Jump to content

djpretzel

Administrators
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    7,064

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    99

 Content Type 

Posts posted by djpretzel

    I would like some advice.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Well, I'm not a musician, I don't perform, so take my advice with a grain of salt or three:

    • If you're not being challenged & you're not growing from the performance opportunities, is it really that much of a risk/loss?
    • That being said, if you know these folks & have a relationship, I'd try to assert yourself, propose some changes that would make the whole thing better (seems like having arrangements would be a good start!), volunteer to put in the effort to make these changes happen, and see if you get anywhere.
      • If you do, great!
      • If you don't... do you want to be a part of something you know is fundamentally flawed but which resists any efforts on your part to address those flaws? I'd tend to say no... in which case, maybe commute to Amarillo and see what's happening there, meet some new people, go on some adventures, etc. until something clicks?

    Are there any UVI Falcon users here?

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    I've got it, but I haven't used it much. It's powerful but the interface isn't particularly inspiring... doubtful that UVI will get the same adoption as Kontakt, ever; Kontakt is the de facto standard, and Komplete is an awesome value proposition.

    Falcon does SOUND good, but I'd probably consider Spire or Serum as better options for EDM or variant genres. If you're already invested in Komplete, I'd say take the time to learn Reaktor and get into the blocks & user libraries, many of which are awesome. In other words: Falcon seems like a luxury/secondary buy, not something essential, to me.

    The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    So yeah, I'm actually playing this game.... slowly but surely :)

    My own thoughts:

    • To me, this does ABSOLUTELY feel like "Skyrim Lite" - but I think that's a perfectly fine thing, and almost ALL of the streamlining they've done makes complete sense.
    • I like Skyrim's approach to BGM better; over-world music, most of the time, including loading screen... this feels a little quiet.
    • I'm playing on the Switch, handheld only, and I love the form factor & experience; one of the most immersive handheld gaming experiences I've had.
    • The voice acting ain't great, and it's miscast as has been noted, but I'm reluctant to call it "bad" - I think it's just not up to snuff with the rest of the game. I haven't encountered any "Suffer Like G Did" moments.... yet.
    • Generally speaking, I'm getting the same positive vibes that I did when I FIRST played the original Metroid Prime - they've taken a classic and reinvented/modernized it in a way that clicks. That's not easy, as we know :)

    *NO* Mega Man 2 'Shredding the Air' *RESUB*

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    Agreeing with @DragonAvenger and @Jivemaster... arrangement has some nice elements, good drum work and solos as Deia notes, but it's static at times, repeats a bit, and has portions that feel like they're treading water before the next melodic motif enters.

    Part of this is definitely related to production; this is a genre that really leans on the presence and energy of its elements, and both the sounds themselves and their mixing/mastering leaves things feeling somewhat vanilla & lacking oomph. Kick should have more punch, cymbals more sizzle, guitars more warmth, synths more movement, etc., and the aggregate effect of these elements each being a little flat is that the overall mix feels thin.

    Some promising ideas, but execution still has a ways to go, and I'd focus on the production side of things more explicitly.

    NO

     

     

    I think my music is boring

    in Music Composition & Production

    Posted

    On 2/22/2017 at 8:21 PM, TheChargingRhino said:

    Piano is hard to master? Please. Though I have perfect pitch so I really shouldn't be saying anything....

    @TheChargingRhino This wasn't really helpful in any way, or relevant to the topic, and came off as arrogant. Best to chime in with something relevant to the thread; if it's a tangent of some kind, it shouldn't just be objecting to someone's claim made on the side, and then dropping your asserted perfect pitch in. I'm not sure you're aware of how that comes off, but it doesn't come off well.

    *NO* Touhou Chireiden: Subterranean Animism 'Dance of Decision'

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    So I think this COULD be rejected on arrangement alone... a little too repetitive, and the beat is relentless in a way that I didn't particularly enjoy.

    From a production perspective.... well, with pure chiptune, and in mono at that, what we expect is that the arrangement side of things compensates for all the production decisions that are being taken off the table - like panning, or DSP, or instrumentation beyond what the chip offers. We haven't been 100% clear about this in the past, but it's NOT that we have a blanket ban on chiptunes, just that getting one past the panel is harder - same deal with solo piano arrangements - because the set of production decisions has been significantly curtailed.

