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Sonic 2 - Mystic Cave Zone [Glitch Hop]


Feyhd
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This is not a genre I've heard much of, but I thought I'd give it a listen since I seem to be on a Sonic kick today.

I was a little worried about the simplicity of the opening at first, but by around minute 2 or 3 the remix was really growing on me. The synergy between the rhythms in the rhythm section and the rhythms in the non-rhythm sections make we want to move. It's like, infectious... you can't help but want to dance to this!

The only thing I feel confident in nitpicking are the gulping-for-air sfx from 3:51 - 4:05. They lag behind the beat a little bit until they really get up to speed at 4:05. I'd mess around with these... see if you can chop them up in way such that the slower, lower-pitched version of the sound has the same exact time between the bending-down hit and the bending-up hit as the sped-up version which locks in with your tempo more precisely.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but this was a fun listen. =)

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Loving this remix! The drums are sounding really punchy and fat.

My only suggestions would be maybe have some cymbal crashes on each new segment such as at 0:40 and 2:22 to mark the drop and some sounds like swell fx or woosh noises prior to each transition - they wouldn't have to be very loud, just subtle extra sparkle for the song.

Overall great work so far, looking forward to hearing the final tune.

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I like it! I've always been a fan of the Mystic Cave Zone theme. Here I think you've picked a musical direction for it that very effectively compliments the way the original song was composed.

I'm not familiar with glitch hop as a genre, but the main change I found myself wanting was just more activity in the song. All the pieces work together so well that I'd like to hear more sound coming from it at once, if that makes sense. :-P

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I like it! I've always been a fan of the Mystic Cave Zone theme. Here I think you've picked a musical direction for it that very effectively compliments the way the original song was composed.

I'm not familiar with glitch hop as a genre, but the main change I found myself wanting was just more activity in the song. All the pieces work together so well that I'd like to hear more sound coming from it at once, if that makes sense. :-P

I'd have to second that. Your mix is at the awkward stage where it's hard to give feedback - clearly you know what your going for and how to get there, it just needs a bit more. Seems like you were holding back a bit, keeping a tad of reservation to spare the peoples. But when I see a genre called Glitch Hop I expect it to be overboard in a sense. For instance, making the sound fx you used a bit more interesting with effects and whatnot. But take that with a grain of salt because I couldn't quote you one actual Glitch Hop song to compare to so I might have no idea what I'm talking about, just going by the gut.

But I will say a few specific things. The initial lead gets old for me fast. It sounds perfect in my opinion as a supporting sound, just the way it's used around the 2:20 mark. That's clearly the highlight of your song to me. The second lead you bring in with all the pitch bends seems a lot more suited for the forefront (maybe fatten it up though?).

The reggaeton-ish part was cute. Usually I'd kill someone for using that horn, but it worked for me on a humor/fun level so I didn't mind it that much here.

In the end I like what you've got. I always prefer to hear electronic genre's that push the envelope a bit, I just think you need a bit more.

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There definitely seems to be a consensus there. But I'm not sure exactly where that "more" is gonna come from either. Gonna do a few random takes and see what happens. Appreciate the feedback!

You do that. Sometimes it takes more than one full, complete attempt, maybe even more than 3. i.e. Dirt Devil by zircon took one try plus 3 redoes.

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SFX towards the end of the song are working much better now; nice work there!

I don't have much to add other than that I agree with the concerns mentioned by others about some sections of the song feeling a little sparse. But I would like to narrow in on the part I enjoyed the most, since I was slightly vague about it last time: 2:21 - 3:01 was the highlight for me. One thing you might try is bringing more of that level of energy, complexity and excitement into the rest of the song. Not to say that every section needs to have a crazy lead or that you shouldn't have peaks and valleys, but as a whole the remix feels a tad low-key to me, outside of 2:21-3:01 and the end.

Please ignore me if I'm just being ignorant to the genre, but I do feel this advice may be somewhat universal. Thanks again for posting; great work so far!

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  • 2 weeks later...

http://soundcloud.com/muggs-majandhra/glitch-cavern-massive-edit

After a lot of screwing around with knobs and making new patches, I finally came up with something..."more". Mastering is probably a bit rough but will deal with that later today. Probably along with another pass on the samples in the beginning.

Changelog:

Re-made bass synth(s) + Added more automation to various parameters.

Adjusted leads

Tweaked kick patterns

Changed the "breakdown" section

Added old samples at start

Added a few transition sounds

Thanks again for all your feedback so far!

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Appreciate it!

In the meantime I got to fiddling with it again and I think I've got it right.

http://soundcloud.com/muggs-majandhra/glitch-cavern-massive-edit

(Same address, new version)

Changelog:

Tightened up the percussion.

Added a tremor to the long notes.

Re-sampled the first section.

Filtered the intro beat.

Adjusted "hype" notes.

Forgot to cut out the silence at the end >_>

Original Tune:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh great, voice clip intro. I don't feel it contributes anything of value to the track, so the track could just as well just begin at 0:20. That's my personal, subjective take on it, tho.

Track has a pretty cool groove. While I know the heavy production style is a staple of the genre, it's not a good-sounding staple. Get your dynamics under control. Yes you should have huge bass... just make sure it doesn't sound like Newby McNewb's discovery of the bass knob. :P

I'm a little concerned it might be too conservative - not the new genre, but the overall progression. Leads could pretty much be ripped from source, both melody and sound design.

