Fray

Very creative, ambitious remix. I absolutely love that organ solo -- you've got some good chops to be able to play all of this live. The recording quality and processing are excellent. Unlike many remixes that include a lot of live instruments, I can "forget" that this is live while I enjoy its organic quality. Arrangement is really excellent, with a lot of variety and good transitions. I feel bad bitching about stuff when I know this was hard to do, but the intonation on the trumpet really hurt this one for me. I would have liked this 100% better if you'd gone the extra mile to get the trumpets in tune with each other as well as the rest of the music. My youth orchestra conductor used to always get on my case to practice everything with a tuner -- otherwise your ear gets used to how it sounds when you play it out of tune and you never fix the problem. Good stuff with all the creativity I've come to expect from JigginJonT.

In my opinion, this is exactly how trance ought to be done. It has a simple, beautiful melody that's there throughout the entire piece. The melody repeats itself a lot, but it's such a nice theme that I didn't get tired of hearing it. In a way, it's kind of genre-busting, because listening to the first couple of minutes of the music you really don't expect any trance to follow. Consequently, you couldn't play it in a dance club or anything, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's a good thing, because this music is more creative and expressive than your average danceable trance music. Honestly, I can't say I liked either the intro or the body of the song better than the other. Both are well done, and it's the combination of the two that makes this music epic and unique. One small gripe: something sounds a little off at 4:28 -- the piano melody and the rest of the music don't quite seem to jive for a couple of seconds, and it sounds more like a mistake than deliberate conflict. Great stuff, thanks GLL

This is really superb -- personally I think it's like 300% better than Toroian Love song (although I may not have the most recent version of that). The vocals are really spot-on except for that part at the end and the first few notes being a little shaky. The guitar playing and tone are wonderful. It's really a lot more daring and ambitious than most remixes -- even the really good ones -- and you pull it off very well.

I will never, ever understand the video game remixing community's collective fixation with lounge music. Correct me if I'm wrong, but said fixation does in fact exist... Well, at least it's better than Mariachi or something... That being said, this is f**king amazing. There's really nothing I can say that djp didn't already, but this is an instant classic. One small gripe -- I thought the EQing on the mix as a whole was a little treble-heavy. Still, that's largely a matter of taste, and if you're like me and you're picky about that sort of thing, you can fix it to your heart's content with the Winamp EQ Great, great stuff.

Wth? No turkey legs awarded for reviews on this site?? Oh well, I guess I'll write one anyway. This is without question one of GL's best mixes. It flows really well, and it's perfectly produced. There's wonderful, appropriate drumwork and a cool bassline which keep things moving, which imo is kind of a challenge in new age music. Arrangement-wise, I find that there is sort of a paradoxical flip-flop performed on sustained notes. Generally, the problem with repeating the same chord is that it becomes stale and boring. In this mix, they have the opposite effect. Several of the chords are retained without change for a bit longer than I would say is usual, and the result is a sense of intrigue and unexpectedness. This one actually reminded me more of Yanni than of Enya, particularly the album "If I could Tell You." This is also one of the few GL mixes I've actually liked on the first listen. Either it's more listener friendly or I'm just getting more used to his style. Anyway, good mix. Congrats on getting it accepted!

I surfed over to this one after hearing a Magnetman Ska WIP of JJT's, and I sense that this guy has more than his share of musical creativity. I found this mix to be pretty enjoyable. Yeah there's a few issues here and there (already been mentioned), but there's a lot of wonderful things too. One is that it pulls off the Frog theme in techno I love that phat bass sound in the intro. Very nice. And the sword-drawing SFX is pure genius. Things get a little muddy around 2:30, but maybe that was intentional. Regardless, they pick up pretty soon after that. I agree with SGX, the top end is kinda hard to hear in this one; the whole mix sounds kinda boomy -- this means the mid-lowrange frequencies are probably overemphasized. I SO dig those running square wave arpeggios that start around 3:35. They kinda remind me of metroid for some reason. Total opposite of what you'd expect to hear during Frog's theme, and yet the fit perfectly. Good stuff.

