zircon

New, expanded mixer. Now ANY track can be converted to a send track, and you can expand it from 16 tracks to 64 displaying at the same time (or anything less or in between). Looks great.

I thought this was going pretty well until the main melody came in at around 1:38. After that it just got REALLY bland. Before that it seemed like the percussion was a bit more interesting, you had more harmony stuff going on (like the strings), and that constantly changing synth was nice. However, everything becomes very dull once the main melody is introduced, with the bassline basically just following the melody, and then a cameo of the original morphing synth sequence. This is somewhat lackluster overall. As Larry said, the sounds here are really VERY plain, please do something about those. Grab some VSTs and read my synthesis guide in the Remixing 101. Also, try some brighter and sharper drum samples, or a different groove entirely to liven things up, rather than simple four on the floor. But whatever you do, focus on making a less sparse, more interesting arrangement as well. This remix was too short to do anything of note with the source tune - no significant variations, very little original material to speak of. Don't be afraid to stray from the original "Bloody Tears" and work in more of your own material, or at least change it up. NO

Lack of development is probably the biggest problem. Sure, this is a neat dance mix, but it's essentially just the original melody + progression moved into a trance structure, and a relatively static one at that. I like that you used sound effects and some added synths as the song progressed, but you do need more than supersaws to keep this going. What you need; a better variety of synths, more motion within the synths (automation or fading), but most importantly, a more thought out arrangement with a different resolution. Until then I have to leave you with a - NO

Level 30, suzu? These levels should take no more than 2-4 hours depending on what you're doing. You should be in Thousand Needles levelling up there, moving into the Shimmering Flats area once you gain a few more. Arathi Highlands is the next spot to hit, which should last until mid/upper 30s, at which point Scarlet Monastery (a fun, accessible instance split into four zones) becomes available to you. You can also try Stranglethorn Vale and some Badlands in the high 30s, moving on to Uldaman in the low 40s.

I have to agree with Shnabubula that this is a constant wall of sound. For a more acoustic mix playing at a slightly slower tempo, this is both loud and 'hot' (much like most of your mixes and originals). You don't have to have everything so overcompressed and maxed out. For instance, the acoustic drums sound more like rock drums than anything else, and the strings are pretty loud throughout. Work on dynamics here first. The arrangement is pretty good in comparison to the overall production, so if you just worked out the structural issues like the overlayering and constant texture throughout, I think this would be a solid mix. BTW your samples are fine, and most of the frequency balance is fine. It's just dynamics that you need to work on insofar as production goes. Polish + resub. NO

Er, Fury got up to Nefarion when the instance was bugged. Are you saying they did it again? Because once they fixed the bugs it got like 50x harder.

Dennis; BWL has I think the same amount of bosses as MC. It is, however, significantly harder. No one has beaten it yet, and even the very very very best guilds are still developing strategies for it. So far on my server, the farthest anyone has gotten is killing the first boss, Razorgore.

We've been doing MC and we're up to Majordomo now after about 1.5 months (and a little bit of guild upset). Basically, we breeze through Lucifron, Magmadar, and Gehennas, and no trash mobs give us trouble - hell, we've even taken 2 Molten Destroyers (the big ones) and a Firelord without problems. Garr always takes us a little while to set up but once we do, he's cake. The lava/fire packs are a little harder, and we still wipe on those from time to time, but we're getting better at it - MT fire res helps as well of course. Baron Geddon is probably our hardest fight currently as I'm in a Horde guild and we're understaffed in the way of Priests and Druids. Last attempt we wiped twice (beat him on 3rd) because we only had 5 Shamans, 5 Priests, and 2 Druids. That's not a lot, since the 5 Priests have to be dispelling everyone. Finally, Shazz, Sulfuron, and Golemagg don't give us much trouble either. Majordomo we ALMOST have.. last shot we had the last add down to like 8000 HP but the healers were completely drained. If I had been there we would have done it for sure. Onyxia IMO is much harder than anything in MC we've done so far. There is no uncertainty in the MC bosses. Even in fights like Shazz or Geddon, with the right classes you can control their debuffs and keep up the heat. With Onyxia, you have 5 people get feared into lava and die for no reason, or a Warrior get tailwhipped into a room of whelps and pop all the eggs. There are way more variables - but it's a lot more fun than any MC fight so far.

