Jump to content

SystemsReady

Members
  • Posts

    201
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by SystemsReady

  1. I feel that this track is definitely greatly carried by how well-made it is. Really fond of the percussion usage and the water effects in the background. Everything just sounds so clear and pretty, I actually didn't know this track came out in like...2002(!!)* because its fidelity sounds on the level of something I'd hear today.

     

    What is the lead melody "played" by? It's peculiar in a good way...I swear it sounds like singing when it hits the higher notes, which makes it both pretty and kind of eerie too.

     

    *(for reference, I was 11 when this track came out)

  2. [busts in screaming] Did I hear someone mention Pendulum?!?!*

     

    I think the Pendulum comparison is quite apt. Pendulum would always get crap for being melodic (referred to as "clownstep" in some dnb circles), and this is my favorite kind of drum & bass - melodic. I don't think the production on the percussion is up there with Pendulum, but given that I swear Rob Swire is some kind of percussion muse sent down to Earth in human form, it's not that big of a deal. 

     

    My only, only issue with this song is the overuse of vocoder on the male vocals. It sounds too robotic to be handled as straight vocals, but not robotic enough to be considered intentional. To have an example of vocoded vocals that reach all the way over into "robotic", Pendulum's The Other Side, or Visions, both of which are obviously using it as an effect rather than a crutch for underconfidence.

     

     

     

    *(seriously, they and Knife Party are my favorite. Rob & Gareth haven't made a single song I've disliked.)

  3. Man, it is so nice to hear woodwinds in a remix. I think the lo-fi synths sound a little robotic, which is jarring given the lovely strings and woodwinds, but the general "vibe" is good enough that I can easily overlook it. I love the lead violin that comes in, but I wish it was there more, because it's just so pretty!

     

    Cave Story's yet another game I haven't played, hence the lack of critique about the usage of the melody in question. :S Sorry!

  4. I haven't played any of the Animal Crossing games or listened to the music, so basically I can just review it from solely a production and composition viewpoint instead of comparing it to the original...

     

    Those games always struck me as super happy and colorful, so hearing a remix from those games that's as melancholy as it is is very unexpected and interesting. I love a good piano melody and this song has a great one. I find it fascinating how it has a swing feel and yet manages to sound a little dreary - everything "jazzy" I've ever performed was ridiculously upbeat or chill.

  5.  Falcon judo/karate/krav maga their way through faceless minions for now many years now? It's fun and all, but it's all we really get to see any more. (I haven't seen Ant-Man yet, so I can't comment on that one)

     

    I dunno, while that's technically true, I thought the Captain America films did a great job handling characterization (Avengers films...less so). The second film in particular was the superhero spy movie I always wanted.

  6. I've worked with Facebook and Twitter aggregation before......it is not fun, tbh. :/ Facebook's dev tools and resources are a mess, if you're lucky to even find out where they are on the site that is, and Twitter has been doing some immensely annoying stuff with their API like limiting the amount of calls you can make in a day.

     

    I'm a PHP programmer myself, with a dash of front-end JS/jQuery work and a lot of HTML/CSS experience...but I'm sorely hurting for a paid job and am working on a commission at the moment.

  7. I am a HUGE fan. :D Fell in love with Persona 3 FES six years ago, preordered Persona 4 that same year, fell in love with that too!

     

    I'm so stoked for Persona 5...and that lovely, lovely GUI design. I wonder if they hired any web designers to design their menus? So gorgeous!

     

    I'd like to get Persona Q, but my disposable income is nonexistent so :x

     

    The music is definitely one of my favorite things about it. I have the entire Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, and Persona 3 Portable soundtrack, as well as the Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden soundtracks!

  8. I never want to hurt butts when I point this out but that's inevitable... it might be hard for a site that takes 6 months to a year for judgements to maintain an active member base. A year is a long time, by the time those judgements come out, people could have either given up with music entirely, or the feedback is irrelevant because they've improved. 

     

    Holy shit, it takes 6 months to a year for remixes to be judged now? Damn...well, speaking as someone just starting out in making stuff, that does make me FAR less inclined to submit anything. Six months to a year is an eternity in music industry time.

  9. My only problem with the demands is that this basically ensures that any VA who is NOT part of this union won't get work, or any VA who is part of this union will be penalized for working with non-kosher devs. And of course, this means that every goddamn game will have all the same goddamn voice actors like they already do. When Yuri Lowenthal voices two separate, but entirely different characters in Persona Q because he was a VA for characters in both Personas 3 & 4...

     

    And I can't help but think of the composer for Journey, who got reamed for his work by his union because it was a non-union job. How is this helpful?

  10. I had a telephone interview with a potential employer last week and haven't heard back since. :( I have an ongoing commission but it's not enough to live on by any stretch of the imagination, and the company my roommate (who I'm living with on his charity) works for is rumored to have a 10 to 15% employee layoff when Q1 rolls around...and he got this job two months ago, so he'd likely be on the chopping block. :( 

     

    Would love to finish my degree, but I need a job first. But I need a degree to get a job...

     

    Still working on my website. Would LIKE to have it finished before October but it doesn't seem to be happening.

  11. I'd say Trance more than house, but it's definitivly classic trance...

     

    Cheers

     

    Yeah, the problem with trance is that what is labeled "trance" has changed so much over the years that they barely resemble each other. Compare Hello Strings by Synergy (released on Armin van Buuren's label) to Armin van Buuren's D# Fat. They're both on trance labels but barely sound alike.

     

    Of course, it doesn't help that trance isn't really strictly defined by beat pattern and time signature like house, dubstep, etc. is. Trance nowadays tends to be applied to anything put out by a trance artist...even trance-y songs aren't considered "trance" if, say, put out by deadmau5 (I Remember is considered progressive house, not trance, despite being more "trance"-like than anything van Buuren's put out in the last five years). It's very muddied. :|

     

    [/nerd]

  12. Tactics, but turn-based: Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor. Not only is this game's story rather morbid, but it's also very...very...difficult. Characters can and will die if you're not around to save them.

     

    I didn't like Devil Survivor 2 that much, but maybe its upcoming re-release will fix the balance issues I had with it.

  13. I agree on the bass; technically, there are/were artists/bands out there that put the bass at/nearly at the forefront or feature it somehow, such as the Jazz Fusion band Weather Report, who notably let Jaco Pastorius do bass solos. I also get though, that generally you don't hear bass as a prominent instrument.

     

    I see Jungle music as having more emphasis on subs and amen breaks, and is generally fairly "dark", whereas DnB tends to have more straightforward drum patterns, being more beat-driven. When in doubt, I would just pick DnB when the difference is hard to distinguish, as they both use similar general drum rhythms at similar tempos. The difference, from what I'm hearing, is stereotypically in the way the drum pattern draws focus on its variations or doesn't draw focus and just acts as a "beatkeeper". (Use your best judgment though)

     

    Example of Jungle

    Example of Drum & Bass

     

    From experience, jungle is a DnB subgenre, like how "liquid" is a DnB subgenre (hard emphasis on melodies and beauty). :o

  14. Trying to get some kind of programming job in the Twin Cities so I'm not nearly as terribly poor, finishing up my existing website, revamping another one, and starting a new one, and working on a project in Unreal Engine 4.

     

    Also, will focus on music and 3D renders when I'm done with the sites.

  15. Z on GC controller, if I remember correctly, Nintendo was trying to cheap it out with the GC controller by not only not having extra triggers at the top which had become standard (they wanted just L/R triggers), but also they were even contemplating not having the classic iconic d-pad, their own major contribution to the gaming world. all to save some money on the controller (just a few cents!). In the end, they caved in to pressure and added the dpad (probably one of the worst dpads on a Nintendo console though), and gave the fans the "Z-trigger" they loved so much with the N64 by adding an uncomfortable awkwardly placed button. Worst parts of the controller :/

     

    Idk, I thought the Z-button on the GCN controller was placed well, especially as controllers that came after it have similar conventions ("bumper" shoulder buttons alongside shoulder triggers). My problem with it was that the design was asymmetrical, but at least the controller wasn't as baffling as the N64 one.

  16. If you like clean, but strong vocals, I've been particularly fond of Caligula's Horse lately. They're prog metal, if you like that.

     
    Here are a few of my favorites:
     
     
     
     
     
    The last one is a slow burn, but it's what got me into them in the first place...especially since I was playing Skyrim when my friend sent me the link. 
     
    They have a new album coming in October. :> Really stoked.
  17. Re: genre tags. You're missing Drum & Bass (like Cave Story: "The Unbroken" by Nutritious) and Trap (like that Ice Cap remix you posted a few weeks ago).

     

    Drum & Bass is too fast to be posted as Dubstep and too percussion-heavy to be house, and has a very, very strong scene. Pendulum is the most well-known DnB group.

     

    Trap is too slow to be hip-hop and tends to use an 808 drum hit, with a very specific beat pattern. It may or may not have vocals.

     

    House can be elaborated upon: 4/4 time or similar (Knife Party's Rage Valley is in 12/8), four straight beats every measure, 128 BPM.

  18. I am crushed. The instant I got online and found out, it pretty much torpedoed any chance of me being productive. 

     

    Dude was a great person and a badass programmer. 55...god...so early...

     

    I would love to see a tribute album. And totally second the idea of sticking a Kanto song from G/S/C in there. Or Pokemon Stadium 1 (the JP one), as he's the one who ported over the battle logic for that game.

×
×
  • Create New...