*NO* Xenogears 'Defective'

[Liontamer]

name: Damon Campbell / Shaun Wallace
email: avaris.studios@gmail.com
remixer name: Blue Magic / Avaris
88369

game: Xenogears
source: The One Who is Torn Apart

(The mix is part of the Xenogears: Humans and Gears Proj. The mix should not be released until the project is.)

First of all I would like to say that we really appreciate everyone's feedback on the mix and apologize for taking sooooo long to finish it on my part.

I also want to thank you Avaris, for helping a brotha out on this mix. I was attempting to remix in a style that i don't really know too much about, but with his help, we were able to pull it off.

Much love to everyone that worked on the project and I look forward to seeing the Humans and Gears project posted up on OCR's main page.

Peace,

Damon Campbell (Blue Magic)


I’d like to thank Blue for allowing me to join in on this mix. The coolest thing about this collab was that we basically kept on tossing the flp back and forth. One person would come up with an idea and then the other would improve on it and vice versa. That whole concept pretty much applied to every single aspect of this mix from synth design, arrangement, composition, sequencing, FX…right down the line. It was great working with an experienced remixer like Blue, seeing how he approaches the whole creative process.

As always thanks for listening dudes and dudet :)

~Shaun

[Vig]

Off the bat, nice textures, but the muted trumpet in the right channel is a sore spot. I'm hearing chrono trigger. The low end is sounding a bit boomy to me. The string-esque leads are also a bit harsh. I'm sort of on the line on this one. The groove is put together well, but there are some relatively minor production gripes, and i'm not hearing enough that's keeping my interest.

borderline NO

[Liontamer]

Indeed, you hear what sounds like Chrono Trigger in place, but that's all from the source.

http://tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Xenogears_psf.rar - 213 "The One Who is Torn Apart"

Some solid bass and kick stuffs in the intro. Loving those stutter effects first used at 1:41. Very club authentic. Not that often you hear many slow mixes that could pass fairly well in a club setting, but I could see a bunch of the chilluns dancing with the lights down low to this.

Takes a bit of downhill turn at 2:28 when you changed the percussion, leaving it a lot flimsier-sounding. I would have kept the perc work thick but changed the tone for the variation. As is, the change took away a lot of snap and punch and whatever other buzz words there are.

I perceived 3:44 as the section where you needed to introduce something new to keep things fresh and close the track strong, and I thought y'all generally came through on that. Good additions with the strings, though I really didn't like how electrosynth and hollow percussion at 4:25 sounded when closing the piece out at the very end. On the cheap side.

I'm hearing more than enough good stuff in terms of the arrangement and dynamics. While I thought the muted trumpet sounded absolutely fine, I definitely agreed with Vig on most of the production criticisms he had; the frequencies were imbalanced towards the lows, leaving things sounding lossy, and some of the highs (starting at 3:44, but particularly from 4:11-4:22) were ridiculously piercing. It would be great to address those even if it passed.

Tons of good stuff, and you guys ended up taking some very small pieces of the source and constructing a very complete and interpretive arrangement around it. Now you need to fine tune this one to get it sounding its best. Right now, it sounds really imbalanced for this genre. EQ this up right.

And work out the kinks with some of the flimsier percussion. As is, they mess with the textures you've got going and undermine the dynamic effectiveness of the arrangement. DON'T CHANGE IT DRASTICALLY, just give it some bite back like you've got going with the earlier percussion choices. Keep the writing the same.

Do you hear me? Don't go breaking the parts that don't need fixing. I'd conditionally pass if I felt the revisions needed were very straightforward, but since it's not quite that quick and easy, gotta go NO (borderline/refine/resubmit). This is some awesome club stuff, but needs to sound slick. Will kill y'all if this doesn't come back here. Bug whoever you need to on this one, and make sure you get the help you need.

[JJT]

those lead synths are really, really abrasive, more so in the latter half of the piece. like, to the point where i can't pass this.

i agree that this is well thought-out and put together on a conceptual level. however, the current marriage of mixing/sound design ruins it for me.

NO, RESUBMIT