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Basement Funk


Dr. Rod
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This is my second time around with the Team Rocket Hideout source, Im liking where Im going with this so far, Im focusing more on the bass in this piece to create a funk-groove (quite the opposite of my first Team Rocket mix). Ive only completed about a minute of it so far, so this is really a short sample of where I wanna take this. Its by no means the complete mix, but just a start : )

Well, here it is: http://lightningrt.googlepages.com/BasementFunk.mp3

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This is a huge step up. You're really interpreting that source now, and as hideous as the source is, you've made somethin I can bob my head to :lol: Granted, your drums could use a bit more presence, especially considering them and the bassline will be carrying a song of this genre, but like you said, youre still developing this. So far the arrangement is on point, I'll be checkin up lata to see how you finish this up. Definitely feelin the funk here, fantastic job.

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Agreed with Scarlet. This is very funky. Awesome vibe going on. Keep going with it, and fill out the space more with additional sounds and sequences. Also, while this has a nice groove, be aware of the overall structure of the song - it seems to just groove without really going anywhere till the end. More variation in the drums and some supporting chords or sweeps of sound could change that.

Good stuff, you're definitely improving man.

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Thanks guys/girls : ) Its good to know that I accomplished the groove I was going for. Now just to give it direction and variance....

Well, I got another update: http://lightningrt.googlepages.com/BasementFunk.mp3

Right now I have the overall structure I want, and I dont plan onlengthening the overall song anymore, but like you said Leah, I still need to go back and add some more harmonies etc. And thickening the soundscape is one of my biggest difficulties as a novice remixer....what kind of sounds do u guys think would help to add depth to the soundscape without convoluting it? And what do u think of the overall arrangement so far?

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Sounds good man!

Don't know what else to say besides the obvious (better samples, vary velocities, etc, no big stuff).

I certainly think that had a good chance of passing back in the day.

Dunno.. Time to see what the judges will say? :wink:

P.S. Think you could put a little bit of echo and reverb on the sound (at 3:13) near the end of the song to fill it out more? *shrugs*

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Now that youve got this at the length you want, I can give you a detailed critique:

Overall structure is nice, I particularly like the piano section towards the middle-end, good use of some common jazz chords. The flute sounded a bit on the fake side to me. For that matter, your main synth in the hook seems generic, so you should put some effects on that (maybe reverb?). The electric piano helps to add variation between the sections before the first and second hook, though I think you should edit the drumloop more.

The song has a nice chill groove. I actually enjoyed the lighter textures here, though at the same time my biggest worry is that thats what the judges will call you out on. Your interpretation is great, in fact after studying the source a bit, I can see youve used EVERY part of that song, even if you stretched it in some parts (such as the piano section and the beginning of the hook). All you need to do now is decorate it a bit more and clean up some of your samples. Youve come quite a long way from having no musical knowledge 2 months ago to where you are now :smile:

Maybe you should show this to a single judge; they would know better than anyone what the panel wants. Good luck!

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Thanks, I think I have the arrangement where I want it at this point, Im just going the clean up the samples a bit more. I guess my question at this point is: what would I need to do from here to make this OCR quality?

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Ultimately yeah, though even though its from the same source, this is completely seperate from Rocket's Carnival. I didnt wanna restart on that until 1. I really refined my production abilities more, and 2. I could really get some more of your input with that (particularly on the musical/arrangement level). Recently Ive been branching out with different styles, which has been hit-or-miss, lol. Im likin where this one is goin, but Im still gettin ready for our collab.....Just lemme know when : )

So what did u (or any1 else listening) think of the arrangement?

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just like before, you need to find that creativity chord inside of you. I think you're really talented at being able to really completely recreate the atmosphere itself with different synth sets, even if people say some of the synths are generic.

Once you get more experience with changing the musical dynamics, you'll kick ass, probably do one better than a lot of the remixer that have been posted.

I think you've broken the learning curve a lot faster than many of the remixers who keep posting and posting with little to no progress, so give yourself some credit. But you are going to have to reflect and compare your song until it gets so boring that new stuff will just be aching to come out. I don't know how many other sources there are out there, probably not a lot considering it's the rocket source, but just keep doing what you're doing right now, which is refining production, acquiring more synth familiarity so you can naturally just pick synths for what atmosphere you want, and of course somewhere along the line find a source which is widely overdone.

When you’re done experimenting with the rocket source and don’t feel like exploring it anymore at that moment, search out for a new source just to get some learning. Maybe something like super mario bros, megaman, final fantasy, chrono trigger/cross, sonic, tetris, castlevania, f-zero, secret of mana, zelda, xenogears, earthbound, streetfighter... and so on. Do something that has like more than 2 or 3 variation of the song posted on ocremix.

After you’ve found your new primary source, (via chiptunes or midi rips), make sure to reference sites such as vgmix for other posts (you have to search a bit right now), and vgmidi.com (where they have several midi rips), overlooked remix, etc.

