Level 99

Big ass birthday to all y'all

...no relation. Happiest of birthdays to both of you, and may you both continue to be awesome people who contribute tons to the VG communities in your own ways. A muffin for one: A corgi for the other: Oh, and don't forget Kanthos either. He be rocking. So here's....something:

Episode 70 - Impostor FemShep Nipples With Special Guest JIMMY HINSON!

Its a birthday! How awesome!

You should either change your name or grow a monobrow already. This misrepresentation demeans us all! (Happy Birthday!)

Heh, albums are usually done audio-wise way ahead of release. NiGHTS was done nearly 8 months before the album came out. With the current amount of albums lined up for release (there are at least three or four that got in before Maverick Rising was turned in for album eval), we generally don't give timelines on where things are in the process. Some times are better than others for staff to attend to things, just because real life is unexpected. Rather than give people the impression that something is imminent*, these things are kept private for the benefit of both OCR and the fans/consumers. That being said, this is probably the current top priority album for album eval. The size of it makes it quite difficult to tackle but it is being chipped away at. Even if this is likely to wait until early next year to post, what a better way to potentially kick off the year, right? There's still plenty in the pipeline for the rest of '11, too. *exception being when albums have specified release dates as part of their scope, scheduled to coincide with some special date.

OCAD server has been back up, is running barebones craftbukkit 1.8.1 alpha. Everything seems to be running smoothly for now, will possibly continue experimenting with alpha bukkit builds until the recommended release comes out. No LWC yet but there's essentials so it isn't completely uncontrollable. David now has access directly to the server box so fixes no longer hinge completely on my head. Same old server address for OCAD.

Collective consensus review from the 3 WIP mods: Great arrangement and very competent production. Some niggles: bass is conflicting with the kick, sounds like the kick's decay is getting muddied up by the bass, potentially in the sub-bass range. Breakdown at 2:36 sounds like it could, and should, be more intense (either more ambient and less punchy, or more punchy and less ambient). The last chorus could use something unique to set it apart from previous chorus, either more layering, additional parts (arp maybe?). This basically sounds like it needs only a bit of cleanup and polish and it'll be good to go!

Consensus from all three WIP mods: Starts a bit abruptly but this is pretty nice. Guitar at 1:04 sounds out of tune the whole time. Overall production sounds pushed and overcompressed, but I like your arrangement ideas. You should flesh these ideas out more and make a longer song, fix the guitar, go back to the production and back things off a bit.

