Gario Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 (edited) Contact Information Tuberz McGee Callum Kennedy tuberzmcgee.bandcamp.com Your userid: 25567 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Spyro: Year of the Dragon Name of arrangement: Dragon Egg Flambé Name of individual song(s) arranged: Sunrise Spring, Sunny Villa, Midnight Mountain, Agent 9's Lab, Icy Peak, Charmed Ridge, Cloud Spires Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxhcNBJgSxs&list=PL613D5BC154DC64FE Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: This mix was made for the Playstation 1 Anniversary album and then that unfortunately fell through so here we are. I've always wanted to tackle Spyro music, as Stewart Copeland is an incredible composer and I spent days of my youth sitting around listening to his jams on my small television. It was the best. I didn't really set out to accomplish anything with this mix, other than paying homage to Spyro. That's it. It's only natural that it turned out as some form of prog rock thing. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to make. Not really sure what else to say here. I guess I'll give a source breakdown. 0:00 - 0:42 - Sunrise Spring 0:42 - 0:58 - Sunny Villa 0:58 - 1:14 - Charmed Ridge 1:06 - 1:14 - Midnight Mountain 1:14 - 1:30 - Cloud Spires 1:30 - 1:34 - Icy Peak 1:34 - 1:50 - Sunny Villa 1:50 - 2:05 - Charmed Ridge, Cloud Spires, and Midnight Mountain 2:05 - 2:14 - Dope Drum solo 2:14 - 3:02 - Agent 9's Lab 3:02 - 3:10 - Modulating passage 3:10 to the end - Sunny Villa, Agent 9's Lab, Midnight Mountain Link: Enjoy~! - Love Callum xoxo Edited May 1, 2017 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Looking at that breakdown, I was immediately worried that this would end up being a medley. It's not a medley per se; it does revisit elements to create a feeling of continuity, but it does jump around jarringly in places. By the time it reaches Cloud Spires for the first time, it's feeling very medley-ish, having done what sounds like 4 sources in sequence at that point. And even though it's technically part of the same section, and it comes straight out of the source, the piano part of the Lab felt very out-of-place, since it replaces multiple instruments. The soundscape is also muffled a bit, lacking a little bit in the low end and more than a little in the highs. There's a lot to like here--in fact, I don't think there's a single section I don't like in isolation, although it could stand to sound less muffled. And l like the idea of hitting those four themes sequentially and then bringing them all back together, but I don't think it works well in practice because it takes too long to get there, and because the transitions between sections are too abrupt. If you could smooth those out by changing fewer elements all at once, and maybe introduce some of the layered motifs earlier, I think this would be okay. And it's close now, but as it is, I'm leaning towards a NO (borderline, resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 I am pretty much in full agreement with MW here. The first half or so of the track definitely feels very medley, and while a lot of the sources come together later it still feels a bit like you're pulling through a bunch of sources. The transitions are mostly decent, though some are abrupt, which isn't helping the medley feel. The very last section also feels very cluttered with a lot of instruments taking up the same space and fighting for dominance. The other bit issue is that everything does feel like there's a blanket over it. I'd love all the parts to be much clearer, which will definitely help the leads shine through and the rest of the parts to feel stronger as well. I like the concept, and the second half has a lot of promise, but there's definitely work to be done here. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 I appreciated the source breakdown, but for the future, Callum, if you have that many, please also note when in the videos you're referencing, since all of the source themes were long and many didn't get to what you referenced until 30-60 seconds in. It was all very straightforward in this case, so no harm, no foul, but this would help us eval your track and understand the A-to-B connections more quickly. The transition at :57 was pretty WTF, and the guitar timing of both the acoustic and electric sounded off with the drumwork. Not sure what effect/mood you were going for from :57-1:14, then again at 1:53 & 2:01, but it really doesn't work as is right now. I hear how "Charmed Ridge" uses a similar style with different lines having different timing, but your version sounds disjointed, while that source didn't. Whenever I hear a multi-sourced arrangement, I first listen without comparing the sources to see if I was bothered by how the arrangement combined the multiple themes. The only standards we have in place are: "Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together." For the first half, you're basically hearing different, short melodic fragments woven together reasonably well. By 1:14, unlike what MindWanderer's saying, I wouldn't have assumed there'd been 4 themes used, and I think MW was influenced by already knowing the layout. If Callum himself didn't break down exactly where one theme stopped and the next started, would you REALLY just divine that this was 7 total themes, or would you think 2? I say that because, to me, this basically separated out to "Agent 9's Lab" and "everything else." I'd say the arrangement/interpretation-aspect of this piece was generally OK. As long as medleys have reasonable connectivity and flow, we can work with them. With that said, there were clearly some jarring breaks in the overall flow, :57 and 3:10, areas which needed smoother transitions. Other theme changes were awkward like 1:13's and 2:45's (the latter not even being a theme change), but IMO that wasn't the writing as much as the abrupt & total shifts of the instrumentation. A smaller, but related issue, why did the electric guitar just end at 2:06 with no tail or trail-off? You just just hear the texture go from dense to empty with 0 transition. It's just one small thing, but it's just one example of how you have dramatic instrumentation shifts, but not enough care put into whether they're smooth. Total style shifts as transitions CAN work (see: Marsland Brotherhood's Speedball "Speedy Guitar"), but that's a skill in-and-of-itself. Onto my main dealbreaker: all of the sequencing sounded very stilted. Until the performance sounds reasonably humanized, this would be completely DOA from a production standpoint. Also, the snare used throughout sounded pretty hollow. The other Js said this version as is was "close." To me, it's not close yet on the production side, but the arrangement side was promising. I like the boldness of what you're working on with this arrangement, and you certainly should not be discouraged by a NO here; you're trying to raise your game with different tools rather than stick to what you're best at, and that's how you improve. Definitely take this to the Workshop and/or tug on the sleeves of some veterans you trust, Callum, so that you can get targeted advice on improving the the timing, realism, and some of the writing of the transitions here. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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