*NO* Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 'Lid of the Sleeper's Eye'

[djpretzel]

Nov. 8. 2004

Hey OC Remix, djpretzel, and judges:

Alright, here we go again… Here’s my second submission (after the doomed to crash-and-burn “blazin’ island” mix… I choose to forget that one).

I was going to wait a while to submit this one, but after the comments I’ve received, I feel this piece is as ready as it’ll ever be.

URL:

Copy and Paste the URL if you receive errors… sorry for the inconvenience!

Contact Info
ReMixer name: JefF
Real name: Jeffrey Roberts
Email Address:
userid on the forums: 10963 (jeffreymroberts)
ReMix Info
Name of game ReMixed: Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Name of individual song(s) ReMixed: “Face Shrine” (31/96 & 88/96 in GBS), “Ballad of the Windfish” (47/96), “Richard’s Villa (64/96)
Okay then, time for me to get into the spiel about how I made this mix…

It was a boring day… I was home from school with a major ear ache and chest infection… I was bored… I broke out my GBA and started playing Zelda Link’s Awakening… I was bored… After I got about halfway through the game, I heard the song from the “Face Shrine” dungeon… I suddenly was not bored… despite the major earache, I went to my good old Yamaha PSR 290 and umm, diddled around. The birth of this mix!

Fast Forward a few days, and the majority of this mix was complete. After several additions, I posted the first WIP in the WIP forum. I was pleasantly surprised: the mix born of boredom was actually liked! Thanks to suggestions from various people, the mix improved, went through 7 or so very similar WIPs, which leads to this version….


I was going for a dreamy feel (to match the game), hence the use of the wind sample, high reverb levels, etc.

Also, In my opinion, this mix sounds great on Dolby Pro-Logic or similar surround systems (despite the MP3 side-effects), so if you have access to such a system, you may want to try it out!


Well, hope you like it!
-Jeff

PS> If you have any problems with the URL or downloading of the file, feel free to contact me using the above email address or this one: (remove address upon posting at Judge’s Decisions if you don’t mind!) I recall people having problems at first trying to download from Tripod.

[Liontamer]

http://www.zophar.net/gbs/zelda.zip - Tracks 31, 47 & 64

Thanks for providing the source tune information. I hate digging through the GBS of this game. Not a bad vibe initially, Jeff. (I refuse to acknowledge "JefF," as that handle is really really bad.) The sounds are a bit dull, but are ok, going for a sad energy almost. They could probably be more expressive without sacrificing the motif here, but it's not a big deal. The wind sounds and reverb did give good imagery based on the mix title though. (Ironically enough, I looked at the submission letter after that sentence, and there you go.) The overall volume could have been a bit louder but was alright as well, but again, you're going for a dreamscape style, so it works.

The development and progression done for the track are rather minimal. There was a decent switch to a minimal groove at 2:06. It lasted 9 seconds. The light percussion work barely changed up, and after some overall repetitious work with just a piano briefly joining in, you transposed the melody up a couple of steps at 2:50, which wasn't exactly creating anything interesting.

The arrangement was way too conservative. Take it in more interesting places. Like I've said about other submissions, you can't just pick a good style to handle the source material in but subsequently get boring with the arrangement. Needs more variation in the beats, more creativity/variation in the arrangement, and some noticeable dynamics since there basically were none. Keep at it though, bro; it shows promise.

NO

[DarkeSword]

The switch between minor key (face shrine and ballad of the wind fish) and major key (richard's villa) doesn't work very well. There's no real logical reason to switch between the two except for medely's sake.

I think there's too much reveb, and the percussion is very very boring. Same stuff over and over again without any real interaction with the rest of the song.

Reverb is a tool, not a gimmick; it feels like a gimmick here; take it away and you've got nothing but a sparse arrangement.

Needs more arrangement, more ideas, more focus.

NO

[zyko]

i'd say darkesword said it best: the reverb here feels like a gimmick. it doesn't serve any purpose but to cover the fact that this arrangement is really weak-sounding...

the arrangement had some neat ideas and a lot of dull ones...
the good: the groove coming in at .20seconds. very groovy idea that is poorly executed by too much reverb and low quality instrumentation.

the bad: i nearly fell asleep, sorry. i'm very picky with zelda music and this just isn't entertaining past the first 30 seconds. the bass should have been more driving and present. without that and a stronger percussive presence, the track comes across bland. every "climactic" point in the mix sounds the same... hence, there is no climax, no energy and

NO

[Israfel]

It's pleasant, but there are a few things that hold it back. For one thing, it's rather monotonous; the percussion and texture never really changes all that much and it begins to become tiresome a bit quickly. And there's really way more reverb than there needs to be.

The basic structure of the mix is pretty good I think, it just needs to be better realized.

NO