zircon
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Posts posted by zircon
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REALLY cool track here, as I told bLiNd. This guy knows his craft. His production is top-notch, with a great variety of sounds, tight mixing, and good encoding to boot. Structurally, while some would say this is on the long side, I think it's excellent. It manages to have enough material to fill the whole length without being repetitive, and does a whole lot with the source, really building on it and giving it a unique spin. I love it.
YES
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Yeah, we do use an assist chain (I think a Rogue is the MA) to get the sons down. It's just a matter of practicing gathering them up so they CAN be CCed.
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Last night, we tried rag for the 4th and 5th time - serious attempts using greater fire pots and other consummables. The first time, we got him to about 65%, and barely got through the Sons. The second time, we got him to 46% - the sons went pretty well, but they took down a bunch of healers and rogues, and people were relatively drained by the time Rag came up. I think personally that we had way too much FR. I had 85 unbuffed with no Shaman totem giving me more, and I had NO trouble managing the fire damage (in fact, I used mana potions more). Some other casters had anywhere from 150 to over 250 unbuffed with IMO is completely ridiculous.
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Eh. Most people here are in established, high-level guilds on other servers.
Btw, PATCH DAY! Lots of cool new stuff. Can't wait.
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nice.
anyways i got my computer back up and running. grinding has become severely painful at level 47. and i officially hate ZF now after failing 3 times in a row at the executioner troll zerg. i think that whole encounter is bugged, because there is literally an endless supply of those damn trolls. we can hold em off for 10 minutes or so, but eventually all the NPCs will die and the trolls will break through and begin slaughtering us. no matter how many you kill, more spawn to take their place. we even killed one of the bosses (Nekrum Gutchewer or something he's called) and HE respawned seconds after. we also killed the shadowpriest and his corpse disappeared immediately afterwards so we couldn't loot it. bugged all to hell.
It is a 10 minute encounter with about 100 trolls. But if the NPCs died, you fucked up. They can't die.
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When I say we die before phase 2, I mean we die BEFORE the sons are spawned. People just get wiped out by the lava splashes. What we're doing is saying that all casters need 100+ FR unbuffed, rogues/non-MT warriors need 150 at a bare minimum, and the MT's shamans need 200+. Really, the MT has no trouble keeping aggro, and he doesn't die. It's simply that people are getting destroyed by the splashes over time.
We haven't tried this with consumables yet - we want to see if we can get him down to about 40% before the second sons spawn. I haven't heard about the pissed thing. We just take him right then and there, pretty much.
Also, the reason why I assume you are geared is because all the guilds on my server that killed him were quite geared when they did so. The people that hit every MC/onyxia in my guild have about 5-6 pieces each, for example. Savage Fury, who got the first Rag kill for Horde, had even more than that (per person). Of course, those players also have PVP epics, reputation epics, crafted epics, and so forth and so on.
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We've tried it three times now with MTs having over 300 FR and we have failed miserably - wipe before phase 2 at 75% or so. It is a hard fight. It's easy to look back on it and say "oh, that was so easy" AFTER your entire raid is geared up with MC weapons and armor, and after you've collected tons of cores to get the DI stuff.
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Eh. Maybe on your server. On mine, the first Horde rag kill was not even a month ago. Only three Horde guilds have done it to date, and my guild has been trying since we formed (a little over two months ago).
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To set a snap... use the "snap" feature. It's in the FL manual, just do a search for it. It's a little menu right in the main FL gui.
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A really beautiful remix. Very atmospheric and chill - between the sfx, the pads, the portamento squares, the jazzy chords, and the sax, this is absolutely amazing. One of my all time favorites.
Rest in peace, Chris.
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I really don't feel that there is anything outright wrong with this mix. The production is good, the execution/synth design is good (though lots of the sounds are quite generic and overused), the drums fit the style, and the arrangement is solid. However.. stepping back and looking at the entire package I just don't feel that it passes our guidelines. Yes, it's enjoyable. But it's also about as cliche as you can get in many ways. Detuned saw leads, very simple and repetitive structure, distorted 909/808 drum sounds, cheesy vocals. We have rejected stuff like this in the past, though they were usually not quite as strong as this one. I don't feel comfortable going with a yes vote here.
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This was updated about 4:30PM EST, 9/30. I said he could do it because we hadn't voted yet.
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Yeah.. but to some extent those fights are kind of dumb. In WoW, EVERY person in the 40 man raid has to be doing a job, at least until you are very skilled/geared up, at which point you can be a bit lax (until you get to the next boss, or next raid area, etc).
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Well.. 1.8 will introduce 4 more outdoor raid bosses as well as even more high end content. Soon enough we're getting another 20 man and another 40 man instance. So I think ultimately there will be a lot to do.