ARRANGEMENT / INTERPRETATION

- Too conservative - sticks too close to the source - imo, anyway

PRODUCTION

- Too loud

- Overcompressed (pumping/no dynamics)

~ Mixing is muddy (eg. too many sounds in the same range) - I can hear stuff fine, but it could be cleaner

STRUCTURE

~ Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough) - instrumentation might get old fast because of the hard and tiring production, but it's used in different riffs and rhythms so it's not that big a deal

- Too repetitive

Not ready for ocr just yet, but with some fiddling with eq and compressors it should be in a much better place. It's got potential here.

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Just want to echo Rozovian and crypto_magnum on this one. It doesn't seem "glitchy" enough to me, and there really aren't enough changes in dynamics so it begins to feel a bit static and sluggish. The groove's good, but have you tried a slightly faster tempo? Could be personal taste but I'd speed it up and see how it sounds.

You obviously know what you're doing with getting that "big" sound, but you need to have some more chilled out parts as well to emphasise that, and also try and clean up the synths too to reduce some of the muddiness. If I seem too critical it's only because this has potential :)

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Ah ha! Well here's the current plan of attack!:

I think I'm going to start by spending some more time learning how to get a better mix out of this one(and hopefully everything else in the future).

Then I'm going to reintroduce a mellower breakdown. There used to be one, but as I progressed it didn't seem to fit well anymore. I think I should just come at it fresh instead of trying to just re-modify what's there. Hopefully elements from that will lead to an even stronger and different 2nd section.

And as usual, random experimentation will occur in-between all that.

Thanks again for the feedback!

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  • 1 month later...

New Version!

https://soundcloud.com/muggs-majandhra/glitch-cavern-the-4th

Took a vacation then came back at it.

Changes include:

-Added new breakdown [With a little Carnival Night-ness]

-Excised some redundant notes to give instruments more headroom

-Tweaked levels and compression here and there.

-Added a couple breaks

-Brought back the beginning section to round things out.

Still working on the overall mix, as well as small bits to vary up the sound.

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New Version!

https://soundcloud.com/muggs-majandhra/glitch-cavern-the-4th

Took a vacation then came back at it.

Changes include:

-Added new breakdown [With a little Carnival Night-ness]

-Excised some redundant notes to give instruments more headroom

-Tweaked levels and compression here and there.

-Added a couple breaks

-Brought back the beginning section to round things out.

Still working on the overall mix, as well as small bits to vary up the sound.

Wow! Great work!

I'd say my biggest issue is I think the snare is too compressed in a way that makes it not pop out as much. I think it needs to be compressed in a way where it has a much clearer hit, if any of that even remotely makes sense to you.

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Wow! Great work!

I'd say my biggest issue is I think the snare is too compressed in a way that makes it not pop out as much. I think it needs to be compressed in a way where it has a much clearer hit, if any of that even remotely makes sense to you.

What you're saying has to do with the attack and the release. If the attack is really early (like 0.01-0.20ms), and the release is rather short (like 0.10-5.00ms), it'll just make the snare punchy, and not overcompressed in the wrong spots.

----------------

The first instrument that plays until 0:20 is pretty irritating. It's suffering from excess distortion and bitcrushing, and poor quality distortion, at that. You need to replace that.

Yeah, the compression on the snare has too long of a release, so it's compressed for too long. As a result it sounds duller. The sub bass is also too high. Lower it a bit, and lower the kick a bit too. The kick is adding extra overcompression to the track.

The majority of the instruments could use a major upgrade. It's fine to have chiptune instruments, but don't have them be nearly that simple. It'd be great to give them expressiveness, like vibrato and dynamic filters.

Some good ideas here and there, but overall you need to cut out what doesn't contribute to the song.

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Everybody has covered most of the issues I have been able to find so far, listen to the guys before me!

I think the one thing that throws me on this track is the snare. As somebody who loves and produces Glitch Hop, I feel like a shorter snare with more punch/pop could make this sound a lot better.

I would also suggest giving a bit more volume to the mid-bass stuff, so it can shine through the highs a bit more.

That being said, great track and wonderful concept!

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Damn, this is shaping up! The whole second half is powerful, I think the only thing that sounds out of place to me is that the Sound-Effect samples from the game in the first half are a bit loud, but that's minor. The track sounds great, I think you're at a nice point between sticking to the original and adding your own bits!

Not a fan of Air-horn samples, but I do like the Moombah-feeling section after that, cool way to end the song :)

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I don't think I'm hearing that much low end detail. It's mostly subs, skipping low end, and then the rest of the frequencies. Aside from that, the kick covers some of the low end, but not much. In a song like this, you need an actual bass, not a really low sub bass. Try finding a PWM bass, that would work great.

I think in the breakdown section at 1:36, the polyphonic saw is too hissy, and detracts the listener's attention away from the lead.

The lead, as it is, is too simple. It's just sustains. Try making it more expressive, like with legato, vibrato, and so on. Or pick a new sound for it. You can change leads in the same song without it being awkward.

I think the sub bass overall is too loud, btw. Near the end, the lead is obscured by the bass, and the sound effects are acting like they're the main attraction. Really think about what you want to be heard and what you want to just be there to fill the mix.

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