*NO* Gradius 3 'Stuck in the Crystal Maze' *RESUB*

[Palpable]

Original decision: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22407

Submission link:
Source track link:
- Also on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN_m88O627k&feature=related (0:38)

Contact Information
# Your ReMixer name - Skummel Maske
# Your real name - Thomas Bullock
# Your email address - kordeth@hotmail.com
# Your website - http://velakhar.blogspot.com
# Your userid - 21629

Submission Information
* Name of game(s) arranged: Gradius III
* Name of individual song(s) arranged: Crystal Labyrinth
* Name of the mix: Stuck In The Crystal Maze
* Remixers involved: Skummel Maske, Hy Bound
* Your own comments about the mix
This was my first entry to the Dwelling of Duels competition back in May '08. I hadn't really listened to the music of the Gradius games before this, so I scoured Youtube and websites looking for a track that had a nice, strong main lead. The result is a guitar-driven rock track with some sweet guitarmonies playing around an already interesting lead. After the DoD contest, it took half a year to get around to do some proper mastering on it, which still wasn't quite up to OCR standards. I felt I'd reached the height of my potential at the time, so I asked Tyler (Hy Bound) to help me out with the mastering. He offered to do some slight mixing on the track as well, which gave great results. The mix reached a level of polish that I would never be able to achieve by myself.

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Crystal Labyrinth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN_m88O627k)

[OA]

Definitely a step up in production from the DoD version, but a few issues still remain. Sound balance was pretty good but a bit bass heavy. The soundfield was clear enough though, but there are a lot of little things that gradually chip away at the mix.

Guitar leads were a bit rigid and really could have used some vibrato. Parts sounded good, but others were just a bit dead.
Rhythm guitar tended to be solid chords, and could have used a bit more rhythmic interest, a few chugs can go a long way to keeping a track moving forward. Tone here was good, and it blended well with the bass.
Drum fills had some good patterns and writing but really lacked velocity work, making them sound really robotic. Also, they sounded just a bit weak. They need to be punchier, and it's generally a huge pain to get drums to that level.

Aside from this, the arrangement felt a little on the conservative side- there was a cool solo section, and a lot of parts shifted to new instruments, but it felt a little too coverish for me, and combined with the minor production flaws, it pushes it into no territory. Keep rockin out with DoD though, i've noticed your DoD subs since this one have fixed a lot of the little issues this one had, so just keep at it. Also feel free to hit me up with any WIPs you have, i'd be happy to take a listen. :-)

no

[Palpable]

Yeah this is an improvement mixing-wise, but still not there for me. The lead and backing guitars still blend together some. It doesn't sound very powerful, and the drums lacks punch. I'd add more lows back to the drums and bass, though that's always a tricky freq range to work with.

So unfortunately, I don't think this version will cut it for the site. If you're willing to stick with it, you could learn a lot from trying to perfect this mix.

NO (resubmit)

[big giant circles]

Shoot, I feel like I totally dropped the ball on this. I remember listening to this like a month ago, and it must have been really late at night or maybe after a long voting session, because I could have sworn I already voted on it.

/hangs head sheepishly.

Sorry about that dudes. I'm a little torn on the mix. I think it's a fairly strong mix overall, but cutting to the chase, I tend to fall in pretty close with Andrew's vote. I think you've got a great foundation here, absolutely! I think the solid, 1-chord "rhythm" guitars was probably the most distracting to me. I'd definitely consider redoing those with something with a little more "chugga chug chugga" if you get my meaning. Drums were a little bit thin, but overall I didn't think that they by themselves were the single obstacle holding this one back. That said, if there is any way you could quick EQ them to give that snare just a little more edge, that'd be awesome. Maybe bring out the highs just a bit more to give it some more sizzle, perhaps.

Anyway, gonna go ahead and wrap this up, but as Andrew said, feel free to hit us up if you can quickly touch this up, and we'll slap it back up here for a quick resub, bros!

Keep at it! You're super close!

(borderline) NO - RESUBMIT!