Flexstyle

Thus far, I've gotten these things: - A nice, tidy sum of cash (much needed) - pajama pants - t-shirt - 3 packs of caramel Digestive Biscuits (UK friends will know what I'm talking about ) - carrying case for my Akai MPK49 - Barnes and Noble gift card, fairly large - a couple of coffee mugs (which I collect) - my little sisters got me a spatula and some measuring spoons, which was quite thoughtful of them as I'll be moving out and in need of such things soon - black licorice wheels - coupon for a nice dinner (with guest) at my sister's house. - Iguana Deuces golden habanero pepper hot sauce - Coffee Bean gift card - four giant volumes of sci-fi/fantasy short stories courtesy of Secret Santa, The Damned. All of which is very much appreciated, and makes me feel incredibly, unjustifiably loved by many, many people. :-D

It's true--I'll probably loan the books to him once I'm done, haha.

Absolutely!

Well? What'd ya get?

I have this awesome stuff from The Damned! Thanks a ton sir, I'm looking forward to reading all these novels. I think my posting here got delayed since there's another Michael Birch in the house (my dad, also a sci-fi and fantasy junkie) and anything addressed to plain ol' "Michael Birch" without my middle initial, and addressed from Amazon is assumed to be for him, and I live in a large family so it took 'em a while to figure this out. Nevertheless, this collection will undoubtedly be devoured even before MAGFest hits. For what it's worth, I at least opened the boxes in the correct order. THANK YOU!

screw you mate it's punk rock

How much do people want to buy what you're selling? More importantly, how much do they want to buy it from you?

I'll just go ahead and close this one out quickly. Solid arrangement, great combo of sounds. +1 on Larry's gripe with the piano, and +1 on Justin's gripe on the drums not being terribly well-mixed, but those are small items in the larger scheme. YES

Hoo boy. Where to begin on this one? Let's list a few issues: - first, the source is hard to listen to, with that panning all over the place. (not your fault, of course, but worth noting.) - like the source, the remix has almost no structure, nothing in the way of buildup, breakdown, ebb, flow, etc. - honestly, this sounds very much like a direct MIDI rip, with almost no variation on the original--just a different set of sounds. If you revisit this, you'll want to sit down and build a proper arrangement that has a beginning, an end, and discernible structure. You'll want to actually arrange the original to some degree, rather than just copying it note-for-note, and you'll probably want to upgrade your production approach a bit as well, since that whole "hard panning quickly" thing is hard to listen to. There's a lot more I could say, but I don't want to do all that typing. This should be enough to work on for now. If you want extra insight, the Workshop forums are always a great place to start! NO

Whew, this is a tough one. There are some spots where the samples and the articulation thereof stand out as being really artificial--there's some grace notes in the oboe that are pretty jarringly unrealistic, a lot of the samples just feel like they don't have *quite* enough attack going on, or at least that they should have been triggered a little sooner, rather then exactly on the grid. Some of the samples are mixed a little weirdly--some unrealistic panning that could stand to be given more of a "room sound" treatment, etc. That said, this is truly a fantastic arrangement that just keeps getting better as it goes on, and some of the issues disappear as the song builds as well. This is tough, and I'm gonna guess this'll be a split vote, but I'm going to give this one a YES based on the strength of the arrangement overpowering the other issues. YES (borderline)

Supposedly the gift will arrive at its destination by Tuesday. That's what the gentleman at the post office told me, anyways.

I do most of my work in FL, but I've recently purchased Pro Tools and have been borrowing a Mac with Logic X on it for a while. I used to be certified in Logic and Pro Tools way back when, and so I'm trying to see if they're adding something new to my work flow. I'll say this: I'm still convinced that FL's piano roll is the best one for writing music in, but multitracking and mixdown duties are probably best handled in Logic or Pro Tools from what I'm finding.

I think I'm gonna call this genre "Headbanging Dance Metal," or "HeDM."

