Jillian Aversa

Q-pa enjoying some afternoon refreshment Everybody chilling in my livingroom Larry and DJP listen to a remix in the queue Judges & DJP, hard at work

Nice work! Kate's in this pic now, too Taking over Peabody's spiral staircase! We jazzed up the statue with my Excel Saga hat, José's headphones, an ipod, and an OCR dog tag What a fun-loving crowd

More o' dat Me, zircon, and Larries The Peabody library Group shot! DjSammyG, Jiggles, Q-Pa, Larry, Upthorn, BGC, Jared, Meg, Ninja-San, DJP, José, me, zircon, Tauce, Drum, Shiran, and V Remedyz

Lunch at GiGi's We kinda took up the entire place... V Remedyz, Shiran, BGC signing Taucer's shirt, and José looking on Shiran was tickling zircon's back (he thought it was me, haha)

Late night trip to Never on Sundays, where we bumped into DrumUltimA, Shiran, V Remedyz, and Kate! Giant enemy crab We represent the lollipop guild? Ninja-san, Drum, Shiran, Taucer, Jiggles McPuff, and zircon Larry's a Baltimore bum

It was awesome to see you all, and meet a few new faces! Sorry the weather didn't turn out so great; hopefully next time we'll be able to do more outdoor stuff as well. Anyway, here are some pictures from Big Giant Circles and myself. There will be some video footage on Youtube later as well! zircon and Taucer "rock out" on some accoustic guitars and Xerol listens on More guitarage These awesome VGDJ-logo charms BGC's wife made for us!!! BGC with Noob

Oh my God... I had no idea it was THAT bad. I'm going to talk to security myself on Monday (whoever is the head in charge), explain the situation, and possibly even request an apology. That's just despicable, accusing you guys of something like repeatedly trying to park for free with absolutely NO basis. Ugh. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

Haha, awesome! Definitely bring it. We've got Nintendo Monopoly, too!

I have seen him; he gave me a massage once. But I prefer a healthy serving of sweet, succulent zirc on the cob to that artifically flavored stuff. ^_~

Did Mazedude and Julia actually tie the knot yet? I haven't seen any more recent pictures.

Neither is zircon. Yet... ^-^ Ailsean is, though.

For anyone bringing consoles/games/etc... Don't worry about lugging things around, because you can drop your stuff off in my apartment before we go out for the first part of the day!

As Larry said, this remix places more focus on the supporting instrumentals of the original than its melody. I was actually pleased to hear that, for the most part, because you were able to bring in a lot of interesting variations while still maintaining a strong connection to the source. The arrangement doesn't go very far harmonically, but it demonstrates a lot of musical sensitivity through those subtle variations. I do feel like it's missing some sort of main melody, however; even something very simple could make a big difference. The piece as it stands works well for ambience, but it doesn't carry a lot of power as a stand-alone arrangement, and that will probably hurt your chances of passing. The soundscape doesn't fill out until around 1:25, but I don't think I'd mind so much had the harp and piano sequencing been a little smoother. I hear a lot of Wingless in here, and also a little bit of GrayLightning. Pretty borderline for me, but I guess I can't help that New Age bias... YES Judges: give it a few listens before you make up your mind! This one grows on you.

Ooh, fun! Despite the brevity of this arrangement, I actually felt like it went in some interesting directions. The mixing is rather dry, but that in combination with the classic rock beat and quirky bassline makes it sound very Beatles. I like the way electric guitar's sound sort of evolves throughout the mix. Good use of FX, and there was some decent original material from 1:05-1:15. Because the structure is basically identical to the original and you only did it once through, I'm a little concerned about the conservativeness of the arrangement. Still, the soundscape is so unique and varied internally that it would be a shame not to pass this. YES P.S. Timpanis at 1:29 made me lawl a little.

2:49 is pretty short for a remix 'round these here parts, but his is actually pretty good for a first effort in terms of arrangement. You still have a looooong way to go with production, though, I'm afraid. First of all, I can hardly hear the bass line at all - almost didn't notice it at first! Your samples aren't half bad, but they need some varied articulation to sound more natural. Panning here doesn't accurately represent an orchestral setup, and I think if you tuned your ears for that a little more, you'd wind up with a better balance. Also, the snare is reaaaaalllly fake sounding right now, and you cut off the song before the reverb even finished its decay at the end! Don't be discouraged, though. It takes a lot of trial and error to teach yourself how to use these programs, and you picked the hardest genre of all if you want to go for a realistic sound. Keep practicing, and use the WIP forums as a resource! NO