Firstly, wow. I did not expect this kind of response for what I had so far. While I definitely realize the general stigma about vocal remixes and brace myself accordingly, the feedback has been completely unexpected and phenomenal. I'll do my best to get to all of the generally main points made in the comments, so if I missed something you specifically mentioned, let me know Yeah, you know me, Bobby. I do have the ability to control the general nasalness of my voice, and while it wasn't completely intended here, I wanted to shoot for an upper diaphragm vocal tone. Something that would be as light and sparkly as the subject matter, so if there's any particular phrases that you feel are over-nasal, point them out and I'll re-record to see how they sound moving a bit more away from the nose. Though yes, I think this style does suit the song. And thanks for the encouragment! Gotta do something while finishing up the Muffins tracks and waiting for other brass That's flattering and helpful enough to know that I'm on the right track! Thanks! Well, I mean, now everyone who wants it DOES have this version, right? I do believe that, from what Ben has shown me so far, the version with additional instrumentation will be my preferred one, I'll gladly render a final minus that stuff with any changes I made to the guitars and vocals. Thanks, DiG! Aww man, I used to love The Ataris. I'm a genuine pop-punk-rock writer at heart, so this is a very flattering comment. Thanks! You make very valid points that I myself stand by as often as I can. I did use Roland V-Vocals to iron out some of the rough spots in the vocals, since I'm being a perfectionist about how the vocals sit with the guitar tones. If you could point out the places you're hearing the "autotune sound" kick in, I'll try to iron out the issues. Additionally, I'll consider doing a re-take of recording, singing along with the tuned vocals so I can nail the pitch as close as possible, and using that. Not a promise due to time but it is definitely something that could work. Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I would. Philosophically, I'm against the flagrant use of autotune to turn someone with no vocal talent into a star, as is evidenced by our culture's current trend of making any youtube gutterdweller who can download GSnap and vaguely talk on key an overnight celebrity. When it is used subtly enough, especially for people who have decent to fairly good voices that have some landing or holding issues, I'm okay with it. The less noticed, the better, and the less used, the better. Using it as a vocal aesthetic such as in dance music is also fine. For me, I realize I don't have the most amazing voice in the world: it is maleable and I have great control over the sound of it, but my ability to be onkey is sometimes off by a few cents and, for a song like this one, it also helps reach the kind of tone I wanted. OCR gets enough vocal flak as it is. While I'm not condoning autotune across the board, it has its uses, and here I felt it was warranted. Roland V-Vocals allows for less autotune "snapping" and more of an analyze and selectively curve method. I bet you weren't expecting this long an answer but HEY, YOU GOT IT! (answering the MK64 album later in post) It's funny. I'm getting the vibe that some people are having issues hearing the melody except when the guitar is playing it. The vocals throughout the song follow the melody exactly, except there are parts where things are brought down or up an octave to help keep a note flow consistent. So really, if people can hear it in the guitars, they should totally be able to hear it in the vocals. However, I guess final judgement should be reserved until after Ben does his thing. Thanks for the feedback! (also fixed the word mistake. Those lyrics I posted were from my scratchpad anyway so I'm surprised there's not more mistakes in there than there are) There's no chiptunes in it yet, Ben's gotta get a render out once he's done so people can hear it. He's showed me some of his ideas and I really like them, can't wait until they're fleshed out. As for the autotune, if you hear a voice "slide" unrealistically, as if a computer were controlling the pitch to snap it back onto the right note and key, that's the algorithm working. Autotune basically takes vocal information, processes the notes as they are being sung, and intelligently (based on either user-selected chords, keys, scales, or general best-estimates) modulates the notes without affecting the tone or texture of the voice. It can be realistic or unrealistic. Look up a tutorial on Gsnap if you want to see how free autotune works. Much appreciated on the other comments, and I absolutely love Robbie's Wily mix as well. /flattered And finally, a MK64 album? I believe there was someone trying to get something like that off the ground in the past year or so, but it died for some reason. I'm personally taking some time off from directly managing projects to help facilitate other in-progress albums reaching completion, helping the staff evaluate albums before they are to be posted, and doing various other things to keep the place running smoothly. Not saying it won't happen, just saying that I wouldn't be able to lend my hand to its conception in the near future. If it does get off the ground by someone and they wanted my mix on it, I'd gladly allow it. AGAIN THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR TIME AND FEEDBACK YOU ARE WHAT MAKES WORKSHOP AWESOME

http://www.gamesradar.com/tgs-2011-nintendos-3ds-slide-pad-attachment-real-requires-extra-battery-and-will-cost-you-money/ $19 for the add-on seperately $89 for the MH3G bundle that includes it Uses AAA batteries No indication that it is or is not being released outside of Japan Great, we've devolved back into the days of the AAA-powered add-on peripheral.

Or, you know, any of the other fantastic properties left in the dust. Too bad they're busy publishing stuff like this in the FF line of game spinoffs; Oh yes. As for the port/remake/enhanced sloppy joe or whatever of FFX, I'm fairly certain it is in line with what Super Mario 64 DS was for the DS launch: a port with gimicky additional features meant to show off the Vita's hardware. LOOK! You can control the menu screen with the back OR front touchscreen! Battle Aeons with your friends of Ad Hoc! FOUR PLAYER CHOCOBO RACE IN HD! (yes, I am massively sarcastic because I really don't see any significant reason for this outside of least work for most benefit while still attempting to ride any wave of nostalgia) The bottom line is: now we can listen to Tidus whine and forced laugh creepily in HD anywhere we go. And I mean no offense to people who like the game. It was an alright game on the PS2, I played it til I beat it, but really this is just proving that they are going to make every other remake outside of 6/7/8/9 as long as people keep supporting them.

