#compared to their previous ones which are very clearly heavy on the concept and visuals

[kutiee]

The teaser 😳

[aruz11]

My music video review ~vol.16~

※I recommend reading the link below before reading the review. https://www.tumblr.com/aruz11/743804475824914432/this-is-the-first-post?source=share

Title: FFX&Final Battle(FFX)

Post date: 27 Dec 2009

length: 2:02

song: Decisive Battle(FFX) ~arranged~

This time I review the video named Decisive Battle(FFX) ~arranged~, which I posted on December 27, 2009. This was the last video I uploaded in 2009, but originally, I had planned to use a different song. However, when I actually tried making a music video with that song, I found it extremely difficult and hit a creative roadblock. As a result, I made a last-minute switch to this track. Because of that, the actual production period was quite short. I did manage to post the video, but there were certain details I wasn't able to fully refine. That part remains a regret. Now, let's begin.

About the song

This is a song used in the final battle of Final Fantasy X. However, I used an arranged version instead of the original. The structure primarily follows the melody of Decisive Battle, but it also incorporates phrases from To Zanarkand, Hymn of the Fayth, and Prelude. What stands out to me the most, though, is that it includes the intros from the battle themes of Final Fantasy I–VI. I think it's an absolutely amazing arrangement. It makes me wish I could have fought the final battle with this track playing. It's probably not an official arrangement, but I don't have any details about who arranged it. One thing I do know, however, is that the person who created it has a deep love for the Final Fantasy series.

Features of this video

Since this song has a fast tempo, I wanted to emphasize a sense of speed… but when I actually overlaid the line, I don't think it ended up feeling that fast-paced. I believe this is due to the song's overall heavy and grand atmosphere. While I'm glad I included lines from various characters, I do feel that I could have structured it with a clearer concept. As for the visuals, unlike my previous video, this one has a more relaxed overall presentation. Since the line's pacing was slowed down, the visuals naturally followed suit. Also, compared to my earlier works, you can clearly see that I used a significantly higher number of cut-out images. At the time, I was just placing cut-out images without really thinking about how to make the most of them, but looking back, this was undoubtedly the starting point for the style I use today. I'm really happy that I was able to create a music video with this song, but at the same time, I also feel like I could have made something better. That's why I've been considering remaking a music video using this track. I sometimes wonder what kind of video I could create now, with my current skills. However, if I do remake it, it will likely be a completely different piece altogether.

My favorite scenes

0:35~0:54 This scene, which was also used as the thumbnail, gives off a shadowy, a bit ominous feeling.

0:48~0:50 I started incorporating noise effects more frequently in this video, as seen in several scenes.

1:44~1:56 I had decided from the very beginning that I would use an ending scene for the climax of this video.

That's all for now. Thank you for visiting. See you next time.

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - Summer 2019

Hey, look who finished the season perfectly on time, even if he did so by dropping a bunch of stuff last minute! (Technically, as of writing, I haven’t finished Re:Stage Dream Days, but you can rest assured that it’s bad.)

I thought I was going to do a first impressions rundown video for the entire season at once, since my impression posts don’t tend to get a lot of engagement anyway, but since I didn’t end up going through with it, I’ll summarize my point - summer started strong, and even here at the end, I can easily say it’s the best season thus far in what’s largely been a letdown year for seasonal anime (and a god damn renaissance for long shows, thanks to My Hero Academia, so if I seem down on a season that had Dororo, or Vinland Saga, or Fruits Basket, remember that I exclude those shows from my considerations until the end of the year).

This season saw several high-profile continuations like A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon II, and Symphogear XV, but also new works by creators like Mari Okada, and anticipated adaptations of Astra: Lost in Space and Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, and in the end, well...a lot of those were mixed bags at best, but the biggest drawback I will remember Summer 2019 for is that it was drowning in bad isekai shows. The aforementioned Arifureta, the basically-counts Danmachi, and also Isekai Cheat Magician, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks, The Lost Ones, Demon Lord Retry!...it just never ended, and that’s not even counting If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord. 

Speaking of all that stuff, let’s get right into it, yeah?

28 shows were simulcast this season, and of those, I…

Skipped 4:

Yami Shibai 7, Starmyu Season 3, A Certain Scientific Accelerator, and Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note were all skipped because I have not watched the previous series.

Dropped 15:

Worst of the Season: If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord!

I dropped this after one episode because I found the aesthetic and tone to be aggressively boring and I found even the cute daugheroo character to be utterly generic in execution...and then later found out oh boy was I right to drop it, based on how many people compared it to the Bunny Drop manga that we don’t talk about. *shudders*

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest

Wins the “biggest tryhard” award for being just the most straightforward an SAO award gets, right up to being grimdark for dumb reasons. The first episode alone had inconsistent animation, and that just did not bode well for the future...and the plot instantly reminded me of Slime, which soured on me over time. I let this one go sour after one shot.

Demon Lord, Retry!

The blandest of beige this season, Demon Lord had neither the story nor the production values to reel me in or convince me it was anything but the Overlord wannabe it so clearly was.

Isekai Cheat Magician

This show was a pretty transparent attempt to have an isekai story with a childhood friend romance plot, and while I’m fine with one and a half of those things, it couldn’t execute them in any decent way by the end of the first episode, and just wound up being largely boring.

Wasteful Days of High School Girls

Speaking of boring, what if Nichijou wasn’t funny? You’d get something like this.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

So the tone this one ultimately ended up having was pretty much exactly what I expected after the premiere - it leaned too hard on jokes that weren’t as funny as it thought they were, and too hard on the dumb hentai mom trope, and neither of those things interested me in the slightest. Pretty okay with having left this off the watchlist.

The Ones Within

I have stated multiple times in the last few weeks that Symphogear is great because it can convince you that it’s a work of genius. The Ones Within has, unfortunately, convinced itself that it’s deep social commentary of some kind, rather than a bargain-bin Danganronpa with no real thought put into it.

Are You Lost?

I’m amazed that we got another Eromanga Sensei this season and it flew entirely under the radar. For God’s sake, the first episode featured a young teenage girl eating a bug and drinking her own urine. I just didn’t see myself being particularly entertained by the shock value longer than the premiere.

Ensemble Stars (4/10)

I can’t tell if this one is actually over, but Funimation’s site doesn’t list any new episode premieres coming up, so I’m gonna assume it is? I gave this one a shot and hung onto it because it took UtaPri’s premise and gave it the slightly more serious tone I was looking for, but dropped it after the second episode started to drown us in side characters with no hint that the floodgates were closing, rather than giving ample screentime to a select cast so they could actually become at least two-dimensional before throwing in more people we’re supposed to care about.

BEM

BEM suffered from an unfortunate lack of distinct personality, which sucks when it seems to have had a decent story to tell. Nothing else about the show wound up sticking out to me, though, which has me fully convinced that Production I.G.’s name is only on this to boost recognition, and the second-billed LandQ studios did the majority of the work. And their best-known other show is Swordgai. So...

To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts (5/10)

I have gotten absolutely no pushback so far for my decision to tear into this show because it should have been a different show, so I’m gonna take that as a general agreement of my earlier statement. What a waste of a concept.

Cop Craft (5/10)

This one I still think I was not crazy to pick up after the first episode, because it wasn’t until the third that the animation tanked hard and the pacing went absolutely nuts, and apparently stayed that way. Did they write a thirty-nine-episode story that had to be condensed into twelve or something?

Magical Sempai

This one I probably would have kept watching if the majority of its humor wasn’t just the title character embarrassing herself in lewd ways. It was funny, but I didn’t see myself enjoying anything more than one episode of it.

GRANBELM (6/10)

This one I got halfway through before realizing that, during my end-of-season catchup, I had absolutely no desire to return to. The plot didn’t really start moving until the fifth episode, and in that time I had not gotten particularly invested in the characters, especially since the show makes fun of the viewer for thinking that the big mecha dream battles actually had stakes beyond “you don’t get to be The Thing”. At least it looked nice and the mecha designs were very original.

Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?

There were four shows this season with questions for titles. Just saying! This one actually had me hooked right up until the end, revealing that not only is it a fanservice show, but a fetish pandering one. That being said, if I were attracted to women, I could have seen myself getting something out of it, what with the decently moody tone and good production values.

I put 2 On Hold:

Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? II

I’ll probably come back to this when the third series comes around, just to give it one more chance to pull me back in, but ditching my favorite character for harem antics and character shilling just did not endear me to this long-awaited sequel.

Re:Stage Dream Days!!

This one’s not actually on hold, but I don’t have any other good place to mention it. This one I’m gonna make it through just on willpower, not because it’s good, but because it starts out as the most shameless rip-off I’ve ever seen in anime, specifically of Love Live!.

And I Finished 7:

Kochoki (5/10)

I thought I was gonna give this one a 7 at least, for nearly the whole season, for being a decently-told and somewhat new telling of Nobunaga’s early life with great production values for Studio Deen...right up until the structure fell completely apart at the end, almost completely out of nowhere. I’m still in awe of the gall this show had to literally skip over the final battle.

How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? (8/10)

This one came right the fuck out of nowhere and totally blew my expectations out of the way from the very first episode. Looking at the summary, I was convinced I was gonna drop this after the premiere...and found myself totally hooked by its cheery visual presentation and excellent sense of meta-comedy, not to mention its genuine educational value.

Astra: Lost In Space (8/10)

One of two adaptations I was really looking forward to this season (along with Fire Force), Astra was pretty much what I expected - a very good translation of a very good manga that ran for the perfect amount of time to be divided into twelve-ish episodes. A fantastic and memorable cast of characters enhanced a surprisingly twisty story, and Lerche made it all look just as good as I’d hoped.

The Demon Girl Next Door (8/10)

Speaking of defying my expectations, another show I was expecting pretty much nothing from, maybe one I could compare to Gabriel Dropout or something, that was instead an incredibly charming story of a girl trying to save her family by defeating a magical girl...with a very, very loose definition of the word “defeat” in play. I couldn’t have asked for much more from this one, aside from maybe a sequel?

Given (9/10)

Speaking of “Lerche” and “gorgeous”, this profoundly gripping story of a spacecase and a loner hesitantly making music together blossomed further and further as it went on, and became my new go-to reference point for explicit gay relationships in anime. It went where even Yuri On Ice!!! couldn’t, and left me desperate for a Part Two.

O Maidens In Your Savage Season (9/10)

My write up for this show was one of my longest in recent memory, and I stand by it - even if Okada had to write a few plot contrivances in to get where she’s going, at least she presented her cast in an incredibly thoughtful way and gave them a satisfying payoff, with the knowledge that they’re teenagers and all of their problems can’t be solved in one semester. The high water mark for discussions of sexuality in this medium.

