big giant circles

Also, I think this is honestly a bit much to ask for in a "conditional" vote. Rewriting/recording additional guitar work is more of a "NO, resubmit" kind of thing, IMHO. Plus, regarding that section, I'm pretty sure the dropout of instrumentation was intentional to give the track a bit of dynamic contrast. The rest of the soundscape was pretty full, I'd say. I personally don't see the need to require them to have a full soundscape there as well. Just my opinion anyway.

There's no *glitch* in the tempo at 3:06, if you tap the tempo alongside it, you'll hear that it's fine. However, after slowing the tempo down a ton, I think there's a particular snare hit that's about 1/32nd of a beat too late, and it's causing that anomaly that we're all hearing. Not a big deal to me, personally. The production on this one is spot on. It'd be great to get a version without those pops at the very beginning, they're pretty exposed with just the piano. The arrangement is going to be the tricky spot here. I guess I'll need to do a play-by-play here. 0:00 - 1:31 is entirely a cover. It's in a different key, and there's a couple extra measures thrown in for good, well, measure. But otherwise, The melody is practically verbatim. 1:31 - 1:51 brings in some original work. 1:51-2:01 references the intro of the source. 2:01-2:43 continue with the source, but but with a bit more improvisation in the melody. The progression is still identical, though. 2:43-3:06 is very verbatim again, however there is some counter-melodic stuff going on behind the lead synth with the backing lead guitar. 3:06-3:29 is original stuff. 3:29-3:50 tempo slows down, and minus the one reference to the source intro riff again, is all original stuff. All in all, without breaking out the stop watch, I'd say that at least half of the track is just about verbatim melodically. I really think if the progression had been varied up a bit more then the issue probably wouldn't have been brought up. However, despite the melody and the general song progression being as close as they are, there's obviously been some additional compositions done by Andrew and Simon. The drum programming is really solid, and the guitar performances are strong too. I think there was a bit of portamento/mono-lead abuse here, and I'm personally not big on leaving mono on for an entire song, but that's just personal preference. Also, the ending didn't bother me at all. I've passed songs that seem coverish before (and even have one such posted on the site myself) and as long as the supporting instrumentation and partwriting justifies the closeness to the melody, then I'm ok with it. This has some solid backing guitar work, some great drums, and the organ, synth, and guitar playing off each other are IMO the (barely) redeeming qualities as far as OCR guidelines go. Great sounding track, guys! YES (borderline)

I hear that from my wife all the time

actually, they did release a couple library updates, one was like ~110 MB, and the other was like 18 MB. Still, not bad. and the downloads were super fast.

the download was like 21 MB

They just released the update patch that contains all of Atmosphere's presets today. Err, yesterday. Omnisphere is awesome, have I said that already?

Well, I don't know about zircon's exact specs, but Omni seems to work fine on my rig, and it's a couple years old. 1.7 dual core, 2 gigs ram.

lol, hey, here's a wallpaper i made of that first picture overlooking the park. click here

Outside in the lobby chatting with other composers. Shot of the theater from the 2nd tier. BGC & the "Drexel Crew" Dinner afterwards with a few of the composers.

I'm surprised zircon hasn't already started this thread. So who here has it, and if not, who's planning on getting it? I got mine installed just before I went to the Expo, so I haven't hardly had time to play with it, but it has some absolutely breathtaking sounds. Here's a quick sample of just one of the pads I opened up and recorded on the spot, totally unprocessed, this is raw, out of the box sound. Click Here So far, I love it. I'm really excited about this synth!

I am so effin tired... lol *edit* k, here's a few pictures Shot from the hotel next to the DGA Theater (where the Expo was) Technology Panel Video Game Music Panel Lunch across the street. (Good food, mmmmm...)

Interesting. Africa, Asia, Europe huh? This mix suffers from severe schizophrenia I guess I'll be the first one to say that I didn't think it worked as well on paper as it may have in your mind. All in all, it's not a bad track at all. However, despite the fact that there's obviously some high quality samples being utilized (East West, I'll wager--sounds like you've got everything from Colossus to RA to Symphonic Choirs in here) but oddly enough, I just didn't feel like the samples were as compelling as they ought to have been. The solo violin seemed particularly unconvincing to me at the beginning. The slow attack keeps any semblance of slurring from happening, and to me, that makes it sound mechanical. The choir was probably my favorite part of the mix overall. The vocal chants on the other hand were not only out of place in my opinion, but a bit on the tacky side, especially at 3:34 or so. The double triggers, REALLY takes the realism away in a bad way. I would think that anyone musically trained or not can tell that it's a triggered sample and not a real choir, and that to me, ultimately defeats the purpose of the high-end samples. It's like buying a 50 inch HD television, but then deciding that you only want to watch VHS movies on it. I do like the Celtic elements a lot, I really love Celtic music in general, so I tend to be a little partial to it. But again, I'm not so sure the bagpipes mesh well with the other instrumentation. On the arrangement end, I don't suppose I have anything really critical to say, other than the fact that the ending sucks. Sorry bro, there's not really a nice way to put that--nothing personal. Just speaking objectively. It's absolutely too abrupt. Well guys, fellow judges and submitters alike, I may seem inconsistent here, but I somehow feel like this one is not quite there. If I were Jesse, I think my vote might sound something like this: The instrumentation is ambitious, but is ultimately awkward. The chants are out of place and the sequencing somehow manages to feel rigid despite the quality of the samples. There's also plenty of headroom, so it should be normalized. The low end lacks, and needs to be boosted around 100 Hz. And that ending is terrible. Sorry, this one needs some more work.[/Vig] NO (rework, resubmit) Let me again say, that this is not a *bad* track by any means. I especially would like to hear Andy vote on this, since he's familiar with a lot of these samples. And yes, I suppose I might be wrong in my assumption that they're East West stuff, but the core issue remains the same.

