Gario Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 ReMixer Name: DS Vocalist Name: Meg Real Names: David Sylvester, Megan Lesko (only wishes to have a mention) Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ds394 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_99CLE91nwBG7zNXQ9YUiA UserID: 34014 Game: Star Fox 64 Arrangement Title: Dark Hero (ft. Meg) Source: Starwolf's Theme Comments: "When the time comes, just act!" Other than playing Star Fox 64 as a kid, my obsession with Star Fox started out (as any n00b would with a lesser known franchise) with Smash Bros. and listening to the soundtracks that had been placed into the game, especially Space Battleground (which I at first never would have believed to be from Star Fox of all things, it's just too epic). So as I slowly started delving deeper into the soundtrack, the Star Fox Assault version of the Star Wolf was just so epic and classy that I was like "How could something this cool be in Star Fox?!". Fast forward a few months, when I was decently versed in the Star Fox OSTs, I attended a Regional Music Festival, and one song we played had a motif in it that sounded just like the Star Wolf theme, but with a different chord progression. I took that to heart, and I ran with it when I got home. I fiddled around with it for hours on my piano, coming up with ostinatos, basslines, extensions to the progression, instrumentations, and so on. Eventually, I had in my mind the idea for a full-blown epic orchestral mix of Star Wolf that was not just what Assault did. Forgot where in my thought processes this came from, but sometime I just knew I needed a vocalist. I even wrote about a counter-melody and an entire batch of lyrics before I knew how the heck I was gonna do it. Then one day, I thought about a girl that I knew who happened to sing pretty well in the school musical, so I showed her the instrumental and without even knowing what game the melody was from she was all into the epicness. So after a few days of frantic recording, we got it down and brought to life this modern, non-conventional take on a classic melody for the overlooked anti-heroes of Star Wolf. Thank you so much for taking the time to review this, looking forward to seeing your criticism DS (David) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted February 20, 2017 Author Share Posted February 20, 2017 Man, I've got to say, between this track and the dubstep variation of Star Wolf's theme you had on the WIP boards, you know how to get some solid mileage out of it, and to be honest I love both of them (albiet for very different reasons). I'm really enjoying the power of the epic orchestral style here, and the lyrics are actually pretty powerful (and fitting of Star Wolf's character, from what I can tell). Unfortunately, both of your Star Wolf arrangements share a similar issue, as well: I'm not hearing enough Star Wolf in this arrangement. If someone can hear more source in this please correct me, but this is what I pull from this track: 0:09 - 0:13 0:57 - 1:31 2:10 - 2:45 2:56 - 3:03 3:53 - 4:28 115s/278s (the last seven seconds are just silence - I won't count them) ~41% Source Stopwatching this, I'm getting pretty shy of 50%, and I don't quite feel there's justification outside of using this method this time around. I wasn't catching virtually any source in the singing, but perhaps someone with a more attentive ear can correct me on that. So what I'm saying here is that this is too liberal for OCR as it stands. Given the structure of this track I could see this being easily corrected via the use of Star wolf's theme as texture in the background of the more open portions (which you start the track off doing - 0:09 - 0:13 is a perfectly good way to get source out of that). More of that and I could see this getting over that 50% mark without too much issue. The performance is fitting, and gets pretty exciting, but it has a few issues that hold this back, as well. The vocalist, while having a great voice, does tend to go flat from time to time. A re-recording would fix this, but if you don't want to trouble the singer a little bit of pitch correction software would also work to touch this up without issue. I know autotune gets a lot of bad rep (thanks, T-pain), but it's actually a tool for making minor tuning corrections like that, so don't be afraid to use it in leu of making the singer work extra hard. There's also an odd moment from 3:11 to 3:29 where the singer sounds like she's off a beat. An easy fix in a DAW would be just to shift her back a beat for that portion, so I suggest doing so. As a final note, the singing comes off as too dry against the backing instruments; put a little more reverb on it so that it sounds like it's being sung in the same room as the backing instruments. I really do enjoy this one, but I think it could use a little more work before we post it up on OCR. Do send it back our way with these adjustments in mind, as I think it's a great arrangement. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 I do hear a connection between the singing and the source, but it's highly stylized. Both the mode and the rhythm are changed, the ends of many of the stanzas are completely changed, and the off-key notes make it even harder to place. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, myself, although I can see this going either way. However, I do think that Gario's comments about the vocals are spot-on and need to be addressed crucially. You've written a rather challenging piece to sing, with some low notes that are clearly at the edge of Meg's register, and some rapid almost arpeggiated sections that are hard to keep up with, so there's nothing wrong with a little bit of digital correction to make up for it. 0:48-0:53 seemed to be a little behind the beat as well. I really would like to see this posted, so please look into working on those vocals a little, and some more overt ties in with the source melody sure wouldn't hurt. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I am really loving this idea here, but the execution falls short. As Gario mentioned, the vocalist's style is really fitting for this style but sadly she does fall flat in several places, most noticeable in the lower registers. I agree that a bit of pitch correction would do wonders. Also I loved the harmonized sections. The instrumentation is also alright, though it does feel mechanical sometimes, it's not the focus of the song. As the vocals draw so much attention you can get away with a bit of stiffness/fakeness in the instruments and their dynamics. Gario is on point on the off-beat nature of the performance around 3:10. An easy fix. I'm also having issues hearing the original source in this, and I know this soundtrack by heart, sf64 being my most played n64 game. I'm not sure if the arrangement can be changed at this point but I would recommend making the source connection more evident. I think that with this kind of track with so much vocal focus, a second pass to make them shine throughout the entirety of the duration of the song would be great. When she hits her stride she gets lovely and epic results out of her voice. I would really love to see this on the frontpage so if possible, think about the suggested corrections and hit us again.NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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