zircon

Hey, just to clarify exactly what we're asking here for the trivia contest - we want BOTH of our pronunciations for the listed ReMixers. In other words, the way I say "McVaffe" is different from how pixietricks says "McVaffe". We want to hear both! Trust me, if you've been listening, the differences are obvious

OW!#!!!! DAMN, turn everything down please. Larry is right that this is ear-piercing. All things considered, though, the sounds used are pretty tight. Certainly, better than the sort of FL preset stuff we often received. I really liked the effects tomfoolery you did in the intro; that was probably the most unique part of the mix. However, you're going to have to do more here for the mix to pass. Expand your arrangement to vary up the original theme more. Don't be afraid to add your own material in the form of new chords or rhythms. You can add or subtract material from the main melody, play around with voicings, change the progression.. really, be creative. It sounds to me like you generally have a good grasp of the music tools you have, so now it's time to step it up. NO

I disagree with Larry, there are some chords in the first section from Icecap.. but the melody isn't there. This is just tons of FL presets all over though. A classic "Fruityloops techno" sub if I've ever heard one. Default samples, presets, and drumloops with really no particular attention paid to putting them together. Definitely head to our ReMixing forum and start getting some help on how to beef up your sounds big time.. my tutorials are not a bad place to start (they're stickied). The arrangement actually could be worse. It doesn't go anywhere, like Larry said, which is not a good thing, but at the same time it's not just a straight up cover of the original. I think you need to focus on production first, with song structure and arrangement as your secondary focus. Changes to layering of the sounds, variations on the original melody, tempo changes, rhythm changes.. all of these things can work to your advantage. The key change on the other hand was too sudden to really be effective. Also, the ending wasn't even an ending. The song just stopped. Come on. I suggest listening to recently posted OCReMixes to get a better idea of the type of sound + arrangement quality we are looking for now. NO

Indeed.

Sup guys; Episode 047 of VGDJ is OUT. Pick it up at www.vgdj.net! And as pixietricks said, it IS a new month, and we're a little behind, so please keep voting for us at podcastalley: http://www.podcastalley.com/one_vote2.php?pod_id=4140 Enjoy!

I LOVE the original themes here and am very familiar with them. It's pretty obvious even from the first section that the MGS3 theme is present, albeit arranged creatively (I like what you did with the chord progression). The ambient sound effects and the ethnic instruments + percussion are all well-done. Though, when the main MGS theme comes in, I gotta say that the bass was a little heavy and the panning threw me off. Shoving the big drums AND the melody in the right ear seems a little pointless in my opinion, and distracting. The brass sample wasn't very convincing either. However, once the breakbeat comes in, things come together a lot more and feel more balanced and tight. What can I say, groove bias. I could go through and talk about what I liked about all the following sections, but I don't think there's a point. This is just very good in both production, arrangement, and structure. The brass samples and the fact that the low-end is a bit overpowering would be my only complaints in the production department, and I don't think I can really make any significant complaints about arrangement. It's cool that you didn't use the same ending chord progression as the original - that was unexpected. Maybe not as dramatic as the original MGS3 song (which is pretty hard to top), but most certainly a creative and unique interpretation. YES

You want a MIDISport of some kind. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MIDISport1x1/ Something like that; there might be one cheaper model from M-Audio, DrumUltimA just got it though, so you'd have to ask him.

