Eino Keskitalo

I started a little something.

What I really like in this mix is the sense of distance it conveys. The gritty synths, the guitar(ish) lead pushed pretty far into the background, the 'slapback' reverb of the snare, these work really well together (I can see where Gario's comment about the snare 'verb being a touch much comes from, but really didn't think about it while listening to the tune. A tone-down might make it better, but wasn't really bothered as it is). I do feel like the woodblocks are very much disconnected from the rest of the soundscape, at least on my cheap headphones. It's a bit like I'm trying to listen to this song and somebody clanks stuff together in the kitchen. I just didn't get it, but I do see MindWanderer complimented the very same thing in the panel thread. The 'hanging' guitar note at 1:12 feels off key to me. (Similarly the 'tail' of the previous section at 2:35-2:36 conflicts with the next part). I don't like 1:28-1:29 harmonically much either. The same with 3:04-3:06 and 3:16-3:18. Not sure anything is 'wrong' with that part, but it jumps out to me. The key change at 1:35-> is superbly cool. It sort of recontextualizes the material through repeating it in the different key. The 'hanging tail' of the previous part works well there.

Quick thunk, incentives doesn't sound like a bad idea (I cannot speak for OCR), but an album project is a huge undertaking and has a lot of stuff to do in addition to making the tracks themselves. Maybe hosting a competition with prizes might work better? If you want as much of the whole soundtrack covered, you could make it so that tracks are claimed first-come-first-serve.

This is super solid stuff, extremely well done. J.ME vocals are a particular highlight!

I'm playing a lot of 3D Out Run lately, and hearing this brought a smile of recognition on my face. It's usually annoying to hear the high-score track for me, I've beaten the game only twice so far, so most of the time the track means defeat to me. This arrangement has an interesting feel to it.. in a way, this would fit really well in a modern re-vision of the game, but in another, the arrangement has a slight tint of melancholy that feels slightly too serious for Out Run. But it's really good for an arrangement of Out Run music, don't get me wrong. 1:44 has some clashing harmonies. That's about all the criticism I have for the piece. The playing is good, the incorporation of other material is seamless. Pretty good work!

Voted! I was impressed!

I don't see why not! Some contests have been ran on the forums, with some special threads set up for voting. Or @HoboKa knows how to use ThaSauce compo back end, perhaps he could help set up something there.

Deserving of praise. Everything in the arrangement feels very carefully considered, it flows wonderfully.. the nods to secondary source material are embedded in a natural fashion and serve a purpose in the overall piece of music. The sound is good and compliments the emotion within the arrangement. This feels like something that came together on every level. Much enjoyed!

I'm slowly playing through Oracle of Seasons for the first time - I haven't made it this far in the game, but it feels like I recognize the vibe. I tremendously enjoy the unusual acoustic small ensemble. I like the flute bends, though the one at 0:19 feels like an off-key note unless I'm listening very carefully (I mean, I don't really hear the bend very well as it is masked by another note). To comment on the comments about structure, personally I quite often like to-the-point structures that pack their punch, or even ones that feel deliberately "incomplete". In this case.. the arrangement is short enough that it does not need a break for the listener inside it. No intro nor outro either to ease you in or out, it just delivers direct from start to finish. The ending is abrupt, but to me it leaves behind a sense of wondering. Track like this often works in a larger context, where this piece, what comes before, and what comes after, make for a greater than the sum of their parts. For me this track is fine on its own - you can add your own silence before and after, but it probably does not work that well in a random or not-carefully-selected playlist or stream.

That log-in track is really, really cool.

Oh man, FFX....

To me the brilliance of this arrangement is that when you start listening to it, it's like there's this lengthy intro and you (or at least I) expect it to kick into a verse-chorus-verse kind of rock deal ... and it doesn't. Instead it explores some fresh territory. It feels like one of those less conventional album tracks on a rock album.

New version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/us3m4b7ph6wqd1w/OneMustFall2064-20180418.mp3?dl=0

Timely: The Retro Hour podcast has a worthy, worthy interview from the man in their episode #113. I find it fascinating that he didn't really come from gaming into game music composition, the story about how he got fired was pretty funny too. Worth a listen! He is also in episode 107's UK game composer panel from All Your Bass festival, alongside Rob Hubbard and Graeme Norgate.

Cool track that is at the same time atmospheric and has a hard-hitting edge. The main melody is very memorable and it's well used in the arrangement. The transition calls a lot of attention to itself, it's not like a smooth seamless transition, but I like djp's description of it, to me it feels like it achieves what it sets out to do and sections the song into parts very definitely, and I liked it. The guitar sound itself sounded a bit 'contained' to me, instead of being impressively aggressive, but at the same time I suppose it's more part of the style that was gone for and it sits fine in the mix once it's less exposed after the transition.

Not going to participate (though I'd sure like to), but I was inspired to pick up and play the game for a couple of more levels. It's a good one!

Sadly it turns out I have no time for this this time around..

From the point of view of a patron of this site, I would personally say OCR should definitely be open to posting long-form pieces as long as they fit into submission guidelines. There's a strong recommendation of length between 2-7 minutes, but that's still just a recommendation! Longer stretches of music are more difficult to pull off, but there's a ton of value there if it succeeds.

Love the style. Very effective transformation of the source, the union of the beat, the atmosphere and the synths with the original tune works both ways. I do like the simple source, so I'm quite happy to hear a version that retains some of its feel, is very recognizable and yet covers plenty of new territory. One good example is how the bass moves to introduce harmonic variation that briefly changes the 'emotion' of the tune, and then returns back to the solemn single note bass. I also liked the ending, it feels like a transition out of the tune, which works nicely in album context.

Planning to participate. It's been a year ...

Classic Mazedude goodness. Cool interpretation, even literally, it's a good point that this transforms the soundscape to something quite a bit more chilling. I'm playing the game right now, I remembered Mazedude made an arrangement so had to seek it out and give it a fresh listen.

The transparency is appreciated. I don't really see any potential problem with the non-profit separate entity stuff now in effect (mega-yay for that!).

I've been boring people in creative fields by going on and on about OCR and that's pretty much their comment.