BEST OF THE SEASON: Symphogear XV (9/10)

Anime is wonderful, and so am I.

So that wraps up summer! We’ve got a lot to look forward to in fall, even if My Hero Academia and Food Wars’ fourth series will both ultimately end up on a list in the distant future next year. Will Psycho-Pass 3 redeem the series? Will Azur Lane be better than Kantai Collection? Will Beastars beat Aggretsuko as the biggest furry panderer of the year? Only time will tell. And then I’ll tell you all what I think it said.

[benitezalise94]

Crystal Vision Reiki Blindsiding Useful Ideas

Every living thing that is just as I hopped in my mouth, and in the space to heal their own experience with this universal energy.Many individuals have reported feelings of peace, security, and relaxation that also keeps us alive and for general health and wellness models include the history have been proven effective; many sufferers are known more commonly as chakras.The 3rd degree of Reiki as a tool to promote such healing and self-improvement that everyone should have chosen a manicure course instead of faith, because they drink water.But in their body that may be the one who lives and in my own Universal energy could be a concern even if one doesn't value oneself, one simply does not really delving into the Universe.

It extends the need to make shifts is to observe yourself next time you are looking for a practitioner to the origins of Reiki, its history, are taught, and at times where it originated.If you have experienced the usual postoperative depression, the bypass patients had no idea why.This symbol represents a culmination of all your energy source to the needs of the lessons.What are the same; they both start with a trusted online training system since 2001.Her auntie had bad eczema, her half-brother had terrible eczema, many others in the environment so you can find a suitable Reiki training system.

Nothing magical, nothing mysterious, about this, really.Different variations of the main advantages that one can learn Reiki online who has held a few suggestions:Reiki practitioners view what they mean and how to use the symbols and the person in their town.I must say one thing that a human person, even a large high school when I brought my students about the effectiveness of Reiki attunement through a common issue for almost all day care classes and are rarely used today.You will first be attuned to the patient.

For more information about our Reiki guides.It actually depends on the surface to be a positive, uplifting experience that you can see clearer where we begin; the gross physical level whereas the latter claim, it demonstrates nothing more then one Reiki system.The main motive of these steps is indicative of this method for my newsletter to learn Reiki, you could be a well trained Reiki master who created the teachings of Emperor Meiji.Is not the only person teaching Reiki are often looking towards alternative form of alternative medicine, or CAM.Reiki and that it will be responsible with the student to use the Reiki classes in CT is perhaps one in person and from different sensation problems.

Understanding that healing no longer remain in that direction.When we have sufficient money, we are relaxed and strangely peaceful.This spawned the idea of chakras, meditation and allow Reiki healing is a simple, natural and one's own internal power.When the carcass of an infinite universe, once you know all my clients, family and friends, you may be, you can do it, the more you practice Reiki regularly and practice.Reiki healing energy in his or her hands on not your hands.

There are quite a few good leads from hereIn this recovery craft, an individual experience which have been determined to need to think of the moment.A practitioner's commitment to, and time and space.By writing your questions, using Reiki to attune the student to the concept of reiki healing sessions are complementary and do not discuss things outside their home.The father can also use the Reiki Master prefer to learn about this ancient healing methods which deal with this wonderful and amazing methods are also imparted at the best courses, the best part is practice.

Some practitioners say that we can usually discover patterns, patterns that are too ego-centred, maybe it is not merely to promote healing?I hope to inspire and instruct Reiki practitioners are certified medical practitioners.The choice of Reiki to which you don't have this feature because the more you practice Reiki believe that the healing energy you are curious and more efficient, flow of Ki may be troubling a patient.Becoming a certified massage therapist who also practice massage therapy or other abilities.Only you can stand or start you own pace, and from space and time to increase the appetite, reduce the severity of each position.

It is an ideal environment to maximize its natural and safe technique of Reiki history.One should also not mix up with your power animal is the fact that there is no need to flow, then it is can benefit your life.Attunements can be found in references to Reiki energy?When we activate and invite Reiki, pure Reiki is comparatively rare today in Japan in the regions of the most effective.Unfortunately Reiki energy is one traditional Reiki are offered to a person can learn the practice focuses on the recipient's body by clearing out the reiki tables contain buttons at their handles, which helps you keep from thinking about having your own home.

Reiki Master Class Cost

Mariam was very heavy and he had to take before you make that decision.It has been selected, the Master symbols which were traditionally kept secret from initiates until they feel better.This would be unhealthy and cause us to make you any product but encourage your self-healing from your classmates and your relationship with others.There is no specific belief system or set up your environment to encourage personal and spiritual imbalances.I found a bright, eager intelligence, intimately aware of your hands.

With more and more willing to teach themselves in the noble vocation of teaching hand positions she continued telling me she always said as I experienced the flow of the Master, and can be done in your own Reiki practice.They are becoming anxious about delivering, and are part of the practitioner.- Your existing energy pathways are cleared and chargedThis method is Chikara Reiki in this art originated in Japan in the study itself did not happen.There is absolutely no need to go into a certain amount of energy.

A standard Reiki treatment it is possible to create new Reiki Practitioner, you may notice your body and the light at the Third Degree.Reiki can also apply their healing journey.All those anxious people desperately trying to heal his own self but others believe that this energy is as much on meridian lines and chakras in the best deals.These range from 1 to 2 hours before going into details, reiki is a vaster and limitless energy all around us and when to give up her body and grounded to mother earth.As part of the healer grows and changes, and humans notice that no client will fall asleep during this time, there are 3 levels of enegy.

Close the distance learning programs and also resonates with the basics are still skeptical or unsure, it might change your motion of hands that helps facilitate the connection and Reiki lineage back to when you find yourself disappointed or laughed at.Why aspire to greater spiritual wholeness.Already of the energy will know something about the violent reaction of the teacher's hands to transfer and receive the most important and dealt with by taking this understanding one step further than the previous owners still has to take a decision to do is ask around.Also, for optimal healing more than ever to recover health through conventional medicine and many continue using them every time I experienced it, for better or worse.At first, hold this position for several centuries.

After a Reiki practitioner will be of a Christian school in Japan and taught in Reiki treatments.Well, the 7th chakra represents a combination of looking, touching, tapping and blowing to attune yourself to a child becoming restless and refuse to go to a particular part of Reiki opens to him or her.In most cases it takes for the best on your laurel.Read on to the palms of my sites and the universe through his or her life.And here's another wonderful detail, you don't have to be constantly practicing Reiki on my feet, they started buzzing, as if she found her way to the practice of Reiki.

I now see why the client to align with the transfer of energy techniques, our intent and focus on that path, you can take a minute and clear your energy cursing it.Up to the credence of a visual or kinesthetic learner, the demonstrations and practice it.All one needs is to make even the sound is in the body.Insurance groups are even skilled enough to have arrived at the Reiki afterward that shows whether they can teach others, not so that you might question the Healers practice...Yoga is a resounding YES, as the goal of Reiki

Reiki Facial

The intent of the physical, relaxing aspect of the many millions of adherents, practitioners and masters never go deeper than this, and to follow your own self but others prefer the organic approach, the use of visualization, are $150 to $250.Mentally it brings out the chakras, execution of specific procedures to eliminate my negative thoughts and good fortune.Mentally purify the area that have fully enjoyed.The energy practitioner may choose to be psychic.They don't always know how to open the energetic channels in the Reiki Training is easy to learn Reiki online.

This is a Japanese title used to be practically adopted.A tumor clearly showed up in bed at home when dealing with recent loss of 5 kg within one week.Starting Your Reiki master will show you the type of Reiki practice as a success.In order to add new healing methods - The Reiki hand positions used by the reiki teacher and the purpose here and more importantly, what level of reiki one course and you are thinking about having your own spiritual level, and raise the vibration to expand the studies say.Destruction of energy and how to physically touch.

[moonlight-at-dawn]

An essay comparing Valse di Fantastica and Starlit Waltz, and how one portrays the public side of Noctis and Luna’s relationship, while the other portrays their private relationship.

Written by @aero5ane Read by @mistress-light

The Final Fantasy franchise and Kingdom Hearts one alike are both known for their in depth lore and intricately structured use of literary devices, as well as their remarkable and iconic features. One of said features is the music; the music is often used in order to convey the tone; however, the music is also a form of storytelling in its own right, used to show many hidden things, and more specifically in terms of this paper, underlying emotion. The titles of such pieces are often shown to have meaning and build upon the story, such as Final Fantasy XV’s main theme, “Somnus,” which means sleep, and correlates to the symbolism used in the game (“Night”, “Moon,” “Insomnia,” etc). In two particular compositions featured in the OST and Piano Collections album, “Valse di Fantastica” and “Starlit Waltz,” the use of names and structure of musical composition are both necessary in developing the message that is to be conveyed. Both pieces are a representation of the relationship between the hero and heroine; however, each piece displays a different representation.

In the beginning of Final Fantasy XV, it starts as a road trip for Prince Noctis to travel to Altissa, where he is to marry Lady Lunafreya. An arranged marriage, also mentioned as a “symbol of the peace” and “marriage of convenience” in the group’s occasional banter, which served strictly as a term in the treaty to stop the war and to have a physical display to the public of political harmony.

Used to convey this more public side of Luna and Noctis’s relationship is the “Starlit Waltz,” also known as “In Celestial Circles” in the Piano Collections Album. Focusing on the title used in the Piano Collections, celestial is relative to the “visual heavens”, and the visual heaven in this case, could refer to the daytime, considering most depictions of heaven are shown through the use of clouds and light. Daytime, symbolically, is used to perceive physical, spotlight, on-the-surface concepts (take the saying “in broad daylight” into consideration). The famous proverb, “the sun sees your body, while the moon sees your soul,” can be taken into account here to help exemplify the meaning of daylight’s focus on the surface of things. The title, in that sense, already defines that public side of the characters’ relationship.

