chokst~1.bat

This was probably my favorite song of the night, brought me back some really great memories. I wondered for ages why I liked the strings in Gary Numan's 1979 track "Films" so much, and now I finally figured out why. Wow! Haven't played Arkanoid in around 10 years.

http://www.canadianphilatelics.com/choksta/halfblack.mp3 Alot of dumb recording issues, but maybe it'll give people a good idea of Larry's contribution.

Larry rapping over SpaceBeam at the end was simply amazing.

I hate music, and I hate video games, but I'll go to the chatroom anyways to help you guys make fun of stuff that is stupid. i.e. music and video games Cheers.

Heh. I just picked a random song today and downloaded it to test my cable internet. This was the one I chose. I ended up listening to it into the background while playing online multiplayer games; works especially well with starship games, like Subspace Continuum (http://subspace.legendzones.com). It's very chill and lowkey, and flows pretty good as background music.

As far as I see it, the vocals are very well executed, and relate to the topic so well that it wouldn't even matter if the melody had anything to do with a song from the game! The fact that it does is just an extra bonus. Interesting. Are there any specific sections where you thought they were out of place? I found the drums sounded kind of awkward at 1:01, and that the pulsating notes 2:14 were a little awkward (but they kinda added to the crazyness factor). The repetative strings at 1:12-1:59 were a little loud for me, but that was about it. Overall, the strings and piano worked really well for me. edit: I think it's the way you picture the song. If you put the bass synth or vocals in the foreground of your mind, the piano and strings feel more natural than if you focus on the piano or the strings while using the rest of the song as a backup (this seems to apply more to the piano, though, since it's melodies are more daring).

Woah, Mazedude and his oldskool demon have just met their fuckin' rival of musical depth.

Pretty generic industrial music. Not really much happening here, besides some looped drums/chord progression with the original playing over it at different speeds. It's ok, but it really lacks variety; and just when things start to switch up at around 2:45, the song just ends abruptly. A little more creativity would have gone a long way to compliment the good choice of instruments and Ocean Palace melody. Some major issues I have with this song: - The treble hook introduced at around 0:14 doesn't EVER change it's notes, getting old very quickly (I was sick of it by 0:24 and again by around 0:53-1:14 when it was reintroduced) - The drums loop with pretty much the exact same 3 second pattern way all the way from 0:33-2:35; how annoying! You could have atleast made it 4 different patterns cycling through, and switched the percussion up every now and than to keep it interesting. The song also seems to lack punch/power for most sections in the middle, which is decieving because it appeared to be heavy and full of life (to some degree) from the 0:00-0:53 introduction. This remix has potential, and the background pads/strings/synths helped the atmosphere a little, but as described... it really lacks variety and attention to detail in other areas; in my opinion. I usually love this style of music, but this song seems rather cheezy and unproduced to me. Meh.

Heh... didn't think I'd ever see the day when someone remixed a Commander Keen song - very cool. I've always loved this game! I wasn't as impressed with the "chill" feel of this remix as most of you. Some sections seemed kind of repetative, minimal or uncreative... like the intro (beyond the vocals), how the bass stays exactly the same from 0:24 until 3:05 (!!!), how that background synth (and drumloops) at 3:10-4:15 don't really change up at all, and how the 0:41 lead doesn't really "expand" upon the original; for example. The instruments also felt a little too filtered and/or trebly for my tastes. My favorite section is probably 2:12-3:05, it's a nice buildup that catches the feel of the original song well for me; especially near the end. I liked the rhodes instrument introduced at around 0:25, the way it goes all haywire at 4:14, and the piano at 1:12-1:52 was a nice touch too. Using two instruments that keep alternating for the theme at 3:36 (with the string and vocals entering the picture) was a nice idea; but the loopy synth and drums in the background get pretty annoying after awhile. Still, it was great to see a professional interpretation of a Keen 4 song with some new twists to it! I'd give this mix a 7/10.

Oh. Emotions...

Damn, that live chatroom looks like fun. Really gives you a good perspective of what's going on during VG Frequency. I read about half the session, than it got a little boring after Adhesive_Boy left. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHADAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH4AAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHOHAH*(2DSFV?/@*! Haaaaaaaaaaaa................*tries to breathe* Oh man, I'll have to download the entire show with all the mixes; sounds like it'll totally be worth it. So let's see, if I start grabbing the 4+ hour MP3 at 7pm tonight; I might get it all by 9am on Friday... and not really tie up the phone lines here. Perfect!

