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AlmightyArceus

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Posts posted by AlmightyArceus

  1. Having the same DAW is nice--Rozo and I used Garageband--but not having the same DAW doesn't mean too much. Really having the same DAW doesn't give you any advantage or disadvantage besides actually visually being able to see differences in the actual program the novice is used to. Had Rozo not been able to use Garageband, it would have been a minor problem. I would have sent him an mp3 or wav instead. We were prepared to work around it had Garageband project files not been plausible to send between each other. I don't think there should be any restrictions either way in reference to DAWs.

  2. Ugh, we have to judge? UUggghhh, fine.

    ENTERING JUDGE MODE

    I'll put up my eval here, but I'll judge in PM. However, it's late at night, and I might not send in the judging PM until later. (I'll probably edit this post here as people begin posting their sources)

    I remember this source! Ah, sweet nostalgia.

    I'm not a fan of the synth used for the opening notes, nor the slowing down/speeding up of the opening arpeggio like that. However, it's a clever re-instrumentation of the opening, and I feel like the guitar parts are well-written and performed. The mixing is good. No muddiness or anything like that.

    aaand I still can't get used to that sudden slowing down of that synth. Oh well.

    I'll fill these in when all the sources are posted

    Gonna be continuing this? lol

  3. I've revised the download zip with some more ID3 tags and album art.

    Great work everyone, I just locked in my own votes, and it wasn't easy. Everyone has at least one vote at this point, so you should all be proud. I'd definitely like to see some of these submitted, perhaps with some cleaning up. I especially enjoyed ScarfFace--always love me some NES Mega Man--though it was definitely still a little rough around the edges, or I would have ranked it higher.

    Incidentally, how do you all feel about the voting system? Is it better to have a public social group, which is easily audited, or PMs, which are more suspenseful? Should I post a chart of who voted how at the end, or is there value in anonymity?

    Lol there definitely is suspense, and I think that's good for a contest. I'd feel more sad if I saw votes stacking up against me live versus just finding out at the end that I wasn't chosen. That's me, personally. But it does make me anxious to know :P

    As for the display of the votes, I think that you should post a chart of the votes, but not who voted. Anonymity is a good thing when it comes to voting cuz no one can be judged about it. You could put a tally of how many points each mix received, in descending order of course.

  4. We did the title theme from the original Mother game. SOURCE:

    It took a while to actually get rolling on this mix. This wasn't originally the song we were planning to do. Originally, I chose the title theme from the indie platformer Tower of Heaven, but that remix didn't pan out, so I ditched it. I then tried a few more (unsuccessful) themes, such as Ninja Gaiden 2, the Pokemon title theme, etc. None of them stuck. Finally, I stumbled upon the theme to Mother, a classic, and was instantly able to do something with it. By that time, we were a week into the contest.

    I had been talking to Rozo previously about the mixes and selecting one; obviously we went for a simple source. It was difficult to actually work with Rozovian because of our major time difference; he lives in Finland and I live on the Pacific Coast of the US so there's a 10 hour time difference, meaning lots of the time where I am awake and active, he is asleep; and vice versa.

    I got going with the track on Garageband--he updated his version of Garageband to help with production after I finished a part--and then I ended up finishing the rest of the song last night; he finished production on it while I was asleep. A tip for next time: have each star and novice provide their time zone so that they can be more carefully matched. That would help out a bit.

    I stuck with my usual style, which he likes doing as well, which is working in odd times. I converted all the licks in this from 4/4 to 5/4. I had a TON of source in this, as well as added in some "Easter Eggs"--the 8 melodies from mother, a small chunk of the Ruins of Alph melody (in a 6/4 "skip" bar), etc. One of the reasons I like converting time so much is because even if I am using a lot of source it sounds pretty different from the original because of the conversion from one time to another. Anyways, I arranged all the parts etc, used all my usual drum samples etc. Rozovian did a bit of production on it.

    What makes me a bit disappointed about this contest was the fact that I got very few pointers and instructions from my partner. Many of the others here were very satisfied with what they were learning about the program/remixing from their partners, but I am sad to say that I didn't gain very much knowledge from my experience. Everything I did was the way I normally did it, and the production I didn't really get to know about much. My work was observed but not really critiqued. I certainly do not believe that this means that my work is good enough to not need comments--I believe it craved more, but didn't get many. I would have loved a lot more constructive feedback to help make me a better remixer, but unfortunately I didn't really get that much. It was fun working with Rozovian on a song, as well as touching source material I had never touched before. I'm not saying at all that I am ungrateful for Rozovian or the help that he gave me on production. I just wish that I had been able to learn a bit more so that I could up the quality of my mixes to something that would be able to get closer to passing the judging panel.

