zircon

Definitely not interpretive enough, in my opinion. EVERYTHING up to 1:06 is basically straight from the source with very little (if any) variation or interpretation. After that, it's more repetition from the source, with some basic added harmonies & a counter-melody at 1:22. I do not think the additions are nearly enough to make up for how closely this sticks to the source in terms of chordal structure, rhythms, dynamics, etc. It really is basically the source twice in a row with some light additions the second time through, nowhere near enough for our bar. Larry, what are you thinking on this...? Production-wise, the orchestration is well-done, but things get muddy in the second half. This is because there's a tendency to simply layer up sustain parts instead of using rhythmic unison or syncopation to really make things interesting, which has the negative effect on the freq balance. Volume level is also a little too static across the board for orchestral, IMO, needs more room to breathe. NO

Ah yes, I remember this theme - right off the bat it's pretty apparent here. I'm going to break down my points into bullets, since they're a bit jumbled: * The interpretation, overall, is quite creative. I like the treatment of the source tune. * The orchestration is good and the different instruments are used intelligently. * The piano seems to be very thin. Needs more lower frequency emphasis, and 'sparkle'. Some additional volume would be nice. * The constant use of the very low notes on the piano does not sound good. * The strings sound brighter and more full than the piano, the two don't really sound like they fit together. * Especially around :41 through 1:05 or so, the texture seems rather sparse. I think the orchestration could be more full to make the dynamic contrast more apparent. * The mix overall could use more rhythmic elements, even in the form of instrumental ostinatos (not necessarily drumloops or anything) * Towards the end, the instruments lack rhythmic tightness - things don't seem to be syncing up properly. I think the criticisms here slightly outweigh the positive aspects, and I also agree with Darkesword that the piece overall could definitely be expanded. There's a wealth of source material so surely you won't have any problems there. I strongly encourage a resubmit. If you need help on any of the production issues I brought up, please post in the ReMixing forum. People will be happy to help! NO, resub

The initial mix of sounds in the intro wasn't really palatable to me... guitar seemed a bit too chorused/detuned and it just didn't feel together. Once the chiptune arpeggio came in with some drums, it felt much tighter. At first I thought this was pretty much "Trenthian does Wizards & Warriors" with his mix of four-on-the-floor acoustic/drum machine style percussion, old-school synths, and orchestral elements. Then the vocals came in. Very nice job on those! I was genuinely surprised at how well they worked here. Great performance, mixing/processing. I think the arrangement as a whole worked quite well, with a good amount of personalization, a sensible & musical structure, and seamless merging of the multiple W&W themes. Nice soloing, a bit wanky on the guitar, but that's just fine by me My only complaints are really production oriented. The drums are weak, as Larry/Darke have pointed out. Really uninteresting compared to everything else, though they get the job done. Plus, I think there is too much going on in the lows to low-mids, makes things muddy, especially when the vocals are going on. It's not a huge deal but I think the spectrum isn't quite balanced as well as it could be. The highs seemed to suffer a bit somehow, possibly from the encoding. Great mix overall - very creative, glad to see Trenth trying new things. YES

Nope, this is the permanent price.

If you saw how fast I could sequence you might change your mind. There really is no better way IMO to do 'drum machine' style drums, the primary draw being not only the speed of sequencing but the ability to just change your samples in real time (and preview new ones) while the sequence is going.

I just drag and drop into FL's step sequencer (sampler channels) - by far the easiest way. I don't really have much of an organization system, however... I've tried in the past, but the best I have is organization by sample library.

Soundonsound.com had a series of tutorials where they explain how to emulate 'real' sounds using various synthesizers. Search for "Synth Secrets" there. Also, search on google for the e-book "How to make a Sound" - there's a free version and a full version which again, explains various synth programming tricks. However, there really is no "proper" way to do anything. Different synths behave differently. You can't just apply the same settings in one VST and expect them to make the same sound when used in another. That's why it's better to understand the fundamentals of synthesis, learning how different aspects affect the sound (and of course listening to the results) so you can immediately jump into any new synth and use it well.

Summary: I just bought a $14 drum sample collection of 469 oneshot WAVs, edited and categorized. It consists of vinyl sounds sampled to an MPC drum machine and then re-sampled to a computer. If you are interested in 'groovy' drums (breakbeat, hip hop, big beat, funk) then this really is a must have. Here's my full review. http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=197271 Here's a demo I did in a couple minutes with NO processing. http://www.soundtempest.net/dope.mp3 And here's where you can get them. http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/thempc60page.html

Wow, way to brag about stealing the work of someone in this very thread. Are you dense or what?

Continuing in the tradition of the last Philadelphia-area remix I did, "ENEMY", this one is based on a pop rock song called "Into Philadelphia" by the band IKE. The original is very catchy and the writer/singer/guitarist, John Faye, was excited to have me remixing it. I changed the structure somewhat, as well as some of the chords, and went with a sort of anthem/uplifting trance mood. Very proud of the production on this especially since I programmed pretty much all the synths from scratch myself in Zebra 2. Let me know what you think. http://www.soundtempest.net/Into%20PHL%20Remix.mp3 (remember; I didn't write the melody or sing/record the vocals!) Enjoy!

Yoozer's right, though we would allow *SMALL* amounts of vocal sampling in an OC ReMix, potentially. And I do mean small.

