Rexy

So from what I'm seeing, someone in the jooj-clan has a birthday today. And after everything he's done in the past year or so, he's deserving of a nice special cake-day to himself. Many happy returns, Drew

If in doubt, you can go for something from a site project if it fits the length requirements. The first song that comes to mind for me is PriZm and Christian Pacaud's "Holy Judgment" from Summoning of Spirits - 12 mniutes of prog rock could fit the bill for the achievement you're looking for =)

Actually, after 5 days (complete with reminder) there's still no response from halc. But having now realised that Stevo's a workshop moderator (how the hell did I miss that?), I'll go ahead and sub the whole thing. Let's hope it prospers o_O

**facepalm** I guess my gullibility still needs addressing. I should've paid attention to the dates on waking hours, but oh well. Thanks for notifying either way.

In the brief time I got to know him, he was very firm and down to earth with what he was doing, and probably one of the most modest remixers that has graced this place. So it felt even more powerful to have seen his involvment across here, at VGMix, at AnimeRemix, and building up his own website portfolio. Even now I still feel sad to have seen him taken away so quickly, but in any shape or form, whatever his mission was in the living world was one he succeeded with a lot of grace. So, yeah. May you continue being an inspiration for us all.

So you're saying it's good to go in its current form Stevo? That sounds like a good sign I do appreciate the positive feedback, and I'm glad to hear that it could be very well ready. I should probably send a final PM to halc to be sure, but otherwise I'm glad all the technical advice is paying off. Thank you everyone =)

I still think my Team Iceland interpretaton won't be anywhere near as sexy as DiggiDis's arrangement on the other SDB album, but it'll be neat to see how the people would make of the album as a whole. Roll on June... providing the world isn't dead by that time =)

I guess I'm also realising long after the album's release that *I'm* the only person that never posted a bio. I'll get on it tonight. >_>

Okay, after taking everything aside, and seeing Stevo's side of the story as well, there have been some adjustments done for Demo 3. Having noted it's the execution that needed to be shaped up on, I've re-evaluated the track in several ways: 1) Note shiftings:- - Having noticed how some parts shift in pacing too much, some liberties were taken to splice the performance and re-adjust according to the tempo shift. Hopefully it wouldn't become too wild in some of the more ridiculous parts. - Some of the sloppier notes between the left and right hands were also re-aligned to better fit this pacing. None of the notes were dead on, but were brought to be close enough to make them still sound natural. - Due to the nature of its recording, none of the performance was brought under a quantiser. 2) Reverb:- - Roomworks was ditched in favor of Redline Reverb, which seemed to have a pretty Jazz Hall preset that I tried out: The details of the preset are here in case anyone can be more precise with any more alterations to the ambience. 3) Equalisation:- - The previous EQ settings were changed to just a boost at 0.5 at 800hz and 2000hz, giving the mids a subtle boost. 4) Dynamics alteration:- - The velocities were looked into and changed around to better fit a less grating approach. I admit when performing I can be quite aggressive, but hopefully that would ease it for the better. - The general volume issue was tackled by automating the volume channel for the piano itself. By boosting the quieter sections, comparing the resulting recording with the previous demo has shown that the quieter sections have become considerably thicker. - The limiter was heavily reduced, though still maintained at its minimum threshold at -0.5db for pop prevention purposes. And I guess that's pretty much it. If there's anything that I'm still doing wrong, please let me know

You mean melody would be good at milking out the best from all the remixing cows here? Well, that was one post that was tricky to comprehend at 7 in the morning but I do indeed understand what you were coming from. For the most part I will understand that I'm going to have to re-evaluate the performance for demo 3, which somehow seems to be the reason on why I sometimes struggle to get by in the past (albeit this time the usual writing problem doesn't seem to be getting in the way, so that's good ). As of now I'm still waiting on Stevo to provide a fresh opinion, but I've managed to form an action plan on how to approach the next demo. Thank goodness for 4-day weekends, as it'll give me time to hopefully put something together closer to the end. Only one point doesn't seem to come into consideration and that's the whole audience sampling idea. To my knowledge, within more recent OCRemix postings they've only seemed to have occurred in actual live performances, in which my only opportunity would be via the Tuesday night church meetings that I go to. That still won't work for me for 2 reasons - A) I don't think my dictaphone is going to cut me recording the local church's piano all that well, and my audience would mostly be children with short attention spans. But otherwise, I'll be sure to keep refining my technique some more over the coming days. I'll keep that in mind for Demo 3. One last question in this post: while you brought up the EQ and considering my previous mastering issues, should I keep the high pass detailed in the EQ screencap? Or would it sound more natural without it?

Hosted onto Tindeck before the Yousendit link expired. Seriously, if no one seems to be responding, either there doesn't seem to be a demand for the series on OCR right now (x_x) or that it's practically done (in which case I'd be asking for a second mod review before long). But please, save me the heartache from the judges' panel - every little bit helps x)

Yes, that person was me. I was hoping to make it a guitarist collaboration, but the actual track never got finished and the original project co-ordinator vanished off the face of the earth. But if you want, I could try a new arrangement. The reception for "Hogtied" on the Sonic 1 project went down really well, so I could try something in a similar vein for the Crash 1 version of Cortex's theme. I'm game to finish off what I started, and at least have a "spiritual" possession of a Crash Bandicoot mix on OCR (Brandon, I think you might be needed again if it goes according to plan xD)

It sounds great that we're coming so close to the end As for "final versions", I do hope you're keeping a hold on the WAV I sent you for mine because I don't even know if I still have the project file after my PC crash in September. But knowing your organisation, I'm sure we should be alright. Rolling on for the final release... which I must admit I'm still feeling sheepish for

Hm, it's Wednesday and there's still nothing yet. :s Either way, I remembered one thing that hindered the mix moreso than it should've done, and that was piping the reverb through the limiter as well - not a wise idea. Demo 2 therefore got a remaster for a second time. Still awaiting any further tech feedback, so thanks in advance. (sorry for the quick response, away from home I'm net surfing on limited time X_x)

I can't believe I left that behind >_> It namely got the title because of the 5/4 time signature. There, that's all there is to it

Great time with family? Check. Rest and relaxation? Not easy when we were on the road to Dublin that day. Alas, Happy Easter nevertheless!

