Jillian Aversa

Burke Lake Park sounds like a great idea, assuming the weather's good. Maybe we should have a backup plan if it looks like rain? Just in case. Andy and I will be arriving on Friday afternoon, most likely. The two of us would love a ride, if anyone's going to be passing by/through Philadelphia. If not, Amtrak will cost us about $100 each round trip. We'll probably be staying at Dave's both Friday and Saturday nights (if that's cool with him) and leaving Sunday. Only attending the Friday night concert.

Hey, alright, you're headed somewhere with this! Positives: - Some very nice variations on Zelda's Lullaby - Lovely harmonies - Good instrument choices; they make for a really pretty soundscape - Arrangement takes a nice shape Negatives: - If this is meant to be a waltz, why is beat 3 so heavily accented? Beat 1 should have the most weight, with beats 2 and 3 much lighter. Much too mechanical as is. - The instrumentation is a little sparse. I'm a huge New Age fan, so that wouldn't bother me if the playing felt more fluid, but others might have a problem with it fyi. - Chimes at the end were pretty cheesy, especially since the piece already felt finished. It was like you just tacked them on for the sake of it. I really hope you continue to work on this. Lots of potential. NO PLEASE RESUBMIT P.S. Nobuo Uematsu did not compose for any of the Zelda games. Might wanna check twice before you submit your info next time. ^_~

Hehe, you spelled "sloppy" wrong. That's sloppy. XD Moving on... First half aside, I think this mix winds up deviating from the source to a reasonable degree. It ees good. Just be a little more careful with your future submissions when it comes to balancing original material with source material. It can be a tricky thing. YES

Yeah, I heard this a little while ago when we were discussing direct post worthiness, and I was a little apprehensive at first. Still, not much needs to be said. This is well above the bar, and I'm sure a lot of people are going to enjoy it. Anyone familiar with the Vision of Escaflowne (TV series) OST? Reminds me a LOT of "Dance of Curse" starting at around 1:50 when the tambourine comes in. :> YES

Very Moby indeed. I liked this track on the project, and I still do, but the vocals do bring it down. Your pitch is fine, actually, but there's this sort of wavering quality to the voice that (despite the heavy processing) hasn't been effectively masked. Also, the section at 3:05 is mixed differently, and it stands out like a sore thumb. In general, I just don't know if the way you've mixed in the vocals works. They sound really lazy and low-energy, and not because of the melody itself. In fact, they're pretty much unintelligible. Maybe you could try actually vocoding them, a la Moby or Cher, so that the delivery is smoother and more electronic. Good work- just needs a bit more polish! NO PLEASE RESUBMIT

Very nice arrangement! I agree that the mid frequencies sound cluttered... and the percussion could use some more boom in the bass, too. But as much as I would like to hear a version with some more polished production, I think this is already easily passable. Similar to DrumUltimA's 'Moon Rhapsody', for example, the quality of the reinterpretation here really carries the mix. I can hear everything I need to hear - just not at the kind of level I'd expect from a professional. Then again, this is an amateur music community. I look forward to your future submissions. Don't be afraid to ask for production tips along the way. YES

We don't really have a home base for a Saturday meetup in D.C. as of yet. How many people are going to be staying at DJP's place in Fairfax?

Would Philadelphia be too out of the way for you? zircon and I could really use a ride!

You can purchase individual tracks for 99 cents if you search the name "zircon" in the iTunes store.

Hehe, he said alblum.

Second recording (for the solo thing) is this Thursday!

This is pretty cool. The vocoded chanting is terrifying! Man... I have to say, though, that I feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of things going on at times. I'm sure it has to do with the rapid tempo, but it's a little more than that, I think. Some of the ethnic elements you've encorporated (particularly the Indian tabla and sitar) sounded a little unrealistic. The tabla has the quality of a stock loop, and the sitar's melody isn't consistent enough; it sounds like random interjections. There's no real shape to the mix because of the driving energy throughout. Breakdown at 2:35 was a welcome change, albeit still pretty high energy, so more of that kind of thing could help. It needs a little more Zelda overall, too. Bordering on pretty liberal here. I think you're a very promising remixer, and this is a very promising remix. Hope to hear more. NO PLEASE RESUBMIT

