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OCR00905 - Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome "Realms of Africa"


djpretzel
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Oh man, this is some friggin' awesome stuff. The intro just blew me away. All the instruments are perfect, and the mixage is tight. I've never heard the original, so I've got nothing to compare it to. Even if you're not into world music, give this a download. Wonderful stuff, and Kudos to Protricity for doing something fresh.

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This is one of the most professional mixes I've heard on this site. All the samples used are top notch as is the implementation. This is one of the most interesting and different things I've heard in a while and that earns points in my book. I'm always up for something different if it sounds good, and this does sound good. Neato.

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You really have to listen to the whole thing to appreciate it. It's one of those songs that takes you on a journey. Opens up with nice atmosphere to show what's going to go down. No distinct melody or pattern is present until 1:15. It continues in it's growth from there to 1:48 where something loud is noticable and you can get "into it".

About half way through things stop.

Another melody seems to be growing. I am reminded of various places from the game Terranigma. Things keep growing in this second half until it hits 3:35 where my favorite part comes in. A slow string guides you through the rhythm with the melody at the same time. Something very dramatic and eerie about this part. I like it a lot, same goes for any other song that successfully pulls that feeling off.

The drums vary, mostly being either absent or blended perfectly in the background, nothing techno about this at all. 5 minutes? Seems like 2.

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I've personally always been a fan of ethnic sounds. I found it very nice and almost touching. The rythym is solid and consistant with a World-Mix type atmoshpere.

My personal preference would have been to hear some Uillean pipes thrown in somewhere, but that's just because I'm a Celtic freak. The wood flute was satisfying enough, though.

The only part that I was having trouble was around 4:00. The break and re-entry made me wonder if I had set my mp3 player on single loop. While I wouldn't mind listening to it again, it did confuse me.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece.

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Nice song Proticity. I have a few things to point out. The intro was rather slow. It didn't pick up pace till the flute came in. That flute was beautiful. It was obviously a New age song with heavy ethnic empahasis... But it lacked in momentum. New age songs are generally very slow and have very long transitions. This song had no momentum. It was more a jumble of really nice riffs. They never really lead into eachother. It just jumped from one to another. There's nothing wrong with this either. But in cases where you have these types of transitions u generally need a song to be short and of a fast chandre. It just didn't work in this case. This songs also has nice carpet songs but they are all short lived and infrequent. I somehow get the feeling that this artist is used to mxing a different type of chandre. This is the first song by Protricity I have heard and somehow I get the feeling I listened to the wrong one. The panning/ reverb/ delay effects etc are really well done. The samples are excellent. It sounds to me like he is a sound supporter of the reason series. Maybe I'm wrong that's just how it sounds. He might be using Cubase as his platform hard to tell.

Oh yes Protricity just so you know I speak from experience. I have been mixing for ten years and have created 200+ songs. I hope you take my criticism as constructive. It was intended to be. Overall excellent concept good mxing just need work on arrangement and structure.

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I really enjoyed this. I can't think of any criticism for the music itself, I've always liked your stuff plenty, Protricity (especially the DKC mixes.) The one problem I did have, is that this mp3, and others you have made are encoded with the old Xing mp3 encoder. As far as mp3 encoders go, Xing is one of the definite lower quality ones. It has a tendency to mangle any sound above 16khz, and the rest of the music doesn't fare too well either, usually ending up with a harshness for the higher sounds. Because of that, and some other things it manages to do to mp3's, I was just hoping to ask if you'd consider reencoding the orignal with a FHG or LAME mp3 encoder. Both are far superior, in terms of quality, at the same bitrates as Xing.

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I really enjoyed this. I can't think of any criticism for the music itself, I've always liked your stuff plenty, Protricity (especially the DKC mixes.) The one problem I did have, is that this mp3, and others you have made are encoded with the old Xing mp3 encoder. As far as mp3 encoders go, Xing is one of the definite lower quality ones. It has a tendency to mangle any sound above 16khz, and the rest of the music doesn't fare too well either, usually ending up with a harshness for the higher sounds. Because of that, and some other things it manages to do to mp3's, I was just hoping to ask if you'd consider reencoding the orignal with a FHG or LAME mp3 encoder. Both are far superior, in terms of quality, at the same bitrates as Xing.

Well, I used Creative's encoder. I wasn't aware that it was Xing or old. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that there is a higher quality version (and smaller filesize) of this song in the superior ogg format, and you can find it at http://www.public.asu.edu/~arasulin/Age_Of_Empires_Realms_of_Africa_OC_ReMix.ogg for the time being.

I used to use LAME (and I still do) but I dont use it for submissions anymore since a few friends told me they get errors and deformations when playing these songs on some mp3 players. I do agree that Lame is the best out there.

