[S4E11] Glass of Water

Smilley · January 26, 2014, 01:39:52 AM

Whoa! I think I'll keep it free notes only, like "Let's go and meet the Bronies". Maybe I'll change my mind when I'm doing the tapping - or maybe someone else volunteers -, but I don't think there's enough pitchable lines to go around.

Renard · January 26, 2014, 07:08:03 PM

This... this will be interesting.

I think I'd make the file start a bit earlier than what this youtube clip shows. This one starts a bit soon.

PsychicWalnut · January 27, 2014, 06:17:59 AM

Well... I guess I'll be the one to decide when it starts... right? ;D

I'll make sure it has a solid start... Once I get the source audio, that is. Gotta check for musical lead-ins and such.

PsychicWalnut · January 27, 2014, 12:14:28 PM

Audio is done.
As usual, 3 versions. Full, Instrumental, and Pitch Reference.

Grab it from my sta.sh

I decided to have the instrumental version be a 'Sing as Discord', so you don't go crazy trying to interrupt yourself as you transition from Twilight speaking to Discord singing.

Renard · January 27, 2014, 06:20:07 PM

Video! (also on Owncloud)

Smilley · January 28, 2014, 03:43:29 AM

Done, for now. I tried to pitch the first few lines, but ultimately decided against it. If anyone wants to try, I left my attempts behind the faded notes. Other than that, all this needs is some background/cover art and we're set. Uploaded it on OwnCloud, as well.
EDIT: Upload takes a few minutes, still.
EDIT 2: Appearantly, the link gave a 404 error. Should be fixed now.

PsychicWalnut · January 28, 2014, 04:38:34 AM

I'm just curious...

Do you use the pitching track I provide?

(Just wondering because I didn't notice any downloads on it yet.)
(But maybe it doesn't show if someone downloads the whole set at once... DeviantArt can be strange at times.)

Diponi · January 28, 2014, 05:02:21 AM

Huh, already two de Lancie songs and not a single actual note in them. :D

Although it sounds plenty pitchable to me, I think the song wouldn't then be nearly as much fun and chaos to sing. Well, haven't tried to sing along that pitching attempt yet, but I'm guessing it'd be too hard to be pleasant.

Quote from: PsychicWalnut on January 28, 2014, 04:38:34 AM(But maybe it doesn't show if someone downloads the whole set at once... DeviantArt can be strange at times.)

I downloaded the zip about as soon as you posted it, looks like it just doesn't show.

Smilley · January 28, 2014, 11:40:54 AM

Quote from: PsychicWalnut on January 28, 2014, 04:38:34 AM
I'm just curious...

Do you use the pitching track I provide?

(Just wondering because I didn't notice any downloads on it yet.)
(But maybe it doesn't show if someone downloads the whole set at once... DeviantArt can be strange at times.)

I did download the zip, so it definitely doesn't show up that way. I will use the pitch reference occasionally, like with "Time to come together", where the background chorus kinda drowns out the main singers near the end, but the original track is enough most of the time.

@Diponi: Creating these tracks also makes you realize when not to do it. De Lancie practices something called "Sprechgesang" in German, the closest approximate translation being speech-singing. It's on the frustrating fence between melodious singing and a freeform speech pattern that makes it a nightmare to pitch and unrewarding to play.
And believe me, I've seen people try to pitch rap songs. It wasn't pretty.

EDIT: BTW, I have to agree with Daniel Ingram: the musical score is great, but gets overshadowed by the vocal track. Check the instrumental version.

yayponies-eu · January 28, 2014, 05:04:55 PM

Audio is bad, it has probably been done from the original iTunes 5.1 track ...

Renard · January 28, 2014, 06:18:59 PM

They had a broken release?

yayponies-eu · January 28, 2014, 08:40:44 PM

As always, you can hear that there is distortion on one of the 5.1 channel on the sound effect.

PsychicWalnut · January 29, 2014, 09:41:01 AM

:o OK, fine... I'll do the audio over again.

I'll even be nice and sync it with the existing version, so we won't have to change the video. ;D

>:( -- update -- >:(
Uh... I don't see what is so 'Fixed' with the fixed version.
As far as I can tell, they just mixed the center channel with the existing left and right channels.

So... is it just the full version of our files that has the problem?
(I'm pretty sure the sound effects and vocal echo are gone from the instrumental version)

yayponies-eu · January 29, 2014, 12:24:24 PM

I had only tested the voiced version, Instrumental look ok, but not the full version.

About fix, well that how it air on TV, audio from itunes having problem ...

Renard · January 29, 2014, 08:47:16 PM

Chatted a bit with YP on IRC; iirc, only the full version is impacted by that slight distortion issue, the instrumental track is fine as it doesn't use the problematic channel. To be honest, I don't hear anything wrong with what you provided Psychic, but I currently do not have access to quality audio hardware (best I have is a $15 headphone now, useless when it comes to studio-like monitoring).

Their "Fixed" release mixes video from iTunes and audio from TV. Here are more details regarding this issue.

PsychicWalnut · January 30, 2014, 02:47:57 AM

Well, I by no means have any high-end audio equipment.
Best I got is a $100 sound card and $60 headphones.
But... most of my work is just looking at the waveforms.

So...
Should I hold off on remaking the full version? (and hope for a better iTunes version)

N-TG · January 30, 2014, 09:27:59 AM

I see that Yayponies offers a fixed 5.1 version of the episode. You can try making the song from that audio or it's not good enough?

PsychicWalnut · January 30, 2014, 09:44:42 AM

It's sorta fixed.

For some odd reason, the center channel is cross-faded into the front left and right, the left and right are cross-faded into the center channel, and the rear left and right seem to be the original front left and right.

At least that's what it seems like to me. I might still be imagining the audio quality issues, but maybe the just got muffled a bit in this transition.

I can remake it with that audio if that's what we want. It's not a big deal to me.

Renard · January 30, 2014, 02:11:53 PM

I'd appreciate if you could give it a go. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Considering they barely fixed the encoding when it impacted the video stream on iTunes (gosh, even a MLP DVD I have is so badly authored the screen flashes full-screen red frames at time), I doubt we'll get any other audio update.

PsychicWalnut · January 30, 2014, 02:50:02 PM

Oh, it's no trouble Renard. :)

I keep the edit files of just about everything I work on. ;D
It's a simple matter to sync up another stream and cut in what is needed.

Here is the new version

(By the way... I think my owncloud access got nuked when you cleaned house a while back.)