Theophany

This is extremely awesome. Thank you

Oh, duuude. Yes.

@gwilendiel That was actually just a Big Lebowski quote... my lame attempt at being funny in light of the fact that I was kind of a little bit dead wrong. Though right now it just looks like a huge promotion for the Wild Arms project, which is okay too

Definitely. On that note, I think you'd really appreciate this, because it's the complete opposite approach: If you've never seen that, you're in for a laugh.

Yeah, good point. Actually, when you put it that way I kind of agree with you more than I agree with myself. o_O I guess my thinking about this whole thing had become pretty uptight. Too many strands to keep in the old duder's head...

No, but my point is those people actually changed how music is viewed and composed. The technological advances that have been made have allowed new artists to synthesize, process, program and mangle, but what I'm saying is that the only thing that's changed in this picture is the technology used to make music. People like Stravinski and Shoenberg were the first to really experiment with music and change our ideas about what music is. The innovation in the electronic scene has been mostly about the creating and manipulating of new and existing sounds, but that didn't give us free tonality or a new 12-tone scale the way Debussy or Shoenberg did. Even jazz was a return to former styles of improvised music that was prevalent before the standardization of Major and Minor scales, only the intstruments used were different. So to sum up; I'm not saying sampling and synthesis isn't innovative, it was a revolution in the way music is made. I was just playing devil's advocate when I brought up the larger context of music and pointed out that the electronic scene was primarily about manipulating and creating new kinds of sounds, not as an innovation to music composition or tonality.

No offense, man, but you're not making any sense. I haven't seen anything 'truly' innovative in my entire lifetime. The last big wave of innovation was in the 90s, in my opinion, but it even then, it was simply taking things that were already available to much greater lengths, such as the meshing of existing genres and styles into electronica (especially since electronica itself has existed since the 70s, maybe even before then). It really depends on what your standards are for innovation in the end, though; I consider Aphex Twin innovative for his time, but if you really want to split hairs, you could make a legitimate case for saying there hasn't been any true innovation in music since Debussy, Stravinski, and maybe Shoenberg. The problem is you're trying to apply a more objective kind of term when we're mostly talking about different forms of pop music, and the only thing that's really changed in pop music is the way it's created (for electronica in particular). And even then we're just talking about innovation in the context of Western music, which only begins to make sense because Western music began arbitrarily adopting rigid forms of music and tonality for no reason. And even then, who cares? If you like it, just enjoy it.

You're missing Passion Pit and Arcade Fire from that list. Otherwise, 9/10 on the Pitchfork scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI

I'm pretty floored by this track. Flawless victory, E-Bison.

A chiptune thread with no mention of Covox? You've probably run across him on 8bp, but if not: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZQxiPf-KIQ If you're into hipster music, you might want to check out Crystal Castles. They've ripped off samples from Covox and Lo-bat for sure, but they're still a killer band out of Toronto, been around since early 2000s.

You have a point there. I listened to this again the other day, and I'm going to have to go back on my word about it being pretty near final. I think there's still a bit of work I have to do. It doesn't feel totally complete yet. It's in the ball park, but it still needs to come together some more. I feel like I subbed my last wip a bit prematurely, so I'm going to hold back on this one and put some more time into it. I'll probably experiment with the ending and with the middle section, and of course it needs mastering. Thanks for the feedback plaz.

I think the composition and arrangement here are pretty good. It's a bit schizophrenic at times, but I think you have a lot of strong material here. There are parts in here I am really liking, I especially like the nostalgic overtone to the lost woods theme, it's an interesting take on an otherwise happy theme that really works well for me. You need to work on your production though; better samples, etc.

Thanks for taking a listen anyway, I appreciate it.

