DarkeSword

Download the Music: Squad vs. Squad Block 1: Round 1 Because RvK has two different types of rounds (squad-vs-squad and boss battle), please make sure you read and follow the instructions. This is a Squad vs. Squad Battle. You must use the poll to vote for the tracks you like better. If you’re able, please leave reviews of the tracks in this thread. Voting ends Sunday, at 9PM EST. The most important thing to consider when voting is how well the remix incorporates and arranges both themes. Production and enjoyability should also be considered, but this is primarily an arrangement competition. Everyone is allowed (and encouraged) to vote, including competitors. You are required to make an actual decision for each choice, meaning, you cannot declare a draws or ties for different places. This will be counted as not voting and your vote will not be counted. Everyone must adhere to the Competitions Code of Conduct.

Hey folks. I've decided to continue on with the compo. I'll be posting Round 3 match-ups tonight, and Round 1 and Round 2 music together tomorrow night for voting. For those wondering about my family emergency, my mom passed away last week while visiting India. While I certainly appreciate any condolences you have to offer, please do not post them in this thread; I'd like to keep the thread on-topic. A "like" on this post would be fine, though. Thanks for understanding! I'm looking forward to everyone's entries moving forward.

I don't understand the point of this thread. I don't think you actually know what perfect pitch is. Locking.

Hey everyone. Due to a family emergency, I'm going to have to put the competition on hold. I'm very sorry. Round 2 remixers, please continue with this week and submit your remixes on Sunday. We'll pick back up with Round 3 once things settle down. Again, I'm very sorry.

tonight

What's happening with this? Can we get a new thread from the new director? Wither @Theory of N?

Round 2 match-ups are up.

There's a sparseness to this track that's really bothering me. I like the sound design but that section at 4:00 with the pads should have come in a LOT earlier. You're kind of relying way too much on that variable-speed plucking synth too. There's really very little going on except for percussion and lead here; even the builds are mostly just the synth's speed changing. This is repetitive and plods a bit. Needs more variation. NO (resub)

Some very light clipping around 2:39 in the low brass. I really enjoyed your 11/8 section, that was quite nice. I think there are some balance issues especially around the middle when the full ensemble is playing. The brass samples are VERY exposed here, and the mechanical sequencing doesn't help in that regard. I think you need to pay more attention to articulation in the brass. Something very weird happening with your strings at 2:51; sounds like it's suppose to be tremolo but it comes off sounding like an audio deformation instead. Part-writing and arrangement is fantastic but the production needs work. NO (resub)

Oof...I am not crazy about that transition to Good Friends. I mean it's sound but it's so abrupt. I think Gario nailed it with his critique on your timing; there's a lot of parts of this piece that sound like you're hesitating rather than emoting. Larry too is right in that it's a fairly straightforward arrangement. I think there's more you could do here rhythmically and harmonically. Some things to think about. NO

This is great. I think there's a lot of variety going on here and it certainly sounds great. I don't have any real production crits that wouldn't be nitpicky. I can see what Larry's saying about the highs but it's not a dealbreaker for me. I LIKE IT! YES

Nobody mentioned the sour note at 1:03-1:05 because there's no sour note. I'm with the dissenting Judges. Nothing stands out as particularly egregious to me, but there are a couple of little things. The main saw lead is VERY splashy and I think it could be tightened up a little. Your kick and snare are front and center, but you've got your hat sitting WAY in the back and totally panned right. There could be a lot more going on with that percussion track. For such a short song it's pretty repetitive. Don't get me wrong, I like what I hear, but this could be a lot better. Let's fix it up. NO

Not implemented yet. It's coming though. One of the things actively being discussed by staff right now.

Not hearing any dealbreakers in here. Pretty rockin' arrangement. Nice performances and good production. YES!

I'm going to fall in line with Larry and MW here. It's not a bad piece, but I'm not seeing the significant transformation required to justify the sampling. NO

I think the concerns here might be a little too nitpicky. I think this is a great arrangement and an nice combination of the sources. It doesn't follow an ABA kind of form but sometimes that's alright. The transitions aren't jarring at all. I like this. Let's goooo~ YES

Me too!

Folks, I've put together some sigs for everyone using the new logo. The sigs are for your squad, they don't have your name on them, but that's okay because your name is on your posts. xD They're available here; just grab the file for your squad and host it somewhere and you should be good to go!

Folks, I've adjusted the schedule for the competition a little bit. I've added two Breaks to the competition, each occurring after a Boss Battle round. In the last compo I ran, the SFRG, some competitors expressed some fatigue at going full bore for the 9 weeks of the competition. Also, certain mechanics of the competition depend on the outcome of the boss battles, so we can't actually push forward with the competition until voting is complete. During the week-long breaks, I think it would be good for people to revisit tracks from the previous four rounds and do some reviews and give constructive feedback, especially for tracks on from opposing teams.

We have a logo. Sigs are coming soon. They'll be customized down to the squad, not the remixer.

Folks, here's some advice related to combining two sources together that I wrote in a different thread.