What exactly is "trance"? Are we talking about some kind of music here?

Guys, I can personally vouch that this library is going to be AMAZING. I don't think there's another sitar VST that's going to come close. The awesome thing is, there's sounds that go beyond just a mere sitar. Andy's whipped up some really stellar modified "FX" patches that'll make your head spin.

GLIB But really, this is above the bar for reasons just stated. Weed's right, it's very reminiscent of his older stuff, but I actually think that gives it kind of a nostalgic feel, in a remixer sense, that is. Not bad considering this was thrown together in a short time as were all the other tracks on bLiNd's album.

Since everyone has mentioned that as the 3rd resub, I realize that it may seem some of our votes might be getting a bit jaded at this point. I've still got the last submission, and I actually did compare the two, but as it's been said, this mix is actually so different in fact, that I'm not even approaching this as a resubmit, but rather as a completely new submission of a track that bears the same name. Kai, you've definitely been learning new tricks, and improving in certain areas; I'd love to hear more stuff from you, be it original or remixed. Checked your myspace page--you need to get some more stuff up on there, bro, give us more trakz, yo! I will admit, I sympathize so badly with this being the 4th submission, that I really want to pass it so badly just for the sake of it. However, that's not how it works unfortunately, so let me put on my waders and trudge through this process. I think at this point it might be productive for me to pull certain comments from the other votes and address them. First, seems a few of us feel this mix gets particularly cluttered at several times. I wouldn't say this goes so far as to sound like a ball of chainsaws, but I see what everyone's saying about perhaps the fact that there's lots going on, and not a whole lot being done to provide each part with necessary distinction. One quick remedy I may suggest in that case would be to provide a little more stereo separation on your synths. Pan some of 'em left, and some right. Switch 'em up every so often. Automate the volume periodically as well. Don't just ride in down the center at full blast all the time. Now, I realize that there is in fact panning going on (like 3:18 for example--I realize the detuned saw is right and the counter synth is right), but there's a good example of where giving some variance and letting your synths wander across the stereo field would provide a little more distinction and separation. Moving onto the issue that has been brought up about things sounding hollow/thin/dry. I think what everyone's saying specifically is that when you're using very sharp leads such as square waves and detuned saws, they tend to already stick out even at moderate levels. It's a very risky opinion to state, because naturally it's subjective by default, but the tendency in this genre is to add some delay, reverb, filter sweeps, or something along those lines to soften the delivery of those synth sounds so they sound a little more wet. That'd probably be a good idea, and the technique DEFNITELY goes hand in hand with panning and separating the stereo in the mix as I mentioned above. I loved the breakdown at 1:19, nice work on the bitcrushing. Larry mentioned that he thought the synth there was out of key. Well, I can say it was heavily detuned enough that while it's note "ZOMG what is this horrible noise here???", it did produce a momentary "ehh," on my face. Might consider changing that just a bit. With the exception of Larry, I don't think anyone's really made much mention of the lead square riff as it pertains to the rest of your remix. Depsite the fact that it's basically condensed the primary riff from the original source tune to a 3 note reference, I'll admit that it's still an obvious reference. That being said, taking into account now the dryness that I've addressed, (which actually makes it sound a bit choppy as well), the supporting instrumentation and partwriting doesn't quite go hand in hand. Take the quiet synth arp that can be clearly heard from :07-:17, if I weren't so rusty on my music theory, I'm sure I could figure out exactly what mode the scales are being played in. (If I had to guess, I'd say Locrian). Anyway, regardless of that fact, they don't really mesh very well. To most listeners, they'd probably just say they sound like they're two different keys altogether. I wouldn't go so far as to say that's the mix's fatal flaw, but it's worth considering reworking that. At any rate, back to my main point. The lead square and the bass progression are the two anchors to the original song, and you've layered all the other synths on top. There's lots of monophonic portamento-ness going on, and the combination of the two in this particular instance is a bit jarring. Compare sections like 3:06 to the section immediately before (2:18 ), there's really no issues there, because you don't have this razor-sharp 3-note choppy-sounding lead thrust in your face alongside the monophonic, sliding, but still sharp sounding support synths. Anyway, this has turned into a book at this point, so I'm going to wrap things up. It's a very very tough call once again, because even approaching this one as a totally different song from your earlier submission, it's still very borderline. I will say that as mentioned, it really would have only taken a couple minor tweaks to push the other one into passable territory, and I think it's thet same case here. Feel free to hit me up on AIM or myspace or fire me an email or PM, and I'll be happy to take listens should you decide to rework this. I really hope you do, I understand it's got to be frustrating to have a track rejected so many times especially when it's really not a *bad* track, to the contrary, it's really pretty decent. Also, look at guys like zircon, who back in the day had like a million songs rejected before he finally got a song passed. And now he makes phat beatz and poops them out like the easter bunny does eggs. Or something. I will say that this this a borderline track. Now that I've pointed out a few criticisms, let me end by saying that the track has energy, and is otherwise pretty clean sounding. Definitely a solid solid foundation for some minor reworkage and again, this one is inches from the goal line. 4th and inches, bro. Go for it. Don't settle for a field goal. NO borderline. (rework and resubmit) P.S. I re-iterate what Liontamer and Malcos said, I think you are on the level, just that this particular mix wasn't.