Thanks for all your help, Moseph @Justin: I like my chanting in a dead language. I'm more interested in using the voice as an instrument here if possible, English language chanting is kind of a turn off. I'll roll with it if there's no other option, alright, but if all else fails, I've thought about taking it to an online Latin language forum, but I wanted to check with the ocr community first. For one thing, I'm not sure they would be willing to help since we're talking about a video game OST, but who knows. OCR is a pretty big community, so there's good chance something good might come out of trying. @Moseph: You've got a good idea going there. If all else fails, honestly, and we can't find the actual lyrics or anyone to help us out, we could very well just make up random latin gibberish that fits the syllable count Hell, maybe that's what Naruke did. If you know anything about how the Japanese use English in pop songs, it's possible they just chose random words based on the sound. @Ferret: That's what I want to know ;D

Are there any language experts here who can tell me what language this track is in? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkz0Soc7mg8 I have a feeling it might be Latin, but I'm going to need more than that. I need to know the actual words being said during the chants and melody line. I'm in the early stages of putting a wip together for the Wild Arms collaboration, so I'm eventually going to need these lyrics to move forward with the next phase of my evil plan. If we can't identify the language, I'd like to work someone on writing original Latin lyrics so that when I begin to contact vocalists in the community to collaborate, I'll have something for them to work with. Keep in mind we're talking about short phrases for chanting/singing that will be simple to memorize. If you think you're up to the task, please shoot me a private message, and we'll figure this out over a couple weeks. I'll definitely make sure you get credit for any help given. Help me out here?

I think this is pretty close to being final. There might be some tweaks to notes here and there once I do the mastering to try and boost the overall volume, but I plan to sit on this for another week or two, and if it still sounds good when I come back for another listen, I'm just going to submit it. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to listen and comment.

I've got to say, this is pretty cool. I've been stumped on coming up with a concept for a shadow temple / nocturne of shadow remix for awhile now, so this kind of blew me away. The textures and the progression/loop you made out of the 3 note motif from the shadow temple is so good it makes me feel undead just listening to it I wasn't feeling the synth lead you used in the second half of the mix, it broke the mood for me, but overall this is damn cool. Here's to an awesome start Definitely looking forward to some updates...

These tracks sound insane. Amazing work so far to everyone involved. Can't wait for the final release...

I thought it sounded too low/quiet...? I kind of want it to sound fuller, because I've noticed it sounds much better with the volume up, but when I listen to it next to other ocr mixes at a normal (half) volume, mine seems much quieter. I should post it in ocrwip this week and see what the professionals think. Or maybe my ears are shot from mixing all day o_O?

Cooooooooooooooooooool. Glad to you like it Hopefully it'll sound better once I figure out how to master properly.

Thanks I added two more verses to the song that are supposed to be something more like a climax before the chants come back. I haven't changed the ending so far, I haven't decided what I'm going to do. The two verses I just added are a little rough, but I'll make a few more passes when I figure out what I'm going to do about how the song is arranged, section-wise. I like the sections separately, but somehow they just don't work together at the moment. It might have to do with how different the textures are, in which case maybe some more accompaniment might be the solution. I also need to learn how to master properly, my work always comes out sounding much lower than it sounds when I'm mixing it. This track has way more effect with the volume cranked up.

I agree with both of you actually, especially this: This pretty much confirms what I'm feeling about it too. I think I'm going to try and work some kind of maxed out verse, as you put it, with a lot of interplay between the different elements and hopefully bring some more energy, and then, maybe, let it get quiet again before the finish. It's getting closer, like you said, but definitely not there yet. Delivering on buildups... not as easy as building up Thanks for the great feedback guys...

It's been awhile since I updated, so this is kind of a big change. I've added an entirely new section in the middle, it's kind of like a Link/Sheik duet section. I like the new material, but this is definitely not finished. It does, however, play around the with bolero theme a lot more and adds a new motif/melody or two, which I like. I also took out the fast piano section, since this middle section kind changed the direction of the song a bit, and placed the main piano theme at the end. Thought the time was right to update the thread and see what you guys think. New material @ 1:15.