zircon

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Hehe, yeah... most of the time it was me laying down the more basic stuff and tefnek sort of took it and went nuts. He's the man.

Right off the bat, the new depth to the sound design is immediately apparent to me. The percussive timing still sounds a *little* weird to me, but overall, I'm impressed by the effort you put into varying things up and densifying the soundfield. The arrangement is also much more creative now (not that it wasn't before). Very cool stuff - all of my complaints have been addressed. Excellent job. YES

Ok, just to clarify here since I think there is still some confusion. DRUMULTIMA IS NOT GOING TO MAKE CHANGES TO THIS. THIS IS READY TO BE POSTED.

Wait a second, this game isn't out yet...

The problem with listening to just the bass note is that if you have inverted chords then that's not going to be any more help than picking, say, the top note of the chord. Though, it's not a bad place to start. Really the best way to train your ear to recognize chords and melodies is to simply practice. The more you spend time at a keyboard or a sequencer, the faster you will recognize different intervals and chords. Taking an ear training course or two can help as well. I'm taking my second ear training course at Drexel right now and my ability to recognize ANY interval (major or minor, up or down) has vastly improved. As far as I'm concerned there's no secret technique besides working at it.

Grand Central Terminal makes the most sense, I think. It is after a hub to the rest of the city and most of the northeast. Specific date? Well, as pixie said, perhaps 26-27 would be too soon after Christmas. The 28th I think could work.

I would love to do another NYC meetup this year. If we're worried about Magfest conflicts, why not do it like the 26th or 27th rather than the 30th or 31st? That way people have about a week in between meetups, so there's time to breathe. We'd at least have 4 people, and I'm pretty we have a lot more people in the NYC meetup that would be up for it. Not to mention MCVAFFE even expressed interest when I brought it up with him after last year's.

Uhh, UPS here, we've got a delivery of one "Episode 062" to a certain, www.vgdj.net? Is there a Mr or Mrs. www.vgdj.net at this residence? ok, seriously; Episode 062 of VGDJ has been released, and is now available at www.vgdj.net! Pick it up. There's something of a twist in this one :>

I listened to this one a couple weeks ago and just came back to it today. I was liking it overall then and I'm pretty sure my feelings haven't changed. The mood here is really quite good - I think that is one of the most important aspects of orchestral writing and arrangement. You can have a technically flawless piece that lacks emotion, and it won't sound good to the listener. Good writing will always shine through technical problems such as bad samples. But in this case, to be honest, I think these samples are totally fine. I've personally passed orchestral pieces on OCR with less realistic samples being used. The arrangement here is good, the structure is good, and even if there are some less-than-perfect execution aspects I don't think it's enough to hold it back. YES

Yuck at the opening guitar tone... very boxy and muddy. The drums here are really weak too for the feel you're going for (both in terms of sequencing and the samples themselves). The synths are OK and the bass sounds passable to me, but as Darke and Larry pointed out, the guitar is definitely not up to our bar. You gotta be more in-time. I also recommend boosting the volume on the lead and putting some reverb or delay on there to get it to sound out. Some additional EQing all around the mix to make the individual parts stand out would be a good idea too. Once you've tweaked some of these production and performance problems, then I recommend going back to the arrangement and making it a little more unique and interpretive - add your own chords, vary the existing progression, add new harmony parts, change the melody rhythm, etc. Keep at it. NO

Alright. Let's pull up this bass; show you what we got in the place. The reverb problem seems to have been corrected. That's cool. But the sax performance still leaves a lot to be desired (mainly the sustains) as I pointed out in my previous vote. The bass timing is still off, noticeably so - and it's distracting. I'm OK with a little sloppy playing here and there, but it's just no good here. If you can't get a rerecord, at least manually edit the audio to sync it up, please. The drumkit needs more tightening, also, and the bass seems to be a little overly loud compared to what it was before. I can barely hear the kick at all. Not to mention, the drum recording sounds worse than it did before somehow (including the first resub version). The piano sample used in the solo part does sound better to me now, which is good. So... some issues fixed here, but not all, and it's still not quite enough to pass. Getting closer though. NO

Yeah, I like the drumwork here for the most part - some small mixing issues aside (hihats a little too sharp, for example). It also takes a little too long for the mix to pick up. Synth/sound design IS really bland and the production doesn't give the individual parts much room to breathe. Larry covered most of my points that I was going to bring up, otherwise. This simply needs more work to be at our bar. Take a closer listen to electronic mixes that have been passed as of late to get a better idea of what you should be shooting for. NO

In general, ReMixes of 2:30 or less rarely get accepted here because it is difficult to have a substantive arrangement in that period of time. 1:40 is REALLY pushing it, and I don't think we've accepted anything of that length for awhile. That said, here are my thoughts on this particular ReMix. I am pretty fond of the arrangement here. I like the variations to the melody, harmony, and the chord progression. Conceptually, this is very sound. But before it can get interesting, it's over. It sounds like you had a lot of ideas here and I could think of at least a handful of ways you could have taken the piece and developed it further into a 3 or 4 minute arrangement. Adding percussion, increasing the tempo, key changes, bringing up the overall dynamics, adding in more symphonic elements, etc; there are so many directions you could go! Please develop it further. I also thought the production wasn't so hot. The melody tended to be too quiet whenever it was being played, and there was a lot of muddiness in the low frequencies, either because of poor EQing or poor voicing choices. The mix is also encoded pretty low (128) when you could easily go up to 192kbps VBR and preserve more high end content. The samples did sound pretty good for the most part, aside from the piano which struck me as somewhat mechanical. I would revisit the production and take more care in mixing the parts so they are distinguishable and have room to breathe, and perhaps take a bit of time to humanize their playing. However, all things considered, I've heard a lot worse in terms of MIDI orchestration so I would concentrate on arrangement first, THEN worry about the production/execution elements. Refine & resub please! NO

Approximately 42 hours, 5 minutes, and 49 seconds. Rather specific for "approximately". Heh. I say approximately, because that's what Winamp tells me when I list all episodes 1-61. It's not counting our video releases or short MP3 clips.

