djpretzel

Sticks the landing. The progressive vibrato (i.e. baked into sample and not dialed in via controller, I believe) is doing a lot of the heavy lifting on the flute lead - from a certain perspective, I'm glad it's there, because otherwise the notes would just... sit. From another perspective, it comes in predictably, with the same envelope, each time... I think this could have been masked to some extent with some expression modulation (or if sample doesn't support, just modulating volume), but.... I'll live. I've certainly heard far worse, and the sequencing is lovely. Kudos for slowing the intimate, very cinematic (as @MindWanderer points out) piano bits down and giving them temporal breathing room. I don't really enjoy listening to the original, to be honest - I hear the promise, but it's on tempo rails and hits me wrong - but I dig this treatment, and found it engaging and well-conceived. Repetition/reuse wasn't flagrant, but in the future for extended passages you intend to repeat... just alter something, even if it's one interval, so we know you know, and to give the listener contrast... and, more importantly, to further explore the possibilities of the melodic line. Right on. YES

This right here. Bam. SUPERB example of a single decision that was make-it-or-break-it, for me. I was about to reject this for lead fatigue - the issue to me is not so much one of EQ and no mids (imo the mids are in the main lead, and there's good separation & clarity throughout), but one of a static, overused lead sound. Sure, it's cross-panned (or on every note?) initially and then sits still, but it's the same sound, and had it remained all alone for the whole mix, I would not be passing this. But, as @Emunator points out (I read his decision AFTER listening & coming to the above conclusion, and it made me happy to see it echoed) at 2'37" we get the additional lead.... which is rather interesting/unorthodox, a slightly nasal, distorted, buzzing affair... but it works, and more importantly it adds absolutely-critical timbral variety to the main melody. Without this **one** element, no way. With this **one** element, yes way. Sometimes that's how it is. YES

Yeah. @Liontamer's vote, on this one. Which is actually not that common, where he's the one I agree with the most, but...it's got an idea, it runs with it, executes it well enough, feels complete. There are a gazillion ways this could be enhanced or extended, but that's not really the point - we gotta judge what's there - and I think this is above the bar. Not far above it, but above it. It's a familiar theme for most of us, but I ain't heard it this way, and I enjoyed hearing it this way. Repetition definitely subtracts some metaphorical points, but while it was an issue here, it wasn't flagrant enough to be a deal-breaker for me. YES

Source melody meanders in a way that kinda had to be addressed for a synthwave structure, and I think the artist has done a good job with that - it's liberal, but not too liberal, and even that varies, as some parts connect more. Essentially I'm just echoing @prophetik music & @MindWanderer's votes - read 'em both, agree with 'em both. Lovely warmth and grit to the lead synth, I might add. YES

Really cool sound design on the intro; was a bit worried that thunder sounded mono, but the subsequent filtered noise effect kicked in with a wider field and it made me happy. The buildup kinda leads to almost a false drop? 1'05" didn't satisfy me in the pants like I was expecting, and my pants had to wait until 1'27" - some energy is lost, with this approach. I assume it to be 100% intentional, but from a groove bias perspective it kinda interrupts the flow, deflates a bit, THEN kicks in with that familiar melodic riff. Not awful, just a tad unorthodox, I guess? The rest of it is solid, no huge surprises but a fun EDM take on the source, however... we need to talk about the drums. At parts they feel a little crunchy/muddled, and is it just me, or are they nearly mono themselves? Almost all the elements - kick/snare/hats - seem to sit dead center or only very slightly to one side. I dunno... it's not OA's best work and I have a hard time providing a fully-throated YES - the intro/build has more variety in the sound design, there's a weird transition, and then things kinda ride out in a satisfying/enjoyable but predictable manner. I'd like more of the intro mystery & textural variety sprinkled throughout, at least one breakdown or left turn somewhere towards the end, and a rethink on the drums - with some wider stereo separation - to be 100% on-board. YES (BORDERLINE)

I basically agree with @MindWanderer's vote, but I want to throw in some extra praise: love the production, here. With lofi each element has to be "just so" and then they all need to work together, and I feel like what's here does exactly that - from the silky, rubbery bass to the subtly effected tails of samples, the texture is on-point, and lofi is all about texture. That being said, just needs to.... do more. Two minutes and change, and the first minute is essentially the same as the second. This is such a fantastic foundation and I'd love to see some soloing, melodic embellishment, etc. on top, extending to a three-minute marker and differentiating itself a bit more. NO (but sweet production & I'd love to see a resubmission w/ more meat)

Given the new effort/thread, I'm going to lock this thread now, and archive it soon, to prevent confusion.

Yeah, it's a hard one. I don't think CSS alone will do it, unless inline styles could be consistently overridden using !important or something like that. jQuery is an option, and possibly the best option; here's a lead that might help: https://dev.to/gamesover/using-jquery-to-fix-background-foreground-color-contrast-automatically-538i

@Ramaniscence Nice! Just FYI, there should (finally) be some changes coming in a couple weeks to the navigation header, and eventually the forums. Overall theme will be darker, but regions with a lot of text will remain white-on-black, perhaps making a dark theme a bit easier since it will just be toggling those specific sections. With post content itself, one of the challenges is that Invision allows copying & pasting that includes background & font colors, so while the thread you screencapped looks fine, some posts will look quite wrong (white regions, potentially with light gray text, depending on what's being formatted within the post) - I imagine even this could be fixed with some fancy jQuery, and if that's something you're up for, that same logic could eventually be incorporated into the actual site.

