Day Of Reckoning (Flip of The Doomsday Zone Act Two - Sonic & Knuckles)

[The Auracle]

Greetings. I am The Auracle.

Some of you may know of me and my work already but I like to operate on the presumption that most do not know anything about me and my work at all.

I'm quite keen on getting more involved in the OCRemix community here and to do so, I thought to start getting more involved here in the forums and by participating in more OCRemix projects to the best of my artistic abilities.

To start with, I invite you all to listen to my first ever Sonic BGM flip, Day Of Reckoning. This is a re-imagining of The Doomsday Zone Act Two BGM and it's one of my favourites. I certainly hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

I look forward to interacting with you all. To the journey ahead!

I remain,

The Auracle

[timaeus222]

Okay, well, I don't know you at all, so that's established.

Intro can throw a lot of people off. Pacing is disturbed by the tempo slowdown, and the vocal sample is a tad cheesy, especially since it says your name. Just because you're a hip hop artist doesn't mean you have to brand your name onto every song you write.

Overall instrumentation sounds generic; auto-pilot hip hop drums (timbre-wise), static dry background instrumentation. Sorry, but there's going to have to be an improvement quality-wise and arrangement-wise. It's a start, but you're missing a cohesiveness to your remix IMO.

[Chimpazilla]

Okay, well, I don't know you at all, so that's established.

Intro can throw a lot of people off. Pacing is disturbed by the tempo slowdown, and the vocal sample is a tad cheesy, especially since it says your name. Just because you're a hip hop artist doesn't mean you have to brand your name onto every song you write.

Overall instrumentation sounds generic; auto-pilot hip hop drums (timbre-wise), static dry background instrumentation. Sorry, but there's going to have to be an improvement quality-wise and arrangement-wise. It's a start, but you're missing a cohesiveness to your remix IMO.

^This.^ Song is very repetitive, both in writing and sounds used. Why not try a different lead here and there, to break it up, and some varied drums sounds and writing too? Mixing is a bit dry but not awful, bass is a bit ill-defined and muddy, but it seems like you've got some talent for mixing, just need to spice up the arrangement and sounds to make the track interesting. As Timaeus would say, if I fast forward the song to the middle, and I don't know where I am in the song (beginning? end? they all sound the same) then something is wrong.

Don't be discouraged. Welcome to OCR.

[SuperiorX]

I think you guys might be looking into this a little more than necessary. I don't think this was intended to be a remix in the same sense of what you normally hear on OCRemix, but more so a bgm chop/mix instrumental hip-hop beat. Sort of what Random (aka Mega Ran) did a lot of early on, chopping up and sampling 8/16-bit beats for the purposes or rapping over.

With that said, I am familiar with Joe's work, so maybe that's why I interpreted it differently, heh. This is a cool beat man, I like it. It does give me an idea for a much more fleshed out version too... perhaps that could be an OCA project

[timaeus222]

I think you guys might be looking into this a little more than necessary. I don't think this was intended to be a remix in the same sense of what you normally hear on OCRemix, but more so a bgm chop/mix instrumental hip-hop beat. Sort of what Random (aka Mega Ran) did a lot of early on, chopping up and sampling 8/16-bit beats for the purposes or rapping over.

I did consider that; however, my intention was to give a few crits, not get it ready for OCR. Sampling is, nicely put, "not using your own work". If you want to write a remix, it's better to re-compose, rather than taking someone else's work and improvising over it. Hence the copyright issues in the past with sampling.

That said, my point is, make it interesting and make something that you do actually believe a lot of people will like. A lot of people will tell you to do what you like to do, but if that continues to lead you nowhere, that's a problem. Basically, being completely formulaic all the time isn't always a good thing. Be creative and do something outside the box. I heard some ukelele dubstep today. I was a bit skeptical of it, but it wasn't all that bad, and it's new for sure.

Edited July 3, 2013 by timaeus222

[The Auracle]

Well, I expected some strong constructive criticism, as the reputation OCR has precedes itself and its members.

