*NO* Chaos Engine 'Disorder Drive'

[djpretzel]

I am submitting this mix for your review:

I submitted this mix a long time ago and it got no response. Now that VGMix is back up and featuring a WIP section, I got people to give their suggestions. I feel this mix is much improved thanks to that feedback. Much of the repetitiveness in the drums and the overall mix has been removed and a lot of re-mixing and EQing has been done.

Chaos Engine is a little known top-down shooter made by the Bitmap Brothers for SNES, Genesis, PC, Atari ST and Amiga. Some versions also had it named as Soldiers of Fortune. A link to it's entry in Moby Games can be found
here:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,2/gameId,933/

Thank you for your consideration.

Andrew Babb
www.hoodyhoo.com - www.damnspiffy.com

[Protricity]

I'm pretty borderline here. Its the soundquality thats killing this song. Repetition is borderline excessive especialy towards the end.
It has variation where it counts, but the synthage is poor. Needs better synth programming (or presets) and better attention to arrangement detail.
Could use some mastering to bring up the bass.

NO

Work on the soundquality.

[danny B]

There's some interesting things happening here, musically and rhythmically, but the sample quality is pretty bad. It sounds almost like a DOS game soundtrack. Which isn't bad for nostalgia or style, but in this case it's a bit iffy on the direction it seems to want to go.

Mixing is on average somewhat poor, the frequencies seem to melt together in a hodge-podge of synthesis. More in-depth EQ would help to clearly define each instrument's contribution to the sound field. The arrangement consists primarily of different musical ideas strung together with arbitrary transitions. It lacks direction, and thus seems to go on for a lot longer than it does.

Work on the mixing, and synth programming, and try to arrange it a little more cohesively. Try to blend the separate parts together a bit more smoothly. Your percussion programming is pretty adept, however, I like your panning and retriggering effects.

NO

-D

[Vig]

very little dynamic change here, and the synths are dry and uninteresting.

the ideas jump around a bit, but none of them SOUND different.

Forgettable.

NO

[analoq]

ow, you let some of your sounds have too much resonance. piercing one's ears is cool only on the lobe, not the tympanic membrane.

anyways, like vig says, this is pretty dry and uninteresting. there's something appealing about the overall motif, like the really low budget 80s movie background music that appears as the protangonist is walking around during the exposition while the credits are coming in at the corners of the screen. but let's hear some development.

no