Mmm, White Zombie and Nine Inch Nails connections! I'm pretty sure I also felt a short "woah, this remindes me of More Human than Human" experience the first time I plugged it in (from that funky synth bass at 0:13)... but I figured that was this just a common style or something; and didn't want to insult your creativity - lol. That buildup at 0:50 definately sounds to me like has some NIN roots. I'm verging towards either something from Quake or the song "the wretched" - but my instinct tells me that it was influenced (somewhat) by Driver Down; which is track 22 on the Lost Highway soundtrack. Interesingly enough, that soundtrack also features a few tracks by Rammstein (as some have already mentioned as a questionable influence). I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy.

Sure, it's too bad he never came out of that crazy machine! I always liked just running past Mortimer and riding the Loch Ness monster...

Are you serious? There isn't. There's only orchestral instruments, pads, synths, guitar, drums and percussion. I never noticed any "screaming" either, but it does sound like there's a really faint low ambient sound in the left ear at 2:41-3:24; sounds a little like the seashore instrument to me, but it could also be just a pad or reverb of the guitar - though I can see how it could be interpreted as screaming. Is that what you're referring to Ramaniscence? You know, I wonder if this is perhaps the kind of music Psychologists play for their patients to relieve depression. Hard to say, it might work, or it might make things worse; I don't know much about how their methods - but it was just a weird question that came to my mind as I was playing through it (seeing as the effects it has on me are always very positive). Thanks for the reply and the info about future collaborations GrayLightning.

I find this freemind / GrayLightning remix is really good right before going to sleep... As I travel through it's casual flow on repeated listenings, I say to myself: "wow, another great day has come and gone, and I don't know what tomorrow will hold, but I'm glad that I got to experience everything that has taken place today. As this chapter reaches a close, everything good or bad has been resolved and brought to a positive light in this limbo of time, and I anxiously await what future journeys my life will hold, but even if this book ends tonight; I am touched and appreciative of everything I've witnessed in this world - and happy to have experienced everything that this eventful tale has had to offer." What can I say? It's just a really emotional and thought-provoking tune for me. *wipes a tear from his eye; actually 4 or 5 - honestly*

It's different. I think the name "Freemind" comes to mind more than "Tears for a Girl" when I listen to this song's calm style. The instruments at 2:40 (power synth thing) and 4:18 (distorted guitar) add a nice touch to the style of the second half. The flute and folk guitar are what I'm mostly paying attention to; but all the other stuff (bells, percussion, etc.) are nice additions too. This song has a really clean, real feel to it - atleast for me. I think the strings and flute are what make the "Tears for a Girl" imagery stand out the most. I'm sure this would make good background music for a movie - but is also fine for simple listening pleasure; you just to take a ride through your imagination with it and see where it takes you.

Very nice. It's sounds really clean, which is cool - but I gotta admit, I like mixes that are sort of dirty sounding a little more... as they seem to have more lower frequency content that can draw some more - i don't know the word - heh. The intruments and sequencing is really good, they are! THEY ARE!!! Ok, I just wanted to make sure I got that point across - lol. I really dig the synth bass that comes on at 0:13 (and how it shifts and slides as it's going through the different sections), as with alot of the other effects like the choirs, xylophes at 1:47, rammstein style talking, new bass at 0:54, and those pads that are really hiding in the background at 3:26 (with the slices of left panned guitarish-ness). Man, about the section Hax was talking about - I like it too, but for an entirely different reason. This may sound VERY strange, but you might find this as fascinating as I did. There is a interesting connection with the 2:08+ section and Mazedude's "Norfair Deathmarch" mix; which is close to impossible to notice, because they are both on opposite ends of the spectrum of a 4 generation family of remixes. The second one of the string is doomed.mid... which can be found here; and the third is Braving the Flames.mp3. Try them out and see for yourself! Isn't that fuckin' hilarious? I certainly thought so...

Thanks for that information. Funny, on my FL Studios box, it says that you are legally entited to only ONE free upgrade - haha. Has anyone ever tried 4.5 yet? If so, in your personal opinion, is it worth upgrading from V4.12 to it? Geez, just when I thought I had everything...

