Phonetic Hero

Everyone's hit this with a decent amount of feedback, but the drums didn't seem to get covered, so that's what I'm here for (I'm starting to hate myself for playing to the "percussionist" stereotype, but whatever I guess...). The bass drum in the beginning seems to mask the other stuff quite a bit (sax and choirs, namely); try some EQ or even low end compression, since that sample sounds pretty heavy in the ultra low range. Later on in the rock section, a couple of the drum fills feel super mechanical. It's mainly when you have a lot of notes in succession on the higher drums (snare and high toms). I'd recommend slight velocity changes and some minor quantization so it doesn't feel so strangely perfect in time. Part of it is the attack on the drums too, since it never changes; if you have another sample with a *slightly* softer attack, put all the notes after the initial attack note played on that instrument. Since a drum head vibrates when you hit it, notes played in quick succession will have slightly different attacks because the vibrations position the head slightly differently by the time the stick gets there again. Also, I will go ahead and say that the string segment leading into the rock section does feel pretty out of place; sequencing strings is really F'ing hard. That's all I got for ya, hope this helps! pH

Dude I LOVED your prelude mix! Did you ever follow that up? Also these are sexy as hell, MWF has a highlight for me now pH

Man I said I'd critique this a couple days ago, but I really don't think I'm fit to do it. I find myself distracted by the drums and like "yeah, that fits good there..." haha (although if you feel like the song would benefit from some drum changes, don't hesitate to bark at me). It could also be the fact that it's 5 AM and I need to go to bed. I'll give 'er another listen tomorrow, just thought I'd bump for EVERYONE ELSE in the WIP forum.. This thing is smooth, people pH

pH

Oh and hey it's review tiemz Hornet of Legend - Reminds me of Legend of Mana. Really cool, and I also love harpsichord, and I'm glad that you didn't make any weird velocity or volume changes with it, since it's not possible on the actual instrument. Sounds real Gaelic and stuff, kudos for taking a risk and making it work. On a side note, can't wait for Lime of the Season. If you end up kicking anyone off and need a filler... Blast Counter - Starts of nice and thick sounding, but it takes a little long to get into the meat for my tastes... I do like the bassline that was added for the Wily stage segment. The dubstep stuff sounds really vanilla and weird, like I can't tell where the hell the timing is supposed to be because the filtering is so strange. It sounds like someone used a high speed camera to capture that sound your lips make when you go "ppppppppppppp" and then slowed it down to go with music. Also wasn't a fan of the medley "A then B" structure... didn't feel very cohesive as a piece of music. But, it was much more interpretive than you're previous piece, which made the different sections sorta fun to listen to. Dr. Wiwwy, Polarized - I sincerely hope the name is a reference to the hilarious voice acting from MM8 Intro is badassss, that's some good synth modding. I'm jealous. I can't really critique anything here... the atmosphere is great, and I love hard-hitting electronic music, if you guys couldn't tell. The chips are used really well, and they feel really modern, which is weird but cool. Awesome man Proud Warrior of a Forgotten Kingdom - Pretty short dude. I like the harp though... I'm a sucker for harp. The harmonies are cool. Not much to say, because there's not much there for me to talk about ha Bring the Heat - Cool piano intro but could certainly use more humanization. The chords and intervals get this weird double stop effect (sorry, I'm a percussionist, not sure how else to explain this sort of phenomenon ), which is the result of the notes starting at exactly the same time. Also, sequencing strings is really difficult, especially when they're as exposed as you have them. I really like the ideas presented, but the articulations sound pretty odd, especially the attacks. Tower Power Boogie - Lots of piano this round. This one's sweet, although I have to wonder if the name is appropriate since it feels like something in the old west. Something like "Spark Man Hits the Saloon" would've been more fitting imo haha. Anyway, I think I read that you used a midi controller to record this right? Cool. There are a couple timing issues, which don't really bother me for the most part actually, because of the style. But, there's that first run that sounds a bit off; the ending one is fine for me because of the gradually changing tempo. I picture the inebriated piano player just getting too far ahead of himself and drunkenly thinking "aw fuck it" Shining Groove - Shining groove indeed. BUT, that cymbal dome really gets on my nerves after a bit, and the drums as a whole get pretty of aurally exhausting after a while, especially between the domes and the snare. The bass playing is pretty sweet, but gets to feeling like unnecessary filler material in some spots. The interp plays is pretty safe, especially on Wily's end, but the arranging of the sources keeps it from getting too stale. The domes though... what is this, I don't even, they're so shrill, I'm turning it off The Fall - Love the vocals. Starting to hate the style... Sorry dude (and Sir_nutS ) but 80's music doesn't have that nostalgia for me as it does for a lot of people, since I'm a 90's kid. Some of it actually sounds borderline hilarious to me. That shorty bass gets pounded into my brain and kinda starts bugging me after a while. BUT, there's a lot of stuff I enjoy in this mix. The vocal processing is awesome, the drum work is awesome, and the general atmosphere is great. I really enjoy the vocal harmonies, really good stuff. Robot Lounge - Superb execution, first of all. I said it once, but I'll say it again - Damn Amph, smooth really is the name of the game here. Props to C7 for nailing the key sigs, I know that shit's tough (I wrote a Super Metroid marching opener and got to listen to how shitty the intro sounded (especially on the trumpets' end) because of the Eb minor key sig ). Not many complaints, this one's easy to sit back and enjoy. Great work. Wily's Bubble Bath - I accidentally my all the smoothness in this playlist... Oops, I /b/tarded. This keeps the groove right on going, and I dig it. Nice modding of the Wily part to fit 1 bar instead of taking up 2 (or a half instead of 1, depending on your tempo choice). Really like the dance-y, almost European feeling of the whole thing with the sidechained bass and stuff. The vibes bugged me at first, because the grace note velocity wasn't quite low enough to make it feel natural, but I pretty much forgot about it after about the 3rd run through and just enjoyed it. Good work Hardman (pronounced like a last name, e.g. "Silverman") Planes, Trains, and Auto 'n' Beat - zomfg another movie reference get a life loser lol Seriously though, I hate typing this thing as much as everyone else... if you voted for me, thanks, but I sincerely apologize for the 10 second pain in the ass. WITTY THO, RITE?! Combustive Implosion - The name give ms a hankering to blow something up using flash bomb. In real life. I like this one a lot. The drums are fitting, although honestly it's pretty easy to identify the FL defaults, and it bothers me, perhaps a little more than it should. I like the saturated soundscape; loads of delay and reverb to go around. Synths were all well chosen, and the high hat slicing is kewl. I don't understand why people hate on Grenade Man's theme so often... I love all the music in Mega Man 8 (except maybe Clown Man, but his stage is stupid too). Good choice, and good work, except for that (non existent) ending S'all I got pH Edit: wow LOTS of emoticons... enjoy 'em :D P D: D:

