DarkeSword

You're allowed to have more than one mix on the panel at a time, so long as you're following the Wait-3-Weeks rule for submissions. In any case, this is a wicked piece of music. I really love the crazy level of energy here. Nice job. I do agree that it's too liberal though, for the reasons that Andy and Larry mentioned, so I'm going to say NO. Don't get discouraged, and you feel like it, please tweak this and resub. It'd be cool to have it on OCR eventually.

Reeeeallly lacking in hi-range. Drums sound really weak, and the bass and lead aren't playing nicely with each other; that is to say, they sound mashed together. You need to think more about how they balance with each other; EQ will help with that. This piece also really feels like it's lacking something; I dunno, maybe you need some better harmonic support instead of just rhythm guitar. Maybe comping piano? This sounds more like a rock piece than metal, I don't think the piano would be out of place. Something bright. In any case, synth guitar comes in out of nowhere and really doesn't work at all in the rest of the texture. Needs work, but not a lost cause. Think about clarity and how you can tweak your production to give everything more definition. NO

Short and sweet with a surprising amount of variation, considering the length. I agree with Larry, the bombastic section at 1:39 wasn't as effective as you hoped. And yes there's a click at the end. I think there's a little too much reverb too, especially when the brass comes in near the end. All in all, I think this piece only serves as a preview. There's a lot more you can do to expand the arrangement, and I'd really like to see that happen. I don't think this is really long enough to be effective as it is. NO but please expand and resub

Not a fan of where the drums sit in the mix. The kick has too much presence. That's my only gripe. Everything else is really neat. Great lyics and great performance. I like the texture too. Electric recorder rocks my socks. YES

Sequencing is really mechanical. You really need to work on your producing skills man. I realize you're an arranger/composer first and foremost (and you're not a bad one), but I think you rely far too much on letting your sampler do your work for you when it comes to actually producing the music in waveform. If you'd handed out the sheet music to a bunch of musicians, this would have really been great, but right now it sounds like it's from a PC RPG for Windows 95. You have to do far more than just write out the parts. You're not just the arranger here, you're the performer too; you have to make this stuff sound believable. Humanization is so important, especially with music like this. As far as the arrangement itself, it's fine, though I think on the second go around it could use way more variation. It sounds a lot like BGM right now. It could use more dynamic contrast. NO

Echoing Jesse here: it's lacking in midrange and the balance is off. Instruments are blending together badly. I do like the arrangement; nice detache string work. The arrangement has a nice, deep, adventurous feeling to it. I feel like I'm exploring ancient ruins or some crap. Nice. NO resub

Sorry agreeing with Vig here. What you've got is nice, but it sounds like a collection of songs rather than one cohesive piece. I didn't mind it so much in the Flashback suite as the transitions worked alright there, but not so much here. I think the medly-itis in this piece really kills it. There are certainly ways to combine multiple source tunes into a single, cohesive work. This feels like a "Highlights from Out of This World" piece some pops orchestra would play. I think that as a single mix, it's really lacking in direction. NO

Yeah I'm with Jesse here. I don't find the interpretation particularly interpretive at all. There are some embellishments, but it's all too little too late. There's some balance issues between brass and the woodwinds at the end as well. Way too much reverb on the ending brass there. NO

Not a bad piece of music by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly isn't very exciting. I'd have to agree with Jon's sentiments; "string bath/repeating piano pattern" aptly describes it. I'm not one to hate on simplification or minimalism, but really, this piece a simplified version of the original, and I think it suffers from that simplification. There's more of a structure in the original, more dynamic variation; your piece doesn't necessarily need so defined a structure, but the lack of dynamic variation really detracts from the end result. NO

Agree with Jill on the clipping; needs fixin'. I don't however, agree with Jill on the issues of the sour-notes in the guitar soloing. Notes like that in jazz improvisation are transitional and in this mix, worked in context. I'm not so sure I agree on the significance of the flatness of the notes either. I didn't find them all that distracting, and I think that's part of an organic performance. All in all though, excellent interpretation of the classic Lost Woods theme. Quite relaxing. YES, on the condition that the clipping is fixed. -- Well, it looks like we can't get a fixed, clipping-less version. Upon further listening, I can see how the intonation could be an issue and while it doesn't bother me as much as it might bother others, it's still there. Alas, I must say NO.