    I thank you for the opportunity, and I hope someday I can enter this once more to get another, different experience from this.

  5. MOD REVIEW

    It's feeling a bit long to me, though, and the square melody that rings throughout the track feels like it meanders around a lot. All of the change-ups help it out, but the melody still just feels like random wankery when you decide to wank on it. Don't read into that sentence any more than you need to. With good wank, the wank lines move from one point to another - without that it sounds like the wank is just there to wank, and that's not really a good sound.

    Could you give me a few examples (exact times in the music) when the wankery is too much? I want to know what you hear that is displeasing.

  6. Don't you even think about changing that name.

    Since it's more of a generic dungeon theme in the game, if you want to make it specific to Alph, consider incorporating Unknown sprite noises or maybe the 'mysterious radio signal'. I can't remember what it sounds like, but it could help. The DS remakes altered the theme slightly as well, but it probably wouldn't be much help, especially since the mix is 'finished'.

    Sounds great.

    I actually did incorporate the mysterious radio signal both at 3:38 and 5:19. They're in what I call the "soupier" sections because those sections are quieter and more reverby. The fact that you didn't hear them within the mix lets me know that they weren't exactly apparent enough; I'll bring those out just a little bit.

    At 0:50, the wubs that come in, to me, seem to have too much reverb. Maybe back off a bit on the reverb and focus on getting a wider sound out of them. Try increasing the stereo width in whatever way works.

    It would be great if the leads had some slow attack vibrato.

    1:26 - the analog saw there might benefit from pluck-type sequencing.

    I like the reverb idea going on at 1:51, but try reducing the high mids on the reverb and raising the highs. I think more of a hissy reverb might work better. Just not too much or it will interfere with the triangle wave lead there. If you had it at, say, 60%, raise it to about 70%, not 80%, etc. I do like the KeyFol there though (the timbre changing at different spots on the keyboard).

    Oh my gosh, thank you for this. Stuff like this is exactly what I needed. :D Just one question, for the "reverb" you're referring to at 1:51, do you mean the lead or the entire mix reverb? Thank you so much! :)

  7. I'll give you my one cent on the matter. :-P It's one of my favorite sources from 2nd gen, so I know it pretty well. Let's see...

    I felt like the lead/melody was exposed without sufficient background just a touch too long at the beginning; I would've liked to have it come in a few seconds sooner. I get that it's a longer piece, and so the builds are going to/can take longer to get to where they're going... it just felt a little too long, even given that.

    4:01-4:11 - Really liked this section. I felt like you could've gotten to this point a second or two sooner from the quiet section immediately before it, but that's definitely personal preference.

    Overall, an enjoyable piece - I definitely liked the feel you were going for. The soundscape did feel a touch empty in a few places, but not painfully so. Wish I had more advice to give!

    Thanks for advice on the length; I'll be looking into that. Anyone else have something to say about this mix? Critiques are very welcome indeed :)

  8. MOD REVIEW

    It's feeling a bit long to me, though, and the square melody that rings throughout the track feels. With good wank, the wank lines move from one point to another - without that it sounds like the wank is just there to wank, and that's not really a good sound.

    There are a few lead lines that indeed upon second listening do need a bit of melodic improvement; purpose has always been behind them, but some just don't turn out as well as others. I'm sure you know the feel.

    The length does feel completely needless, though - I feel an entire song up to 4:52, with an ending little drop, there... then the song continues. I'd suggest cutting off the ending entirely, and closing the song at that point.

    That's really funny you say that, because that's the ending I've had every other single version. No joke. I've just had it fade out and I thought it was a good little ending on a G major chord, but one of the judges thought of it as a cop out so I went ahead and changed it up for this one. Glad to see I have some similar thoughts going on that ending.