20 and 40-man instances? What?
Maybe the system is simply that different, but...how do you coordinate 40 people? Coming from GW, where the maximum team size is 8, and it's hard enough coordinating just that few (what skills you have in comparison with others on the team, what specific classes do we need, what's our strategy, and all). But how on earth would you do that with 40 people? Or are characters in WoW that much more independent from one another?
(note, this isn't a gw vs. wow post, I'm simply very curious to see what's on the other side of the fence)
Obviously, it really only works if you have a full guild. When we are arranging a 40 man instance run, we post a signup and have a designated time. We also all get on Ventrilo. But 40 man is really nothing in the grand scheme of things.. if I recall, EverQuest had 100+ man raids.
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Well.. 1.8 will introduce 4 more outdoor raid bosses as well as even more high end content. Soon enough we're getting another 20 man and another 40 man instance. So I think ultimately there will be a lot to do.
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Nefarion Down
Drama on Shattered Hand did it
Nice. Several of my IRL friends are on Shattered Hand in that guild. Kind of makes me wish I had started with them rather on my own server.
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At first, I thought this was going to be kinda lame, given the basic dance sounds and structure that I thought I heard right off the bat (plus that ridiculously overused E-MU Shakuhachi phrase). However, I was pleasantly surprised as the mix evolved and developed, especially at the halfway point. I have to say, this is quite an improvement over other stuff I've heard from you. It's got a nice interpretation factor, solid arrangement, and a variety of sounds that AREN'T JUST TRANCE SYNTHS!! Thank you! I have heard more than enough of those over the last few months and I'm quite sick of them. My main complaint would probably be that it's a little on the long side and it feels a bit stretched towards the end, but that's not even a big deal.
No good reason for this not to pass, in my opinion. Good job all around.
YES
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This is an Earthbound remix. Lots of Earthbound SFX used too. The track is "Kraken of the Sea", mo2-097.spc from the mo2.rsn file available at snesmusic.org .
"Kraken" is a very tough theme to remix because it only consists of a handful of notes. That said, while it was immediately obvious to me that this ReMix was of the "Kraken" theme, there are some major issues. The use of the Earthbound SFX is way over the top and it's not done in a musical way - stuff is just thrown in haphazardly. The same goes for the drums, which, in and of themselves, are pretty cool dnb/breakbeat drums, but are perhaps overly spastic when combined with all the SFX, stabs, and harmony parts. There seem to be a lot of clashing notes that I certainly can't make sense of, such as the passage starting at 1:00. The synths and 'real' instruments used are pretty bland and simplistic and definitely don't contribute to anything. The stabs at 1:53 are clipping (or coming very close to it). Again, way over the top.
This reminds me of Shnabubula's stuff to some extent, but it lacks musicality. Even chaotic drums and synths need some form of structure to really 'work'. I don't think there's much you can do to make it pass our standards considering how 'far out' it is.
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For a trance arrangement, I think the sounds aren't too bad - the dullness is probably more due to the 128kbps encoding. However, I agree that some of the synths could be a little sharper or better designed - the unison effect on some of them makes it so that the attack is really loud. You might want to put a slight attack - out of 127, maybe 10-15 or so, so that it doesn't make the volume spike when the synth hits. Also, the arpeggio thing you've got going for half the track kind of gets old considering it's playing the same notes over and over. So, I do partially agree with Larry that the execution needs some more tweaking.. if you're using a VST-capable sequencer, check out all the new VSTs over at www.kvr-vst.com; many of the ones that came out recently are really great for adding unique and fresh sounds to a mix.
I think the arrangement is solid considering how simplistic and short the source is. Nonetheless, considering that the mix is almost 5 mins, I think it could be tightened. Perhaps changing some of the original material to be a little more related to the source tune would help, or cutting out some of the repeats entirely. I always think that putting in breaks of some sort, eg. a thick saw pad chorale, or a breakbeat/dnb interlude, really helps to breathe life into a dance song while keeping the energy up. Try experimenting with stuff like this and I think you will like the results.
Overall, this is an enjoyable song, it just doesn't quite meet our standards in its current form. To reiterate, there are a few issues with the production, and the structure could use some fine-tuning. I would encourage a resubmit.
NO
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This is an enjoyable ReMix overall, let me say that at first. I can hear the improvements in the sound of the drums right off the bat, as compared with the original version that was submitted - they're still a little bland as all bd/snare hits are basically the same, but with free stuff there's not a lot you can do about that. However, extra processing on the drums, such as some thick saturation, compression, and reverb would certainly kick the sound up a notch and give it a more energetic feel to compare with the guitar. On that note, I thought the guitar playing was excellent on all fronts, and the bass playing was good too. Arrangement seemed good overall - lots of variation and the original additions were sensible too. I did think it might have dragged on just a *little* too long. Some of the repetition could be cut out, and because there are few changes to the dynamics or the instrumentation, it does get less interesting over the course of the song.
