Eino Keskitalo

That would be cool. I'm just not sure if I can make something for the round. I'll let you know if I have anything & no one else has taken the offer meanwhile (which they should feel free to do)! --Eino

Damn, I hope he finishes it eventually. --Eino

That sounded good. Congrats on getting the album done! --Eino

Much more serious than the source, I can say! Still a lot of fun. I love how at 02:55 the next part just LANDS on top of you. I can't offer much in the way of productive crits other than it seems to clip a bit at places, namely around 1:20-1:25, 3:00-3:30 and in the very final crescendo. And mayyyybe I'd use a little more big/wet reverb. Especially the beginning sounds a little dry. But I have no clue about working on an orchestral mix, so take that as you will. --Eino

Overall the tune is pleasant and light. It also reminds me of some of Rexy's work, especially on the Tales project album. That's a good thing. The intro is really nice, but it transitions to the rest of the tune awkwardly. The intro has a really happy major feel, and the rest of the track is more mysterious. This is a fine combination, but the 00:42-00:51 bit which sounds decidedly minor sticks out, especially the oboe note around 00:42-00:43 sounds very out of line. Structurally, that part feels like its stalling the song from properly starting. You could simply cut it and get into the meat of the track sooner. I'd suggest trying to cut from 00:40 to 00:50 or so, with a little lead-in fill. The main melodic hook is great right after the intro (this is what's there right now, but it detours in to the "minor" section after). The writing is good in general. It's a bit unfocused. The solo piano end sounds kind of random for instance, there's lots of notes but not really a memorable hook or something like that I wish the piece left me with. I kind of feel the parts are sometimes needlessly busy elsewhere in the mix too, but it's not a huge issue all in all. The ending does irk me tough. The bass, in the most of the track, is pretty static and a little overpowering. The exception is the intro. You could use rests in the rest of the song too. There are neat little variations in the bassline throughout the song, no mistake about that - and it doesn't need to go all over the place. Placing a few rests in the writing and mixing it a little lower where it is its loudest would help a lot. The oboe could perhaps use a little bit of rests, staccato, rhythmical activity here and there. It probably helps it feel less "fake" and makes for good variation. I think the bass being overpowering and the awkward structure towards the beginning are the main issues. My favourite part is the middle "breather" section, the piece eases into it incredibly well. It's like it slips into it without you really noticing it at first. This adds to the mysterious quality of the track. --Eino

Melbu, not a bad idea at all. Relatedly, it's on my mind to pick an old DOS soundtrack if I ever win a PRC round again. But that would require me to win it of course. Mazedude, thanks for stopping by for encouragement! I'll be adding that UNATCO remix in the initiative soon. --Eino

Cool stuff! Congrats on getting so far so fast. The fundraiser wasn't there when I last visited OCR yesterday, and now it's already way over the $15k goal. I'll be pledging on or around Friday, not sure if I can afford the physical copy - or if there are any left by then! --Eino

