Gario Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 (edited) Hi there! This is my first remix, done for insaneintherainmusic's Jazz competition. I'm pretty proud of it, as I am by no means a Jazz musician. YouTube link: Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Hi, My Name is Alex (That's the name of my channel, anyway) Alex Mott https://soundcloud.com/alex-mott 32965 Submission Information Shovel Knight Swing thy Shovel! Strike the Earth! https://youtu.be/wqAYMZSOQao I just kept humming this song to myself with a shuffle rhythm. For like a year. Then I finally decided to make it. I played the guitar and bass parts, and everything else was done on a MIDI keyboard. The digital instruments are all from EW/QL libraries. The brass and woodwinds are EW Hollywood Gold, and the drums are from the EW ProDrummer Joe Chiccarelli library. Hope you like it! Edited April 13, 2017 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 Not going to lie, this one caught me off guard. The beginning has some very exposed, mechanical instrumentation, but when 0:30 comes in MAN, it has some delicious big band jazz goin' down. The subtle approach in the beginning works great, arrangement-wise, and when everything is playing at once it sounds pretty convincing. That's on the arrangement side, that is. The parts that are relatively exposed in the beginning do give away that this isn't a real performance. The clarinet, for example, whenever it holds a note it just plays it straight. No vibrato, which makes it sound hollow. These are less an issue when everything is together, but with long notes this is still a problem (like at 0:58 - those long notes are pretty unnatural). As an aside, while it isn't TOO quiet, I will mention that there is a lot of room in your waveform that could be utilized if you use some limiting. There is one or two spikes that peak, which limits your ability to amplify the track further, that limiting would fix right away. It's not a HUGE deal, but it would certainly finish off your track better. This is a tough call, since the orchestration is absolutely great, and the arrangement, while short, is tastefully crafted. The mechanical instrumentation, especially when exposed, is a problem, but I'm not 100% sure that's enough to justify a NO, as it's really only notable when it's exposed. I can see the shovel swingin' either way on this, but I think I'll give it my blessing. If it doesn't pass, though, pay attention to the humanization of the exposed sequenced instruments. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Can't argue with Gario on his reasoning. Those fake instruments really do hurt: the horns at 0:14 are almost a nope right there, and the total lack of dynamics on the percussion gets old quickly. It hurts most when they're exposed, but 1:36-2:00 gets so busy, with all the instruments plying for center stage without backing down at all, that it hurts there too (the piano especially sounds fake, and also muffled). There's also some copy-pasta--0:30-0:57 and 1:09-1:35 sound identical except for some extra percussion in the gap the second time around--and that's a big deal in an arrangement this short, made worse by the fact that the (lack of) dynamics in the instruments is exactly the same both times. The first 30 seconds could also stand to be louder; I felt like the rest was OK loudness-wise. The orchestration really is solid, and I really enjoyed the arrangement, so I too am on the fence a bit. I don't think the humanization has to be perfect--maybe going so far as to add vibrato might not be necessary--but adding some variation to the timing and velocity, especially of the percussion, would make this substantially better and reduce the impact of the copy-paste. So I'm just on the side of NO (borderline, resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Hmm this is a pretty tough one. Gario pretty much said it all, the adaptation to big band really, really works here, at least arrangement-wise. But the instrument quality ranges from ok to.. not quite good. Specially noticeable in long legato holds on your brasses, and the clarinet. I don't think you will be fooling anyone, not even the most casual of listeners with this. On an added note I know this song by heart and I can say that while the arrangement was fairly transformative and the adaptation was on-point, there's not much original content added, I would've liked at least some expansion on the original, as this follows the source pretty closely besides the changes done for the genre adaptation. I will leave my comments here to conclude my vote later as I think I will benefit from a few more listens on fresh ears and the opinion of other js, but I'm leaning towards a NO based on the reasoning above. EDIT 4/13: I gave it some time and came back, and I'm more sure on rejecting this one, sadly. The arrangement and adaptation are indeed great but I cannot ignore the production and how the instruments are extremely fake-sounding and worst of all, exposed as clear as day. Your arranging chops are A+ imo, but I would like to hear this either performed by real players or with better samples/more care put into hiding its fake nature.NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 What a sweet arrangement! I'd love to hear this performed live! This is a super tough decision based on what everyone's said here; the arrangement is so great it almost makes up for the mechanical instrumentation, but at the same time the production is dragging the song down overall. In the end for me I think another pass at humanizing the parts would really make a difference here and the track would sound all the better for it. I'm curious what the other judges are going to say, and I wish you luck! NO (resubmit, please!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Dunno why the clarinet was farther back in the soundfield to start, but OK. Good arrangement concept as far as adapting it for jazz, Alex, but adjust the mixing to bring the instruments further forward in the soundfield and also add some high-end clarity to this. MindWanderer's got you on the brief copy-pasta aspects of this re: the chorus. Agreed with the other NOs though that the mechanical/stilted timing to pretty much all of the parts kills this dead, especially for a piece that's only 2:17-long. For short pieces, you really need everything clicking on all cylinders, so besides the already creative arrangement, you need solid production, realistic enough performance dynamics, and no cut-and-paste repetition. Good start, but polish this up further if you're interested. If not, no worries, and I hope you submit more, because your arrangement sensibilities are in the right direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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