Level 99

I listened to it a good bit more over the past week, and I noticed a lot more source than I did the first time around. Still some production issues and a few tweaks I would suggest (will have to wait until a later writing, I'm afraid), but I can definitely see this becoming supr-awesome.

Looks like I may not actually be able to enter this one. There just wasn't enough time in my scheduling this round...still a chance, but very doubtful. Good luck to the rest of you, do Katamari justice!

Pack this up, it's done buddy. You get the "Level 99 Badge of Awesome-sauce" on this remix. SO. FREAKING. GOOD.

Well, thank you! That's really awesome to hear.

This is why we're here. Next podcast to be recorded tomorrow, hopefully.

FINALLY! My cocaine fix!

Okay, fell a little behind with doing other things but I definitely need to wrap up these song reviews. I’m fighting that habit of starting things and not finishing them, so here goes!: The Treasure That Must Be Seduced: Originally I had the impression this would be another song similar to AnSo’s Too Hot for Clothes mix, since I heard that one first, but while I may have been assuming incorrectly, I was not let down with the song. Nearly everything here is gorgeous, and even the acoustic guitar sample, which is not fantastic, suffices just as well due to excellent delay and the fact that all the other instruments used are great. It is probably impossible, in my opinion, to get sampled guitars to sound as good as real guitars would, or as convincing, and this one only suffers a small amount because of it. The song is extremely soothing, very nice work. In Joy and Sorrow: I have to echo some small concerns that have been brought up about this song by others: the production is a bit lacking in areas. This is mix is definitely unique in that it takes a southern folk-polka-rock approach with vocals. Some really cool ideas here, and the lyrics are quite comical, which is a nice break from the serious nature of many of the other songs. Again, production holds this back from really breaking through though. Another one to throw to the learning process and it is still enjoyable if you’ve got an open mind. My own opinion is that this also feels like it was rushed and could have been polished and expanded a bit more. Some ideas feel like they were thrown in there just for experimentation and not truly tested to see how they mesh over time. Just keep progressing and learning from things like this! New Day: While still very good, I think this is the weakest of Ziwtra’s songs on the project. Everything is mastered well, but the panning threw me off a little. Also, it feels like this took just a little too long to get started. A cool mesh of synth and organic stuff none-the-less, and the majority of the orchestral stuff reminds me a lot of Iwata’s and Sakimoto’s work on FFT. The bells are great too, and crescendos in the song are not jarring. It’s a faster-moving song but somehow still retains a good bit of a chill vibe. Welcome to the Human Race: ….wow. John Revoredo, Paul Weaps, a ridiculous song here. You really do love those sound bits, don’t you? This song is awesome. The percussion and rhythmic reinforcement from synths gives the song a very pressured and “under fire” feel. The guitar is awesome, and fits the song great. The reverse speaking wasn’t my cup of tea, but that one small part I can live with. The strings…so simple but so great. Welcome to the Human Race, indeed. *hits repeat* First Meeting – The Shadowed Forest: Soothing piano, reminds me simultaneously of writing for a mime-play and something from silent hill but with less dissonance. Not an uplifting song but it stirs the soul, the performance is pretty amazing. I can’t pick away the performance much since I am not very well versed in piano, so I’ll just call this like I hear it: beautiful. One instrument can truly convey so many things. Akkadia Rising: Crazy processed saxophones. Well, looks like I have to jump on the bandwagon, cause this stuff is very cool. As it stands, I’m a fan of the full Akkadia Rising on Gears disc more than the solo sax edit, simply because this is still pretty but also seems a little too empty, even with all the delays, reverbs, and parts playing at the same time. A cool experiment to say the least. Bleeding Gums Murphy would be proud. Performance seems pretty flawless from a non-saxophone-knowledgeable standpoint, and it is well-mastered, with a cool arrangement on the source. A Trace of Tears: Wow, what an all-star collab. No complaints here at all. I demand you listen to this song. I wouldn’t be surprised if I heard this in a movie soundtrack or on the radio at some point (if I listened to the radio, that is). Ending the disc on such a strong note…very yes. End of Humans Disc, on to Gears Disc… Zeno Paradox: Yeah, this is another song that I just can’t put into words due to overwhelming awesome, and yes I realize I use that word a lot. Shut up. Just listen to this one, I can assure you that you will find something to enjoy about it, if not enjoy everything. E-Bison has musical powers like a psycho crusher to the face. Daijiru (Too Hot for Clothes): Ballsy move with those vocal samples, man. It paid off in my book, but I get the feeling not everyone will appreciate or enjoy it like I do. Arrangement is very cool, and you did a good job with keeping the locale’s feel and still adding some great spin on it. This a great car groove for me. Sexy! And I'll hopefully be finishing this up soon enough.