Chimpa nailed it with the nitpicks on the dynamics and the volume. The arrangement is pretty, once it really kicks in, but could definitely use some TLC on the mixing side to really bring it out. I'm thinking that even something as simple as improving your reverb could help some of the articulation issues, although you'll obviously need to add more than that. Make it louder, make it clearer, and make the instruments more believable, and you've got yourself a mixpost. NO (resub!)

Yeah, in order to really make a splash with this genre, you've gotta either have a super-clean mix or a fantastic arrangement, and preferably both. Your stacked synth is a bit muddy, and your bass isn't really cutting through very well. The drums are repetitive even by EDM standards, and the song takes a little too long to develop. Chimp mentioned the breakdown and how it was a bit sparse, and I've gotta agree on that count. One simple thing you could do to make this instantly better is sidechain your bass and stab synths to the kick drum, which would allow them to breathe a bit. That, and of course just giving this track the energy it needs overall by keeping things interesting throughout. Honestly, in order to really let this progress, you might want to take it over to the Workshop forums. I'm sure you'll find a lot of help over there as well, and that'll allow you to get feedback as you're going along, too. NO

Let's see. The arrangement here is really slick, and I love your mixture between the chiptunes and the more organic stuff. The way it goes back and forth without being incohesive is pretty sweet. I've got a few nitpicks: - Your drummer has three hands, and is also a robot. It's very quantized and not a very dynamic (volume-wise) drum line. - Your pianist is also a robot. There aren't any dynamics on that piano line, either. More on that in a bit, as well. - actually I'm pretty sure your entire band was robots. - the piano has some harsh high-mid frequencies in there somewhere that make it a tiny bit painful to hear on certain notes. I think that would be fixed with either some careful EQ or just making your piano more dynamic. Basically my advice on this one is don't change a thing on the arrangement, and just humanize some of your organic instrument parts a bit. Maybe smooth out some of that hi-mid stuff on the piano. This is really close. Let's see it back soon! NO (resub!)

oh man this is SO beautiful. do I really have to give more feedback than that? see above votes for the nitpicks, I guess. YES Emailed this gentleman to check and see if he's down with a quick fix today.

C'mon guys, I've got no major production beefs, and that's usually what I start nitpicking on. It's clean. I hear the source, and you did clever things with it. My head is bopping the entire time. Clearly I should give this one a.... YES

I concur with OA about the stiff sequencing and the way the stereo field feels strange. I, too, think that the arrangement is really lacking in terms of development. I see where you tried to do some extra to it when the guitar picks up and the instruments are all flowing together, but it's really not there yet. This is tricky for me to give feedback on. On the one hand, the idea of making this otherwise-terse and energetic source tune a mournful ballad is a great idea. On the other hand, you'll be hurt in that endeavor unless your instrumentation is much more dynamic and realistic. You can alleviate some of that by changing the string patch to a more synthetic pad sound, but the pan flute is so clearly sampled that it's really not doing the job that needs to be done. Like OA said, a B-section would really help this track--maybe take another source tune and use it to give the song some development. You'll also be helped if you can make your instrumentation more believable. I betcha the Workshop forums would be a good place to start if you're looking for more insight. NO

Wow, I can really hear why this one is getting a split vote. The song itself brings a lot of energy, and the production is ace, which would usually be where I'd get hung up. It's not a terribly satisfying arrangement, though. I think Beatdrop has said exactly what I was thinking here: And I'll just go ahead and echo his vote, too. NO (please resub, I wanna hear this done justice!)

My gift should be leaving for its recipient this week. I think he's gonna dig it.

This has shades of Machinae Supremacy in it to me. Maybe crossed with some In Flames. I dunno. I really love it! I only stopped headbanging to write this post. Also, definitely added you to my subscription list. Between you, LittleV, FamilyJules, and Erock, I feel like I'm well up on my Youtube metal shenanigans.

May just have to grab this, especially since I'm looking at the prize package for my compo and drooling a bit.

dude timaeus why did you necro a four-year-old thread?

Contest is closed, and I'll be posting results soon.