zircon

Bump. Yeah, I suppose so. Just make it clear that it's a resubmit.

I gotta agree with pixie on this one. I'm REALLY liking the concept/style of the mix, and the arrangement. You keep the sort of sad, empty feel of the original while still giving it your own spin, which is, after all, what this site is all about. I also think the choice of instrumentation suits the style you chose well. That being said, the execution is definitely very weak and brings the whole mix down. As Jill pointed out, the guitar is out of tune. I'm not normally a stickler for this kind of stuff, but it sticks out too much for comfort. The performance itself seems to me to be on point, but you gotta tighten up that tuning. Then, you've got some VERY General MIDI-ish percussion, music box, and pan flute. I've heard your other mixes, I know you have access to better sounds, why not use them? The contrast between the fakey sampled stuff and your high quality guitar playing is very obvious. I also have to agree that the intro (before the guitar comes in) seems to be superfluous. The pan flute part towards the end is very sloppy, with some flubbed notes and off-rhythms; plus, the pitch bends just sound bad straight up. They're too fast, and the flute itself is very dry, which makes 'em sound even worse. I think the music box and percussive parts could also use additional reverb to make them sound at least a little better, if you don't plan on changing the sample, and I would probably take another look at the timing of the music box at a few points as it sounds off. If you rerecord the guitar part in tune and redo the MIDI stuff to sound more realistic, I'll have a lot more reason to yes this. So, go for a resub. Until then... NO

Pretty cool concept here, arrangement-wise; integrating the different CT/CC themes into the Radical Dreamers chord progression. I like that. Though, I do think you guys could have changed up the chords a little more over the course of the song, as they get a *bit* repetitive by the end despite the different melodies and harmonies. Not a huge deal, though. I don't really have any complaints about the ending either, but the transition at 1:25 could be better. Otherwise, thumbs up on arrangement (including the solo later on). My big problem here is with the production; Larry and pixietricks touched on several of the points I was going to bring up. One would be the drums, which are really unremarkable. The pattern is dull and the samples, while not "cheap", are not really interesting either. Surely between the two of you, you can think up a more interesting percussive part for this song. As is, it takes away from the mix. Another thing was the use of the orchestral instruments. I thought that they were generally on the mechanical and unrealistic side in terms of their sequencing, especially the woodwinds. The strings were OK, but the flute early on, for example, was rough. If changing velocities/timing is not enough, go for more improvisation on the melodies you have those instruments playing. Grace notes, trills, and other such ornaments are great for making a simple part more engaging. With regards to mixing, I thought the sound was unpolished. The low end was overbearing (very obvious on the acoustic guitar) and the e. guitar could have been brighter. Also, the e. guitar and FM7 synth were somewhat dry. Some reverb and/or delay would fix that no problem. All in all, I like the concept and I think the performances were great. I have no major qualms with the arrangement, choice of instruments, or recording. I just think the sampled parts fall short of the mark and that brings the ReMix down. Refine and resubmit, fellas. NO

Even though this is already at 3N, I just wanted to add a couple of other things. I thought the variation and original interpretation factor here was really good. I'm impressed, and I really think you've got a good handle on making melodic and harmonic variations. The weak area here, production issues aside, is the lack of variation in the chord progression. In and of itself, it's slightly different from the original, but it's repeated verbatim throughout the entire ReMix. You should be a little more daring there. Change it up at least a few times! Do that and listen to some of the advice left by my compatriots and I think you'll be quite a bit closer to the bar. NO

Before I begin with the analysis of the actual mix, I should point out that we frown on direct sampling as the basis for ReMixes here. People are generally encouraged to listen to the original song and transcribe it by ear, part by part, as this is often more conducive to the addition of original material. That's how I look at it, anyway. This is somewhat confirmed by the fact that the arrangement is on the conservative side, sticking close to the structure of the original. You should try to make a distinction between a song that is an 'upgrade' from a source tune, to one that can stand on its own as an interesting piece of music. This ReMix falls closer to the former category, which is not necessarily 'bad', but not exactly what OCR is all about. On the other hand, your production values are OK - GarageBand loop aside (I wouldn't have caught that). I would, however, suggest adding more changeups to the different parts throughout the ReMix. For example, the supersaw lead; try automating the cutoff there or assigning an LFO to modulate it. This will give 'motion' to the sound that makes it more interesting to listen to. You might want to consider changing the brass parts to something else also, as they don't sound very realistic - particularly the transitions at :49 and 1:42. In short, try adding more original material and being more creative with your sound design. Also, especially with mixes that are shorter than 3 minutes, real endings are preferred over fadeouts... so take that for what it's worth. NO

