zircon

Ah yes, straw men are so great, aren't they Metatron? Anyway, I don't see any reason to protest this movie - the books themselves weren't really that anti-religious either, imo, as Darkesword pointed out (especially in his spoiler, which is quite relevant.) The movie will probably be even less so. Plus, if I recall correctly, Pullman himself doesn't have a problem with how they're treating the story. That should be the end of the discussion right there for any purists. I guess you don't remember what it was like to be a kid, or don't know a lot of kids. While I don't think protesting a fantasy movie is somehow helping any cause, it's pure ignorance to think that children are not influenced incredibly easily. For the vast majority of country, any values, morals, rules, or beliefs parents try to instill in their children are very fragile. "Don't go to bed late", "don't hang out with this crowd", "don't make fun of other people", "don't drink", "don't smoke", "don't get a tattoo"... whatever it is, you could be pounding any of these messages into your child's head for years on end and a single 'cool kid' at recess plus a tiny bit of peer pressure could override all of it in an instant. In other words, it's not "is their faith so fragile?" but rather "are their kids really that susceptible to outside influence and peer pressure?" and the answer is a resounding YES.

The brass samples are indeed pretty weak, I noticed that right off the bat. Encoding could be better too rather than straight 128cbr, as the highs throughout are lossy. I also thought the mixing/mastering could have been better. Lots of low-mid energy, not a lot of balance throughout, which maximizes the actual volume but not the perceived volume. More time on EQ and fine-tuned compression (preferably multiband) would help that. The interpretation of "Memories of Green" & "Secret of the Forest" was a little on the coverish side in terms of the approach at first, though there was enough new writing to pass our bar. As the mix progresses, the interpretation becomes more interesting, which helps solidify this mix in the direction of a YES. However, the beat is pretty plodding... Trenth I think this is a pretty consistent problem in your mixes. Spend more time on drum programming and don't just use the kit to keep a simple beat. Do something more interesting next time, please. It's not a deal-breaker but it almost always brings your stuff down. I'm glad the mix picks up around 3:45 or so with the new themes. Prior to that, while the writing and interpretation was all there, I thought the sounds were beginning to get repetitive. Syrupy violins & pianos only go so far. At the same time, the heavier instrumentation & beat also brings more mixing problems, with more crowded lows, and fake brass towards 4:45 or so. Again, the vanilla beat with little variation doesn't help. After listening a few times, I think it's clear that the arrangement here is solid enough. Not my favorite style personally, though, and I thought it went on a little too long considering how most of the melodies were played out in a very similar fashion with the same sort of sounds. I'm torn on this because there's definitely some creative stuff going on in terms of the actual notes being written - no medleyitis here - but the production is very dull, and in particular the rhythm section is straight-up boring. The level of energy is pretty low overall and it seems to me that the mix sort of is torn between an orchestral ballad style, and something heavier (with the synth cameos here and there.) Texturally, things don't change a great deal, and the changes are too gradual. Unfortunately, despite good writing, this mix doesn't have enough going for it to merit a YES, in my opinion. The orchestral sounds are lackluster, the drums are boring, the melodic interpretation throughout is approached the same way, the mixing & mastering aren't so hot, there are no major changes to rhythm, time signature, tempo, or instrument texture, etc. Skip around the mix and the whole thing sounds very similar no matter where you go. This is way weaker than your Wizards & Warriors sub, John, kick it up a notch. NO

OK all you aspiring orchestral OC-ReMixers out there... listen to this before you complain about us rejecting your mixes due to production! Nutritious isn't a pro film or triple A game composer, and he doesn't have big expensive commercial samples. As a matter of fact I think these are free samples. No, they're not knock-your-socks-off amazing, but the combination of good writing, orchestration, mixing, and processing masks the weaker elements and the end result is quite enjoyable. It conveys emotion and does a great job of interpreting the source tune (which I am not particularly fond of.) The arrangement as a whole is very effective. Some might criticize the dynamics on this, since it is mostly quiet overall, but I think if you simply turn up your headphones/speakers, it sounds wonderful - compression would really make the loud swells less impressive. If I had to make one nitpick, it would be that aside from the trumpet and cymbals, most of the instruments could use a high end EQ boost to increase brightness. A little more stereo widening/separation wouldn't hurt either on some of the ensemble parts that seem to be rather centered (like the french horns.) I have no idea what Larry is talking about at 1:50 or so, I don't hear anything wrong there. Great job! Keep it up. YES

Hell yeah.

We've got one in the queue already. LIVIN' LARGE!

