Jillian Aversa

*sings* Bumpidy bump bump, bumpidy bump bump, look at pixie gooo... Erm, sorry. A little too much in the holiday spirit! Anyway, I just wanted to keep you all posted on a few matters. First of all, I finally decided on a name for the album: Origins. So yay. Secondly, I finished a new song! *Twilight Chaser* Thirdly, I decided host another track in full on my MySpace, so now you can enjoy *Hajime* from start to finish for da holidays. And here are the rest of the previews in case you missed them: *Red July* *Hajime* *The Winds of Change* *The Secret Guards of Kalé* *Shadows* *Breathe and Dive*

Yay! (10 char)

No Joséééééééééé? ;_; Come to the NYC meetup, at least! It's on a Saturday this year (the 29th), and we're having a sleepover in Pleasantville.

Happy birthday, Shariq!

Come to the sleepover in Pleasantville, Shael! We'd love to have you and there's still plenty o'room. And sure thing, Leon!

Hooooooold up, Andy. Did you read the rules? No shaving? Sorry guys, but I'm not going to let him go ungroomed. He'll have his *usual* beard.

I do! Suggestion: PM zircon about the sleepover portion of the meetup! It's not that we aren't going at all, we just can't be part of the city thing this year.

REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR BATHING SUITS! ...And sure, grow your beards too if you want.

Wiener just means a person from Vienna. Nothing wrong with that! (Hehehehe! Brahms was born a Hamburger and died a Wiener, hehehehehee!)

She is definitely adorable. Gorgeous smile! But don't knock yourself down so easily, either. :>

Such great images! Who was your photographer?

Alrighty, now that we have the fixed ending... This is good work from tycho. A rather brief, but quality arrangement. I really like the interesting percussion, bassline, and original keyboard additions -- very creative! Especially digging the little ethnic bit. ^_~ The instruments all sound well balanced; you have a nice ear for levels and panning. I guess if I could complain about one thing, it would be the obvious length of the mix. You had a lot of great things going, so I felt a little cheated when it ended so soon. Moreover, the piano riff got a little annoying after a while. It might have been nice to see you take it out from time to time and give us an entirely new section. I still think it's a good mix, though, so... YES

I think you're off to a pretty good start here, Kautzman. You have most of the basic elements in place in terms of your backing, and there's nothing wrong with additive structure as long as it's done right. What you have to remember in this kind of approach, though, is that it's particularly tempting to just loop material and go on cruise-control. The main flaws I see with production here are: 1) Your lack of bass instruments to round out the sound 2) The very loud, very repetitive percussion - particularly the cheesy claps 3) Balancing of parts. DarkeSword put it nicely: "I think you got caught up in the layering approach, but didn't really give a lot of consideration as to how the layers actually interacted with each other." The main flaws with arrangement are: 1) Repetition 2) Conservativeness with the source material. You could do a lot more to add your own interpretation to the remix, with creative soloing and perhaps even an entirely original section featuring a new chord progression -- as long as it flows well with everything else. I'm a big fan of New Age and relaxation music, so don't think that you're being turned down initially because we believe every song has to go somewhere crazy and dramatic. These critiques apply regardless of genre. NO RESUB

Looking forward to judging this one, but I have to ask... Is 1:51 actually the correct length? It sounds like it's cutting off at the end to me. EDIT: Ran this by Shariq, and he notices it now too. Everything drops out except the piano riff at the end, and it doesn't repeat like usual. I emailed Craig about it, so I'll post as soon as I hear back from him. EDIT #2: Okay, Craig got back to me with the fixed version; there was an error in the file host. Just as a heads up, they're basically identical in terms of length, only this one allows time for a natural decay of the sound instead of cutting off.

Andy is right about the EQ in this resub. I still have the originally submitted mp3, and it was much better in that regard. This version sounds quieter, and is lacking the lower frequencies. Your trumpet sample is soooooo better now, but I noticed that the cello line right after sounds more mechanically sequenced than it did in the original submission. Ah well, that's okay. ^_~ I still think the arrangement is really terrific. Although I YES'ed this before, the EQ is definitely bugging me a bit since it's actually a downgrade from before. Conditional YES On the grounds of EQ. Could somebody talk to Gregonian behind the scenes, and help him out if he's not sure what to do?

I loved your Snowman mix, sephfire! Maybe you could try something modal like We Three Kings, Coventry Carol, or Greensleeves this year? I'd really look forward to it. Don't think I'm going to have time to participate in this, unfortunately, but I definitely can't wait to hear the tunes!

Ocarina of Time has fangirls too - ahemmmm! I don't think it's simply nostalgia that has kept it at #1. Even though Twilight Princess is awesome, OoT had so much more mystery with the puzzle solving, and the element of music in that sense is what makes it so beautiful. I haven't played Super Mario Galaxy yet, but I think the difference with the Mario games is that they can be really fun and cool, but they don't have the same depth and seriousness as OoT.

(I think Doulifée means they won't forget Reuben, not "forgive." Let's try to avoid a misunderstanding there.)

I had the distinct pleasure of collaborating with Reuben on a song called "The Place We Knew." His magic on the piano was enough to bring my father to tears when he first heard it years ago... and he is not usually one to cry. This piece will always hold an even greater significance to me now. Please know that your family will be in my thoughts for a great time to come.

It's not a MIDI rip; there was no MIDI involved whatsoever. I sampled the rolling mallet percussion background from the game, and wrote an original melody to carry the piece somewhere other than strict ambience, interspersed with different re-hashed sections from the source. Actually, the only "melody" in the original lasts about four bars, and there are layers upon layers of tracks in this remix even excluding my vocals, so you can't boil it down like that. Prayer was not only my first remix, but my first hand at computer music-making period. Sure, the standards have evolved since I first joined this community, and I'm much more familiar with them now (hence being a judge). I wouldn't submit something like this today, but I still consider it a great first step in my musical journey. :>

Wow, every detail is on the mark. You didn't miss a single opportunity for lawls!

rofl, yes!

Hahaha, that was definitely the best joke I ever told at Larry's expense, when we were giving out T-shirt prizes...

Cocoa Larries? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Big Giant Cheerios?