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Well, I used Creative's encoder. I wasn't aware that it was Xing or old. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that there is a higher quality version (and smaller filesize) of this song in the superior ogg format, and you can find it at http://www.public.asu.edu/~arasulin/Age_Of_Empires_Realms_of_Africa_OC_ReMix.ogg for the time being.

I used to use LAME (and I still do) but I dont use it for submissions anymore since a few friends told me they get errors and deformations when playing these songs on some mp3 players. I do agree that Lame is the best out there.

Ooh. OGG is nice, <nod> you wouldn't happen to have OGG versions of your older stuf wouldya?

Also, the only instances that I can think of where a player has trouble playing Lame mp3's is a certain model of a Sony player that couldn't handle 320kbps frames in VBR mp3's. A lot of problems with mp3 players can be avoided just by using ID3v1.1 instead of ID3v2 tags, as the v2 tags confuse some players when used with VBR mp3's. Aside from Lame, there's also the FHG codecs, which while not as good as Lame, are still a far cry better than Xing. Thanks again for replying though, and thanks for the OGG link. =D

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No! Someone beat me to an AOE remix!

Ah, well, it was very nice :D I liked the whole dealy, everything fit nicely and sounded great together. The only thing i didn't like is that the instruments kinda kept sliding the pitch... whatever you call it. It's nice, but it kinda seemed overdone to me, too much changing. But, i love the whole thing. This is going onto my next OCR CD.

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As much as I hate Protricity and all of his player-hating fagatronics, this is a solid and impressive mix. Everything before this I deleted, but I think I'll keep this one. Great, great work. Which is a lot coming from me 'cause I hate that fucker Protricity. He started it 'cause he's all jealous of me 'cause I'm all hot and shit and he's gay lololol

Excellent samples, excellent instrumentation, and great guitar work (which is also a lot coming from me 'cause I fucking hate guitars). The drums are really cool. I'd expect someone to complain about how they're simplistic, but simple is almost always better, in my opinion. And who doesn't love that little panning effect at the end - totally rad.

Keep making music like this and I won't hate you so much. But you can keep hating me 'cause you know I'm better than you LOL

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The first time I ever heard this mix was when I was at Protricity's place, and damn, was I impressed. It's amazing what this cat can do with just a computer, a keyboard and an acoustic guitar.

He's done Nice Work! :nicework: before, but this one floored me. Maybe it's because it's the first time he's really used actual recordings. Maybe it's because he apparently has the ability to capture timbres from the world over. Who knows? It rocks my socks off.

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I thoroughly remember this song from my hours and hours of play. Protricity amazes me this time around. Definitely the best I've heard from him yet. The sheer depth and quality of sound within this piece alone catches your attention, but when you actually listen, you realize it's a great song, and you find yourself liking it quite a bit. Highly recommended.

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Wow. The intro on this absolutely blew me away. It takes you to an ethereal plane, and sets the mood for something great. Then when the first proper part comes in, you use samples with incredible skill and finesse. All instruments are handled well and the tamborine 6 beat come in to more tracks really made me perk up. The way it slows down adds a bit of atmostphere, but I have to admit I think the total stop threw it off a little. Whe it comes in again with new percussion it sounded even more cool. Ambient drums and ethnic percussion fill the atmosphere, and are accompanied icely by laid back guitar strumming. The slow down is cool, and relaxed. The final sample was just really cool. I think you've done a really professional job here, and this is definately on of the best remixes on this site. Somebody in the thread also said it takes you on a journey, and this is also very true, different sounds keep the same cool mood. Definately sounds like it belongs on a Ministry of Sound Chillout Session album :)

Good work. Keep it up.

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  • 2 weeks later...
As much as I hate Protricity and all of his player-hating fagatronics, this is a solid and impressive mix. Everything before this I deleted, but I think I'll keep this one. Great, great work. Which is a lot coming from me 'cause I hate that fucker Protricity. He started it 'cause he's all jealous of me 'cause I'm all hot and shit and he's gay lololol

LMAO :lol:

..which is also a lot coming from me 'cause I fucking hate guitars...

Um, don't you play the guitar? Why do you play it if you hate guitar? :P

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  • 9 months later...

Bit more of the East than South in this song, as mentioned before. Very laid back in the beginning, then it picks up the pace a bit, eventually coming into a nice bit just before 2:00.

The song changes a good deal, even if it may not feel that way at times because it seems so short at the end. To me, this song paints the picture of a traveler on the road, dusty and tired but with an iron will.

Something that I'd like to listen to on a daily basis, but not constantly.

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  • 1 month later...

Well unfortunatly this one didnt catch me, not my favorite type of music. Very townish, not beat...but more of a feel. Well I do commend the artist though, this is a very hard game to make a good remix from. You wouldnt think so, but they sound to much like the original piece if you know what I mean.... Overall I give this piece my regards and let stay on my not ragingly kick @$$ list. :?

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