big giant circles

Happy birthday Chris! Keep doing your thing!

Well said. And just to clarify to the folks who might read this, it doesn't mean, "Eh, we're crunched for time so we'll just pass stuff when we're in a hurry to get voting done", because obviously, that would be both unfair and inconsistent. What we're saying is that we're trying to get AWAY from dissecting the dagnabbit out of a track and simply go by the feel. If it feels too liberal after a few back and forth comparisons, or listens in general, it probably is. And hey, if we ever reject something that should be passed, then hey, someone bring it to our attention, and we'll throw it back on the panel and do a priority revote on it. It's happened before, no big deal.

It's the most enduring game of all time bro! (sorry, couldn't resist!) Also, have you seen the "Half Life in Half an Hour" speed run? Flipping amazing. Can you play FF7 in just half an hour? Hmmmmmm? (Now I'm just kidding around, of course )

happy b-day! I just voted YES on one of your subs. Not because it's your birtday of course, but I thought you might like to know that I did ON your birthday

But... I YES'd it and you YES'd it... :'-(

Well, to be fair, I don't think he was going for the "realistic" guitar sound. I mean, I'm not sure, I'll have to ask him, but I don't think it would sound any better (maybe even right at all) if it actually had a *real* guitar. I can live with the piano simply going back to that lo-fi tendency he has. It's like it's just his style I think. Suits the mix/vibe/tone/whatever. And again, I'm not sure a Bachstein concert grand would be all that fitting in this context *edit* Figured I'd just post this instead of recapping. [01:21] Palpable: dunno if you saw my comment on the Ziwtra sub, Jimmy [01:22] Palpable: that guitar, I dunno [01:22] Palpable: I've NOed a lot of mixes for guitar like that [01:37] BGC: yeah, I just resonded [01:37] BGC: I don't think the mix would beneift from a real guitar [01:37] BGC: it's gritty and lo-fi to begin with [01:38] BGC: I suppose it's all about the context [01:38] BGC: I mean, if someone was definitely trying to write a pop song and pass their guitar off as a real one or whatever [01:38] BGC: If the arrangement sounded like it needed a real guitar then sure [01:39] BGC: here's a good example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QapwJpAe7w [01:39] BGC: that's obviously a fake guitar [01:40] BGC: sounds exactly like the 12 string guitar patch on my old Yamaha keyboard. Not realistic at all, but it's just the sound they were going for [01:40] BGC: Actually, the piano in that song sounds decidedly choppy and synthetic as well [01:42] BGC: but it's just how the song is. Nothing wrong with it IMO

I dunno, maybe I'm wrong here, but I don't mind the closeness to the melody. The vibe definitely does seem similar, but to me it sounds like there's plenty of expansion in just the instrumentation. I love the mood here; I can't quite decide if I'm floating in space or underwater. Lots of shimmering textures and sweeps to go around. Enough for the whole family! Eh. Not sure why I said that. Anyway. I do have some gripes though. First of all, this song took a shower in reverb, then promptly hopped out and jumped in the tub and soaked for a while before diving into the swimming pool then getting out and rolling around in a puddle of it. I suppose I don't mind it *too* badly, considering the mental imagery this song provokes anyway, but it definitely wouldn't have been bad to tone it down a notch. The other thing is that when you mix high frequencies with reverb, they can tend to become a little shrill, and that happens in a few spots. While again, it's not unbearable, it would have been better if I didn't notice. The string ensemble is beautiful, and that makes me wonder why the solo violin is so mechanical. It's absolutely SCREAMING for some nice modwheel/vibrato attention. Sounds like the "Fiddle De Dee" setting in Kore 2, and in case that's what it happens to actually be, I'm going to kick you in the balls for not using the vibrato. Secondary to that complaint is the portamento/theramin/50's sci fi synth. That thing actually has a little too MUCH vibrato going on in my personal opinion. If it looks like this is going to get passed, I'd love to hit Jeff up to see if he can fix that, because it's by and large my biggest gripe. Other than that, despite my complaints, this is all in all really a very very pretty and mostly very well done track. I think the arrangement is ace. There's just a few things on the execution end that could have been done a little better, but nothing that I can see that's worth rejecting this for. YES

Oh man, this is slick hot and smooth. I am in love with the panning. I'm a sucker for good use of the stereo field, and this mix has it in spades. Fantastic modifications all around. Almost sound to me like something Mustin would do. (That's a good thing). Nothing much else to say. Listen to it and enjoy it, folks. YES

Z-man has always had a knack for creating ridiculously expansive and interpretive remixes. His ideas still amaze me. I really wish he were more than a music hobbyist because it just seems like there's so much more awesome music he could make if he had the time. Anyway, so Andrew's spot on about the arrangement, it's super hot. I love everything about it. Well, I did think the pause at 5:40ish went a little too long, but not really the deal-breaker. The production on the other hand seems a lot more rough than I'm used to hearing from Young. I think the main problem with it is that the bass is so loud at parts that it's doing unpleasant things when it hits the master limiter. Sounds like there's a LOT of overcompression going on. Like if I were to take any normal song and slam the master volume up about 10db and then run it through a brickwall, it would produce a similar effect. It is worth noting that Ziwtra is also kind of a master of that lo-fi, dirty sound, kind of like you can hear on the drums here. I don't think that's to be confused with the distorting that's occurring because of the volume of the bass. If you listen to his other tracks, he's done that a lot before. I'm just making that clear in case anyone might want to say "yeah, these drums sound distorted" or whatever. I'm all about wanting to throw a YES on this, but if I do, for the sake of fairness and consistency, I feel I have to make it strictly conditional on tweaking the mix a little. Tell you guys what, if y'all want to hold off, I'll fire him an email and see if he could tone that bass down a bit and get rid of some of the way way over compression. YES