This is a tough vote for me, for sure. The production is still weak - the 'energy' of the drums and guitars just seems to be lacking, because the mastering is sort of quiet. I would really like to try re-mastering this myself, if you want to give it a shot. I think the mix needs more punch and polish to give it a nice and rich sound that I think more people will appreciate - and you probably will also! Lemme know if you're interested (check my profile for contact info). Anyway, besides that, as I mentioned above, the lack of instrument changes or dynamic changes, combined with the length of the mix and the simplicity of the original theme, makes this ReMix feel sort of dragged out by the end. Cutting out even 15-20 seconds would really help, I think.
Regardless of what you do, this is a cool song. Just one more resub with a LITTLE more tweaking would make this passable in my book.
NO
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Pretty interesting mix, at least compared to most techno mixes we get. One thing I gotta say.. the voice clips were REALLY REALLY lame. Please ditch them. A lot of the sounds were kind of cheesy, also, like the ethnic percussion and 'booms', as well as the ultra-basic bassline and portamento octaved supersaws. It's almost a parody of the genre in how "poppy" it sounds for lack of a better word. That's not a terrible thing, but I do think more could have been done in the way of production and sound selection to make it less cheesy and more 'serious', perhaps.
That said, the arrangement is pretty solid. The original theme (or parts of it) are apparent in different areas of the mix. Nonetheless, keeping more of the original progression, rather than relying on the goofy cliche stuff, would have been nice. Not to say that original material is bad. I very often encourage it, and I think that the variations made on the original theme are good. However, original material should be sensible in how it fits in with the source tune and the rest of the arrangement. I felt like for a song that wasn't even 4 minutes, a lot of time was spent on stuff that didn't really advance the arrangement and that didn't have to do with the original.
Overall, this is a good effort, but I feel like it needs more cohesiveness of arrangement. The interpretation factor is there, and the production elements aren't too bad - but more tuning and polish would really help.
NO
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To be honest, after listening to both versions several times and comparing them side by side, I can't hear ANY significant differences at all, or even minor ones. My original decision still stands. Dunno what's up with this one.
NO
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Yeah.. this is clearly a beginner submission. Sound quality issues (by your own admission), very bland sounds, poor execution (instrument combinations were weird), straightforward arrangement with little energy, lack of a real unique interpretive element. But don't be discouraged. As Larry said, go to the Remixing forum and the Works in Progress forum to get help. Keep practicing and working at it. We all start somewhere.
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Did anyone else notice lots of default Reason drumloops here? I thought that was sort of disappointing.. I mean I don't even use Reason and I can still hear all the presets being used.
The rest of the sounds are good, minus the brass, which other people have pointed out as well - pretty creative synthwork, and the overall mixing/mastering seems solid to me. However, a higher VBR encoding wouldn't have hurt, as it makes it seem like the mix is lacking in brightness (when it was probably there initially). Despite all the Reason percussion being used, there were some nice variations and slicings in there that made them more interesting to listen to, so props there. One little production nitpick that I heard was that when you had the dual layer percussion in the middle it sounded like there was slight phasing on some of the drums, and the kicks were almost causing clipping. This created a sort of weird effect that I'm not sure you wanted.
3:49 felt a little weak in its sparseness and lack of the same interesting/layered sounds you brought in before. The lofi percussion and the flute felt particularly exposed when they came in too. I thought perhaps as a transition section, it was a little too long. Considering the length of the mix and very abrupt ending (just completely cuts off!) I think you could have cut down on this section, and probably some of the repetition from the earlier parts, and worked on a stronger resolution.
Arrangement seemed very good overall, with an intelligent structure that I only had a few problems with (see above). So while I think this mix could have used some tightening in a few places and a bit more polish, the overall strength of the production and rearrangement makes it passable in my book.
YES
*NO* Chrono Cross 'Dreaming by Your Side' *RESUB*
in Judges Decisions
Posted
I'm pretty much in total agreement with Larry here. Some of the issues I brought up were addressed, and this is defintiely an improvement, but it's not quite to our bar yet. I felt that this had some good emotional energy to it that was ruined by the ridiculous over-compression and saturation. The strings were harsh and sharp, more like strings in a dramatic trailer than expressive, soft ones. The drums continue to be way out of place, being loud and abrasive, more like big beat drums than anything else. Everything has "punch" to it that shouldn't be there. You want punch in a dance mix, not something like this. This seems to be a consistent problem with you.. you really have to put more time into your execution. You can't approach every song the same way (saturate, compress, volume way up).
NO