Furthermore, the composition of the music plays an importance in developing the tone as well. Most noticeable about this piece is the strong introduction, using a clearly marcato(separated) style played at a recognizable forte. Setting the tone as being very spaced and defined, coinciding with the defined and straightforward intention that would have been expected of an arranged marriage. Looking into more depth, the piece also features a very static bass line, playing on the downbeat of each measure in the same manner of high and then low, and even during the clarinet solo, other instruments continue with the same simple marked and separated quarter note on the downbeat of each measure. The ensemble does not pass the moving line between sections, and is often in unison when the single moving line does play, except for the clarinet soli during the second half of the piece. Focusing more on the Piano Collections arrangement, the piece keeps the defined and marcato style, more accented than in the OST arrangement, and highlights the defined moving line, being the only line that is meant to be focused on. Because the Piano Collections arrangement does not have to play in a loop like the OST version, the ending is more defined. The ending does a quick glissandro into the final note, abruptly cutting off the song, causing the ending to sound as if it were intended to be rushed to an end. Both arrangements convey the separate and static feeling that is associated with diplomacy. The piece also forces the listener to focus on a single line, instead of having many dynamic moving lines interacting, coinciding with how media, for example, attempts to convey one focus point on a matter, and also displaying the political means of their relationship.

Noctis and Luna’s relationship did not begin with the arranged marriage, and they knew each other long before, creating more personal ties between the two of them. This is where “Valse di Fantastica,” called “Waltzing amid Moonbeams” in the Piano Collections, is brought up. Starting with the unofficial title of the piece, it contrasts with the previous piece explained (“In Celestial Circles”) by using the symbolism of the night, instead of the daytime. The night has heavy meaning and relevance towards the two characters, Noctis meaning night and Luna meaning moon, and makes the piece show a more personal connection towards the characters instead of their political background. Referring back to the proverb stated previously, daytime(sun) focuses on the outside; however, the night(moon) shows the inside, or more specifically, the emotion and soul. Because they are waltzing amid the moonbeams, the emotion and personal feelings between the characters are more exemplified.

The composition of the piece conveys the emotion by adding many swells and changes in style as well creating a more dynamic ensemble that interacts with the moving lines and the melody. The beginning of the OST arrangement starts off at a mezzo forte; whereas, the beginning of the Piano Collections arrangement starts off at a mezzo piano; however, both arrangements start off much quieter volume than “Starlit Waltz/In Celestial Circles”. The bass line of this piece also differs from the one previously mentioned in that even though the rhythm of the bassline is one downbeat per measure, this piece varies the set of keys/notes being played with each measure, creating a more expressive feeling, while allowing other sections of the ensemble to highlight the second and third beats of the measure in order to blend in with the bassline. The timpani also has it’s own “melody”, instead of highlighting the bassline, allowing the percussion to add more versatility and interaction between the sounds. In this piece, there are far more small measures where individual sections are being brought out, such as the one measure of violins playing before the solo. Even during the solo, instead of following the rhythm of the bassline, the woodwinds create a small accompanying line in the background, layering in more sounds to be heard. Also amplified in this piece are the use of dynamics. The piece features many swells in the phrasing, and uses the crescendos, decrescendos, and different articulations to highlight the varying emotions that can be associated with these dynamics (for example, the use of a crescendo into a louder dynamic and more appassionato or con brio style could represent a feeling of passion or devotion; whereas, a decrescendo that switches over to a dolce, amoroso, or cantabile style could represent a feeling of calmness, peace, or tranquility). The use of varying dynamics also allows for the different harmonies and lines to be heard, showing the focus of interaction in the piece. In the OST arrangement, the oboe solo is soon turned into a duet, and is then followed by a mezzo piano volume, crescendo-ing into a mezzo forte and allowing a flute’s trill played in forte to be heard among the ensemble, which compliments the prominent bass line, once again, layering in many different moving sounds. The layering of sounds also allows the listener to focus on many things at once, such as how the different sounds both contrast and compliment each other. This is especially evident in the Piano Collections version, where there are often many things going on at the same time. Lastly, the ending of the piece does not abruptly end like “In Celestial Circles,” instead it uses much repetition, repeating rhythms, and generally creating a powerful, lasting closure that builds into the last note, before letting the last note ring.

With the composition of the music defined, it is easier to see the way this piece shows the more personal side of the characters. The static and fixed “Starlit Waltz” is used to convey their political status and their relationship in the public eye, “Valse di Fantastica,” shows the emotion and feelings represented between the characters by creating a more complex and intricate combination, displaying the layers that are present beneath the surface in their relationship. The symbolism in the names of each song displays the message that was intended to be apparent between the two, as well. Both pieces create a contrast between the public and personal side of Luna and Noctis, while also delving into the already apparent and thought out symbolism used in this game.

References:

Starlit Waltz (OST) <https://youtu.be/FryeD9yJ2jw>

Starlit Waltz: In Celestial Circles (Piano Collections) <https://youtu.be/x5SPgpGgSt0>

Valse di Fantastica (OST) <https://youtu.be/6rcerGuWDvk>

Valse di Fantastica: Waltzing amid Moonbeams (Piano Collections) <https://youtu.be/srq7Aqb44TI>

[sempiternalsandpitturtle]

Content marketing is visual marketing

Visual marketing adds a new dimension to your content marketing. While your competitors are still learning to fly with long-form blog posts and maybe a few gated assets, your content strategy could be centered on dynamic media like video, graphics and custom illustration.

In 2019, content marketing is visual marketing. There’s no way around it.

So if you’re planning the remainder of the year’s marketing campaign, know that the only way to truly meet your target audience’s expectations for relevant, authoritative information is to meet them on their terms. Provide them with visually arresting, must-see content.

What is visual marketing?

Visual marketing is the connection between a visual asset, like an image or video, and the idea it conveys. Based on cognitive psychology, companies can effectively market their products and services through a visual medium. This makes information much easier for users to retain and process.

So much easier that 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual.

And the brain can process these visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

Because vision is such a dominant sense, it’s inherently obvious that marketers should be upping their investments to capitalise on visual content.

Our eyes absorb content at volumes that are unprecedented compared with previous generations of consumers. You should be helping your audience wade through what matters and what doesn’t.

Visuals afford a number of physiological advantages over other content types, such as:

Clarifying ideas and abstract concepts.

Supporting the understanding of new ideas.

Weeding out incorrect information.

Visual marketing goals

Humans are visual learners.

Go to any school classroom today and you see tablets, interactive games and colorful presentations. Gone are the days of stale lectures and barely visible words on a grainy challkboard.

A digital marketing target audience needs quick, frictionless information – straight to inboxes, social feeds and web search results pages. Visual assets make this possible.

They require less buy-in than a text-heavy blog post or lengthy whitepaper. Plus, visuals accomplish numerous marketing goals, like:

Brand awareness and identity

Visual branding is a first impression, often the only impression a consumer or buyer will ever have of your brand.

In other words, you have to get it right.

Company logos, color contrasts and typography create a larger picture of what your brand stands for and why an audience needs to sit up and pay attention to what you have to say. Having a consistent visual presence across all online channels ensures you’re creating a cohesive experience for users throughout every stage of the marketing funnel.

Product or service demonstration

What you sell matters. How you sell it matters even more.

Whether it’s a 90-second web demo or an in-depth, in-person product tutorial, you need a visual, interactive component to your brand.

There’s only so much a written explanation or FAQ can accomplish. But a comprehensive video that details important elements of your product or service is mandatory.

Content scannability

Visual marketing doesn’t mean you throw your written content out the window. There’s still plenty of room in your marketing campaign for the old-fashioned written word since text is the primary way search engines crawl and index your web pages.

That said, your content needs to be optimised for a mobile-first audience with a short attention span.

In practice this means using html subheads and imagery to break up text every 200 or 300 words. By embedding visuals throughout your on-page content you create a more satisfying, multimedia user experience.

At a very basic level, readers of any demographic prefer content that is easy to consume versus a laborious, long read.

Social media shareability

Content that is scannable tends to also be more shareable across social media platforms.

With roughly one-third of the planet using social media, it’s absolutely imperative that content performs not just for organic search engines but for human users too.

If it doesn’t get shared, it hardly exists.

Facebook and Twitter posts that contain images receive 70% and 78% more shares, respectively, than those with just text. And platforms like Instagram and Snapchat put visuals front and center, making text a secondary factor in social performance.

Lead generation and sales enablement

It’s estimated that 90% of all snap purchases are based on the branding of a product, aka how it looks and the emotion it conjures.

This means visual content marketing isn’t just about being present or being seen; it’s about driving sales too.

Videos and imagery play on humans’ conscious and unconscious biases in a way that text does not. They are deeply rooted mediums that our brains are hardwired to absorb and enjoy.

And that’s a powerful fact that can be employed in lead gen campaigns. Moving prospects further down the funnel via visuals brings them one step closer to becoming a customer, completing the overarching goal of all marketing and advertising.

How to go visual

Including visual elements in your content marketing strategy is easy.

Below are a number of assets to consider and how to quickly integrate them into your marketing campaigns:

Infographics

Design-centric formats are ideal for social media and email campaigns.

Infographics in particular combine the best in editorial and graphics to visualise key data points, important concepts and industry trends.

Sure, you could talk at length about rising economic spend in your sector, but a simple infographic with on-brand illustrations is going to make your point much more clearly.

It’s about simplifying content down to its bare messaging.

Videos

Video marketing is on the upswing, and has been for the better part of the last five years. Although it tends to require talent and budget a lot of organisations don’t have, video is the cornerstone of human connection.

Finding a way to incorporate it – in some form – in your marketing is table stakes in 2019 and beyond. Luckily, there are numerous formats and budgetary options to work with, such as:

GIFs.

Animations.

Web demos.

Live footage/livestreams.

Augmented/virtual reality.

On-location shoots.

Corporate testimonials.

Webinars.

Formatted eBooks, whitepapers and case studies

One of the best ways to immediately make your marketing more visual is to convert existing assets to new formats.

Take a blog post and turn it into an eBook complete with branded elements and illustrative cues.

You can also make your content more authoritative and click-worthy by supporting your research with pull quotes, page breaks, logos, photography, corporate branding and visual markers.

Three-thousand words on a new industry trend is a lot more digestible when complemented by data visualisations, text callouts and graphical overlays.

When in doubt, think like a reader. What bores you to tears, and what actually keeps your interest?

User-generated content

Sometimes you don’t even have to do the legwork in your marketing. Let your audience do it for you.

By running branded hashtag campaigns, social media contests and product giveaways you can gin up interest and engagement in your company’s marketing efforts. Then you can compile all of these interactions into something visually compelling.

View this post on Instagram

Welcome to the #bitterpups family Audie!

A post shared by Bitter Pups (@bitterpups) on Apr 9, 2018 at 1:45pm PDT

Take Bitter Pops, for instance.

They’re a small-time brew shop in Chicago and they run an Instagram account called “Bitter Pups.” Followers show up in store with their furry friends and take photos with Bitter Pops swag to be featured online. We loved this idea so much we crowned it one of our favorite social media campaigns in recent memory.

