big giant circles

unless he's still got his project file open after all this time

Not a bad submission. I agree with Larry and Vinnie that the piano does seem a bit rigid and mechanical. I think that actually might be the result of not so much the sequencing/performance, but more of the instrument patch itself. See, it's by default a very bright patch and it has a very strong attack. If you can find a little more realistic patch and merely replace it, I think that would solve a lot of the problem. If there's more velocity layers in the patch, then the quieter notes won't be as bold and choppy. That really loud attack is fine when you're actually hammering away during the more intense parts of the track. Anyway, moving on, there's a few note flubs here and there where it sounds like theres a degree of discord that doesn't belong in there (like :28, :46, :53, etc). Maybe go back and tweak those out, might be a good idea. The volume overall was too quiet, and while I don't mind the ocean waves sfx, it seemed a bit too loud considering the piano had plenty of room to be brought out. Also, there could actually stand to be a bit more reverb (or lengthen the decay and release of the piano) so the tails have some time to resonate a bit before shutting off. Not a bad submission, and like Larry said, if you feel inclined to simply move forward, you don't need to feel obligated to spend so much time on this one track. Keep practicing, as is the case with all submitters, we'd love to get a remix of yours up on the front page sometime, so keep at it! Totally off topic, I checked out your website. My wife loves that sort of stuff. I bet you two would get along well NO

Celtic bias! Yeah, this is pretty hot. Great arrangement, great adaptation to the style, really great instrumentation. Production is decent, but I'm definitely hearing the loss in sound quality during a couple parts like Larry mentioned. I don't think it's the woodwinds, but rather the shakers and the strummed instrument behind them. For whatever reason, the high frequencies are just being gobbled up alive. Maybe Patrick is just using a crappy encoder. I say that one of us ask him for the uncompressed wave file, and I could try encoding it a couple different ways--try to get it a little closer to 6 MB. So yeah, I guess my vote is also conditional, but only because of the render, and not for any arrangement or production flaws. YES, Laddie!

Gonna have to disagree with Vinnie and agree with DS and AnSo. Vinnie did you hear the trombone at :19? It's not only flat and mechanical, but there doesn't seem to be any ambiance of any kind on it, no reverb, no tweaking of the ASDR values, nada And oh, woe is me, the flute trill at 1:05. It gets a double :( So choppy. I like Ken a lot, and hope he doesn't take any of our criticisms as personal hate or anything. He really seems like a good guy, and I hate that his votes tend to go this way. Looking on the bright side, I have no doubt that this would sound phenomenal if the London Philharmonic played this or something. The world needs good orchestrators as well as it needs producers. So production isn't your thing, it's not the end of the world. There's always time to practice and learn. It might not be a bad thing to perhaps start trying to collab with people who you know are decent in that regard. A little hands on learning. I realize Larry wants us to provide insight on how to make something better, but honestly, learning to achieve more realistic qualities out of VSTs is just not something that can be taught in a single vote. Like many things in life, it's an ability that some people have naturally, some people have to work a little at, some people have to work a LOT at, and some people might never have. I highly doubt you'll never have it, but you obviously just need to work a little more. Just keep practicing. On the flip side, I'm not much of a notation arranger by any stretch. I'm not sure I'd be able to notate stuff with half the quality that you do, so again, that abilities thing goes both ways. Anyway, back to the vote, arrangement is decent, but the production requires attention. RESUB

Does anyone else think the source tune sounds like Jill's song "Red July"? Also, Vinnie's right in that the source and the Youtube clip don't line up. Best I can guess is that the chimes must be streamed audio. The psf collection I have contains a readme that states So perhaps it's one of those. /shrugs. Anyway, I thought the remix itself kept reminding me of Flaming June: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZlLIEAiJR8 At any rate. I dunno, as far as the direct sampling thing goes, I'm kind of back to my position on "Foregone Rejuvenation" in that I don't really mind seeing as there's substantial enough processing as to alter the sound adequately to suit me, and thus thereby making it impossible to tell whether or not there's actual direct sampling going on, or if he's just emulated the original sound very accurately. I mean, if a source tune has a piano, and someone uses a piano in their remix, we don't get upset, so why should this be any different? Anyway, I also agree that 2:20 was a bit long of an intro. I realize the style typically merits such, but try to keep it a little more concise in the future. That being said, I really like the remix a lot, it's produced really well, I didn't hear any glaring issues at all, and the reverb is handled well--it seemed to avoid getting muddy despite as much as it had, and that says a lot. The drums and the bass didn't conflict, either. Production gets a thumbs up from me. I guess it boils down to arrangement. Let's see what I can figure out here: The bellchimes thing is definitely verbatim, all questions of direct sampling aside. That's not exactly a bad thing, as long as theres supportive counterpart writing and/or more substantial interpretation later on to compensate. The connection to the rest of the source (mainly the strings) has been adapted to synth pads mostly. And the piano arpeggio from the source is of course a synth arp in the remix. So all in all, I don't see how anyone could say there's not enough connection to the source at any given point. There's been several additional synth arps added by Shawn so that it's not strictly a cover. There's a bit of repetition, true, but again, I think it's a style thing. Trance remixes are always going to have that tendency. Sometimes, I think you have to look past it to a varying degree depending on the intended genre. I'm feeling sympathetic once again--the arrangement, while definitely nothing at all worth writing home about, is barely acceptable, IMO, but definitely could have been made a lot more solid were it either in a different key, and were the source connections not so entirely conspicuous. However, I've heard better, but I've also heard much worse. And the barely-barely-passing arrangement coupled with the solid production keeps this one just an inch across the line for me. YES (borderline)

