Jorito

Cheers for the review and the point you brought up about the energy dropping is a good one; I'll keep that in mind for future remixes. Off to the panel it is, in 8 months we'll know what they think of it

So let's see what Mr. Mod thinks of this

Also consider ripping samples out of mod files; they will have quite the amount of usable samples. Other tips: limit yourself to ~8 channels simultaneously, that's more or less what you'd get on a SNES (and Amiga mod files used 4 iirc) and consider that these machines didn't have any built in fx, so no reverbs or delays or even EQ if you want to be very puristic. When composing drums placing them on a single channel was quite common. Of course it does mean that each sample will cut off as soon as the next starts, but considering you didn't have nowhere near enough sample ram to store that lush reverbed 2 second snare anyway it was never a problem. So yeah, use a limited amount of 8/16 bit samples (let's give you some luxury and say about 512kb) and a limited amount of channels. That forces you to be creative with the limited stuff that you have, and that's mostly what I have experienced good composers do. That knifecity track sounded quite FM to me, on a quick listen with crappy ipad speakers. That's another route: go all out fm, including drums for a Mega Drive like sound.

Damn, dat sidechain, so obvious now! ~15db reduction wtf Did a quick change of the compressor's threshold and release settings and overwrote the previous version. Much better now I think.

I was able to work on it a bit more, so here's a new version: http://www.jorito.net/files/Wicked%20Child/Wicked%20Chip_20150301.mp3 Changes this time: - new vocoded voxes, new vocoder, processing and sidechaining to make them clearer (hopefully) - added another osc with some modulation to the bass to make it more gritty and less boring - increased sidechain level for the bass/kick combo - new synth lead for the solo including some more extreme modulation and pitchbends My tired ears think it's all pretty good now, hope y'all think so too (and I hope my ears agree tomorrow too )

Upped the ratio and threshold on the bass sidechain a bit and added some saturation to the high kick: http://www.jorito.net/files/Wicked%20Child/Wicked%20Chip_20150226.mp3 More changes later this week (yes, I'm aware the ending cuts out too soon, I was a bit too hasty with exporting...)

Thanks for checking again. Some remarks before I start work on the mix again: - the bass is a combination of a NES bass sound and a sub (a 2 osc sine wave, one osc pitched down 12 semitones). I want the NES bass sound to remain there (it's chiptune after all) but will see what I can do with the sub, maybe some different waveform for the higher osc and/or some lfo. - I'm only sidechaining the kicks with the bass, not the snare. Will recheck the settings and do some more listening to see what's happening here. Distortion might help indeed. - endophin is of no use to me since I'm on a Mac - I'll probably rerecord the vocoder stems (currently it's more a quickly recorded temp track and could use a bit more TLC). I didn't find zircon's vox that audible either btw

I already knew that It's mostly not my lack of knowledge holding me back, but more a lack of skill and practice Anyway, I worked some more on the track, keeping all the feedback in mind. Here's an updated version: http://www.jorito.net/files/Wicked%20Child/Wicked%20Chip_20150225.mp3 Lots of small changes, like new drum samples (and layered too), some rebalancing here and there, side chaining the kick and vocals, licks of reverbs here and there, removing some duplicate notes in the drums and some other stuff. I'd appreciate some more feedback if this is generally moving in the right direction or if I foobar'ed it

Oh my! I didn't know about either, just read the first page and it was very entertaining. Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight... reading the rest

Aw... that's a pity. I'm glad that Mike and I were able to get in touch and that he found my input useful but I wouldn't have minded more participation. Curious what experiment you have in mind. I think the barrier is quite low already, but the thing that makes this compo unique is also a bit of a weak spot; essentially you need double the amount of people (a star and a novice). And having to compete with PRC and MNP doesn't help either, given the finite amount of free time people have... Not sure how to solve this dilemma but I personally like the concept of RwS and I think the themes you come up with are also interesting with enough room to learn and grow from the 2 rounds I saw.

Thanks for all the helpful feedback! Guess I got caught again in my unrefined skill and lack of interest in mixing With these pointers I think I can squeeze a bit more out of it, the stuff on the fundamentals is much appreciated as well as the reference track. Guess my quest to seek a happy medium between drums that fit with chiptune and pure DnB drums needs some more work. It's back to the mixing board for a few more edits BTW evktalo, the drums were from an electronic drum kit so I have pure MIDI and layering is not a problem.

Thanks for your feeback guys! I guess this is what you get when you have been mixing all night and decide it's done without listening back the day after with fresh ears. Most feedback makes sense and I'll do checks on normal speakers (95% of this was done on headphones). Not sure what Timaeus222 means with 'stronger drums' tho, they seem pretty strong here

A drummer friend of mine wanted to create a drum 'n bass-ish groove for Castlevania's Wicked Child song by using the original game song and adding some sub bass to it. I thought we could do better and I started covering the song from scratch. As always things got out of hand and it turned into a groovy chiptune DnB combo with live drums of Wicked Child with vocoded voices. Source: Final version: https://soundcloud.com/jorito/wicked-chip-feat-erik-vreven Earlier versions: V1: http://www.jorito.net/files/Wicked%20Child/Wicked%20Chip_20150223.mp3 V2: http://www.jorito.net/files/Wicked%20Child/Wicked%20Chip_20150225.mp3 V3: http://www.jorito.net/files/Wicked%20Child/Wicked%20Chip_20150301.mp3 Had some problems with getting the vocoder voices understandable, so here's the lyrics: Wicked child / In the lair / Dracula /See you there. Even tho the vox aren't that great it adds a nice tapestry to the song

Judging by the colors in the excel sheet I'm due for the april 22nd deadline, amirite?

Still figuring out which track exactly, but sign me up for Ridge Racer Type 4. Time for some nice electro funk/swing

If you have Kontakt you can also consider Sonokinetic Toll: http://www.sonokinetic.net/products/classical/toll/ Not sure if it has ominous bells, but it has got you covered on the general church bell thingie.

Adding to that, don't forget the workshop here. I have found the workshop forums a great place to share my tracks and get helpful feedback from critical listeners. It really helps your awareness of weak spots in your track and often you get good pointers for improvement.

I'm up for that; pm me with details on your track and I'll help you out with (hopefully) good advice As for internet connectivity; no problems there. In the Netherlands about 80% of the households have broadband internet. My only limitations are availability of time and energy

Interesting to see this compo back, still have good memories of season 2! I'm not a posted mixer (yet; there's good stuff waiting to be judged and approved ) but judging my own skills and the amount of time I have I think I dare sign up as a star if anyone needs it. Like Rexy I'm in GMT, my DAW is Logic and that's also the only instrument I play

This TubaMcGoof sounds quite the freak, but I'll guess I will take my chances

My track could use some lead guitar solo'ing (and perhaps replacing of my sampled rhythm guitars)... anyone here interested to help me out?

Thanks for the mod review, much appreciated! One remark though... the only live instrument are the vocals, the rest is all samples

Great! Standing by

Bumpetybump again! We'd really appreciate a modreview on this