Gario

Man, bLiNd, you were my hero with that comment to me... It's good to realize that your human too, though, lol. Really, though, best of luck with everything - not having money and financial security sucks. I hope you pass through this and continue to kick ass .

You don't know what can of worms your opening when you make a theory assault on me, ProtoDome . I'll be nice to you, though - you know not what you do, lol. If you want to know what is going on harmonically, your suspending the tonic root throughout the song in the bass (well, in most of it, anyway). Functionally speaking, therefore, you are not moving in chords at all - instead, your cycling through a series of passing motions that keep returning to the tonic chord again. For example, the chromatic descending portion is moving from C, B, Bb, A, G (which is from the C chord again), while most of the other notes follow suite in a similar manner. Thus, technically the entire song (except for the beginning which does not have this sustained note) is simply an expansion of the tonic with cool color motion to keep things interesting. The illusion of chords comes from the fact that you move your voices so they continually create chords above the tonic root in the bass - and the lowest of those notes create the descending chromatic pattern that we all hear and love. Indeed, the 'bass' in that case is using the motion, but the roots, of course, do not. You are using the chords (with figured bass) I - V6 - v6 - IV6 which does complete the chromatic descending pattern in the bass (if you ignore the root tonic that is sustained through the entire piece, of course). I think I have to remix this, now - I've spent too much time analysing it to ignore it, now. I'm going to change the structure a bit when I remix this, though, just to change things up a little. Rawr .

I would so do that for charity.

OA, the Judge, the FF4 dude, and the guy who actually competed at the 1990 Nintendo World Championship! Holy crap, happy birthday, and may you continue to rock upon us for some time! Your FBRC mix was awesome, by the way .

Wait, your right... Ah well, the bass IS descending chromatically, right? Roman numerals are fine, too - most people know what they are (I - V - v - IV). Slippin' in the minor dominant to throw my analysis off, aren't ya?! Hewhoisiam, your analysis was waaay better than my short one here - yours had something like twelve chords in it (while mine has a measly four). Give yourself more credit .

Hey, I hear a classic 5-6 chromatic descenting progression there, don't I? I'll see if I can come up with something, but I do have my plate full. Nonetheless, I'll take a shot, I think. Give me two and a half weeks to do nothing then freak out on the last few days .

YES.Quartal/Quintal music uses parallel fifths, by the very nature of the music. I obviously don't complain when they're used there (strangely enough, I still try to avoid them when writing that music, but that's personal ). I'm currently working on a tutorial on Counterpoint, and I go through Parallel Fifths extensively, so I'll just quote it for you. Yeah, to sum that up, fifths make the counterpoint clunky, and can introduce notes that are not a part of the key because of the nature of that interval. This doesn't only apply to strict counterpoint - it also applies to basic voice-leading, so that's why it's generally a bad idea to use them in the context of tonal writing. As long as you understand that, you'll be just fine. Forgive the unclear moments in the quote - that's a work in progress. Octaves in orchestral writing are not incorrect unless one is trying to write two distinct lines in the music and use them. I think everyone doubles all sorts of orchestral sounds to create cool effects, so your alright (not that you needed me to tell you that, lol).Parallel fifths are in fact wrong in that context, though, if your trying to write tonal music - avoid them if you can, unless the 'clunky music' is the effect that your going for. Experiment and see where that gets you, as ultimately it's your ear that matters, not mine (perhaps the judges, if your trying to get on OC).

Wooden buildings? You need fire in your story. Lots of fire.

Yeah, haven't worked on mine in a while. I'm going to work on it now, though, since I've got my other things to a point where they can be put to rest for a while, so keep an ear out for my update (finally).

Any time someone mentions 2.5d I think of .This is followed by a little bit of drooling.

Can't see it, but how would I make a game, using that premise? I'd certainly capitalize on the character development of each and every town person. It wouldn't be centered on battles, obviously, but more on realizing who everyone is, what their goals are, etc. Then I'd make the protagonist an asshole that everyone hates, and center the story on how much he disrupts everyone's lives and such.

