paradiddlesjosh

Howdy, VQ! Also gonna reiterate live review notes for posterity: The judges honed in on the fuzziness happening from 3:25-4:09. It's highly likely to be too much saturation on something. This can be tamed with a high shelf cut around 6-8kHz or by pulling the saturation back about 10%. The modulation/key change into the same section was a great idea that needs the proper preparation for the listeners to stick with it. I think we determined you're going from Ab Major to E Major. Major third modulations are pretty easy to handle as modulations go -- I mentioned going to a shared chord between the keys but you don't have many between these two keys. However, Hemo suggested some tritone substitution action. In this case, do an Ab7 (Ab-C-Eb-Gb) chord into (in this case) a B7 (B-D#-F#-A) chord leading into the change into the E Major (E-G#-B). You can omit the 5ths on the 7 chords (Eb and F#, respectively) if you don't have enough voices to cover the chords -- but keep the 7th intervals spread out to minimize the potential dissonance.

City pop is so fun! I'll write down and expand my comments from the Office Hours voice chat: Outside of altering your basic arrangement framework or the key, the drums plod by the end of the second chorus. The groove is interesting and complex but needs more variation to maintain listener interest subtly. Consider simplifying the beat during a verse or two -- hew the kick to the bass, maybe save the snare and clap for beat 4, roll back the complexity of the hi-hat pattern or drop the hats entirely. During the choruses -- perhaps especially the choruses framing the guitar solo -- use some anticipatory kick drum placements (the 'a' of 3 or 4, and/or the 'and' of 4) for some bars. These extra 16th note spots from the kick create anticipation for the downbeat, ramping the energy up a notch and propelling the beat forward. If it still feels plodding, consider dropping the drums out entirely for a verse and going to just the claps for a couple of bars. Without changing the basic beat pattern, you can also vary the hi-hat pattern by incorporating some open hi-hat spots (beat 4 or the 'and' of 4 are good spots on alternate bars, or go for the disco approach and open the hats on the upbeats). If you keep the 16th note flourishes in the closed hi-hats, try opening the 'a' 16th note between the closed hi-hats.

Howdy, Seth! What a fun source. Gonna attach the source for other folks to check out as well; always good to include it with a WIP so we can be familiar with it. Since you mentioned volume leveling, sound design, and other edits, I'll frame my feedback with those aspects in mind. I generally like your instrument choices for this arrangement, particularly the trumpet and the marimba, and as my name would indicate, I'm gonna zero in on those drums. Volume leveling: once that 16th note double kick and bass pattern comes in (:23, 1:06, etc), the lows from the bass and kick are eating up the soundstage. A dynamic EQ targeting the sub-bass frequencies or a multiband compressor for those segments would help keep the lows under control. Sound design: if you want to hew closely to the sound of the Genesis, consider the sound channel limitations of the system. The drums (kick, snare, toms) will most likely be sample playback from the PCM channel while the cymbals are coming from the noise channel and the PCM isn't super hi-fi. Consider rolling off the super lows (20-40Hz) and the highs (10-12kHz, maybe as low as about 8kHz). Other edits: I think I'm hearing some artifacting in the render, some light crackling in the side channel. You'll most likely be cleaning this up by the end, but it's worth pointing out. Keep cookin'! We're looking forward to hearing more from you. :)

I'm not super familiar with either series and I've got a few events happening in July, but I'm happy to fill in for either team. Let's get mashin'!

Howdy Que! Echoing Seph's and luna's comments, your remix sounds impressive! You managed to get a lot of mileage out of the syncopated bassline of the source's intro. While the pacing of the arrangement is generally good, I think the shortness of the transitions causes the remix to suffer somewhat; you're keeping the adrenaline pumping, sure, but the listener doesn't have a moment to digest the segments. That being said, we're looking forward to hearing more from you. Keep it up!

Howdy, Master Mi! Besides calculating time-based effect durations, you can also use this calculation to place studio monitors in your space. First things first: the speed of sound through a given medium depends on the medium's density (and temperature). At room temperature (20C or 68F), the speed of sound through the air is 343 meters/second (about 1,125 feet/second), slower at lower temperatures and faster at higher temps. To calculate space in time-based effects like reverb and delay, that's 343 millimeters per millisecond (343 mm/ms) or about 1.125 feet per millisecond (1.12533 ft/ms). Next, sound waves radiate from the source -- almost perfectly spherical in lower frequencies and more directionally as the frequencies climb. A spherical room with a radius of about 11.25 feet will have early reflections (i.e. bounce off the walls) at 10ms. Of course, no room is spherical; most are rectangular prisms or combinations of 3D shapes, so you'd need to measure the distance from a given point in a room to all the faces (walls, floor, ceiling) to determine the travel time for the sound to reach that point from the wall and vice versa. Because higher-frequency sounds have smaller wavelengths, they lose energy faster than lower-frequency sounds. For especially large rooms like your cathedral example, it'll be necessary to roll the high frequencies off in your reverbs and/or delays for realism (and lower frequencies for mix balance). I like rolling off at 360Hz (high pass/low cut) and 3600Hz (low pass/high cut) as starting points but play around with these to suit your production. Regardless of the other dimensions, the average height for human males is about 1.77 meters (5.8 feet), while human females stand at about 1.63 meters (5.35 feet) so the time for a sound to travel from human-ish height to the floor is about 4.75-5.1 ms (1630 to 1770/343 or 5.35 to 5.8/1.125). But unless the sound source is facing the ground, most of this first reflection is likely not getting through your HPF. For the distances to other surfaces, convert the distance to either millimeters or feet and divide by either 343 (mm/ms) or 1.125 (ft/ms). It'll be up to you to decide how big you want this cathedral to be and calculate accordingly. You can also fudge those delay timings to simulate a colder or warmer room -- e.g. at 0C or 32F (freezing point of water), the speed of sound is about 331 m/s (1086 ft/s), or 331 mm/ms (1.086 ft/ms), so the time to the floor is about 4.9-5.3 ms. Not much slower for the first reflection, but the difference is more noticeable for further surfaces.

