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MkVaff

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Posts posted by MkVaff

    RPG Music Project from McVaffe

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Show me how you got Roland EM25 stuff to sound this good sometime. You tell me you don't master your tracks, but I know you're up to something. :P

    Haha I'm serious I don't know how to master dude, TRUST me I wish I did... I hear some of the stuff on this site and I just drool at how polished and perfect it sounds. The only thing I added was an effect in Sonar called Boost 11 because some of the tracks were ridiculously low, but that was it.

    BTW the sounds are from two old JV-2080s. Some of the oldest stuff in my studio, but nearly every song I've ever worked on has them.

    RPG Music Project from McVaffe

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I just posted this on my page and figured that I'd post it here as well because the project would likely be enjoyed by fans of the classic RPG music which actually brought me to this site in the first place about 10 years ago. The Three Realms was a concept soundtrack / album I started a few years ago and never completed. It was originally supposed to be accompanied by a bunch of artwork as well as a detailed story and presented on a website, but the amount of time required to complete both the artwork and the site ended up being too demanding for the schedules of myself and the others involved.

    I completed about 22 song drafts for the project to get a proper direction and to illustrate the emotion of the scenes / areas to the artists as we were working. These are what I’m posting here. They’re at different levels of completion, and unfortunately, having sold some equipment and having changed workstations in the middle of the project will prevent me from finishing most of these songs unless I start them from scratch again (which currently I don’t have the time to do with 22 songs).

    So I figured either these songs sit on the hard drive and collect digital dust for the next few months/years, or I put them out there for others to hear and (hopefully) enjoy, despite some songs being rather rough and obviously unfinished and unpolished.

    Regardless, here are 20 original tracks from what I was planning to be a sort of musical and artistic love letter project to the composers and soundtracks who have to in no small way shaped a lot of my style. There’s a ton of Final Fantasy and Zelda influences here, since that was the game music I loved to listen to growing up as a gamer, as well as largely the music which got me interested in game music and in remixing on OCR in the first place. I wanted the project to have a synthy orchestra feeling to it, to mimic some of the SNES / early PS1 games of the time.

    I learned a lot from these works (especially about how much I still have yet to learn about arranging and orchestration), but I can definitely say I’m proud of a few tracks in the batch. Hopefully at some point I’ll revisit this unfinished world with more time, better instruments, and more people to help. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys what's here so far. Please don't hesitate to comment - I'm interested for future projects to hear which particular tracks people liked and what I could do differently.

    Thanks for reading, and Enjoy!

    This is the link to my page, in which you can preview all of the tracks and download.

    http://mcvaffe.com/?page_id=532

    This is the direct link to download the ZIP file of all of the songs

    http://mcvaffe.com/originals/McVaffe%20-%20The%20Three%20Realms.zip

    9/9/99 Nevar Forget!!!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Someone sent me something about the DC anniversary and I remember thinking to myself the Dreamcast was the last game system that (to me) really blew its predecessors out of the water in terms of how the games looked.

    Growing up, from NES to SNES to N64 (or SMS to Genesis to Saturn / PS1) every new system that came out was better enough than what had come before that there was real excitement and a "wow" factor about the new graphics and sounds the system could handle (even if some of those initial games sucked). N64, Saturn, and PS1 games were a big step in the 3D direction but when I saw Sega Rally or Sonic Adventure for the first time my jaw just dropped.

    Since that launch, new systems have more and more lost the "wow" factor in terms of what they could offer that their predecessors couldn't (Wii's motion control notwithstanding). Sure there's a bunch of great games being made these days but I can't say I don't miss the hardware launches where my jaw would hit the floor in seeing what's possible. I don't expect to see anything like that for some time now, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

    Disco Dan got married!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Kudos DD!! Good for you!!