Nice! I love how you use the EP in this one, particularly the tasteful use of flanging/phasing. That flutey solo -- good stuff. You do some pitch bend dirtiness in there, and it sounds really cool and unique. It's hard for me to make any comments beyond "I liked it", because I don't know a whole hell of a lot about jazz. But, well, I liked it! Fray.

I totally flipped for this one when I first heard it a few months back, and the effect has not worn off yet after what's probably over 100 listens. This is (no exaggeration) one of my favorite pieces of music ever. I'm not gonna waste OCR bandwidth d/ling the short version, so I won't be commenting on that... Thx for posting the high quality one though! You know I'm gettin me some of that

Trying to see if my sig workz.

Wow. Having played piano for a really long time before I got into remixing, I'm pretty picky about piano sounds -- however, I really liked the distorted piano in this one. I think it fits the Zeal melody really well. The non-distorted piano part is also really incredible. Good job on a very interpretive, beautiful remix. Only gripe I can give is that I would have liked to hear a more fleshed-out denoument and ending. I think the ending is a little too sudden, and it interrupts what is otherwise a really good musical flow. Fray.

Well, I respect the effort it takes to make a live recording like this, but for some reason I didn't dig this one too much. I'm not totally unacquainted with Jazz, but I'm not really into it or knowledgeable about it either, so that might be the problem. I guess more than anything I would have preferred more focused grooving from the organ and guitar. Sometimes it sounds to me like everyone's doing their own thing a little bit too much. Maybe that's my problem actually -- this might just be a style that I don't understand very well, or just don't like Anyway, the sax sounds GREAT. It's played beautifully and recorded beautifully. Same thing goes for the drums. I agree as well that this sounds deliciously like coffeehouse music. In fact, it's making me want coffee, and as such I'd better stop listening to it cuz it's past midnight, and if I have coffee now, I'll never get to bed. I'm rambling. Anyway, I'm gonna give this one at least a few more listens and see if it doesn't grow on me. Fray.

I've said this a few times, but it merits saying again. I freakin' love DarkeSword remixes. I agree with djp's comment about this being your most mature work to date. There's a certain amount of dissonance and resolution in your harmonies that hasn't been as present in your other stuff. Sounds great The processing/mastering stuff sounds wonderful. I think this mix is a perfect example for anyone who wants to learn how to use reverb to its fullest without muddying things up. Anyway, not much to say that pretzel didn't already. Great stuff. Fray.

Ooooooh yeah. This is good. Really good. I have a feeling I'm gonna be listening to this one a lot in the next few weeks I'm curious to know if any of this was made on a real analog synth? The sounds are pretty convincing in that regard. My biggest gripe is the last minute or so... There just isn't much going on and it's rather boring relative to the rest of the piece. In general though, the arrangement is incredibly clean and musical. The vocoded stuff is cool but I think my favorite part is at 1:30 when the arpeggiated harmony kicks in. That's the part that elicited the "oooooh yeah" in the first paragraph, if you're wondering Great stuff! Thanks for creating this. Fray. --- Edit --- According to www.bazooie.com, the sounds were done with Buzz. Further proof that Buzz ownz yo mana. Btw, I listened to some of the other music on the site -- "an exercize in futility" is hella cool. Check it out, yo! --- Edit ---