A couple years ago, I edited + arranged some music for a juggler in the NYC area, Meike Fromm (or simply "Mika"). A month or two ago she asked if I could write some new material for her, and I said I would try, but I simply don't have the time right now. I promised I would find at least one replacement, so here I am looking. This is a paid gig assuming she uses your music. Website: http://diabolomika.com/ Video: http://diabolomika.com/videos/mika.mov So as you can see, she uses a number of musical styles, most of them being fairly rhythmic in nature, and tending to be on the uptempo side. Having access to various ethnic sounds, particularly Japanese/Chinese, is a plus. Last we spoke she was looking for something perhaps in the vein of an anime theme (maybe more like J-pop, that's the impression I got.) If you're interested, please PM me and include your email and full name, plus website/demo (if applicable.) You absolutely MUST: 1. Be willing to work with her (the client) and make revisions. English is not her first language, and she is not a musician. 2. Be willing to speak on the phone; this might be a given for some, but when I have worked with her, it was always easier and more efficient to go over things that way. 3. Have decent quality samples - if you haven't done any paid work before, and/or don't have a remix posted.. eg. if you're just some guy with FL, don't bother. Like I said this is a *pro* gig, this music will be used repeatedly in a wide variety of live performances. If you're not a serious musician this isn't for you. Again, a website & demo are preferred, but not necessary. I will pass on the contact info of interested parties along. Best of luck, and if you're interested please reply ASAP, I want to get the ball rolling..

Amazon sent me two, so, I'm selling one. Box is still sealed; includes the Xbox 360 game (Guitar Hero II) and the Xplorer guitar. Typically lists for $85, I'll sell for $65 (includes ship).

The problem with "wait for the facts" is that the only people that know the facts are; (1) Gamespot (2) Jeff Jeff is probably under some sort of ultra-strict NDA right now, and Gamespot sure as hell wouldn't admit to firing him for the reasons we suspect.

The kick is distorted, but it's not clipping and has a decent amount of headroom. The tone choice is a subjective thing, IMO, it's not an objective problem with the recording or sample playback. That being said, I do have to agree that it probably needs more low-end meat and less high end saturation. Simple EQ and maybe layering another sample on top with a deep fundamental would probably get the job done. Much like Jredd's NSMB sub, this definitely has a rather rough production sound, which includes a decent amount of compression and saturation. However, I think it works better here than it did in the NSMB mix (which I personally NOed.) The frequency balance is not bad and I think Beatdrop/Roe have passed with harsher mixing/mastering. I am OK w/ the production. Arrangement is pretty creative overall, and the way the song is structured works. I have no complaints here and think the mix has a good flow. My issues w/ the somewhat rough production are not enough to outweigh the creative sound design (to be expected of Jredd) and the arrangement. YES

It doesn't work that well. Marketing can boost sales and visibility, but product quality is definitely an important factor as well. I mean, think about this for a minute. A million-selling CD these days is considered a success; many are having trouble even going gold (500k). The latest Britney Spears album might have sold 1 mil, POSSIBLY 2 at most. That's not even 1% of the population of the U.S., despite the ubiquity of Spears in the news, in record stores, on MTV/VH1, etc. Plus, saying the "whole point" is to create something cheap and subpar is stupid. Marketing campaigns are extremely expensive. Making a cheap/subpar product and skimming the cost of development is not going to seriously offset the costs of a big ad campaign, and it's a stupid strategy anyway. More than likely, when a company ends up with a crappy product, they just try to spend more money to attempt to save it... but actually trying to make a crappy product with the intent of selling it through heavy marketing along? Doubtful.

Actually, there's one other product I forgot... Wallander Instruments has an AMAZING set of physically modeled brass ("WIVI" vol 1) that use purely synthesized tones and special convolution reverb to give an extremely accurate sound. Some people are shocked at how thin it sounds at first, but when you think about how a real brass instrument, alone, in a dry room actually sounds... it's quite accurate. They also released a second volume, winds, which is not quite as good but still very solid. Very expressive overall. Downside: they're really expensive, though not as bad as BBB. At least there's a demo. http://wallanderinstruments.com/

We judges have identified common problems with submissions and compiled a list of these common problems in checklist format. We'd like for listeners to use this checklist when listening to a WIP and formulating their feedback so that the problems we usually see in submissions are addressed at the WIP level. The checklist is a supplement to personal, specific feedback. Don't forget to leave personalized and specific comments (positive or negative) that elaborate on or have nothing to do with the checklist. Positive reinforcement is great, so please use it when you want. You don't need the checklist for that. The point of the checklist itself is to guide listeners towards giving feedback that improves a submission's chance of acceptance onto OCR. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding this form, particularly what a listed critique means, please post here. Ready to critique? Start by copying and pasting everything below into your new reply post! The Feedback Checklist Using the Feedback Checklist Say you like a remix but just have a couple of complaints. To make things easy to read, put an X next to the problems you believe are there and simply delete the problems on the checklist that you feel do not apply. Here's an example:

[21:10:01] * Atmuh (~what@pool-71-167-26-170.nycmny.fios.verizon.net) Quit (Killed (Services.EnterTheGame.Com ([Ref#:94450 - Expires:9/24/08 7:00:00 PM] [Q] Insecure Connection (Type A10 - Port N/A))))

Definitely no good free there out there, even payware like JABB is not amazing. Chris Hein Horns and First Call Horns are two nice choices, and if you were somehow to inherit $2000 or so, Broadway Big Band is absolutely THE best for that style (and sounds dang-near perfect.) Too bad it costs an arm and a leg.

