Hi all! DarkJedi2 from irc.rizon.net here... I made the first Lilium extended edition mix as a result of the lack of an Elfen Lied OP single by the end of the show. In the final episode (13) they played a much longer version of Lilium in the background of the anime. When I heard this, I knew I would make a mix for myself to create something similar to a full version. I sent my mix to a few people on IRC and they loved it! As time passed, I created more of these mixes. Of course, everyone (including myself) expected to see a full version of the opening sooner or later so the original plan was to stop making these mixes when the single came out, only, that that never happened. So I just continued making my mixes of Lilium using portions from the anime. I was the first to start making these Lilium "full version" mixes, and I've heard every so-called full version, and every mix available on the net, and my conclusion still stands, my mixes are by far the best made, and to this date, is considered the most complete versions of Lilium available. In doubt? Listen to my mix and draw your own conclusion. I came pretty far during this time, and my mix is as close to being the full version as I want it to be, I therefore decided to do one final release, and then close the book on my remixes... and this is the result: Lilium ~Extended DarkJedi Edition - Final Mix~. I in no way claim this is the full, or official version... but when we only have the TV-Size opening, this is the next best thing available. I thought as this is the final mix, I would include the history of the mixes to the best of my recollection: V1: My initial mix, which was basically the TV-Size OP (ripped from TV) and the musical portion from episode 13 (ripped from TV), and the mix was basically just arranged as TV-OP -> Middle -> 2nd half of TV-OP... Very simple. V2: The second mix was basically just a remixed version of V1, if memory serves, it was basically done to fix an EQ problem between the middle portion and the TV OP portion. I don't think I sent this version to many people. V3: Switched over to using a lossless copy of the TV-Size OP from the soundtrack CD. I think it was at this point that I also switched to using the real ending of Lilium from episode 13 which included some speaking at the end, but since I liked it, I left it in. V4: Soon after the release of the "Note 1" DVD from Elfen Lied, there was a rumour that the full version of Lilium was included as the DVD menu music. Believing the rumour I was just about bouncing around with joy and quickly helped spread the word (yes, I f* up)... to my disappointment, it was not the full version, but a kind of mix between the male and female version. It did however give me a good idea of what the full version is supposed to sound like, and also provided me with some more Lilium footage to work with. And so, I did V4 using a crappy rip of the DVD menu music released by a group who claimed it was the full version. This was the first version to use the "musicbox" ending for my mixes. V5: It is at this point in time that I noticed that Lilium clips a lot if you listen to it on good speakers. I thought it was just the crappy MP3 I had of the menu music, but, after listening to all of the copies of Lilium I had access to, I noticed they all clipped in the same places. I therefore think that Lilium was probably recorded on a damaged DAT tape - which might also explain why they never released it as a single. So, for V5, I extracted the audio from the "Note 1" DVD and made a mix which sounded a lot better than V4. Other than that, it was pretty much identical. V6: Ah, the version that was never completed :). I started making a 6th mix based on some additional Lilium footage I discovered by accident on the DVD I had. But, at some point in time I decided not to release another mix till episode 13 came out on DVD, at which point, I could switch to purely using DVD audio sources. V7: Finally did the switch to using only the real AC3 DVD audio. This release was probably the most complex to do, not only did it consume a lot of space, but also just compositing everything and deciding how much of each channel to use made it all more complicated. Surprisingly, I was so used to doing these mixes by this time that doing V7 only ended up taking 4 days part-time where normally it would take at least twice as long when working full-time on the mix. V7 was, without a doubt, a superior mix compared to the rest, and although not perfect, it was close enough to release it. Final Mix: The release you're probably listening to right now... This release is basically a tweaked version of V7. What did I change? Basically, I readded the bells at the beginning (as a request from someone), I also changed the volume levels and tweaked the sound a bit to make it nicer to listen to, I also remixed one part of the song which didn't sound as good as I wanted it to, and finally, I tried to remove as many of the clips from the song as possible - of course I am only human, and I can only fix it to the best of my abilities. And that, ladies and gents, is the end of the story :). If you're still reading this, I'm damn surprised - but congrats... if you skipped over the history... well... what can I do about it. I myself was never one for history lessons but thought someone might find reading it kind of interesting. Well, there you have it, I hope I won't have to do another Lilium mix again, but of course I can't say it's impossible, I do think, however, that this version is good enough to be called the final mix. Now all we can really do is hope and pray that eventually the true full version will be released in some form or another. Feel free to chat to me on IRC if you run into me, I'm usually on the rizon server in the #elfenlied and #nipponsei channels whenever I'm on IRC. Well, take care people. - DarkJedi