zircon
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Posts posted by zircon
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Hmm.. my guild tried Ragnaros for the first time today (only been beaten once to date on Horde for our server). Our MT has 300+ fire res but no one else really has all that much. We got absolutely obliterated.. brought him to 89%, didn't even get to Phase 2. He's a beast.
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RWISE FROM YO GWAVE.
Okay, so...what would be the best class for Troll, Orc, and Undead? Just wondering.
...To tell you the truth, I can't really decide on what to choose.
Err. Really, whatever you want. Race doesn't have a HUGE impact. That said, here's my recommendations.
Orcs make good Warriors and Hunters because of their increased resistance to stun, improved Axe skill, improved pet handling, and the ability to give themselves a temporary attack boost.
Undead can do pretty much anything. Their "Cannibalize" is great for melee classes because it reduces downtime, and Will of the Forsaken makes them much harder to kill for Priests and Warlocks (dispels Charm, Fear, and Sleep and grants immunity to those temporarily). Undead Priests get one of the best offensive spells in the game, Devouring Plague,
Trolls... are one of the most gimp races in the game. They have no really useful abilities, since Berserking doesn't quite work properly. But, Berserking probably makes a lot of sense for Warriors and Rogues.
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One thing that struck out at me first was the lack of overall production quality. While I'm the last person to expect spectacular mastering and engineering, I think it's nonetheless an important aspect of a song and needs to be considered with everything else. The whole mix sounds sort of dull, with all the parts sort of muddied together, the percussion being 'far back' and bland except for the hats. The drum sequencing itself isn't bad (though some of the patterns don't seem to fit the style you're going for), but the samples and production need work. I suggest reading in the remixing forum for more help on that subject, or even talk to Compyfox to try to get a brighter and more 'alive' mix than what you have now.
The string samples have got to go. The marcato ones especially are just BAD. Please find something else or remove them entirely, they actually detract from the mood you were going for. The recording of the guitars seemed better in comparison to this other stuff, but a little reverb to make them less dry would have been nice. They also felt out of sync at times with the percussion, and the sometimes odd panning of the different strums and layers was disorienting. The lack of reverb/delay or any other kind of spatial processing was apparent especially in the parts with ethnic percussion, and towards the end with the sparse vocals (where everything seemed to be pretty out of sync).
Arrangement-wise this isn't BAD, but it needs a lot of work. The structure doesn't seem to actually go anywhere - it's just playing the theme back, more or less, with few creative changes and not much of an unique interpretation factor. It's 5+ minute length made the entire thing feel dragged out, like only a few minutes of ideas were being stretched to fit. This also led to some sparseness throughout the mix as well at different times, although that might also have been due to the relatively minimal instrumentation. You can have a relaxing acoustic mix but still do more "stuff" with just a few instruments.
I'd say this needs considerable work all over, as Larry said.
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Veilon, I suggest you read my ReMixing Tips Part 3, which covers Synthesis. The techniques I write about apply to Subtractor.
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Right, I'm not saying its a Rewire problem, I even said "that's the problem, with FLStudio anyway". Here's how FL treats rewire.
1. You add a "Rewired" channel.
2. You select the Rewire client.. in this case Reason.
3. You hit "Show Panel". This actually loads Reason alongside FL so you can go and edit stuff.
4. To access Reason's sounds, you click on "MIDI Options" in the Rewired settings. There is a list of MIDI channels, each ONE being a Machine. So #1 is "Hardware Interface". To actually use one, you select Output from the "Map" menu, select a MIDI port, and then click "Add" (there is a "To" menu as well, but all it says is Reason 6.. no other options). So by doing that, you set an Output port to 'bus 6', and then use FLStudio's MIDI outs to actually send the MIDI data.
