[S3E01] The Ballad of the Crystal Empire

Smilley · August 01, 2012, 09:31:00 AM

Dibs! ;D
Got the MP3 and video from here. If someone has a better one, let me know.

Renard · August 01, 2012, 11:10:05 AM

The best you can get is from PixelatedGeek, who released the original leak. Any other sources will be a re-uploaded (lossy re-encoded) Youtube video.
http://pixelatedgeek.com/2012/07/my-little-pony-season-3-teaser/
I tried to contact them a while ago to get the original files (the youtube quality is awful, even in 1080p), but did not get any answer.

It's not that great either way; we're far from what we currently have for the other seasons regarding quality. That's also the reason why I deliberately picked a camcorded video for the other S3 song so far - people will never confuse that with the end product, since the lack of quality is really obvious on this one.

Smilley · August 01, 2012, 03:29:12 PM

Changing the video is a question of adjusting the videogap, so no big problem there, anyway. And yeah, the good quality stuff will roll around as soon as the episodes release. Until then, we'll make due with what we have. And if people complain, they can just [your choice of explicits here]. :D

Smilley · August 03, 2012, 01:31:44 PM

Sorry for the doublepost, but I didn't want this to go unnoticed.
So, here's the first draft. ~~I'll take the link down as soon as I have Dropbox access.~~
LQ video and my stock cover pic, for the time being.
EDIT: Removed the link.

Renard · August 03, 2012, 05:00:05 PM

Added to the dropbox. Thanks!

Renard · August 05, 2012, 02:47:37 PM

Tried it. Looks good overall!

Two things
- I feel that the last word ("Histo-o-ry") could just be simplified to Histo-ry.
- Audio (MP3) needs to be normalized to the volume S1 and S2 uses. I'd rather wait for that S3 episode to air before doing that (we will have a higher quality audio source then)

Smilley · August 06, 2012, 05:50:58 AM

The change in pitch comes during the -o-, and it feels more accurate this way. Then again, I like to fuss about such details.
As for the volume, go ahead. Sadly, I couldn't edit audio and video to save my life.

Renard · August 06, 2012, 12:04:29 PM

Normalized the song's volume.

Smilley · September 04, 2012, 02:50:06 PM

Did a few tweaks.

Renard · October 12, 2012, 09:10:57 AM

We now know that this is an Episode 1 song (S3E1).

LoneBlackhoves · October 17, 2012, 10:21:22 AM

Hey I was able to get a better version of the music so if you would like I can send it in, however there are spots were the timing is a bit off

Smilley · October 17, 2012, 03:45:17 PM

I think at this point it's easier if we just wait for the episode to air for HQ audio and video, and get it done in one go.

Renard · October 17, 2012, 04:17:03 PM

Indeed. There's no such thing, really, as a "better quality version" than the source Youtube rip - because that's the only sample we have so far (that official "leak"). The only way to get a better quality version would be to get the video file before they uploaded it to Youtube, and then again it won't be much of a change.

The file you have has probably been modified with an external editor. A lot of people tend to like doing this, and only increase the LFE - destroying, in effect, the original author's work. This may (or may not) be the case with your file.

Once S3E1 is aired, we'll have everything we need: (semi)lossless audio sources allowing to extract both HQ 2.0 and HQ 5.1 tracks. Till then, we have to wait; updating the current file will only lead to end users confusion.

Moonsparkle · November 12, 2012, 12:15:40 AM

I've an instrumental version...
Is it good? It's ok when not...
http://brony.at/MLP-CFSI
I use Adfly cause... :(

Renard · November 12, 2012, 07:29:32 PM

Regarding assets: as usual, we'll wait for the semi-source files, using the 720p CC video stream, and sampling both the vocal and instrumental tracks from the surround channels.

Smilley · November 12, 2012, 11:28:42 PM

I've seen 720p vids for both S3E1 songs on Youtube, and Failure Success with the reprise edited in. No download links yet, though.
Here are the links, in case we want to use them in the long run.
Crystal Fair
Failure Success

Renard · November 13, 2012, 11:36:11 PM

Aaaand it's up on YayPonies. A release group is currently working on a higher quality 720p release (I've seen the work in progress - gradients are a LOT better in their version than what's released officially), which is what we'll eventually use.
I've also met a guy on IRC who's working on the audio part, processing the surround channels in order to isolate the instrumental version too. Have to get back in touch with him.

What's important to note, too, is that the ending credits now feature a whole new screen filled with the details for the music tracks. This gives not only the actual title of the song, as intended by its creators, but also the (supposedly) full credits for each vocal track. For instance, the "Crystal Fair" song's title is actually The Ballad of the Crystal Empire (Ingram preferred Ballad of the Crystal Ponies, but this isn't its final title) and its lyrics were written by Meghan McCarthy.

Renard · November 14, 2012, 09:03:09 PM

Just a quick note:
- the high quality "standard" and instrumental tracks have been extracted and are available
- the color-corrected 720p version of E1/E2 is out

It's looking great, but there's isn't much I can do from a phone on a 2G connexion right now. Be assured that I'll resume working on this project asap! :)

Moonsparkle · November 19, 2012, 09:55:32 PM

Only if you don't know...^^
These videos are HD and without watermark:
I Wasn't Prepared for This and the Success Song
Ballad of the Crystal Ponies
Dowload links are in the description, but... why do we need download links in the description?^^

Renard · November 20, 2012, 10:38:25 PM

Thanks for the proposal, but - don't worry too much about the official videos! ;)
Those are easy to get and mostly a matter of waiting a bit for a super super quality (far better than what Youtube offers regarding original bitrate, and easier to work with). It's way harder to find decent-looking original videos for the community songs, though.

The first thing we need to make a song is the song itself - even a low quality file - to start working on the TXT file. Everything goes from there: replacing a low quality MP3 with a higher quality one is only a matter of adjusting the starting gap afterwards, for instance. The background video comes usually last, since it has to be cut to fit the audio track and not the other way around, especially if the audio's been modified to be more fitting to the project (ie. "Art of the Dress" was cut in the middle, implying I had to adjust the video according to this too).

The reason I didn't provide these assets so far is that I still don't have a decent Internet connexion. Working with a tethered phone is close to impossible when you have to handle hidef video files - and even though, editing them on a netbook is a silly task (I did it for "Picture Perfect Pony" while at EverfreeNW but, ugh, it wasn't convenient at all). I should be able to work on the assets again in a bit less than two weeks, and be able to sort things out by then; till that, don't worry too much about this part ;)