Eino Keskitalo

Very nice melodic piece. The piano performance is a bit jittery but not much so. There's a few piano chords that felt a bit clashy, f.e. at 00:53 and 01:00. The intro is a bit cluttered, I wonder if it really needed anything more than the piano. I like the subtlety of the strings in the beginning after the intro, the figure is a nice (and non-obvious) backdrop for the piano melody. I gotta agree the strings get a little overpowering as it goes on. Still, not too bad. It's somewhat saccharine but I'd say there's enough of a bittersweet feel to keep the whole in check. Still worth checking out! --Eino

Great source, and good take on it too. Guitar playing is very good, and I also like the way you use the clap sound with the drums. Now, you really need to expand this. One thing that comes to my mind is that the energy level as it is now is in the same gear throughout. This can sound great (especially if you do some daring variations on the arrangement side (with harmonies, countermelodies, etc)), but you may also want to consider to build it up and blow it through the roof at some kind of a climax. I do like the style here. Good work so far - I hope you keep going! --Eino

Great right from the start. Seriously, I expected this to be good and it's kind of ridiculous that you know when you hear the first drum hit.. I didn't actually expect such a snare sound! Great sounds overall, very balanced and pleasant to listen to. --Eino

Sounds great! Finally got around listening to the Impact: Steel demos too, I thought it was a great concept and the demos sound very good. I need enlightenment: what does "deep sampling" mean in this context? --Eino

I'm guessing the business aspects are the bits that need the most work/etc. --Eino

On the contrary, they make a great mix even greater. (I know you didn't mean this but still. =) ) --Eino

That looked pretty funny, I laughed a couple of times. Good voice acting! Also, congrats! --Eino

Hehe, that would SO segue nicely to a little cameo of the Chrono Trigger main theme. I have to admit I don't have any recollection of this piece, so can't say it was a favourite from the soundtrack. But I can definitely imagine a rocking ReMix made out of it. --Eino

Alright, finally got my first wip crits in! jmr, I want to hear your wip, put it up on the KNGI boards. TheHands, I like your Dungeon Explorer WIP so I'm glad to hear from you as well. --Eino

Here's a handy YouTube link as well: Good source imho. It's a great little rocking tune - emphasis on little, so it really requires some expansion. --Eino

I'll have to say I really like the toms in the part where the piano plays the little two-note melody (00:48 onwards and before the solo). You could try to make them 8th note later to be more groovalicious (just an idea to try out if you like). I agree some of the tom fills are placed strangely, bar 12 instead of 16 which would sound more natural. I'm all for strange stuff but it's a bit flow-breaking and not working really well. Might be because they're slightly loud/stand out in the mix. --Eino

Good work there, doing that wasn't detrimental to the relaxed feel of the show, which I also enjoy. Damn, Declaration of War rocked. --Eino

Heh, I'm listening to NGI#114, don't know what's different, but the guitar tone doesn't bother me at all now. I'm still not loving it, but it's definitely not that "absence" thing I was talking about earlier. Those "little things" are more clear as well.. I probably listened on some bad headphone setup over at the university last time. Verdict recalled, sounding great. Sounded really uplifting in the show, too! A cool moment. --Eino

Alright, listened to 113. Great music, fun banter. Thanks guys! I personally only keep up with OCR when it comes to vgm arrangement community, so it's a treat to hear great music outside of it. edit: Went ahead and listened to 114 - this was a tighter show (not just because it was shorter), I'm looking forward to the next one. Good stuff, definitely recommend listening. --Eino

Good interviews, all of them. Nice having three of them at the same time for variety of viewpoints and stories into the professional game music composing world. I really liked how appreciative Wise and Tin were towards reinterpretation of their work. Tin's comments on the academica were interesting (I suppose/hope coming generations will appreciate film and game soundtracks more) - and I loved his networking comment too. The insight into interactive music tracks was great in Andrews' interview (Wise also touched on the subject). And of course it's exciting to see people from OCR getting inside the business. Thanks to all involed! I'm eager to hear that Baba Yetu ReMix too, now. --Eino

Agh! I can't keep up! You're too fast! --Eino

Oh good grief @ the Kirby covers.. maybe it's just because they're side to side, but I have a completely different reaction to each. The Japanese cover of Squeak Squad gives me the vibes of carefree adventure, and instantly reminds me what I enjoyed about NES/SMS games as a kid. The angry eyebrows totally ruin that for me. It's amazing what a couple of lines can do. Great thread! --Eino

Sounded good! --Eino

Got this finally done, apart from a little formatting. I really dislike WYSIWYG word processing.. Well, I've sent out one (1) job application. That's not much, but I suppose it's a start. Did two since then, million to go! Really need to start this, and I think I should have the time too. This one's progressed real nicely, the whole project I mean. We've got two new songs down and another without vocals last week. --Eino

I've downloaded, and am looking forward to listening to it. --Eino

Looks good, and emphasizing the reviews is a good idea. I'm thinking the "reviews" tab/link could be retained, as it's a fast link to the full review thread, *and* hilights the fact that there are reviews for the pieces. If you're a new user of the site, and directly head for the download (maybe only skimming the first paragraph of the writeup) you'll now miss that fact. --Eino

Cool! Downloading. --Eino

I agree on the muffled feel, it should be addressed. I do like the lofi percussion. The arrangement/structure feels good to me up to 02:04, then it starts meandering a bit, not really progressing towards a lot imho. Perhaps I feel it sort of falls back on the MM2 Wily cameo. Overall I'm enjoying this quite a bit. It's laid back, but still the pace is good. --Eino

Contrary to Taucer, I seriously dislike the rhythm guitar tone. To me it feels like something is absent in the mix (at least on headphones). [edit: not hearing it anymore, see later post] Otherwise I enjoy the mix. It feels like there's a lot of little things going on in the background, synths glurping, organ playing. Maaaybe those could have been brought a bit more to the front, but no worries. Overall this a happy, energetic piece and a lot of fun to listen to. Good job! --Eino

I just got to play this for more than the demo. Good work all around. Even the pieces that I didn't care for individually work within the game. Ones I did like already were of course a treat to hear in context. Thanks! --Eino