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Eino Keskitalo   Members

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Posts posted by Eino Keskitalo

  1. The crow sounds are fun. I like how you made a mellower version out of the original. Once the piece gets going the overall sound is quite pleasant, sort of lushy. I also like, at the end, when the bassline drops out, the sound is quite nice.

    I don't like the sound at the beginning - the bass sound is unimpressive when it's fully exposed, the mechanical repetition of the sample doesn't sound too good when it's exposed like that, though it does work decently later on. Maybe you could start with the palette you have in the outro, and add the bass later on. You also have a less mechanical, sparser bass part around the end of the first third of the song, that could work in the intro too.

    There's also a couple of spots where the chords are uncomfortably dissonant, in a way that doesn't resolve satisfyingly.

    It's great that you state your goals in your posting; I think you've done pretty well regarding them! I quite enjoyed the track, I wasn't expecting that based on the intro (or the source!) but it got a lot lot better. Good work!

    --Eino

  2. What Gario says about the production and the sounds sounded spot on to me.

    Very cool arrangement! Recognizable, but definitely your own. I agree with Gario about the ending, but I felt the current beginning was ok, it just goes straight to business. It of course wouldn't hurt if you experimented a bit to try out some sort of an intro, effective intros are cool.

    --Eino

  3. Final version

    I did the level tweaks Rozovian (edit: and -Dan) suggested and eased up on the limiter a bit. The changes sounded good to me.

    If you're interested in the Renoise project file, grab it here.

    old ------------------------------

    Final candidate 2: here

    • adjusted EQ to be less overly bright
    • mix the pipe/organ/thing a little lower in places to reduce monotony
    • one additional drum fill

    Workshop mod review time yo.

    Source

    Source breakdown:

    The vocal melody, used without the drone note and canon/delay: used mainly with the "organ stab note" instrument. Introduced in full 00:07-00:19. Used almost throughout: 00:21-00:47, 01:06-01:08, 01:14-02:08. More sparsely during the last minute: 02:11-02:13, 02:17-02:27, 02:30-02:31, 02:35-02:36, 02:40-02:47, 02:52-02:56. Starts to vary the original melody by following the chord changes from the bass line around 01:57.

    The lead is also based on the vocal melody line, most clearly 01:02-01:25-ish. Rest of the lead writing is "inspired by" rather than clearly referencing the original.

    Panned bell from the source used as a panned atmospheric noise, introduced at 00:04, used 00:04-00:48, 01:30-01:44, with about half-speed rhythm during 01:45-02:05, and towards the outro again fading in from 02:48-3:00.

    ---- oldishish:

    Final candidate 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rrh4kknr8itwd92/keskitalo-clockwork_groove-20120820.mp3

    Finished! Well, final candidate 1 mixdown. Not quite sure about the overall EQ, seemed quite bright compared to some reference ReMixes, and I tried to tone it down, but these other headphones are quite shitty, either I succeeded or I can't tell the difference. For finalizing the mix, apart from a bit of master EQ to done the bass down just a little bit, I just used Renoise's stock Maximizer that I suppose must act as a limitter as well, got a good boost and can't hear any clipping (myself).

    (Other changes since the last version: shortened the intro a bit, tweaked levels/eqs of particular sounds, that's it.)

    Source

    Source breakdown:

    The vocal melody, used without the drone note and canon/delay: used mainly with the "organ stab note" instrument. Introduced in full 00:07-00:19. Used almost throughout: 00:21-00:47, 01:06-01:08, 01:14-02:08. More sparsely during the last minute: 02:11-02:13, 02:17-02:27, 02:30-02:31, 02:35-02:36, 02:40-02:47, 02:52-02:56. Starts to vary the original melody by following the chord changes from the bass line around 01:57.

    The lead is also based on the vocal melody line, most clearly 01:02-01:25-ish. Rest of the lead writing is "inspired by" rather than clearly referencing the original.

    Panned bell from the source used as a panned atmospheric noise, introduced at 00:04, used 00:04-00:48, 01:30-01:44, with about half-speed rhythm during 01:45-02:05, and towards the outro again fading in from 02:48-3:00.

    ---- oldish:

    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 on:

    * Production

    * Sounds/soundfield (too basic sounds? too skeletal/empty?)

