big giant circles

Sorry, I'm gonna have to bust out the big NO on this one because the chocobo theme is lame, and people shouldn't bother remixing it. and by all that, of course, I mean YES. This is in fact really awesome. Some highlights for me were: -the opening gated synth -the breaks -the "golden" chimes -the crazy gating at 1:22 -the transition at 2:14 and the general vibe thereafter -the sitar and ethnic flute -overall interpertation of the source My only criticisms would be -there could have been a little more punch/kick in the drums for the first couple minutes of the track, especially in the bass drum. -I don't think the fadeout was used to it's fullest potential. I don't mind fadeouts, as long as their used well. Were it my track, I would have extended the outro by about 10 more seconds at least. Anyway, minor quirks in light of the tracks highlights. You're go for launch, Mr. Scape.

I feel this track doesn't really engage the listener until around 2:13, and not just because that's where the track gets a little more "full". The intro pizzicato strings are really weak, and poorly sampled. The overall execution does in fact need to be polished. Stuff like, more dynamic flow in the first half of the track. Or, for example, the way the way the violin just cuts off at 1:10, where IMO it should have been eased out. Samples otherwise are OK, and used well enough. I like the direction of the 2nd half of the track. The trem. strings at 3:00 were off the chain. Quite cool. Ug. those pizz. strings sound more like a koto than plucks. I implore you to find a different sample for it. 4:00 was another delight in terms of part-writing for me. Cool ideas, but Jess is right in that this needs to be polished up a little. Fix the pizz, apply more dynamic range for individual instruments and parts, and definitely conjure up a better ending. I like where you're going with this. It's not bad at all! It could also be much better than what it is. I'd like to hear a resubmit down the road. NO

Cool! Fun! Short! Cover! Expand! Go Nuts! I like it! NO

You know what I always thought would be cool, would be to figure out a way to have "workshops" pertaining to specific software programs or skills, etc. For example, establishing and coordinating through local advertising and public radio a workshop where if you want to join, there's a fee (say... $20 per month or so) and people could collaborate and kind of teach each other. Specifically, I use FL Studio, of course. I consider myself adept enough in general, but I know I could learn a lot from other FL users. If I basically put out a bunch of fliers around music stores and local campuses, I wonder how many people would attend a "FL Studio workshop"... And what kind of revenue that would generate. I dunno. Anyone else ever considered anything like this?

i like the idea, though, sgx. kind of a more affordable route for folks to learn the tricks and general skills without going the *professional* route. i shall ponder on this.

You gave some valid points directly after, as well as some constructive criticism, but honestly, there's no reason to say that. People have different skills, and some people are more or less experienced and/or intuitive than others. That's uncalled for. The rest of your post was fair, and constructive. As for the above quote, that is your opinion, not fact, and it's subjective, not objective. Keep comments like that to yourself. Now then. The Lone Ranger: everyone's right in that this is too early on in the WIP phase to provide much more feedback than "work on it some more." You have an idea for the track, but it's good to have something a little more... progressed when you present your project to the public and ask for analysis. Keep at it. At this point, get creative. Try to picture where YOU want the track to go, and rely on that. The main goal here is for YOU to be satisfied with your song. That's all that really counts, anyway

i like the opening pad. drumwork is a little too dull and dry throughout. i'd encourage you to move away from sticking so close to FL default samples and/or presets (DNC_clap, boobass particularly). I've never been especially fond of boobass as a standalone bass synth; I think the track can do better with a different plugin/sample. The brass is kind of cheesy. The transition is a little awkward at :38 when they come in--the intro has a dark, looming feel, and the song takes on a completely different direction there. Not sure it really fits. I like the bass sequencing, it's written well enough, and adds energy to the track. The brass itself doesn't do too well if you're going for realism. Also, you need some sort of support. Basically from :38 to 1:38 (not counting the sax lead), you have the funky bass, a simple kick + clap drum loop, and some choppy brass. I think you'd do well to throw in some additional instrumentation and counter-melodic support. I wouldn't say the sax is out of place, exactly. It's just that the song is too fundamental at this point. Keep at it, though. Hope this feedback helps.

