zircon

Now come on, I'm not being elitist. I'm not saying "DP is bad" or "they're thieves" or "they're cheapening music". I simply said I am less impressed by them, and that they're less creative than I thought they were. But anyway I'm sidetracking the topic... just wanted to throw my 2 cents in, not cause a debate.

Hate to double post, but the CD just restocked, so anyone who is waiting on a copy will be able to pick one up now (or if you already ordered one but it went out of stock, yours should ship today or tomorrow) www.cdbaby.com/zircon3 Price dropped to $11.99 you may have noticed It'll stay like that for a long time. sgx + I are also going to be running our promo soon... we technically are now, but we'll make an official announcement later.

I'm sure djpretzel and the rest of the judges panel would disagree as well, as those 'baseless semantics' are one of the core principles in our submission standards. Unless you want us to go back to 2001 and start posting direct SPC rips with drums underneath....

Except our remixes don't sample the original straight up with little alteration. If they do, they get form letter rejected. Don't get me wrong, I like "Harder, Better..." etc but after hearing all the comparisons - and that video only scratched the surface - I'm just a lot less impressed.

GT did the acoustic guitars on "Breathing You In", Fishy did the electric guitars (layered w/ mine) on "Depth Charge", and bgc did the synth solo towards the end of "Nitronic".

Yeah, guilty as charged. It's unavoidable in electronic music, especially in trance... I think at least 75% of trance songs I've heard have it. It's just tough to make something serious/epic in a minor key, with a dance beat, w/o using it.

Seconded!!

That doesn't make them any more creative. All the riffs shown in the video are really cool, and they are what makes the actual songs good. DP didn't make them, or even really build on them.

Ever since seeing this video I stopped wanting to see Daft Punk.

All apartments and houses in my area have bars on the windows, it's a security precaution. Moving is not an option. I'll just deal with the heat.

This is a little pimpage for an artist by the name of Andrew Lipke, a Philadelphia local. This guy is signed to the Drexel U record label, MAD Dragon (though he himself is not a Drexel student) and I have to say, while I listen to very little contemporary music these days, this guy is really impressive. To briefly summarize what his style is, he's a singer/songwriting that crosses over into alternative rock. However, that's really a simplification as his stuff is far more interesting than most singer/songwriting OR alt. rock I've heard. Here's the music video, just released recently, for his song "Untitled Song #1" - sort of lame title, I know, but it's a great video and a fantastic song. Definitely better than 99% of the crap on the radio and TV today. This particular song is sort of like uplifting trance played with traditional rock instruments, which is really cool; http://youtube.com/watch?v=XozeeHomIA0 This may go without saying, but Andrew writes, sings, and plays guitar - all expertly, unlike many commercial artists. Plus, his live shows are full of energy and you can tell he really loves music for the sake of music. I suggest checking out his website and listening to other songs from his debut album "The Way Home", which is also on iTunes and at various retail stores. http://www.andrewlipke.com/ It's rare that I'll post about an artist that's not me, sgx, or Beatdrop, so y'all should check this out and tell your friends. (On a side note, the music video was directed and shot by a friend of mine... another very talented individual.)

Need I remind you, this is an apartment... I can't really do much of anything to it structurally. This includes cutting a hole in one of the walls.

Thanks for the info, guys. A new window AC isn't really an option. It's a fairly standard size window... not too big, not too small... the thing is, the AC came with the apartment. We don't really have the spare cash to get a whole new one. It DOES work fine for cooling the bedroom. Very comfy temperature in there. It's just other rooms that don't get the cool air circulation due to the apartment's design (a narrow hallway running along one side with rooms off to each side, thus the air from the bedroom simply hits a wall).

Worth noting; we don't accept chiptunes here... or at least, it has to be godly for us to accepte it, so anything like this wouldn't really be an OCReMix.

I like the lyrics and delivery... as usual, top notch from zyko. I didn't even really have a problem with the instrumental balance. However I definitely think there are timing issues particularly with the brass at several parts (:31, 1:23 for example)... they really stand out to me as being considerably off tempo. Compare to a mix like the recent TJ&E one we got, where we nailed them on timing issues that were in soem cases less severe than the ones here. There's not a lot of actual melodic or harmonic rearrangement for the first part of the piece. The instrumental backing is basically the same as the original, if not somewhat simplified in terms of texture. 2:34 has some new material but it's really sparse and minimal. The solos don't really fit in to the atmosphere of the rest of the piece IMO, nor do they seem to connect with the Veldt source material musically. They are quite enjoyable, but considering how long the section goes on for with seemingly little direction, I really think they have to gel more with the rest of the track. 4:18 brings in some variation in the form of the sinewave synth complimenting the source's harmonies. I would have liked to hear something like this earlier, and to me it's too little, too late. I gotta say the new brass at 4:39 is very general MIDI.. not to be a stickler for samples but it's really very fake sounding. I also can't say I like the abrupt ending even though I know it's intentional. Overall I think the production is OK, aside from the brass towards the end, but other aspects of implementation need work.. a denser texture, even in the form of more rhythmic layers, would really help flesh things out over the course of the 5+ minutes. Additionally the brass timing issues are noticeable and unpleasant. From an arrangement standpoint, the vocals are wonderful, but they can't carry the track when the instrumental has such little variation except towards the very end. NO