There were no other tunes. Sure there are. Here's some of the midis from Wolfenstein 3d: http://www.angelfire.com/id/choksta/music/zipped/wolfmidi.zip For the record, when I first heard this Mazedude track; I didn't like it, and it took me awhile to get past some of the strange mechanical-style drums (they would have been cool for one section near the end; but the whole song?), and how some of the extra stuff in the background was mixed together was weird (like that Young and the Restless style Piano that plays through the whole song; and the string arrangements that are introduced at 1:39). The high strings that also played in the original (0:46+) were really touching, but I found that they sounded a little too screetchy and/or whiny when they hit the really high notes. There's obviously ALOT of creativity in this this song (if you listening to the original "Wondering About My Loved Ones" and compare), and it's great to expand upon short songs to give people more to look at; but I think this remix is kind of decieving... as it's close enough to the original in some ways that the additions sound more like they're trying to battle with the original stuff than blend in together with it. For some reason, parts like the bridge at 2:20 make me go "NO!!!! WHAT'S GOING ON?!? WHAT HAPPENED TO MY GREAT WOLF3D SONG?!? AAAAA!". I always had a vision of a lovely choir singing along to those high notes too, but having that timpany melody in the right ear was really nice. The part at 3:15+ is awesome, and I think if the song was played more true to the original in other parts (like no panned robotic drums until 2:20; adding a different kind of atmosphere there in it's place... for instance) - than the ending section would have been so much more rewarding and crazy when you finally got to it. I don't know, maybe I'm just a crackhead and have no idea what I'm talking about... but I just wish this song focused on making the touching mood of the original more prominent than it was; atleast for some sections. But hey, I guess this is what Mazedude was in the mood to create... and I'm eternally thankful he did a remix of a Wolfenstein song, and put so much detail into his artwork; either way. So, thanks Chris; great work - I think! *scratches his head* lol. Woah, that was pretty sweet venture into the remix and the history of World War II you wrote there. Thanks for that interesting read man!

Cool. Up until this point, I've only been using the regular sounds that come with FL and Reason, and just altering them in whatever ways fits what I'm trying to do best. I love just making/recording my own wave files for the rest, playing around with them; and than throwing them into the mix (instruments, sound effects, speech, etc.). Even though I don't have any requests for new sounds at the moment (since I love just altering the originals or building my own; for when the defaults aren't enough), it's still nice know there's a thread devoted to posting links and formats to alternative sounds. Not sure if you guys would have anything that fits with my weird tastes though.

Hrmmm.. this might sound stupid, but you can try opening Sound Recorder (making sure your record settings are on Wave/Stereo out, and that your sample rate is around 44khz 16bit stereo) and than press play in Reason and move the tempo tags up and down manually as you're recording it live to Sound Recorder. You can also export it to wave first at the slowest tempo; than use something like Cooledit to unstretch it to different levels - but that method might affect the actual wave frequency of some of the instruments. I've tried sampling full wave files from Reason into Fruitloops before too; to play around with it there. It's trickier because you have to keep restarting from the beginning or export it to hear the results (unless you split the wave into many sections and put it in a pattern first) - but still kind of interesting... slicing waves together to form a cool arrangement with features from other programs; that didn't work as well in Reason. Editing music after it's in a wave file (or many wave files - if you're mixing channels with different settings) can be alot of fun... even just with regular Sound Recorder; let alone with CoolEdit and such. Many people who are accustomed to doing everything in their specific program are afraid to try this - but it can give you some pretty neat results when you give it a chance. All depends what you're after, I guess.

Hrmmm. I made the mistake of reading all the reviews before I listened to the song. That, of course, made me expect something extremely amazing here. Well, it's great that this guy is remixing a game with music as great as Lemmings - but I gotta say that I was a little disappointed in this version. It loops through the intro melody a little too much for me, and although it does hold some nice atmosphere; the dance/techno style wasn't how I remembered the original song, and it doesn't really build up... it just uses the same 1 beat throughout the whole song overtop of the old melody. It's ok, but doesn't really incorporate anything I haven't seen before; so I wouldn't say that it's great (the 'sonar' type instrument in the background was a cool addition though). If you want to hear the original version off the CD, here it is: http://www.adhesiveboy.no-ip.com/ftp/otherjunk/Track%2015%20-%20Lemmings.wma I actually like the songs on the disk version better than the CD's 23 tracks though, as you get to hear them keep repeating forever - and they seem to hold something a little deeper in their simpler format (certainly wonderful enough to make me want to cry sometimes! Ahhh, Lemmings music is so great!). Like I said, reading all these reviews was awesome; and it's an ok remix... but I think this guy could have gone alot farther with the variety in this one (which would, of course, give the composer alot more freedom to give the song a longer length too). Mazedude's Lemmings song is still by far my favorite on the site; but it's cool that there are other people who see the potential in these classic tunes.

