IsolinearMoogle

Source usage — I recognize the ocarina tune at the beginning in the unison portion, and I hear the raised tone at the end of the Serenade of Water a couple times throughout, but largely I don't connect this piece with the source material. I really like the concept of this piece, and I think I like your arrangement overall, but it is a little hard to tell in parts due to the "rough draft" performance of this recording. A couple things you will want to think about if you only have a couple passes at making the recording happen: 1) Tuning — If your singers can't be very precise with their tuning, you will want to experiment with auto-tune settings and see if you can get one that doesn't detract from the piece. The tuning in this recording skews your harmonies, and really detracts from the unison bits. I would encourage a single voice to a unison portion anyway, since you're not working with a multitude of voices to add diversity. 2) Dynamics — This is a little easier to fix in post if you are doing individual tracks for each singer, but you as the arranger can help your singers out by making some very clear markings for dynamics. I think one reason your source material is a little hazy is because those parts aren't being emphasized in the recording. Make sure you encourage your singers to use the phrasing you want for this piece as well. 3) Choral blend — Have a good idea of what you want to get from this recording... do you want a straight tone or vibrato? Where do you want consonant sounds and cut-offs? Do you want high notes to be powerful and soaring, or ethereal and chant-like? I have some thoughts on your lyrics, but they weren't solicited, and you might be pretty attached to the lyrics at this point, so I'll keep them to myself, but let me know if you are interested. As I said, I do like this... it is inspiring me to do an a cappella vocal piece myself.

I have to assume that a lot of the criticisms about "fat profit" are not taking into account the history of the site. Pretty long con...

I like the style here. Does it just repeat halfway through? I could do without the second half. I know it is ambient, but I feel like I could just play the first two minutes of this twice and it would be about the same. The first time I listened to this, I felt like the wide vibrato on the background guitar near the beginning was very distracting... second time it didn't really bother me, but it was still a little distracting for an instrument that seems like it's supposed to be in the back. The flute sound on the final note before the "break" in the middle (and the same note repeated at the end of the piece) is very overpowering, the melody plays just fine, but that last note sticks out in a way it shouldn't.

I can't say I don't like it. But I feel like there are two completely different pieces going on here — the melody from the game and the metal accompaniment. At the beginning of the piece, the two start out in different keys... the segue from "a cappella" Zelda theme into metal feels very awkward primarily because of the key change, and it seems kind of wrong while they are both going on at the same time later in the piece. Although the simultaneous cross-key business lends it a cool dystopian mindfunk kind of vibe, which may be what you were going for. The instrumentation throws me off, too. I just don't really feel like the synth sound of the Zelda melody works well with the metal guitar portion. Could just be a matter of personal taste, but I don't feel they mesh. When the metal guitar came in, I felt like I was listening to a completely different arrangement. I'd advise switching the voicing on the Zelda bit to something a little more metal-friendly... that's about as specific as I can be, not being a big metal aficionado. My two cents. I dig the sounds you're working with.

Pretty much what I would assume. I don't know if there are legal issues or a possible fan outcry to deal with, but for my own two cents, I have faith that the money will be spent in a way that will not make me feel exploited. I will say (although it's perhaps obvious) that the sooner these ideas are public, the better for this particular concern. Special silver-bordered holographic autographed portrait-sized Teen Agent CCG cards will surely appease the public, no?

Ditto. Unfortunate that some folks seem to want to pick apart this Kickstart solicitation, and OCR in general. I couldn't be happier about all the professional-quality free music I have gotten from OCR over the last decade, and I think this pledge drive is being done just fine (clearly the naysayers are in the minority with the $35k+ that has already been pledged). I have never contributed to OCR before, and would not buy a hard copy of this album (I'm all digital and vinyl at home), but something about the way this is being presented left no doubt in my mind that I would donate as soon as I saw it, and I will probably keep my disc for a good long time as a reminder of how proud I was to be able to contribute along with so many other good folks to make an awesome project like this a reality. And I would imagine most of the 600 folks who have already contributed get that we are not buying a product, but donating and getting a thank-you gift for doing so. NPR and other nonprofits do this sort of thing all the time, and I think at a similar ratio of product value to donation amount. So, in essence, kudos to the folks who put this together, and congratulations on the awesome response!! (...and please do let us know what is going to happen to all the extra moneys when you have figured that out)

I figure you guys didn't plan to meet your goal so quickly, but since you have and the donations just keep on coming, maybe you could post here and on the Kickstart page some general plans as to how the additional money is going to be spent?

