Escariot

First impressions: - Why are you using YouTube to host a song? - Your samples are pretty generic - The cymbal crashes are unvaried and gratuitous - The piano that comes in at 1:04 or so is thin and the arrangement of the piano part clashes with the plucked instrument. - It's... a cover?

Beautiful concept, great execution (despite lots of highs, as you noted). One thing I will note, however, is that you can get the same disjointed feel without messing up the sub-tempo tempo of your samples (00:49-00:55, specifically, which repeats at 01:28 - 01:34). That is really throwing off the groove, and causes unnecessary clashing at 02:00. 01:37 and 02:07 are great examples of good execution in maintaining the sub-tempo

Glad to see a torrent update. I will be seeding as much as I can (currently at ~1.53) (omg random necro post from Noah)

Deadlock 2: Shrine Wars. They botched the UI, making it less scalable, no graphical upgrade at all, UI buttons are not descriptive at all, and there's no way to change the resolution. It is far worse than the original Deadlock

Hello! I agree with you completely here! I didn't hear the final mix, but I do think that Hale's vocals in the mix are... narrow. Also, the Chorus embellishments are great the first time around, but I would've like a bit more variation from chorus 1 to 2 to 3. It just seems a bit overdone by the time the second part of chorus 2 comes around. Overall, I like it, though! gg

JamSpace will be there =D

I am booking you for MAGFest... Sending the email now.

I can't make M9 at all if it's not on NYE.

One of these days, I'll make it to another meetup that doesn't involve Otakon, PAX East, Katsucon, AnimeUSA, or MAGFest... Because I work all of those conventions... Then I'll actually be able to hang out, go to TGIF, and IHOP, and actually do shit... >_>;

Highlights: - Most everyone from OCR stopping by JamSpace to bring copious amounts of musical talent to the stage. - A lot of guys coming in just to hang out. - Finally getting to meet Mono and Prot. - The Megas. - Being ON STAGE at New Years Eve during the countdown, when Jon St. John came on stage. (I was drumming / fucking songs up for the most people we've ever had inside the Concert Hall). - Staff afterparty. Shit moments: - Liz, I don't think I actually got to meet you. - Working ALL the time, not being able to make any of the OCR events or the panel. - Leaving. Overall, I had a great time... Things ran much more smoothly than it has in the past, and we had over 2200 people in attendance this year. I look forward to the next time I get to meet some of you. If you were there, and didn't get a chance to introduce yourself, I apologize.

Personal experience with meetups: First meetup - DC VGL '07. Never before this point have I ever met people in person that I first met online. The first person I ever met was Kroze, whom I had spoken to for the first time literally 9 hours before I left my house. Then I met Lukas, whom I had never spoken to, but got a PM from during the night before I drove to pick him up. My first meeting with Jill and Andy: Andy was in the hospital as a result of a birthday appendectomy, so Kroze, Lukas, Nicky, and myself all drove to the hospital to stop in and say Hi. Drove down to DC to meet the rest of the OCR folks at the Kennedy Center, and literally got out of the car just as everyone else was walking to the Center. Inside, we met Tommy Tallarico and the rest of the VGL crew. After the VGL concert, a large number of us headed over to djp's house for fun, games, and music. I spent the night at djp's house that night, and left before the BBQ the next day to take Lukas and Kroze back to Philly. I took Taucer with me, because he wanted to go to joecam's house for 4th of July celebrations, and had to go to Woodward the next day, so after driving to Philly and back to central PA for a car swap, I drove me and Taucer to Wilkes-Barre to joecam's. List of people that I met (incomplete): - Kroze - Lukas - pixietricks - zircon - djpretzel - BigGiantCircles - GeoffreyTaucer - DarkeSword - Harmony - Jose the Bronx Rican - DJSammyG - RealFolkBlues - Arrowned - q_pa - Bahamut - DragonAvenger - Pezman - Moguta - joecam - Pappy - Various other joecam friends I dunno, between OCR and MAGFolk, there aren't many people between there that I wouldn't be comfortable driving hours with, or crashing in a room with, or sharing a bed with...

Chem8stry - Please refrain from tagging and releasing your song with OC_ReMix unless it has been officially posted. Tagging files is not necessary for submission. I'll listen and review tomorrow.