    Though I will always secretly hate you for climbing and falling out of that tree in central park and re-routing one of the first OCR NYC meetups from a trip out to my place to a trip to the hospital instead. I'm still waiting for another NYC meetup that doesn't take place in the height of the holiday season. =(

    Regardless, best wishes!!

    Is America ready for a trance/dance music themed video game?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Actually, I've had a video game idea for quite some time that might work - basically, a game revolving around the concept of a Blade Dancer. Someone lithe and supple who fights with a blade as if they were dancing with it, slicing and dicing apart any opponent with a multitude of quick strikes - contrary to the popular overmuscled fighter who kills with a handful of powerful blows. It builds on the concept that all dance stems from five main sources: mating rituals, religious rituals, agricultural rituals, theater/performing arts, and martial arts.

    Now, true, it wouldn't be a fully trance-themed ST, because at least a few areas ingame would be old-fashioned and would therefore need more old-fashioned music. But I could see the majority of it easily being done in trance.

    EDIT: That's just one example of a game I could think of that could work with mostly trance. But I'm sure there are others you can think of.

    I like the idea, and it sounds like it would work with a trance soundtrack. I'm just recommending keeping in mind what a niche genre trance is and how few people of the general population actually listen to / like it.

    Games like Amplitude / Frequency did well because they had a variety of electronic adaptations of songs that weren't specifically limited to trance / house tracks. Personally, I like some trance, but I can't count the number of times I'd be listening to it and one of my friends would say something like "Turn that sh%t off! It's giving me a headache and it all sounds the same."

    Then they go listen to hip hop...

    Is America ready for a trance/dance music themed video game?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    depends on the game. Without either being a puzzle game or something so abstract that trance just "fits" - trance wouldn't really work with many games as proper BGM. And designing a game around trance music for the sake of the music itself may not be the best idea.

    From my experience trance tends to irritate those who aren't into it. You could show them all the hiphop and r&b tunes you want with trance leads and synth arpeggios but most people I know who aren't into trance hear it and react to it the same way the vast majority of the people on this site do to hip hop - with either disinterest or disgust.

    It's not really good or bad - just is what it is...

    Ever hear an OC ReMix in "real life"?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Weird story but years ago a friend of mine was in Gamestop (she knew the employees there). One of the employees' phone rang and his ringtone was my Ice Capped mix from years ago. My friend wasn't into my music enough to know the names or anything, but she had heard the song and told the Gamestop employee 'I think my friend made that song". Sure enough, next time I visited the store the employee opened up his phone, played the ringtone/mp3 and asked "this sound familiar?" A little creepy, but kinda cool.

    Small world...

    Native Instruments Komplete - Less than half price

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    my only reservation about this promotion is knowing how old the software is. It's been awhile since they updated the product lines in this bundle... The marketing cynic inside me half expects to see "BRAND NEW!! KOMPLETE 6 with all new instruments!!" In 2-3 months, with a nice $1000 upgrade price from Komplete 5.

    They may very well be clearing out the old to make room for the new, but it is a nice price for what they're selling...

    Michael Jackson dead at 50

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Somebody needs to do a tribute version of "gone too soon"...it's a beautiful song and not that many people know it.

    very apropos for the current time. I think some gems from "History" were overlooked and unappreciated for some time now, 'Stranger in Moscow' being my favorite of the bunch.

    Definitely agree with that tho

    6 Weeks of Sweat and Tears - McVaffe.com is Up!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Cool cool, I'll be checkin' it all out - the YouTube thing is exciting.

    Yeah man it psyched me up as well. I know we usually concentrate on the appreciation of the audio aspect of games but some games have such amazing visual design that I wanted to show and help to celebrate those achievements as well. Okami, Yoshi's Island, Panzer Dragoon, SF3, and Mario 64 (for their time) certainly come to mind with regard to this.

    Wanted to work on the gorgeous Secret of Mana and Zelda 3 as well - but the time to play and record all the footage was too much for right now, hopefully get to it eventually...

    Hope you enjoy!

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