Eino Keskitalo

Whoo, great new additions! Welcome! Hoping to be in the green in the WIP list soon! --Eino

I actually voted, but I don't suppose anyone's going to read that, so I'm posting it here too: "The exact kind of submission I was hoping for - taking the source, changing the style and running with it. I have thought before that this piece would sound great even if it was done on the NES sound chip. Thus, this remix was absolutely thrilling to hear. It's a keeper!" --Eino

Aww sucks, I missed the voting deadline. Great round in any case! Thanks for all the feedback too! I thought it was all spot-on, both complimentary and critical. [snip getting too many points comment after reading the scoring rules about this round, whoops] edit#2: And congrats Diotrans! A well-deserved win. Have fun picking the song! --Eino

Yeees it does. Look at the previous round and my winning entry. In fact, look at almost any of my entries. --Eino

I've got the drums and the keyboard leads down, technically I just need the bass. I wasn't able to record it on my own, so I'm going to borrow a bit of gear. The extension comes in handy. Cool to see four submissions already! Hoping for many more! --Eino

What a fantastic surprise! --Eino

I'm working on mine, and at this point I have at least something to upload; hopefully I'll work on it quite a bit more. Looks to me that there's no OCR mixes from the whole series of the game I'm mixing a piece, actually pieces, from. Sentence. Broke. --Eino

Thanks for the comments HL and Bundeslang. The bass was the last thing I added and it actually started making sense to me at that point. The source is great, I was only able to tackle a little bit of it. I thought the bonus track was very good! There was only one thing I thought was sub-par, the bright piano sound that played a brief lead in the later half, but other than that the track was very solid and I enjoyed it. A lot of material and continuous variation, not just in details but in the form, tempo, feel.. very inspiring! --Eino

The chord progression you have going is quite interesting when combined with the very recognizable melody from Frog's theme. I also thought the mixture of different instruments/tones worked pretty well. Again, the soundscape was pleasant to listen to. The crits: While the chord progression itself is long and varied, it (and the instruments that carry it) play throughout the piece, unchanging. This gives the whole piece quite a static feel. Also, it plays alone for almost the first one and a half minutes. This isn't enough to keep interest. I was expecting the beat to come in as early as 00:13, and when it does much later on, it's just a simple bass drum line. I think there's a lot you could and should be doing with beats and percussion in this piece. When a new instrument comes in 01:22, I find it quite hard to make sense of it rhythmically, possibly because there's no beat to anchor it down. Again, pretty good for one of the first works. I'd say work on the beats and progression of this one. I don't quite get what you mean with this. Of course people take credit for their work. --Eino

Well, I enjoyed listening to this. It's rough, it's a beginner's work, but from what you had you put together a piece that sounds quite pleasant to me. Putting the sharper acoustic guitar sound to the softer synth sounds did have a nice contrast. Arrangement-wise, there's a lot of repetition. Or putting it in another way, the piece sounds like a static background music piece, rather than a listening-music piece that progresses. Not bad as a start, keep working! --Eino

Youtube links for the open tracks in OP: 103 Ordinary People - 106 Axe Bring Storm - 119 Fable - 219 Obsession - 310 Electric Talk - 314 The Sacrifice pt II - 318 Breezin - --Eino

This is a cool project for me in a roundabout way - I've never played the game, but I remember it being mentioned a lot back in the mid-90s. The soundtrack's kind of interesting.. it sounded like it's all in the same tempo and key. I wonder how it plays in the game, I can imagine the music just playing continuously.. --Eino

I like the new sleeker design. I didn't have a problem with the dark logo, but the lighter colour actually looks better to me. Good work. It's a nice site. :] --Eino

Oooookay, this should turn out interesting.. now what would be the VGM track that I've always wanted to do a version of, but never had a deadline for before.. --Eino

Choice sent! Anniversary round, sounds interesting.. better make some time for it! My music making is pretty rusty, so participating should do good. --Eino

doublepostSubmitted! What I did is easily done in an hour - come on, don't give me a win by default! --Eino