Yeah, 1:29 - 1:58. It seems that anywhere you have that phrase, you're hitting wrong notes. Not only is 0:38 loud, but the voice is harsh, and has a muddy sound to it that's present throughout the song where it's used. As far as 1:58 - 2:57, that's a solid minute of the same backing plus a lackluster flute solo. It's just... kinda... there, and blah. Re-write would be the way to give that section more meaning. Also, not a problem. I'm subscribed to the thread, so when you post a new WIP version, I'll check it out.

Yes, the video was completely staged. From what I hear, Kroze's lines were recorded from a phone conversation from inside PF Chang's. Yeah, Sid's a pretty cool dude. His son, Ryan, has been there for the past two years. Good luck with that

PSX Comment: It just sounded very... Final Fantasy Tactics OST-ish there. Crescendo: There is more to sound than just pitch, volume, and length. An effective orchestral crescendo also affects the timbre. If I hear the same exact sound simply getting louder, then it's plain and boring, and doesn't elicit any kind of emotional response, which you are ALWAYS going for with an orchestral piece. http://www.soundsonline.com/product.php?productid=EW-177 I don't expect you to use EWQLSO, but with GPO costing ~$200, I KNOW there's more you can do to get a more realistic sound. In general, the tonality of the song is a bit lackluster. See crescendo comment. NOTE: I don't do any digital orchestration. I compose for a live performance ensemble.

Once-through thoughts. I agree that some of the instrumentation/feel changes are natural, but a couple of them feel a little bit forced. I'm not familiar with the source, so it sounds a bit Star Fox-y to me, but I'll live. 0:00 - 0:15 - The synth sounds generic, and has absolutely no change to the quality of sound. Makes it boring by 0:09 0:15 - 0:30 - Decent straight rock feel. The panning on the perc is a bit distracting to me with my setup. 0:17 - Oboe/Clarinet sounds a bit too synthy. 0:28 - The duet run gets lost. 0:29 - Not sure if I like the sudden switch to the swing feel, nor am I sure if I like the roundness of the swing feel. Also, the underlying pluck sound isn't so much providing texture as it is providing muddiness. Clean up the 'verb on it. 0:42 - When the high note is reached, it sounds just like a synth. Look into a better sample, and maybe humanize the lines a bit. 0:44 - Somewhere in here, the percussion makes an awkward back to a straight feel, then back again. This kind of thing is really distracting. 0:49 - Ew. Rim click. 1:04 - Same feel-change comments here, though I like the synth intrusion. 1:11 - Sudden change to the straight feel of the electronica section, with the same generic synth. Not impressed. 1:25 - Drum loop + synth. 1:27 - swing-a swing-a swing-a STRAIGHT! 1:29 - Same drum loop + synth. 1:31 - RIM CLICKS ARE A NO-NO! Not right here. 1:33 - More of the synth. Look into more variety of sound for your different synths. 1:39 - This constant feel change was driving me absolutely crazy, so I went and checked the source. It's all done straight, minus two lines in the melody. I don't think it sounds bad with a swing feel, but there needs to be some semblance of consistency. 1:54 - I was hoping you'd surprise me a change the synth up a bit. 2:08 - Sounds like you layered an additional drumloop on top of your untz. Clean it up a bit. 2:26 - The drum lead-in is awkward. This happens earlier in the tune. (at 0:02, and maybe most importantly 0:59) I spent more time listening to this to pick up all of the timestamps of everything I listed. You have some good ideas, but you can't just paste them all together. Work on cleaning up the transitions, find another synth (to supplement the one you have), and make the orchestral sounds a bit more realistic. I look forward to a future WIP

I like the intro, but at 0:11, there are some weird cutoffs that are distracting. 0:17, 0:21, 0:24 - Whoa, what. Sounds like a wrong note in the plucking progression that just KILLS the feel. Look into the original again and fix these. 0:38 - Ouch. That's hellishly loud for as quiet as the intro was. 0:45 - Again, that's REALLY loud and muddy. 0:53 - 1:29 I can't hear much beyond DOOM DOOM DOOOMA DA-DOOM DOOM DOOMA and "BOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG". I'm sorry, this is just... not good. 1:29 - 1:58 - The background pluckline should actually go underneath the melody, when you have the notes right. 1:58 - 2:57 - That section went nowhere until the very end. 2:57 - 3:11 - There needs to be more going on to continue the energy that you JUST had in the tune. 3:26 - 3:55 - Not exciting enough in the programming to be a drum solo... 3:55 - Sudden dropoff to flute + harp? 4:24 - My sub goes balashfhaweufoewufh again. 4:51 - I heard one loud, rogue harp note. 5:05 - Tune the flute/picc. It's not tuned with the rest of the instruments you have, and it's WAAAY too loud. Overall, I think you have some good ideas in your head, but need a bit more experience in putting things together. Transcribing / re-arranging by ear is good ear training, if you can get something to compare your result with an original (check for a MIDI on vgmusic). Appropriate layering, scoring, and sound choice are going to be the next things to work on. The drum sequencing wasn't awful, it was just too loud, and got uninteresting/boring shortly after it started. It also felt like the percussion was written with a whole different idea in mind. Also a genre clash of percussion vs. instrumentation. Best of luck.