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4246f874kgd7pkd/eino_keskitalo-motion_sickness-20150809-resubfc2.mp3?dl=0 Some improvements! Sending this off soon. --- Resub final candidate 1 cut out the weird section towards the end a bit more melodic now beefed up the snare sample --- Working on a resub based on the panel feedback. Done a bunch of smoothing out the mix, plus a bunch of work on the structure. Not quite sure if it's quite there yet. Some sanity checking of background elements and harmony also left. WIP 2015/03/23 ----- edit: submitted final candidate 6 Tried to make the overall mix a little less noisy: turned snares, hihat & crash down just a little, EQ'd the saw lead - additionally, adjusted lead balance a little more so it's more even across the piece. Now to write the submission letter! Thanks once again to everyone for the feedback! Fun fact: the project file is smaller than the MP3. <><><><><> old: <><><><><> final candidate 5 - unbusied competing leads in the final few bars --- older: ----- Final candidate 4 (dl) - soundcloud An update based on Timaeus' excellent feedback. tweaked the levels so that the main lead would stand out each part (a little seems to go a long way) tried to parallel compress the bass drum, maybe a bit more interesting now some other little details tried a bit of that crosspanning, but it's probably pretty inaudible boosted the limiter on the master channel by 1.5db (getting bad ideas at this stage?) ----------- old: ------------ Final candidate 3 An update based on Gario's excellent feedback. tweaked some lead & pad sounds to balance the EQ better pitched a couple of the snare sounds a bit higher made some leads follow the source more closely added a bg melody from source tweaked the bass sound for additional life/stereo/detail other small tweaks confusing convoluted source breakdown: What's used from the source: the two slightly different note sequences: 0:51-1:05 "half-time" 0:00-0:07 "fast"; the variation/ending at 0:05 is only referenced once at a bg melody. 0:29-0:36 background stuttering melody-ish support bleep 0:22-0:29 bassy line Source usage in the piece: The bass line - the rhythm is offset to be off-beat: half-time: 0:24-0:53, 1:10-1:23, 1:58-2:01, 2:05-2:09 based on half-time with chord change: 2:01-2:05, 2:09-2:12 mix of fast/halftime: 0:53-1:08, 2:14-2:41 Square lead: 0:53-1:05, 2:13-2:43 half time, the steady rhythm broken up 1:26-1:56 half time The filtered saw lead at 1:48-1:56 based on the bassy line at 0:22-0:29. Support stutter (from 0:29-0:36 in the source): build-up: 0:09-0:11, 0:13-0:15, 0:17-0:18 meat of the usage: 0:20-0:38 0:40-0:46, 0:48-0:53 2:22-2:30 sparse usage (often buried): 1:00, 1:03-1:04 1:34, 1:38, 1:49, 1:53 2:06, 2:09 2:32, 2:36, 2:40-2:43 Other support stuff: * "ticking" square 1:08-1:10, 1:25-1:26, 1:41-1:58, 2:00-2:01, 2:03-2:05, 2:07-2:09, 2:11-2:12, 2:19-2:21, 2:43-2:48 (from source 0:00-?) * bg square lead 1:19-1:21 (fast, part at ?) * bg square lead 1:23-1:24 (fast, part at )) ---- old -------- Final candidate 2 * faded the beginning in better & cut the too long delay tail at the end edit: Some source breakdown. Source use starts at 0:25. The basic building block from the source is the figure that plays at . I've offset it a bit relative to the beat, and used it as the bassline. The blop-blip that starts at 00:39 and evolves to a more proper melody at 0:54 is also based on that figure. The faster figure that plays in the background at 1:26 (and elsewhere) is also based on this figure, and in spirit to the faster figure that plays at the very start of the source (but I think just the first four notes are the same). I think that's all I've used from the source, there's lots of cool material that I skipped/replaced. The bassline plays throughout and much of the melodic material is derived from the same figure. The riff that plays in the breakdown starting at 1:27 is the same thing as the bassline, only now placed on the beat, instead of offbeat like the bassline. Final candidate 1 changes: * more attention to mixing the leads * added a subtle pad and fx'd percussion to fill things out --Eino -- old: WIP: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o534cpxz6flqry1/motion%20sickness%2020120726.mp3 As per sggod89's suggestion, cut put a low pass on the square lead. Maybe should do the same on (most of) the saw too.. 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 -- old: WIP: https://www.dropbox.com/s/llhr2cxj3g67cog/motion%20sickness%2020120707.mp3 This is a tweaked version of my PRC220 entry. (In case you have heard that version, I've tweaked the structure a little and improved mixing). Arrangement-wise I've taken the basic 8-note melody/figure and based the bassline on it (I've "shifted" it to the offbeat, rhythmically) and built from there. The title is a bitter one, I would love to play Portal 2 (co-op!!!), but I get motion sickness from the game. I don't have any big ideas how to develop this further, I'm thinking I'll just need to mix/master this properly. I'm aiming to get this posted on OCR. I appreciate any comments on the track in general the recognizability of the source if the sounds sound good enough if there's anything (too) strange going on with the melodies (which are a maybe little wild at times) if the structure feels like a complete piece Thanks in advance & hope you enjoy --Eino

Pretty nice turnout, I don't have time to enter, but I hope I can give the tracks a listen and give a vote. --Eino

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2o1p8cquxrqvt8/clockwork%20groove%2020120707.mp3 Comments from last time pretty good, and I actually can and should still apply them. I've tweaked the sound since last time and felt like I'd post this for some more comments. I do have things in mind to work on this, but not sure when I will, so I'll put this here for the time being. --Eino

This one deserves a bump. It's one hell of an album I've been enjoying for quite some time. It's made my work days much more enjoyable. I haven't gotten around to checking out your earlier releases, but will do so soon! --Eino

Whaddaya mean "no registration required", you do have to register.. to Facebook. I JUST WASTED 4 SECONDS OF MY LIFE! Really cool earrings though. --Eino