nah, even better :w00t

i've almost got a 5 minute track at this point. w00t for me.

i should have mine done within the next week, hopefully

Lots of improvements here, Shaun. Notably so in light of your first sub. I really like the dark, aquatic-like mood you've applied to the MP2 theme. The flute that kicks in at 1:56 does so a little too suddenly, thus making the shift a little more awkward than it should have been. A nice FX swell would have covered that up, or at least made the shift a little more seamless. You get substantial points for your approach, and also for your concept of arrangement. I think it's unique, and definitely different enough that nobody can respectfully say that this is "too similar to the original" I think Larry's right--it might be time to take a break from this one, so you don't wear yourself out. The main hangups I suppose I still have deal primarily with the mixing (reverb is a double-edged sword, and difficult to wield in the ambient genre), and also with the lack of deep bass tones to add a richer sound and increase depth. There was a little throughout, like at 3:30 underneath the piano, but it was sooooo quiet. Man, again, I apologize sincerely for not getting back to you as you sent me the WIPs. I'd like to hear more ambient stuff like this on the site, and yours has made substantial progress from phase one. Still not there, unfortunately, but don't be discouraged. I think each I hear from you shows more experience and promise than the one before. Keep 'em coming, and you'll land a spot on the front page. NO

I own this soundtrack, and while I haven't listened to it in a while and don't consider myself intimately familiar with it, I think I know it reasonably enough. I'm really not sure what to make of the idea of a part "mash-up" mix... This is definitely my cup of tea, though--I really like what I'm hearing. Funky drumwork, though probably coming across as slightly repetitive to those who aren't as keen on this flavor of music. Produced reasonably well. A little cluttered around 4:15 or so. The kicks are a little on the heavy side for sure. And the reverb from the main "Ahhh" part muddies up things notably. I liked all the electrobeat/synth work. I also liked the gating in the intro. Regardless of whether or not this meets OCR standards, this song has great energy, and ear-engaging momentum. The time change to 7/8 at 2:14 rocked my s0x0rz. Again, since Larry said this isn't NO OVERRIDE worthy, I'm not sure what to make of this (as an OCR sub) wholly. If we were to allow this degree of direct sampling, I'd be fine with throwing a YES out for this one. Sadly, I feel that (after some judge-discussion) this one may have been disqualified from the start Too bad. I think I'm going to try to contact Dean to see if he'd be okay with leaving the link in the case of (probable) rejection. *EDIT* will OFFICIALLY vote after reviewing the stems in his .zip, provided below. ***2nd EDIT*** After reviewing the stems, it seems that there was a substantial degree of the mix that he did not *create*. Now, as he stated below, I'm still impressed by the level of audio manipulation that Bounte did with the stems. FOr example the 7/8 part was not originally that meter. As well as all the chopping, slicing, and pitch-shifting. Dang, this is an awesome track. Again, if we allowed this degree of direct-sampling, I'd be all for it. As for what I understand of our standards, I have to stick to my reluctant NO I think Dean understands this, (as stated below) and he's totally cool with leaving the link up, so thanks, Dean. I'm sure there's a lot of folks who are going to enjoy your mix. Also, for those of you who DO like his track, check out his website as well, he's got some cool music over there too

I'm going with the borderline YES on this one. If he simply added such a section as zircon mentioned, even for something as short as 20 seconds or so, my borderline YES would be a resounding YES. I like the track. I've got no groove-bias. And despite the "repetition issues", the track isn't completely overstaying it's welcome by going on and on for 5, 6, or 7 minutes. He's cut it short enough to make it enjoyable, and not a nuisance.

This mix is awesome. Except for the beginning; it has the sound of terrible rain. Complete with thunderclaps and all. lawlz!!!!111!1! seriously, though. I love the synth over powerchord section, followed by the blip-gasm and chimes at 1:43

crazy man, just crazy

bwahahaha, we Nay-sayers won't go down easy!!! Err... nevermind...

