Darangen

Generally just changing a bass line and other minor changes won't cut it. Take a look at the submission standards here: http://ocremix.org/info/Submission_Standards_and_Instructions Part 4 there goes over what is and isn't considered acceptable. If your songs don't measure up to those standards it will not be passed.

To get more responses, put the game and source track information in the post title. Also, post links to the original source tracks for comparison.

Since it's a reasonable assumption that by 3012 OCReMix will get 50,000 likes, I'm going to let those poor saps in the future do all the work and just enjoy the fruits of their labor, since it'll then be released in 2012. Procrastination for the win.

How does one get started on the online course? It sounds like something I'd be interested in. Do they start each month, or do I have to wait until a certain date? I'm primarily a visual learner, are the lessons supportive of that? If it's just a lot of text then it might not be something that's for me.

Good stuff!

I'd recommend finding some remixers that have a style similar to what you're doing and asking them to take a listen, via pm or on the ocr irc channel. Most of the time if you're willing to ask them to take a listen they're willing to take a listen. I get pm's pretty regular from people asking if I'll take a listen and give some feedback and I'm more than happy to do what I can. This is especially helpful if it's from a lesser known obscure game. It helps to advertise it. Look at the WiP forum and see who regularly comments on mixes there, ask them for feedback. Until you're a better-known person on the forum you're going to have to put yourself out there a bit more. The worst thing that could happen is someone doesn't respond.

You might want to get a hold of Ailsean (Sean Stone). He's one of the cleanest players I've heard, and he's usually always willing to help out (from my experiences with him).

What Fishy said. I use spider drills, but I like to change them up a bit. If I'm just going up and down the strings I'd rather do scales or arpeggios because it'd actually translate into something I'd use someday. --------------------------------------------------------------------------3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------3-4-5-6---------------------7-6-5-4-- ---------------------------------1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-3-4-5-6---------------------------------------------- --------------------1-2-3-4--------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------1-2-3-4------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -1-2-3-4---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -7 6 5 4 ----------------------------------------------------------- -----------7 6 5 4-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2---------------------------------- ------------------------------------------5-4-3-2------------------- ----------------------------------------------------5-4-3-2-1------- That one's my favorite.

Zircon's mixing guide is a pretty good place to start. You can find the link in the forum post. Another good place to start that I'd recommend is www.therecordingrevolution.com and their 5 minutes to a better mix series. It's not so much how to twist each knob but more about how to take your song and make it sound much better through simple techniques. Converting guitar solos to midi is something I gave up on years ago because it was extremely difficult. To be fair though, I haven't tried since then so the programs could've improved by leaps and bounds to make it much easier in the last 5 years or so. I opted to use a midi controller and just play the parts on the midi controller, but you don't need a midi controller to do that you can just mouse click each note into the program. Takes a lot longer that way, but it's possible.

That's what EQ I used trying to clean it up a bit. It still has too much gain on it, but if you roll some of that gain off, drop the lows a bit and give it a slight treble and presence boost I think you'd be good to go. This is what it'd sound like: http://www.darangen.com/music/chipptone.mp3

I'd agree that it sounds a little empty. This could be caused by a few different things, really. You could try a few different things to fill it out. It feels like everything is kinda separated, so you could try a few tricks that would help glue everything together. One option is reverb. If you set up a bus with reverb (100% wet setting) and set up sends from all your tracks to go through there, that bus will not only give you some depth but help make everything a little more cohesive. It doesn't have to be loud or even very evident, but with just the right amount you'll be able to give the listener a feel that everything is working together. Another option is delay. Reverb is really just a specific kind of delay as it emulates a sound bouncing around an artificial space, so if reverb makes your track sound too wet and isn't what you're looking for, you can try delay instead. You can't really set up a delay bus and route everything through there like you could with reverb, but if you give your lead synths their own delay, something subtle enough to where it's audible but not overpowering, you can create a soundscape that's cohesive. A good kind of delay for this is an LPF delay, or Low-pass Filter Delay. If all you have is a regular delay, you can route the leads through a delay bus and just drop out the high frequencies on that bus - maybe anything above 1000hz-1250hz or so. This makes the delay less intrusive and more subliminal. The arrangement is a bit conservative, but if you're content with the way it is then that's you're call. I'd recommend coming back to it after a few days of just listening to it here and there and seeing if any new ideas pop into your head.

