Jump to content

Level 99

Members
  • Posts

    3,703
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Posts posted by Level 99

  1. So yeah, if this one turns out to have compromised CC info, don't act like I have to eat my hat. This is a different attack from the PSN hack.
    Wait, this is a new UNIQUE attack?

    http://www.gamesradar.com/ps3/playstation-3/news/sony-announces-user-data-stolen-from-soe-servers/a-20110502172027553006/g-20060314115917309058

    No, it is the part of the same attack.

    I understand zircon's position on this, but trying to calm the fervor and point out how these people who might have had their info leaked, who are frustrated, scared and sometimes even paranoid, are wrong is not a smart idea. Calling them childish for jumping a bit too far in the over-concerned category is also definitely not called for. What do you expect, Andy? I'm upset over this too. And despite what may or may not have been confirmed, it is always my plan to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Whether or not Sony is "evil" in the end is irrelevant: I know that I won't be purchasing another console or piece of software for PC from them after this. And free PSN+ doesn't seem like a lot to make up for it: I had no interest in PSN+ in the first place, and I'm not sure how many people did.

    The fact that SOE is now involved in the breach indicates that they're still not sure of the entire scope of this thing. You'd think that anything tied into the compromised system would be completely shut off. If it wasn't, Sony was being stupid. If it was, that indicates a much larger breach and could point to a coordinated effort potentially involving people within Sony. Their most effective deterrent to PSN infiltration thus far had seemed to be the "black box" style of just not revealing how stuff works.

    In any case, I will laugh so hard if they try to offer PSN+ to SOE folks that had their information potentially compromised.

  2. Thanks for being patient. I was busy battling an army of robotic zombie toaster unicorns that took up camp in my back yard.

    Is the guitar at 1:08 supposed to be centered or is it really intended to be 100% hardpanned left?

    Your timing definitely sounds a bit better, I'm still hearing a slight delay swing. You know what might work? If you try adjusting the audio clip manually forward a couple milliseconds for the lead guitar from 1:38 to 1:48. My ears may still be tricking me but I think that's the only section I hear anymore that has a noticably negative backswing.

    Synth from 1:58 to 2:28 seems to be too loud, and is causing your master compressor to push the rest of the mix down. Might need to adjust the synth or remove it. One idea is to add a stereo widener to it so it doesnt sit dead center, nor be 100% panned over the rhythm guitars.

    Loving the drum changes and syncopation.

    This sounds nearly ready to sub. I'm really rooting for this mix to make it, the guitar is so raw and gritty. I really enjoy it.

  3. Can you give a source usage breakdown? Due to the style, it is a bit difficult for me to pick out what you put where, and a breakdown would be greatly helpful in guiding me. Actually, to ANYONE wanting mod review, a source usage breakdown would be great.

    Production wise, I'm actually quite impressed. The intro drums could use use some additional parts and flare until it gets going, and the bass could be introduced a LITTLE better (full fade in instead of lowend coldstart). Once this thing gets going, it sounds quite enjoyable albeit a bit much on the sidechaining. Great usage of the stereo here, and I have no qualms about the instruments used.

    Seriously, you could bring this up to OCR quality for both source usage and increase the quality of the arrangement a bit by creatively incorporating a lead melody in here. The whole song sounds great as is but it feels like it is missing a lead, either a lead instrument or even a lead vocalist singing source melody with lyrics. I can hear your lead in some chunks of the more active sections, but it is very fleeting.

    Think it over, because I would recommend definitely working on this more to get it up to OCR snuff. PM me if you would like some more personalized ideas on lead usage, but please get a source breakdown here first :D

  4. Okay, here we go!

    First, I want to tell you how much I enjoyed your first OC ReMix. You did a great job with that one. You take samples that might not be cream-of-the-crop and make them super-enjoyable and well-fitting within your desired soundscape.

    186 seconds of alleged source out of a song 277 seconds long? I can dig it. You're right about the melody sounding more obscure during that middle section, but I can still hear it. You're okay on source usage here.