True. Again though, lately I've just adopted more of the "going by my gut" approach. It's easier (and probably faster for the remixer) for me to be wrong and have it pointed out later than it is for these tough calls to simply grow stagnant simply because it's tough to analyze and no one wants to take possibly an hour or more out of their day just to draw bridges. Besides, we can always put it back on the panel and prioritize if we reject a song that has legitimate and dominant source usage. This is really how I feel like the panel should operate lately. Swiftly, and by the gut. There will be more mistakes, but it's like, would the community rather us make a wrong call that we can fix later? Or take months and months and months to make the *right* call?

In this thread Fanboys and Haters do not get along But seriously, is there any point to this argument? Let the FF7 fans praise FF7 just like I'm always going to praise, I dunno, Half Life or something. No big deal.

Wow, haven't seen GSlicer in forever. Some interesting trivia for everyone: This picture is actually Dave making a tie-breaker decision on his mix - http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01577/ I hope someone finds that interesting, after I went through such trouble to include that in this vote Short and sweet: This sounds awesome. Very funkalicious and fresh. However, like my other J's, unless I'm just missing something obvious here (I don't think all 3 of us are), this just sounds like a completely original track with a brief cameo of the Water World theme. Y'all know we aren't about that here. Bummer. If you want to make the melody more identifiable and clear, by all means, please resubmit this because it's seriously awesome. NO really, it seriously is. I'm gonna listen to it again.

Well I like it. Roz's mix is far less sloppy and cluttered than the source is... Man what a mess that was. Also, I realize 7/8 is a pretty unnatural time signature for most people, but man, that source made it phenomenally hard to distinguish that's what it was in. (And even as I say this, I guess I still might be wrong ) Anyway. I'm tired of feeling compelled to count seconds so I'm just not going to do it. I think the main riff of the source is pretty obvious, but beyond that, it just has some softer pads walking around in different directions. I jumped back and forth quite a few times, and I THINK I heard Roz doing a decent job of referencing them, so I'm just going to go ahead and write that off as a *pass*. It's not exactly dominant, but I'd say it is at least identifiable. I don't think I'm giving unfair slack to this mix, because once again, it's source tune is a mess and kind of requires a fair amount of analysis even without trying to compare it to a remix. Props on the textures as well, and that's pretty nifty that it was all a sampled synth, right? Cool cool. Points are given. PASS

I suppose the same could be said about you or me or any of us depending on the song Couple things, why is there no credit on the extra vox in your mix? Seems kind of odd that there's no pimpage mentioned to the opening vocalist. Aight here's the deal, I can't decide if this is awesome or cheesy. I think it's kind of the child of both Don't worry though, I'm giving you mad points just for the fact that this track is like on of the most fresh I've EVER heard on the panel. We have nothing like this on the site, I don't think, so that definitely works in Josh's favor here. I don't have any critical gripes on the production. And the sheer uniqueness of the arrangement tell me this should really be a pretty obvious one-way call. Step aside, dudes, let this one on through. YES

I just don't get why supersaws are so popular. They're aight, but the texture is so IN YOUR FACE without any real, notable morphing or variation, it just tends to kind of bore me when it stays for so long. Bias aside, this seems to be a pretty solid arrangement, and though I don't find the instrumentation unique or particularly compelling, it sounds pretty well put-together. Good production, decent arrangement, I suppose it doesn't really matter if it's innovative or not, does it? Welcome aboard, I say. YES

Aight, let's see what can be done with an 8 second loop Gotta admit, despite my skepticism I'm leaning on the same side as Shariq on this one. I'm a minute and a half into it, and Justin's actually done a pretty good job varying it up so far. Changing up the groove and the textures, which is pretty critical with such a ridiculously short source tune. Mix is almost over, and I am feeling kind of sympathetic here. Production seems fine. Really I'd say the only actual gripe I have here is that the main "plucked" synth probably could have been changed out for something notably different just to change things up a little more. However, I love the tone of this one; it's very compelling in spite of its simplicity. I'm feeling sympathetic here. Nothing wrong with a minimalistic, groove track on our site fellas. As long as it's done well. YES *edit* Also, I just now noticed, that is quite a clever title

Let's keep this moving, guys. DS, revote? Anyone else, vote?

Let's get this one moving already. Vinnie, can you provide a status on the updated version?

Definitely a pretty lush sound, I'd say. This one's sitting somewhere between atmospheric and tribal, and I really like that. Love the chanting. Seems like a solid arrangement. Definitely nothing jumping out at me that should warrant rejection. Welcome aboard, Matthew Incorporated. YES

Congrats, Sam!

come on, cut him some slack. He's obviously new to this. Give him a break.

I'm aware of this. I thought my lack of punctuation of any kind would have suggested as much back to the video, .

wouldn't it just be easier to say 0:00 - 0:24?

hey atmuh shut up numbnuts

I'm sure the option can't hurt, and I'm only speaking on behalf of myself here, so don't draw too deeply into this, but I personally don't know anyone who owns a Zen drum. So while I'm sure it's a nifty feature, it seems more practical to just write it like 99% of all the other Kontakt libraries and not worry so much about that particular feature. At least, not initially. You can always add stuff like this on later.