Could just be my work speakers, but it doesn't seem to cut as well as most metal sounds do. - It might have too much gain, it's blurring the notes together instead of making sharp stabs. - Try adjusting the presence up a bit more, or maybe the treble.

New version's up: http://www.darangen.com/music/notalonev6.mp3 Got my new string library and replaced the old strings with pretty ones. Played with some levels too. I don't think there's much else to do until I get the vocals.

Solid advice, that's what I usually do as well. I don't always post for feedback unless I'm trying something new that I'm not too familiar with, but starting with basic layout and building on that is how I do things.

My sig is in relevance to http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38309&highlight=killer+studio+chops - kind of an OCR joke now. djpretzel posted the picture and I couldn't get enough of it, so I put it in my sig

The concept is pretty good here, but after the third theme gets thrown in with the rest it starts getting way too muddy and difficult to follow. You could theoretically have 50 different games in one ReMix, but you'd need to choose one as your main source, as chimpazilla said. This is essentially a medley of different sources from different games, and those are usually pretty difficult to pull off well enough. I like the idea of using the Song of Storms from Zelda OoT as the backing track and then having the other sources blend together with it, but just not all at the same time. I'm very familiar with all the sources and I still had a hard time being able to make sense of it. A better approach would be to have them come in one at a time and be replaced by the next with a good transition to bring the listener from one tune to the next. The wall you're going to run into is the Judges Panel. They're going to listen to it and say "well, that was a cool idea there but I wish they would've expanded more on it." It's a common problem with medleys unless you have a super long song that has time to really flesh out every idea and interweave them really well. So I guess my advice would be pick one of your ideas and run with it, expand on it, and really get creative with it.

Keep pressing forward A lot of times trying to get what's in your head into your music software can be frustrating, but it gets easier with time. Just remember to have fun, and if it stops being fun just walk away from it for a little while and come by with a re-freshened mind. Sometimes that's all you need, a little break. As for feeling confined, I would recommend not focusing so much on meeting certain standards and focusing more on expressing yourself the way you want to. If you want to make something close to the source, you should. If you want to be expansive and do a lot of personal interpretation with the source, go for it. While it's good to have goals, whether that be getting your mix posted here on OCR or just making something you want to be able to share with your friends, it's more important to enjoy what you're doing so make sure at the end of the day you like what you're doing.

bLiNd never disappoints, and this is no exception. Nice work man!

This is one of my favorite sources I'll often grab my guitar and find myself messing around with Scars of Time when I'm bored. Very nice playing! It's pretty much a cover, but nicely done! I agree with Gario that a pure classical ensemble would be nice, or maybe with so light hand percussion to give it a little energy would work too.

I'm really liking the part around 1:04. Up until that point I was skeptical because of the closeness to the source. The parts in between the sections though, is that trying to be dubstepish? Not feeling that part too much, though I like the concept it just doesn't seem to be executed that well.

It's still pretty close to the source as is, without really changing the sound-scape all that much. It's obviously still in progress though. Just make sure that you breathe some new life into the track, make it your own somehow.

Happy Birthday

I use this approach 99% of the time actually. I find it very effective at keeping the creativity flowing to allow a remix to retain it's originality while still letting itself be molded into your own emotions.

A musical is an interesting idea. Kudos!

Gecko's right, ear training can do wonders. Before I could hear and identify pitch pretty well, it was literally a trial and error method. I'd sit at the piano and literally start at C and play it, go "nope, that's not it", then move to the next note until I finally had it figured out. Took FOREVER. After a while though, with training, you start being able to say "Oh, yeah, that sounds like C minor" or something like that and it gets exponentially easier. It's like training your eyes to see colors, you look at red and it doesn't take long for your brain to say "Hey, that's red."