If we didn't it was because we switched Community News with Songs What Need ReMixing because Mazedude had to go at the end. I can't remember either but it can be brought up next week if it wasn't brought up this week.

Episode 69 - American Pickles ~ And One For YOU We’re a week strong into Drunken Podcast Month © ™ (pp) (llc) (inc) (cor) (ltd), so we decided to check in on a man who’s renowned for his heavyweightness when it comes to alcohol: Mazedude. This is a man who can drink a bottle of Goldschlagger and still be sober enough to pilot a blimp while doing Capoeira. How did it go?!

Its been down for a while, I need to rebuild the computer it was working on because it's started getting numerous disconnect errors for no reason. I'm suspecting a faulty driver or WU has botched it.

Butch Deadlift.

I can tell you that myself and a good number of OCR staff members are huge fanatics of MST3k. You'd be surprised how many quotes from that show get thrown around at our meetings. I don't have a single favorite episode, but I have two ones that will always make me smile: The Puma Man (S9E03) The Final Sacrifice (S9E10) Other top runners are: Escape 2000 (S7E05), Prince of Space (S8E16), Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (S8E22), and Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (S10E03). Also, you should definitely check out Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax. They are Joel's and Mike's respective MST3k-esque projects that are ongoing now that the show's been over for a while. Edit: HOW COULD I FORGET TO LIST JACK FROST?! (S8E13), such a godawful foreign movie. Also The Giant Spider Invasion (S8E10). Edit edit: Yeah, I guess you could tell that I'm more of a Mike fan than a Joel fan. Don't get me wrong, Joel is great, I just like Mike's energy and silliness more.

How could I miss this? I was almost completely braindead yesterday but HAPPY TIME TRAVELING BACK TO WHEN IT HAPPENED BIRTHDAY, super-mokram.

Maybe we should pick a night to get a group of four, or multiple groups for running both deeper tier stuff as well as running low levels to get heat/crowns?

Yeah, but she's great for me to learn how to play this damn thing.

Aight, so I started work on this in...March, I think. Originally just a solo thing, Ben Briggs then insisted on adding stuff (he still has to, I only now just finished the song structure). Emunator may or may not add stuff as well. diotrans was originally going to have a part too, but instead of including a violin I decided to expand the lyrics more to make three verses and choruses, with a different end chorus. Lyrics (WITH EXTRA CHEESE!): Up in the sky Where radiance abounds There is a Luminous road Hearts race away Suspended seamlessly It is a Sight to behold We're on our way, let's go today because we might be the only ones to ever be Up off the ground, with arms around holding me tightly there's no where else I'd want to be The path is paved With colors filled with light They cast a Radiant glow No end in sight Now that you're here with me Let's chase the Eternal rainbow Forever long You've held your hand in mine Together Journeys unfold We've crossed the line While we would love to stay Our ride has Come to a close It's not the end, so don't pretend We've solved the mystery There's so much else that's left to see Across the stars, this world is ours The only reality There's no where else I'd want to be --------------------------- The whole thing is nearly source verbatim with the guitars playing the chord progression and the vocals carrying the melody. Basically this whole song is just me right now with the stuff from others coming soon! Source: Current version: http://level99.thestuffoflegends.net/Stuff/WIPS/Level%2099%20-%20Radiance%20(WIP4).mp3 Thoughts?

Okay, I like it but I don't think the source is integrated enough. Basically you're just transplanting the bassline and using the octaver synth. I know that's how deep house sounds but I think it's probably ridiculously unlikely that that genre can make it past the judge's standards of source recognition for this track. You're definitely improving though, keep it up.