You might even ask remixers who have done the source and been posted to check if they have early versions of their remixes and ask them to send it to you. Even if you can’t get early versions from the makers themselves, make sure to listen, relisten, and compare religiously to JUST THE SOURCE, MIDI RIPS, AND VARIATIONS. Don’t make an attempt to remix it until you’ve listened to the source and it’s predecessors to death and it’s melodies, intricacies become so natural that you can hear it in your head without even listening to the song. Then you’ll be ready to make your first attempt.

Jus t start out with a simple midi rip. Or do it from memory. As long as you have the source song completely hashed out with all the intricate details that you have chosen to include, you’ll be fine, just like you did in basement funk and forest requiem. Then, as soon as you’ve done the midi rip, listen to it twice. Then, for a set period of time (could be two days, two weeks, etc.), don’t listen to your product at all. After half that time has passed, start listening to your primary source and downloaded midi rips just once in a while. Burn it onto a cd or something, transfer it to your ipod, listen on yoru computer with headphones, etc.

After the time is up, you should feel ready to reapproach your own product. You’ll have a really hard time trying to change it up because you haven’t quite found that creativity chord just yet. But I think you’ll start to feel it after so much boredom with the same source over and over in your head, something has to pop up. Even if it ends up being one note difference, one chord difference, you’ll have made progress.

I would give one possible way you could continue from here, but I won’t since you’ll probably get to here by the time I’ll be available to work on anything. I want you to know that the process I just gave you is only one way of looking at it but I came up with it because it seemed to suit your style and particular difficulty in breaking your creativity chord. Try doing this and we’ll see if anything happens, if not then we’ll try to get in closer contact.

Good luck!

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Thanks for all ur comments everyone...Ive done another update:

http://lightningrt.googlepages.com/BasementFunk.mp3

Now I think I'll take a week away from this to look at other remixes on here and study how some other remixes manipulate thier sources,,,,,,I've hit a major block, so hopefully this will give me some inspiration. If nothin else, maybe I'll catch something new when i return to this project in about a week. Also Im hoping to get some more comments during this period.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Awesome dude! That's coming along pretty well.

I think the backing string thing could be a bit more pad-ish. Smoothen in out a bit more, so to speak. Maybe more reverb on it?

And still, the percussion is just a little off to my ears.. Have you tried putting a little bit of reverb on them? Cause some things, like with the backing string and xylophone, make the song have a little bit of a ghostly feel to it. The percussion kind of stands out a bit, not quite fitting, imo.

Have you tried a 3 hit kick lead in to the percussion? I found myself hearing that while listening to the song again.

Maybe turn down the xylophone just a tiny tiny bit? It seems like it's overpowering things a little.

all my two cents worth. ;-)

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Thanx man, Ive edited the backing strings a bit. They're more padish, but I also noticed they were a bit overbearing with the reverb/delay, so I lowered thier volume to push them more into the background. And I played around with the vibraphone and switched up the instruments in a couple parts. I still need to work on the drums though. I also need to throw in more production effects, but I'll see where that goes as I learn more. Hopefully I can have this finished sooner than later : )

http://lightningrt.googlepages.com/BasementFunk.mp3

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hmmm.... i really like this last version. I think you could open up to some jazz piano in that one midsection about 2:09. nice move on shifting to a major key. If i could just figure out what the chord structures were...

You got a midi conversion of this one? You've really started building your skillsets for arranging. i must say that i respect your skillz...

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I'm gonna sound like a douche with the post, so keep in mind, I'm not upset at giving you my time to give feedback for this, and I want to see you improve, not quit. There's just not many objective positives I can give for the track. I would see who else you can get feedback from, as they may be better at articulating a lot of the core problems here.

There are still a lot of issues in terms of the timing sounding robotic. Drums sound really robotic and repetitive, and they don't have much going on. Pizz strings at :22 sound really mechanical and lifeless. The lead at :17 needs more meat on it or a different sound entirely; it doesn't sound melodic at all. Countermelody at :35 also sound fairly monotone.

Vibe solo at :53 started out decent, but then 1:00-1:20 hit some writing that sounded pretty ugly. It's just not melodic or musical.

1:50-2:32 is still the bright spot in terms of the arrangement. Woodwind added in though is way too bright and sounds really shrill. What happened to the piano having any meat on it; sounds really dry now. SFX at 2:39-2:41 sounded very lossy and cheap.

Lead at 2:43 is completely barren; again the sequencing is too rigid and sounds robotic. Ending at 3:28 is really annoying with the dry, looping piano phrase.

You have a lot of basic skills, but the guts of this haven't been changed at all since the last time this was on the panel. Your phrasing remains really awkward and doesn't sound melodic or musical for the most part. The textures are still thin and don't gel together despite how busy-sounding you try to make it.

Keep training your ear on a writing level first before you start trying to use more production tricks to get this sounding better, because production is not the most important problem here. If this were more musical and had more promise on that level, your concern would be more on increasing the sound quality through effects and processing (which this lacks). But you gotta get comfortable with the actual writing portion as well.

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