Oh man. My guild just did Onyxia for the first time today - we did it on the third try. One of the most intense and fun fights ever. We had about 8 people alive when we finally took her down.. the celebration was incredible afterwords. Damn, most fun I've had in a game for a LONG time

Well, yeah, but that really goes without saying. Er, maybe for you guys. I bought GW, being a WoW player, and didn't really like the graphical style, combat, or statistic/equipment system. I've been playing WoW for months and it's only getting more fun.

What are you buffer settings? Audio drivers? Check FL's "Audio" options tab.

Well.. Hunters do all the pulling in MC for sure. And Feign Death is very useful for escaping from a bad pull. In places like UBRS we also have hunters setting traps for crowd control, and even earlier than that in places like Maraudon. I wouldn't underestimate them in that regard. Their DPS, as other people have mentioned, is quite good in PVE with the proper gear/skills - in fact, one hunter in my guild is so strong that he actually pulls aggro away from our main tank in MC even AFTER the main tank gains aggro (eg. full sunder armor on a mob) just by doing autoshot. Along with Rogues, having a class that can do lots of damage without having to rely on mana is very useful. Burst DPS.. well, you have Rapidfire and Arcane Shot, among other things. But the real power of Hunters as I mentioned earlier is that they are great at controlling combat which is what PVP is all about. Traps, pet harassing, concussive shot + wingclip, Viper Sting, Scatter Shot, and some AOE damage to screw over Rogue stealth (and multishot itself can hit pretty hard too). IMO they are a good class that needs some talent tree treatment, which they are getting a LOT of in 1.7. Warlock is much more of a pointless class.

Well K2 is compatible with; GigaStudio Akai™ S-1000/S-3000 EXS24 (Logic) HALion AIFF WAV .S .SND Emu EOS/E4B EMU E3/ESi SoundFont2 REX I & II ACID Apple Loops (Logic, Garageband) Roland S-5x, S-7x Akai MPC Akai S-5000/S-6000 MachFive Reason NN-XT LM4 LM4 MKII SDII (Mac) Unity Akai MESA Pulsar + STS Ensoniq EPS/ASR Kurzweil Reaktor Map KOMPAKT INTAKT KONTAKT 1.x BATTERY 1 & 2 So basically everything.

Well, basically, you load up the library into a sampler like Kontakt or Gigastudio. In my opinion, Kontakt is more versatile and easier to use than GS. In theory you can use the LD samples within Reason's NN-XT sampler. However, you will have to manually map the samples - it's a bit difficult. Thus using a plugin like Kontakt is a better idea A distortion plugin is just a plugin that simulates a distortion pedal or tape saturator (etc). Scream 4, for instance.

Some interesting arrangement + sequencing ideas, and pretty good production values overall.. but I think some of the key issues have already been noted. There's a lacking human element - I think in both the guitar AND the drums which are really sort of just rhythmic placeholders rather than part of an interesting percussive line. At the very least, vary them up a bit and layer more to create a more engaging sound there. In addition, considering the amount of source available, this is too original and too short. I would suggest expanding this one and working in more Chrono Trigger, or at least tying in your own original parts into the source tunes. NO

Oof! The machine gun effect. If you have Kontakt, I can link you to a script that effectively eliminates that.. I know it's a limitation present in virtually all libraries, and so obviously I'm not letting that get in the way of the judgment of the mix, but lemme know if you want more info on that. Anyway. The arrangement is really superb here. I hope there's no question about that. The production is pretty good; dynamics are very present and sample quality and sequencing is good. It all seems a little dulled for whatever reason, maybe because of the encoding. Using VBR or a little bit of EQ to brighten the strings/piano might have alleviated that. Also, the piano at times felt on the mechanical side, particularly in the repetitive passages. More velocity and timing variation could have really helped. However, the execution is more than passable overall. Bottom line: excellent arrangement, finely detailed, and highly interpretive. The technical side of things ain't bad either. YES

Yes, Lyrical Distortion really sounds fantastic. I own it and I gotta say, the sounds are just superb. It's got all sorts of scrapes, noises, and release samples as well (and EVERYTHING is chromatic with no or very little looping) so you can get maximum realism. Just put a little of your favorite distortion plugin on it, so you get realtime distortion as well as the recorded stuff, and you're good to go. Of course it helps to know a thing or two about realistic guitar sequencing too. After all, you could have the greatest library in the world, but if you play it like a piano it still won't sound any good!