    Your mixing and mastering has gotten a LOT better, and I really like this, though there's a few production concerns I have. The 100% hardpanning of some of the instruments feels slightly odd, especially for those super-active strings on the left slide. I'm not saying do a center pan, but I'd be interested in hearing what would happen if you tinkered with changing some of the 100% panned instruments to ranges between 60% and 80%, having a little bit of stereo-bleed and balance. That might necessitate a small reduction in the volume of some of the instruments, but again, I'd be interested in hearing how it all comes together with a little bit less disparity in the stereo placement.

    Again, you do a great job with what you have to work with, but there's some places you can change and improve here. The harp sample you used to open up sounds likely dry and exposed. It an adequate sample, but I'd recommend turning up the wet mix a bit and lessening the delay's volume during the song: its a nice effect but ends up sounding a bit sloppy with the overlap of the playing versus the delay.

    The claps you use throughout, first appearing at 0:50, I don't think are working. Using sampled claps for anything outside of something like an 808 sample intended for electronica style is unbelievably difficult (I ran into the same problem working on one of my NiGHTS songs). The best thing to do is, if you can, do some recording with a mic of multiple takes of you doing the same clap rhythm over and over. Good quality mic is a must, and experiment with different angles, distances, and even objects - do a set of claping hands on your legs, etc. If live recording isn't a possibility, let me know, and we can figure something out.

    The piano could also be mixed in slightly better. It sounds a bit quiet considering all else that is going on around it during the bridge section at 2:23. Especially the low end, which really loses some of the oomph it could have. Might be the sequencing needs to be a slightly more humanized in the area of velocity, or the volume slightly brought up.

    I love what you've done with the strings in-general by the way. Very convincing sequencing! Those fast strums are incredible!

    If you can get ahold of a live flute player, my goodness would the flute sound incredible. It sounds passable as-is to me, but I can only imagine what it would sound like live.

    For the overall mastering, you've done a good job. I'd recommend maybe boosting the high end just a pinch to really make the chimes and high instruments shimmer.

    Great work on this, it is absolutely enjoyable and, with a few minor tweaks, should be ready to roll!

  5. Oh and for the record Level 99, you are a cool person and I have no beef with you or your server.

    We's cool dude, I understand the situation. Much appreciated being amicable.

    Also, I wanted to say Gol's changing of the thread title was absolutely hilarious yesterday, so kudos to him for having a sense of humor!

  6. Some more info: apparently Sonys servers were running on old outdated software with known vunerabilitiies.

    And its kinda odd they are physically moving the servers elsewhere like they were in an unsafe place to begin with.. maybe the vgcatz comic was right lol

    So we have possible 3 security issues: ps3 devkit issues, old software, and physically unsafe!

    You'll be glad to know the personal info was not only not encrpted but the passwords in plaintext. Fantastic.

    And in a major blow to consumer rights the psn class action law suit got a ruling that big corperations can now block parties of consumers from forming together a class action suit. So they have to take them on individually now.

    Isn't that great?

    1) Where'd you get the info about the physically moving/plaintext/outdated software info?

    2) I saw that blocking of class-action lawsuits too. Its about AT&T though, and is supposed to only apply to cases where arbirtration is a less costly, more effective method. Something like this is HIGHLY likely to be class action because of the vast amount of customers involved, as well as the high profile nature of the case.

    Edit: found the physical moving and plaintext thing, must have not made the mental connection. I might be overlooking the outdated software thing, though. I couldn't find that.

  7. No, I get it man. I was just 'splainin why I'm different. Now I know why you guys value physical media. Do I think worse of anyone for it? Not at all. I'm no less materialistic when it comes down to it.

    You're right about Steam though. If that ever goes down, I'll be pretty massively upset. I'm just counting on it not ever going away.

    I'm sure if Steam EVER goes down (in our lifetime), that they will give people the ability to make a full backup of all their games and create a new offline steam client that requires no network activation whatsoever for steam-signed games. Granted that puts more responsibility on the user to back up their shit and keep it from getting destroyed/corrupted, but Valve knows how to do very good business practice. The only issue I see arising out of that would be the issue of DRM which, ironically enough, plagues nearly all physical media these days as well. So in the end, Steam users would likely be in the same boat as those who value physical, except the Steamers would have burned CDRs and the physical media folks get shiny boxes.