Thank you for providing the source. Most people who sub here don't and it makes things more difficult for us. Ok, I guess I'll be a little nitpicky here since there seem to be smaller problems here that are taking away from the overall sound. The synth arpeggios towards the beginning seem to have some wrong notes, for one thing. Also, the way the string chords are written are not really pleasant.. it makes them sound fake because string sections are not typically arranged that way. I would rework the voicing of those. The lead guitar part (as well as the rhythm parts that come in later) appears to be panned dead center; put some stereo reverb/delay on that! Also, the lead synth that plays the melody has this really high end buzz that is quite grating, and the synth tone itself lacks much audible presence in any range at all. You gotta pick a new patch for that. Also, I'd like to point out that it seems like there's some off-notes or chords in one of the progressions you use (lets use the one at 3:05 as an example); it sounds like it should be Bb minor, A augmented, Ab major, and Eb major with a G in the bass. The rest of what you had sounded fine. But the first four chords that you had in there, or perhaps the notes that were playing over them, definitely clashed. I would take a closer look at that part and all the other parts that share that same progression. Also, at the end, you end on a major chord (I think), but the melody synth is playing some notes not in the major scale. It doesn't sound quite right. The original stuff at 2:01 is a nice thought, but it just comes across as ugly. The strings sound REALLY thin there, you have that grating synth, and the bass is cutting in and out. It really seems kind of empty and the lead synth is very mechanical. The piano that intros after this section is also quite mechanical, and the pad that you bring in is absolutely TERRIBLE - are you just not hearing how much high end noise you have going on here? You need to drop the high freqs of that pad a good 12db at least, and beef up the lower/mid frequencies. So overall there's no ONE specific problem here, but lots and lots of little things that could be improved. You're on the right track though, so just keep working on it, and hit the ReMixing forum to get production advice. NO

What's the deal with the lo-fi percussion and synths in the intro? I didn't think those were adding a whole lot.. kinda sounded like you were going for an NES-style sound, but it came off as just sort of ugly. I would have gone with a cleaner sound or a more accurate NES sound rather than a sort of dirty pseudo-NES sound. Anyway, once the other instruments came in things picked up. The guitar performance was good, as was the overall tone. However, it seemed like everything but the rhythm guitars (which were really beefy!) is panned dead center. Why not give the lead and the drumkit some stereo room to breathe? They sound squashed sitting there in the middle like that. The interpretation of the theme is very close to the original. I definitely liked the feel and the style of it, but there is really very little arrangement going on. Generally what we look for here is something more than a straight up cover of a tune. Added variations on the melody, changes to rhythms/progressions, original material in the form of improv and soloing, that kind of thing. This remix is short enough that I think you have more than enough space to work with to add in that stuff. I would really like to see this resubmitted with some changes. Until then; NO

At first I wasn't feeling this one - the introduction is a little dry and generic. However, it really picks up from there. I was impressed by the production values overall; once the full arsenal of synths and drums were playing, they all fit together REALLY well. Not to mention that none of the sound choices were particularly cliche either (and easy trap to fall into with this genre). This is right up there with sgx and bLiNd in terms of production. In terms of arrangement, given that the original is so minimal and simple, there's only so much that can be done with it. It seems to me though that Siamey did do a good job with what he was given. The song doesn't radically change the melody or the chord progression, but there's enough going on to qualify as a unique interpretation and rearrangement. I like how it's not overly repetitive and it feels like it's actually going somewhere, whereas a lot of dance/trance subs we get are the same 16-32 bars over and over with no changes to instrumentation or dynamics. YES

I liked the concept here - trying to build up a sort of chill ambiance, but I don't think it was executed properly. The drums came off as completely out of place, and as the above two judges mentioned, the piano was highly mechanical. Everything is quite sparse overall and really if you took out the SFX you would have a very empty mix. This needs to be filled out in a big way.. pads, additional harmony instruments, more present bass, and so forth. Also considering the lack of material the mix as a whole is repetitive, and the arrangement doesn't go anywhere interesting. No individual part is complex, and the combination of them is not complex either. NO

I agree that the concept here is relatively sound, but it is brought down a bit by the execution. The drums would be the primarily weakness. They sound very much like drums from a basic General MIDI soundset. There are certainly far better free things out there; NSKit 7, for one, besides all the various acoustic/brush kit soundfonts on hammersound.net . I would check those out. Upgrading the sound is only part of it, though. It's also creating a more interesting and varied sequence that not only holds the beat, but the listener's attention through the whole song. Another element I would try to improve on is the bass. The tone is fine, but the sequencing is very mechanical. You're going for a jazzy feel, right? You gotta expand on that part for it to sound more realistic. The organ + rhodes parts are pretty good, though the organ is somewhat repetitive. I would have emphasized the real piano parts more too, maybe put some little blues sccale riffs and arpeggios in there to spice things up. However, Malcos really hit the nail on the head.. you need some solos and improvisation!! Otherwise, it's really more like a cover that's "sort of" trying to be in a particular style. I think you can do better than this. Keep at it. NO

I can't think of what you're talking about. An mp3 example would be very useful.