    The background pad is pretty vanilla. Not much that I can suggest otherwise - maybe a pad with some muted upper partials? - but it did stand out as being under par to the rest of the track. I think you can leave it safely, for the sake of the OCR panel, but I thought I should point it out.
    I feel like this version I kind of pulled back more on the pads; I can definitely bring it more up to par there. Gonna add in some sine harmonies or something along those lines :)
    Otherwise, it's pretty good. Cut the length of the track and perhaps mess around with the square wank so it sounds less like wank and you'll be in good shape. Good luck!
    Thank you so much for reviewing this!
  9. My, DAT ROCK GUITAR. Really diggin this mix. I only feel like you have a few things to work on, one of those being the drums, because when those hard core guitars came in, the only thing I felt like I was missing was bigger, bolder drums. Though I do see what you're going for with those drums now (from the way I hear, just trying to keep an underlying, fast paced ambience) I think it would be cool to hear some bolder sounds pop out from the drums. Also, near the end when you bring back the acoustic sounds, you might want to EQ those a bit because they seem to not match the more hardcore sounds you have going on there. Other than that, sounds like an awesome mix!

  10. I've been working on this for quite some time now and have had this thread on the Finished status, adding lots of touches etc. However, my original attempt was flat out rejected; my second submission was rejected by a single vote, primarily due to soloing and the original solo piano section. Now, I have substantially altered that and am seeking Mod Review as in my mind, this track is nearly complete. Please take some time to listen to this track; opinions are much appreciated:

    https://www.box.com/s/568dc2e14417192536b6

  11. I completely agree with the whole of the intro comments. I am very confused by the intro melodies and everything going on in there. The whole entire first minute, I am very confused by the pattern you are trying to make. To me, it sounds like you attempted to get something going that sounded glitchy and groovy, but to my ear it's only halfway there. A few of the licks sound random in there and don't exactly flow--take 0:51 for example. I don't really know what that lick is doing there, it seems to come out of nowhere. I would work on the lead writing a bit to make it stronger and flow more, and if you really want to go after that glitchy feel, you have to add some background "noise" around it to give it that feel.

    When the song gets going about halfway through, it gets better for sure. It still has some issues, like lack of build and repetitiveness.

    What I feel like you should invest in first is looking at the feel you want and rewriting the lead to really suit that. Whether a playful, glitch-bit mix or something with a few more pads, the feel needs to be established. Then I would improve the soundscape; fill it out, give it more substance to keep the listener interested. Really EQ the drums (as well as everything else); in this mix I felt like the drums were generic and could really be built upon. Just have some fun with them--the mix in all, really--and you should be good :D

  12. Yes... in fact, double-checking now, I realize that yours is technically only one that counts, since all others were sent in before noon PDT. However, since I didn't absolutely, unequivocally, no-room-for-misinterpretation, state in every place possible that signups began at noon, and no Stars signed up since Sunday, I'll accept the signups that came in earlier today.

    Oh thank you! I didn't even realize it was noon for when we had to send it in! I just thought it had to be the 17th!

  13. I am quite interested in this contest; i have been trying to get a mix on the site for a while now, and it would be greaat to geet some input from some posted REMIXERS. I have no preference who i am paired up with; i am willing to work with anyone! :) Looking forward to this! :)

  14. It's been a while since I've posted to the forums (or really remixed that much) but this was my latest piece of inspiration. I really dig what I have so far, what with time switches, some soft wubby bass *(not really the main feature) and lots of deviation and creativity off the source material. The name's up in the air: I originally called it Alphabet Soup but that name is just a bit too bubbly for this mix (still considering that name though, just for laughs.) Anyways, give it a listen, and tell me what you think! :)

    ReMix: https://www.box.com/s/c4a039aae41462de50a6

    Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz8NqZ4nZPM

  15. So here's one of my original poems, entered for this month's competition. I'm new to the competition so I don't know how everything goes down, but hopefully this submission suffices.

    Monochrome

    Would you be able to touch shadows

    or fade into the sunlight?

    Would you be able to sit back

    and watch the color fade from your life?

    Would you try to touch the world,

    expecting your hand to melt,

    and come out unscathed?

    Would you touch the wall

    and fall right through,

    or would the wall keep you in place?

    There is much to observe

    in that time between evening and night

    where all is grey, and color

    becomes a thing of the past, not the future.

    For in monotone chromes we see

    the truth set before us

    in the most vivid and gaudy arrangement

    ever to be created before.

    Color is a hinderance.

    Color distracts.

    Color takes the forms of you

    and turns it into something different.

    Color makes the odd things matter

    and throws the important things

    to the grey space.

    Color is the difference between us all.

    Would you be able to live without pain?

    Would you see lies as colors?

    Would you be able to embrace the monochrome

    or just fade into the facade of color?

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