This should be cool. You don't hear a lot of mellow trance/breakbeat these days, mostly over-the-top stuff (I'm a bit guilty of that *cough*) - your style sort of reminds me of BGC and sgx combined. 'Memories' is definitely nice. Keep us posted!

In my opinion, the high end is more detailed and clear on the DT880s, but definitely not piecing or fatiguing. I usually work for hours straight, sometimes up to 5-8 at a time (only with small breaks) and not only are they luxuriously comfortable, but I don't feel like my ears are being blistered at all. I also don't feel like the slight high end emphasis impacts my mixing or mastering at all.

Look into the Beyerdynamic DT880s. They sell for $175-225 (depending on year) but if you look at reviews in general, many people consider them to possibly be the best headphones ever. They are ULTRA-comfortable and finely detailed; supposedly, the 2003 model has weaker midrange, but I own 'em and don't think that's the case at all. The 2006 pair apparently fixes that, regardless.

Intro has some pretty creative and interpretive ideas. I was disappointed that the material that followed stuck rather closely with the original in terms of harmony and melody. Do more fun stuff with the melody! Change the harmonies up more, do some soloing, add your own original sections, do more counter-melodic stuff and add extra riffs (you started doing this at the end.) Based on the intro alone, I think you easily have the ability to do this. Right now, it's too repetitive and close to the original past the intro. Performances all seemed quite good across the board. Unfortunately I'm not on a great listening system in the moment, but the recording quality generally seemed solid.. I think the issue is that it sounds quite overcompressed. Leave more headroom for the loud notes, and only lightly compress/limit things (of course, normalize the final product too.) Frequency balance, as far as I can tell on this system, is good. The dynamics processing is what needs work. Nice shot, good ideas in the intro and some of the material later on, but go the extra mile, like Darke said. NO

In the film industry at large, generally speaking, the composer does not start working until the film is completely edited, or close enough to it. Then, the director will sit with the composer in a 'spotting session' wherein they go through the film, and the director points out what sort of mood or style of music he wants at which point. eg. in a car chase scene, "I want it to be edgy and heavy." The composer's job is to take thorough notes and write down exactly what the director is looking for. This will come in handy later if the director complains about a musical choice you make, contradicting himself earlier. At this point, a track with dialogue and possibly sound effects and temp music (probably unmixed, in all likelihood) will be available so the composer can get a feel for what's going on. Postproduction and music may receive increasingly less time in the overall production of a film, but five days is definitely unrealistic.

I certainly didn't mean to suggest Eidos somehow demanded he be fired. That doesn't make sense. The PA post says it perfectly. They pulled ad dollars and future ad dollars, GS was pissed.

Nothing free will get the job done. $100-150 will get you Lyrical Distortion vol 1 or 2, which sounds great... $300 or so will get you Prominy LPC which definitely sounds very real.

Coop, according to the post at Penny Arcade (by Tycho) - "After Gerstmann's savage flogging of Kane & Lynch, a game whose marketing investment on Gamespot alone reached into the hundreds of thousands, Eidos (we are told) pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of future advertising from the site." It seems like this is really a no-brainer. You're asking for "proof" that ad money is why he got fired- you'll never get it, because the GS management will never admit to it. But when you have numerous credible sources and giant Kane & Lynch ads up on the GS site, put two and two together, man.

Bump?10char

Kureeijii summed it up... there is nothing wrong with resubmitting, and we will always give feedback on anything we receive. The issue is when we get resubs where clearly not enough thought has gone into them, and/or when people resub days after they get rejected which is and always has been against our rules (21 day wait period between subs.) There has been more of this lately, but people resubbing without getting more outside help is an old problem. Now, we're aware that the WIP forum is not always the place to get the best or most accurate feedback. In fact, there's a discussion thread on the topic in the private judges' forum and we're thinking of ways to improve it. That being said, it's still better than just going off blind instinct. There are a number of other resources as well. * The ReMixing forum. We very often reject things that have poor production. If we tell you your drums are no good, and you don't know how to fix them, the ReMixing forum is a great place to go to get help - after you read the stickies and the Guides & Tutorials forum of course. In fact, even more general arrangement questions can be asked here, such as "how can I take this melody and vary it more? here's an MP3 of what I have." * #ocrwip on IRC. This channel has been getting more and more active and is less spam-filled than #ocremix. You have a very good chance of getting an active remixer willing to give you feedback on your tune here, provided you are patient and courteous. * Posted remixers, via email, AIM, or the forums. If there is someone whose remixes you really like, and they appear to be active in the community, there's no reason you can't simply ask them for advice. I've done this all through my remixing career and there's no shame in it. Just be polite and be ready to accept if a particular person does not have time to help.

This definitely was not addressed at any one person, as I said, we've seen a rash of it lately.