    Granted the above comparison only is valid for PC software, I have to echo the popular worry about the common usage of "release now, patch later" that ps360 developers have gotten into. Say 10 years from now, when PS3 is potentially dead and no longer supported with an online service, someone gets a PS3 and a copy of Fallout 3. If there is no online support to get patches, that game is going to be broken broken broken no matter what. In a case like that, physical media is...just as useless as a digital download?

    Edit: I liked it when developers fixed and finished games before they were released. I hate Day1 patches and DLC.

  8. According to Sony, the credit card information was encrypted.

    You know what? At this point, I'm not biting that. Don't take Sony on its word. Either show me how it was encrypted and open up your iron curtain of business and security practices (since obviously now you're changing them all anyway *wink wink nudge nudge*) or I'm going to assume that the encryption you're talking about was putting my cc number on a piece of paper with a sandwich on top of it, thinking no one would bother looking under there.

  9. Alright, source usage breakdown helped me a TON here. Here we gooooooooo!

    Reviewing from an OCR perspective, I'll give you lots of credit for trying to mix so many of the source tunes together, it is a valiant effort. I can tell there is a lot of potential here, so give yourself a pat on the back for what you've done. However, there are three main problems:

    1) The sound samples are dull and have poor sound quality. I realize you tried to intentionally make this sound fake, but there is a difference between something sounding fake and something sounding low-quality. In certain instances, low-quality samples work (see how well some of the chiptunes-style ReMixers on OCR use that kind of stuff). However, with the instruments that you're using, it doesn't quite work as-is. You're using violins, flute, saxophone, harpsichord, piano, and marimba throughout the mix. These instruments, through their timbre alone, are very difficult to use effectively with any intention of sounding fake. The drums you could have been fine with with some better processing, less repetition of the same beat and overuse of the scratch effect (that snare is also very wet-sounding and is at a weird velocity where it feels quiet). To get this up to scratch, you'd need to radically overhaul the soundscape with lots of instrument replacements, as well as additions: I'm not hearing a bass cover the low-mid frequency range, which gives the entire track a very empty feeling. If you want that fakey-feeling for the track, I'd highly recommend not going with traditional instruments sounds.

    2) The sequencing is stiff, mechanical and repetitive. This also somewhat ties in to your intentionally sounding-fake idea. The majority of the track is without any kind of humanizing or offbeat usage: everything seems to fall dead on. Solid timing is a good thing, but stiff sequencing can kill arrangements. I'm not saying make things go deliberately off-time when not appropriate, but these instruments again, for the most part, sound better when they are humanized: some slight off-timings to give a convincing performance, and articulation of phrases that aren't super-quantized. The track itself has a lovely flow from one source to the other, including the sections where sources are meshed, and you've got a lot of great ideas on how to layer. Making things less repetitive and improving some of the transitions (like the one at 1:00 - you almost had it, that flute early start was great, but the sudden drum drop out reduced the effectiveness of it). That harpsichord melody is used a great deal and becomes a bit grating after a while, etc. Going through the sequencing as a whole with a fine-tooth comb, paying attention to detail and creating differentiations between sections would greatly improve the track.

    3) The song feels unpolished. The combination of the above two issues, along with a lack of original material used in the track and, from what I can hear, little-to-no mastering detracts from the listening experience. Spice things up by throwing in some more unique, original stuff with the source usage, and get some practice in production by reading some mastering tutorials (thread for it is full of useful stuff!). The complaint that it is "boring" is somewhat valid because you want to make sure the listener is enjoying themselves, so adding your own flavor to the song and making it sound pristine will provide a better result.

    I realize a lot of what I pointed out may seem very discouraging. Do not misunderstand me, though: I enjoyed what I heard, and was able to easily pick out the things that were wrong with it. I really like when a bunch of sources come together to form a cohesive whole, as opposed to something that sounds like a medley. I myself use numerous game sources as cameos in some mixes, as it is effective in "spicing things up". I encourage you to really keep at this because there is a fantastic track just waiting in there to come out!

  10. lol

    Also, I don't have access to the database the form outputs to, so I have no idea who's signed it and who hasn't. Because this form thing is a relatively new thing (which I've only had to sign for one project iirc) some of the project's older remixers (remixers of tracks completed long ago... you know what I mean) might not be aware of it. Most of our tracks were completed before I even saw this thing, so I don't expect you all to know about it.

