*NO* Ms. Pacman Maze Madness 'Unlike Life' *FT*

[GrayLightning]

DM LEE Fallthrough

I was planning on waiting another month or two but I consulted GL about this and according to him you guys are judging mixes that were submitted long long after mine, so I am pulling a lost submission. I seriously tried not to do this and I am going to try and set up a new email account somewhere else since my yahoo account seems to rarely get my mixes all the way to judging. Anyways, onto the song and mixer info...

Game: Ms Pacman Maze Madness for Playstation, by namco
Original theme: http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/sony/ps1/Mspacmaze.mid
Mixer: DM Lee
Real Name: Andrew Lee
Email: Andrew_20_cali@yahoo.com
Submitted: April 9th (the id3 tags might still need to be filled out, I cant remember)

Personal Comments: I made this mix during a point in my life when I had been really stressed out and needed to relax myself through my music.

I wanted to make something "the sounds of nature"ish, hence the multiple bird/water/etc samples throughout. I also wanted to make something with soothing music that doesnt jump out at you and grab your attention but I didnt want a boring, go nowhere, melody... I think I kept enough interest without forcing it.

This is a vast expansion on the original theme and some portions do make use of simple, relatively basic, techniques. For instance, I do just play notes up the scale during a section of the song, but underneath the synth strings are doing their own thing.

I added some modulation to the piano during the first half of the song so it would sound a bit out of tune as many real pianos would not be tuned to perfection, and I think this helped create the soft mellow mood. I took out the modulation towards the last section when the piano starts to play full chords, the piano should sound a little cleaner here.

The hardest challenge was trying to keep some reference to the original throughout the whole song. The only way I could really do this in some sections is just the progression stayed the same. i begin the song with a heavy influence of the original (as you can hear the original melody) and I brought some of the original back in for the ending. Most of this song is original material from my end but uses the same feeling and style throughout.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did making it and I hope I finally make it on the site. It will be probably at least 6 months to a year until I am able to submit something again, so I really hope this is ocr potential. You guys make the decisions and youve made all the right ones thus far, so I expect you will do what is best for the site as far as mix quality goes.

Thanx for your time, peace. (sorry, I know I talk waaaay too much... I cant help it)

[Liontamer]

The stuff used here is pretty cool, but all of the sounds mush together; way too much reverb during most of the track. The piano opening with the various sound effects was nice, but things didn't sound sharper once you had the strings and other parts come in. Once you hit 1:04 with the percussion being introduced, the reverb issue was glaringly obvious. I felt the cliched drumwork clashed with the ambient style you were going for.

The horn sample brought in at 1:35 was overbearing in comparison to the other sounds, and probably should have been toned down or replaced with something else; I felt it clashed with the rest of the atmosphere as much as the drumwork did. Pull back the strings as well and let the piano handling your Ms. Pac-Man arrangement stand out more. Not terrible or anything, but the arrangement felt rather aimless to be honest, and this certainly has a lot that would need to be addressed. Definitely create more separation & clarity for your sounds at the very, very least.

NO

[The wingless]

I felt the exact opposite of the OJInator

Where Larry heard a reverb problem, I heard a nice, sweeping effect that aided the ambient montage-effect going on in the piece. I felt the horn sample was appropriate enough, and the percussion wasn't too insensitive.

I especially enjoyed it when all the instruments and ambient effects are thrown together. There's a very nice texture of sound there. It reminds me, however vaguely, of Aphrodite Oceanus.

YES

I dig it, and, as an added bonus, I get to cancel out Larry's vote. That's democracy, folks!

VOTE NADER, BITCHES, or the planet will end up just like Waterworld!

[Protricity]

Cool ideas, terrible execution. Water sound effects are very overbearing. Reverb is excessive and not well mastered, as larry put. Horn is fine, but doesn't save this song from a NO due to amateur execution and poor mastering.

[DarkeSword]

Water should drop out after a while and we should start concentrating on the instruments. Reverb is crazy in this song; everything's bleeding together (ohnoes get a bandaid!!~!). Mastering is total poop. Come on man, you're a lot better than this. :(

Oboe/horn thingy is nice, but it bleeds in with everything else.

Remaster and resubmit!

NO

[Vig]

mastered terribly. the piano ought to be much louder. i dont think it's the reverb i have a problem with.

performance-wise, the piano comping under the horn is really too simple. traid whole notes NEVER add to a mix. at best they are tolerable. why oh WHY do people so often forget that there are rhythms other than whole notes and notes other than the one three and five? grrrrrr!

furthermore there are lots of really bad notes in the pads, and it ends too quickly.


NO