Damn near every time I write, I drink a monster... it does help. K maybe not EVERY time I write, but when I get back from class, take a nap, and get back up to lay some shit down, those things really come into play

I found that pretty funny

HA! Also, if you never stuck around to see what happens after you beat the alien (who, remember, was Wily the WHOLE TIME) HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS THE END OF THE GAME Seriously dude, sometimes I don't even... Edit: Gario... I respect the hell out of that

Hey ASS, if you'd've finished the damn game, that green alien thing was Wily the WHOLE TIME (in the words of geoffio)

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He said 9 like, 4 posts ago haha

Remind me to wear my cup on Saturday EDIT: Also, GREAT use of the smileys, Xarnax

I suppose the mixes DO receive less attention simply because they're being posted alongside other mixes from the album, but at the same time (as an offender myself), the regular mixes often get skipped entirely because of the album posts; you see "HEY, NEW ALBUM!!" everywhere and then a string of album posts, it really takes away from the regular posts. I like this idea a lot. I completely, 100% agree that older mixes need more attention And I thought I liked the previous idea a lot.. personally, I'd be ALL OVER this. I've already been compiling a list of mixes I want to do from a LOT of unmixed games. And I suppose we are out of time in 2011, but that's fine with me, I've been busy with the WCRG anyway There's always 2012!! Hope all this gets ironed out before I get posted, and lost amongst an album mixflood pH

I still <3 you

Oh come on man, at least make something up so I don't feel like such an ass for stealing 2nd

Nice man! This feels more purposeful after the big climactic section, like it drives till the end instead of wandering around a bit till the outtro. The rearrangement is satisfactory I can't give a whole lot of other crits other than "this sounds better than it did" because I've heard it about a billion times and everything has just kinda settled for me, as I'm sure you've experienced as well. Maybe if I give it like a week without listening and then come back to it, I'll be more useful. GROOOOOOVE BIAS'd

Haha, I second that. Damn Amph, you weren't kidding when you said you were feeling smooth

Hey, YOU don't have anything to worry about, you Mega Ballin' sexy-boy. Rozo and I both voted (at least I assume, I haven't actually checked the thread in a while, but he posted his picks in his reviews...), AND (!), and, I finished cleaning up and polishing my track just in time, AND (!!) it has a definite ending now that will please even Ecto (and a halc drum outtro, which I already warned him about )

JUST IN TIME!! phew.. Fuck, just realized I forgot to add gating to the second instance of piano chord-y shit. Just.. imagine that it's there Excited to see all the mixes this round! pH Edit: Actually, the gating doesn't matter the second time through, so JUST ENJOY IT AS-IS, plox

Hey, I mixed for that round... that's what made it so awesome, right? But seriously, this round should be at least as good on my end I'm as excited about the new batch as you are!

Damn Gario, I love your writing style. The way you use chiptunes doesn't even make them feel like chiptunes, they feel so... modern. Insane man. I was blown away by "Attracted to Power," and a bunch of my friends who I showed the track to were as well. I'm really looking forward to this week's mix from you in the WCRG! Keep writing cool shit!

Ur drums are SUX d00d!!

Charge Man doesn't know how to minor, and teaching him is hard. But no worries, I'm in a great mood, because here's why: I just found out I got accepted into the KU percussion studio, and get to study with Doug "DrumUltimA" Perry! How neat is that?!