Huh? So you're taking the vocals from some piece of popular music, and using it in a video game remix? And do you mean "legal" as in legal under US law, or the OCR standards? OR are you talking about taking the vocals from a piece of popular music, and using them in a remix of that same piece?

This is such a broad and ignorant statement that it's hard to even come up with a coherent response to it. First of all, medical science in the last century has advanced considerably. Quality of life, especially in first world nations, has gone way up. Lifespans have increased. Countless diseases have been eliminated or reduced in threat to minimal levels. Second, a good amount of medical research is carried about by researchers at universities or general hospitals using federal funds, and by nature, such entities don't "go out of business." Third, medical research is highly regulated - directly by the FDA, and indirectly (in the case of for-profit organizations) by people that have financial interest in those businesses. If you want to further debate this point, take it to PPR, don't post further about it here.

I agree with you entirely, Dave. Putting money towards research, treatment, and prevention of serious/terminal illnesses seems like a worthier cause than simply buying games/systems to 'treat the symptoms', so to speak.

Agreed w/ Dave. "Calamitous Judgment" came together in a matter of weeks, as did "Monstrous Turtles". "Nomura Limit" was more like 3-4 days. "Above Reason" basically took over a year, on the other hand. It all boils down to inspiration... most of the time, when I'm working on a remix, when I actually have an idea I can execute it VERY quickly. I have that down to a science. But most of my time is spent without any ideas, sitting at an arbitrary point in the song and listening to it over and over to see if I can figure out what to do next (or perhaps I've done one section and need a section to precede it.) With this in mind, I suppose I spend most of my time on arrangement - mixing/mastering goes by pretty quick as I generally do it as I go. There are exceptions, though. For example, in my new Megaman 2 remix in the WIP forums, I've spent a great deal of time getting the right mix/frequency balance and setting up killer drum sounds, because those are really crucial to the track overall.

Yeah, practice - and lots of actually synthesizing stuff yourself, and reading about how various sounds are created (eg. posts like mine)

Yeah, writing code is not exactly the same as writing music, writing a screenplay, or creating other forms of art. While it's easy to value the time of a programmer, it's hard to really value the time of a creative person. Earlier this year I got $125 for writing 15 seconds of music. It took about 20 minutes. Does this mean I'm worth $375 an hour? No, it means that particular piece of music was worth $125, and I was only able to create it quickly because of all the time and money I have invested into my studio and abilities.

Haha, AWESOME! Great job on this! (my only suggestions: vocals could be a little louder, and synths could be funkier w/ vibrato a la the original, but these are minor quibbles)

Simply put, Malice, I've used a wide variety of samplers and none are even close to as confusing and annoying to use as Shortcircuit. There's an awful lot of free stuff out there (in general) but that doesn't mean one can/should use all of it; I'm not going to spend hours of my time figuring out how the hell to use all of SC's features, especially considering the help file sucks (yes, I did check it first!) when I could perhaps spend my time better elsewhere. If you do get a lot of use out of it, great, but considering many newbies here can't even figure out basic functions of their sequencers, let alone complex samplers with cold, foreign interfaces, I'm not sure it will be the most useful to people.

Yeah, I don't see what the problem is. Record the WAVs on the laptop, send them to the desktop via LAN, wireless, external hard drive, etc.

I am selling my academic license for Sony Acid Pro 6, a highly popular sequencer/host that is still top-notch for loop based composition. It is also a powerful competitor to programs like Sonar and Cubase after years of refinement. It can do all sorts of audio/MIDI stuff, has a fairly customizable UI, a built in library of sounds (including the NI plugin 'Kompakt' which has ~2GB of additional instruments, used to sell for $150-200 by itself), video editing and export, etc. I bought this primarily for video purposes but I no longer need it for that, so I'm looking to transfer. NEW this costs $375. With a traditional academic discount, you might pay $180-200. I am selling for $130+ship. This is the lowest you will find it for, and the license does not exclude commercial usage. "Academic license" in this case just means you have to be a student or educator on some level. It does NOT mean you can only use it for educational purposes. More info: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/product.asp?pid=383

The UI really does look like Microsoft Excel, and it's about as unintuitive, spartan, and frustrating to use as I could imagine. I was planning on posting about it except I think it's not even worth using as a free product.

Believe it or not I find a lot of Disco Dan's stuff is hypnotic enough that, at lower volumes, it can help you get to sleep. I'm also partial to Alisia Dragoon - "Halls of Abandonment".

So yeah, this is actually "Masters of the Universe" from the band Juno Reactor. I just made the whole thing about "Rajesh Hattiangdi" up to see if I could get anyone. Poor bgc.

I was pretty impressed with this even just from the WIP. I'm not actually a big fan of the original either, but I think Anso really did a GREAT job transforming it into an interesting synth-funk remix. Just about every element is performed/sequenced very well, and the production is quite polished. The soloing is great, the arrangement really expands on the (rather basic) source, the original melodic/harmonic additions fit perfectly, and perhaps most importantly, there's a killer groove created by the drums & keys. My only complaint is the fadeout; I would have preferred a 'button' ending, but no big deal. Every new remix I hear from AnotherSoundscape surprises me, as he seems to be able to pull off a wide variety of styles with ease, and he consistently improves with each new track. Great job! YES