B. Yeah, partly just to be different, but to be honest if a game regurgitates the exact same mechanics, but with fleshed out graphics it tends to bore me really, really fast. Generally a game that does such a thing will a.) be inferior to the previous game in that mechanic or b.) simply feel old and overused. When I played the Lost Levels for Mario I was very disappointed - sure, it was the mechanics that I knew and loved on Mario, but it just felt stale the second time around. For every installment of a franchise there needs to be at least some change to the core game play mechanics - Final Fantasy is a good example of a game that changes it up in at least one significant way or another. Sure, it's similar, but there's always something unique in every game that keeps me interested in a different way every game.

It pisses me off, but I can't enter another compo until mid-2010. I've got some obligations that I cannot miss that starts exactly when the compo does... Argh, Starla - don't let it die off next year 'cause I don't want to miss out on the awesomeness any longer than I have to .

Hey, I'm GMT -7, as well (but Suzu already knew that, as we are both New Mexicans ). I just tried my IRC, and for the first time ever in my household it worked... Very, very strange. If it works again I'll certainly be there - it'll be fun (as I also would like to give and take some feedback).

Very nice (glad I participated at the last moment ). I can't think of anything to improve the contest, really - it worked quite nicely as it's been presented. The only thing I can think of is for more people to finish their work, but you don't have control of that .

Heh heh heh... nice - it's awesome when you can actually recognize things like this (it goes to show you even remixers here play the Dies Irae game ). Interesting podcast... I'll be listening to it soon (I didn't know about it). I actually might be interested in collaborating with him, but the guy doesn't seem to have contact information on his page, so I can't get in touch . If I did something with him I would still post here, though - I need to keep my music theory fresh in my mind or else I'll lose it, and this seems to be a very fun way to do it .

Hey everyone, it's been another skipped week... Alas, life happens (in this case, FBRC happened, and it took quite a bit of time to do, too). Alright, for this week we're going to look at a very famous piece of Gregorian Chant, the . It's interesting (and ironic) that whenever a composer wants to represent death, often they'll quote this little tune in their music. It's a pretty old tradition (I know it's very blatantly quoted in the final movement of Berlioz's 'Symphony Fantastique' at 3:24 - the whole thing is supposed to be a representation of a satanic black mass), and it never seems to get old.Ah, not familiar with it? I can assure you that you are - you just don't know it yet. It's been in all sorts of music (like the example above), but is often used in modern music, as well. For example, listen to the background music of Star Wars: A New Hope when Uncle Owen dies - you can hear hte theme play breifly in the background in some of the deeper instruments. It's slipped in there pretty subtly, but it's still there (sorry, I can't find a video of it on Youtube...). Obviously, as it's the theme of this thread, it has made it's appearances in video games, as well, and in rather subtle (and some not-so-subtle) ways, too. Look at the game 'Gauntlet Legends' for the N64, for example - the entire set of Skorne's Battlefield levels is designed off of variations of that very theme. Every level in that section has music that is based on the Dies Irae in one form or another. The trenches, in particular, simply quotes it note-for-note in the bass, and it's awesome. Other well known games have introduced this theme into their own soundtrack, as well - listen to FFIX's Caslte Ipsen theme (even Nobuo Uematsu couldn't resist doing it at least once ). The choir plays the Dies Irae underneath the broken title theme played by the flute, showing us that there is something dark about that castle, indeed. How many places have you heard this theme played in a video game? I'm positive that there are many places that I haven't heard (or have heard, but wasn't aware of the theme at the time of hearing it), and I'm curious when it'll pop up next. To composers and theorists it's a musical game that is constantly being played, much like a musical running gag that only certain people get. Now you get the gag, so go enjoy listening for it in your favorite music .

Ah, true. Alrighty then, I'll (try) to get something going for the RPG, and I'll certainly get something that really does the FFIX tune justice... as soon as I can .

It's probably the proximity from about 5 other projects that have come up in the past month that's getting to people - they don't know which to do first...