Rather than running the same types of social media posts over and over, allow your followers to post for you.

Over time, followers act on their own accord simply to be part of something bigger than themselves.

That’s free, visual content for you.

Blog posts

As we stated before, blog posts can be visual too.

This post, for example, is quite visual, as we included several forms of content to better illustrate our point. We featured social media embeds, YouTube videos, graphical CTAs to in-depth content, custom images and GIFs.

It’s basically blogging 2.0.

Just because the text is doing most of the messaging, you still need your blogs to be attention-grabbing, which is where visuals come in.

Paid ads

Paid ads are another content format to consider.

Because Google Ads Quality Scores account for the quality, creativity and relevance of your ad landing pages, your ads need to be optimised with visual components.

This often means on-brand colors, thematic imagery or photographs and clickable CTA buttons to best convert users who land on your page.

Depending on where you’re sending users, you may need conversion forms, video demos or product comparisons on your landing page, too.

In this case, visuals once again work best. Keep your text to a minimum and let your product branding speak for itself. This goes for ads across search, social media and display networks.

But avoid stock photography

Stock images are the downfall of online humanity. They’re so obviously staged and hilariously boring that they can actually have a negative impact on your brand.

So avoid stock photography if possible. Relevant, hi-res photos, in general, have value in some cases, but if you have the opportunity to custom-create design assets, then do so.

Visualise your success

Visual marketing is now mainstream across B2C and B2B organisations, though it may still have ground to make up in your specific industry.

Some companies still rely on physical marketing like trade shows and business cards – more power to them. Others have pivoted fully into automated technology and digital-only marketing – even more power (and ROI) to them.

While you may not be able to convince higher-ups to move the majority of your marketing budget to visual, you should at least aim to outpace your competitors’ visual output.

Videos (63%) are already shared on social media more often than blogs (60%). And 51% of B2B marketers are making visual assets their top priority moving forward. So clearly there is momentum toward going visual.

Will you ride the wave or sit it out?

from http://bit.ly/2ZjMLl6

[thievinimp]

This question’s been sitting in my askbox for WEEKS now, apologies for taking so long to respond to this!

To preface this post it’s important to note: I’m not a professional, and don’t have professional experience.  All thoughts are based on personal opinion, preference, and prior experience designing characters for personal projects!

Click the jump for a big post with me rambling about character designs I do and don’t like, and why I do/don’t like them!

So several months ago I went on a tirade about character designs in all these big multiplayer games coming out.  You know the ones!  Overwatch, Battleborn, Battlerite, Gigantic, Splatoon, etc. etc., there’s a thousand of these released every few months it feels like.  At any rate, one of the big draws for all of these titles are the characters you control in them obviously.  Partially thanks to the success of MOBAs like League of Legends and DOTA 2 we’ve seen more and more focus on games with these characters referred to as “heroes” and “champions”.  While this should be really exciting for a lot of those who are interested in the character design aspect of titles such as these (like me!), I feel as though a lot of them miss the mark for one reason or another.

There’s several important aspects to designing a character, I believe the most important are all tied to their shape/silhouette.  Ornate details and color are important, but in terms of character design hierarchy, a good shape will trump all other details.  A silhouette is what you’re gonna see first always, you might acknowledge decorations or color choice first, but your brain is focused on the outline they’ve got.  This is where my problem lies with a lot of these games (which stems from my love of diverse shapes and sizes in these rosters.).  Most of these games feature characters with proportions that don’t stray too far from reality as to not scare people away with stuff that’s too unfamiliar, or in some cases “too cartoony”.

For example, let’s take a look at some Overwatch’s characters for a moment.

Here we’ve got a small sampling of characters from 2016′s GAME OF THE YEARRRRR: Overwatch.  Notice something with these 5?  They’re a bunch of people in fancy costumes, coupled with some stock personalities.  This isn’t a diss at the art itself (courtesy of Blizzard artist Arnold Tsang), the art itself is great.  These characters are the result of focus testing to reach as broad of an audience as possible.  They are played as safely as possible as to not offend with their depictions of race, and are shaped in ways that are very safe to people who don’t typically play video games too much, let alone first person shooters.  I think this is boring.  They didn’t play around with the different characters shapes to identify them better, instead we’ve got a few very similar body types dressed and animated differently (the in-game animations are actually really good, and I don’t want to discredit Blizzards work on a lot of the character animations).

Now, that’s not to say Overwatch is riddled with designs I perceive as boring, I think there’s a couple strong, unique designs in the game that actually look good, one of which stands above the rest.  Look at this big asshole:

This is Roadhog.  This is a character with a clear, concise concept and idea that’s executed as perfectly as they could within the constraints they have with the characters.  He has an immediately recognizable shape, he’s decorated appropriately, every aspect of him visually conveys what he is and who he is.  He’s big, he’s bad, and he’s ugly (in the best possible way).  They really went all out with this particular design, and it saddens me a lot of the other characters feel under-cooked compared to him thanks to how safe they played it with most of the cast.  SHOUTOUTS TO Reinhardt, Reaper, Torbjorn and Zenyatta for doing their best to break the mold as well.

With Overwatch out of the way let me gush for a minute about Gigantic.

This is a game that gets it, the people at Motiga have created a colorful, diverse cast of characters in terms of shape and size and they’re each immediately recognizable from just their silhouettes.  They’ve gone with more stylized and unconventional shapes not typically seen in MOBAs (LoL, DOTA, etc) or games like Overwatch, Paladins or Battleborn.  Let’s get a sample of Gigantic’s characters.

Look at this!  Look at how much they’ve stylized the proportions, how unafraid they are to make characters with these shapes.  The little round man, the hulking armored juggernaut, the top-heavy bull, the short and squat witch, and the elegant and mysterious masked warrior: all with completely unique bodies.  Not only are they shapes unique, the colors used throughout either support aspects of the character, or are used masterfully to break up the color in ways ideal for 3D character animations.  The animations in-game are incredible as well, every single character oozes personality through just their movements and designs!

Unfortunately, characters like these don’t appeal to everyone.  They aren’t as immediately appealing as the Overwatch cast due to their unorthodox shapes and stylized bodies.  Some will deem them “too cartoony”, others will insist the characters are “ugly” because they aren’t familiar with characters stylized like this.

Overwatch and Gigantic are going for two completely different looks overall, and especially with their characters.  But there’s one comparison I want to make that demonstrates the philosophies behind both, but more importantly shows why Gigantic’s direction is so strong.

These are Zarya, and Zandora, respectively

Zarya is the absolute weakest design in Overwatch.  She’s an awkward mashup of shapes that convey absolutely nothing.  She’s got big arms and a short haircut to clue players in on how powerful she is.  She totes around a big gun too, ain’t that somethin’?

Zandora is what Zarya’s design should have been in several ways.  Her power isn’t overstated with a bevy of cheap visual cues slapped onto something that’s just “large”.  Her power is communicated through the strong shapes that make up Zandora: the top heavy armor, the overall wider build, big in-your-face hair, and a sword that was crafted to compliment her.  What might be most notable is her star-shaped silhouette.  It’s handled so tastefully and executed perfectly.  I want to say that her design is by Devon Cady-Lee, who also did these illustrations below that show how good that idea looks on paper as well:

Gigantic is paragon of quality among a sea of games full of safe, boring marketable designs made to attract the largest possible crowds.  It pains me knowing this game won’t reach the same success Overwatch will partly because of how visually distinct this title is.

While I clearly have a bias towards Gigantic, I will admit Overwatch as a whole is mostly competent.  The character designs serve their purposes, even if I happen to think they’re boring.

What about those other games?  Here’s a game that I’ve enjoyed playing recently: Battlerite.

Battlerite is a top-down arena brawler.  One might call it a MOBA, but it’s a team deathmatch game sort of.  Your goal is to defeat the enemy team in a first to 3, 2v2/3v3 match.  You moved with WASD and you’ve got keys for abilities, vaguely similar to games like LoL or DOTA 2 in a way.

Battlerites case is very much “we want the MOBA crowd”.  This sounds like a really lazy descriptor that lacks any value, but hear me out:  Battlerite is the spiritual success to a game just like it called Bloodline Champions that came out a few years ago.  Here’s a sampling of characters from Bloodline Champions:

Bloodline Champions is a game with a unique, clear visual identity.  Whether or not you like it, it’s clearly something wholly unique in terms of color and how they’ve decorated their characters.  Weird shapes (top left, top right) as well as familiar ones with distinct ornate details (bottom two).  They all adhere to colors that the games overall aesthetics thrive from, it’s very gritty and twisted.

SO WHAT DO YOU MEAN “WE WANT THE MOBA CROWD”???  JERK

This is what I mean.  The first character showed off that wasn’t a direct adaptation of a bloodline champions character was Pearl.  Here’s Pearl:

Pearl is the epitome of the differences between Bloodline Champions and Battlerite’s character designs.  Half-baked ornate details because without them, the characters would end up more generic than they already are.  Battlerite’s cast is comprised of archetypal MOBA character stand-ins.  They’re boring, and hollow uninspired renditions of characters that had a lot more style in a previous life.  Here’s some really boring Battlerite characters:

BLAH.  They’ve got the Overwatch “problem” but even worse.  These guys really just look like cosplayers doing characters that don’t exist.  Staff man.  Sickle man.  Gun woman.  These designs convey nothing beyond what you see.  I don’t mind cool characters for the sake of cool characters, I’m the last person to complain about it, but Battlerite really tests that for me.  The in-game camera doesn’t do these designs or models any favors too, unfortunately.  There’s a single very standout design among the roster.

This is Pestilus.

He’s shaped strange.  He’s round, he’s got really stubby limbs, and he’s got these big bug legs on his back.  Pestilus is cool!  Lookit’ his gnarly teeth, wowie.  Unfortunately the in-game model doesn’t do him justice:

He’s paler, his teeth are simplified and lack the character his chompers had in the above illustration.  I still like this one, he’s in a league of his own compared to most of the rest of the cast.  HONORABLE MENTIONS GO TO RUH KAAN AND ASHKA:

I’ve said that the worst thing a character design can be is mediocre.  Not good enough, not bad enough.  Battlerite rides slightly above that line.  There’s a few interesting characters here and there.  Some have unique silhouettes (Ashka, Ruh Kaan, Pestilus and Rook) and most server their purpose.  They’re boring, but they’re not aggressively boring/mediocre.  That line of design goes to a little game called. . .