Howdy, Seth! I had to dig up the source for your track; it's always a good idea to include a link to the source for your arrangement as it helps the listeners compare. I can for sure hear Act 1 in your mix; if you also added stuff from Act 2, that would be good to know as well. Slick transition from the original audio at 0:06. The synced slapback delay on the snare and cymbals is a nice touch. Interesting kick/sub fills like at 0:27 and again at 1:08. Good hi-hat work throughout. The lead at 1:16 is a refreshing change-up, though the sustained pitch-bend ending of that lead fell a bit flat for me. Speaking of endings, there's an audible pop at 2:08 and a hard cutoff of the reverb tail. Keep cookin' on this one and you'll have a banger for sure. :)

I'll need to check out Reworks That Matter, 'cuz I want to experience the orchestral elements you cut out. I love the electronic and orchestral elements you've blended with this arrangement. Those timpani rolls are *chef's kiss.*

Howdy, Audiomancer! Dyluck and mo.oorgan provided some effective feedback already, so I'll echo those sentiments. The arrangement's short, fiery, and sweet. I dig the swing on the hats at 1:14. Really helps build that energy back up.

Howdy, Nase! I'll echo the other commenters on the choice of instrumentation -- funk and metal is a great combo and you've achieved a working blend in the mix. I can hear some crash cymbal hits (e.g. 0:45, 0:49, 1:20 and 2:21) that are either very dry or choked. If they are choked hits, they're unusually placed. A live drummer would have a hard time replicating that, so it pulls some realism away for me. Good call on your decision to alter the intro. It's pretty jarring as is, but once it hits the funk, it's gellin'. Good feel shift at 2:14-ish. As others have mentioned, keep an ear on the volume of the slides on that lead guitar. I'd love to see where you take this mix from here! I'm not very familiar with the MS/GG version of Sonic 2, so it's cool to hear some deep cuts and hidden gems--er, emeralds. :P

These resources aren't plug-ins: they're great reference tools! Brad the Mad's Tempo Calculator (Chart, lists given bpm subdivisions as ms and Hz; chart goes from 60 bpm to 179 bpm) Tuneform's Tempo Calculator (converts bpm to ms) MIDI CC List (Chart, lists common CC uses) Virtual Instrument Delay Chart (Google Sheet, lists delay offsets for most orchestral VST instruments; organized by instrument section, brand, library, and articulations). Use these as a starting point and adjust to your project as needed Tap Tempo (Webapp, click or tap a key in time with a piece of music to get its tempo) I was chatting in the Lounge on Discord with folks last night discussing the importance of tools like the tempo calculators: some time-based effects plug-ins (reverb and delay, but also the attack and release controls on compressors, limiters, gates, expanders, etc) have no tempo sync function. If you can convert the subdivision into ms or Hz, you can manually sync your plug-ins to your project tempo/tempi (plural of tempo). You can also use this chart to maintain a relative pulse while changing meters: in the example I gave from a project Seph and I are working on, there's an intro segment at 90 bpm, 4/4 time that evolves into a verse in 12/8 using the same structure as the intro. 12/8 is functionally equivalent to 4/4 with a triplet subdivision, but most DAWs only give tempo expressed in a quarter note bpm, so maintaining 90 bpm gives an incorrect pulse from the click. But if you check the chart, you can see that a quarter note at 90bpm equals 0.667 seconds (666.6 repeating ms, or 667 for simplicity's sake) and a quarter-note triplet equals 0.444 seconds (444.4 repeating ms). Scroll down the chart and you'll find 135 bpm has a quarter note value of 0.444 seconds and a dotted quarter note value of 0.667 seconds: for all intents and purposes, the quarter note value of 90 bpm equals the dotted quarter note value of 135 bpm!

Hey there peshti! The sound design and production are top-notch for your take on the track. The arrangement is very close to the source, with one A-B transition cut out and several voices removed (mostly trumpet and flute/piccolo lines). Like Liontamer, I would kill to hear some more transformative additions to the material from you on this one. Keep it up!

This mix is such a jam. Production-wise, I want some more low-mids in the bass, but I don't think it's a dealbreaker. I'll join the chorus of folks hoping this is OCR-worthy; that said, I think the source is a licensed track from outside the game.

Sounds like a great cover you've put together, mellowsonic! Your arrangement is almost 1:1 with the source material until a well-executed break to the bass elements at around 2:00. The build that follows works well -- love the ping-pong plucks at 2:13. The dark drums are a great touch at 3:24; I would have loved to hear them come in sooner, but part of why they're so impressive is because of how restrained the arrangement has been leading up to that point.

Arrangement: I second Liontamer's suggestion about expanding the instrumentation. The sparseness isn't selling the concept. Additionally, the drop at 0:46 seems like it was intended to change up the soundscape, but in execution, it's a big letdown because it throws all the energy you just spent the first 45 seconds or so building. It would be more effective to start with that more sparse, chordal bit and build the energy into what you've done with the intro. The false fade-out ending allows the interest curve to drop off too soon as well. Production: The lead synth at 0:16 could use a boost of about 1-2dB. Otherwise, the volume balance of your elements is well executed, at least to my ears. The solo violin at 1:45 is overexposed; if you have a higher-quality sample library you could replace it with or another texture for the lead overall, that would improve the sound greatly. It's a great relief to be able to recover some work after a crash. Keep pushing on this one, and you'll have something awesome.