*NO* Sonic & Knuckles 'Assault & Battery'

[djpretzel]

Original Piece: "Flying Battery Zone Act 1" from Sonic & Knuckles
Remixer: MarkMoonstone (truemagoo102@yahoo.com)

Technical Overview:
Piano Arrangement
"Assault & Battery" starts off with a fierce i - VI - bvii0 - VI theme, commonly associated with James Bond, that is stated in "Flying Battery Zone". It then hits an augmented chord, transforming into a latin-esque theme that gradually builds throughout the first half of the piece. The main melody is soon embraced, as the style shifts from boogie to latin to a funkier section. It then returns once again to latin, restating another theme from "Flying Battery Zone", before it hits a "musical barrier" and progresses into a darker, mysterious section, with left hand crosses over the right hand ostinato. A few seconds later, another theme from "Flying Battery Zone" is stated, but as with the others, it is not perfect. This development section eventually builds up into a small solo section for each hand, and then returns to the latinized theme, this time ornamented. The piece finally hits a close when the original James Bond-ish theme enters, this time with a latin twist.

Message from the composer:
I have always been extremely interested in writing remixes for OCRemix, however, I do not possess the technology or knowledge to implement my desires. What I do offer is my composing and musical knowledge to the site. Thank you remixers of OCRemix for being an inspiration to me. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerly,
Mark Moonstone

[Liontamer]

http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 18 Flying Battery Zone 1

Though the ending was very trite, the arrangement was pretty good; good vibe and nice ideas, though conservative in some places. Unfortunately, the performance here was excessively mechanical with a lack of attention to velocities. This MIDI-grade stuff doesn't sound realisitic in the slightest. You seem to have the theory knowledge, but need to learn how to apply realism to a sequenced piece.

I'll leave it to the musicians to tell you how to go about improving the presentation here, but you can certainly turn to the ReMixing forum for help on that as well. If it's too daunting at the moment to get more knowledgeable & fix the problems here yourself, you may want to develop sheet music for the piece and contact a pianist to perform it if you don't play yourself or don't have access to actually recording a live performance.

NO

[Vig]

This mix sounds completely inorganic. There is more going on than two hands can play, and many of the faster notes are in fact faster than a piano can play the same note consecutively. the arrangement isnt bad, but this definately shouldnt be a solo piano piece. add a band, is my suggestion.

NO

[Malcos]

I agree with what has been said, this sounds like a piano part more than anything else. I can almost hear the band in the background.

1.17 - 1.30 loved that chord progression in this section.

Very artificial programming indeed, which is why as a piano solo this piece is not at all convincing.

NO

[GrayLightning]

Pretty simple to determine the problem here. On top of what the other judges said, I too felt the faster passages of the mix were very unnatural. The production also sounded unnatural. I'm not sure what hardware or software you use? If you're at all able to use soundfonts, there's a bunch of great free ones available. As I don't know what you use specifically, my advice on this topic ends here. Average samples and production overall.

Your arrangement and concept is really great and there's plenty of impressive things going on here, but the execution and performance just sounds both unnatural and robotic. If you can find a pianist to play this, this would be a great mix. Average overall, and under the bar. I hope to hear more from you soon. NO