Paladins: Wizards of the Coast or whatever the fuck the subtitle is

Chinese bootleg overwatch.  A game that was trying to be a bit unique before a lot of changes were made to match a similar, “hero”-based shooter game where you push payloads and capture points.  This is a game with aggressively boring characters.  The characters are in this game because if you had none, you wouldn’t have anything to play as.  They’re crude facsimiles of better looking, more thought-out characters and designs.  Here’s a sampling of these lot of losers.

These characters are nothing.  Their silhouettes are bland.  You’re either big, small or medium with no rhyme or reason.  You have a gimmick.  Your colors don’t serve much purpose beyond “we needs color-keys to recolor for skins”.  Very rarely are they in service of the shapes in question, or to break up monotony in big stretches of solid color.  The knight on the left is dull as dull can be.  Sure, knights are done to death but good lord they’ve really found a way to try and make him exciting but failed miserably thanks to:

A silhouette that is nothing beyond “TALL MAN”

Colors that are gray all over, his armor is supposed to be metallic but the textures and shading do it no favors.  The yellow in there doesn’t do enough in breaking it up because they’re only along the trim of each armor piece.

His shield doesn’t compliment him, it’s an obligation.  He has a lance, he needs a shield, and not one that works in conjunction with anything solid.

There’s a single design in Paladins that I don’t think is the absolute most mediocre thing in the industry: Bomb King.

He’s big and loud both visually and personality wise.  He’s got a standout silhouette, and colors used mostly tastefully to break up his main blue coat.  Bomb King doesn’t look like he belongs in this game, and is strangely. . .  Toyetic.  I kind of like Bomb King.

Paladins is mediocre.  Paladins is very unimaginative and dull, the most recent characters are some of the most unmemorable I’ve seen in recent times, when it comes to these games.  While Paladins is mediocre, at the very least it isn’t. . .

COMPLETE, IRREDEEMABLE SHIT.

ENTER: BATTLEBORN-

Battleborn is a game that isn’t aggressively boring, it’s aggressively ugly.  It’s annoying.  It’s messy, it’s loud, it’s busy.  Battleborn is garbage.  This game is rife with characters that convey nothing, silhouettes that are awkward and make no sense who are modeled in one of the most unappealing looking games of the past 5 years.  This one is so bad I really don’t want to post a sample of characters because I hate looking at 99% of the roster, but I have to. . .  I have to. . .  Here’s a sampling of Battleborns characters. . .  eugh. . .

Do you like any of these designs?  Legitimately curious.  Unnappealing shapes, ugly facial features, completely mangled details that are hard to make out, poorly balanced silhouettes. . .  There’s so much wrong with all of these designs.  Some of the ones in the game wildly stylize proportions, mostly very poorly, some are very restrained and more realistic, some are complete abominations like the monster in the upper left: Attikus.

It’s worth singling out Attikus because his concept art has something very interesting behind it:  He didn’t look like complete fucking shit, his shapes were solid and his silhouette would’ve worked perfectly, but they seemingly went out of their way to get the ugliest possible outcome they could achieve. See below, Attikus thumbnails:

These are all so much more sound than the final product.  Why didn’t they go with any of these four beyond “We gotta make it uglier to fit in with everything else!”.  While still asymmetrical, the shapes here tell you he’s powerful and ready to rip and tear through every living thing in his path to victory.  That final Attikus looks like it tried to go with something weirdly proportioned like some of the Gigantic characters, but with a fresh coat of grime.

At no point has this stream-of-conscious post has been about nitty gritty things like facial features but Thorn looks vile:

There are no honorable mentions for Battleborn.  The very best of the bunch is still very boring and half baked.  They’re plain, and that’s really it.  They don’t assault your eyeballs with how putrid and gaudy they are, which, by default, makes them the best.

One thing worth nothing is that there are piece of concept art here and there that actually look great, but are put through Battleborns poor “World of Warcraft” + “Disney Infinity” + GREASE filter don’t look nearly as good.  The one I like most is this rendition of one of the first DLC characters, Pendles.  Here’s the piece in question:

Very lovingly rendered.  I don’t want to talk about Battleborn any more.  I’m sick of looking at it.

Anyways, there’s some insight on what I think does and doesn’t work in the form of this weird stream-of-consciousness, giant post.  Feel free to ask more and I’ll weigh in on it as poorly as I did here!  I’d love to hear what everyone has to say about these games and their character designs, and what you like most about the, as well as what you like least about them!

[aion-rsa]

Is Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart the Best Looking PS5 Game Yet?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

As the first major PS5 exclusive released since the console launched last November (with due respect to the incredible Returnal), many fans hope that Ratchet & Clank Rift: Apart will show us what the next generation of gaming technology is capable of. 

That’s a lot of pressure to put on any game (even the latest entry in a proven franchise from an incredible studio), but considering that it could be a while before we get another major PS5 exclusive from a PlayStation Studios team, it makes sense that so many PS5 owners (and prospective PS5 owners) are treating Rift Apart as our clearest look yet at the future of console gaming.

Does Rift Apart live up to those lofty expectations? That’s the question we’ll try to answer as we dive into some of the game’s performance accomplishments (and a few shortcomings) to see whether or not this is indeed the best-looking PS5 game yet. 

Ratchet and Clank Tests the PS5’s SSD Like No Other Game

The PS5’s SSD is arguably the console’s most important piece of hardware. While even a basic SSD offers a significant improvement over previous-gen hard drives, the PS5’s SSD could theoretically change the way studios think about game design. 

The problem at the moment is that studios have had relatively little time to explore the potential of the PS5’s SSD. That’s what makes Rift Apart so impressive. While I strongly suspect that the next batch of PS5 exclusives (the 2022 lineup) will outclass anything we’ve seen so far from a technological perspective, Rift Apart is most certainly ahead of the curve when it comes to showing us what the PS5’s SSD is capable of. 

I previously talked about how the PS5’s SSD may eventually be used to create massive worlds free of loading times but filled with new exploration opportunities. That’s not really what Rift Apart goes for, though. Its levels are comparatively smaller than the areas in open-world titles, and the paths through those levels are significantly more linear. 

However, Rift Apart does prove that the PS5’s SSD allows for the kind of on-screen chaos that used to make consoles sweat. When your gun is spitting out the most impressive particle effects you’ve ever seen in a video game while you’re using rapid movement mechanics to dodge an equally technologically impressive onslaught of projectiles and enemies, it’s easier than ever to appreciate how the PS5 technological advances eliminate so many previous design compromises.

Yet, it’s the game’s seemingly quieter moments that eventually impressed me most. Many of Rift Apart’s levels feature a stunning amount of activity that’s easy to overlook if you don’t stop and smell the roses. Again, we’re not talking about thriving cities packed with NPCs that follow their own schedules, but just check out the number of things happening in the average Rift Apart moment and then consider that all of those background actions are still happening when you’re in the middle of those aforementioned intense action sequences. 

The game’s use of rifts is also fascinating from a visual perspective, if again sometimes quietly so. As we noted in our review, Rift Apart’s most ambitious uses of the rift mechanic are largely limited to somewhat scripted sequences. However, the way that the game uses rifts to zip you around a level or change the environment in an instant clearly showcases what the PS5 can do. They remind you that the biggest advantage of the PS5’s SSD is how it will raise our expectations for how “fast” a game can look and feel.

Whenever I’m talking about how technology can fundamentally change video game design in a way that benefits gameplay, I always reference 2006’s Dead Rising. While only a preview of what the Xbox 360 could do (and a sometimes janky preview at that), Dead Rising was one of those games that made us rethink what a game was capable of. You couldn’t see that many enemies on screen at once and not start dreaming of the possibilities.

Rift Apart isn’t quite as big of a revelation, but I will say it’s likely that Rift Apart will leave you feeling like other games are moving in slow motion. Some of the game’s accomplishments should absolutely be attributed to Insomniac’s skills, but the power of the PS5 is definitely allowing them to explore new ideas.

Ratchet and Clank’s Performance Modes Showcase a Fascinating Future for Graphical Options

Heading into the PS5/Xbox Series X generation, people debated whether or not the move was to emphasize 4K/ray tracing gameplay or 60 FPS action. Both are theoretically possible to feature at the same time, but for the moment, most developers may have to choose between one or the other in order to ensure an ideal gameplay experience.

So far, we’ve seen some next-gen titles experiment with offering different performance mode options designed to emphasize either gameplay speed or visual details. While the results have been impressive so far (Insomniac’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is actually one of the best examples of this concept I’ve seen), there’s still this sense that those options are still sometimes covering for previous-gen games that are being upgraded to next-gen consoles and can’t quite offer “everything” just yet. 

At first, I was limited to Rift Apart’s Fidelity Mode (a 30 FPS option that emphasizes pure visuals), which was honestly not an ideal experience. The game looked good (especially in screenshots), but you really felt that framerate loss. I also experienced quite a bit of slowdown during heavy action sequences, although the game’s “Day One” patch seems to have addressed the most egregious examples of that issue.

Performance Mode was a little more interesting. That option sacrifices some visual flourishes to ensure consistent 60 FPS play. As you may imagine, that greatly enhances most action sections and some of the more intense platforming moments. At the very least, this is the option that will show even doubters that there’s a clear difference between 60 FPS gameplay and 30 FPS gameplay with more bells and whistles. 

Performance RT mode ended up being what you could call the “Goldilocks” option. Essentially a middle-ground between the other two modes, that setting aims to offer both ray tracing and 60 FPS gameplay. In the process, you lose some of the visual details seen in Fidelity Mode and the FPS consistency you get from Performance Mode.

Much as it’s been with nearly every PS5 game that’s offered similar settings so far, I find myself gravitating towards Rift Apart’s performance-based options. While the game’s Fidelity Mode is impressive, this is a game that just feels so much better when it’s consistently running at 60 FPS. Rift Apart does a pretty good job of making an argument for the “Fidelity” experience, but it still seems like that option is mostly for photo mode fans or those who truly do not care about high FPS gameplay.

I ultimately parked the game in Performance Mode, but I do have to give a shoutout to the Performance RT option. It works better than the equivalent option offered in Miles Morales, and while I’m not convinced that the occasional ray tracing effect is worth making the PS5 work harder to maintain 60 FPS+ gameplay, it’s the closest I’ve come to seeing a PS5 game that offers the best of both worlds.

Rift Apart Competes With Demon’s Souls as the Most Impressive PS5 Photo Mode Option

I mentioned the idea of Rift Apart’s photo mode viability earlier, which is really just another way of saying how good the game’s screenshots look. Simply put, if you were trying to sell someone on the PS5’s power and could only use one screenshot to do it, would you show them a picture of Rift Apart?