Where's the Sonic the Hedgehog stuff? NO

My beefs with the production are mostly addressed from my last vote. I still really like the arrangement. I think Zircon's right about the EQ issues; it does sound like it's put through a high-pass filter. Maybe we can fast track this? I'd like to give this a conditional YES, the condition being tweaked EQ. I don't claim to be an expert on that kind of thing (kind of sad, isn't it?), but perhaps some other judges can help this fellow out?

Gotta agree here, especially with Larry's points about little arrangement value. What's there may as well be directly sampled. It's not changed in any really meaningful way. Crowd-noises layered over the music may as well been drumloops. It's the same kind of thing. That ending is especially grating and doesn't serve to interpret the source material at all. NO

Donated Kirby's Squeak Squad for Nintendo DS to the Children's Specialized Hospital in NJ. I'm a big fan of this game, and Kirby was always one of my favorite series growing up. I'm trying to share the love with a new generation.

I suppose since I'm the guy who suggested this, I should chime in. I realize where Dave is coming from with his thoughts; yes, it's really important to donate towards research for cures. Child's Play, though, is about doing something more immediate for these sick kids. If you check out PA's letter's page (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/photosletters.php), you'll see that stuff like this is really important for helping kids who may not be terminally ill work through their illness. It's not a 'fuzzy feeling' charity my any stretch of the imagination. Like someone else mentioned, it's a quality of life issue. It's one thing to be really sick, but it's even worse when you're really sick and really bored and have nothing to distract yourself with. Yeah, it might be nicer to donate money towards research so that kids don't get sick in the first place, but how sure of a thing is that? People have been raising money 'for the cure' for decades, and while we've certainly made strides in disease treatment, I can't remember the last time we actually found a 'cure.' In any case, I think that a charity as focused as Child's Play is a great thing. Lots of people raise money for medical research, but Child's Play is more about helping those kids here and now. I think OCR being involved, even in a small way, would be a great thing.

Messing around will only get you so far. Understanding some basic theory behind synth design will help you UNDERSTAND what you're doing far more than shooting in the dark will.

I don't think there's any question. FFTA2 will definitely be leaps and bounds better.

It's hard as hell, but I like it.

Yeah, just gonna jump in here and agree. If you want to get into SF, go with SF2T first. That'll give you a good baseline. Personally, I'm a 3rd Strike player, because I prefer the more refined, even pace, but your results may vary. In any case, I'm also gonna say that you should first learn how to play Ryu or Ken. They're the basics, but also very powerful. At the same time though, don't fall into the habit of always playing as them. There are tons of other fighters in the series with awesome movesets and play styles beyond your typical 'Shotokan' fighter. Once you're comfortable with Ryu or Ken, branch out.

(10:22:50pm) (@ds) larry, i'm fine with my star fox vote (10:23:47pm) (@Larry) ok cool (10:23:50pm) (@Larry) thanks for checking (10:23:51pm) (@ds) i think thematically connecting to the source via chord progression is fine, considering the genre (10:24:08pm) (@ds) and it works in the context of the mix (10:24:19pm) (@Larry) you mind posting that? cut/paste? (10:24:27pm) (@ds) np (10:24:28pm) (@Larry) just so no one bothers you about it later (10:24:32pm) (@ds) yeah (10:24:33pm) (@Larry) thanks

I agree with Jill on a lot of points. This piece doesn't really evoke anything. It lacks that human touch; very inorganic. Granted, it's difficult to bring that out at such a slow tempo when you're sequencing, but I think more thought needs to be put into writing more expressive lines. You can be dark, slow, and brooding and still have a sense of movement; sustained, slow lines usually work better when they deal with more complex harmonies and have a broader dynamic range. Oboe sounds really thin as well; might want to beef that up with some reverb or a different sample. NO resub

Oy. A trilogy has three parts; in this case Just a Little More... (Prime Edit), Torvus Clockwork, and Yellow Valkyrie. Do you not understand what a trilogy is?

Yeah it's awesome.

The trilogy is complete. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Yellow Valkyrie [5.59MB]

Baaahahahaha xD