Yes please sign me up for a chance!

Outstanding! I was so thrilled to be able to play a small part in putting this together, and I have enjoyed listening to this track more and more every time I hear it. Kudos to OA and all others involved in assembling so many pieces into a beautiful and cohesive whole!

Hey I hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere else, so I figured I would give it a shout. This weekend on Saturday (the 18th) there is a video game music festival in Houston, Texas. Jack Wall will be conducting a Video Games Live! concert, as well as a second concert earlier in the day of Blizzard music (not sure if that is just typical of what he does when he's on tour now). I consider myself very fortunate to be singing in both of these concerts as a member of the Houston Symphony Chorus. It should be a really awesome event! I think I am one of the few people in the choir who is anticipating it so much... most of them are more of the "video-games-are-for-my-kids-and-go-beep-beep-boop" crowd. But it is a great choir, and we are getting an awesome sound out of rehearsals. I am looking forward to singing with the maestro himself later this week. More info can be found here: http://www.artshound.com/event/detail/24199 The event is from 2:00 onward on Saturday; I probably won't have much time to check this thread, but if you are going or have any more questions, feel free to PM me, and I will try to get back to you. Would be great to see some fellow OCR fans there.

Apologies if I ramble; this was a great topic and I had a lot to say. I feel like "self-help" has lost a lot of the negative stigma that it used to carry around not too long ago. I think five, ten years ago, I would have thought of "self-help" books as the loser's last resort... but now I have probably read about a half-dozen books (and subscribed to several blogs) that would have been at one point classified as "self-help" — I think the label is disappearing as well. From my perspective, the world (and I mean that in a very personal, not global, sense) seems very different than it did when I was born, or what I imagine it was before that. People in this country (USA) commonly struggle with obesity, depression, autism, procrastination, abandonment issues — all of these are very real problems for many people, and the impression I get is that they were barely acknowledged 100 years ago or even more recently. So, as a result, people have these issues. And let's face it. Public schools aren't perfect, parents aren't perfect, psychiatrists aren't perfect. At the end of the day, it is always up to us to notice the shortcomings in our lives and our actions and improve them. And hey, if reading a book helps any of us do that, great. Education is all about bettering ourselves and the world, right? Two of my favourite bloggers that I would classify as "self-help" are Steve Pavlina and Scott Ginsberg. I have learned a lot from these two guys and the various books I've read, and have gone from nearly flunking out of high school to supporting myself and my wife in a 3-bedroom house from the income we make doing only things that we are truly passionate about. Ginsberg is a huge proponent of having a "daily appointment with yourself"; time to reflect on your own personal goals and consider what you can do to make them happen. And this is really what self-help is, in a nutshell — whether it's self-directed or something you read in a book. And this is what so many people are lacking in their lives... I am disappointed by friends or acquaintances of mine who grumble their way through the workday, come home and watch TV for four or five hours, and do it all over again the next day, all the while looking forward to a retirement that is forty years in the future! That's no kind of life. Thanks for bringing up this topic, Dyne. I am curious to see what others have to say.

Wow. This sounds like a great deal to me, but I haven't shopped a whole lot for domains. Am curious what others think.

If you're smart about who you buy from on Ebay, you can avoid getting screwed. When you buy on Ebay with PayPal, you don't have to pay some random guy and hoping everything works out; find a reputable seller, and then if something does go wrong, PayPal will back you up. I would say you're much more likely to get screwed by trying to buy from a "reputable website" that you're not familiar with. You may end up saving some money by just buying a whole console online, with the accessories you're looking for. Obviously, you don't need a console if your friend is giving you one, but the shipping you will end up paying if you have to get your accessories from different folks may end up costing you more than it is worth. And then you could have a "backup console", I guess — or try to sell it on Ebay yourself, sans parts. Sorry if this is all redundant, since you obviously know about Ebay, but I've had nothing but great results working with sellers there. FYI - ThinkGeek is out of stock from the link provided by Liontamer.