Whatup Mark. First off, I think you should probably take another look at the intro you have here. The opening synth is kinda harsh, and the transition to the 'main' mix is kind of awkward and sudden. Try to flesh it out more by actually leading in to the following section via fading in the new instruments, percussion, or something like that. Anyway, being groove biased, first thing I noticed about the meat of the remix was that your drums lack PHATNESS. The samples are very... plain, and the sequencing is mechanical. Add some swing in there, layer in additional patterns or loops, use fills every 2 to 4 measures, anything to spruce them up. As is, given the tempo of the piece, they ARE indeed plodding as pixietricks put it. It shouldn't be too hard to improve this aspect of the mix though, if you just put some thought into designing a catchy drumline. Once you have one, variations are no problem. Your synths here tend to be big on the reverb and delay, but I don't think they contrast well with the other elements of the song, and they tend to be too similar, as pixie said. Now, when the strings come in later, that definitely makes things more interesting. However, it feels like that SHOULD be leading into something, but it doesn't, ultimately. Having them swell into a new section with new instruments and additional percussive patterns would be, well, awesome. Another thing that I think could help the overall lack of energy in the mix is more dynamics. I had this problem in an early revision of Perpetual Motion which was also at a slow tempo. When I focused more on automation and taking layers in and out, I found that I was able to make the whole thing more interesting to listen to. You should try that and see how it works for ya. I think you're generally on the right track here in regards to production and arrangement, but you gotta step it up. If I had to give you just one piece of advice to emphasize on, I would say work on densifying the texture of the piece. More instruments, more drums. Give it the energy it needs. Oh, and eat some Papa John's. NO

Negative. Some ReMixes by people on the project have been subbed, but they won't be posted until the project is out. Sorry!

I know that Aaron, woooo!

Heh. I'd chalk that up to jealousy, I think As far as I know, Pendulum has been one of the most successful DNB acts of recent times and they've received a lot of critical acclaim all across the board.

There you go. But also, please spend at least a little time properly formatting your question, checking for grammar and spelling, and so forth. And read all the stickies before posting, too.

Well, now, I wouldn't say that exactly. Here's the current status, for those of you interested. * There are fourteen finalized tracks. * Eight tracks are fairly close to completion. They might need a slightly tightened ending, or some mastering polish, but generally speaking, they're very close to done. * Four or so tracks have some work done, and a strong concept, but aren't too close to being done. * There are a handful more that are in even earlier stages. * Four or five tracks are claimed, with no work done them. So, it's definitely coming along. I'll be happier when those "almost done" tracks make it to my "FF7 Project Finals" folder in WAV format, but nonetheless, I'd say progress is good. I've been going after people on a weekly to daily basis to make sure we don't stagnate.

A utility like CDXtract can convert them to any format you want, from Soundfont to Kontakt. You can get a free demo that will do it, as a matter of fact. Also, Roland samplers are simple enough that you really won't lose out on much data converting to Soundfont, which is actually a relatively advanced format, all things considered.

Set Kompakt to the desired mixer track. Then, in the FL Wrapper options (upper left corner, the little triangle), make sure "Enable Multiple Outputs" is checked. Outputs 1/2 will be sent through the mixer track Kompakt is set to. You can change the output set in the patch options; it's to the right of the MIDI channel selector. Outputs 3/4 will then go to the NEXT mixer track, 5/6 the next one after that, and so on and so forth. eg. You set Kompakt to mixer track 1, and load 4 patches; violin, viola, cello, double bass. The violins go through mixer track 1. You set the viola to outputs 3/4, and so they go through mixer track 2. The cello is set to outputs 5/6, so that goes through mixer track 3. The double bass is on outputs 1/2, so it will go through mixer track 1.

Hey guys, I hate to always be the bearer (heh, heh, get it?) of bad news, but we won't be bringing you a show this week. I've been pretty sick for the last few days and I don't quite feel up to recording (you wouldn't want to hear me like this anyway); not only that but I've also had to skip a bunch of classes, so I have a lot of work to catch up on. However, we'll be back on track next week with Episode 60. Note: this means you get another week to submit contest entries! Wednesday, October 11th at noon is the new deadline.

E6400 is a good bet. I also recommend the EMU 0404 as your sound card. If you can find a website LIKE newegg, but closer to your area, let me know and I'll get some specific parts for you to look at.

For 1100 euros you could definitely get a nice PC w/ those specs via newegg, but I'm not sure if they ship to Europe. Also, I recommend two hard drives. One for applications and one for storage. They're fairly inexpensive.

PS4.

