Fishy

Heavy (1.3mm-2mm), rigid and pointy plectrums give better control. They don't sound the best for all situations but I feel they are the best all-rounder for my style (which is fairly fast, precision leady type stuff). If I'm recording strummy acoustic (or even funk) guitar I always use a thin crappy plastic one. Just sounds and feels better for that kind of thing. All depends on the situation, and whether you're picking a plectrum for it's sound, or how easy it is to use for what you're doing. Inevitably there is a compromise somewhere.

I've found dragons to be pretty trick to handle by myself so far (Only lv 18 ). They're no problem at all if they've got 2 or 3 other people around to help. Especially if they attack you in some flat plain where there's nothing to hide behind. Even if they are easier then I thought they would be, I can still only describe dragon battles as 'epic'.

1. Uh... make one and submit something under that name? Dunno how that's a jooj question. 2. Make a proposal and send it to uh... any staff member except dave I guess. That should include as much info on your project, who's on it and how you're keeping quality up and examples of super bjawesome wips that show off how bjawesome your project is. Then post it in a specific staff section and we check it out and see wuts wut.

$10 I think. It's a lot but I mean look at that thing. It's gonna take years to wear out.

Funny you should mention a 5mm v-pick... Plus my new red bears arrived. Here's the whole family :3. And just to show how thick that mofo is: For clean tones that thing is fat as hell, really useful studio pick for when the sound isn't quite right and you want to try something different.

Can't wait until monday, really want to get my bucket-stealing on!

Bought it but I have a paper due mondayFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Happy Skyr.. I mean remembrance day!

It only matters to listeners with synaesthesia and perfect pitch. Other then that the range of the instruments chosen might affect it. For example the big epic chord should be E on guitars, but they should be C on a cello.

Pfft, I accept only credit for my musical contributions at this point. I'm too busy with FF9 these days. Plz direct your management appraisals in Justin's direciton.

aw SHIT... I was totally planning to go to that. Where did the time go? Curse you university!

Well that didn't take long. Dark Messenger is filled again.

Fairy battle and dark messenger I think there are other avenues I'd like to go down. Of those I think I'd be most interested in hearing you do Steiner's theme. Hows that withcu? Btw, should have an up to date wip bundle uploaded shortly... for the mixers obviously.

Ok here are all the changes I just made: Now free: Steiner's Theme Fairy Battle Chocobo Theme DARK MESSENGER Now Taken (all with wips already): Prima Vista - Calum Kuja's Theme - Larsec Song of Memories - Archangel + Claire Yaxley So if all of those tracks are done, plus dark messenger which is my only remaining 'must have' track, that would be 50 tracks. We're also possibly in need of a fairly speedy nylon string jazzy guitarist for one track if anyone has the skeelz and the means!

lols, fair enough. Can't say I've noticed that, I'll listen out for it next time!

Indeed. A little bit of reading on the microphones you have can reveal their good uses. Of course experimenting and listening can tell you a lot more. Anyone who says 'this is the best mic for everything' clearly has no idea what their doing, which is harsh but they deserve some harshness for spreading misinformation to people who might believe them.

Well the 414 was top choice of the microphones you listed there. Like I said it's a good choice for anything, but not necessarily a great one. The RE20 is not the best for anything in my opinion. It is easily the most expensive microphone of the 4 (probably more then the others combined) but definitely not the best. I mean look at it's frequency response: http://www.electrovoice.com/sitefiles/downloads/RE20%20Engineering%20Data%20Sheet.pdf That is a ridiculous bass cut. Great if you're a booming radio announcer whos about to get compressed to hell and back but seriously. The cut starts at like 300Hz, that's way too high for a bassy instrument like a cello. You only need to look at that to realize what a niche mic it is. EDIT: I should mention that their spec sheet does note two good uses for it. Inside a bass drum is a very boomy place to be, so you might like to use it in that situation. Most people also EQ the hell out of acoustic guitars, completely taking away everything from 400hz downwards. For that type of sound the RE20 does half the job for you and so might sound "better" immediately.

I can give you some mic tips. For cello, the majority of engineers I know tend to stick a single large diaphragm condenser mic pointing somewhere at the joint between the neck and the body. The 414 you had would've been a better choice there. Clarinets radiate lower frequencies omni directionally and their high frequencies straight forward out of the horn. So you can balance the highs and lows of the recorded sound very easily with mic position. If you want something brighter move in front of the horn etc. I would have use the other 414 for this. 451's as a pair on the piano, probably just inside the lid but not too close to the strings. Sounds like you want a fairly close sound for this. Here's a bit of info on the mics, sorry if you know this already: C414 I'm sure everyone knows at least a bit about. Large diaphragm condenser. Jack of all trades, master of none. Make's a solid choice for most instruments if you're stuck for options. Bass pick-up goes all the way down to 30Hz, which is awesome. C451 is a small diaphragm condenser and was probably your best piano option there. In situations where even response is needed, small condensers tend to record a clean representation of what actually happened. This is useful for piano, as main pairs to record a whole ensemble with and as ambient mics. EV RE20 is a large diaphragm dynamic microphone with a huge bass cut. It is designed for very close voice use. A lot of people erroneously use it for bassy instruments like cello and kick. It is really not useful for that. It is useful for a 'clicky' or boxy kick sound though. The Senheiser 421 is another large diaphragm dynamic mic, famous for it's use as a tom mic on drum kits. Again there aren't a huge number of other uses for it. Try to avoid dynamic microphones like the EV and the senheiser on classical instruments. They just don't cut it most of the time. They are useful for live sound because they have good rejection but for studio recording they're only useful for extremely loud instruments.

That first chord with the lead guitars hit me in a really nice way. Definitely a good feel to this remix, and you can feel the source love coming through. Some of the background elements are getting a little overpowered but on the whole it's well balanced. On the conservative side but there is enough going on to set it apart. I can see why you'd have the bass stuck in your head. YES

Really enjoyed watching that source video. Excellent source and the "get scroll" made me laugh. Didn't hear the original either. Definitely a wizard folk prog vibe going on. Just missing the flute melody, although I do hear some in there. Guitar sound is a little thin but sounds fine once things get going. Nice mix of instruments and layering. Define improved on the mysterious vibe of the original whilst maintaining the tranquil feel. Nice. YES

I found the arrangement to be a little repetitive personally. Seemed like everything happen twice and sometimes for not much reason. It also feels like you might have been better off doing two seperate mixes. Sure it was clever but a little bit forced at time. The sum of the parts wasn't necessarily greater. Overall gripes aside, the general harmony and orchestration is excellent. Everything but the brass sounds fantastic, but isn't that always the case with orchestral samples :3. Great example of orchestral balance and sequencing. YES

First half barely adds anything to the original imo. The breakdown and second half are more original yes but it kinda feels like you've forced yourself to do it for the sake of OCR. Given the chance I wager this would have been straight cover. The production is very hit and miss... Some very weird samples, and the fast stabs sounds incredibly static in velocity. Drums are generally okay but need a lot of humanizing especially in the kick/snare because it's a single sample. Guitar performance is very loose at times especially in the rhythm guitar. The tone also isn't as tight or full as it usually is in this style. The strings are taking a huge backseat in the mix when the track is in full rock mode. I appreciate something like this is very hard to balance, and while the balance is okay the sequencing of the support instruments is letting that balance down. Not enough humanization and velocity variance. I think this could be cleared up significantly and there are much better examples of the style in the catalogue already. I'd like to be more specific about what you can do but there are issues with almost every instrument to a degree. I think you've got a good thing going but there is easily enough room for improvement to warrant a resub. I know I'm being negative but honestly it's because I feel you have the ability to do better and we would all like to hear it! NO, plz resub I want to make it clear I'm rejecting this only because of the production, but I'm also a bit disappointed by the 'direct cover + forced original touches stuck on end' attitude displayed here. If you want to make straight covers, make them. We won't think less of you, but that's not the point of OCR.

That's some impressive manning up for the sake of tone! Hats off snaps.

Definitely issues with timing on this that are really distracting. Piano and the drums needs humanizing for sure as well. Overall pretty conservative, though not hugely so. Something a bit more original going on somewhere wouldn't go amiss. At the moment it feels like its plodding along, with not enough development. There is an overall dynamic build but it doesn't really move me. Also yeah that ending is totally ruining the feel also. Like the other say, good start but you can improve on this a fair chunk. NO, plz resub

Structurally yes this is very conservative but there's a lot to be said for the detail going on here. Combined with the dynamics and build ups that were absent from the original and I think you have a worthwhile arrangement that is produced very well. Maybe too much reverb as there is a bit of mud going on but it's not a huge issue. Imma pass this, but try and branch out a bit more in your arrangements in the future. You clearly have an orchestration talent, use it! YES