Eino Keskitalo

Very good feedback, thank you! If there was one thing I would change it'd definitely be to not play that backing arp quite so constantly. I'd like to think that the repeats at the ending & the suddenness of it make for a proper closure, but I suppose it just sounds more successful to myself than it actually is. Trivia: this is actually my first posted arrangement that has a source from a game that I've substantially played (FFX). Weird huh.

I did 2! ..so I didn't find the time to transfer the ones on paper to the forums. Will still be coming of course.

Man, the statistics really make me get back to participating.

Obligatory "I'd love to participate, but.." reply. But hey, I'll try to listen & vote!

I'll cheat and quote myself a bit from the Workshop thread: "Well, that was cool, cinematic without being plodding. I liked how "agile" it felt. Perhaps a bit long, but I really liked how the tempo increased towards the end." The blending of orchestratic and electronic elements is indeed seamless. Even with the super-impressive flood of pretty high quality Souls arrangements from him, this is easily one of my favourite RoeTaka arrangements, and if you like his other stuff, be sure to check this out even if you are not familiar with the game. Good job highlighting some less known material with a very polished and fitting tribute!

I have a few written down on the notebook. Some of them need more work (timestamps & source checking). I just need some opportunity to sit down on the computer with it - I've been listening on the bus and writing thoughts down by hand. Dunno how many I've got, it'd be fun to break 50 but I doubt I'll reach that. It's been fun though!

Really nice tune! Warm and fluffy I liked the interplay of the real instruments, and the fake instruments were very well handled. It's like the warm & organic and sort of tender real instruments were held inside the shell of the "shinier" production of the rest of it. I really liked that effect.

Side note, Age of Empires II is one of the games in their "200 Best Video Games" book (which is a lot of fun to read).

Feedback: Looks good! This can probably be unpinned?

Well, you obviously could! Meanwhile, I was wondering if being able to login/register with social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) would lower the barrier of contribution on the forums.

Happy birthday, OCR! Funny, I've been around for about half the site's lifespan. And it had had a long run back then already. I feel like I've advanced a ton as a musician when trying to get stuff through OCR's evaluation, especially production-wise, getting a grasp of basic mixing tools etc - I really didn't have any of that before wanting to reach that bar. So I've acquired a more rounded skillset. I've also improved my ear a lot, figuring out source tunes and giving feedback (the latter is a great way to learn). I think I also appreciate game music a lot more! Best moments are numerous: working with Pleiade on our Wild Arms project mix was instrumental, really learned a lot about production in this real life collab. Getting the e-mail about first accepted mix was a huge feeling of accomplishment. Tuning to KNGI just when Kyle was about to play an arrangement from me. Mic not working on OCR Talkback. Numerous collabs with Tuberz, Jorito, and then Tuberz AND Jorito. Shining Force II anniversary drive for Rexy's Radio Sega show just might come out on top. But also simply being aware of musicians like AeroZ and Shnabubula.

"pre-eval"?

Solid bunch of tunes for sure. The artwork is great!

What a fun tune! The arrangement is seemingly straightforward. After the intro it seems like it's the same endlessly revolving chord sequence plus a melody on top, with softy and/or gated instruments carrying the changes along with a fairly steady beat. But the blippy, non-stop leads sound like a smile. Ticklish! And a lot of variation on how the source is handled. Nice how the two minute mark brings back the intro (which doesn't clue you in how the rest of the piece will go, while fitting perfectly - nice!). Feels kind of an old school OCR arrangement in some sense. Easy to listen to, easy to enjoy!

Certainly! If you can (be bothered), host a copy of the image yourself. Not sure if I can keep it up in that address.

It's working! I have gotten a bunch of reviews on my tunes and that makes me happy. Also I'm working on a new review method.. Feel free to use the above as a signature. (If you can, host the file in your own space please..)

Pretty much an in-joke ReMix. Fun as such for me, as a fan of both OCR Talkback and NGI. Production and arrangement are serviceable if not wowing. The main meat is the vox sampling. The other meat, WillRock soloing was quite good. I can see this tune being a bit incomprehensible to fans of just the other Larry, but if you're into both, it's a fun one-off!

One of my favourite tracks from the compo, so I'm glad you're revisiting this! I'll try to check this out with something other than laptop speakers (ouch), but two things; I disagree (for now at least) with timaeus222 that this needed more chord changes, what's there works for this piece. Second, I feel like many of the longer synth notes towards the end could use some more expression to them; vibrato, filter stuff, bend up/down, velocity trickery.. lots of opportunity there, right now it's a sorely missed opportunity!

I was actually replying to Avaris' post; you slow-ninja'd a post in between. (-:

Traverse Town!

Cool to hear an arrangement from Sonic Rush Adventure, I played this to near-completion not too long ago. I agree it's pretty close to the feel of the original. A bit more mellow and clean if I recall correctly. Some of the writing seems to clash harmonically a bit. I'll try to find the time to give you more feedback on that (at least timestamps).

Another huge Shining Force 2 fan here! We did a little tribute a year ago on the forums & on Sega Mixer Drive on Radio Sega, you might want to check that out! The sound of synths is actually very Mega Drive-y to me, many of the sounds seem very reminiscent of the original. Listening to the source & this arrangement back-to-back reveals more difference, but the palette isn't that far off. That's neither good or bad, it was just something that seemed like an interesting thing to me. The drumbeat adds a new element, since the original doesn't have any drums. It's not a very dominant element, but it does add something of a steady drive to the feel of the track. There's some subtle changes to bass line, and the rhythm of the sequencing, that also has this "steady drive" feel, whereas the original is kind of skipping and hopping a bit. As far as OCR submission, two things stick out: first, this is very close to the original structurally, compositionally and even the genre and tone, apart from having drums, so I doubt it'll satisfy the "arrangement must be substantial and original" part of the submission standards. Second, structurally, he piece loops verbatim, or very close to it. It makes it feel less like a standalone track. (The fadeout at the end is also unsatisfying. I don't have an allergy to fadeouts, but it didn't feel like a good conclusion to the piece. But it's kinda moot point since the structure would need work anyhow.) Luckily, you can solve both these problems in one go by creatively rearranging the second go of the source material; original soloing, changeups of instrumentation & structure.. get creative with it, see what the composition inspires you to do. One very specific feedback would be to make the intro bass notes longer, to give some more impact to the intro. I thought that this was pretty well mixed: nothing seemed too quiet or loud to me, everything was audible and pleasant to listen to. I also liked the swooshing, reverby percussive/sfx sounds, they added a great deal of sense of space to the mix.

I don't feel like I would want to see ratings on my tunes, I don't think I would find them useful. But it's interesting you say you might be more inclined to write open-ended comments to go with the ratings. I'm reminded of that workshop forum checklist, which listed common problems found in the judges panel. Not sure if anything like this would apply to approved ReMixes' reviews, but perhaps the checklist could be more integrated to workshop commenting - like, you could actually check the items from the list when commenting on a WIP: