arglactable

I posted a track I believe over 2 years ago at this point, based the original Deus Ex soundtrack, had some useful conversations about it and then lost interest/faith in making it any better. Subsequently, I've revisited this, and now here's a thread about it. Scrapped probably about 75% of what I had before (because, I'll be honest, it was crap) and significantly reworked the remainder, plus a lot of new material, into a more focused and (I hope) competent piece. https://www.dropbox.com/s/3sreq6bbargy5lz/Combine.mp3?dl=0 Based on the UNATCO theme. Brief reference to Versalife - Conversation.

That was a pretty shocking thing to wake up to yesterday. I can only assume that Microsoft contacted him immediately with the promise of an extremely large check with his name on it.

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to see it seems like an improvement (the first version I posted sounds like complete garbage by comparison, IMO). I'll think about ways of potentially adding some interest to that section. Honestly, given how much work I've put into making the guitar not sound horrendous, I'm not feeling hugely motivated to do much else with it at this point.

I think that's a complex issue and I certainly wouldn't say story-driven games are anywhere near that new. Mainly I think that the length expectations for games and the apparent desire for games to be more like movies are mutually exclusive with regards to a story that really works. The problem isn't really the length, IMO, it's the length in combination with a story that attempts to be paced like a movie, but is generally (at minimum) 2-3 times longer if not much, much more. I'm less concerned about this with MGS5, mostly because I like most of the story telling techniques Kojima has introduced here, Instead of tons of fluff that stops the game in its tracks to start being a movie for a while (not that it's been completely eliminated). Incorporating the story telling into the game-play works wonders. Collectible tapes that fill in back story, flesh out characters, etc, codec calls that don't require you to stop everything you're doing to crouch and chat for 5-10 minutes, and other meaningful techniques to telling a story like a game instead of just trying to be a movie. A lot of that involves the willingness to let players miss a lot of the content you wanted to put in there in favor of a focused core experience, which is something Kojima has been TERRIBLE at before. Basically, I think the problem is not that you can't tell a good or well-paced story in a longer game, but rather that having "the most ludicrously big map ever" or "over 200 hours of content" or even just general expectations of 20, 40, or 60 hour games doesn't work well when you are trying to use exactly the same story-telling techniques that a 2 hour movie does. I think Dishonored is a great recent example of this. It is entirely possible to blaze through that game in 6 hours or less, but I probably spent at least 20 on my first play-through, because there was so much optional detail there if you really cared. That's how it needs to work. Instead of using the game to pad out a movie story, make a compact core experience and then enhance it with the kinds of things game is better suited for. Overheard conversations, diary entries, lore gleaned from various books, environmental details and secrets that tell stories when you're paying attention.

As someone who did buy and play it, I have to say that I am not furious about the price and I am still glad it got a boxed release. It does a really good job of showing off the engine and the (VASTLY IMPROVED) mechanics in a meaningful way. That said, 20 dollars or less would have been a more reasonable price for the one map, albeit a very open-ended one, in which the handful of missions (which are selected from a simple menu) take place. There is certainly a lot of enjoyment to be had in replay given the size and complexity of the base, the large number of weapons and gadgets, and open-ended mechanics if you're into game scenarios that openly encourage player creativity. Playing through the bulk of the content once would probably take 4 hours at most. I've probably put in about 7. Overall, I think they could have done better in terms of content or price, but they were pretty open about it from the start and it's still nice to get a taste of the Fox Engine this early. I think a lot of the really strong negative reactions, while not unjustified, are pretty reactionary and hyperbolic.

Well, there is no such thing as headphones/speakers that don't color the sound and using monitors is always preferable (headphones have hugely exaggerated channel separation and major limitations in bass response). That said, the advice in here is pretty solid. I also had decent experience with Grado SR80i's for that price range, though they are a bit treble heavy and they are far from stylish. I currently use some V-Moda M-80s as a nice contrast to my monitors. They are more fine tuned for recreational listening, so they emphasize the mids and the bass a bit more and roll back the treble. As a general rule, build quality and durability is not what the cost increases are based on at all, with the possible exception of stylish consumer brands like Skullcandy and Beats, which often just put the same drivers in a different shell.

Yet another awesome, groovy jazzification, dude. You are great at that. I don't have much else to say about this. It's cool as hell.

This sounds really cool. I might get it once I actually own Kontakt 5.

I think this has been sitting here long enough to move on the next step. To reiterate, tracks referenced in order: UNATCO, Versalife Conversation, UNATCO, Main Theme.

Copyright laws are ridiculous, so it's probably technically illegal. There is a difference between a multimedia product and its soundtrack. Still, ripping them for personal use has pretty much zero risk.

A cadence is just a harmonic progression that indicates the end of a phrase, section, piece, etc. You could go into the specific classical cadences (authentic, half, plagal cadences), but I basically just mean some variation of your progression that tells your listener that they've reached end of the track. I think that fade-out style works a bit better with a more traditional pop song structure (though, it's still not my personal preference). Your remix is basically an "A" section, followed by a bridge back into the "A" section. Attempting that kind of fading chorus without the contrasting verse seems kind of awkward to me. It doesn't sound like the ending of a pop song as much as the beginning of a loop fading out much like simple album edits of looped vgm. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Overall, I think this is a pretty good deviation from the source material in terms of basic harmony and structure Right off the bat, that piano part sounds incredibly stiff and artificial throughout. Right now, it very clearly sounds like a mouse-sequenced performance. Some velocity variety, beat emphasis consistent with the meter (beats 1 and 3 in 4/4 time), and perhaps a tasteful touch of rhythmic sloppiness would help a lot. Given the prevalence of this instrument in the track, it would be a pretty major change. In terms of instrument choice, I think you could use something to fill the frequency range between your bass parts on your melody (maybe some harmony) in a lot of the track. A pad could do the trick. It would also give you a bit more timbral variety, because you have a lot of sharp, plucky sounds with short attack. Your percussion part is pretty good, but I think it could be a bit more forward in the mix and I would personally add some variety to the hi hat part (some open hits), because straight 16th notes isn't terribly interesting, especially given the kind of loop-oriented structure of the piece. You might also consider putting some snare hits a beats other than 3, for pretty much the same reason. I'm not a big fan of the fade out ending as a rule. It usually ends up sounding like you didn't bother to write a legitimate cadence. Your source may be a looped track, but your remix should have an ending.

I just threw in my go at it. I think it worked out pretty well.

https://soundcloud.com/andrewmushel/a-coalition-united-final-cut Again, I've made a lot of small changes (mostly in mixing). I think, I'm pretty much done modifying the track at this point. The only way I think it's going to sound much better is if I invested in some commercial software/samples to replace all of the free stuff I used.

I personally went with the Komplete Audio 6, over the 2i2. It's USB 3 compliant, it has a greater variety of inputs and outputs (2 XLR and two balanced 1/4" inputs, 4 balanced 1/4" outputs, MIDI in/out, S/PDIF in/out,), it has a headphone output with dedicated gain control. It's more expensive, but it's feature rich for an interface in its price range.