Nekofrog

I listen, I play.

Probably tube snobs.

When you say it's no longer noisy when you play a note, do you mean for the duration of that note or once a note is played it no longer makes noise from thereafter? Most likely the former, in which case, noisegate of some kind. Boss makes a good'un.

www.americanmusicalsupply.com Not sure if they take Paypal instead of a card (in fact I doubt it), but they do installment plans with no interest. They're very well known.

There's nothing wrong with the concept of the bends, it's just the execution is bad as it is currently.

2 blocks is good. Girlfriend will have her walker so the shorter the distance the better.

Sup, guys.

General criticism: 1. The hihat is kind of way too present in the mix, especially compared to the rest of the percussion (I can't really hear much of the bass drum, I can hear the snare but it's much quieter compared to hihat). 2. Might want to just slightly lower the volume of the main synth, it drowns out the harmonized guitar at 1:24. I can see how this may be intended though, as just a slight introduction to the lead guitar, so this is not the biggest issue. 3. Rhythm guitar seems to be a little drowned out in the mix, but that could just be my predisposition to putting the rhythm guitar as loud as I can 4. Toms beginning at 3:13 and beyond sound... thin? Very strange, to be sure. Sort of distracting.

Why compare systems? Compare the games.

PRODUCTION [X] Too loud [X] Too quiet STRUCTURE [X] Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough) PERSONAL COMMENTS (positive feedback, specifics on checklist criticisms, any other thoughts) Having not heard the original tune (never made it past a few hours into FF9, FF8 really killed my interest in the series), I wasn't sure of what to expect going in. The first full minute... eh... well, let's just say that the choir stuff is working when it starts, but it drags on far too long as the primary source of sound. I was seriously losing interest until the changeup around 1:06, and then I was digging it a lot. It was all going great, everything meshed well (the electronic aspect with the choral aspect), but then it went into a very, very, very, VERY generic nts and I lost all interest once again. I don't know the style you're going for this because it's just too short to determine, but I'd lose the nts if I were you. It makes an otherwise imaginative and original (to my knowledge, having not heard the original) piece and turns it into another nts-fest.

PRODUCTION [X] Too loud PERSONAL COMMENTS (positive feedback, specifics on checklist criticisms, any other thoughts) I have my volume sliders almost all the way down and this is STILL too loud for me for some odd reason, maybe my sound is just messed up right now. I am also hearing what was mentioned before about the low registers; my Sennheiser hd280's are even rumbling a bit too much, which has only happened when I put the bass too loud in some of my mixes before. Other than that I'd say awesome stuff.

ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION PRODUCTION [X] Too loud [X] Too quiet [X] Low-quality samples [X] Drums have no energy [X] Mixing is muddy (eg. too many sounds in the same range) STRUCTURE [X] Lacks coherence overall (no "flow") PERSONAL COMMENTS (positive feedback, specifics on checklist criticisms, any other thoughts) Aw, why do you do this to me? Has a ton of potential just from the great source tune alone. Here are my problems with it right now. Too loud/too quiet; yeah, there are definitely volume issues here. When the steel drum is playing, it pretty much crowds out every other instrument -- until the strings come in, and then all of a sudden the strings are crowding out every other instrument. You're going to want to work at getting a happy balance between these. Drums are just not working. Stick is incredibly dry compared to a piece that seems to be completely drenched with reverb; EVERYTHING but drums seems to have the reverb just pumped up. Percussion also seems to just plod along without much else to do other than keep the beat; I like drums that are part of the piece; a living breathing part. 1:39 actually literally hurt my ears the first time, even with the volume down slightly on my headphones. Either drop the volume or drop that part entirely. Btw, the acoustic guitar sample is terrible, find a new one. The upside? I like the general melody and progression of the tune. I would say my complaints are almost completely from a production viewpoint, but they're so big that it literally overwhelms everything else. Edit: I also got a PM a week or so ago and debated whether or not this meant I should feel flattered or not. Then when I asked around the usual WIP review suspects and found that no one else had gotten it there, my ego was somewhat stroked. No reason for the delay in reviewing this other than just forgetting about it

Something more melodical. There's probably some sort of counter-melody you can write to play over what's going on or something.

What I meant regarding my comment was, the instruments present in the piece gave it a "bare"-ish feeling, like there wasn't much going on. A bit more layering is what I was hoping for.

1. Straight up cover so far 2. Not much going on in terms of sound

It's only been 8 hours. Sheesh.

Wrong thread for that.

This is one of my favorite tunes from the FF7 soundtrack, but honestly, it's way too short to be able to give any real assessment of this. Flesh it out a little and then I'll give it another look for you.

PRODUCTION [X] Drums have no energy [X] Mixing is muddy (eg. too many sounds in the same range) PERFORMANCE (live recorded audio/MIDI parts) [X] Timing not tight enough PERSONAL COMMENTS (positive feedback, specifics on checklist criticisms, any other thoughts) Liking what I'm hearing so far, but there are a few things that definitely need to be addressed. Rhythm guitar is just mud-city; especially when you palm mute some notes. Also, when it comes to the palm muting, it seems as if it's not as tightly recorded as it could be. It's almost indecipherable in terms of tone. That is the single biggest problem and it's big enough that if I were a judge I'd NO it instantly. Lead tone is good, might want to consider a little bit of delay on it but it's not necessary at all. Synths are fine. Drums seem to be lacking something. The kick is too "thuddy" and not "clicky" enough for this time of music. Cymbals seem kind of cheap or fake sounding. Transfer at 4:00 seems arbitrary and does not flow well at all. What it transfers into is fine, but the transition just doesn't mesh well from riff A into riff B. Bass is fine. I'd just work on tweaking the rhythm more than anything, then move onto the drums.

No specific plan, just hit the campus gym every workday and then we'll see about weekends.

Look, when you bought a Wii, you knew what you were getting; a GameCube 1.5 with a new controller. You simply cannot complain when a new good-looking game doesn't bow down to the standards of an almost-last generation hardware machine just because it dares to look pretty. Just as PS3 owners can't complain at 3-4 year dev cycles for games because that was made public knowledge before the damn system even came out. Deal with it.

Also one tip: Try to start something and finish it. Like, TRULY finish it. I see a bunch of stuff from you here, half-ideas and quarter songs and sound tests, but nothing that you can ever truly call "done". If even just length wise; write out the full melody, record it, and call it done from a structural and melodic sound point. Then the tweaking can come in to get it SOUNDING good. Don't do what I did and jump from tune to tune to tune, it actually really hinders your ability to grow as a musician/performer/whatever you want to be called. If I had buckled down and done an entire song a lot sooner, I would probably be a lot more successful and happier with my own abilities.

Start working out in about an hour or so for the first time this summer session. Would have started yesterday if the fucking car didn't die and make us not get home until after the campus gym was closed. Will probably start slow.

To me, it almost feels like a cop-out going into the main Zelda theme during this. I think it's strong enough to stand on its own without having to rely on that (well, except maybe for the acoustic guitar sample, it's kind of weak). In my opinion, you should cut out the main Zelda theme and write some more based on what you have already, because it's strong enough for it.

There's not a whole lot I can say about this other than what has already been said, mainly because this isn't my genre of music. Needs bass. NEEDS bass. It sounds extremely empty without it, and I feel like I could actually enjoy listening to this if it had more bass in it. Otherwise I can't get into it.