zircon

VGDJ Episode 045: 8-bit Genocide Edition has been released, and is now available at www.vgdj.net! Another plus-size episode, but it's a blast. Enjoy!

Yo guys, as the front page of vgdj.net says, this episode will be a bit delayed - there's quite a bit of material to be edited what with the concert that pixietricks went to. But don't worry, we'll have it out as soon as we can.

260000 honor for the week. I might not make top ten standing (there are people with 380-400k so far) but I think I'll get to rank 11. GO WSG WEEKEND GO!!

Is it just me or are the drums slightly off-rhythm? I know what swung drums sound like, but these just seemed a bit off to me. Maybe it's just my imagination. The pattern, however, is VERY cool.. we don't hear drums like these very often! So props on the creative sequencing there. In terms of the rest of the production, everything fits together really well, and the sound design is creative. I am impressed. However, you encoded the MP3 too low.. considering how short the song is, you could easily jack it up to 192kbps. As it is, at 128, it doesn't sound as sharp as it should. One other quick suggestion: later on, add some rides, hihats, tambourines, bongos, or other extra stuff to the drums a little later on if you want to spice 'em up even more (not that they're bad). I think that would sound really cool. While I have not heard the original, I think I can more or less figure out the melody based on this ReMix. I agree with Larry that you need to vary things up more in the structure of the song. Add some original material, improvise over the progression, change the rhythm of the melody, change the chord progression but leave the melody the same.. lots of things you can do. As it is, this is just a little too repetitive and static considering the length of the remix. Some extra polish and this is ready to go. Please resub! NO

The production values here, as with all of Vurez' mixes, are absolutely superb. Lots of very high end samples that are actually used WELL in a convincing manner. At times the brass seems a little too loud, and I do agree with TO that the drumwork could be a little more interesting, but really, there's no way I could have any substantive complaints about the production. The 'swamped' soundfield is not really an issue for me after I listened to this a few times. It contributes to the unique sound. The arrangement is kind of conservative at points, especially towards the beginning, and the constant wall of sound kind of kills the dynamics of things. If I had to pick the weakest area of the song it would probably be that. However, I don't really think it's significant enough of an issue to merit a no, considering how strong everything else is. YES

I think Larry covered all the bases. No aspect of this is really bad, in my opinion. Production-wise, the sounds are kinda simplistic, and I think there's a bit too much low/low-mid sound, but they're definitely passable. The main problem is that there's not a lot of variation in the soundscape or the rhythms. It's very much like a background track - nothing tries to capture the listener's attention, and because the synths all sound somewhat similar, even the melody is a bit lost. Of course the main thing is that this is not quite interpretive enough compared to the original. The overall structure, the sounds, and the arrangement are all a bit too close for comfort. I'd like to see more work done on this, please resubmit. NO

1476 kills, 184385 honor this week so far. :>

Solid stuff; the production is good, the performance is great, arrangement is well-done. I like the drums a lot, and the mixing between the different parts is excellent. The variation during and after the middle section is welcome. I really don't have any complaints here, so no reason not to go.. YES

RMS = Root Mean Square. In the context of audio, it's a more accurate way of measuring the volume of a track than just using the peak volume. The concept behind it is that because you have a constantly fluctuating waveform, just trying to measure the peaks isn't going to give you a good idea of what the overall, "effective" volume is like. So that's where RMS comes in. I believe at it's simplest, for a sine wave, RMS is the peak vol times .707 . (Correct me if I'm wrong, guys)

Now that summer is here, I have chosen to begin the grind to rank 13 (rank 10 now). Wish me luck.

Every Rogue on my server. I have yet to be beaten by one.

I disagree there. I will tear apart pretty much any Rogue as my holy/disc spec, and it'll only get worse as I get better gear (I'm not even full BWL stuff yet). I have enough HP/armor to outlast the Rogue stunlock and my Fear/Shield/Renew/Nova keeps me up without even having to use a kickable Flash Heal.