Fantastic track. It's expansive, creative, and phenomenally written. I have only good things to say about this track. Fantastic tribute to a great game series. Great work, Justin! YES

can we get this one J-hosted?

Let's go ahead and pause this one until he can get us the updated version, which shouldn't take too long since he's only replacing one sample.

I emailed Nafeu. Hopefully he'll get back quickly. I reiterate that if there was in fact no direct sampling, that this is a solid YES from me. I mentioned that if he did direct sample that it would be in his best interest to take a few minutes and rework/replace those samples with original sounds, so we may have to put this one on HOLD if that's the case.

Still getting Ice Cap mixes, I love it There's too much reverb on the drums, and I didn't really care for the opening high hat pattern, but I have to say, the synthwork here, particularly the arpeggios and the lead solos are kicking my rear end here. Arrangement is not an issue for me at all. I was initially concerned that it would be (as is typically the case in most of the Ice Cap subs we get) when I heard the melody drop, but what I didn't expect was the solo that followed suit. Sequencing is terriffic, that's all I can say. Now, I can understand some initial concern about the more liberal sections, like from 1:43 - 2:23 where you essentially have 40 seconds of completely original material that doesn't reference Ice Cap in any way. But that being said, this is the epitome of seamless. Now I disagree that the arrangement felt like it dragged out, but Larry makes a totally valid point that the drums need more variation, and that in and of itself could have really pushed this one well over the top. As it stands, they don't bother me that much, but only because there's plenty else going to keep me from focusing in and saying "hey, these drums are a bit repetitive". This is another great example of how a compelling performance can completely offset the severity another mediocre aspect. It's a tough call. I'm feeling like ultimately this one's going to get rejected, (and if it does, it wouldn't take much more to get this one into solid YES territory, so definitely resubmit this one in that case) but I'm honestly torn here, I'm so centered on the line that it's practically giving me a wedgie. (I apologize for any unpleasant mental imagery that just occurred involuntarily.) If anyone needs further clarification as to what exactly I'm talking about with this whole "compelling" vs. "good" thing, I'm actually thinking of a conversation I once had with Ziwtra, who in my opinion is/was one of the most creative mixers on the site, and the funny thing about his music is that it was all done entirely on either free Linux software, or later on Renoise, which is like a ~$50 tracker program. He never had any professional samples or soundware, but you never seem to notice how "good" they sound or not. That's pretty much exactly the case here. The synthwork is fun, energetic, and exciting. Fantastic solos, and I love the arpeggios just as much. Even the bass synth helps keep the groove hot. I'd really like to hear some other judges comments on this one, even if they vote NO. I'm not upset either way this vote goes, but again, I hope to hear a resubmit if it doesn't make it this round, William. YES (borderline)

Ha, this one turned out to be quite different from what I expected after listening the first 20 seconds or so. Extremely creative (and live performance!) adaptation of what may be the anthem of this generation of gamers. From a *professional* standpoint, this has all the flaws of amateur production--a few performance flubs throughout weak mic setup, mediocre mixing, and a very very dry feel throughout. But I'll be darned if I'm going to let those things keep this from hitting the front page, lol. This is a fantastic example of how sometimes it's more important to provide the listener with something compelling rather than something produced with QLSO Platinum, or otherwise the Boston Pops orchestra. Props all around to all involved in this performance. Wish I'd had the privilege of seeing this one live. HUGE SUCCESS

awesome bro, congrats! sounds great!

Sony Acid Pro 6 ($299) is $99 in store for September. Yes, that's right. Includes special version of Kompakt instrument. Yeah, you heard me. $99. Go buy it. Why are you still reading this? Quit being gay and go buy it, seriously.

Although, speaking of people I've not seen in a long time, how are you, Ravi? *edit* also, even if we did find his phone number, address, email, whatever, if he's disappeared this thoroughly, it has to have been intentional. who's to say if one of us contacted him that he wouldn't simply deny all affiliation? "OCR? I don't know what that is... sorry..."