Eino Keskitalo

I'm glad you guys appreciate the feedback. Here's the next four tracks. This is going to take forever.. Disc 1, track 3: The Koan of Drums I find this track pretty cheesy; it reminds me of the Eurovision Song Contest.. Not really a favourite, the combination of the big drums, octave-pumping bassline, violin and flutes feels a bit gimmicky. As it is though, it's a very solid, melodic, driving track. I do genuinely like the sound of those drums. Also the more minimal section after the first chorus, from 01:57 to 03:17 (and especially up to 2:10, plus the big drum break later) I can enjoy. I also appreciate how in the prechorus that follows (after 03:17) the bass doesn't yet do the octave thing, but reserves it for the last chorus - well done restraint/build-up thing. *makes notes for future use in own tracks* Disc 1, track 4: Airborne Happy little (maybe medium-sized) solo piano tune. Very relaxed feeling, slightly mischieveous even. The a-part reminds me of Super Mario World and the b-part reminds me of Ghibli films.. good stuff. And that's just the first half.. I like how 01:38-02:16 sounds contemplative, searching, from 02:16 on a resolution starts to form and the finale sounds decided and courageous. (I get Megaman and Shining Force vibes.) Sleeper hit potential in general and personally one of the definite highlights of the first disc. Disc 1, track 5: Arche Angel Segues nicely from the previous track as this starts with a solo piano. Very soon strings and orchestral percussion join in. I like the bittersweet feel of this brief track. I have gripes, however - the sound of the strings and orchestra start way too big, they're already up to 10 when it would serve the track much better if it started with less velocity and grew towards the climax. (This might be difficult to achieve if the sample set only has the full throttle option but it doesn't make the crit less viable.) Or, keeping the strong start, it should be a lot more dynamic in the middle and end. I think there's a similar problem with the writing - overall I get the feeling less would be more. It doesn't sound 100% deliberate, often the overall feel is like a bunch of notes thrown together, even if there was nothing obviously wrong in the parts themselves. I have a feeling the loudness of the instruments may have misinformed the writing to fill up the space more than it needed. When you have a full string section blaring and snare and cymbals splashing in the background, it's hard to get a few notes sound right. This is just speculation on my part but I hope it's helpful. It's what I think would happen to me. =) I'll first tell what I like: the bittersweet feel is indeed tangible. I like the general progression and flow of the track, it has a discernible beginning, middle and end with their own feel (and the middle has it's own beginning, middle and end). I like the chord progression (no idea about what is in the source and what is original) - 00:28, chill-inducing. The cello/double bass figures that play up to 00:46 on the left are quite nice (slightly mechanical, but easily adequate). I have most issues with the melodic/supporting melodic writing (Staccato strings and piano). There's good stuff too, no worries. Let's look at the staccato strings first, from start to 00:43. The first problem is that the sound itself is quite a loud, pronounced stab at the strings, and you use the hits rather sparsely. This gives it a mechanical and scattered feel and increases the sense of randomness. More velocities again, and having the same instrument play different sorts of notes (some longer) in their part might be good. 00:14-00:18 for instance - a good figure, but if the notes 2-6 (or say 2-4) were more continuous, it would sound far more natural. 00:23-00:28 these strings sort of disappear.. they should strongly sound a recognizable figure like ten seconds ago, rather than pluck at separate notes off somewhere. Then there's three notes of gold: 00:27-00:29 along with the chord change sounds SO GOOD! But alas, it doesn't evolve into a yearning little melody - more separate notes. 00:33-00:38 you have a good melody going, but the loud staccatto (combined with syncopation hurts), and the drums are pounding way too loud on top of them. How this part finishes 00:40-00:45 is very good although the drums distract me a bit. The again the cymbal wash sound at 00:46 is sounds extremely good. 00:46 begins a beautiful, calmer section. The piano writing is tricky to criticize - if I listen to the track just 00:46 on, I don't necessarily hear anything wrong with it (esp. the first four bars are beatiful), but when the track is taken as a whole, the constant eight notes without pauses up to 01:24 feel quite excessive. At times they sound great: 01:22-01:23 sounds great (there I'm actually expecting for it to go on longer, staying on the same note), and 01:07-01:11 does too. Rest sound frankly just weak and clutter up the track. The piano ends with calm chords, which works well otherwise, but I feel some of the chord choices for the piano complicate the serene/sad ending needlessly - at 01:34-01:38 specifically the piano should let the high strings work their part. I enjoy the track despite my gripes, even if I feel I like listening to the idea rather than the execution. Even while I've written five paragraphs of crits, I feel the good outweighs the bad. Disc 1, track 6: Chronometrical Energetic electro, crystallic arpeggios and gorgeous strings. Good combo and it does sound great. The arrangement is pretty full all the time, nothing wrong with it but I'd love a sparser section somewhere, it could generally afford to take a bit more time to develop. For instance, the fadeout feels premature, I feel it could actually take the material to another go after that part - the first go could be less full and take it's time, and the second go could be the full-blown one that it is now. But the structure does work as it is as well. There are some unfortunate brown moments in the string writing. Some of it might well be inteded dissonance, but it doesn't support the track. 01:46-01:47 is the first such moment. 01:51-01:55 sounds it might be dissonant as well, but that one totally works. 02:11 sounds very subtly (but still clearly) off. 02:27 sounds awful to me. The piano also grates my ears at that spot, around 02:25-02:27. There's another note on the piano around 02:38 that sounds like it's in the same vein, but doesn't bother me as much. Strings are also perhaps a touch or two too prominent in the mix in my opinion. They do sounds gorgeous, but they would sounds so a little quieter, and repeated listening to them tires the ears. Otherwise, I love how this track sounds. The clock ticking is a very nice touch. It took me a several listens to notice it elsewhere than in the beginning. Like with Crisis Healing Salve, I feel I have to endure a couple of bad spots (which do bother me) to be able to appreciate what is a very much a fine track. Cheers! --Eino

