As far as recent releases go, I recently purchased Distant Worlds III, the latest in a series of orchestrated Final Fantasy albums, conducted by Arnie Roth. Like all of the other releases, this one contains a handful of tracks that I find lacking in dynamic range, versus how I feel each track should sound, but equalization and overall sound is brilliant on this release and the track selection was more exciting compared to all but the live recorded Distant Worlds Returning Home, which also included a couple of unexpected surprises.
Overall, I'm pretty impressed by it, and I listen to it at least once a week, about two months after purchasing it.
Waiting for May 4, to receive my pre-ordered copy of Special Effects by Tech N9ne, as well, and may report back on that after I've given it a couple of listens.
Oh man... I'd kill to see the Distant Worlds tour. I have I and II and I listen to them all the time. Fabulous recordings of some of my favorite OSTs. I'd love to be able to hear "Dancing Mad" and "Fisherman's Horizon" live just once. Would also pay to hear Sagisu Shirou's Evangelion tracks live.
Just wanted to say, I've just gotten my DW3 album and I'm about to listen to it, very excited. I just finished playing Final Fantasy X for the first time and it was such a beautiful game with a score to match. In the past year, I've played 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10 (dropped 9, didn't like it much) for the first times and it was has been a holy experience in story telling and wonderful music.
I'd urge you to check out "Final Symphony" which was released this year as well. It has some very fantastic arrangements of songs from VI, VII, and X.
Also, I completely agree that I would pay to see Distant Worlds as well as Evangelion live. I like your taste.
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In other news, I received my Xiaomi Piston 3's. I think they are some of the best sounding IEMs I've heard, especially for the price. I'm very happy and will probably continue ordering more when they inevitably break. On another note, my Sony MDR-Z1000s are still broken from last year. I'm just a bit too lazy to figure out how to solder on a new plug... lol.
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I hope everyone is doing well. I read Coq's post and it was very scary, I hope things are okay. Life and death and mental health are such misunderstood and sensitive topics. I am also struggling with some issues on emotions. I am not sure if it's a real diagnosis of mental disorder or not, but I understand how hard it can be to keep your mind in control. Right now, my roommates think I am mad at them, but it's just because I haven't been very talkative, because I don't like the person that I became over this last year and have retreated to myself. I guess I'll solve that problem soon... I definitely have had suicidal thoughts a few times in the past year. I always try to check myself, and stop them when they happen because they're so scary and bad, but it's difficult sometimes. In that sense, I can see where Coq comes from.
I'm glad this thread is still around. I believe I first started going on it when I was around 18 in high school. It's been almost 4 years.