The bass / kick is KILLING my sub. Might be a bit overboard. The overall sound is there, but I think it's more of a "I woke up in a field of daisies after a really bad trip" I look forward to what it's developing into. NOTE: When listening to this on a pseudo-surround system, it makes me dizzy.

I get the feeling that this loops... 0:00 - Intro gets my attention right away. The kick drum could use a bit more kick. I'm tweaking my sub to get more punch from the perc, and all I'm getting is bass. 0:09 - The snare seems to be getting a little bit drowned out. The tom sound seems fine where it is, same with the cymbals. 0:09 - 0:32 - This does have a very Smash Bros. sound, like Capt. Falcon meets Dracula. 0:28 - 0:33 - This gets a little bit too busy. 0:33 - 0:35 - Drum fill =D 0:35 - 0:43 - The synth in the background is cool, bring it out. 0:43 - The counter synth playing under the melody is getting a little bit lost. May need to use a new synth, something a bit sharper. 1:02 - 1:06 - This gets a little bit too busy. 1:09 - I like this part, gives my ears a break from everything that's going on right before it. 1:17 - The first bit of semi-original material. Still has a very F-Zero sound to it. 1:32 - Golden Sun windup? 1:42 - Again 1:57 - End - Rinse, repeat? All in all, not a bad idea, not sure about the original content aspect of it, as it seems a bit coverish. Sounds pretty good, but there's a lot to clean up. Watching for the next version.

NOTE: I'm unfamiliar with the source. 0:00 - 0:09 - The first thing that really sticks out to me, aside from the sample quality is the mechanical attack / release of notes 0:10 - 0:19 - The buildup is very... dead. The cymbal swell runs a bit harsh 0:19 - Has a very "I came straight from a PSX" sound. 0:45 - This has turned into a renaissance Marble Madness on LSD feel. 1:24 - Making an effective crescendo is about more than just making sounds quieter. There is a great lack of intensity and realism to the sound. Taking on an orchestral-type remix is very ambitious, as it's more than just putting notes down. That may work for composing, but unless you have the facilities in which to record a real performance group, you're going to need to spend a lot of time humanizing your samples. And while we're on that note, look into getting better samples. EDIT: Keep it up. I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

Quick thoughts. The intro sounds a bit narrow, and the bass sounds like it could use a bit more dirt/balls, given the style of the song. The percussion work is mediocre, and the snare needs to be fixed. It's overpowering everything, and needs to be properly EQ'd. The lead guitar has too much pitch wavering going on. Cymbal work is a bit messy and noisy... Quite a few distractions there. A bit more clarity in the synthing ~1:05, and lowering the volume / changing the sound of the percussion would bring that section out a bit more. I appreciate the scream in the beginning, and the quality of the vocal technique brought in later, ~2:09, but the lack of clarity makes it sound like every other screamo song in existence. Also, bring the panning back a little bit more. The weird vocal thing at ~1:45 doesn't really contribute, and serves mainly as a "what's going on?" moment.

I can host/mirror releases for you on conjamspace.com

I think you should get a new hdd

Well, once again, MAGFest Prep is in full-swing. I'm looking for anybody from OCR that has experience working with sound to contribute at lease a couple of hours to staffing JamSpace. We have one hell of an event planned this year, and we promise that JamSpace will be more open for jamming this year, as last year's structure didn't quite work out. Anyway, I guess you can mark me on the list of definite attendees, as I work the con.

JamSpace'ing the entire weekend, and hopefully not getting stuck with another little lost girl that I inevitably pawn off on Kroze... ... ...>_>... ...