Jillian Aversa

Hahaha, nice. And thanks for reminding me about "that time at Magfest," Darangen. ^_~

Your submission comments pretty much summed it up here. Very catchy, solid production, thoughtful arrangement... Buuuuuut it's too repetitive for the length of the song. Six minutes is a lot of time to fill! I see two options here. You can either work on changing up the chord progression more (and more often), and base the rest around that, or you can try to condense your material, so that more things are happening at once. Maybe a little of both? Some specific points: The beginning, as Larry said, was rather flat up until 0:55 where the lovely synth flourishes kick in. Basically, all you're hearing for the first minute of the piece is a repeated B-G-A-F# bassline with minimal percussion. True that a lot of techno layers in very slowly, but if the *music* is unchanging, you haven't hooked in your listener. zircon pointed out a distinct lack of transitions, and I'd like to reiterate that. 1:50 is a perfect example. You had some nice stuff going in the section beforehand, but it just sort of dropped away into the B-G-A-F# abyss. A sweep of some sort could have helped to smooth that over, but you also don't need to pause between every new idea. Meld those ideas so that they fit together like a puzzle, and it'll sound much more unified. The form becomes predictable as well, because you're generally taking everything in 4 or 8 measure sections. Change up that percussion! It was well selected, but try not to get too comfortable with it just because it sounds good. ^_~ And lastly, the high synth arpeggios you brought in at the end were really sweet. I'd love to see you incorporate them earlier on, and see what comes out of it! I was disappointed to hear them fading out. Needs closure. All in all, I think you're on the right track, and I enjoy what I've heard so far. Don't be a stranger now, y'hear? NO

What is that synth that enters at 0:09? Sounds rather out of tune. I would have picked something a little more smooth for your lead instrument, especially considering how short the note values are. 'Sall twangy. Actually, it sounds almost as though you used a bunch of reverb to try to artificially prolong them, which creates a lot of unwanted dissonance. You're definitely headed down the right road with this arrangement, but it sounds pretty rough at the moment. I would focus on thickening the texture (not necessarily all with solo intruments, but distinct backing chords) and really planning out what you wanna do percussively. And don't skimp out on an ending! Keep it up, though. NO

Alright, I'm gonna have to agree that the amount of direct sampling you use here seems a little iffy. It didn't bother me so much the first few times I heard it, but from 1:42 on where we're already getting into the bulk of the arrangement, there's where you could have taken it a step further. I do like the back-and-forth solos you have going on between the original popcorn line and the lead synth at 1:55, because they give you an actual reason to sample. That contrast is nice. But at 3:40 when the popcorn reenters doubled by a similar (albeit higher register) piano line, why not change the original instrumentaiton as well? The other issue is that the repeated string riff you've applied is very close to what appears in the Advent Children arrangement. Unfortunately, the rule is that if you're quoting a non-game related source, it can only make up 15%-25% of the mix. That being said, the percussion is pretty diverse, and I really enjoy the little choral breaks you've inserted from time to time. Particularly good was the percussive section starting at 2:21- well done! The strings sound more like an "outline" than anything else to me, most noticeably around the four minute mark, but there are so many other strong elements in this mix that I think I can let that slide. ^-^ Production sounds great! Seems like you've improved enormously since our GrayLightning collab days... You could've made some bolder choices with the arrangement, but I think it does the job. Only problem is the outside quotage. Touch that up, and I think you're pretty much good to go! NO (resub plx)

This arrangement is terrific. The Moonsong and Balcony themes sound amazing together, so congrats on making that discovery. I was a little worried for a while that you may have been sticking too close to the original, but the rhythmic diversity throughout, and the melody variation from 3:05 to 3:21, easily take care of that. It reminds me a lot of Shnabubula's stuff, in fact. There were a few parts I thought could have been condensed a little, but never so much that it actually bored or bothered me. Everything from 2:51 on just blows my mind. Your mom plays some bitchin' violin, and your own flute work sounds great, too! Mainly because your arrangement holds so much power, I really, REALLY wish you had picked some better samples here. You're a percussionist, Doug; how could you be satisfied with that drum set? There were a lot of places that I felt a back-and-forth panning dealie would have been very effective. For example, when the bass comes in at 0:20 and then repeats at 0:24. That's pretty nitpicky, but hey, I wouldn't feel so strongly if I didn't regard this piece very highly. In all the densest places arrangement wise, sounds start to blend together. I think part of the problem is too much reverb, but I can't tell which instruments are suffering the most. I (and zircon, too, I bet) would be happy to help you single those out in person. This is the sort of thing that would get roaring applause at a live performance, but somehow the instruments just sound weak in this case. I so so so so so so so so want to YES this, but I feel like a little extra time and effort will go a long way with the production, so... NO, BUT RESUBMIT OR I WILL EAT YOU. P.S. That ending is SUCH a Sonic rip. I love it.