Ah yes, I've been meaning to compliment the art. I haven't looked at it thoroughly, but what I've seen (the site, the banners & the image in the first post) it's good, consistent and helps to create an atmosphere for the whole project. The use of colours is very tasteful. I very much like the pic in the first post (although the girl seems a bit she's like contemplating having a bite of the pan flute..). Good work there! Okay, I think I'll try to do a track-by-track reviewing tour of the project. Note that I have no familiarity with the originals at all. Anyway, here we go with the first two tracks. Disc 1, track 1: The Unholy Wars Hard rock/heavy isn't generally my genre. I can sure recognize this as a good track it is, but it doesn't appeal to me much. All these relentlessly wailing leads.. gah! There's a few spots that I particularly do like production-wise: 02:12 has this sort of a "ghost guitar" filling up a pause without crowding it, very nice. Also I always notice the sound in the background around 02:23 - it's very cool. I like the breakbeatish snare roll stuff that begins around 03:20 too. Disc 1, track 2: Crisis Healing Salve The track begins with a strong wind lead with a harpsichord kittering around it. The rhythmical complexity, especially when the double bass comes in, took a bit of listening to sink in (felt crowded on the first listen), but it's really rather intriguing. The double bass writing has some off notes 00:30 and 00:33-00:34 that really throw me off. Rest of the part is good. Somewhere along the line strings have blended in, and next the strings dissolve, with a pleasant surprise, into beautiful guitar tones (esp. the clean guitar). On the first listen, this was where I really started appreciating the track. The strings in the background don't mesh perfectly with the guitar (it even sounds they're slightly differently tuned), but that's nothing serious. I love that chord at 01:27. The oboe figure sounds unnecessary - I think it would have made a better impact with just space in that spot. The rumbling bass (synth?) that starts at 01:30 I really like. Especially when it drops off at 01:40 - goosebumb time! Here the string writing works fantastically with the guitars, it's really beautiful. Like with the oboe bit before, the string figure that starts at 02:13 feels extraneous. Either the bass goes off the key (badly), or the bass going the way it does combined with the string figure is to blame - but that's another "brown moment". I like the random sounding start of the guitar solo. When the strings come in again 02:42, it's really quite grand. Here it irks me somewhat (but not too much) that the strings and guitar seem to be playing in completely different rooms. They have quite a different ambience. In the (beautiful!) quieter part that begins around 03:00, there is no such problem. The sound that begins at 03:09 is.. evocative, and again 03:29.. mourning. The accompanying wind lead is beautiful as well. At it's best - and that's the most of the track - a fantastic track and a coop that combines respective strengths of the two ReMixers. I have to stress that the brown moments really, really bother me; I hate having to endure them to hear the greatness of the rest of the track. --Eino