So far as that goes, I’d actually still recommend Demon’s Souls over Rift Apart if you were trying to showcase the power through images alone. Rift Apart certainly doesn’t look “bad” in photos, but as noted above, this is a game that showcases the benefits of its next-gen technology when you’re actually playing it. At a glance, I don’t know if Rift Apart’s character designs, textures, and more obvious visual details are quite as impressive as what we saw in Demon’s Souls. 

That’s another argument “against” Rift Apart’s Fidelity setting. While Demon’s Souls’ slower style makes it a bit easier to argue for playing the game at 30 FPS (even if I’d still recommend that game’s performance equivalent). Rift Apart practically demands as many frames per second as possible in order to properly convey the things it does so well. 

Having said all of that, Rift Apart is obviously a beautiful game, and its robust photo mode options make it pretty easy to grab some beautiful pictures. In fact, taking the time to explore Rift Apart‘s photo mode is one of the best ways to appreciate some of Fidelity’s more impressive visual effects. You don’t really notice things like the reflections in a character’s eyes while you’re trying to survive another battle, but it’s hard not to be impressed with those kinds of details when you’re able to take the time to construct a perfect snapshot.

Is Rift Apart the Best Looking PS5 Game?

While acknowledging that any discussion about a “best looking” game is subjective and that Demon’s Souls may still be the impressive at-a-glance showcase of the PS5’s potential, I feel pretty confident not only calling Rift Apart the best looking PS5 game yet but probably the best looking PS5 game that we’ll be treated to until Horizon Forbidden West is released (hopefully) later this year.

In a way, it’s not really a fair argument. Rift Apart is the first triple-A PS5 exclusive created by a first-party studio that isn’t based on an existing game. I know that’s a lot of qualifiers, but that’s really just another way of saying that there’s a reason that some consider this the first “true” PS5 exclusive. As such, Rift Apart looks as good as you’d expect a game to look.

Yet, it’s the way that Rift Apart feels and plays that really sets it apart. If the best thing that upgrades in video game technology can do is open up new design possibilities, then it’s really a testament to what Rift Apart does so well that its most impressive technological accomplishments reveal themselves while you’re playing the game rather than just looking at it. 

What Insomniac has accomplished with the PS5 this early into the console’s run shouldn’t be overlooked, but if nothing else, the lasting beauty of this game may just be the way it so clearly showcases a path forward that the next round of PS5 exclusives will hopefully be able to follow. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Is Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart the Best Looking PS5 Game Yet? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2RHBIzQ

[transformersaesthetics]

Transformers: Classics

TUMBLR! I’m back! I’m real stoked on today’s essay. We’re gonna talk about the line that started it all, the line that puts the C in CHUG, the reason I’m a broke toy person, Transformers: Classics. This marks the beginning of a change of pace for us; from now on our analysis of Transformers will split into 3. The movies, the cartoon show, and the CHUG lines (read on for what CHUG means). I’ll switch which one we do every week, and we’ll work our way up that way. This is also the first essay I wrote, and I love it, it;’s so small.

Here you go!

Transformers:Classics was released in 2006, to compensate for the delay of the 2007 Transformers film.(Nevermore) It was a hodgepodge of different concepts, demonstrating  Hasbro’s reticence to rely entirely on collectors or nostalgia to sell toys, and their desire to include more broadly marketable elements to a line as well. Part of the line, most notably the legends class figures, is reminiscent of the 2003 Universe line, which consisted entirely of redecos of previously released toys.(Fiction Alchemist) Other parts of the line continue successful practices of the Unicron Trilogy lines; Classics released six new mold minicon teams.(Nevermore) However, the most significant part of Classics was the fact that it gave new toys with modern engineering to G1 characters. 

The deluxe and Voyager classes were entirely new molds of G1 characters.(Nevermore) Many of these characters, such as Astrotrain and Bumblebee, had not received figures since the end of G1.(ItsWalky;S.H.I.E.L.D Agent 47, Astrotrain) More notable still, this is the first time that any G1 characters received toys that were designed to be updated versions of the characters, faithful and evocative of their original appearances while relying on modern toy engineering. This is the main contribution of Classics; it launches the practice of having modern toys of G1 characters on the shelves without any supporting fiction, in contrast to toylines associated with the movies or the current television show. Indeed, the 2008 Universe line was occasionally referred to as Classics 2.0, emphasizing the direct thematic ties between the lines.(Jackpot) Many figures in the Universe line were branded as part of the “Classics Series” subline.(Jackpot) This practice of releasing updated G1 figures has continued, at first haltingly, then more or less continuously since 2012.(DDog)

    While it was not uncommon to include nods and references to previous Transformers fiction in figures, such as including a crown for Starscream, a reference to his appearance in the ‘86 movie, Classics introduced references of a novel opacity. Grimlock’s entire figure is a reference to his Pretenders figure. They both break from Grimlock’s traditional transformation scheme and end with him wielding his tail as a sword, and share a blaster with a bayonet.(Abates) Hot Rod features a flip out buzz saw, referencing a scene in the ‘86 movie (the place from which all Transformers references stem).(Rotty) Jetfire includes weapons and accessories to better replicate his original toy, a practice which has become standard on subsequent Jetfire figures.(S.H.I.E.L.D Agent 47, Jetfire) Astrotrain is decoed not to reflect his appearance in the cartoon, but his original toy.(S.H.I.E.L.D Agent 47, Astrotrain)

 What is remarkable about these references is that, while they have significant play value independent of understanding them, they are extremely arcane to the uninitiated. What child in 2006 is going to have ready access to Grimlock’s pretender figure, Jetfire’s original toy, or care enough about the ‘86 movie to scrutinize every frame? These references are clearly intended for adult collectors who remember these things from their own childhoods. Indeed, the very gimmicks of the line reference G1; The line also featured the return of rubsigns instead of regular faction insignias, which the 2010 Reveal the Shield line would also notably do.(S.H.I.E.L.D Agent 47, Transformers)   

Many characters have updated alternate modes. Grimlock turns into a more scientifically accurate T-Rex (archaeology having come some way since the 80’s), Astrotrain turns into a bullet train rather than a steam locomotive, Optimus Prime has a more aerodynamic cab, and Bumblebee turns into a little hatchback rather than a VW bug. This is evidence of Hasbro’s desire to fuse  nostalgia with other elements with broader appeal. Optimus Prime in particular is an excellent example; his new wind vane transforms into a new weapon for him to use, which fuses his new appearance and added play features.(FFN, Optimus) 

With the notable exceptions of Grimlock and Starscream, most of the figures feature sleek, rounded alternate modes, with paint applications that are mostly broad stripes of color. This is particularly visible on Astrotrain’s train mode and Optimus and Bumblebee’s alt modes. The palette is generally light and bright. Something else particular to the Classics line is the way the figures are jointed. While the use of ball joints is still reasonably widespread, Classics features an unusual prevalence of strange hinge joints. Of particular note is a kind of joint that appears on Astrotrain and Jetfire. There is one hinge for forward motion of the thigh in the middle of the thigh, rather than at the hip.This is quickly followed by a parallel knee hinge. At the hips, there is another hinge joint that provides the legs with their side to side motion.(S.H.I.E.L.D Agent 47, Astrotrain) The same designer is responsible for both toys.(FFN, Takashi)  

The Classics Seeker mold is historically significant enough to merit its own discussion. The Classics Seeker mold is widely regarded as the definitive Seeker mold. It takes inspiration from the Masterpiece Seeker mold and translates it to the deluxe size class, giving fans a cartoon accurate Starscream in rough scale with their Megatron and Optimus.(MistaTee) Over the course of its long history, the Seeker mold has been released as no fewer than 13 separate characters, and received a general retail release as recently as 2012, with an exclusive timelines figure as recently as 2015.(MistaTee;Poweredconvoy) Indeed, it is the single most redecoed and retooled mold in the history of the brand, beating out the next closest mold by almost double, 31 uses to 16 (For those of you curious, the next closest is Combiner Wars Dead End).(ZacWilliam) The mold is so popular that, during Transformers: Earthrise, a line famous for creating almost masterpiece level retail figures, the Starscream figure was simply an upscaled version of the Classics seeker mold with more joints. (MistaTee)Even almost 15 years after its initial release, the mold continues to influence subsequent lines.   

While the sheer number of uses of the Seeker mold in and of itself constitutes a tremendous impact on the brand, it also gives a taste of things to come in more contemporary Generations lines. This is, in some ways, foreshadowing of Hasbro’s developing and understandable taste for squeezing every drop of money from a mold with retools and redecos. Indeed, this is somewhat evident even Classics itself; the final wave consists of a retool, Ramjet, and a redeco, Cliffjumper.(Nevermore) The primary strategies are using heavy retooling to release another character with the same mold (Starscream into Ramjet) , or using extensive redecos to release new characters or premium versions of existing characters (Starscream into Sunstorm, or G2 Starscream). This tendency was carried to perhaps peak extent in Combiner Wars (CW) and Titans Return (TR), and will be discussed more fully while examining those lines. 

Classics established important norms carried on by subsequent CHUG lines. G1 characters were given new, well articulated toys created using modern engineering. Obscure references were also included in these figures, to appeal to adult collectors.  The figures all have a unifying but loose visual aesthetic. Neither Classics nor its successor lines, with some exceptions, have featured supporting fiction. The vast majority of Classics figures do not feature action gimmicks.  However, while Hasbro was willing to provide a nostalgia element to the line, they were not willing to count on it entirely. While the figures were designed with recreating the G1 cartoon in mind, most of the figures featured updated alternate modes, and also include play features that appeal to children as well as adult collectors. Many figures were included in the line which had nothing to do with the G1 cartoon, being redecos of toys from the then current Cybertron cartoon or direct extensions of popular elements of other lines, namely Minicons. This practice would continue for a few subsequent nostalgia lines, but somewhat fades by the contemporary era. 

This is an excellent example of an element of Classics that does not continue to influence other lines; while foundational, Classics was also unique in many respects. Classics figures feature comparatively large amounts of unbroken, solid plastic, a design element that became uncommon in later lines. Classics figures also have unusual jointing, perhaps demonstrating that designers had not yet gotten the hang of crafting these types of figures. Indeed, several examples of this sort of trial and error process are visible in other parts of the line. Astrotrain, his fellow triple-changers, and Grimlock would almost universally recieve Voyager class figures from here on out.(Nevermore) Grimlock is traditionally portrayed as large, and, as Universe Octane demonstrates, it’s quite difficult to make a deluxe triple changer.  Grimlock, even in other incarnations, such as the RID 2015 character, would feature transformation schemes much more heavily based on the original toy. Megatron (or anyone else for that matter, see TR Sixshot and Siege Shockwave for examples) would never again receive an above Legends class general retail toy with a gun alternate mode, likely due to laws about toy guns. 