Yeah, the nerve of you people.

The remix is "Speed Limit", covering the Crazy Motorcycle Chase theme from FF7. It's not affiliated with the project. Title: Speed Limit Game: Final Fantasy 7 Source Tune: "Crazy Motorcycle Chase" Original Composer: Nobou Uematsu Remixer: sephfire Name: Daniel Floyd Thanks for your trouble. If the remix hasn't fallen through, I'm sorry to everyone I've been pestering. And sorry to add to that massive "to be judged" cue.

Hahahaha, don't worry, guys. We always have Rama. No I keed, I keed. But hey, I still don't have "POWERS OF MODERATION," so I'll always be grounded in humble roots.

It's pixie and zircon, isn't it? I admit nothing! You guys are amazing. But in all seriousness, I'm really looking forward to serving you all on the panel. It's a golden opportunity, so I'll do my best. And yeah, gotta agree with bgc that the dental care coverage was a big deciding factor for me. As resident shttyjdgfgette, I have to maintain that winning smile. Pressure's on now! I dunnoooooo...

I've seen them. Y'all can go to bed.

ALBLUM!

Oh boy... /me spanks Wingless

FanTAStic, Reu! I'm thoroughly impressed.

Yeahhh, that one was pretty good, huh?

Bam, bam, bam! Avaris, I'm finding it hard not to like you. Very proud of our FF7 collab. We were gonna keep it under wraps until the project release, but this seemed like a really neat way to debut it without giving it away to the whole community. Only the most die-hard VGDJ fans will reap the rewards of listening to our interview, eh eh? Gonna quote this, since it's a page old now and some may have missed it:

Yaaaaa... And I should mention that this show features the EXCLUSIVE DEBUT of our sweet new FF7 collab, which we're saving up for the project. You can't hear it anywhere else!!! XD

The hoo hoo's! YESSSS!

Awesome! I'm glad the release schedule is working out better for everyone. I think a large portion of our listeners still haven't realized that we released a show Saturday, given the number of thread posts and responses we've gotten, but they should figure it out by Monday. ^_~

Duuuuude... VGDJ... is oooooouuuut... Y'all asleep on a Friday/Saturday? We changed our release schedule! ^-^

this is actually incredible That's like EXACTLY what we look like when we do it! Broken: Recording quality has nothing to do with Audacity, really. It depends on your microphone equipment and sound card. ^_~

Normally, we talk on Skype and each record our own ends of the conversation with microphones/headsets and free audio programs such as Audacity and Cacophony. Then they are edited together, along with background music and special clips, for the show!

GrayLightning was the very first person from OCR to instant message me on AIM, and the first friend I made in this community. I don't know if he'll see this thread, but nevertheless, I wanted to thank him for making this a very special, welcoming place. (And his music kicks ass, too!) Good luck, Gray. You will be missed.

Thanks, Fishy! Glad you're listening and enjoying.

Yes, we are doing very well so far! Eventually we'll probably be bumped out of the top 10, simply because the Harry Potter shows and others have such a huge following. But hey, that's cool! This is great, guys. Thanks for the support! EDIT: VGDJ Episode #055 has been released! Sadly, zircon couldn't be here tonight to make this post because the hurricane thoroughly destroyed his phone and internet capabilities... Which also means that the shownotes will be slightly delayed. BUT it's still a great show, as we got to record this one together in person, during the storm. Fun times. ^_~ So download, and votsies!

It was Star Salzman's Bionic Commando remix. ^_~