Doesn't your room already have, like, 50+ people in it? It'll be like navigating a human ball-pit at discovery zone(that sounded a lot better in my head, but you get what I'm saying!). Can we also get a head-count on the MAG New Year's Party attendees? *raises hand* Also, OA and AeroZ are definite for the New Year's Party.

tl;dr Haha no seriously, we're all good. Was looking out for consistency, bro! And "you're totally fine"? If you want to make a pass at me, just go ahead and do it, buddy. I take it back, the font wasn't big enough in first post. THANK YOU Brad.

I think you might have misunderstood me, or I may be misunderstanding you, but I wasn't accusing Valve of anything of the sort. I was, in fact, saying Valve does an INCREDIBLE job of their optimizations on the PC and was implying that whatever porting team for the 360 will do just as fine a job getting it run well on that hardware. I adore Valve's approach to nearly everything it does, from game programming to releases to the entire Steam distribution service, even if I may not be the biggest fan of the Half-Life series. L4D hit home with the zombie-lover in me, so I would hope that they do the exact same with the 360 port again this time around. I'm not a big console player, and I never will be a console player for FPS's (WASD + mouse 4 lyfe), so it matters to me not either way. I was responding to a supposed comment that the 360 version wasn't looking too good

My name is Level 99, and I approve/agree with this message. However, I feel like they should be optimizing it better considering the hardware in the 360 is still quite good by any standards. It can't beat a current high-end system, but the porting team will probably still end up doing a great job optimizing the code. I can't help being a PC snob. Also, an open question: Was L4D, or for that matter L4D2, meant to be truly scary in the first place? Yes, there's a bit of jump-scaring with opening a door only to be face-to-face with a huge horde, and some tension-scaring with the music and enemies like the witch, but the game never struck me as intending to be unnerving. I really enjoy the original score, and while the New Orleans music caught me a little off-guard, I found myself enjoying the game that much more laughing my ass off whenever it came on. Anyone else notice the AI seems to be a LOT better this time around?

Hasn't source had these progressive updates through the years? I know they revamped it for the release of Orange Box for sure. Added some nifty new looks, like the motion blur (hello, nausea!). I'm with BGC, it still looks good to me, even without brown space marines. Pre-loaded after playing the demo for the first time over the weekend. It says something when you grab a guitar, imagine it is your own not sitting 4 feet from you, and delve face-first into the fantasy of bashing a zombie's head in with it. Talk about awesome. I can't get enough of the opening movie either.

a) Love the art Prophet, if you need any more stuff from me for my mix, let me know cause crunch-time for all my mixes is coming up and I dunno how much time I can put back into this one. It's so far back for me musically that I'm beginning to relate less and less to that WIP. Yes, that is now the difference that a few months makes Edit: also, you suck because according to OP our song is apparently WIP'd but I'm not part of the project? Breaking laws of logic and quantum mechanics, you are! And 8 weeks til MAG.

Those cartoon bleeps took away hours of my life to put in, and I will never get those hours back Nah, really, thanks for the compliments, everyone. Glad you're enjoying these as much as we enjoy being crazy. Sorry we've been slacking on show notes but it's probably a good chunk of work to do. We'll get it down soon. And he does kinda sound like a young Ray Romano... Also, Scott Stapp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creed_%28band%29 And now it's bedtime.

Yeah, this was fun, I'm glad the proposed invasion took hold very well, and would like to apologize if we invaded your territory even though you had warning But seriously, this was great. Thanks to everyone who voted or participated, I can't believe I got second place. And wouldn't you know it, the next PRC is a source that I just can't turn down so...way to get me hooked, guys. Thank you as well for the kind words and reviews, as I've decided to put my PRC entry to good use and request that it take a spot on Bahamut's project tentatively called "the light and the darkness". Congrats to Diotrans for winning, it was well-deserved, and for jh and liquid tying for 3rd, and the rest of y'all. Keep on rocking.

As soon as it's something more than just a rhythm-WIP, I'll surely post it. Keep your pants on, beardy.

I'm meeting with Harmony tonight, we already have an internal WIP being passed around between us, so expect some updates soon. Glad Willrock is just fucking awesome. KEEP IT UP!

He's right, Kinslayer. We basically pick on everybody. Take it in stride, they ream the shit out of me EVERY episode and make my life a living hell. It's a blast. Also, a very impromptu thing happened last night. We hosted a hostile takeover of Radio:thasauce LIVE on the air, ending up being Dyne's first on-air Skype call/interview/radio-ruining. It was a ton of fun, especially with the live feedback from the audience in the chatroom. I still prefer doing something pre-recorded for OCAD, but going on there is something I wouldn't say no to at all if the opportunity came up again.

Anytime, Lauren. Glad to have you here! We'll check up with you next week!

Episode 2 - Handfat Available NOW!