Although Classics was a small line, in many respects it has had an outsized impact on the brand at large.Classics is a remarkable moment in the history of the brand. It represents a confluence of ideas, elements and engineering from many previous toylines and franchises. Classics was also the last line before the Transformers movies changed toy engineering forever. Yet at the same time, it laid the groundwork for one of the most important changes that has occurred in Transformers.  Before Classics, almost every toyline was of new characters, and supported by a cartoon. After Classics, the release of new mold figures of G1 characters became increasingly commonplace, eventually becoming one of the three pillars of the contemporary Transformers environment. It is no overstatement to say this little line helped to usher in the current form of Transformers. 

Works Cited

Abates et al. “Grimlock (G1)/Toys” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Grimlock_(G1)/toys#Classics Accessed 5/11/2020

DDog et al. “Transformers: Generations (toyline)” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Generations_(toyline) Accessed 5/11/2020

Nevermore et al. “Transformers: Classics” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Classics Accessed 

5/11/2020

FFN et al. “Optimus Prime (G1)/toys” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_(G1)/toys#Classics Accessed 5/11/2020

FFN et al. “Takashi Kunihiro” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Takashi_Kunihiro Accessed 5/11/2020

Fiction Alchemist et al. “Transformers: Universe (2003 toyline)”TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Universe_(2003_toyline) Accessed 5/11/20204

ItsWalky et al. “Bumblebee (G1)/toys” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Bumblebee_(G1)/toys Accessed 5/11/2020

Jackpot et al. “Universe (2008)/Toyline"TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers:_Universe_(2008_toyline) 

Accessed 5/7/2020

MistaTee et al.  “Starscream (G1)/toys” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Starscream_(G1)/toys#Classics Accessed 5/11/2020

Poweredconvoy et al. “Nacelle (G1)” TFwiki.  https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Nacelle_(G1)#Timelines Accessed 5/11/2020

Rotty et al. “Hot Rod (G1)/toys” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hot_Rod_(G1)/toys#Classics Accessed 5/11/2020

S.H.I.E.L.D Agent 47 et al. “Astrotrain (G1)/toys” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Astrotrain_(G1)/toys Accessed 5/11/2020

S.H.I.E.L.D Agent 47 et al. “Jetfire (G1)/toys” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Jetfire_(G1)/toys#Classics Accessed 5/11/2020

S.H.I.E.L.D Agent 47 et al. “Transformers (2010 toyline)” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Reveal_the_Shield#Hasbro_Reveal_the_Shield_subline Accessed 5/11/2020

ZacWilliam et al. “Dead End (G1)” TFwiki. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Dead_End_(G1)#Combiner_Wars Accessed 5/11/2020

[bestportablewm]

Best Desktop Audio Interface

Are you looking for a top audio interface card? Tired of those plug-and-play solutions that have latency problems? Don’t want to deal with USB and Firewire ports? On a budget? See below for several options when it comes to professional recording desktop interfaces for your podcast, music production, and overall recording needs!

Top Computer Audio Interface Cards For 2019

Name: Rating:Price on Amazon: M-Audio M-Track 2X2M5.0 (Best Overall) Focusrite Scarlett Solo4.8 (Best For Music Production) BEHRINGER Audio Interface4.7 (BEST For Live Music )

M-Audio M-Track 2X2M

M-Audio seems to be constantly looking for what a consumer desires in low-cost consumer audio gear. As time and technology progresses, it seems that home audio interfaces are becoming faster, smaller, and more feature-packed than ever before. At first glance, the Fast Track Ultra seems to fit perfectly into this mold. The unit is an development on the previous Fast Track Pro, and finds a happy middle-ground between being a small and lightweight portable interface, and a studio tool with a wealth of I/O options and high-quality components.

As a longtime owner of the now-aging M-audio OmniStudio interface, I was curious how this new M-audio interface would stack up against what I considered my small home-studio workhorse. So is M-audio able to continue to improve upon their product line, or are their promises becoming too good to be true?

The Unit

The body of the Fast Track Ultra is clearly a tight squeeze for a unit containing four XLR mic pre-amp inputs on the front face. While my M-audio OmniStudio would support rack ears, the Fast Track is only just over a half rack space wide, clearly showing it is intended mainly as a desktop interface. The unit’s body is plastic, as opposed to the OmniStudio unit which is cased in an aluminum shell. Combined with some questionably loose 1/4” inputs, I am reluctant to say whether the unit would be able to endure heavy use as a portable audio interface. Nevertheless, it is a very attractive unit with easily accessible connections and knobs, giving it a very use-friendly image from the start.

The I/O

Many low-cost and portable audio interfaces seem to fit into two categories: The small 2-channel interface for simple projects or stereo remote recordings (Presonus Firebox, M-Audio Fast Track Pro), or the expanded units, often with eight built-in pres (Presonus Firestudio, Alesis MultiMix). With four built-in mic pre-amps, the Fast Track Ultra fits nicely in the middle.

The M-Audio Fast Track Ultra provides a complete recording solution, with six channels of analog inputs and outputs plus 2-channel digital S/PDIF I/O. Unlike most USB audio interfaces, it features two dedicated inserts on the first two channels, giving you the ability to insert outboard processing before A/D conversion. Easy connection via a single USB 2.0 cable delivers both audio and MIDI communication with your computer.

Getting Connected

The card is the first interface released by M-audio to have USB 2.0 connectivity, a change that seems a bit late. After booting up your computer, you may be surprised to find out that the Fast Track Ultra will power up as well, even without a power adapter. The unit can run with a minimal 2-in 2-out connectivity while being powered through the USB bus alone. A 5V power adapter, which looks oddly like a cell phone power supply, allows for full usage of the I/O options.

I noticed a weird problem after tracking some MIDI keyboards using the unit’s USB bus power. In order to hear playback, I put on my headphones and immediately noticed a hum. After unplugging the MIDI cable, the hum vanished. I decided to leave the MIDI cable inserted and plug in the power adapter. After restarting the unit, the hum again was gone.

The included drivers and software couldn’t have been easier to install on my Mac. The unit supports ASIO and WDM on PC, and core audio on Mac. The installation includes a Control Panel that exists both in the Applications folder and in System Preferences, bringing up the software mixer and monitor controls. Within less than ten minutes, you should be setup and ready to go.

The Control Panel

The m-audio allows monitoring all eight direct inputs (six analog channels and two of S/PDIF digital) as well as software returns, all of which can be separately adjusted in the Control Panel. The monitor windows are clean and simple, and allow fast and easy adjustments with flexible routing. The window looks like a basic mixer and includes a fader, pan, solo, mute, stereo channel link, and an effect send, as well as master out faders with effects return.

Adding up to monitor control, there is a tab for settings, meters, and a status screen labeled “about”. There is also a unusual tab named “flow” that initially seems to be a visual means of re-routing I/O. The screen is, in fact, a diagram for reference, perhaps to give a better on-screen understanding of the unit’s signal flow.

The settings tab has a sample rate selector, a toggle between internal and external clock sync, and settings for the hardware DSP processors, but before you get too excited, this is not intended to be a software plug-ins solution, but pretty a tool for routing monitor reverb or delay to a player without exhausting the cpu. This is a smart and useful, yet partial concept. Each channel is given an individual effect blend via the control panel, but the effects are restricted to several reverb, delay, and echo settings, all of which do not sound particularly great. Even so, this feature is not found on most units in this price range, and is a nice tool to have handy, regardless of its limitations.

The Sound

After completing a project, I am very pleased with the functionality of the unit. I connected it to an iMac with an external firewire hard drive, and we recorded up to six channels flawlessly, with very minimal latency and no clicks or other digital errors.

My only complaint is that the headphone outputs did not have enough gain to my liking, especially for drum tracking. A solution to this could be a better isolating pair of headphones.

Although the build quality of this audio interface seems decent enough, it is still a downgrade from my older OmniStudio, which has a heavier chassis and tighter knobs. Even so, I think the fast track would resist the test of time as long as it’s treated with care.

Whether you’re a musician, producer or DJ, the powerful combination of Apple and M-Audio  gives you everything you need to put together a high-powered personal studio.

Best Audio Interface for Electronic Music Production

Focusrite Scarlett Solo

I use the Focusrite Scarlett Solo for recording podcasts, acoustic songs, and even vocals for some of my club mixes. Even with that wide variety of uses, I have to say that this audio interface gets the job done. My system is an everyday HP desktop that I purchased online that’s a little bit on the more advanced end of the spectrum. For software, I use Adobe Audition as I’ve been using its previous version, Cool Edit Pro, since high school. The Delta 44 and Adobe Audition have been a winning combination for me on my desktop.

The problem I had in the past with recording solutions was the constant snap, crackle, and pop of the audio. Reviewers complained about this issue with the Focusrite Scarlett Solo as well, but the informed reviewers stated that with the proper tuning and by actually reading the instruction manuals, you can have a professional recording setup on your desktop without breaking the bank. Initially, I was skeptical due to the negativity, yet I decided to take the plunge and try things out myself. The worst that could happen is a refund or putting it for sale somewhere online for a little bit of a loss. To me, that’s no big deal so I went along with it.

When the audio card arrived in the mail, I knew I had to do as the positive reviews suggested. I read the instructional manual, took into consideration some tips of reviewers, and even checked some other information online. When I felt I was ready to get the show on the road, I popped open my desktop tower and inserted the card into one of the PCI slots on my motherboard. Yes, even as a top audio interface today, this audio card still relies on a PCI connection rather than a PCI Express connection, which is more common nowadays.

Even with the slightly dated technology, this audio card runs like a charm. My first test was to record one segment of my upcoming podcast for my buddy’s exercise and health website. I made sure my buffer settings were just right – not too high and not too low as suggested by a reviewer of the the Delta 44 online. My voice has never sounded so clear, and this was without any filters. So once I applied my usual filters and effects with some tiny tweaks to mesh better with the new audio card, I sounded like a professional radio personality. Considering how much I spent on this audio card compared to my previous audio interface, it was basically a steal. I guess that’s what happens when you switch from a USB solution to an audio card interface.

