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Eino Keskitalo

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Posts posted by Eino Keskitalo

  1. It would be "Valon ja pimeyden lauluja" instead of "Valon ja pimeyden laulut" - the latter is "The Songs of Light and Darkness" while the former equals "Songs of Light and Darkness" without the definite article. "Lauluja" also sounds prettier. Furthermore, "Valon ja pimeyden laulut", while not grammatically wrong, sounds clumsy as a title.. something like "Kaikki valon ja pimeyden laulut", which translates to "All the Songs of Light and Darkness" sounds better (while of course changing the meaning).

    Eino, projekti muuten tarvitsisi lisää korvia. ;) Ainakin sit kun deadline tule vastaan. Kiinnostaako?

    Uhh, kyllä kiinnostaa ja mielelläni olen pystyessäni avuksi, mutta aika on tosi tiukilla. Pitää miettiä hetki!

    --Eino

  2. Woohooo! Shining Force 2!! This piece brought a smile on my face. I enjoyed it! Writing and arrangement is pretty good!

    I have some quick crits. The keyboards and guitars sound great for the most part. Biggest problems in the piece are mixing and drums.

    The mixing is kind of uneven.. I'm not a good mixer myself, but it feels like the instruments are not balanced, competing with each other.. there's no sense of common space between the instruments. Maybe someone with more skills can give advice. Well, perhaps this is only a raw/rough mix, not yet refined - that's what it sounds like in any case.

    Drums are.. a bit strange. They have a lot of good writing, good fills.. but there are timing issues, and sometimes they're strangely badly sequenced (while at times sequenced well)! At some points, the beat doesn't sound "together", there's points where hihat should be keeping the time but only plays short runs. It doesn't have to be keeping the time if you want to do something more different, but those bits just don't sound "together", I hope you get what I mean. Also, the drums "sound like samples", by which I mean you can hear the same sample repeating and it feels unnatural. Mixing the piece better in general probably would help the drum sound too. I have to say I found them mostly good, but there were some strange passages with strange flaws.

    When it comes to writing, I enjoyed most of it. But I felt that the intro went on a bit long and didn't say much. Once the piece got going, it was more enjoyable. I'd say compress the intro to a shorter version and concentrate what you have to "say" in it.

    I hope you keep working on this piece, because this site, and the world in general, needs more Shining Force love! And good work so far!

    --Eino

  3. Great ballad. Not too syrupy, which is a great achievement considering the instrumentation. There's some feeling in this one that I can't quite put my finger on. Sometimes a ballad can be saved from being too sugary by being a touch bittersweet.. same thing there, except it's not really bittersweet either. Either way, I think it works very well and does it's own thing.

    I don't think the spots at 02:40 and 03:04 resolve nicely (or something), they sound pretty off-key to me. I got used to them on the second listen though, which doesn't mean I think they're good, I just got used to them. :)

    Needs them drums yo!

    Adding drums would have been awful, that would have been needless inflation. I'm glad it never GOT REALLY HUGE, it's quite the right size as it is.

    --Eino

  4. I hear the dissonance WillRock is talking about. The arranged chords and the original melody don't totally work together. To me it sounds like the vibraphonist is messing up the take, while the rest of the ensemble sounds absolutely great.. and that just ruins it for me, frankly. Happily, other people are able to enjoy it, but if the parts worked better together, I'm sure they would enjoy it more too.

    --Eino

  5. Really nice-sounding intro. When it gets going, the beats are great, but the 600AD theme on the piano kind of weighs it down. It feels like it was forced to the track. The later half works much better, and when the 600AD theme returns on the lighter synth, it, too works. Overall, not a keeper for me because of the piano issue, but lots of previous reviewers seem to have enjoyed this a lot, so definitely give it a listen!

    --Eino

  6. This is a highly evocative piece from the game (the moment you first hear it is pretty awesome, it certainly was for me). This version updates and extends it quite well. It starts out really chill, but gets some boombast added with the timpani drums, and grows later on. I think I liked the beautiful, very ambient-sounding intro the best, and didn't fully appreciate the direction it took. It's good nonetheless. The flute and string embellishments are beautiful, and the way the theme is varied and explored is satisfying. Also, I like the way the bass drops for a long time. There's a spacey feel there.

    --Eino

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