We aren't in the business of simply making up new games for the database... unless Nintendo makes something called "Pokemon Red and Blue" as one cart then I don't think it's going to happen in our DB. Also this has already been thoroughly discussed internally, no one is saying anything that hasn't been brought up in #ocrjudges or in our private forums. So one more time, please drop it.

Guys, djpretzel is not going to assign more than one game to a remix so please stop discussing it.

Thanks for the positive comments guys! If you liked it... (1) I suggest signing up on my mailing list - send a letter with "subscribe" in the subject to list@zirconstudios.com - you will get updates on my music, previews, deals (etc) before anyone else, including exclusives. (2) Tell your friends! Word of mouth is awesome and I really appreciate it. (3) Drop a review at www.cdbaby.com/zircon3 - it'll only take a minute.

Jill and I moved into a great new apartment here in Philadelphia about a month ago. It's cheaper than my last one, bigger, and it is now well-furnished and decorated. However, a huge disadvantage is that it has BAD problems managing heat. The house is shoved right up against another house, looking into an alley filled with garbage, so opening windows is usually not an option. Plus, the temperature outside is often upwards of 90 degrees. We have one small window air conditioner that we've had to run constantly at 60 degrees (max fan speed) for the entire month we've been here, which is trying to cool down the entire apartment. However, it doesn't work well because there are multiple rooms in the apartment and the air barely circulates outside the bedroom. We can't get another window AC because there are bars on all of the windows, and the landlord won't let us touch them. We can't get a portable AC because they're both expensive, and still require window access. We do run two fans 24/7 attempting to circulate air from the bedroom through the hallway to the living room, where we spend most of our time. So, this leaves us feeling overheated most of the time in our living room. I'm looking into something called an "evaporative air cooler" which apparently doesn't require window access, is energy efficient, and can lower room temperatures up to 15 degrees.. which would be great, since even 10 would be fantastic. However, they supposedly don't work in high humidity conditions (Philly is usually 50-70% I believe) and can reduce the lifespan of electronics. Has anyone used this type of cooling system (evaporative)? Do we have any other options?

Unfortunately I have to agree. When the original is just simple chords turned into three note arpeggiations, you really have to stick more closely to them. Yeah, I can make out the chord progression (if you could call it that) in a few places, but because the original is so simple, you need a much more clear connection before going crazy with variations. Larry and I talked about this in #ocrjudges; a good example of taking a short tune and doing a deep, interesting arrangement is "Glass Cage" by Israfel. That mix would easily get accepted today. Additionally, I think you could probably make the production more interesting. The drums are good, but generally speaking we frown on submissions that rely on chiptune style sounds. Bringing in even one or two more "hi-fi" elements would really help. NO

Hmm.. some of these arrangements are pretty good, others are mainly covers. His guitar skills are amazing overall, though his overall production could use a little tweaking (the MIDI parts sound really lo-fi, and the mastering seems to lack any high end, though that could be the MP3 encoding). When I searched the Judges Decisions forum, I didn't see any reference to a Vertexguy or Chris Kline, so are we sure this guy actually submitted? If he just tweaked his production a bit and expanded his arrangements he'd have an excellent chance at making it on.

A nov 2004 join date != spambot.

Not unless I know there's a lot of demand for it, since it would cost over $200 to print 50 copies (and that is about the minimum that would make sense). You can always get the iTunes or digital WAV version though.

I really don't think there's anything really good in that range. It's the equivalent of buying $20 headphones. Don't rely on them for really accurate work, but they're nice as a reference or casual listening. Assuming you don't just want to get a nicer pair of, say, Altec Lansing speakers w/ a sub... http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VLS21/ This might be your best option.

Yeah, except for the Fatboy track for example, he definitely said what it was several minutes before it ended. For blind's, he only said the name after it was over, and then he said it was the next track. That's why I'm worried He messed up.