Warlocks are one of the most underplayed class, and it's partially due to their design. In MC, they serve as constant damage dealers with their Shadowbolt spells, and their Curse of Doom, Shadows, and Elements are very useful. However they will never rack up the huge overall damage numbers of Mages, Rogues, or Hunters. In PVP, the Succubus and Curse of Exhaustion spells are pretty nasty, and they have damage curses which are a bit harder to remove than magic or poison. They're really not a class to be feared.. though they are probably among the most tough and sturdy of any caster because of their massive HP + pet.

suzume; just wait until you're higher level. Hunters get to own very hard, particularly in PVP. In PvE with the right weapon they can outdamage even Rogues.

You do have a point there. But I have faith that Bliz will eventually 'fix' up the talent trees. They've been slowly but surely addressing this stuff, and no class has a CRIPPLING disability (unlike DAoC where at one point, Blademasters were absolutely useless in every department, and Berserkers were total gods). I'm guessing patch 1.8 or so will bring some additional Paladin changes - I know this coming one has some Druid changes that make the Cat form significantly more viable for DPS.

To be fair, Blizzard doesn't necessarily describe their own classes well. I see Paladin's role as a combat healer and support class. Believe it or not, a Paladin with lots of +healing and the proper spec is actually MORE mana efficient than a Priest, Shaman, or Druid. This means that in MC, they can basically go on healing forever, and MC is all about endurance fights. Their support abilities are of course unmatched; that +stat buff, aggro reducer, fire resistances, and mana regeneration all beat out any buffs from Shamans, the Horde equivalent of a support class in PvE. I haven't played enough on Alliance to know what Paladins are like in non-MC instances, but I'd imagine that they play a similar role as Shamans (who actually DON'T do much DPS there). In PvP I see Paladins as nearly unstoppable. When I see one, I don't even bother fighting them. You have to sink so much time and mana into reducing their health that it's not worth it. Plus, the 5minute cooldown on Divine Shield makes it so that whenever a major conflict happens, they'll probably be ready to use it. In GROUP pvp, the shield plus their plate armor, heals, and buffs makes them a nightmare to kill. Three paladins assisting a Druid flag runner is practically impenetrable, because even if you have multiple people attacking them, they can still shrug them off pretty easily, unlike Priests or Druids. And believe it or not, a Paladin with an Obsidian Edged Blade, Quel`Serrar, or Unstoppable Force hurts cloth wearers pretty hard. What am I supposed to do when I see a Paladin attacking me? Fear him? They trinket out. DoT him? They Cleanse that. Mindblast him? Even if I blew my entire mana bar they would still easily outlast me considering the mana-efficiency of their heals.

I don't either. Too many people see Paladins as Warriors with healing spells, when the class is more like healers with some Warrior aspects. They don't tank, they don't taunt, their gear has healing bonuses on it, and their skills are almost entirely defense/support oriented. They're not Warriors!

Actually in the newest patch they're ADDING a Paladin ability. But that's besides the point. The Paladin is the most defensive, support-oriented class there is. You can't have your cake and eat it too. The best 1v1 player on my server is a Paladin, and they're the best combat healers on the field (just TRY playing a Priest in group pvp, you're the #1 target of everyone). Shamans do rock pretty hard in PVP, but their totems die in one hit, and they CAN be killed. If you just DPS them they die like any other class. More importantly, they rely on mana to win. Shamans actually have pretty low DPS if they melee, even with windfury - they suck at farming for a reason. Ever see a Shaman solo a mob? It's pathetic. They either take forever to kill something, or they kill it quick but blow most of their mana. Sure, they're powerful, but they have their weaknesses.

No point in trying to address most of your points, since it all boils down to what each person finds fun. Some people LIKE playing a support class (Paladin), for example. One thing I will say, is that I've never had any problems with lag ever.

I'm pretty pathetic.. I can't tell whether this is live or not. I'm leaning towards "it isn't" because it seems to me like everything is loud and 'hard'. Usually, human performers incorporate at least SOME soft notes, which I didn't notice very much of hear. It's a common problem from just about any piano sample besides the very modern ones. But anyway. This was definitely not what I was expecting. LOTS of cool arrangement stuff, modulation, and plenty of building on the original. Sound quality is good throughout, with either good recording or a good sample used. At first I was thinking that there is an excessive amount of reverb and sustain used, but I think that just adds to the emotional element. On the other end of the spectrum, I do feel that at times this is lacking in dynamics. It's boisterous and up front, with few quiet and expressive sections. The fact that it's on the short side doesn't help; perhaps extra dynamics could have been added in an additional section placed somewhere towards the end of the mix. I'm not sure. While I do have a few gripes, they're not enough to bring this mix below our standards. YES