Listening is definitely imperative! But so is having a framework to understand how to replicate things. It's a lot easier to hear something and re-create it if you've got a basic understanding of how pitches, intervals, scales, and chords work. Most good books will come with a CD of examples, too — even better. I think my original point was not well-expressed. I actually do make about 75% of my income from music, and I encourage anybody who has a shot at making some money doing what they love. I was just defending the term "professional" by suggesting that, in most cases, it can be implied that a professional has a good amount of skill at what they do... otherwise, why are they getting paid? Maybe Yoozer was originally advocating for those who are "non-professional", which I entirely support. Simply looking through the bios of contributors here makes it clear that there are definitely a lot of very talented musicians who rarely, if ever, see a dime for their art. In any case — hooray for musicians, whether they make money or not!

Yeah, really when you look at that, this guy's got it all figured out. He's gonna go to a prestigious college, after all. When you graduate from one of those, I think they just give you a list of really great jobs and you pick the one you want and you're set for life. To be fair, I was probably this naïve once, and it probably wasn't even that many years ago. Growing up is awesome.

Well, I wish you the best of luck. I know absolutely nothing about Linux.

Business ethics. And karma. Plus, musicians are usually under pretty extreme scrutiny in their jobs (at least in my experience, which is not universal). If you take a teaching job or a gig, your skill level should become obvious quickly. Yeah. I don't know what RS is, but note-by-note entry sucks pretty hard. I had to pick up the controller for composing with Finale.

That does sound frustrating, although I have no idea what CCRMA or Ubuntu are. What's your current goal? I set myself the task of sequencing the "Hammer" theme from Donkey Kong: I couldn't think of anything simpler. Now I am just repeating it with other elements thrown in, some really basic drums, some chords on strings... I'm getting a pretty good feel for how the sequencing works on this application.

Yoozer — That is a lot of rules. So, clearly, rule 2 is correct. The one that says there are rules. Because there they are. I will take many of these to heart, and my own experience as a musician has already proven several of them, so I hope they are useful to others too. A couple in specific spoke to me at this point in time... This is true. Although, as someone who uses that term about myself a lot, I like to cling to the "nothing less" part. I don't think I am anywhere near deceitful enough to make money at something that I wasn't skilled at. Plus, I feel like that term justifies my lack of a day job. I think I'm all set for gear.. I hope so, anyway, because my budget is next to nothing right now. I'm running a 2.8 GHz iMac with GarageBand and Logic, and I've got an M-Audio 88es keyboard controller and an M-Audio MobilePre USB preamp/audio interface.

Yeah, you know, the more I've been talking this over on this thread, the more I'm realizing I actually do sort of know where to start. I just successfully put together a 30-second clip with multiple instruments and everything. Hardcore. Funnily enough, GarageBand won't let you right-click on anything. This is fun.

That one... I think. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the exact definition of a sequencer. I've done a lot of work with notation software like Finale and Sibelius, and I've created and edited MIDI files using traditional and piano roll notation... working with things like dynamics, note duration, key velocities. That was a long time ago, though, and there is probably tons I still need to learn about sequencing, so I guess that's where to start. Case in point. This is exactly where I'm at now. I've come to understand some of what the DAW can do, but every time I open it, I think, "OK, great. How do I actually create the music to edit?" Yeah, that's where the googly-eyed sensation in my OP comes from. I've got GarageBand and Logic, maybe I will put the latter on hold and try to make something decent with the first one first. I agree. Some of my best learning experiences as a composer and arranger have been taking a piece that I hated and just playing around with it. It removes any pressure of wanting a perfect result, since it's guaranteed not to happen, and it lets you focus entirely on the process. Thanks for your input, Gario!

Good advice, Brian. Thanks.