    * Source usage (in the second half)

    The goal is to get this posted.

    --Eino

    ---- old:

    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.

    ---- older:

    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. I'm happy with the structure - tried to extend it, but it felt forced.

    ---- oldest:

    This was a PRC compo piece (#174), which I've since extended. This was a pretty fun source in the competition, since it is so minimal. There's just one melody and the bell. I tried to incorporate the bell by playing this "atmospheric noise" sample in a similar manner the bell is used in the source. Other than that, I have the "stabby" organ in the right playing (a variation of) the melody most of the time. The proper lead also plays and varies it during the first half. There's less source in the second half, although it too is based on a variation of the melody on the organ.

    This is done with the Renoise tracker, and actually mostly with the demo samples. Hopefully that's not a concern.

    Sooo onto my concerns:

    * Production (I don't know what I'm doing or what I should be doing, so any comments and pointers are welcome)

    * Structure (is the ending ok?)

    * Sounds/soundfield (too basic sounds? too skeletal/empty?)

    * Source usage (in the second half)

    I'm personally happy with the tracker sound, especially the lead, but please tell how that sounds to you.

    Thanks!

    edit: I should also state my goal like Altermentality did in their Earthworm Jim mix post; I definitely want to submit this to the panel, eventually, so I need some ears! :)

    --Eino

  4. The following games are listed as Windows games, despite being (first) released for MS-DOS:

    DOOM: http://ocremix.org/game/110/doom-win

    Released in 1993 for DOS as per http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/doom and to Windows only in 1995 as per http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/doom

    Star Control 2: http://ocremix.org/game/351/star-control-ii-win

    Released in 1992 for DOS as per http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/star-control-ii - there's no Windows release at all for the original SC2 (contra the open-source Ur-Quan Masters).

    7th Guest: http://ocremix.org/game/26/7th-guest-win

    Released in 1993 for DOS as per http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/7th-guest and to Windows only in 1997 as per http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/7th-guest

    Legend of Kyrandia: http://ocremix.org/game/342/legend-of-kyrandia-win

    Released in 1992 for DOS as per http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/legend-of-kyrandia and to Windows (3.x) in 1993 as per http://www.mobygames.com/game/win3x/legend-of-kyrandia

    Doom 2: http://ocremix.org/game/111/doom-ii-hell-on-earth-win

    1994 for DOS: http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/doom-ii-hell-on-earth

    1995 for Windows: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/doom-ii-hell-on-earth

    Highway Hunter: http://ocremix.org/game/503/highway-hunter-win

    Only a DOS release in 1995: http://www.mobygames.com/game/highway-hunter

    King's Quest V: http://ocremix.org/game/294/kings-quest-v-absence-makes-the-heart-go-yonder-win

    DOS looks like the earliest release platform (1990): http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/kings-quest-v-absence-makes-the-heart-go-yonder

    Win (3.x) in 1992: http://www.mobygames.com/game/win3x/kings-quest-v-absence-makes-the-heart-go-yonder

    Mechwarrior 2: http://ocremix.org/game/278/mechwarrior-2-31st-century-combat-win

    DOS release predates the Windows release by a few months: http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/mechwarrior-2-31st-century-combat vs http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/mechwarrior-2-31st-century-combat

    Command & Conquer: http://ocremix.org/game/76/command-and-conquer-win

    According to Wikipedia, it was first released for MS-DOS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer_(video_game) (MobyGames only listed 1995 for both)

    --Eino

  5. It sounds very beautiful on the piano. Mad skills. :shock: I think this does a really good job making an interpretation of the original, which is basically "just" synth chord washes.

    The suspense overall in the piece is pretty good. I do feel I zone off a bit in the part that begins at 02:54 - I kind of wish it would surprise me a bit in some way, or maybe the dynamics/expression in that part isn't quite as good as in the previous part. That's pretty much the only crit I have, though of course in such a moody and minimalistic piece it affects the whole piece. But the piece is pretty good already, I just feel it could be improved a bit in that area.

    I'm of course not a judge, but I don't see why this arrangement couldn't end up in the front page - this place is supposedly open to all genres of music, and this is a creative VGM interpretation that's (IMHO) pretty close to being great.

    --Eino

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