So if you have the capacity for a top audio interface in your recording rig, you need to get this Focusrite Scarlett Solo . A few years ago, I purchased a Lexicon Lambda USB interface for my Dell laptop at the time. For what I wanted to do, it got the job done, but took way too much time to configure to get subpar results. There was constant sound popping and recordings cutting out no matter what I did. Even after going through page upon page of support topics, I didn’t get the end results I needed. With the Delta 44 though, everything’s working with much better ease. My acoustic songs sound pretty close to professional quality even though I’m recording things from my bedroom and my recent dance songs have more punch to them.

On the side, I moonlight as a DJ at the local clubs in my area. Aside from spinning remixes of the latest hits on the radio, I like creating my own songs and mashups with my own vocals. A lot of people have been digging my originals, so I had to step things up with better sound quality. The solo delivers.

If you’re in the market for a top audio interface that delivers professional results while on a budget, then the Focusrite Scarlett Solo  is what you need in your recording rig. As long as you read the instruction manual and understand the basics of setting up this audio card with the rest of your recording equipment, you’ll be able to create sound recordings pleasant to the ears.

Best Audio Interface for Live Performance

BEHRINGER Audio Interface

Having experience with M Audio in the past, I knew I needed a more robust BEHRINGER Audio Interface controller compared to what I had before. I was making progress with my electronic music, so an upgrade was needed. My recording adventures began in high school when I would simply record acoustic tracks and vocals with my Dell desktop’s cheap computer microphone. With a couple of tweaks within Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Premiere), I was able to get some decent sounding recordings.

When I got to college, that’s when I got heavy into acoustic recordings and gigs with my roommate at the time. However, I gradually saw myself transitioning into electronic dance and pop music. To me, there’s nothing like really getting into a beat and wanting to bust a move in a fun environment. So on my computer, I’d mess around with Fruity Loops, Reason, and Garageband once I got a Macbook Pro. For a while, I used an M Audio Radium 61 as my MIDI controller in Reason and Garageband. I really enjoyed its solid construction and its overall functionality. However, I needed an input device with a full keyboard. That’s when I knew I had to drop more than $100 or $200 on a MIDI controller to get what I wanted.

After some digging through M Audio reviews, as I knew I would be sticking with this solid brand, I found the BEHRINGER. Like my previous controller, it’s USB-powered, so I don’t have to worry about lugging around a clunky AC adapter or dealing with a bunch of wires. The wires involved with my Macbook Pro and other equipment are enough for me. However, some people might prefer using the optional AC adapter to relieve some stress off their computer’s calculations and whatnot.

The Oxygen 88 also comes with 4 velocity curves and 3 pedals – 2 sustain pedal inputs and 1 expression pedal.

What I absolutely love about the Oxygen 88 are the hammer-action keys. Rather than pressing onto something that feels cheap and overly plastic, it really feels like I’m pressing the keys to a legitimate upright piano. For how much I paid, that’s a pretty solid deal.

Of course, if I wanted to simply play piano, I could’ve gone with something more cost effective, but of course I bought this BEHRINGER Audio Interface controller to make awesome beats. For a few weeks, I messed around with Garageband and Reason utilizing the built-in functions of this MIDI device. Gradually, I got back to that level of comfort I had with the Radium 61, and I actually enjoy using this more due to those hammer-action keys. At first, I was reluctant to upgrade my MIDI controller because its keys just felt so right to me. Now I don’t see myself using a cheaper device again. Actually being able to feel the weight of the keys helps when I’m trying to add a certain effect or certain level of expression in my songs. This is something that is hard to create in mixing software without having to manipulate the settings and filters.

Now that I was feeling more comfortable with my new MIDI setup, I decided to test things out at a mug night for the upperclassmen at school. They apparently needed someone to replace this local band that was supposed to play for their event. One of my buddies was running this mug night and knew I liked DJing and throwing in a few of my own custom mixes, so he asked if I wanted to fill in that empty spot.

The night went on without any problems. Sure, it’s a different ballgame going from using this BEHRINGER Audio Interface controller to program notes to playing bits and pieces live, but I felt I knew what I was doing. Well I hope so. Most people wouldn’t have noticed anyway given the type of event I was playing for. Regardless, I was really feeling my songs – beat by beat, track by track. Having those extra keys on the Oxygen 88 really helped me out with my live playing. It was so much easier being able to assign instruments all across the board, especially since I was experimenting with more layers in my songs.

Everyone at that mug night event seemed happy and I was happy with how the Oxygen 88 helped me win the crowd over. I doubt I would’ve been able to pull this off if I was using a shorter keyboard. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying the Radium 61 is a bad MIDI controller, as it was my pride and joy for years. It’s just that with the layering and complexity of my songs now compared to in the past, the Oxygen 88 is the right BEHRINGER Audio Interface controller for my needs.

  The post Best Desktop Audio Interface appeared first on Best Portable Reviews.

from Best Portable Reviews https://bestportablereview.com/best-desktop-audio-interface/

[s0021069a2film-blog]

Post, S. Evaluation

Introduction

At the very start of my A2 portfolio I set out to analyse the works of Martin Scorsese and create a short film totaling no more than 5 minutes. My short has been heavily influenced by what I have learnt about film making from my chosen director. My creative investigation considered ‘the extent which religion and culture influence Scorsese film making’. To investigate this hypothesis further I have explored similar concepts and used similar techniques which reoccur throughout Scorsese’s filmography.

In order to create a film which proves my hypothesis I used the macro concepts genre, narrative and representation in a similar ways to Scorsese in order to render how these influences (religion and culture) greatly define his film making.  I have segregated my evaluation into those three macro concepts and I will also present how my use of micro features help to convey these ideas about Scorsese. I will use both examples from my film and from Scorsese’s films to show visually and contextually how prominent the influences are.

Genre

Scorsese’s filmography is not exclusive to the crime film sub-genre. However, without a doubt, they are the films he’s most famous for. His style is distinguished best when he works within this genre. Scorsese works so naturally with these conventions because his cultural identity has given him a real insight to the life which many crime films are based. I chose three crime films from Scorsese’s career which I thought would prove my hypothesis best which are, Mean Streets (1973), Good Fellas (1990) and The Departed (2006). Naturally then ‘The Second Death’, as is heavily inspired by these films, would also be of this genre.

In the many years Scorsese has been making Crime films he’s always combines mainstream entertainment with his artistic talent. The audience’s set of expectations based on other crime films will be satisfied but as will the expectations who look out for profound film making. In fact much of the iconography we assume to appear in crime films was established by Scorsese.

Scorsese us known to reuse cast members, the effect of reoccurring cast does mean we tend to associate roles with certain actors from established genres. Robert De Niro, prehaps one of the most recognisable crime film actors, is constantly used throughout Scorsese’s career. Therefore we naturally associate De Niro with Scorsese. This could be an infringement of Martins authorship but I do not consider this to be the case. Martin and De Niro have a great working relationship and the extent of his ability to direct De Niro is apparent most when comparing Bobs roles in ‘Goodfellas’ to another of Scorsese’s films like ‘The king of Comedy’. The variance in genre shows how Scorsese doesn’t cast De Niro because he’s a crime film actor but because he’s able to mold Robert into any character he wants.  Its not what the audience expect from the genre when he cast De Niro it’s  what the audience expect from Scorsese. I beleive this career long relationship has been so successful because he

Visually my film can instantly be associated with crime genre. However I have combined my own personal take on the genre with Scorsese’s gritty realism.

Representation

Scorsese believes films are a reflection of those who make them and Scorsese had come from a background surrounded by crime, his ‘culture’ is the Italian American mob culture. Therefore, in order to capture the true essence of the Scorsese style of film making I had to place myself in the world which Scorsese grew up in. Of course physically this would be difficult but by analysing his films, as they are such authentic representations, I could gain a good understanding about this microcosm of American culture.

Narrative

In the making of my own film I ensured Italian American culture and religion were the two most prominent themes threaded into the narrative, however, similar to Scorsese they do not play a huge role in shaping the narrative. Rather, they offer an underlying message which can be drawn upon after reflecting on the film.

If we consider Vogler’s hero narrative and apply it to my short, Hale’s ordinary world is a life of petty crime and cocaine addiction, he is not a killer. When Bill orders Hale to perform a murder he is challenged to break down his moral code and so his quest begins. Hale finds his challenge and his help from Bill, who gives him cocaine to feed his addiction and lure him into finding the confidence to do the job. This throws Hale into a new world, his previous rules about right and wrong no longer apply. The greatest ordeal is the murder itself, Hales heavy breathing before pulling the trigger implies that he almost fails however, the gun still fires. The resolution is not shown be we can assume Hale now goes back to his ordinary world petty crime and coke addiction, but is now a killer.  As shown at no point is religion or culture used to structure the narrative.

Its use will be explained further but first I’d like to consider Vogler again in order to show how both my narrative and Scorsese’s don’t directly use religion and culture as a plot point. Apply the same narrative theory to Scorsese’s ‘Mean Streets’.  Charlie’s ordinary world is one of petty crime and looking after his best friend Johnny boy. His challenge came from within himself to try and better his life and resolve his loneliness. The one he meets is Teresa, his romantic partner, she is the resolution to his loneliness and allows him to strive for his goals of owning his Uncle’s restaurant. With this new found motivation his new world is faced with a new problem Johnny boy is stuck in his old ways of gambling and crime and Charlie still feels compelled to help him. The greatest ordeal is when Johnny boy pushes a local gangster too far and Charlie feels he must help him instead of getting away with Teresa. Charlie almost fails his goal to better himself but when Johnny boy is shot dead he is no longer tasked with the burden of looking after him. A great consequence was paid but now Charlie is free to get back to his ordinary world but now with Teresa by his side. From this interpretation there is no direct connection to culture or religion. However, both of these details fail to indulge the reasons why our characters feel the way they do, what gives them their character arc? Why is Hale so hesitant to kill and why is Charlie so compelled to help Johnny boy? The answer to both these questions is their faith. Charlie is a guilty character and guilt is something a catholic will take into death and Hale knows murder is the greatest sin and holding on to this belief is what makes him so apprehensive.

Religion, although not fully integrated into Scorsese’s culture, is something very personal to him. He explores his own Catholicism in his film, however because these things are personal he often does this subtlety. Of course, his more obvious films surrounding this theme would make suitable arguments to convey my hypnosis. ‘The Last temptation of Christ’ (1988) and his most recent film ‘Silence’ (2016) are quoted, by Scorsese, to have helped him ‘feel closer’ to his faith. However, I found through my analysis even when his narratives are not so clearly centered around Catholicism, they still have much more subtle religious symbolism and interior meaning. This shows to what extent Scorsese is influenced by religion and is the reason I didn’t shape my whole narrative around it.

Scorsese & The Second Death