Now I understand - the actual moisture for the reverb was to be looked into, not the input signal. Don't worry, I've managed to look into it again and rectified it. During the remaster I also played around with my sound card as to why I don't see a clipping signal in Cubase when mastering but sometimes I actually hear pops when hearing the mix back. Then it struck me - looking into my PC speaker settings there was a sound playback enhancer option that might've unintentionally amplified the playback while rendering it. It worked because after turning it off, the clicks on WAV playback seemed to have vanished. The limiter setting was boosted to -1.5, and Roomworks now looks like this: This would probably also be my last revision before I leave for Ireland tomorrow. My expectations for when I return next week are pretty much the same as the past few days

Yeah, apparently I'm still stuck on version 2.2, but it somehow still works. xD But by frequency altering on RoomWorks you were referring to the dampening rather than the input filter? **facedesk** I'll see if I can tweak it just a little more. Thanks for the clarification

Yes, but at the same time, you also lost because the Spring Yard section was at 65. Don't get too cocky.

lol halc, I know you're a new judge but I'm sure the giant yay/nay fonts should be better off saved for the panel. But thanks very much in regards to the feedback! I recall having a huge track record for mixing too quiet, but for the most part that with Stevo's limiter experimenting suggestion have helped for the most part in trying to bring out a clearer sound in the coming update. So, it's over on the OP. I've taken the production based feedback, and my settings currently stand at thus: My limiter settings. This was the only dynamics plugin that I had that didn't distort the sound when the limiter was turned on for some reason. Having it set to its default -6.0 made the louder parts sound a bit too flimsy, but I hope this compromise - coupled with the mixer feed boost, which on original output settings somehow brought the input signal to around -3.0 - would also be able to reduce any form of pops. The current EQ settings, as per Brandon's instructions. They definitely made the recording sound a lot less bassy, so thank you And yes, I have RoomWorks, so I gave that a go and had a play around. This setting seemed to have a good subtle hall ambience about it when hearing it back. The Tonehammer sound sounds a little flimsy for what I'm looking for but I can't deny that it's got some good expression behind it. But I need to remember what you said about you being an amateur and not quite taking said remarks to heart, Brandon. I might grab it down the line, but maybe not for some time yet due to its price tag. I have also closely analysed the source-liberty ratio and measured it out to be 14:11, so I'm sure it'll check out fine with the panel. I'm glad to see I'm practically there arrangement wise, but is there anything else that may need looking into in spite of these improvements? I'm open to see how much further this could probably be refined

"If you can't handle the critics..."? The poster that came after you flat out insulted the project's remixers by saying their music tastes are weak. There's a difference between receiving criticism and being painfully ridiculed for who you are. In regards to feelings behind the name, again that's something that might need the attention of the project manager. I guess now you know why some of us may put up naming some of our creations until the last minute

The demos I've seen for Alicia's Keys look promising and could fit with some softer performances; however, if I am to invest on it then I might have to wait til I come back from my vacation next week. I don't think there's anywhere that would just get you to download the whole thing immediately after purchase :\ Either way, very helpful tips in regards to the tone Brandon. You brought up an observant point about reverb; I was kind of concerned about the whole thing being too cloudy if I ended up going by the standard settings I've gotten used to in the past. Right now, my settings currently stand at this: In past arrangements my predelay and room size would be roughly twice as big, but then there came the cloudiness concern again. I could try expanding the room size at least by another 50% and see what happens, if by "skimpy" you mean "not enough room for the reverb to flow around". And yes, it has been way too long.

Yeah, I had a lot of issues with mastering it as was evident the first time around. I'll remember the limiter though, should probably help me with the "too quiet" versus "ow distortion" debates. In regards to the piano tone, the soundfont used there was the 4f-piano VSTi, which seemed to compliment my setup well for the past 2 years. Now that I'm since running on better hardware, I can be prepared to change to a more powerful soundbank, though if anyone has any ideas on what direction to go in, they would be more than welcome. Otherwise, thanks so much for offering your help Stevo

Yes, the pacing of "Fifty Rings" and "Under Construction" does indeed make things difficult, especially since I don't think the project thread openly stated Joshua Morse's involvement until closer to release day (hence my confusion over a third Special Stage track when looking over the track list with no artists tagged). The biggest problem is, how could the track order be modified? Swapping "Fifty Rings" with "Subsonic Sparkle" may somehow witness similar pacing issues albeit early on with "Shifting Islands" preceding it (though to be fair it's not considered jazzy ), while swapping it with "Caos" would somehow break the momentum between "Hogtied" and "Clockwork Criminal". I would probably go for the former alternative, but either way, I'm sure halc has a reasoning for what happened