Phonetic Hero

Oh sorry man, I just assumed the entire track was one giant innuendo. Since it's called "Going Commando," I imagined a naked man running around threatening people with his... "cannon" Don't get me wrong, it sounds great

Brandon I think I've found your for the past roundEDIT: Also your track is fucking hilarious

Now THIS is a twist I can get behind

Aaaaaaand sent. That was quite the ordeal Sounds like we're 100% again though! Kickass

This is awesome man! I've been working my way through all the modes of CotM over the past couple weeks or so, I'm about halfway through the fighter right now (SO CLOSE to getting thief mode, my favorite ) That intro is reeaaaaallllyyy awkward, the 3 seconds of chip interrupted by the harp... I don't really think the chip part needs to be there. The flute in the beginning has some articulation issues, it sounds odd in spots. Individual notes are fine, but the movement sounds strange at times, usually in the lower register of the notes it's playing because of the envelope. Play with altering the starting points slightly so that the end of one note fades into the beginning of the next a little better The brass is awesome when it first comes in, but there's hardly any transition into 1:15. It's really surprising, in a bad way. I think a suspended cymbal roll would really facilitate things, and maybe a crescendoed snare drum roll (which brings me to my next point) The percussion feels pretty sparse with just timpani, some snare drum would definitely add some depth, maybe some concert bass drum and chimes too. Cymbals and gongs would be great for articulating certain spots as well I think the string articulation in the transition at 1:26 is also a little weird sounding, really dry and mechanical. The horns at 1:36 are a little blatty for the dynamic they're playing too, it sounds like you have a high end library that responds to differing velocities, and that would be a great spot to take advantage of lower velocities (might need to automate volume to get them up to the volume they were at with the higher velocity). The ending's also pretty abrupt, but I'm not sure of your intention with the piece, so I'll leave that alone for now Awesome start dude

Yup, I got both Evolve Mutations libraries for like $90. Best investment I've ever made EDIT: The bundle's even been made pretty cheap when it's not on sale. If anyone wants cinematic stuff, I recommend it

Oh yeah, I guess I should listen before saying shit. I blame the alcohol

I don't understand why you guys show the whole competition (competitors and monitors) your tracks before they're due. especially 2 days before they're due. What's the point, why not just wait till they're posted?

It would seem as though, if this team were to exist, their primary mixer may have run into availability problems, and being that this is the final week of a block of this hypothetical competition, there's not much of a chance to rectify the situation by having these hypothetical teammates finish up the track. We just wanted to see if there was anything that these teammates (which could exist but probably don't) could do in order to finish the track for submission

Don't fuck around

I could say that YOU'RE missing the point, but I don't think either of us are. I'm bringing out the other side of the argument and pointing out the aspects of it that you would seem to be overlooking, just as you thought I was overlooking your standpoint. I'm not including one of the aspects of the argument for my personal standpoint, because that's how an argument works haha, I argue my point, you argue yours (neither of us are obligated to argue both sides). I was just bringing out pieces of the counter to your argument, and pointing out that this approach has merit in my opinion, as does yours. Nobody's right or wrong here. I also never said I personally only listen to a track for [x amount of time], because I listen through all of them at least once. If I DID take the 30 second approach though, I don't see it as disrespectful. 30 seconds is a lot of time, and while you don't have to get to the meat of your track in 30 seconds, the first impression is important, especially in a competition EDIT: Most people just don't have the sample power or access to live players to pull something like that off. Believe me, I'd be writing way more in-depth orchestral stuff if I had the power to do so, but all I have (aside from my ethnic stuff, flutes, drums, etc.) are a couple halfway decent samples of a string ensemble and a brass ensemble from a VERY watered version of Kontakt. That stuff's expensive, and most of us just don't have the means to make the end feasible. As we've mentioned, you're apt to get more variability out of a decent synth (MUCH cheaper than good sound libraries, and in some cases, free) than a crappy stock string or brass sample

...How did you get that? All I'm saying is that your musical decisions have to have a purpose, and an introduction is a hugely important part of a track, so you better make sure it's got purpose. If the intro "makes use of long, well-selected (mind you, you're backing me up when you say "well-selected" ) pads that convey 30 seconds' worth of information in 50", then you're still giving the intro purpose, and someone like KgZ will be likely to listen past the first 30. If they're well-selected, the track should progress well. Also, I don't think it makes any sense to quantify "information" in seconds. Care to expand on that a bit?

I tend to side with KgZ on this one actually. Even the longest intro needs to have purpose. 30 seconds is plenty of time to tell whether the track is progressing properly or if things are just meandering. Some of you are taking it to mean the composer/producer needs to get to the meat of the track within 30 seconds, which isn't what KgZ is saying at all. He's saying that your intro absolutely MUST have a purpose, and serve that purpose without going off-topic. Even the longest build up can serve a purpose without meandering, and 30 seconds is plenty of time to tell whether or not you like the story that they've set out to tell. If they tell a different story than the intro conveys, it can be a very cool effect, but it must be executed well. Otherwise, it's a misleading exposition, which I tend to find a little irritating (even if it's a bad intro followed by an excellent track) from a critical listening perspective. I also agree that the composer needs to be responsible for their musical decisions. It can be hard that we're at fault for grabbing/not grabbing the listener's attention, but we ARE at fault. Music is an artistic endeavor, but more than that, it's a PERSONAL endeavor. It sucks that we have to take any sort of negative feedback personally, but that's the nature of the beast. If you can't learn to take criticisms to heart, and blame your shortcomings on the listeners, you won't progress as a musician whatsoever ("well they just don't like it for whatever reason, so they're not my audience - I'll get DIFFERENT people to listen next time"). You have to own your failures as well as your successes, to see what you do well and where you need to improve. That's just how music works; I've taken my fair share of harsh criticism, and I like to think I'm a better musician for it. I now go *seeking* harsh criticisms on all of my tracks to see how I can better them and what parts appeal to what listeners to gain perspective on the objective quality and also how to mold subjective pieces of a track to better appeal to listeners