Actually, I haven't used these samples in any of my other songs. It's just your imagination. But even if I did, I don't think that's really a valid criticism - look at Pendulum, they not only use the exact same samples (and I do mean EXACT) in about 90% of their songs/remixes, but they also use the exact same loop, at the exact same tempo. And they are considered to be one of the best DNB acts around. If the sound gets the job done, I don't see what the problem is. That being said, I wouldn't say I'm done with the percussion section of the song. I may make other mixing changes at some point, depending on how I'm feeling it down the line. The same response applies to your comment, avaris; I really don't think you could have heard that pad anywhere else. It's a layer of about four to five different synthesizers, with morphed subtractive, wavesequenced, and sampled sounds. As the intro progresses you should hear the gradual motion involved. If you think it's still too basic - I'll take that into account, but I disagree. It's not supposed to be in your face. It's supposed to be mellow and atmospheric, and I do believe it's exactly that.

Before I start, this ReMix might be for the project I'm running, but I think I can still look at it objectively. It's true that the arrangement is somewhat liberal here, but that's understandable because of how basic the original is. The melodic variations were welcome, as were the changes to the underlying chords, the original intro and harmony parts, etc. The additive stuff fits in nicely without being too disconnected; riffs like the one at 1:09 lock it into the source so it's never far off. Towards the end, I thought there were some structural choices that were somewhat off, like the section at 3:07. The notes there don't really seem to work with the other parts, and the synth playing the riff is rather bland. But, the section is short enough that it doesn't kill the whole arrangement. My only other complaint in this area is the fadeout at the end, which is a bit too abrupt. Production is strong overall, being pretty similar to "Atonement" in terms of mixing. The weakest thing here would be the drums, I think, which have a sort of weird frequency and stereo balance. They just don't seem to fit quite right in the mix, even though they're sequenced well and sound relatively realistic. Also, the crash is a little too loud and could be toned down. I like the sinister pad at the beginning as well as the sinewave-style synth and the lower, hard sync synth. Good job on sound design choices. On a side note, the Winamp frequency readout for this mix is somewhat odd, showing almost no mid to higher end frequencies and heavy low end, with one band being weaker than the others. I don't know why that's happening here, but I don't HEAR any problems, so... maybe it's just some weird dithering or something. Whatev. Strong stuff, a few minor complaints aside. YES

Ouch, these definitely sound like GM-level samples. Even most free soundfonts I've heard are better than what was used here. I feel like it's just a little below Jeremy Robson's stuff in terms of sample quality, someone who we often cite as using somewhat unrealistic samples. BUT, that being said, they are used very well. Relative levels are good, reverb is good, and so forth. I've heard more mechanical sequencing before, and I've also heard Gigasamples sound worse. I can only imagine how this would sound if you used a more realistic library or collection of instruments. Looking at the big picture, I don't think the sample quality in and of itself is low enough to merit a NO given that the sample usage is good. However, that brings me to my next point, which is the arrangement and concept of the mix. I really don't feel like this is a big departure from the original. It does have variation and original material, yes, but many elements are similar to the middle section of the source, most notably the texture and instrumentation. I've voted this way on a few other mixes as well - overall, this strikes me more as a 'crossgrade' from the original rather than a wholly unique interpretation. Not to say that there wasn't thought put into the arrangement and orchestration, but I think it needs to go one step further and set itself apart from the source more. NO

link : * ReMixer name - LopikoL * real name - * email address - * website - none * userid - dunno ? * Name of game : Megamen Zero 3 * Zero vs. Zero * System : GBA ; composers : Ippo Yamada, Luna Umegaki, Masaki Suzuki, Tsutomu Kurihara. * Link to the original soundtrack : couldn't find any. * My comment : It is one of my first pieces I have ever made, though, but I tried to do my best on it. At first, I saw there isn't much remixes of Megamen Zero series music, so I wanted to make one of my favourite pieces from that game - a final fight with real body of main character, Zero, which is possesed by mighty bad guy, Omega. So it's like Zero fighting with himself, his real body. That's why I named my piece "Zero vs. Zero". Composers of that game really likes guitar, so I decided to make it more like a overdriven guitar. I spent nearly hour to make it sound like it sounds now. Instead of piano I used cymballs as a main theme. At second part of the remix I made crash sound like a fight. It goes stereo from left to right and so on, just to make it sound like fight of Zero and Omega. I added the low strings to make it more... hmmmmm... dramatic ?... can't find proper word. Whateva, My piece isn't long (only 1:22), but it's becouse final fight isn't long, for a good player defeat of Omega is a matter of 30 sec. The worst is, my project file is gone after emergency disk format, so I can't improve it. That's why I add it now. I hope you find it worth adding it to other OCRemixes.

So awesome. For the record, the song is "Tunak Tunak Tun" by Daler Mehndi, an Indian pop star.