Altar Perception was criminally good.. just amazing. There are a lot of really good tracks on this, but this was just.. I had to post this right away. Ridiculously well done guys. Nah, no problems there I think. --Eino

I'll get back on that in detail later. (And I kind of hope I'm not just crazy here.) Disc three was very solid, with lots of goodies. One more to go! --Eino

Check this out if you haven't already seen it: http://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/PRC138 --Eino

Thanks for those links, Kyle! I need to check them out. There's also: http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01448/ http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00902/ In case the original poster didn't know. Not that I didn't like more of them. --Eino edit: Holy crap, I'm now in love with this one: http://dod.redheadedblacksheep.net/past/may07/21tie-BrianDavis-FFMQ-Pyramid-ICE-DoD.mp3

I've been playing. A great game. Yeah, it has a nice chippy soundtrack. --Eino

Be sure to post it on the WIP-board first! --Eino

I thought djpretzel's writeup was spot on. I don't care much at all for smooth jazz, but OCR has been an alarmingly taste-widening experience for me. I don't get how this context makes it easier to receive the music behind the style, if you know what I mean. Exceptional work. --Eino

Still no comments? I listened through this once a while ago, I can't offer any detailed comments now, but I recall it sounded really good. --Eino

Y'know, it's usually good idea to post here and get your feedback *before* submitting. :> The judging process may take months; WIP boards aren't usually lightning fast but the turnaround is quite a bit quicker anyway. I quickly listened through this earlier - it sounded quite good, like a spy-film music treatment. I need to listen again for more thoughts. --Eino

Listened to the disc 2 last evening, and I genuinely liked even bigger portions than with disc 1. =) However, scattered among the tracks of the first half of the release, there's a large amount of note/chord choices that just sound wrong to me. Off-key, dissonant-in-a-bad-way, that sort of stuff. So many, that I am wondering if I've been just hearing things.. Disc 3 is sounding pretty good so far! --Eino

I've only read the lyrics so far (listening to SoS right now), but I think they are great! By the time I got to the quoted part, I couldn't keep a laugh bursting out. Through my nose. That hurt. I can just see the poor protagonist and the dragon.. I love it how you humorously depict a struggle that's both internal and external. It's tongue in cheek, but it's also very real, I can relate to that. I enjoyed just reading the lyrics, so I have great expectations about hearing the song itself! --Eino

Just finished listening to disc one, and I genuinely liked portions of it. :> Congrats on getting the project out of the door! I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the discs. --Eino

We just did. --Eino

Oh, I'm glad then. There should be plenty of time for me to finish. --Eino

re: intro. The timing of the piano is a little off. I double-checked, and curiously it sounds fine on laptop speakers, but quite offensive on headphones. It's a nitpick, yes, but it's also the first thing one hears when pressing play. It wasn't the greatest first impression. That out of the way, let me reiterate that this is one fiiiiiiine track. --Eino

Started working on a drum track.. :> Beautiful source! --Eino

Yeah, the piano slurs the intro pretty badly. But thankfully, it's just a few seconds. What follows is tight. Plenty good. I like the alternation between busier, lead-filled sections and more mellow, laid-back ones. This doesn't quite blow through the roof for me (yet, more listens might open it up more), but it's near, and it's very enjoyable, and it's making me groove.. --Eino

Well, thanks to that controversy, I got to hear this tune. Is good. --Eino

This piece kicks ass. --Eino

I'll just quickly add/agree that the theme works very well in this genre/adaptation. Nice work! --Eino

Yeah, this is definitely extremely funky. Some good listening. Hmmm.. Frankly, it feels like the track takes a while to get going, it should slam you in the face with some brass riff or something right at the start. It's like a collection of parts between some extremely effective, catchy riff-part.. but that section, the a-section that goes through the roof is not yet there. I also definitely expected the "better" sounds to kick in at 00:13 already. Between that and 00:41 could be lifted and put around the track to serve as lo-fi breaks. Good stuff but not golden yet. Great sounds! --Eino

As a short demo, a simple arrangement for two tracks of guitar, this works. It has a consistent mood. I quite like the two final parts, the first with the different lead, and then the picking. The tone of the rhythm guitar is rather bassy/muddy. Need to leave room for the bass. --Eino

No need to be so apologetic! This is a straightforward coop request which are wonderful to see. I hope somebody takes this on, it's a quirky, tasty piece of an arrangement! --Eino