, breaking that melody into smaller pieces may help--anything you can do to HINT, but not REVEAL, the melody that will be coming will both help in the variation, use of source, and structure departments. I like the drums at 1:10--sounds really cool Altered melody at 1:50 sound sgood. I also liked the way you incorporated the altered B section into it. All of this stuff from 1:10 on is GREATLY improved. Did you shorten the middle section at all? It sounds shorter--but the length of the remix is the same. If you didn't shorten it, that means you've put in enough variation to balance things out and make it seem less repetitive--in which case, nice Altered melody at 3:43 sound GREAT, great choice. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in my first post--you know those drums in the source? the timpani sounds that pound away at the end of each phrase--you may want to try incorperating that into your mix. Just an idea Anyway, I still think you should go ahead and rework the buildup in the beginning so that it doesn't expose the melody quite so quickly--I know I said I wanted it in there sooner, but it definitely stuck out as sour to me and I'm sorry I misled you in that sense. I think putting in traces of the theme would be helpful, or even just the altered melody of the A section without the B section would sound a lot better than what it is now, but the sudden exposure to the melody with such a thin texture behind it isn't really working for me. The rest of the mix is greatly improved though. Great work!!!

Hey guys! Substantial update: http://drumultima.googlepages.com/volcanojuice.mp3 I put in the delay marimba because I wanted there to be a little marimba from the beginning of making this mix... but i'd like to hear opinions anyway. Sorry the end of what I have so far is really copypasta right now... it won't be