Eino Keskitalo

Very much looking forward to tonight's request/learning stream. (Around noon for US-ers). It's been very enlightening, entertaining and inspiring to watch (and hear, of course) Sam work through the requests. Some are simpler tunes, others are fiendishly complex. As an arranger, it's fascinating to watch someone (and someone very skilled) work through figuring out the piece by ear. I definitely hope to pick up something from there. Another aspect is that the request tend a bit away from the most known VGM tunes, so I've discovered a lot of great music I didn't know before. And finally, of course, the performance on Sundays with the finished arrangements is quite a joy to listen to, even more so live. The arrangements are good (it's always great to hear Shnabubula put his own spin on things), they playing is good, and the live setting adds excitement. Since the Sunday show is a bit harder for me to catch I very much appreciate the recordings! edit: So if it wasn't clear I highly recommend catching the streams and checking out the recordings.

Nice to see some 16-bit home computer representation.. and the tune isn't half bad! I think the Atari ST version sounds better than the Amiga version, actually. Though the latter has a fun, quirky sound of its own.

Congratulations!

Very nice. I have no attachment to Shenmue, having never played it, but it's nice to see that the trilogy is on its way to completion.

Hah, that was fun. I had forgotten about this game completely.

I love touch guitar, especially Chapman Stick and Warr guitars, so the title was an immediate sell for me. Kraid's Lair is a great theme to dabble around with guitar & it never has occurred to me how well it fits for touch style.. and it indeed sounds very natural. Nice playing! The ending leaves me desiring for more - I can easily envision a powerful band arrangement starting from there. Very nice stuff!

Oh yes, this was a great drive, this was so much fun and I'm still so thankful for everyone involved! The links to the podcast were broken, and I've now fixed them ... I still recommend grabbing the show here ... especially check out Sir J's massive SFII medley at the end of the second SFII block a bit past the 1:27 spot.

Yeah, that's a nice bunch of finished tracks! I've got to get up to speed with this ...

gogogo! Progress is looking good.

I've gotten some nice progress going.. didn't have as much time as I'd liked, but the direction was a surprise and that's always good. Hoping to send some stuff relevant people very soon.

I just read the mixpost writeups and I'm now terrified of actually listening to this album. It'll either blow the top of my head off & leave me with severe feeling of inadequacy, or it won't live up to the hype, and I don't think it's the latter.

That's really cool to learn about the synths. I guess the game might be a challenge to emulate?

I got your numbers. Much appreciated!

Can I get an extension until Friday? I have two days off at the end of the week. If I can't get a decent core of an arrangement out by that time, I'll pass on the source.

I caught most of the listening party on Rexy's Sega Mixer Drive on Friday, and I enjoyed the offerings!

Vectorman is such good stuff. What a tasty FM bass.

I did listen to both tracks but quite casually; I didn't check the source so I couldn't have said anything about source usage.. I did enjoy both! I really look forward to a time I can properly participate in PRC again.

Indeed! Listening parties are a lot of fun, so I recommend anyone who can catch this do so!

I think I have a couple of sketches from that theme, I could pass them on if anyone would be interested to continue from there *looks at Jorito*

That sounds.. interesting. How was it licenced - through a third-party agency, I assume? And Nintendo decided afterwards that nah, don't think so? If that's the case.. why are they available in the first place? Trippy..

I really should have something for the next deadline. Been digging into the source tune properly. I think I'll ease up from my original overambitious arrangement idea and just start with something workable.

Yup. The game got played, was quite fun.. I think we got the hang of it, though surely there's lot of nuances to discover (like, how to actually play skillfully). Will be played again!

I still intend to resub each of mine, once I get around to it.

First off, major props for ZX representation. It has the 8-bit home computer groove thing definitely going on, the chippy sound palette is there though the production is modern. The structure felt a little strange in places. That one transitional part at 1:25, 2:20 and 3:04 felt almost like an intermission if that makes sense.. the energy kind of drops in a strange way. On the other hand the energy of the track seems to be quite even almost throughout.. It feels a bit like there's a part after the other but as a complete structure it doesn't quite gel. I like 2:30- to the end, especially 3:13 onwards, the way it's stripped to drums, bass + lead is good dynamically, it builds nicely from there to the end. I think from the start the structure works well up to 1:25, where the drop in the energy feels like it comes too soon.. it feels like the part should keep going with a nasty synth solo or so. I do feel that 1:25-2:32 the piece is looking for the groove, a bit stuck in the middle gear. They're nice parts in themselves, but it feels like the piece loses its bearings here. Despite the above criticism, I've got to say I certainly enjoyed the piece as is a lot. The sounds & detail in the mixing is really enjoyable, for instance the widening of the stereo image before the 1 minute mark with the synth pad is a great moment.

I've got to admit I like the Mega Drive sound.. This has a happy energetic vibe for certain. It's quite fun. There's some repetitiveness at this point. The structure seems to start with (intro)+ABCABC and the second ABC feels like a close repeat of the first ones. Maybe you could vary the bassline more in the second ABC - it keeps the same(ish) throughout. It feels like the intro goes on a touch long, you could cut to the B part at 0:30 - you've been playing the A part riff since 0:08 in the intro so it kind of counts as A part repetition (if you get what I mean), and 0:30-0:37 didn't seem to have anything new. In the C part, the melody seems to have a note clashing with the harmony at 0:52 (and subsequently). My daughter (4yo) commented that this is a nice song.