A little too cover-ish from start to about 1:36. I liked the sound the violin added to the original theme. The clap at 1:11 sounded way out of place. I was glad to hear some deviation around 1:37, but I think despite taking the melody for a walk, the creativity was still a little uninspired. The lead violin could use some more attention the dynamics. It was kind of... dull for lack of a better word. I liked the bass rhythm at 3:23. Jess is right about this being mixed too low. Overall, this has a very simplistic feel--not a lot went into the construction of this mix I feel. It started out almost verbatim to the source--sweeping pads, violin, choir, piano, and some synth lead toward the end. You've gotta find a way to bring a little more emotion into the piece. This source has excellent potential for bringing in a very somber and mysterious and dark vibe, but I think your remix is still a little unrealized at this point. Not bad, though. This probably would have made it 5 or so years ago, but there's lots of room for it to grow into something a little darker with more power. NO

Very pretty song. Vocals could use a little pitch correction--you might consider automating the semitones--I've done it before in FL. Some people just don't do all that well under the pressure of that little red record button. I feel I have the same issues a lot whenever I try to record my voice. At any rate, your voice is constantly struggling with falling flat. It's brutally apparant to me for the better part of the track. Here's some specifics: 0:28 - "fading away..." 0:39 - "...side..." 0:44 - beginning of the word "warmth" 0:57 - "all" 1:04 - the entire chorus is pretty off-key, almost. harmonies, too, not just the melody. anyway, there's 5 examples in just the first minute; bottom line is that as pretty as this song is, the pitch needs to be centered on the vox. I'm not sure if you have individual tracks for all the vocal parts, but if you do, you might want to run them through a tuner to see exactly which parts need the most attention. Also, I don't mind sometimes, depending on certain other factors, but this one is just swimming in reverb. I don't mind a lot, but this has a ton. Might want to trim that back just a fuzz. Arrangement is fairly straightforward and doesn't deviate too much melodically, but I suppose it's harder to walk too far from the original when you're singing it. At any rate, either keep working on the vocals, or otherwise cheat and manually adjust the tuning yourself I won't think any less of you, but then again, I'm a cheater too NO

why, you could always just take your vows in #ocremix. There's plenty of room on the internet! lawl

congrats marriage ain't a bad thing

**ANOTHER EDIT** WARNING - this DOES contain SPOILERS. If you've not seen the movie, don't read this*** *EDIT* Perhaps I should have posted this in the other thread, but that seemed to be talking mostly about the game. Anyway, I love the music, but I've never played the game, so I have no real grasp of the plot. While I thought the movie was pretty cool, I did not understand it very well at all. All I got was that the girl was the evil burned lady's daughter, and when they went to Silent Hill, they wrecked and apparently woke up in some kind of other dimension with the cop lady. Or did they die? Is that why they went home and couldn't see her husband? Anyway, so in this *other* Silent Hill, there's a bunch of people who have the whole Salem-witch-hunter thing going on, they burned the little girl's mother, only something went wrong and she was taken to a hospital. Then, I guess some evil devil girl shows up and curses the place, and then scary monsters pop out and tear people's skin off, etc. Bah, I'm giving myself a headache trying to recount it. I would be very grateful if someone who understood the movie and/or otherwise is just very familiar with the plot could explain it to me.

Pretty fun, toe-tapping stuff per usual. I'd say while perhaps not intimately so, I've played SotN enough to be familiar enough with the source that I didn't really need to put it on loop 20 times before I listened to the remix. Pretty straightforward from start to about 1:35; almost has that kind of "¡Olé!" flavor going on--[tangent]I'd really like to hear someone do this is a mariachi kind of style[/tangent]. Anyway, after 1:35, i'm not really sure which way the track went. Had to refer to Larry's vote to see what the hell was going on I guess after making the comparisons to Bloody Tears, the connections, though tenuous, were enough to keep the song from wandering into the "overly interpretive" realm. Some mix highlights, I liked the organ usage. Thought that was tastefully done. 2:21-2:48, with the slowly bent synth in the background was cool, in an "ack, my ears!" sort of way . Immediately after, the rhythmic shift and melodic transition until 3:08 was actually pretty cool. All in all, I think NoppZ clearly displays a solid understanding of what is acceptable in terms of submissions around here, and though "scattershot" is indeed an appropriate description of the arrangement, it is still within the bounds of acceptable and enjoyable. YES I'm personally not feeling the "Ouch, fix the EQ!" that Larry and TO mentioned. Anyone else feel there's too much treble? I felt that argument more in "Curse Curse Revolution" than this piece. *shrugs*