No monitoring systems I'm aware of have a perfectly flat frequency response. I just don't think those even exist. But really, you don't NEED a perfectly flat response.. you can work with something that's not perfect, learn the ins and outs, and make a good mix with it. You just have to keep in mind that when you're working on something, it won't necessarily sound as good as it would on a huge home stereo system. In addition, it's just not true that all engineers necessarily prefer a more flat/"truthful" response. For example, the Yamaha NS10 nearfield monitors are relatively inexpensive and inaccurate. Yet for a time they were some of the most popular and widely-used monitors nationwide. This is because they are closest to consumer sound systems that engineers were mixing for.

It's a matter of practice. If you have very good ears, and you are willing to spend the time learning your setup, you can create a good mix on any monitoring system. I personally use a pair of cheap ($40 or so) headphones. I have learned the sound of the headphones so well that mixing for them is second nature. When I go and test my tracks on other sound systems - iPod headphones, home stereo systems, car stereo systems, cheap computer speakers, computer speakers w/ subwoofer, etc - they generally sound very good. In short, the only honest advice I can offer is to get something you can be comfortable with, learn its sound, and go from there.

According to Irripius, for me to get from r11 to r13 in 6 weeks, I need to be in a good group 10 hours a day, 7 days a week earning ~100k a day.

No. I had a considerable amount of money (on the order of $2500) to begin setting up my studio, so I was able to get a lot of good stuff right off the bat. From that point, I have simply bought additional things to round out areas that are weak. My first purchase was a new computer ($1500) and the next one was Komplete 2 ($900) which came with a ton of samples by itself. I suppose I COULD recommend Kompakt as another all-around sound module. I have it and use it pretty regularly, so does Mythril. It's not the strongest in any one area but it has a fairly nice variety of stuff.

So you just want an all-around soundset? Well, you could always try Native Instruments' "Bandstand" or Steinberg's "Hypersonic". Other than that I really can't think of anything offhand. You could call up the folks at sweetwater and see if they have any recommendations.

I assure you, Pummel is working perfectly fine. I PVP 5+ hours a day and have been on the receiving end of more silencing spells than I can count. They all work.

3005 honor kills, 4200112 CP last week - standing 18. I'm now a Lieutenant-General. Can I keep it up for another month? Hmmm...

My first impression is in line with what Darke said. At first, a lot of this seems to be more like backing texture and filler. Lots of pads, unintrusive percussion, 'light' instruments.. the synth guitar is a standout, of course, but it's maybe too much of a standout compared to everything else that's so laid back. I think in general that the ReMixer needs to nail down the concept of the mix more. Is this supposed to be a grove-oriented chillout thing? If so, beef up the drums and bring some more stuff to the front. Is it supposed to be more ambient and relaxed, like spacepony's SMW mix? Then ditch the harsh guitar and change the percussion to something else. So, let me lay out what I think the primary issues are. First would be the structure of the song. It's a little hard for me to detect the source tune until later on, as if most of the first part of the song is just a long introduction. The arrangement overall is creative and interpretive, so just fine-tune the structure and you'll be good here. Second, and probably more importantly, really try and figure out what you're going for and adapt the instrumentation + production accordingly. I think if you do this the other things will fall into place. NO

I'm going to try and guess your gear. Stormrage Helm Frostwolf Advisor's Pendant Hide of the Wild 7/8 Cenarion Blood of the Martyr Maiden's Circle Zandalarian Hero Charm Royal Seal of Eldre'Thals (sp) Cold Forged Hammer That AV healing offhand Idol of Rage

In terms of monitoring equipment, here's one way to find out if your mixes will suffer from it. Do people constantly tell you your levels are off or the frequency balance is weird? Do your mixes sound good on some systems and not on others? If so, then you might need new monitoring gear.

Yeah, but I lose the "Shnabubula" one.