I guess Rogues can be likened to Holy/Disc healing Priests in PVP. They're WAY more effective in a group. For example, you stick a Rogue and a Warrior on me? No problem. Rogue, Warrior, Hunter? It's cool. 2-3 Warriors? I can even deal with that. But two Rogues is a death sentence. I will NOT ever live through that. Rogues can lock down healers in BGs while Mages/Warriors take out an important target. Rogues can sap/blind support before they even get to where they need to be. They're very powerful for that kind of thing.

I agree that Rogues need to be slightly retooled. I think that their level of damage output needs to be a little higher overall, but the control aspect of their class needs to be slightly reduced. That would stop some of the pvp + pve bitching. As is, REALLY good rogues with REALLY good gear can dominate the damage meters - and usually do - but I've seen well-geared Warriors, Hunters, and Warlocks do the same.

Seraphim: wtf nice gear!!! Me and Suzu just played a Warsong Gulch game vs. NINE PALADINS and a Rogue. We dominated them hard (focus fire beats anything) but it was incredibly funny to be up against.

Man, I can't wait to get to Warlord and get the new PVP gear. With my dream PVP setup (pre-C'thun gear, reasonably attainable) I'll have 2k armor unbuffed and 5.4k hp, with about 6.8k mana. Self-buffed I'll have 4k armor and over 6k HP.. as cloth. Current gear; http://ctprofiles.net/337123

So...that means it's not coming? I didn't say it was coming soon, I just said that would be the next one.

Next BG is gonna be Azshara Crater. However 1.12 they're tweaking the BG system (cross-server queues, intelligent matchmaking) and adding the first of many world PVP objective points.

Ah, Tepid! I've heard this song in the various WIP stages but didn't hear the final version until now. I liked it originally so lemme see where it went... One thing I really like is the soundscape. The bass, guitar, and piano are just beautiful. They work well together. The drums are a mixed bag though. The patterns seem a little too "busy" for the most part.. I think that simpler patterns would have worked more, and more acoustic sounds rather than electronic ones. As is the drums just don't really mesh with the rest of the texture to me, or at least, they don't mesh as well as they should. I do like how the song progresses over time in terms of the instruments, though I think even MORE layers could probably be added (additional pads perhaps) to fill it out after the middle section. The strings that come in towards the very end are exactly what I'm talking about. Arrangement-wise, it's good - I like what you did with the original. No complaints except.. WTF at the ending. Come ON!!!! I know you can do better than that, man! That's a total copout, and right after the most dense section! You gotta fix that. This is a close call for me but I really think additional tweaking of the drums is needed as well as a more resolved ending, and perhaps a little more addition to the soundfield after the middle section to give it a sense of change. NO

The arpeggios right at the beginning are REALLY REALLY mechanical. To be honest they sound absolutely terrible. They're also way too loud - the melody should take prominence, not harmony, in this case. Throughout the song, you only use very simplistic rhythms and patterns which makes it flat-out boring most of the time. You also have virtually no low end or low-mid making it sound pretty empty too. Finally the song structure is not good at all.. the transitions are extremely abrupt, as is the ending. This needs a lot of work in all categories. I suggest spending some time listening to your favorite ReMixes (or ANY song for that matter) and paying closer attention to what makes them really effective. Then, get lots of feedback from the WIP forum, and brush up on your production in our ReMixing forum. NO

The first April Fools show was the best. "YOU DO NOT HANG UP ON MUSTIN."

Dude, it was 1969. They weren't using any special techniques, just listen to the original song. All of their drum tracks sounded like that. Once again, old recording techniques made some WEIRD sounds.

youkai, hopefully you know that you can download the 1.9 (or so) client off of the WoW website and fileplanet.

Can you handle the Shael?! I hope so, because... VGDJ Episode 044 (Street Fighter 2 project edition) has been released and is now available at www.vgdj.net! Our THIRD special episode in a one month period! Hope you guys don't mind

I don't think any particular technique was used when "making" the break. If you listen to the original Amen, Brother you can hear that the drumkit throughout the whole song sounds like that. When you go back to the 50s and 60s, recording techniques were significantly different than they are now, so you had lots of drum breaks that sounded very weird compared to what we have now. Modern recording techniques just try to capture the most accurate sound, but back then, it was all about character. That's why Motown recordings all had a very distinctive flavor.. you won't find any recordings that sound like those today.