Wow, great concept for a remix remix! I love the New Age feel you've given this piece (surprised?), and the vocals shine more in this kind of texture than the solo piano version. I do see some problems, however: The intro, while interesting, doesn't have much to do with the rest of the piece, which is in d minor. I'm curious to know why you did it in such a distant key. The pan flute sample is sequenced rather choppily; you can hear a punch with each new note. Percussive transition out of the intro feels sort of empty and disconnected. The vocals seem to get suddenly louder at around 1:29, in the middle of a phrase. Vocals are noticeably behind the beat sometimes! Panning of vocals seems to vary from time to time. Can you keep them centered? It's distracting when you switch them around. ^_~ At about 3:16, the instruments drop out suddenly. I thought that sounded a little awkward. Guitar sequencing at the very end is really fake. Same kind of clicks that you hear in the intro's pan flute. I still really don't like the way the lyrics don't make sense with the shape of the vocal phrases. I pointed that out in more detail with Hallucination of Another World, so maybe this could be DA's chance to rework those. Percussion could have a little more punch, too. But all in all, you're off to a good start! NO RESUBMIT

Well... I passed it before, and since this is already an improvement from the original submission, I'll pass it again. The master volume is a little quiet this time around, as BGC pointed out, and I also miss the little woodwind duet at the end! But hey, guess that's the price we have to pay for less repetition. Solid work. Perhaps you wouldn't mind fixing the volume thing before this gets posted, if it passes? YES

Peabody Conservatory has its own parking garage, located on the Saint Paul St. side of the building. If you have trouble finding street parking, you can always use that! ^-^ Wheeeeeeeeee!

Agreed. It's too loose and undefined for the rest of the piece, and there's no variation in the percussion throughout- sounds like a boring ol' drumloop. Overall, I really dig the laid-back groove, but the mix feels a little underdeveloped. There's hardly any ending! Your instrument choices are decent in general... I just wanna hear more, y'know? Everything seems mixed too apologetically. Don't be afraid to make each individual element shine in its own right, through techniques such as EQ and panning. You're off to a good start. NO RESUBMIT

Hmmm... interesting. You know, I like the dry sound of your guitar strumming; it's very committed and catchy. The intro/outro effects are pretty out of the ordinary, but I don't dislike them. Unfortunately, there isn't really much here to actually judge yet. The arrangement is bare, and stays too close to the source. You've got the basic chords outlined, so why don't you try filling it up with some added instruments? I could see this going somewhere really cool with a few more traditional rock elements... drumwork... maybe even some vocals, if you're any good (or know someone good). ^_~ Let's hear some more! NO RESUBMIT

I LOVE what you've done here, Dean! The mix is beautiful, and demonstrates a lot of skill and attention to aural detail that even some veteran mixers around here miss. You really know how to make things work. Unfortunately, it does violate our rules about direct sampling, BUT if you would resubmit after replacing some more of the sounds for your own, this would surely pass. Until then, I'll be listening anyway! NO PLEASE RESUBMIT

I'm definitely hearing some improvement since your last submission! The arrangement is still fresh as ever; good for you. I agree with all of zircon's critiques, but I feel like you settled into a decent sound by the second half of the mix. The samples are just OK; they lack a certain aggressiveness, as he pointed out. This is very borderline for me, but on the condition that you fix the volume issue, I'll give it a.... YES That being said, I hope that you'll actually WANT to keep working on it before it passes, because you could learn a lot and wow your audience a little more in the process. ^_~

I was thinking that, too. In fact, I would love to hear a resubmission *with* koto and more ethnic instruments! The texture here is just so incredibly thin; you really need to beef things up and apply some better samples. Arrangement is decent starting about halfway through, but it still needs a lot of development; there is a distinct lack of transition between ideas. Keep it up. NO

Hmmm... Well, I never had a chance to hear the original submission since you used the same link, but judging from what I hear now, I don't think this is passable yet. The vocals are pretty buried by the instrumentation, and their execution is actually several steps down from the original singer's. Dragon Avenger's voice worked better in the context of Summoner's Love, but this song makes some of her weaknesses too exposed. The verses in particular need some improvement. I love the instrumentation; it sounds like a Disney pop song! However, I also don't feel like there's quite enough rearrangement yet, from either of you. Aside from the added harmonies (which are nice), the vocals basically follow the source tune verbatim, lyrics and all. I'd love to hear some more personalization. The structure of the piece is basically identical as well, except it's actually shorter than the original. I don't feel like 2 minutes at 39 seconds was enough time for you guys to really make the song your own. Keep at it! NO RESUBMIT

Hey, yeah... the rar package doesn't work for me. Every time I try to expand it, there's an error and the folder comes out empty. Any way you can post the mp3's and lyrics separately, or in a zip file?