Thanks for the kind words about the quality of the track, but I happen to strongly disagree with yours and a lot of people's stances on arranging of sources. Most people have been saying "if you have to post a breakdown to show where the sources are, you're not arranging your sources well enough", meaning that you only want the sources to be used overtly. I find that approach VERY boring, mainly when I write, but even when listening to the music of others. I like for there to be parts that I can discover past the first listen. If you find that my Moliarty usage is too liberal, I would say that you're not listening hard enough Check even just the first 8 bars (16 if you feel the whole song out in 160) of mine with the very beginning of the source. It's heavily interpreted, sure, but I wanted to get creative in my usage so that it would fit better with the style of the rest of the piece to form a more cohesive mix. I avoided posting a source breakdown because it does feel a bit weird to have to post one and because I wanted people to be able to discover the interpretations for themselves, but I can assure you a lot of thought goes into how I arrange, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who operates this way. I enjoy good interpretation on a source, and I don't think it's fair to punish someone for being creative with their interpretation in an effort to make a more cohesive track. I think it's also worth mentioning that not every two sources will fit together seamlessly no matter what. Some people just have harder work cut out for them than others because of the sources, and the interp was necessary to get Moliarty to fit in the style I wanted to do (traditional Japanese and cinematic in honor of Tengu Man). Again, because of this, I don't feel it's fair to punish someone for making a more cohesive arrangement with the cards they were dealt. Sometimes more molding with the source is necessary, and if people feel they need to post a breakdown to let others know how they did it, I'm absolutely all for it (though I'm still not going to) Besides, the judges encourage source breakdowns for actual submissions because of the interpretation dilemma that we're covering now. So why is it ok to be more interpretive and creative with a source if you're submitting for the site than if you're making a track for a competition? Encouraging people to put a damper on their creativity for the sake of making the sources blatant to the listener seems a little silly to me I also wanted to take a sec to say that the discourse on arrangement and source usage has been pretty civil, and I'm surprised and glad. Thanks everyone for not resorting to flaming and butthurt

This is why I wanted to make such a point about source usage earlier; sure, it's important to use both of the week's sources to create a good piece, but the bottom line is is that the *good piece* part should be emphasized from a compositional standpoint rather than trying to stuff pieces of both sources into your track wherever they'll fit. If you try to do that (and trust me, I used to do it ALL the time, and I'm still very critical of my own structuring and composition since that's what I personally value most) you're likely to get a meandering source that doesn't convey your intentions clearly and doesn't properly progress. EDIT: OH, and about how our team has been working, we've got a group chat for the three of us on facebook and run updates past each other, but it hasn't been anything really in-depth and time consuming yet. Just a link here and there and light discussion. I don't think you guys would be able to handle collaboration between any of us just yet anyway

Still a favorite of mine, great work guys and congrats Jordan!

If it wasn't so hilarious how pumped about everything Charge Man is, I'd say the Hard Men had the best portrait. But since it IS hilarious how pumped about everything Charge Man is, Mega Ballers win. Awesome stuff rnn, we <3 u

Haha, perhaps I should've said "era" rather than style

He sent some tracks that he's using for inspiration, and if those are any indicator, I'll say you won't be disappointed, especially given your... proclivity, shall we say, toward a certain style of music Also, even though Dustin is sick of The Moon, you better believe he's bringing the goods this week

I'm certainly one of the offenders here; I'm really sorry, I've just been insanely busy for the past.. hell, the past year now or so. I'm doing my best and things are ALMOST there to where I can comfortably finish my mix. It's very important to me that I work on this one when I can do it without stressing about it and trying to pound something out, because that's how I can get you all the best product. Prioritizing sucks, and I feel awful about having to push some things off to the side for the past few months, but I've been busy teaching/writing for drumlines for a huge part of the summer, working on the soundtracks for 2 games (which has the potential to further my career, and so I must put them first, unfortunately), as well as more than a couple other high-priority projects. It's not like I'm just sitting on my hands, waiting for the track to magically finish itself Hopefully I'll be able to hit it again this week, there's not a whole lot left. Hopefully I'm able to get finished up pretty soon, I made tons of headway last time I tackled it, and it started going in a cool new direction. This is the sort of thing that happens when I stew on what I've got for a while, so fret not! I'm making sure my track will be the best it can be

THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WANTING TO SAY, PUT MUCH MORE SUCCINCTLY THAN I WOULD'VE SAID ITpoop

EDIT: Nevermind Also yes, I'm down

Happy birthday dude! Too bad I couldn't make it back to Indy while you were there

What if I spell it with a "q"?

Just sent it, Sharty <3