Chimpazilla   Judges ⚖️

Another question: What about the 3DS? Someone mentioned to me that 3D can be hard on the eyes, especially kids eyes... do you guys agree? I'm toying with the idea of a 3DS for Christmas for Tom, with Mario Kart 7 and OoT 3D.

Conversation between me and Tom while playing Skyward Sword: me: Get that red rupee, red rupees are good! him: They're OK mom. me: They're better than rupors, at least there's no rupors in this game, thank God. him: Don't thank God mom, thank Shigeru Miyamoto!

He's got a great attention span, logic, and photographic memory. His map reading is crazy good. His only real downfall is getting frustrated when he loses a race or challenge, but getting killed by worthy adversaries seems to be no problem. He is learning quickly about the importance of going into battle fully stocked on health and potions! And thanks for what you said, I hope your nine month old is a cool kid too! We have Super Paper Mario, that was great! Will check out the Thousand Year Door, thanks! Will have to check out SMRPG. We played through Bowser's Inside Story and that was another terrific reading practice. These are great replies, thanks so much everybody.

Wow great recommendations... gonna check them all out! For some reason Sonic doesn't do much for Tommy (I love Sonic though). And we played through Okami all the way to the point where you *must* do the digging challenge to continue (not a side quest) and it is IMPOSSIBLE so we gave up on it... (sad chord here) @Ecto: Yes he is a video game wizard, amazingly advanced for his age, navigates all the confusing dungeons with ease and fights the gnarliest enemies and makes it look easy. *so proud of him* Tom is the only first grader (only kid in his entire school I think) who has a backpack covered with triforces. No one else he knows has even ever heard of LoZ. That music from Alundra is awesome. I forgot to mention Tom is a music afficionado as well... he remembers every song from every stage of every game we have ever played, and can hum every bar perfectly, even four years later. I can't wait to get him started with FL Studio, he's going to be my favorite music buddy too. He needs to be reading more reliably first... we are getting there. Can you tell I love my kid? Thanks again for these suggestions, keep 'em coming if you've got more.

Hi all, My 7 year old son is a very good gamer. He took my ds lite out of my hands when he was 3 and beat the entire NSMB including the final castle. We have played every Mario game for DS and Wii, and he has nearly completed DKCR by himself. He is top notch at Mario Kart. We have played through every Zelda game together and we are halfway through Skyward Sword now. Can anyone recommend other games that my bright child might find interesting, yet that are suitable for his age? The Lego series are way too easy and boring for him, and I don't want him getting anywhere near the Call of Duty type games... looking for other epic adventures similar to Zelda* that he can do. We have a Wii but would consider getting another console if the game was right. *yes of course I know NOTHING compares to a Zelda game except Zelda, haha!

Thanks so much Stevo! Those are great comments, and great ideas. At this point we will wait for the judges comments, and if we need to revise it we will take your suggestions into consideration. Thanks for the kind words and your vote of confidence!

That would be great, thanks. I use FL10 also! edit: I just sent you a pm.

Funny you should ask... I don't have one yet, but I believe my husband will be getting me one for Christmas. Any suggestions on what I should get?

Hi friends, I have recently been working on piano humanization and have learned many skills. I now have a remix underway which has piano, flute, three kinds of strings, and some trumpets. Can someone point me to a thread or tutorial (or just offer some quick words) about humanizing strings, brass, winds? I'm assuming it is going to be "swells" using volume automation, but I'm sure there are plenty of other tricks. Any advice is greatly appreciated! p.s. the remix is very dramatic and dark as it revolves around Ganon. Heh heh heh!

I like the snare just fine! And the kick. It's the OTHER drum elements that are frying my brain, haha!

I really love the contrast between the chiptuney stuff and the realistic drums, especially the snare. But the whole drum loop sounds distorted? A little too much fizzle and crunch, it takes away from the other clean elements. Some cleaner hi hats would help a lot I think. Nice track, I like it. (sorry, I'm not a mod... I'm waiting for a mod review too...)