Thanks for the feedback. In the past, I've just tried to lower the volumes of specific instruments until I don't hear clipping (when switching to a new format, or using a different audio player); but it sounds like there's alot more advanced ways to do it without sacrifising anything in the music (like playing around with peak ranges), and that there's many ways to get around this without having to use Compression right away, or at all (which I'd hardly ever use anyways - lol). You might be right in some ways. This "Lo-Fi" thing you refer to must just be something I don't have a good ear for, but when programs automatically have stuff like Compression and Anti-Alias on as the default (say, when converting your song to a wave file or something); I immediatly notice the difference... nomatter how minimal (same with when I try to convert songs from 22khz to 44khz to put on a CD) - because I have a good vision of what my song was supposed to sound like; and 'advanced features' that change the peaks and frequencies that I original made my sound with usually do nothing but piss me off (even if they're just trying to make the song sound better in the end) - haha. Even when I listen to one of my songs on a different audio player, it never sounds completely right... as every stereo / headphones have a different default for how they project the treble/bass (like, turning the "bass boost" button on makes it more bassy than I intended; but turning it off makes the bass not as apparant as it was on my original computer speakers - which can sometimes annoy the hell out of me! lol). Yeah, so, I may not notice the whole "lo-fi" thing when stuff goes over the red light (when there's no apparent clipping [distortion or popping] to be heard)... but I'm REALLY damn picky when it comes to how I want my music to sound in other ways. Thanks again for the information. I was pretty convinced that clipping depended alot on the frequency range of different systems (since some people comment about clipping when others never notice it), but it's nice to know how big the range can get to as well. Sometimes I just go into Cooledit and knock the frequencies down to about 28000 when creating songs (or press the "Decrease Volume by 25%" button in Sound Recorder); just so that the song will be compatible with most speakers - but like you said; there's obvious more technical ways to get rid of the problem. The headphones I have right now claim to go from 10Hz to 25000Hz, which seems to be good for whatever I do (never really get much static and distortion, unless it's on purpose - haha). I'm gonna keep reading your bigger messages in detail, as it's obvious that alot of knowledge has gone into everything you've said CompyFox. Thanks again for all the interesting examples and tips man; they are greatly appreciated!

This is definately a style I don't usually come across on this site - alot more orchestral, ambient, and somewhat marchy at times. It's not really that 'minimal' (like some people mentioned); when you think about it. I see quite a few instruments hiding in there during most of this peaceful song; they just blend in well enough together that they don't stick out (which is a good thing for this kind of song; in my opinion). At first this song really surprised me, I didn't know if I liked it or not (was verging towards a Psycrow post, about how it didn't really pick up); but I do really like what's there in it's calmness... especially when the Oboe/Clarinet and Saxaphone instruments (i think?) join the mix. I'd say all the other instruments, like the piano, choir, drumrolls, strings, bass, twinkly stuff, bells, etc. all add it's overall effect; keeping it unique and interesting. Everything blends in nicely enough here for my tastes. The song takes a few times to grow on you if you're used to what's regularily put out on OCR, but just keep giving it a try and you'll hopefully start to see and appreciate what Antonio Pizza is trying to do here (well, I did anyways - I've had it on repeat for about an hour now; lol). Nice work man! Peace.

Yeah, I hardly ever use compression. It seems to take away from the overall effect of the song (sometimes even with light compression) - so I'd rather just let it go over the line and clip. Not sure if that's a good suggestion, since no one explained the relevance of removing un-noticable clipping anyways. Thanks for the tips. Not sure if this is essentially what compression does, but I'll look into adjusting the dB peaks and see what happends. Louder may not be better, but sometimes people have speakers/earphones that can only go so loud - so it's nice to get the music as close to the peak as possible when going out for a jog with your walkman on or something; so you can experience the full effect of the song when desired.