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*NO* Donkey Kong Country 'Encountering the World's Ancestors'


Gario
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Hi,
 

I want to submit my arrangement of "Cave Dweller Concert" by David Wise.
It can be found on my SoundCloud profile under the following URL:

 
ReMixer name : germanjazzguy
real name: Patrick Schürmann
user-ID: 33770
 
Game: Donkey Kong Country
Name of arrangement: Encountering The World's Ancestors
Songs arranged: Cave Dweller Concert
(original arrangement can be found here:)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZcyxhtQluk
Composer of Source: David Wise
 
Cave Dweller Concert has always been one of the songs from the DKC score which I didn't really mind about. It was just there when you're playing the cave levels in DKC and yeah, that was all I had thought about it... until january 2014 when I happened to hear the ENTIRE piece (which means including the calliope lead und flute parts in the end) on YouTube. I especially found the Calliope part beginning around 1:47 very atmospheric, it always gives me the chills when I hear it. 
Around this time (more precise: when I first got beyond 1:47 listening to this tune because of it not resetting itself due to a bonus stage in the game before this time!) I realized that it is a true soundtrack-masterpiece (well, better late than never, one might say) and started to play it on piano.
Two years later, I started working with a new soundfont, which had a great goblins-synth sample...and outstanding vibraphone samples...and there was also a timpani on it...and, hey! if you put together two measures of 1/32-notes played by claves and let the touch response gradually rise and decay, it sounds like a bat that is flying... o.k., when this all together shouted CAVE DWELLER CONCERT!!!!!!, I also got the message and started to work on this Remix. Inspired by some church music scales, I wrote the goblins solo that starts around 2:51, then invented a new intro based on a d pedal point and arranged the A-theme of Cave Dweller Concert for Vibraphone and a Synthesizer.
 
This arrangement is the result. I hope you like it!
 
germanjazzguy
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It's not meant to be glib or disrespectful, but the lead timing was so rigid, that it was basically a dealbreaker right there.

The sound design was otherwise creative and an interesting sound upgrade, Patrick, with strong SFX. I like the Dune: Spice Opera album a lot, so I respect much of what I'm hearing in the sound palette for 2:50's section.

But at such a slow tempo, it's problematic to have such robotic timing on everything. The ending also cut out rather abruptly because you had hiss in the background that didn't fade even when the instrumentation did; in any case, the ending was sudden and felt like you merely ran out of ideas.

Cool approach so far, but if you can humanize the timing on this so that it sounds less mechanical, this could sound pretty grand.

NO (resubmit)

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2016/08/19 - (1N) Donkey Kong Country 'Encountering the World's Ancestors'

I have to admit, that vibraphone really is awfully mechanical.  I don't mind some rigidity of the synths, since they're clearly fake anyway (although those could also stand to sound a little more organic), but the vibraphone in particular is an instrument where little changes in timing and velocity make a huge difference in how it feels.  Otherwise, this is a great interpretation of the original--faithful to its tone, but still original.

I had to turn my volume up quite a bit to hear the cut-off hiss at the end that Larry mentioned, but he's right, it's definitely there and should be fixed.

I'm a little more on the fence about this than Larry, since the vibraphone is the only "real" instrument in an otherwise electronic mix, but since it's so prominent and so vibrant (no pun intended), its being so rigid does stand out as an issue.  It's not too hard a fix, assuming your soundfont has decent velocity support, so please try to improve that and send this back to us.

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I really liked this idea, very minimalistic, but with a wide selection of sounds to keep things interesting.  The rigidity of the performances is an issue though, and something I think we cannot overlook.   Other than that, I'm with MW here in that I'm more on the fence about this one since I don't hear many issues and this is a very unique remix, the types we don't get too often, which focuses on a very distinct approach and executes it very well.

Overall I would really like a resub with more work put into the performances and maybe some extra spicing up of the ambience.  I think you have something with potential going on here, very unique.  For now though,

NO (resubmit)

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