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Eino Keskitalo

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Posts posted by Eino Keskitalo

    Earthworm Jim: Use Your Head - PRC281 EP

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted · Edited by evktalo

    Some quick-ish comments to some of the pieces: (edit: also, Tommy Tallarico retweeted this so there's no backing out of this now! :D)

    User Your PLASMA!

    Overall this is an energetic trance-style electronic arrangement, with some quite good sounds and a lot of potential!

    I for one quite like the double bass sound, it has a nice grainy texture. It is a bit loud in the mix (and probably. taking up EQ frequencies especially after the intro). It is also kind of static.. instead of legato (i.e. playing all the time when it plays), it could have little 8th note rests before each new note to make it a bit more rhythmical. I also don't like the slow attack, how the volume swells up during the note (I'd try compressing it). All that said, I like the texture it adds, plus it's the most unexpected sound in the mix so far, so it gives the whole piece a bit more character. OTOH I don't mind if you want to get rid of it.

    Structurally, there is development throughout, and the changes that happen as it progresses are good, also good reinterpretation without ever losing the source. It is however a bit samey still - using the descending riff from the source would break things up and add a lot of excitement. 0:46 would be a good spot to first use it.

    I like the overall sound around after 1:00, I like how the tune progresses into that. The mix does get quite busy/crowded. It might help to have either the "icy drops" arp or the siren like synth be the lead and mix the other into a support role. You could even change their balance midway through the part, if that works. Structurewise, after this part going to the descending riff again would probably work very well.

    Use Your Body

    Very tasteful 80s synth piece. I like the extended percussion-heavy section, and the arrangement/interpretation overall, again never losing the source.

    Not much to criticise, I agree with other feedback that the lead first playing at 0:57 is taking a lot of space in the mix EQ-wise, and maybe plain volume-wise too. Love the vibrato+filter applied to it at 1:46!

    The only other criticism at this point would be that I feel the EP is a little lonely at the intro - some other sound, like a texture or ambiance might work as an addition.

    Looking forward to the update!

    Heading into Worm Territory

    Love the piece, great ambience, the slowed-down feel is a very nice take on the original.. it goes into bluesy emotional territory. I especially like how you handled the descending riff - really impressive & effective. The soloing is very nice, and the bassline is subtle but tasty.

    I think timaeus222 preeetty much covered what I had in mind for criticism. Thinking about the structure that way would help the dynamics of the piece a lot. I felt the drums were quite same-ish (there's differences, but not much in feel) and also all the drums are kind of loud, there's not much subtlety to the rhythm and I'm surprised I don't head e.g. hihats or something like that in there. But these may all be a part of what you're going for, and considering the overall structure seems like a better feedback/approach than "add some hihats" ;)

    Earthworm Jim: Use Your Head - PRC281 EP

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    That'd be great gercr, please ask him!

    We'd need front cover at minimum - basically, something EWJ related with the title ("Earthworm Jim: Use Your Head - PRC281 EP" would be fine IMHO), probably some OCR logos and stuff assuming we get the official status. Back cover with the track & artist listing would be nice. CD label would be fun. Then there'd be theoretically the art assets to do a physical print (CD jacket) (no, I'm not suggesting that'll be happening :) )

    PRC281 - Results - Watch Out For That Cow (Earthworm Jim 1)

    in Competitions

    Posted

    I've made the Workshop thread for the album: Here we go :) I feel like I'm too slow! Great to see the enthusiasm for this. Jorito, many thanks already! The feedback will be very useful.

    Bundeslang, I'm definitely cool with the idea of a special PRC round with the reworked tracks. Sounds like something new and different which is what I like. Fun, too! How's everyone else with that idea?

    Off to work on my track.. I also submitted the project to OCR approval for official status, figured it wouldn't hurt.

    Earthworm Jim: Use Your Head - PRC281 EP

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted · Edited by evktalo

    Hi, this is a collected work-in-progress thread for Earthworm Jim: Use Your Head - PRC281 EP.

    We, the participants of People's Remix Competition round 281, decided to make an EP/minialbum out of our submissions to the competition. The source of the round was Use Your Head from Earthworm Jim. Our aim is to improve our tracks so the EP is acceptable as an OCR-I release.

    The purpose of this thread is to track progress and also gather feedback on the WIPs. Everyone is invited to provide feedback! Artists on the album are encouraged to post WIP updates on this thread (or make their on Workshop thread if they so like!) (Also, you're not required to share your WIP publicly if you don't like, though it's probably the easiest way to get feedback from other project members).

    Tentative deadline: end of November.

    The album is not recruiting for additional tracks. We do need album art though.

    Here's the tracklist:

    On Tetris & its music

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Here's an interesting quote from Alexey Patijnov in an article from June regarding the history of Tetris (source):

    Spectrum HoloByte, the US company who produced one of the earlier versions, had a big influence on how it was marketed. I found all those matryoshka dolls and churches a bit tacky, but they helped sales. They chose Korobeiniki, a 19th-century Russian folk song, for the music; and Nintendo later included Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker theme. It was very embarrassing for me: when kids of the world hear these pieces of music, they start screaming: "Tetris! Tetris!" That's not very good for Russian culture.

    It kind of irks me personally how OCR allows the Game Boy Tetris music to be arranged for the site - because when I hear the music, I don't hear "Tetris" or game music but indeed that one Russian folk song (maybe it's because of living in a neighboring country). The final sentence in the above quote though - surely Tetris is a part of (or at least a product of) Russian culture too!

