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Don't even worry about your "setup" at this point. If you're going to play, get some experience playing first. Get a cheap keyboard or something so you can learn to play. Don't try to jump into "ReMixing OMG." You should learn some fundamentals of music first, like really basic theory (major/minor keys, chords, harmony, meter, that kind of stuff), and learn about what it takes to write a song. Try writing some original piece first, and get practice with how parts work together. At the age you are, composing and producing music is not as intuitive as drawing a picture or writing a story. You need some foundation before you can "remix."

This is really hard to judge. First, percussion is awesome throughout the entire piece, but moreso near the end. Okay good that's out of the way. My main issue is with most of the first part of the song. It follows the original theme pretty closely; not just the melody, but the accompniment as well. But then 1:06 hits and we get some cool variation over the chord progression of the original, then go into an extended solo section with some jawesome guitar playing. 3:04's percussion rocks out, and the trade with the guitar is really effective. What I really like about this piece is that the percussion really integrates well with what the guitars are doing; 3:51 in particular illustrates the excellent writing. I think that while this piece is fairly straight-forward and conservative, it's got enough interpretation in the middle section to push it over. i liek it YES

Cute little arrangement, but you've gotta have more variety in your soundscape than a bunch of saw waves. This also ends up having a really BGM feel to it. It's not much of a standalone piece; its arrangement pretty much just goes through the overworld theme a few times, without any changes between the iterations. That ending is terrible. Needs more varied sounds and some actual arrangement, rather than just repeated 8-bar phrases. NO

All of the background stuff sounds muffled and lo-fi, with overused delay effects on everything. Try to open up your soundscape more; everything sounds crowded. However, at the same time, you've got some pretty sparse instrumentation here too. You could really benefit from some more bass (not the instrument, the range), as well as stronger percussive lines. The arrangement isn't bad, but you could benefit from utilizing dynamics more. NO

The piano sounds too dry in the soundscape, like it's in a completely different song. This song sounds like it's holding back for the entire piece. There's never any kind of strong statement of any melody. It feels like its building up to something, but it never makes it there. The arrangement meanders. It sounds like background music some kind of karaoke song without anyone singing. Try to find places where instruments can lock together to make a stronger melodic statement. NO

A terribly simplistic arrangement. There's not much going on here. Long sustained notes with a melody on top is pretty boring. The second half of this song is pretty much the same as the first except with some percussion underneath. Sounds like you discovered the chopper in FLStudio. This is really repetitive. You need to come up with ways of creating a more dynamic arrangement. At the very least, that boring intro before the percussion comes in has to go. The general sound of this piece isn't bad, but you need more variation, especially in your percussive patterns. NO

Larry's right. This is repetitive and boring. It's the same five notes over and over again, with little going on in the background to really keep things interesting. Needs way more. NO

Mechanical, muddy, and boring. The sounds are pretty amateurish, and the percussion sticks out poorly. NO

Yeah, that lead doesn't work well against the crowded soundscape. Needs something with more definition. Also, the arrangement is way too BGM-like. You just looped the same thing twice. You need actual song structure. A beginning, a middle, an end. NO edit: Just for the record guys, this is an arrangement of a song from the DS version of Advance Wars, which is an entirely separate game from the two GBA titles.

That's your problem right there. You said you've been a fan of the site for four years. You should know by now that an "enhancement" won't fly. It's essentially an upgrade of the original, with some interesting effects. Not interpretive enough. Sorry. NO

Pretty much in agreement with Larry and Andy. Opening 'old-school' sound is way off; go for closer-to-authentic NES sound. Great guitar work, but the production could be better, as per zircon's suggestions. Also, we're not looking for straight up covers here; we want reinterpretations. Play with rhythm, meter, tempo, etc. That ending is also pretty cheap. Hope to hear more from you soon. NO

Jeez man, your beats are too loud and really ruin the whole piece. Turn that shit down. The whole thing ends up sounding really empty. All you have is piano, some chromatic percussion, beats, and that lead synth. Where's the bassline? Beats like this demand a bassline working in tandem. Pads with more presence throughout the piece would be nice too. You need to bring a lot more to the table than loud beats. Arrange the music more than playing continuo lines over a chord progression. NO

It'd be nice if you actually used more of the actual Crashman theme in this song, rather than just one of the 8-bar phrases from the original with its notes altered so only the rhythm really remains. That snare is also too loud. The section in the middle with the e-piano has jack shit to do with anything and sounds like gratuitous "variation." Needs more Crashman and less repeating. NO

Piano is dry. Why? Yeah, FL defaults certainly aren't helping this piece. Slayer especially should only be used in emergencies, and only with parental supervision. Seriously though, Slayer doesn't work here, stay away from it. Arrangement is pretty repetitive and it flies right by. Needs more dynamics and varying ideas than Slayer playing a syncopated pattern ad infinitum. NO

It's odd that this piece is pretty much the same four note pattern repeating over and over again. I guess that counts as the melody? In any case, it's arranged surprisingly well. Lots of embellishements and a changing soundscape really help this piece along, especially the amazingly groovy bassline and brass countermelody that comes in after the initial brass lead-in. i liek it YES

The lead really lacks definition; it's got a really weak attack and bounces back and forth between the stereo field for no apparent reason in the beginning. Everything sounds like some permutation of a detuned saw something-or-other. I realize that this is probably the case for most electronic music (), but it's VERY apparent here; what I'm really trying to say is that the sounds all have that same buzzy quality to them which makes the texture of the song really uninteresting. This song is also, aside from the short slow middle section, lacking in dynamics. From beginning to end, its pretty much the same feel. Needs more variation in that respect. NO

I'm in agreement. The synths are generic and boring, and the percussion sticks out poorly with its incessant "bump, tsh, bump, tsh." Like zircon said, you need more practice in getting the right "wall of sound" texture going. This piece feels stratified. The arrangement is also pretty repetitive. NO

I like the progression throughout the piece. It's a very delicate arrangement that shows a lot of attention to balance. The production on this piece is excellent. I love the quick section around 2:20. Top-notch. YES

Gonna have to agree with Larry in that this is essentially an upgrade of the original tune. Groovy, yes, and I happen to like the texture, but its really similar to the original piece, not only in arrangement, but in texture. Percussion could be spiced up too. I like where this is going, but you need to bring more originality to the piece if you want to have it on OCR. NO resub

Ease up on the reverb please. :\ I like the synths and piano, really groovy. Nice arrangement too, I just think you need to balance your instruments out a little more with EQ and levels. Also, the piano is only there for a little part of the song, why? The entire piece would benefit from a stronger, continued presence. NO but please resub, this piece has a tons of potential to be more awesome.

Yeah. This is hardly orchestra. Lots of synthy sounds and a repetitive snare drum does not orchestra make. No arrangement either. Needs actual arrangement and more effort on a believable soundscape. NO

I'm in agreement with TO on this one. While I like the production on the piece, the arrangement is seriously cookie-cutter and the source takes a long time to come in. Like Vig said, this could really be any melody. NO

Golden Rain:

Strings still need a better attack; sounds like you're using slow strings on a moving line. Big no-no there, as everything ends up sounding a 32nd to a 16th note behind. Rest of the mix is fine; the part in the middle before the rocking guitar part still sounds like its meandering though, but it's not as bad as before. i liek it YES

Ending sucks. The rest of it is fine; I'm in agreement with Malcos. Everything fits together; not too separated, not too sparse. Nice guitar work and the piano is pretty flowy. Good percussion too. Good job. YES