Approximately 42 hours, 5 minutes, and 49 seconds.

I don't know. I can think of at least a few things I could do to have fun with a V-Synth XT. Things I'd do WITH a V-Synth. ... Things I'd do TO a V-Synth.

Y'all gotta appreciate a mix with old-school flavor. Even if this isn't the sharpest production or the most in-depth arrangement, it's got style and class, and it's certainly a unique interpretation. Larry and I went over the connections to various source tunes and they are all there, if you take the time to look & listen. Vig at one point lodged an objection to this, saying that it felt like an original groove with Zelda pasted over it. I don't agree. I think the Zelda material is tastefully worked in, and the fact that it's not used verbatim is a testament to NoppZ' ability to integrate the originals in such a way that they're varied, but recognizable. I do have a few beefs. The 1:32 transition is abrupt, for example, and I felt the key change later on was out of place. I heard what sounded to be filtered vocals throughout that I think should have been brought out more, as they sounded cool. The percussion probably could have been changed up more as well. But really, all things considered, these issues do not amount to a rejection. This is a fun mix that satisfies our guidelines and meets the standard we have set. YES

Man, I love Sixto. This is really very quality stuff in all areas; ESPECIALLY the production which is top-notch as far as I'm concerned. I've got no problems with the solo section either. I think the length was appropriate given the length of the piece, and given the quality of Juan's playing, it's really a pleasure to listen to. The violin, though, that's what makes this mix unique. You just don't hear da solo violin action very often. Perhaps my only complaint is that damn "Stereo Bells" preset from FM7 that you use all the time. Anyway, pretty obvious this is a; YES ps. I'm tempted to say this *vaguely* reminds me of "The Final Countdown"... but that would be doing a disservice to this mix.

Gross @ the encoding here. It's gotta be at least 44.1 khz. You're missing out on about half the audible frequencies in the spectrum otherwise. 96kbps *might* be passable, since we just passed a 112kbps MM3 rock medley, but that's really pushing it. It's really hard for me to look past this because it makes the other production aspects much harder to hear. For example, is the percussion really bleh or is it just being muffled terribly? I don't know. The only thing I think I can suggest is maybe a little more reverb on the lead guitar if possible. During the melodic solo part around the middle it sounds sort of dry. The performances overall, though, are good. As for the arrangement aspect and the lyrics... great stuff! The structure is excellent and I really like the style and approach. The end section especially is just awesome. Rock on. The ending is needlessly abrupt, however. Gimme a re-encode so I can hear the production. Will vote based on that.

I'm not really sure those electronic drums fit in; the timbre doesn't really fit the mood, and the pattern is kinda plodding. There's also an inordinant amount of reverb on most elements in the mix which muddies everything up. What's the deal with that? At least cut down the verb on the kick and the bass. The rest of the production was OK, but really, focus on the reverb/muddiness issue... it's very distracting. The vocals here weren't too bad in my book, and I liked the lyrics, but compared to Falling Back they are more exposed and that's probably not a good thing. Perhaps with a more driving rhythm section and a more prominent guitar, they would sit better in the context of the rest of the song. The arrangement was good though the section w/ the acoustic drums might have come a little too late, and a less abrupt ending would be preferable. But, nothing really problematic in this area. I'd say rework the production on this so everything is more clear, and perhaps do another take of the vocals and see if you can step it up a notch there. NO

There are some clashing notes here at varying points. Take another look at the harmony patterns and melody and make sure they fit with the chords you have in the background. :22 for example has a minor chord with a major arpeggio going on. :57 sounds off, as does 1:01, and so forth. Just go over everything again. Liontamer basically hit the nail on the head... this is a relatively simple genre adaptation that is pretty repetitive. Go for more variation in the melody and harmony. Don't feel pressured to approach things EXACTLY as they were in the source tune, and feel free to add more of your own material as necessary to spice things up (I appreciate that middle section where you did that, though again there were some clashing notes there). I also recommend writing more of a real ending or outtro. Production is pretty solid, but it suffers from the same reptition problems as the arrangement. Change up the percussive pattern at some point (or add more layers), change the lead synth, add additional instruments to the texture as the song progresses - anything to keep things fresh. NO

Ah, I remember this one. I was digging the first sub, and this is definitely an improvement. VERY smooth sound overall. The interpretive factor is certainly here now for sure. My only real complaint would be the drums used. The really electronic kick/snare don't work for me at all. An acoustic set would have fit much more, I think, but since that's more of a subjective thing, I won't let it affect my decision. Pro job on everything else. YES Looking forward to hearing this on WJJZ, Philadelphia's Smooth Jazz station.

I hate to glib it, but most of my complaints here have been addressed by Darke, Vig, and Larry. The texture is overly sparse here and the samples (while good) are NOT sequenced or processed well. Even looking at it from the new age arrangement perspective. I think more harmony instruments are needed (pads, for example). Not to mention that french horn ensemble at 1:33 and beyond is quite simply... ugly. Gotta refine your sequencing and orchestration. Don't rely on expensive samples to carry things. NO

Episode 061 (Triple Trouble) of VGDJ has been released, and is now available at www.vgdj.net! New contest? Guest host? Crazy kooks and capers? You can't miss this one, folks!