Commodore Remix

Lets see... first poll by me.

My latest releease:
http://remix.kwed.org/?search_id=1789

Eliot didn't like it...
If anybody thinks it's at least a little bit enjoyable, i'd like to know.

It's not that bad, but these days to get people impressed you've probably got to do more...

As far as I can hear, in this piece you've got drums (not in the SID),
the bass (was), lead (was), arpeggios (was), and some pads (not in the SID). So this is replayed SID + chords + drums. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing: when I started, it was all that was necessary for people to enjoy the piece, but times have changed... people also frown
on anything that sounds like a General MIDI soundset patch these days,
which is tough if you haven't got anything else (not that I'm saying this applies to you, but it sounds like you're using:

Lead sound: "New Age" or "Crystal"
Synth bass: Er, "Synth Bass 1"
Drums: Probably the electro set
Little arpeggios: probably the sawtooth instrument
Pads: a mixture of crystal and aah voice.

Also, there's a lot of competition: lots of Ocean Loader 4/5 remakes in actual styles, and even Jon Dunn's own remake.

In the best remakes,you can listen and say "oooh, that's so and so" without even knowing who did it, but there's no "Yoshi" sound as yet.
Having said that, having a sound involves having a set of sounds that
no one else is using: or perhaps that a famous person used (thinking
of Jarre here: if you hear a C64 Jarre sounding cover, it has to be
O2 or Marcel because Jean-Michel isn't too keen on remixing!).

So, it's a competent cover: you've got everything that's in the SID,
it sounds OK, the notes are right, everything's pretty much in balance
(drums maybe a bit loud), but it's deeply unexciting.

At the end I hear a bit of an arpeggio happening, which if it's your own,
deserves to be much higher in the mix, and maybe to have a section
built on it.

Chris

Yoshi wrote: Eliot didn't like it...
If anybody thinks it's at least a little bit enjoyable, i'd like to know.

1) Who the f<?k is Eliot...
2) I like it very much, and if you don´t mind, then it is a sure track for the next release of that little megamixes-series I do.
3) The drums are like in that Ambra Red-track called "Kiss the frog" that Tom Detert likes so much. Hey TOM, how about your opinion on this remix by Yoshi? :^)

Nice try Yoshi. As Chris says, there have been a lot of other attempts to compare it to, which makes doing something ORIGINAL much harder.

Oh, and the poll question was not very optimistic!

nice work, but about the used sound i must say chris is right...
try more to tweak your own sounds instead of presetsounds...

keep up the good work..

cheers 2Klang

What's wrong with crystal?

Eliot wrote a review... don't really know who he is.

Thank you all very much for this.

Putzi, im very glad to hear that you liked it. If you want to put it in your megamix release, PLEASE DO )
I did get the idea for the drums from Ambra Red's track Kiss the Frog.

The instruments.... i don't use any midi presets or so... i just have a collection of samples, mostly extracted from synths, from where i pick something i that i think should fit. Of course, i manipulate them a bit to make them sound right.

Eliot, btw, wrote like this in the review "Do you like to kill my ears with your drums?"

I like it, and I like the drums too, but I think the lead is pretty weak-sounding and the mix isn't long enough.

> The instruments.... i don't use any midi presets or so... i just have
> a collection of samples, mostly extracted from synths,
Which ironically would be mostly MIDI presets, since most workstations
and synths out there are based around GM in some way. So the ones that
were easily gettable (for instance, Roland JD800) will be quite familiar
sounds.

In fact, the GM soundset was an attempt to standardise
sounds so that MIDI files could be played back and sound roughly the
same, so each preset on a particular card would be taken from a synth.
The problem is that the type of sound has become devalued through
overuse: (even "Crystal"!!).

And if you're using a sample, there's only so much you can do to it...
best to use Softsynths if you're short of cash. Even if you use the presets
no one will have heard them before, and so won't notice

The other thing is postproduction, using loudness maximisers and
stuff, and also tweaking the EQ to make it sound more sparkly.

Chris

Chris Abbott wrote: Which ironically would be mostly MIDI presets, since most workstations
and synths out there are based around GM in some way. So the ones that
were easily gettable (for instance, Roland JD800) will be quite familiar
sounds.

whatwhatwhat?!
Uh?!

Roland JD800 in "some way" related to GM?!

Chris, i think you took the wrong example, my friend

cheers.

Anybody know any good freeware softsynths?

Yoshi wrote:Anybody know any good freeware softsynths?

http://www.kvr-vst.com/

there you can find many free synth & plug-in stuff....

btw. try rgcAudio Triangle II, real nice synth with many knobs....



cheers 2Klang

Thanks I'll check it out.

> Chris, i think you took the wrong example, my friend
There are GM synths out there which I'm sure use stock sounds
from the JD800: after all, they've got to come from somewhere:
the "New Age" sound on GM has to be produced on some synth or other
and then mapped into the soundset: and it's likely to be a Korg or Roland
synth that they use for the originating sound...

It's like the sawtooth waveform sound (preset 81, I think). It's got to have
been produced on some synth or other so that it can be sampled and
used in GM. So although the JD800 isn't GM, its sounds will be overly
familiar from having been used in numerous other sample and GM sets.
The D20 and M1 have been well overused too, and the Roland JV
series (which have GM banks) use many sounds from earlier synths, because they're just sample playback boxes at heart.

So we're both right!

Chris