About
Pieter "pu_freak" van Os
Director
And there it is, the final entry to the BadAss trilogy. After being assistant director of the first two volumes, I was now taking the helm as project director with Alex (Chernabogue) as my trusted assistant. Since I became the assistant director for BadAss 1 (after already being a ReMixer when it was still called Crescendo to Chaos under a different management), I never stopped working for BadAss. The preparations for volume 2 started just before the first volume was released, and this volume was also being worked on before the release of BadAss 2. In other words, I've been busy with directing BadAss since May 2009 (and involved as a ReMixer since May 2006); it's been a part of my life for quite some time. Of course, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't enjoy it as much as I did!
This time around, I wanted to change the genre and feel of the album a bit while still keeping it in line with expectations for a boss themes album, just like David (David L. Puga, director of BadAss Volume 1 and 2) did with volume 2. As I described it in the project thread at the OverClocked ReMix project forum: ""Instead of gritty and mean as with BA2, Volume 3 will be more adrenaline-pumping, epic and twisted. People should feel dark and evil when listening to this album. This could be done with epic and bombastic songs, but also with really creepy or twisted songs. This means more orchestral influences (such as low choirs or strings) or more dissonance/eerie arrangements"". And man, did the artists deliver!
I really had the most fun doing this volume, of all three volumes. Not just because - since I was director now - I could have a genre and feel to the album a bit more to my own personal interests, but because all of the artists involved were willing to work really hard to get the most out of themselves. There was a lot of activity on our private project forums from a lot of people. Not only did artists give feedback on their colleagues' work, but also were they very willing to make the changes we suggested. And those were a lot - we've been REALLY nitpicking to force artists to make the absolute best version of their mixes, much more than in the previous volumes. I know some artists have spent more than 150 hours on their tracks, with more than 13 different versions because a choir wasn't timed exactly right or the drums could use a bit more of a boost. I therefore really want to thank all of the contributing artists: there practically wasn't any drama and everybody worked their asses off to reach the deadlines and get their mixes to an excellent level of quality. I've set a deadline at the very start of the project and it's been delayed by only two weeks - which I think is very unique for a multi-disc album. I also want to thank Eino (evtkalo) for his feedback, especially at the start of the project. I also want to thank timaeus, who wasn't part of the staff originally, but gave so much feedback - especially on the production side - on every track that he was acting like a staff member before he was officially part of the staff. It probably goes without saying that I couldn't have doing this without the help of Alex (Chernabogue) for his feedback and his awesome work on the trailer.
And with that I say goodbye to the BadAss trilogy and leave you all to enjoy this great album! Who knows, perhaps one day someone else will step up to start a new BadAss trilogy. But untill that day, you still have this epic volume to awaken your evil self! Enjoy!
Alexandre ""Chernabogue"" Mourey
Assistant director
I participated to the two first volumes of BadAss (one track on volume I, and the trailer for volume II), so I knew I had to do something for BA3. Pieter contacted me at the end of BA2 to help him finish the trilogy, and it was a true honor to co-direct another OCR album, with such a great team of remixers and staff members. This album also contains three new tracks from me, the biggest number I've done for any album yet! Thanks a lot to Pieter (pu_freak), Eino (evktalo), and Tim (timaeus222), plus to all the artists that participated. We are BadAss!
Truong-Son ""timaeus222"" Nguyen
Mastering and production feedback assistant
When it came time for BadAss 3 to roll around, knowing it was going to be the last volume, I realized I had to really help it go out with a bang. Since it was the last volume, to me, it had to be as perfect as it can be. Seeing as how the theme was to be accomplished with epic, bombastic, creepy, or twisted atmospheres, I figured the production should also be pretty aggressive (usually), and that�s where I come in. I was the mastering engineer for this album, first and foremost, but I was also willing to do the mixing for some people as well, so thank you to the people who were patient with me while I worked to mix their tracks both in the way that I would objectively be happy with and in the way that they had preferably envisioned in the end.
In my humble opinion, I think that, out of all three volumes, Vol. 3 has some of the most talented and imaginative artists working together and making so many tracks that clicked nicely. I truly believe that the best of these artists' abilities was brought out during the refinement process. Even with the aggressive (or just full-sounding) final production, generally speaking for most of these tracks, I think the dynamics are still there to augment the creative, evocative, and/or immersive nature of these arrangements. It was a blast working closely on this with pu_freak and Chernabogue, and I hope to do something like this again in the future!
...Are you feeling BadAss? Will you strut like you mean it? ARE... YOU... READY?! *spazzes out*
