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Apparently people have listened to this! I've had 4 people in the last week ask me if I want to join their team. It's very flattering I don't have time for this one. Maybe if people had spoken up a few months ago I would have, but I'm working on a craft project right now, and will need to move apartments in a month or so, so I don't have the bandwidth for this compo. Having said that, please bring on the peer-pressure brigade for whatever compo comes after this one!

Best trailer I worked on since I started doing OCR trailers. So epic.

Modes are basically asking you to shift your hand to the next note in the original key while retaining the intervals of the original key, and use that as your "new" key, so F# Dorian is E major starting on F#. (Personally, I found it confusing too that "F# Dorian Mode" means it's the Dorian mode in which you start on F#, rather than the Dorian mode of F#, which starts on G#.) Notice how its four sharps are F#, G#, C#, and D#, which implies the Ionian mode (or original key) is E major. It would help though if you showed us the actual piece.

Everyone seems to love chiptune music as well as very clean/high quality music, which are like polar opposites. But a lot of people for some reason hate the sort of 16 bit "in between". I love it though, the sounds from Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Party 1... I really love those cheesy synths and sounds. I wish video games would still use that retro soundscape once in a while.

Heavy compression can certainly give interesting musical results. I guess my point is that ideally it's use would be from an artistic decision rather than any kind of necessity.

+1 on modifying your mic setup. There are tons of article out there on techniques and methodologies. Choose the one that best suits your capabilities (your room, your piano, your recording device/interface) and give it another go. The performance was rather nice actually. You play quite well. I think the reverb just assaulted the details of what it could have been, so it is hard to judge things beyond that. When it comes time to remix and you want to touch the reverb, look to Pensado for some tips (http://www.pensadosplace.tv/category/into-the-lair/). Some of his vocal reverb advice is magical on piano. Looking forward to the next take through a multi-mic setup! Keep at it!

If you really want to do it well, try reading this article. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan08/articles/pianorecording_0108.htm Like Gario suggested, it would be optimal to have two mics. One to capture the ambience of the room, and one to capture the direct sound of the piano. For example, an omnidirectional mic helps you capture the ambience and width of the sound.

How is your recording setup? Are you doing it on a single microphone, or did you set one up close to the inside of the piano and one outside to catch the ambiance? If not, a two-microphone setup can help you capture both the meat of your performance as well as the ambiance, with which you can mix in such a way as to make it sound as balanced as you need it to be. Just make sure that the two microphones are recording onto two separate tracks. Hope that helps!

Quick, create two alter egos and enter the competition. Your can create 10 songs and collaborate with yourself! However if I see two new forum users, RopeLadder and ZipLine, I'm going to be on to you...

Really excited to hear the submissions. Thanks for checking this out y'all, and have fun!

We're doing a combo release with Duke Nukem Forever 2.

I think you just need to refresh your browser cache if its not showing up on the homepage for you

I feel like you are jumping to one distinct conclusion. There are different appropriate RMS levels for every genre of music. Frankly different RMS levels work better for different listening devices as well. There is no 1 level to rule them all. it is all a balancing act. Also there is a scientific reason why people prefer sounds with higher RMS levels. When the loudness is over a certain threshold we release serotonin. One of the scientific reasons people love live music. Compressors and Limiters are not always used to make a sound louder. They can also be used to make a sound quieter. Hence making other sounds appear louder and more dynamic. They can also be user artistically to bring out different timbres in the sound. Also another note, most of our best compressors came out 50+ years ago. So the argument of better compressors = greater loudness is null and void. To be honest people should learn how to use compressors and limiters in a more appropriate manner.