Post here if you are looking for sounds (samples), synth/instrument plugins, or effects. The following directory is a work in progress. I will work on it over time and make it as specific and detailed as possible. Plugin & Sample Library Manufacturers Native Instruments Spectrasonics rgc:audio Arturia Big Fish Audio Sonic Reality http://www.espace-cubase.org/anglais/page.php?page=freevsti (VSTi's) http://www.kvraudio.com/index.php?s=sounds www.kvraudio.com (VSTi's) http://preromanbritain.com/ymvst/ (atari) http://www.smartelectronix.com/~bram/ soundfonts.darkesword.com http://www.novakill.com/killerz.htm (vst) sf2midi.com Hammersound.net (sound font website) Florestan (sound font website) http://www.findsounds.com (breath sounds) sectionz.com Plugsound free (guitar stuff? -http://www.ultimatesoundbank.com/usb/exec/demo) http://www.musicbootcamp.com/audio_sample_library.shtml http://www.findsounds.com (sounds, fx) http://www.freewebs.com/qualitysoundfonts/index.htm soundfontdepot.com http://www.homemusician.net/ (sound fonts) modarchive.com(wav samples) http://web.hibo.no/~mva/viewreview.php?id=710 (VSTI apparently) ___________Guitars____________ BelaDmedia.com (Demos and what not, check Lyricsl Distortion, DO IT!) _____________Brass_____________ Kick Ass Brass (GREAT!) Greg Adam' Big Band Brass Squidfont(soundfonts.darkesword.com also has sfark unpackers! but here too http://melodymachine.com/sfark.htm) projectsam.com _____________Choir________________ $Magnus Choir VSTi [v1.0 $$$$East West (Quantum Leap) ($1000+ for some) http://gdream.n-zone.org/liens/download.php?id=51 (sf) http://oui.com.br/nando (female) http://www.papelmedia.de/sf2/sf2_uk_index.htm http://www.guraydere.com/soundfonts/ http://www.naturalstudio.co.uk/ns_piano.html Vocalplanet (website, just google it) ______________Piano_________________ Realistic Virtual Grand Piano VSTi [ver. 2.1 Bosendorfer 290 http://home.foni.net/~winfried-hubbe/ (click the disk icon at top) http://www.musik.auc.dk/%7Ebovbjerg/piano.html http://www.gsonic.com/maestro/ (rather big piano - decent drumkit also available) http://exce.ath.cx/~route909/download.html http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/597.html http://www.gbmuk.fsnet.co.uk/soundfonts.html (organ) _______________Drums___________________ http://www.natural-studio.co.uk/nskit_download.htm www.soundtempest.net http://www.funk-city.de/musica/Samples.rar http://www.musicmall-asia.com/malaysia/instruments/Erhu/ (oriental) http://www.dorumalaia.com/freerefillswavsamples.htm ___________Orchestra____________ Garritan Personal Orchestra (VSTi) Synful Orchestra (VSTi) sinfonia Cadenza http://www.audiomastermind.com/browse-choir-5887089-1.html http://home.foni.net/~winfried-hubbe/ (click the disk icon at top) http://www.musik.auc.dk/%7Ebovbjerg/piano.html http://www.gsonic.com/maestro/ (rather big piano - decent drumkit also available) http://exce.ath.cx/~route909/download.html http://www.titanicsf.com __________Weather effects_________ http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/soundfx/Weather.shtml This thread will serve to consolidate the older "Sample Request" and "VST, DirectX instruments and effects" threads. You can still find those threads at the following links; Sample Request: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21071 VST/DX Instruments: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=30514

Hey guys, I'm making enough progress on this project that I figured I'd announce it here. I'm working on a third album of original electronic music that I'm hoping to have done by December (just in time for the holidays!) I've spent quite a bit of time on it, and I've been putting to use all the tools and techniques I've picked up since I released Impulse Prime. The style is primarily breakbeat in nature; 100-140bpm tempo range, so nothing way out there, but there are a lot of different stylistic influences. If you're a fan of The Crystal Method, Fatboy Slim, Prodigy, BT, Hybrid, Chemical Brothers, Hyper, Cirrus, or any other such artists, I think you'll like this album. It will likely retail for about $12 or $13 - very reasonable, I think. I'll post again when it's either near completion or completed, but until then... here's a preview of a new track I'm working on. This one in particular came to mind when I was listening to some of BT's material, so you might notice a bit of a similarity there. Check it out. http://www.zirconstudios.com/Trancey.mp3 Thanks in advance for listening, and enjoy!

I reiterate my NO vote. While the source tune breakdown was helpful in connecting the other two originals, I still feel like the arrangement is on the "overly liberal" side. However, it's the rigidity of the performance and somewhat plain writing that pushes this one below our bar. I think that should be your first priority if you plan on resubbing this.