    PRC281 - Results - Watch Out For That Cow (Earthworm Jim 1)

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Sounds good Eino.

    Do you think you could start a new thread for this, to keep things organized? Though I don't know what the process is for OCR-i albums, but having a thread in context would help.

    I will revise my mix soon and get back to you.

    Excellent! I'm just not sure where I'd be allowed to put such a topic. R&C is supposed to be for recruitment (though we do need an artist). Perhaps we need to apply for official project approval and get our thread in the Projects forum. :)

    Oh nice! A “yay” from me!

    Most excellent! We have the whole roster - this is great. Thanks Jorito for playing the messenger!

    I've given everyone's tracks another listen-through and I'm brewing some feedback. Hope to get to everything in the weekend. It's coming, though you don't need to wait for it to keep working! Also I've worked on own track a bit.

    PRC281 - Results - Watch Out For That Cow (Earthworm Jim 1)

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Awesome! I'll mark you guys down.

    Yeah, I can and will definitely provide feedback. I also encourage everyone to give (more) feedback on each other's pieces. I was thinking what would be the easiest way to facilitate that, and I'm suggesting just posting it to the public Workshop forums. These works are out there via the compo anyway! :) You don't have to do that if you don't like, of course. I'll get back to you via PM - if you have updates before I do that, send them to me (or indeed, post them in the workshop).

    I think we should move reasonably quickly, so I suggest the end of November to be the tentative deadline.

    Here's how I figure this would proceed:

    1) People refine their track with feedback, until the person thinks it's as good as it can/needs to be, considering time/resources/skill/willingness to keep working on the track etc. I'll make sure it's over the bar. Post new versions on workshop or PM them to me.

    2) We need some album art. Front cover would suffice, though I think front cover + back cover with track list would be nice (think CD jacket).

    3) Seeing as many of you had played the game before, some liner notes/track/game/soundtrack comments would be nice!

    4) Once content is finished, I'll bundle the stuff up & send it to OCR for evaluation.

    5) After evaluation, see if anything needs to be adjusted

    6) Wait for the release

    One thing about album tracks is that they don't all need to be OCR individual release quality, and I believe there's even a bit more leeway for the smaller OCR-I release. Though I do have to contact staff about the bar for quality. But yeah, this should aim to be a fairly relaxed, fun & quick little project!

    Great to see that you guys are on board, I've also heard from HoboKa and Supercoolmike, so the only one who hasn't yet said yea or nay is Grauw.

    I'll try to get into commenting on tracks ASAP. Cheers!

    OCR03003 - Mirror's Edge 'Clear Reflections'

    in ReMix Reviews & Comments

    Posted

    Yay, some PRC love! Gotta echo the cheers for Bundeslang for keeping the compo running. Overall this is a pleasant, energetic and suitably moody electronic trance mix. It is definitely evocative of the 90s trance that was on MTV Europe all the time it seems.

    The piano certainly doesn't sit well in the mix, especially in the intro and outro. My impression is that the pianos in the genre aren't ever all that humanized, but it's more a problem of tone and just plain sticking out of the mix. It sounds all right in the middle part of the song.

    There's some harmony stuff that doesn't gel well: 2:18 there's a transition from chord to another that sounds off, and the bassline sticking to that particular note at 3:00-3:08 and 3:12-3:15 doesn't sound right.

    Other than these, good work on making a working instrumental & genre adaptation of the original song!

    The 2014 Shining Force II 20th Anniversary Mix Drive

    in ReMix Requests

    Posted

    Yes! It came out a day or two ago.

    I wanted to do a big write up with fanfares and all, but it seems that would only postpone it. :)

    So here we go: Sega Mixer Drive 2014/10/17: SMD Quest (Sega RPG Special featuring The 2014 Shining Force II 20th Anniversary Mix Drive

    The show was a ton of fun, lots of people showed up and commented on IRC generously! Plenty of the arrangers were around too. Every song sounded great on the show. It was fantastic to have an event like that for this music. An award-speechful of thank yous to everyone who took part & Rexy especially who took the idea on board!

    *Results!* MnP 24: Kingdom Hearts - Traverse Town

    in Competitions

    Posted · Edited by evktalo

    I have a good chunk done, I'd be happy to submit this but since there's still time, I have some ideas I want to try out.. plus right now I have a cop-out fadeout in the end, maybe I'll have more ideas for the structure. The mix is not that MnP, I'm pondering if I should submit it as a bonus.. but I'll see if it still has enough of the original feel left.

    edit: done, I'll try to upload later tonight.

    PRC281 - Results - Watch Out For That Cow (Earthworm Jim 1)

    in Competitions

    Posted · Edited by evktalo

    Cool, Sir_NutS! Thanks for the support Bundeslang.

    What about the rest of you guys? I've pledged to finish my sketch and work on it until it hits the front page anyway. This could be a fun little project, personally it would motivate me to finish my track much quicker. :) The Shining Force II Drive was a similarly small-scoped thing and was very satisfying!

    PRC281 - Results - Watch Out For That Cow (Earthworm Jim 1)

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Congrats to the winners! And another round to our first timers Grauw & Mushroom Sword, you both debuted very impressively. Hope to see you around!

    Since the turnout was so good, and the quality quite high, I had a crazy-ish idea: what would you people think of finishing the tunes / polishing them up, bundling them together to an EP, and submitting it to OCR for an OCR-I release? "Earthworm Jim: Use Your Head - The EP"

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