Would always be interesting to have more PC98 representation! Catchy source. I get that you're keeping the vibe, but have you perhaps sped it up a bit? I'd consider dropping 2-3 BPM down, I feel like it's running a bit fast. I've got individual observations & you can pick/choose which if any you agree with Drums end up having almost a hybrid EDM vibe because the dynamics are static across large patterns - I like that there are fills/breaks, I could even stand for some more of them - but I'm talking mainly about the melodic parts where you've got the downbeat going; because they're sampled & not explicitly electronic drums, and because the fills/breaks are more humanized, these stand out due to the velocity of the kick/snare hits being maxed out, basically all the time. I think humanizing these would give a bit more organic vibe & more contrast... either the chorus or the verse could be significantly quieter, for example.... hopefully the drum samples you are working with are multi-sampled and respond differently at lower velocities - if not, I think there are some free options out there that do, but I'd have to check. In short: humanize the drum line a bit to prevent listening fatigue. RE: listening fatigue in general, I think a breakdown might help... something to reduce overall intensity, noticeably. Not that waveform is everything, but right now you can tell just by looking at the Soundcloud visualization that it's basically a non-stop proposition... something to cut that up a bit would help. Drum dropout, then fill to back-in, etc. I like the organ solo, but I do like it better for a dirty B3 than the churchier option employed here... if you can get something with more grit, maybe Leslie... You're asking a lot of the sampled guitar, on lead, and I'm wondering if a straight up synth lead might work better.... perhaps for just one of the variations? Right now it's being a bit overused, as a lead, with nothing sonically to distinguish it from section to section. One way of addressing this would be via creative FX application, where it's widened/delayed/modulated in some manner in one section, but not the next. Another is to simply swap the lead out to a different sound, and I think synth could work. If you wanted to get a little cheekier, instead of just making the third variation more elaborate on a single lead (whether you keep the guitar or roll with something else), you could do a call-and-answer style duet between the previously-introduced organ and the main lead, introducing some harmonic combinations, having a couple notes in unison, that sorta thing. Just a notion; could be fun. In terms of is-it-ready-to-submit, I don't speak for the judges panel, but I imagine they'd pick up on some of the same things, all of which I think would improve the track. Hope that helps!

You can do that for yourself, for your personal collection - absolutely, no one's stopping you, and why would they... The key word here is "redistributed" - if you're hosting/mirroring portions of the collection for *others*, yeah, we want the files to be official & unmodified. If you're remixing them, that's no longer redistribution of the original audio, it's a different ballgame entirely. Conversion to OGG wouldn't make much sense (lossy to lossy?) - @Liontamerhas done work on silence trimming so if you find mixes w/ 10+ seconds of true silence (no signal), let us know here. The bigger no-no that we're especially concerned with would be modifying tagging/attribution, FYI.

Yep, agreed. Will add it to the list, might make this change sooner rather than later.

I think FF3 is actually further along, because @Rexy has been a bit more available - @Gario was supposed to be coordinating Lufia 2 but I haven't seen him around much. We'll def. regroup in the new year & figure something out.

@theconsoloist Should be fixed now, sorry for the trouble & thanks for reporting!

@chanq This is superlative work; I'm not only impressed with the organization & presentation of data, but the design (and reasoning behind it) make a ton of sense to me. This work will absolutely inform future enhancements to the site, and is deeply appreciated.

@BONKERS Funky! I will say, I felt like the low end didn't kick in until like 2'10" - bassline before that is active & funky but not filling out the bottom much, so when 2'10" hits it almost feels like bass is appearing for the first time. Something like bx_subsynth, or adding a sub layer, or just EQ on the bass could help give it more low end.

@Broadcast Bowsette done!

@JohnStacyMan that sucks; regarding radio silence, I've been seeing/hearing a lot of that, directly & secondhand. I think it's mostly people being at their limits - emotionally, physically, spiritually, politically, you name it. Probably guilty of it myself, gonna try to do better. I wish I had some ideas/suggestions; sounds like even institutions are eroding, based on lack of response...

I would always recommend Komplete first, above all other mega do-it-all libraries/collections - Reason Rack *is* great, Arturia V-Collection *is* great, but Komplete feels the most essential and capable of handling pretty much anything.

I would relish the chance to discuss Super 3D Noah's Ark in a writeup. Don't let this bias your decisions, though

I dig the lead sound here; it's unusual, and it makes the whole mix more interesting. I think my biggest issue is the timing - an intentional swing/unquantized thing going on, which can work really well w/ slower beats & downtempo/lo-fi stuff, but at faster tempos - for me at least - it starts sounding like unintentional lag/slowdown - 0'43 with the kicks, for example. I'd be most curious to hear this with different % swing, something more subtle. Could also dial it in more selectively, for breakdowns or verse vs. chorus.

In the interest of moving forward, and also because this album is kinda coming back from the dead (or at least purgatory/uncertainty), I'm suggesting the following title: Final Fantasy III: Resurrection ...to kinda gel with with the FF1 & FF2 albums, so it's "Random Encounter, Rebellion, Resurrection" - a trio of R's. If anyone feels strongly that this title is poo and/or has a better idea, please chime in! Also, the album has been added to the project consent form - please sign ASAP!

Just caught this on twitter... looks great

Just chiming in - no matter what Soule did, this game's soundtrack is a part of many folks' childhoods, and nothing changes that. However, deciding to participate in this project is one of those topics where, personally, I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I've explained my personal reasoning, and how I conceive of art in the abstract, but I'm not offended if anyone finds it unpersuasive/disagrees. Key thing is that no one gets judged, either way, for their decision on this, or attempts to equate others' decisions to participate with a tacit endorsement of the behavior in question.

With Golden Sun out of the way, it's Badass 4, Lufia 2, & FF3.... hoping we can get the last mile on this one, will be talking w/ @Gario