    In other words: new thing, sign, or else... ;)

    In a worst-case scenario, we are able to combine the results of the form with any other consent statements you get via other means. It is just much much WAY much easier if everyone signs the new thing, since the table it goes into is sortable and can be easily checked against a project's roster for consistency.

    Glad to see this project going well, too.

  11. I think the OCR server should be blacklisted, not whitelisted. This whole "vouch" system obviously doesn't even seem to work. Let people in and if they fuck shit up WITH PROOF, ban them. It is not fair to force people to become contributing members of the forums just to have them get vouches, at which time they drop off the forums again because they're busy playing minecraft.

    It makes no sense.

    Edit: I meant to say it makes the "official" *cough* OCR server seem very inclusive and closed-off, and still have loads of drama.

  12. Well, as an OCR staff member who currently does play on the OCR server among other places, and as someone who is not partial to one side or the other, I'll just go ahead and say that I encourage those of you who are currently in the fiery center of the dispute simply take the high road and move on with no grudges REGARDLESS of whether or not you are or are not at fault for any wrongdoings that you did or had done to you in the past. Learning to apologize and move on even if you don't have anything to apologize for is a respectable part of life, and many successful people have learned to do it and move on.

    Love,

    BGC

    SO basically, what you're saying is:

    Crowbar and Gman need to apologize to Brushfire for constantly dumping on him and banning him from the server/irc chat.

    Brushfire needs to apologize to Crowbar and Gman for being rash and vindictive.

    Makes sense to me, now lets see who does what.

    Edit: also, for fuck's sake, stop posting Black Dynamite pictures. It is old and not funny and even getting on MY nerves.

    Edit edit: And no, that does not mean respond with observer or the cat high-five or any of that shit. Please, not more imagespamming, at least for a little while. Okay?

    200514_1915776695592_1277193921_2316961_1847318_n.jpg

    Okay.

  13. Not to kick up any drama about anything that is OCR Official or anything, but where the fuck do you get off kicking someone from the IRC channel when they were asking a perfectly legitimate question about mods for server use.

    I take back my apology to you. You are the biggest bitch in the entire world. Someone who uses power to ban when no rules are broken needs to step down as mods as they obviously don't know tact or reason.

    It is their right as an admin to use the power as they see fit. However:

    And while I am thinking about it, you cant even call yourselves the official OCR Minecraft server acting like that. You aren't trying to exemplar any of OCR's core values, and you sure as hell aren't as professional about anything as they are.

    You a just a minecraft server. No ties to the save the forum.

    Very yes. I've only seen it called the "official OCR minecraft server" a few times, and even in the OP it is only implied as the "OCR minecraft server", but unless this is something that is managed and/or sanctioned by OCR staff, I'm not sure how official it can be.

    The OCAD minecraft server is the official OCAD minecraft server because it was created and is managed by the people who made the show. Even OCAD the show itself is billed as the "Official Unofficial" podcast of OCR, because it has tenuous links to OCR that are in no way official. Calling something officially unofficial still means there's not direct approval or sanctioning on OCR's part, but they do pimp us every now and again, and has thus far had no problem being involved in what we do sometimes.

    I really don't know what went on in IRC, GMAN, or what question brush asked or why he was kicked. But I do know that this:

    OCR_MineCraft.png

    This is unacceptable. When BStrader was tempbanned from the OCAD server, I didn't advertise it as a fucking feature of the server. He was eventually allowed back and, while I haven't seen him log in in a while, that issue is now behind us. If you had let Brushfire back in, or planned on letting him back anytime soon, this could be seen as playful ribbing. You've made it clear he is not, and will not ever be, welcome on the so called "OCR minecraft server", therefore this is just rude and immature.

    Brushfire, I don't think it is worth wasting any more breath or energy on this matter. Instead:

    OCAD%20minecraft.jpg

    BRUSHFIRE-APPROVED! It'll be updated later today to latest bukkit. No donations necessary, always open to suggestions for improvements and mods!

×
×
  • Create New...