I can't believe I missed your update - things have been hectic for me recently, I guess . Ah well, I hear it now, and it woulds like you've changed quite a bit, there. It sounds like you've got quite a bit more going on there than before (yet sounds so much clearer) - I'm liking the effect of the sound wash your giving. I don't see why the judges would give this any trouble, at all - the source is actually very clearly there... it's just different motives from the source meshed in different ways, and anyone who doesn't hear that is a NEWB!~! Really, though - I hope for a great success on this one, and I hope it's not in 2011, either .

Theme: Some song that builds up towards the final battle Source: Final Fantasy IX Music - Crystal World I've changed my mind with my stance as a 'remixer' for the project - if this is possible, I'll be more than happy to contribute a track to this project. I just finished that game for the first time yesterday (yes, after having it for over 9 years, lol), and this is an awesome song. Yeah, it's a minor inflection of the prelude, but it has a lot of potential for that spot (considering that's what it was in that game), or as an Ice Cave. Either way, if this track is in the project I'll claim it and make an amazing remix of it for you guys . I see that there is a FFIX track already in there... Hmm, if there was a different song for the sad theme perhaps this could work? I don't know how flexible this is, though - your call . Also, I will be throwing out some pitches for programmers, script writers and graphics all over the internet for this project soon and try to make the actual RPG a reality (I'll pitch here, as well, but I'll make another thread so it doesn't muddy this one), so perhaps we'll see something happen that goes beyond OCR, for this (at least that's what I'm hoping for). Sound good?

Thanks, Bahamut. Hey, if I get started early enough I might be able to get a decent community effort out for an RPG in that time frame I'll look around on other sites as well as here for that project, as soon as I find out exactly what we'll need. Alright, I'll try to get to work organizing that part.

I've been waiting for a remix of this source for a while - it's a really good track from that game. What have you got for me? Arrangement is good - well done on treating the source as well as you have. I can't complain on the structure, so I won't; it has nice climaxes in the right places and has enough variety to make it interesting throughout. The orchestration is also pretty good, although some of the samples tend to downplay it sometimes. Overall, though, it's a very enjoyable arrangement that I'd like to see up on OC someday. Production is a little off, but I believe your close - most of what I say is a bit nit picky, but it's still important. I don't think your samples are terrible, altogether (in the beginning, they're actually spot on). The part where the organ comes in is particularly when it becomes noticeable - the organ isn't bad, but the timpani is unnatural - try to get a different sound for each hand rather than making one hand get louder. The orchestra hits are also artificial - don't use an 'orchestra hit' sample. Create the hit yourself with the full orchestra (using your strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion - just be careful not to make each too loud), as that'll not only make it sound more real, but it'll also give you more control of the counterpoint between the instruments (in a song like this one, good counterpoint = good music). The first timpani roll is very fitting, but the second one takes away from the loud section (because you did it earlier, it makes it easy to anticipate, which makes it a bit boring). Take out the roll and see if you like the sudden impact better. The pizz. strings are all the same dynamic, taking away the 'human' quality it could have. Vary each strike so it sounds more human, it'll help the sound a lot. Your solo instruments, because they're more exposed, need better samples. The orchestra is generally good, but the solos sound too mechanical (because of the samples). Find samples that don't have faded attacks and add the attacks on your own - it'll take this piece to a whole new level (varying the dynamics will help a lot, too). Be careful at the end - there is a lot of 'fuzz' going on (which I don't think will go away with the fade out ending). Take a look at you EQ settings on the master, as it sounds like there is too much going on in some of the upper mids, I think. Also, this whole song could use a little boost in the highs, overall. I agree with the snare complaints - they're terrible, as they are now. You can generally fix it if you use two slightly different snare sounds (to represent each hand), then vary the dynamics better, so try that out. Don't take my criticisms too hard - it really is a great arrangement. I really want to to fix it up, though - it would be a great addition to OCR, but it won't make it as it is. Keep at it - I'll be listening to your improvements .

No, I don't deserve that blessing - bLiNd can enjoy that one on his own .By the way, how would you e-mail him a bomb... unless your talking an e-bomb, or something. Don't answer by sending me one, though - that'd just be rude .