Magical Sound Corner [MUSIC]

[Gors]

[IceManual]

Would a re-arrangement/mix fit here, gents? Feedback would be appreciated, if so.

[Gors]

yeah, arranges are okay.

The lead is kinda annoying due to the staccato, and it seems off-pitch from the bassline. It gets really nice when it reaches the string part though.

I suggest using an echo effect in the first part and remove the staccatos, and listen to the original more closely to get the notes right. Continue your good work though

[Ploaj]

Ancient Village - Joy Mech Fight
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1EUQRf1xWs8
Perhaps a little too much crash symbol, but it was mostly for practice.

[Gors]

this is nice!

though it needs variation on the instruments. Change that trumpet sound when a new part of the song comes, in order to make it more interesting. The percussion could be better, use snare drums too

[Gors]

[Gors]

[IndyGo]

I don't do Famitracker but use FL Studio for soundfont remixes. I don't think they're plausible to be submitted here though (because no-effort music is bit lame/cheap? Though if to be honest these also take some effort to make 'em good...) Also I have a knack on mashups, hahahah-

You could check 'em here, but yeah. I tried to use Famitracker before though but I think it sorta fell off from my head, hahahah-

[Lexou Duck]

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0v1agQoF8TE

it's the Egg Rocket Zone from sonic advance

[PatientZero]

I don't do Famitracker but use FL Studio for soundfont remixes. I don't think they're plausible to be submitted here though (because no-effort music is bit lame/cheap? Though if to be honest these also take some effort to make 'em good...) Also I have a knack on mashups, hahahah-

You could check 'em here, but yeah. I tried to use Famitracker before though but I think it sorta fell off from my head, hahahah-

Just wanted to chime in here since I'm assuming what you're talking about is just grabbing a midi and importing it to get the sequencing data to start with, which is pretty much the only effortless part of doing a decent remix or cover.
You've still really got to know what you're doing, perhaps even more so because when you're done it still has to be recognisable.

Put simply, taking something that someone else has made and just changing the instruments to claim it as your own is pretty uncool, and if that's all you do you'll almost always end up with a mess anyway. (you see this a lot)
Sequencing data (midi files) only have the most basic data in them, what notes to play and when essentially, there's no post-processing, mastering or eq data at all, you have to do that bit yourself.
And even then, you still have to be able to make it distinctive and cover it in style and flair or it's just an imitation of the original anyway.

As a point of reference, this is the remix I did of Vampire Killer from Castlevania, interestingly enough it's was done almost entirely in FL Studio;

The progression, levels, post-processing and rhythm are all different to the original, and if you skip to around 2:25 you can hear where I even added a whole new lead based on the original melody, which is something you really can't do without being able to understand exactly what you're doing.

(for the curious: I just took the original scale and augmented it with more sharps and flats to give it more flavour, playing a sharp melody over a major accompaniment gives it a more jazz or blues feel, that's how I gave it more movement without ever changing the timing or rhythm)

tldr; You can't make a decent remix from a midi unless you know what you're doing.

[IndyGo]

I see what you mean- Gosh though, this now really discourages me to do anymore remixes with midis. Ah well. (-´_`-)

Back to drawing board, I guess...

[PatientZero]

Whoa now, hold up, that wasn't what I was going for, using a midi as a starting point is totally fine.
It's just sequencing data, it would be exactly the same as if you transcribed it meticulously by ear except minus the crazy levels of effort, that bit is fine.

(other "more-hardcore-than-thou" musicians might tell you otherwise, but they'd also tell you FL Studio isn't a "real" DAW. Trust me when I say those are people who are more talented at arguing about music than actually making it.)

I'm just saying there's a lot more to it than people may realise, because it's not just changing the instruments around and calling it a day.
If you're doing decent remixes, what I said is more of a compliment rather than anything else, and possibly suggestions on where to go with things if you haven't already learned some of the more serious music theory.

And just fyi, because a lot of people also whine about this one too, videogame remixes are totally valid and "real" music, just look at the OC Remix guys, they've made a huge name for themselves doing just that, and they probably started out just screwing around with midis like everyone else.

[Gors]

nothing should discourage you at anything tbh

especially if the 'discouraging thing' in question is criticism like that. Music is indeed a difficult media to master, but so is any kind of art tbh. I started doing really shit music on famitracker too, I didn't know how to make nice sounding instruments and I'd just copy notes from the source, without any fine adjustments. I've been famitracking for 5 whole years so far and thanks to practicing and studying it, I am able to make better sounding covers and even original music. It's something that if you don't devote to it, you won't be that successful imo

[IndyGo]

nothing should discourage you at anything tbh

especially if the 'discouraging thing' in question is criticism like that. Music is indeed a difficult media to master, but so is any kind of art tbh. I started doing really shit music on famitracker too, I didn't know how to make nice sounding instruments and I'd just copy notes from the source, without any fine adjustments. I've been famitracking for 5 whole years so far and thanks to practicing and studying it, I am able to make better sounding covers and even original music. It's something that if you don't devote to it, you won't be that successful imo

Well I was kinda mistaking it as some critique against use of MIDIs in means of remixing 'em around . Sorry about that, I'm good now-

Some things also is that if there's any skill I have devoted on for years it's writing ( I think done that since 9 years old) and I've noticed how many other forms of art seem more noted in the media which had me jump on other forms of art to master 'em but with no avail (I can only blame my attention/motivation threshold which is pretty low the more harder the actual thing is to even master) I could go on but it runs into little personal level then-
But I could perhaps say I have somewhat low self-confidence (But lately I've tried to reform my methods to improve it)

I could though note that messing with MIDI stuff and FL Studio had me learning how making music and the actual program works almost all the time as I keep on using it- I've thought of trying to compose something original but I dunno where to exactly start at tho-

/Sorry for being awkward/

[PatientZero]

Let me give you the single most solid piece of advice I can think of for anyone just starting off writing original compositions, this is something I screwed up myself so trust me here: you do need to understand basic music theory.

Google is your friend here, there are a million sites that explain this stuff and some really good videos on youtube.
The basic elements you need to experiment with are chord progressions, scales (I recommend the blues scale, because it's cool as hell and really simple), and phrases. Progressions and scales are the most important since phrases you'll probably trip over as you're working anyway.
You won't instantly pick them up but there's nothing wrong with learning as you go, so don't feel like it's cheating to keep webpages open for reference, I've been doing this for like forever and I still watch tutorial videos and keep chord cheat-sheets open when I work.
(admittedly using reference material is also because my memory doesn't work right, I know the stuff but I just need help recalling it sometimes)

If you're working digitally focus on piano and keyboard theory, others don't always apply.

Oh, and listen to music from different genres (even country and rap), particularly older music that formed the basis for consecutive genres, you don't have to enjoy it but it's really helpful to work out what makes it work.
To put it another way, modern technical metal follows different rules and ideas than classical jazz, but you might be surprised that they have a lot more in common than you'd think.

I know that sounds like the most boring thing ever and way too academic, but think of it like you've got a bunch of tools on a table and you don't know what they do, you don't want to grab a screwdriver to hammer in a nail so it makes sense to learn that first.
That said, it's important to make some music while you learn, there's no gentle way to put this but at first it will suck.
I'm not saying people just won't like it or you'll make some mistakes, the music you write at first will just be straight up awful. And that is totally fine.

You have to suck before you can blow (peoples minds)