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One thing I noticed throughout here was a lot of reverb, and an almost constantly running Malstrom preset (that is SO overused that it's not even funny). Come on.. do at least SOME editing to that! But I think more of an issue is the amount of reverb all around, particularly on the percussion. There are some cases where you want to bring that back a bit, even though I realize you're going for a certain atmospheric feel - stuff sounds 'farther back' than it should for backing percussion. In addition, I thought that the drum sequencing was largely pretty plain and bland. More layering, variation, and humanization would help it to be more engaging and less plodding in nature. On the other hand, I thought the other instruments and the synths were executed well.
The arrangement seemed pretty strong to me, although overall, the structure seemed somewhat sparse, with usually only one instrument taking the foreground, and everything else just sort of setting the stage. However, none of those foreground instruments or melodies were so good that they should have been put by themselves like that - they're not PARTICULARLY expressive. I would suggest adding more material throughout the song to fill it out, by means of different pads, instruments playing harmony parts or chords, countermelodies, that sort of thing. I do like how you change stuff over the course of the song's length, but I didn't think it happened fast enough. It seemed drawn out and repetitive because of how minimal the arrangement was. The original material - the solos - weren't awful, but didn't really add much. I think you could remove some of those and not hurt the overall mix.
Basically, the interpretation factor is there, but work still needs to be done on this.
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The way Rewire works, every MACHINE will take up another MIDI channel on the list. That's the problem, at least with FLStudio. It doesn't matter how many 'audio tracks' you do or don't have.
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Yes, Rogues are essential in many encounters, Ragnaros being one of them. They can do nearly as much damage as a mage and spend no mana. They're an extremely well-designed class and should not be complaining.
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No, I said 100+ machines. I tend to make very complex setups very fast.
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Yeah.. I posted that video on page 8. Totally sick.
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Warrior. But Hunter has a pretty good variety too.
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What, killing people? Isn't that the POINT of PVP?
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I agree with my fellow judges here. The playing is on the sloppy side and needs a lot of tightening, as do the other song elements. Either invest in or search for a less overused drumset too - surely you can find something a bit more natural and acoustic in nature. What you are using now is very electronic in nature, and it's being sequencing in a pretty mechanical way. The overall interpretation factor is low as well, you say yourself this is basically a cover. We really look for RE-arrangements of stuff. Add your own material, add variations, mess with the harmony or rhythms, do things to make your remix your own.
My main advice now would be to work on your playing and timing, as well as some of your production values to get that guitar to have a little more edge (without overriding everything else).
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Oh man.. I just changed my opinion on rogues after watching "World of Roguecraft". It's an EXTENSIVE pvp video showing a Rogue (or at least a Rogue being played by a Warlock) using nothing but Rogue abilities/talent and bandages, and fighting other level 60s who all have max health. He starts with Shadowcraft, a Krol Blade, and a decent offhand. He then wears all Wildheart, and removes the offhand, as well as downgrades his rings/trinkets. Then, he puts some Shadowcraft on and uses 2 Worn Blades (.9dps). Next, he uses all Wildheart with the 2 Worn Blades. Afterwords, he uses ONE Worn Blade. For the grand finale? He uses NO GEAR AT ALL except ONE WORN BLADE. The whole time he is owning other 60s of different classes, even when he's being attacked by more than one person. Unbelievable. And he uses NO potions, NO engineering skills, nothing cheap - just Rogue abilities and bandages (periodically).
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More people need to play on Gorefiend, Horde. It owns.
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What's wrong with the current method of adding channels or routing?
Also, they've had a graphical DB plugin for AWHILE.. and there are already meters.
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Yes, and also wet/dry signal ratio, and probably left/right also.
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Say you want reverb on 10 mixer tracks. Making 10 individual instances is kind of inefficient. A send track lets you create one reverb, and put it on the send track. Any other track can then apply 0 to 100% of the send's reverb. Or any other effect for that matter. Before, FL only had 4 sends, but now you can have up to 64, which is cool.
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New, expanded mixer. Now ANY track can be converted to a send track, and you can expand it from 16 tracks to 64 displaying at the same time (or anything less or in between). Looks great.