Beuuutiful piece of music, that's a. --Eino

Continuing with the first disc mini-reviews. (the exam went well by the way, hehe) When the Smoke Clears has a great story behind it, and it's no wonder the track sounds so heartfelt emotional. The guitar sound is very beautiful, and I love that slap(?) percussive effect adding a little sting to the whole, poignancy even. I like the dressed-down solo guitar more than the more arranged section, but I've nothing to complain. Sequencing a full orchestral track on an album like this can't be easy. It's not entirely smooth here either, but damn Ship of Emotion and Song is a good piece. Hands-down my favourite from Vampire Hunter Dan yet. The piece covers a lot of territory, but stays both interesting and together. The final two minutes are my favourite. Take Flight sounds good, and is very fitting for the flight theme. The structure is a bit weird, aborting into something else that ends quite suddenly. The Last Fatima is easily my favourite piece from Avaris. Gorgeous sounds on top of restrained percussion. I've liked pretty much all things Fishy I've heard yet, plus this is one of my favourite themes from the game. The deliberately paced prog-rock treatment in Echoes goes down well with me, for the most part. There's a section with some conflicting notage at 03:06-03:46. The lead sounds jarring at 3:11, 3:14 and 3:20-3:22, but I think the main thing is that the descending background guitar figure doesn't quite gel with itself. My Child has probably the best DragonAvenger vocals yet, and the piece is quite gorgeous as a result. The lyrics are hard to hear for me too, but I don't mind that with this sound and melody. To nitpick, I hear some slight weak points with some beginnings of phrases and some intervals, but overall it's a powerful performance. The rest of the arrangement is good, but when the vocal is so strong, I wish the arrangement would have concentrated more on supporting it. Towards the end, it even seems to compete with it for attention. I believe a stronger overall piece could have resulted, although what is here is very good and enjoyable. The Treasure That Must Be Seduced is a pleasant combination of guitar and orchestral elements. I think there was a chords on the guitar that make me go a bit ???, but overall, it's good. In Joy and Sorrow is a romp with good, fun vocals. I find the rough sound fits the piece, although the drums (snare, hats and ride at least) sound sort of flimsy - a rougher, darker sound for these I think would've fitted in better. This one surprised me in a good way. New Day combos a fun bass line and chopped up drums with more orchestra elements effectively and interestingly. Welcome to the Human Race is a strange one. The orchestra and rock elements feel fairly separate in both mixing and arrangement. The 00:34-00:46 section and it's later variations sound quite dissonant and I can't quite grok them. But it seems to tie together somehow. When I stop listening for certain kind of cohesiveness, it starts to make sense in an "audio sculpture" kind of way. First Meeting has style and sound I enjoy, but it feels like it's constantly introing up to something for the whole duration. (It's also a bit quiet after the previous track.) I love the concept/story behind Akkadia Rising (Solo Sax Edit) and it's pulled off successfully. The floaty production, the sound and playing all work. The chill-out zone ending of the first disc closes with A Trace of Tears. Acid jazz! This is obviously a fruitful collab, good performances all around. Looking forward to disc two. The album has so far surpassed my expectations. I've played the game quite recently, and the moments where I recognize a theme and it's taken to a new place are really fun. --Eino

I'll upload something, and it will be crap. ^__^ --Eino

I should be studying for an exam too.. oh well. Nice to see the release happening. I'm also enjoying the disc one so far - just four tracks in, and it feels pretty good. Quickening was pretty, perhaps even beautiful. A calm opener - the subtle electronic textures used with the guitar were a nice touch. Of Sea and Fire was a fun jam on one of the themes that stuck to my mind the best from the game. I do agree with a previous comment that it could've been shorter. Shattered Dreams gave me goosebumps with it's twists and turns. The beginning sounded a bit quiet, but it turned out well and interestingly arranged. I'll return to this track for sure. Cybernetic Love had great groove, and I enjoyed the funky, distorted guitar. The website looks *very* good! Great job all around it seems! --Eino

Good to hear! --Eino

In my mind, I call him "halko", like "log" in Finnish. Of the wooden type. Like the Ren & Stimpy song. --Eino

Looking forwards to this. It's a game I've played, too. --Eino

The project has progressed quite a bit since I last posted in this thread. It's great to see. Kudos to Jade for working so hard! Heh, I suggested a "Frontier" title too, but I have to agree the Star Trek connection is not that good. --Eino

Looking forward to the meetup segment. --Eino