fixed. lol

this is turning into an ordeal for me. last night I finally had an opportunity to play the game. I'd already pre-purchased, and it was preloaded on my machine. Except when I tried to jump in, it said it was updating the game, which ended up taking over an hour, so I said eff it and went to bed. Then tonight, it just flat out would not launch. It'd briefly pop open some window that said something along the lines of "synching files", and then it would just sit there. I waited about 20 minutes, and finally restarted steam. Same deal. So I deleted the game and am now redownloading, which is going to take at least 2-3 more hours, and I've got another 13 hour work day ahead of me tomorrow, so there goes my chance for tonight. Damn. It.

my folks have that game. We've never once played it, lol.

O TRYING 2 WIN SOME BROWNIE POINTZ 2 BECOME A MOD AMIRITE??? EH? EH???? [/wakka wakka wakka]

Risk is awesome. LotR risk is probably my favorite adaptation of the game, with the exception of "The Fellowship" cards. We typically leave all pertaining cards out of the deck before we play.

Sweet mercy, I just now saw this. The answer is a resounding NO. Nady is a step below those fisher price microphone children songs karaoke machines.

Alright, you. I've had just about enough of your good intentions and noob sympathy. This is not a friendly place, so you can stuff that helpful, patient attitude right back up your uh, talkbox. hurrrrrr

chicago show?

So I played this on my brother-in-law's xbox last night with him on expert mode. Got all the way to the end of the demo and died. Kept trying for another hour or so. Whew, was hard as heck, but still so fun. Went back and played it on Normal mode after that and it was like, cake.

congrats! best for you both!

I'm currently getting tossed around both jobs worse than a pair of shoes in the dryer. As of currently, I may not be able to go to magfest OR hit the slopes. I'm almost ready to murder someone at this point.

lol, for real. You're waiting on one dude? Tell 'em to get their shite together or boot them already.

Yeah. I mean, I've played through MP1 & 2 at least 4-5 times each, but as far as the scans go, you know how that goes. I kind of quit actually reading them after the first time through.

Finally cleared off enough space on the harddrive. Played the demo for about 10-15 minutes. The connection was pretty crappy, it kept lagging and I the server shut down. But I went ahead and bought it anyway. It's now preloaded on my machine. I'm giddy.

I don't recall this in the Primes. Haven't played 3 yet, though, so if I'm missing something there, that's why.

hahahahahahahahaha!!!

just gives you more real estate, which is helpful for managing your timeline, plugins, mixer, etc simultaneously without having to switch screens constantly or rearrange things.

This is slick. Really tight groove going on, good funk factor. Mustin doesn't disappoint. This definitely belongs on a "chill playlist."

Aight, so after chatting with Dave, he pointed out that it's not explicitly against policy to have a song that has direct samples in it, as long as it is kept to a tight minimum. Since the amount of sampling is limited to just the three chimes in the source, I'm going to go ahead and confirm that my vote is a YES Why? The production is excellent. Vinnie's concern is that the arrangement is too conservative, but seeing as the source is more of a groove-oriented track than a melody/riff oriented track, I'd say the amount of expansion was perfect. The pads have been adapted, but maintain an identifiable connection to the original. He's added arpeggios and altered the bass line which IMO reflect expansion from the original. And what's more, is he's done a great job of pulling off a nearly 7-minute track without it losing energy or focus. Solid piece.

Gah, I think I'm with Vinnie on the gut-reaction to the question of whether or not this was too liberal. I did not break out the stop watch and calculator either. That being said, I don't think I had any real, standing problems with any of the mix beyond the level of interpretation. It's delightfully organic. Weed man, the drums ain't all that bad man, nice work. Dig the guitar work, per usual. Production and execution may not be flawless, but in this context, it gives it a pretty distinct character, and again, only helps out with that authentic, organic, grass-roots-ish vibe. Man, if you feel like reworking this one enough to make Sagat more dominant, I'd toss an easy yes at ya, bro. NO (resub)