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I thought this was going pretty well until the main melody came in at around 1:38. After that it just got REALLY bland. Before that it seemed like the percussion was a bit more interesting, you had more harmony stuff going on (like the strings), and that constantly changing synth was nice. However, everything becomes very dull once the main melody is introduced, with the bassline basically just following the melody, and then a cameo of the original morphing synth sequence.
This is somewhat lackluster overall. As Larry said, the sounds here are really VERY plain, please do something about those. Grab some VSTs and read my synthesis guide in the Remixing 101. Also, try some brighter and sharper drum samples, or a different groove entirely to liven things up, rather than simple four on the floor. But whatever you do, focus on making a less sparse, more interesting arrangement as well. This remix was too short to do anything of note with the source tune - no significant variations, very little original material to speak of. Don't be afraid to stray from the original "Bloody Tears" and work in more of your own material, or at least change it up.
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Lack of development is probably the biggest problem. Sure, this is a neat dance mix, but it's essentially just the original melody + progression moved into a trance structure, and a relatively static one at that. I like that you used sound effects and some added synths as the song progressed, but you do need more than supersaws to keep this going. What you need; a better variety of synths, more motion within the synths (automation or fading), but most importantly, a more thought out arrangement with a different resolution. Until then I have to leave you with a -
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Level 30, suzu? These levels should take no more than 2-4 hours depending on what you're doing. You should be in Thousand Needles levelling up there, moving into the Shimmering Flats area once you gain a few more. Arathi Highlands is the next spot to hit, which should last until mid/upper 30s, at which point Scarlet Monastery (a fun, accessible instance split into four zones) becomes available to you. You can also try Stranglethorn Vale and some Badlands in the high 30s, moving on to Uldaman in the low 40s.
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I have to agree with Shnabubula that this is a constant wall of sound. For a more acoustic mix playing at a slightly slower tempo, this is both loud and 'hot' (much like most of your mixes and originals). You don't have to have everything so overcompressed and maxed out. For instance, the acoustic drums sound more like rock drums than anything else, and the strings are pretty loud throughout. Work on dynamics here first. The arrangement is pretty good in comparison to the overall production, so if you just worked out the structural issues like the overlayering and constant texture throughout, I think this would be a solid mix.
BTW your samples are fine, and most of the frequency balance is fine. It's just dynamics that you need to work on insofar as production goes. Polish + resub.
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Er, Fury got up to Nefarion when the instance was bugged. Are you saying they did it again? Because once they fixed the bugs it got like 50x harder.
OCR01428 - *YES* Legend of Zelda 3 & Golden Sun 'A Rose for Zelda'
in Judges Decisions
Posted
This is definitely a creative mix that certainly brings some interesting ideas to the table. The overall style reminds me strongly of Vigilante's work, particularly "MayFortuneSmileUponYou, but there are plenty of things that make this mix unique as well.
I thought that the arrangement was excellent. The original was very simplistic in its melody and progression, and in my opinion, somewhat boring and predictable. This track is clearly a remix of that source in that the melody and some of the fundamental rhythms are the same, but the changes to harmony and progression, as well as the addition of LOTS of new material makes it a great rearrangement. What I especially liked was the new progressions and chords added towards the middle of the song, which fit perfectly with the feel and composition of the source tune. 2:03 and beyond REALLY makes this mix, with the combination of acoustic, electric, and heavily processed material.
Structurally, while it is on the minimal side, the creative guitar processing and ambient pads/electric guitar parts that are added later on make it dynamic. The mix between the washy, ambient stuff and the acoustic strumming is superb. It's very difficult to pull off that kind of thing without the song sounding muddy and completely washed out, so major props there. In fact, I had no problem with any of the production elements here. The initial wave sounds were a bit lofi (sounded like 8bit 22khz or something low like that) but otherwise, recording, playing, mixing, processing.. all great.
Overall I think this is a very creative and well-executed mix that is a LOT more engaging than most guitar mixes we get. Fantastic job!
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