The intro was what it was. I like using that effect to give it a bit of a dramatic feel but I suppose I was a bit naive to think that everyone would "get" it. Tagging in tracks is a bit hit-and-miss, as well. Some people like it, others do not.

I like to think that I'm of the same mindset as producers like Thes One (People Under The Stairs): make beats with a platform that you can later rap on. That's what I like to do so for the time being, I stick with that "traditional" song structure. I suppose I take risks in the actual sampling process, doing different things to warp and stretch the original work itself to give it a new feel and sound.

Pretty much all of the arrangement was done live on an MPC programme (eMPC by AKAI). I play the drums in real life, so I like to programme my own drums into hip-hop tracks as well. All mixing was done in Adobe Audition and I had thought I got most of the mud out from the sub-bass sound font I used but I suppose there's still a bit more left to do.

I honestly thought people would like this track, hence why I thought this would be a good jump-off point to start making a name for myself here. Timeaus' criticism is welcome but I'm not sure I understand his point of "doing what you like to do" but then "doing something different" just to appease others. Sometimes, simplest is best and that's what I aimed for when making Day Of Reckoning. Ukele dubstep sounds very interesting! Very interesting, indeed... but I'm not sure a hip-hop track which is meant to be straight-forward needs that kind of innovation. Still... all points taken on board and I think I certainly know where to go from here if I'm to make waves here at OCR.

Thank you all for listening to it. One is very grateful for that and the feedback given.

- The Auracle.

[timaeus222]

Timaeus's criticism is welcome but I'm not sure I understand his point of "doing what you like to do" but then "doing something different" just to appease others. Sometimes, simplest is best and that's what I aimed for when making Day Of Reckoning. Ukelele dubstep sounds very interesting! Very interesting, indeed... but I'm not sure a hip-hop track which is meant to be straight-forward needs that kind of innovation.

Well, I'm saying that if all you do is hip hop, let's say that the audience you aim to appeal to doesn't like generic hip hop very much. If that's the case, then you need more than that. Try to expand your repertoire, so you can appeal to a larger audience. If you limit yourself to one style only, you're limiting your creativity and your "reach". If you look at some of the remixes on OCR, try to classify them in one genre. For the most part, people just can't.

I'm not saying a hip hop track can't be creative, but what you've done so far with this track in particular is not (offense not intended), mainly because the "meat" of the song (the non-percussive areas) was made by someone else. If this was entirely sequenced by you though, then that would have gotten me past the "please give more effort!" line. This is an example of a creative hip hop track. It's still hip hop, but it infuses some RnB flavor to add to the textural content, and there is original non-percussive instrumental re-composition.

That said, maybe mixing with Adobe Audition is not the most efficient way to go. I have that, but I never actually do mixing with it because that's not its most useful feature. I just use it for finalizing, such as for smooth fade-outs, normalizing, etc. The downside to using Audition is that it isn't made for actual composition; it's mainly a final mixing program for recorded material.

Edited July 3, 2013 by timaeus222

[Chimpazilla]

Hey Mr. Auracle! I think we were (at least I was) a little put off by your unusual introduction. Many of us here have Twitter feeds and Soundcloud accounts, and we are all working very hard on our skills. Most of us are actively trying to get our songs posted here on OCR.

When you post a song in this WIP forum, it is assumed that you want to submit your song to OCR for judging, so we will dive in and offer criticism intended to help get you there. Sometimes the criticism can sound harsh. Timaeus can give particularly intense crits, but generally his advice is spot-on. I felt intimidated at first by the direct and specific criticism I received in this forum... but ultimately it helped me develop to the point of getting a mix passed by the judging panel and into the queue for posting.

So, sorry if we jumped on you! Please accept our welcome, and please keep posting. Let us know if you're just sharing your song or if you're working towards getting posted here, and we will reply accordingly. And please take any critiques given as helpful, developing a thick skin is job #1 if you really want to improve.