Eino Keskitalo

Almost always, my ideas become something completely else quite soon. I find this a fun process. But when I kind of "succeed" in doing what I envisioned, I get the most dubious about the outcome. I have no idea if it's any good.. come to think of it, those tracks usually are left unfinished. I should make an effort to finish that kind of a track to see if it ends up any good. Should be interesting. --Eino

Congratulations and best wishes! For us, having a daughter has proved to be a huge huge thing, and she's all kinds of awesome. Spend as much time as you can with the kid - it'll be the best time of all your lives. --Eino

G-Mixer, not quite. You might be thinking of this bit: I guess the aim of this is to make sure the games are notable enough. Then it's another matter if the source in question is notable enough. --Eino

Castle Pandemonium was my favourite from the soundtrack when I played through the GBA remake. Looking forward to hearing that one. Also I'm happy to see Shnabubula on the track list there! --Eino

..aw. --Eino

A five year plan? That sounds good. Mark me down for FFXII. --Eino

Good point! --Eino

Happy birthday Rexy! (: --Eino

This is a good topic, as I'm interested in David Bowie's (and Reeves Gabrels') work in Omikron: the Nomad Soul. They were first recorded for the game, but "hours.." (the Bowie album from that time) did come out earlier. The Omikron tracks are different takes, and sound a bit more raw, almost like demos. I kind of doubt they (at least most) were *really* written with the game in mind, but that's just my speculation, and I think I got the chronology down in the above. (In my mind they should be eligible even if they were re-recorded for the "hours.." album (which came out first) and in one case released as a b-side). Oh, and if The Pixies submitted , would it pass the panel?Cool about the Late Goodbye btw, I'll have to consider doing that one.. my fiancé likes the Poets of the Fall debut album. =) --Eino

I've read this thing. Very useful, and easy to read. 74 pages printed! Will post more detailed feedback later. --Eino

I'm still enjoying this and am happy to see an update! It almost feels like a kernel of three different pieces: the piano part, the outro, and the rest of it. The outro is super cool, but feels like it shifts into almost completely new territory. I really like it itself though. I feel like the piano part could well be extended, with some lead playing added in. It's very brief as it is, and the flow to intro to the loud piano part back to the serene beginning of the middle part is kind of jagged. You could also try to include a little bit of the outro material into the earlier piano part to foreshadow it. (Working with the levels might also help to fit the part in better.) The piano part seems to lack bass presence. Again, working on the levels will probably help. I really enjoy the lead that develops during the middle section build up. Looking forward to the next update! --Eino

Many, many thanks to both for your critical comments! I envision that this piece should be quite in-your-face, but I'll be giving the dynamics and the sounds (including dryness) some thought. I have a tendency to first make a sparse mix/arrangement that needs to be filled up. I probably need to give it a rest to hear it afresh myself. --Eino

This is pretty cool. I get a space shooter kind of a vibe. It's also making our 19 months old daughter dance. (: I like the unusual percussion, nice touch. Cool that you're arranging a classic PC game soundtrack too! --Eino

Thanks sggod89! I put the low pass on the square lead, and it didn't seem to hurt, at least. What to do you mean by horns btw, the saw lead? Should I low pass them as well? New WIP: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o534cpxz6f...2020120726.mp3 In addition to square lead, I also adjusted the background hums, and put a little reverb on the bass line. All in all pretty small tweaks in the update. I should mix/master this properly and mark it Finished. So I should start learning about proper mixing mastering. (: I do notice that the waveform gets a lot louder in the end where there's tons of leads going all over the place, so that'd probably need some special (levels, eq?) attention. --Eino

I'll vouch for this one. --Eino

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wkc8uppxe9do6s1/keskitalo-clockwork_groove-20120725.mp3 Textures added. Just started trying out stuff with the idea of adding little synth loop sort of thing to the background (kind of drawing inspiration from Brian Eno on David Bowie's "Heroes") and it turned out to be lots of fun. To me it seems it changed the piece quite a bit, but it was good to take that leap. The intro, while better, probably needs something to be done with the volume levels/fadeins, maybe. Also the main lead probably needs mixing tweaks, it's kind of overpowering/uneven. Turned down the bass a bit and I think that was good. Comments reaaaally appreciated. --Eino

Great thread! Lots of interesting insights. I'm not afraid of writing my crappy music. It's fun. Maybe I'm in denial though, and mistake fear for boredom. I've also finally noticed that when I'm making something and it seems crap at the time, it surprisingly often sounds a lot better the next day. So these days I just keep going instead of giving up. I'm also learning to not be afraid of editing anything I already wrote (I just keep a backup copy/a muted track of the previous version in case I want to go back). --Eino

https://www.dropbox.com/s/15lm1nfpuvddror/keskitalo-clockwork_groove-20120724.mp3 More tweaks to the sound & mixing. I really should do that texture-adding that has been suggested so many times. --Eino

Pretty cool chill-out vibe. The MP3 compression seems to be hurting the sound unless I'm hearing things. The beat is pretty heavy in the intro, I thought its introduction to the piece could be more gradual. I do like the stop-start-stop feel you have with the beat throughout the song. --Eino

Cool track. Very good progressions and build-ups, wind-dows throughout. The judges seemed to make note of the mechanical sequencing, but I thought it added to the enjoyment, especially in the beginning. --Eino

Good stuff! Indeed a pretty good arrangement. I enjoyed the instrumentation as well. The mix sounded a little.. constrained. Like the space the music was happening in was a bit too small. I also thought that the ending was a bit abrupt. Like it only built up to a certain level, and then just ended. Regardless, the piece was enjoyable to listen to, and also, importantly, it had unique character to it. --Eino

I love the sound. It's a little scratchy, which contributes to a sort of an intimate feel. Kind of a chamber music/acoustic session thing. The low strings and some other stuff do sound larger, but do not detract from the mood. I really liked the shift midway in tempo and mood and enjoyed the free/floating rhythm of the piece in general. --Eino

Super nice and super chill. The length definitely adds to the strength of the track. Hearing this made me grab all the other mv tracks from OCR right now. --Eino

Really nice work! The arrangement has a great forward drive I think, it's exciting to listen to. The integration of the different themes is indeed well done, very natural. I'm not very familiar with the source, and it seems seamless to me. The sequencing maybe sounded.. both a little off-rhythm and mechanical at the same time. It's well above the bar for my tastes though. The piano and harp runs at the end were the parts where the mechanical feel hurt the track most, the wind-down at the end was the weakest part of the track overall. I also felt it wasn't as well written as the previous sections (though the mechanical feel might have contributed to this perception). It was still all right though, and I enjoyed the overall structure of the piece, the longish wind-down included. Good stuff all in all! --Eino

I kinda wish people submitted their pieces even if they were dissatisfied with them, I know I certainly do --Eino