The headphones last time have to have been really shitty, because I can hear the bass just good with these shitty headphones. I can hear it's really subtle in the sense that it's just there to provide the bass end.. it works, since it leaves room for the rest of the mix. I play bass so I'm just a fan of big bass guitar.. I still feel the comment I made way back, that the bass could pick up during the outro stands. And maybe during the guitar solo a bit, too. I know the feeling.. If you're not up for re-recording now, you can use that feedback to improve in the future. Frankly, listening to the piece now, the somewhat weak starts don't really bother me. Getting them better will improve the impression you give, it's like a small thing that's worth working on at this point, but the singing here is in a pretty good level already. One more thing that I thought this time around was the beginning.. it could have some sort of ambience, the whole thing starts really dry (and contributes to the "sudden" feeling I commented last time). Some sort of reverbated sound effect thing starting the whole thing with the melody/bass coming (quickly) in might help with this. Overall I keep enjoying this mix quite a bit! edit: One thing that you have in the vocals is that they do start out a little mellower and grow from there --- this is a *very* good thing and I'm certainly not criticising that! It's a thing that gives a good emotional weight and musical development to the singing and lyrics. This way outweights what technical shortcomings I can hear there. Good stuff, don't take me wrong! --Eino

That's great news. I enjoy Shnab's album, and am also interested in checking out the soundsets once they're released! --Eino

Good stuff indeed. The Jewel Master title track that DjMokram linked has a melody in the beginning that reminds me of Castlevania. Also, I'm reminded of Zeliard soundtrack.. Shining Force 2's soundtrack is one of my favourites, and Landstalker, though I've played that way less, is great too. I appreciate you guys posting about this stuff, it's new to me. --Eino

Like psychowolf, I too thought "beautiful!" :] The one with Genesis sound input/controls is my favourite, probably. --Eino

Very well arranged, and cool to see a non-metal/rock mix from sggod89! --Eino

I did enjoy SubtletyMachine, and your ReMixes, so I'll probably be checking this out later. --Eino

Much improved if I recall correctly. Vocals much better. crits: Not sure if it's the headphones, but I can't seem to hear any bass (guitar) in the mix. Beginning, when things come in, there's lack of definition. The very start, it just seem to fade in very suddenly. I think it'd be better if it started with a bit of silence and you could hear the first note. Similarly, guitars and vocals coming in 00:16-00:17, especially the vocal entrance sounds kind of rushed. It's important to start with clarity and confidence, especially since the vocals do sound clear and confident mostly otherwise! The beginning of the 1:08 verse with rockier vocals is a little off-tune, and again makes for a sloppy start for an otherwise all right singing. The first high screamed "memories consumed" is also slightly off, though I don't actually mind that bit, for me it just adds a little of the appropriate emotion to it. I wasn't sold on a portion of the guitar solo, 02:57-03:05, it feels a little off-time, off-tune, exposed/dry. The previous bit and the end were fine. Could be played tighter, the sound could perhaps be a little beefier, or the mixing in that spot could support it a little more. 03:22 - the vocal again has a weak start, while by the end it sounds very good with the end of the scream. NO PUSSYFOOTING! When I sing, I have trouble with starts of song, starts of verses etc. I try to feel like I'm already "inside" the song and already singing, even if I'm actually not. That helps for me. Not sure if that makes sense.. When recording, you can even figure out a "lead in" that you start singing before the part actually starts to get your voice ready, and then cut it off after recording. Not sure though if any real singer or producer - me being neither - would recommend such a technique! 04:04 - I'd suggest putting the falsetto vocals to the background and bringing the lead guitar to the front at this point, to change things up a bit. We've already been hit with several volleys of vocals in succession. Let's hear that getaaarrrr. The fade-out is a bit fast or sudden. Big list of crits, but this is a great arrangement with really effective lyrics.. it deserves a bit of more polish on the execution side, to be awesome. The treatment of the source is both natural and unexpected! --Eino

Hey, this is awesome I don't think I've heard Poutatorvi before, but I've heard the name of the band.. so, cool that you're doing vgm arrangements, that definitely gets me interested. Very enjoyable, tight version. One crit: the guitar chord choice at 0:55 sounds wrong. The chord itself would fit if the melody was adapted to it, but together they clash. Later on the same part doesn't sound offensive, but the guitar seems more muted in the mix in those places. Although the arrangement probably too direct a cover to get posted on OCR (don't know if you had submitting in mind, or just posted it here to be enjoyed), it has nice touches, great little bits from every instrument and changes in the energy all over the place, and keeps interest all the way through. Good stuff! --Eino

Close, nice! Thanks for the feedback, all! I think two things about my track: the leads are a little noodly, and I should a bit more effort to creating/emphasizing melodic hooks. Probably more so, I could afford to stretch the structure a bit more. The changes come quite quickly - the track is only under three minutes long, with the intro already taking a good part of the track. I could use a bit more of the source to fill things up when I make the track longer. I'll certainly keep working on this one! --Eino

Tahnks bundeslang, I didn't need the extension but I appreciate the gesture. Already voted! edit: Didn't realize that the vox clips in OneUp's mix come from the game! --Eino