Triple post -- how'd that happen? :(

Ouch

That's a bit of a misnomer, really, considering that Buzz has VST/i support. Besides, I'm sure you're don't know every single machine in it inside out. Although I will agree with you to some extent; getting a really warm / liquid / phat sound out of it can sometimes be a pain, depending on the machine. Speaking of phat sounds, putting a FSM Phatman with a short delay in your bass-sound, (so that practically no "chorusing" can be heard) effects chain = obese. It also works for leads, especially if they're not really big and reverb heavy. I should have been more specific there -- I think Buzz is just fine for creating the sounds for a lead. I don't for a moment question Buzz' sound generating capabilities. However, for actually performing/programming the melody, I can get much better results with my keyboard and SONAR by playing it "live" but just recording the MIDI. It's a lot more difficult to type the notes into Buzz, especially if I want there to be any dynamics. Yes, you can use Buzz to MIDI-record a performance in realtime, but you're going to get some quantization, even if you do greatly increase the Ticks-Per-Beat (see the "Buzz Help Thread" for more information). There is an interpolate function -- the only way to use it is with a hotkey. Look in the help file in the keyboard shortcuts section, it has an explanation. You still definately want Cubase for a lot of things, like for the same reason I mentioned SONAR above. Plus, you can use Cubase's VST's in Buzz However, I would not write Buzz off as only being good for chiptune stuff. Check out some of the demos that come with it if you want to see what I'm talking about. Fray.

In my experience, Buzz is very weak for creating lead melodies. However, it does a very good job with beats, basslines, textures, and arpeggiating techno treble stuff. In general though, I kinda have the same problem that you do -- it's kinda hard to tell where to use Buzz when you have other stuff to work with, because it does just about everything Still, I think as you play with it more you'll get a feel for what it does well/easily and what it does not. I actually like using Buzz on my laptop, because it's very easy to create music in it without any sort of external input (keyboards, etc). I'm doing a side project right now that's entirely in Buzz, whereas I pretty much don't use it at all for anything else I do. Fray.

Multitrack editor: DDDClip is decent. It's only 4-track, and it doesn't have any effects or anything like that, but it works Probably the best thing to use is Buzz. Fray.

I have to echo what DJP said -- there are some really nice, fresh synth sounds in this piece. That slow pad that comes in around 0:15 is just awesome! Honestly I think the transitions are kinda abrupt. They fit for the most part, but they could use either a buildup or a pause or SOMETHING to indicate that a transition is actually happening. It's kind of like when you change topics mid-paragraph without any prior hint that you're going to do so. Did I mention my cat is fuzzy? (See what I mean? ) Even then the transitions aren't really that bad -- they're just the weakest element of this piece. The mastering and effects are excellent throughout. The music really shimmers and sounds very full, without ever becoming muddy. I kinda have a gripe around 0:26 when the lead synth fades just a little too much in the background for my tastes, but it comes right back anyway Overall I found this to be a very enjoyable, well-made mix. Thanks Sadorf! Fray. Fray.

I think this mix is really great. I've only listened to it twice so far, and I liked it both times It's very creative, and as someone mentioned earlier, it has an incredible ending. My only gripe is that the synth at 0:55 sounds really weak by itself. But otherwise this is innovative, atmospheric, cool music. It's adventurous, but still enjoyable to listen to. Fray.

This mix is very straight-up trance, which makes me happy Honestly, there's a radio station in Dallas that plays techno/dance music, and like 75% of what they play on there isn't nearly this good.

<Wipes tear> wow. Perhaps I'm partial to this one because I'm very much a fan of the style, but I found this piece to be incredibly sad and moving, yet rockin' and danceable at the same time -- trance at its very very best. Damn good stuff. Fray.

In general this is really great, and it's a really wonderful original too... My only gripe is with the horn in the beginning. I think it would have sounded a lot better to let the whole part just be legato. Maybe it's just a matter of personal preference, but the rearticulations sound, I dunno, kinda cheezy. Love the clarinet solo! The string/choral part that follows it is incredible, very absorbing Wonderful orchestral work as always.

I love this mix There's just enough variety so that instead of being repetitive it just kinda bounces along. It's minimalistic, but everything that is there really hits the spot.

Funny, I guess this is just the sort of music that some people love and some people... don't. Well, I loved it; I think it sounds great and I really enjoyed listening to it Fray.