Larry summed it up well here. You honestly have all the right ideas with your leads in this remix - it just feels like the skeleton of what you intended. All you really have to do, in my opinion, is fill everything out with more backing instruments and further develop your ideas. As of now, there isn't really an ending at all; it just sort of cuts off. Production seems fine, but try to stay vigilant as you layer in new things. Hope to hear an update soon! NO PLEASE RESUBMIT

This source tune is stingy as hell. I don't even really see it as a piece of music, per se... more like filler. But TO has always been talented at forming unusual soundscapes, and this is a perfect example of putting that skill to use. Like... this song now has a feeling! And it's pretty creepy, I must say. The juxtaposition of industrial beats with wordly and otherworldly sound effects adds a whole new dimension to the piece. The roaring sound at 2:43 scared the crap out of me. God!!! D: Not exactly the kind of song you could perform solo for an audience, but it certainly belongs in a video game/movie/other form of media. Expertly done. YES

Good stuff. I wasn't crazy about the stutter at 1:14 - thought it was a little too abrupt and staccato. I also agree that the whole mix felt a little under-developed, but only in the sense that I wished it could have gone on longer. Other than that, I really have no complaints. Very original work. (Especially love the synth arpeggiation starting at around 1:50, so cool!) YES

...Wow! Judging by the title of this piece, I was preparing myself for the worst, but now I'm biting my tongue. This is actually pretty darn good. In my mind, the arrangement is successful because a) each theme has been individually altered and embellished, and they all flow from one to the next in a natural way. Saria's Song could have used a bit more personalization and a smoother transition, but I thought all the others were set effectively. Production is in very good shape, as far as I can tell. I did a sort of cross-check with some of the other recent solo piano mixes on the site, and this is easily on par. Similar sound to some of Dhsu's work, I thought. Nice high and low ends, and tasteful reverb. My only reason to hesitate before passing this is that as someone who is very familar with the Ocarina of Time soundtrack, I have trouble separating myself from it and seeing this as one, cohesive work. I can easily identify all the different themes, so I'd like to hear from some other judges who are perhaps less familar, in order to hear an unbiased view of the overall shape. Here are the themes and their respective times, for anyone who's interested: 0:00-0:49 = Zelda's Lullaby 0:50-1:27 = Epona's Song 1:28-2:10 = Saria's Song 2:11-2:37 = Song of Time 2:38-3:09 = Song of Storms 3:10-3:30 = Sun's Song And back into Zelda's Lullaby for the end Nice work! Would you be willing to come up with a more creative title, though? ^_~ YES

I think it's all been basically covered. I really, really like what you've done with the arrangement! It's very creative and refreshing; however, the second half start at 1:54 with the heavier percussion could use some filling in here and there. 2:13-3:00 really dragged on in particular because not a lot was changing. I think if you condense some of those ideas so that there are more things actually going on at once, the result will be stronger. The production could use some polish, especially concerning the material up until 1:54. As others have pointed out, the percussion really needs to cut through some more, and the texture sounds a little muddy. Try a little less reverb on some of your instruments, and a bit more panning. (Not too wide, though!) This is going to make an excellent edition to the Ice Cap collection once you've touched things up a bit. Don't be discouraged! NO PLEASE RESUBMIT!

Anybody driving down from the north that could squeeze in zircon and myself? We'll be in Philly.

Hehehe... He said alblum.

Bootyfull!

I dunno if you guys read some of the comments posted at the bottom of the article, but people in the area surmise that the harsh punishment was actually a political move, due to an upcoming election.

Well, new surprise... Michael Curran asked me to sing something, solo, in a Celtic style as well!

Wow, this is my roommate's high school. She's Chinese American. Should I be worried now? ^_~

Sometime this July!

Hey guys, just to follow up... The recording was today, and it went really well! The menu theme is really epic and war-like. Can't say much more than that, since I'm sure the music is to be kept a surprise. It was a great experience, working with Michael Curran and Mark Cromer... They're really cool guys.