Yikes, I admire your boldness in using the FL "Activate!" vocal clip, but to be brutally honest, it's going to be really, really hard to effectively and tastefully use any of those clips. They're too generic and extremely super cheesy. Especially dry. At the very least, I would recommend distorting the file with some fx or something. There's not enough instrumental support. Simple bassline + drums + basic, unchanging synth lead = incomplete. Not a bad attempt, but practice a little more with FL--learn some new tricks, and learn how to use basic FL plugins to achieve more powerful and engaging sounds. Examine some of the songs in the "cool stuff" file and see how some of that stuff is done. Swap songs on collab or the FL forums; you'll learn a ton of new stuff, and it'll give you solid experience that will strengthen your remixing abilities. Nice try, keep at it! NO

Dang. I'm kind of mixed up on this one. Torn by good arguments from both the YES and NO reasoning I've read. Absolute first impressions (I try to just simply see how I feel about a mix before I read any of the other J comments), I was kind of like "Hmmm, this is interesting, but bears obvious technical flaws as well as being subjected to the usual obstacles a real live actual human (in this case vocal) performance presents." I usually try to familiarize myself with source material first, but I was kind of lazy in this case and just looped the remix a few times. After a few listens, I read my fellow J votes to see what the general consensus was. I definitely agree that this mix would add some diversity to the stylistic tendencies of a good deal of remixes. That being said, I can't in good conscience pass this just for that reason. THAT being said, I don't exactly dig on this particular style, so it's harder for me to analyze this without any bias or personal preference rub off on the vote. Obviously, I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to vocal analysis. I do, however, think I have a decent grasp on intonation, and I think that's one of the biggest flaws in the mix. I'll say that I won't ever require a vocal performance to be completely dead-on pitch, but I will ask that it be close enough. I'm not going to break it down too much, but your overall singing is waaaaay flat. I'm not sure if it is mainly due to the scooping or not, but I wasn't digging it. I'm gonna have to back my bro zircon on this one. This is a very brave mix, and definitely very creative. Really nice to see some innovative stuff being submitted around here. However, I don't think the minimalist approach works here either, especially with the aforementioned intonation issue. Andy's also (arguably) right about the level of interpretation. I kind of had the same issue with the icy peaks mix. The arrangement is very very similar--really the only major additions are the level of harmonic support. The source places more emphasis on the melody with the bassline as the main source of chord emphasis, whereas the remix elaborates more on the rest of the chord. And yeah, what the heck is the deal with 3:09? That just sounded terrible, whatever it was. Anyway, this isn't a terrible song, and while this certainly isn't my cup of tea, I feel I'm justified in the quirks I've presented, and don't feel that bias has had any impact on my vote. This is extremely unique and creative, but lacks the OCR bar based on the vocal intonation, the minimalist instrumentation which overly exposes the vocal flaws which could have been suppressed to an acceptable point with further expansion on accompanyment, and the lack of deviation from source material. I think this with a little more work could sit pretty on the front page, but not at the moment. NO

I wouldnt go so far as to say the guitar playing is eye-poppingly impressive, but it's pretty solid. This is fairly stereotypically cookie cutter in it's genre. I suppose "cheesy" isn't exactly my first pick for the drums, from an electronica artist's point of view, they're a little meh, but in light of the style, I didn't have much inner turmoil in accepting them as effective (enough) support for the track. Production, though clearly short of uber professional quality, leaves no real concerns in my ears. This one clears the bar. Congrats, Chris. YES