    NO

    ATTENTION DIRECTORS/PROJECTS: New OC ReMix Project Guide

    in Projects

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Darkflamewolf said:

    Okay, I feel really dumb asking this, but maybe it'll help other directors who are working on their own albums for OCR. There is this legal consent form remixers have to sign to give permission to have their tracks featured on the remix album once released on OCR, yes? How can we, as directors get access and view our specific project's list of mixers who have already signed the form? EDIT: This is also the best place I figured to ask this question.

    @Darkflamewolf Good question, not a stupid one.

    1. You need to ask OCR staff (me, @Liontamer, or @DarkeSword) to add your project to the consent form.
    2. I've modified the form to use the new Google Forms layout... I've also enabled responders to see a summary of responses. There's a pie chart that, at least, will show you the # of responses for your album. Seeing the names would require more flexible permissions than Google Forms seems to allow, so the best we can do for now is let you track the count, and then when it gets close to release, we can give you the list of names for your project.

    HELP NEEDED! ReMix Tagging Project! (Genres, Moods, Instrumentation, etc.)

    in Projects

    Posted

    11 hours ago, Zannick said:

    This is something I really wished for several years ago, I'm glad to see it's finally happening! One thing though: why call it 'Terms' on the remix pages instead of 'Tags'? The first time I saw it I thought of Terms of Use ("I thought OCR used creative commons?").

    Well, the full answer is kind of technical:

    • Internally we have a taxonomy table in our database called "terms"
    • Because it is hierarchical, it is possible for two terms with the same name to exist at different levels of the tree, which means their name cannot be guaranteed unique, which would make true use as "tags" problematic because of the potential ambiguity.
    • We also wanted to avoid the impression that we have an OPEN tagging system, where in fact we are using a very controlled vocabulary.
    • Nevertheless, if no one understands "terms" or has the same confusion you did, we should probably just use "tags" since it's more intuitive & common... @DarkeSword, @Liontamer - thoughts?

    OCR03500 - *YES* Super Mario RPG "The Usurper Queen"

    in Judges Decisions

    Posted

    All this executive privilege being employed currently has left a bad taste in my mouth, so I'll sub to the queue!! -djp

    ----------------

    • Game: Super Mario RPG
    • Artist: I AM DJPRETZEL. You do not hang up on Mustin.
    • Source: Valentina's Castle / Margarie Margarita -
    • Comments: Symphonic trap, mastered aggressively... the dominant concept I attempted to convey was sadism; this arrangement re-envisions the very proper & classical harpsichord original as something narcissistic & malevolent, no qualms about it. The source is basically a bunch of overlapping motifs; difficult to arrange without just doing a cover, which I don't like doing. My solution was to extend each motif out, in some cases extending descending progressions further downward as well. If source is an issue, I can provide a breakdown.

    HELP NEEDED! ReMix Tagging Project! (Genres, Moods, Instrumentation, etc.)

    in Projects

    Posted

    @Liontamer @DarkeSword I'm re-pinning this due to update:

    2,850 new ReMix-Term associations (tags) are now live on the site after processing the first wave of submissions!!

    THANKS to @timaeus222, @Tables, @SystemsReady, @Olarin, and @Jean Of mArc for the hard work and to @DarkeSword & @Liontamer for coordinating!

    We now have 16,000+ total ReMix-Term associations in the database.

    Time for more!!

    Phantasy Star 4

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I actually liked PS3 - the title theme is BEAUTIFUL, and that helped quite a bit, but the whole marriage/branching thing actual felt novel to me, at the time.

    PS2 was better BUT... those dungeons, those transporters.... (nightmares)

    The problem with any new album is consistent, persistent leadership; would anyone be down for actually helming this & taking point?

    Final Fantasy VIII: Collision Course - History

    in Projects

    Posted

    It's 2017, MAGFest is over, and it's (past) time we got things back on track!

    I'll be chatting with @JJT & @zircon - we may need some changes w/ our management approach, but we HAVE reviewed the initial round of WIPs, we'll be contacting artists where feedback is appropriate, and we'll be establishing a new timeline, soon.

    If anyone has an overabundance of free time AND experience running an album, let me know on Discord if you'd be interested in helping to manage this project with us and we can talk a bit!

×
×
  • Create New...