To Opinion or Not to Opinion

[AquaSky]

By that same logic, you couldn't make any cuts/effects/speed changes to the anime either. That reasoning just doesn't hold up. And there are many cases where the song is simply too long to support a certain concept. It is far better to have a good video that is concise as opposed to one that become repetitive or suffers due to the addition of filler material in order to match the length of the original song.

[Scintilla]

But the point still stands that easy knowledge makes for little wisdom.

The only time I change a song is to take out the beginning blank feed that buffers between two songs on an album. My credits or a completely blank pause can serve that purpose.

That aside I just think changing the original vision of the artist is disrespectful. I have seen way too many horrid speed changes, splices, and normalization til the song soulds like speaker is under water.

Not to mention the use of 4 to 24 band equalizers on the sound. That was good in the days of records and early cassettes, but now I just don't know. CDs get processed by a room full of equipment with 200+ band equalizers by a professional. I think that is plenty.

But even with all that, the band version of "My Immortal" has such weak higher frequencies that it sounds like it went through a round of MP3 compression, even straight off the CD. I think I bumped everything above 11kHz or so up 200-300% (with an FFT filter).

Plus, the song had a fairly wide dynamic range, which is just peachy for listening to by yourself in order to get the full impact of the music... but I believe most casual AMV viewers don't want to have to adjust their volume in order to be able to hear the beginning and then turn it back down again when the bridge hits.

I know this is just one example. However, considering how recently the song was released, I'm sure such issues must also be present in some other professional recordings as well. And in such cases, why <i>shouldn't</i> we take corrective measures?

Though I certainly agree that badly done splices are <i>not</i> a nice thing to hear; I heard some just the other day, and they were so obvious (esp. considering I knew the song) as to be distracting from the video. But I don't see anything wrong with well done cuts.

[Beowulf]

Plus, the song had a fairly wide dynamic range, which is just peachy for listening to by yourself in order to get the full impact of the music... but I believe most casual AMV viewers don't want to have to adjust their volume in order to be able to hear the beginning and then turn it back down again when the bridge hits.

Thats a ridiculously low expectation of your audience. To me, those people aren't worth accomidating and if they complain, fuck them. I don't think I'm the only one who really appreciates good audio compression and enjoys the wide dynamic range of music, as appoased to the homoginization of normalization (hey that rhymes).

[HeavyMetal]

Sorry, but I still see sound degradation as an insult. I try to honor the meaning of the original artists. I think shorting the song is just lazy.

By that same logic, you couldn't make any cuts/effects/speed changes to the anime either.

Not quite IcyCloud. When you splice the anime it is kept at a good quality. Plus the meaning(s) of the show is not necessarily lost. I can't stand it when people do videos to songs that don't match the song.

Enter Sandman by Metallica + Tokyo Mew Mew = WTF
Enter Sandman + EVA = 'bout right

Linkin Park + DBZ = Love songs to fights?? sound is close but not meaning
Linkin Park + Sailormoon = strangely more sense

As for filler, just don’t be lazy. A short joke can have editing, but cutting Knockin' on Heaven's Door or other songs packed with meaning changes the nature of the song itself. Its suppose to be long. If your not creative enough to meet the challenge you should keep trying. Or take a break and work on a different simpler video.


Scintilla, I would take corrective measures for cassettes and problems with encoding a song with a really really big range, but killing the audio defeats even the best of vids, it takes away all the emotional impact to save a few megs.

I don't mind cuts for short jokes, but serious music should get some serious respect. Besides I can usually spot a cut, even a pretty good one even if I have not heard the song before. Of course I can identify a band I known by a song I have never heard before just by the guitarist style long before the lyrics come in.

I think I agree with Beowulf on this one. To paraphrase: art is for the artist the audience be damned. (with respect to other artists of course)

Wow, this thread is getting some pretty good discussion.