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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5439494" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 219: July 1995part 8/8Bonus CD: They've been doing CD's with their products for the past couple of years. It's been one of the more irritating and gimmicky parts of their output, and hasn't aged very well at all. Now, as with a lot of digital media, most of the costs are in producing and distributing the content, the costs of duplicating each CD are pretty small, especially when you have a run in the tens of thousands. So making this bonus feature isn't that great a technical feat anymore, although it would mean their packers had to work overtime this month. Which means this is mainly excerpts, with commentary by Tim Beach, Andria Hayday, Colin McComb, and the other writers of said products. I haven't listened to this in years, and I'm immediately reminded how bad the acting is, and how general MIDI a lot of the instruments sound. D&D really does work better in your imagination than put on the screen in front of you, because the budget needed to smooth out the rough edges is just too great. It also shows up just how much processing the sample tracks received compared to the commentary. The commentary sounds noticeably muffled and bassy by comparison, especially on track 1. I suspect much of this nitpickiness is precisely because I am a trained musician, but it does still make me feel like this stuff is not worth using, because I do know the mechanics of how it's done, and could replicate it if I wanted too. The fact that it also forces them to write adventures with quite linear design is another strike against it as a fashion. So it looks like distance has not removed my annoyance at this fad at all, and if anything has made it look worse. What a waste of money and time. Another issue where the good articles are very very good, but there are also bits that are horrid too. The bonus CD feels like a dreadfully forced bit of promotion, and  the initial articles are mostly pretty dull. Still, it does look like some changes are coming soon. Unfortunately, I seem to remember them being mostly bad ones, at least in the near future. Still, at least that means I'll have something new to say. 10 years in which the magazine hardly changed at all is a pretty long time really. All things must pass. Roll on the new era.</blockquote>

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