Update: song was submitted to judges on Nov 29th. Kindly requesting moderator review! (second request) The intro has been slightly reworked for a little more drama. http://soundcloud.com/chimpazilla/a-stormy-affair-mod-review-2 We hope you enjoy it. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

"Worth it" is a matter of perception! At this point I am just enjoying the sequencing, as I said I am learning more than what is apparent to everyone else. For example the song I'm doing now is forcing me to learn to read music for the first time. So for me, it is totally worth it, at this time. Please don't worry about my wasted time people, to me it is not wasted! (but thanks for the concern) As for making a remix out of the two piano songs on soundcloud, I really hadn't considered it, but yes that is a possibility! I liked your suggestion! (I'm not gonna attempt a piano-only remix, so no worries about picking it apart!) *puts up umbrella to avoid vulture droppings*

Thank you Rozo!

I realize I'm never headed for Carnegie Hall with my Fruity Loops program, haha! I'm just practicing. I have piano parts in two of my remixes, they can both use improvement, so I'm just trying some stuff out. I'm taking a little "detour" into piano, just because I'm finding it fun at this point. Also I think there are concepts here that are helpful to me in all my sequencing endeavors. One day, and seriously one day I will just wake up and say "today's the day," I will get a midi keyboard and really try to play it. Look for my post entitled "why did I wait so long?"

Hey SnappleMan, you are totally right, it does sound forced. I did some work with note lengths and even added a tempo automation clip, but I can hear now that it still sounds mechanical. I'm working on another practice piece that is much more detailed, and I'm not sticking to the grid at all, and snap set to "off," just putting the notes where they sound right. It will probably never sound as good as playing the piano for real, but hopefully it will be better. This is a very good learning experience for me. Thanks for your honest feedback! Did you at least like my jokes?

Where did everybody go? "hello?" *hello-hello-hello* "echo?" *echo-echo-echo* Well, for anyone still here, I did another piano practice today and I would just adore some feedback! http://soundcloud.com/chimpazilla/piano-practice-2-midnas-lament

Working on my humanization skillz... "Space Junk" from Super Mario Galaxy I Critiques requested! How is this sounding? Specific comments? Thanks in advance! http://soundcloud.com/chimpazilla/piano-practice-space-junk-from btw... I can't read music... all picked out by ear... *runs off to put icepack on sore ear*

I wagner what debussy he is even talking about...? Oh, haha I get it!!! *rolls eyes at corny jokes* *smiles at snappleman's delightfully piquant sense of humor* But seriously folks... yes I am planning to look into getting one of those handy-dandy midi controllers! Do they also grill the piano steaks, or is that an extra attachment sold separately?

Easy for you to say! *wanders off in search of piano steaks*

Hey there Rozo! I haven't done anything with the pedal... not quite sure how yet... was hoping the *almost finished* tutorial would address that... other than that, what I have done is alter the velocities, panning and note lengths... I really took my time and addressed each note the way I assume it would be played in reality. I initially tried some of those randomization settings and quickly abandoned them! I don't like using features where I can't see the logic of how something was done! So each note has been given the royal treatment. I'm sure it still sounds somewhat mechanical at this point... arg it may be as good as it gets... Prophecy is still working on the tutorial, let's see if the magic answer is there! *damn why don't I play the piano... mom was right... gggrrr!*

Still looking very much forward to seeing that tutorial when it is done... but in the meantime, the song has been bumped for mod review. http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36851

"A Stormy Affair" is ready for an official moderator review! We have made every effort to address all the arrangement and production issues that Rozovian has been kind enough to address. Some of the suggested revisions have not been made as it comes down to a matter of individual taste. David and I are very pleased with this song! Thank you Rozovian for spending so much time and effort helping us with this song. Your words of advice have pushed the song, and the artists, to the next level.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yippee, woohoo, yeah!!! Between you and Monobrow we should have a fairly comprehensive database to work with! Finally some REAL help with this!!! *runs off shrieking with glee*

Hey Monobrow, thanks for writing all that out, I'm gonna print it out and read over it a few times. Really appreciate that! Many of those things I have already been trying: different velocities, panning each note depending on which hand/finger would be playing them, varied velocities within chords, moving notes *slightly* etc. You're right about reverb, easy does it, and a little more decay does push it into the background when needed... so I've done a tiny bit of automation with that... all of this I am learning. I'm going to re-read this and play with it a little more. Confession - I have two songs going that have piano parts... one nicely polished and almost ready to go (will post link here in a day or so, partner adding more to it), and another wip that's much rougher... focusing mainly on writing/arrangement on that one... if I get brave I'll post that one too and you guys can let me know how bad it sucks, haha! (or better yet, offer arrangement suggestions )