*NO* Lufia & Lufia 2 'It's So Dark'

[Palpable]

I guess I'll just list exactly what it says from the Submission Standards page:

Remixer name: Atma Weapon
Real name: Trevor John Evens
Website: none yet, will have one soon
Userid: 30536

Name of arrangement: "It's So Dark", a medley of three classic songs from the Lufia RPG series.
Names of games arranged: Lufia and The Fortress of Doom, Lufia II: Rise of The Sinistrals
Names of individual songs arranged (in order, might not be exact titles): "The Fortress of Doom" (it's the music from the first game when the original four characters led by Maxim begin their assault on The Fortress of Doom), "Sinistral Battle Theme" (Lufia II), "The Mystery Lady" (Iris' Theme from Lufia II)

Comments: Well, I created this on a whim--I'm an amateur recording artist recording out of my bedroom using a laptop. I don't have the best equipment but I don't think the quality is too shabby. I've gotten nothing but compliments, and I was just recently suggested by a friend to submit some tunes to OCRemix. The RPG soundtrack covers I've been recording (this is one of several, more to come) are part of a larger project between my brother and I called "Atma Weapon"--which I guess will be some kind of live VGM cover band focusing on classic RPG sountracks. These are just demos I've culled together to help us jam them out. Hopefully they meet the minimum quality requirements--more exposure would be wonderful! Even constructive criticism would be great too. Again, I'm definitely an amateur producer, and I was never taught how to do it at all (I basically just experimented until things worked).

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http://ocremix.org/chip/6176 2-16 "Last Battle", http://ocremix.org/chip/6546 2-9 "Battle #3", 1-14 "The Prophet"

Not a bad arrangement. It was fairly conservative, largely just a sound upgrade in some sections, but I did like the dynamic changes in The Prophet, the few chord changes thrown in, the new drum parts, and the transition to Battle #3. Maybe with an original intro to kick it off rather than just throwing us right into it, this would stand apart from the originals more. Also, I didn't like the awkward transition to The Prophet, that should have been smoother.

This is roughly mixed though. Sounds very compressed and doesn't fill the soundscape, and the instrument levels are off too. Very focused on mids. You might want to do some comparisons with metal/synth songs and see if you can get the levels and frequencies of your instruments more in line with a standard production. I also hear some pretty noticeable distortion starting around 2:20 that you'll need to resolve.

Though this needs some major work, I'd say stick with it in order to improve your production. It's a skill everyone who makes music can use!

NO

[OA]

I was generally feeling the arrangement here, though Vinnie was correct when he said it was mostly a sound upgrade/medley. There were a few moments of personalization, with some solos and some chord changes, as well as the metal shift. Beyond that though, it's pretty much at cover medley status. You've got a good start, as there are a lot of backing chord rhythm changes with the gallops and such, but a few more minor melodic alterations would do this well. It's walking a fine line right now, and just tips a bit too much into the conservative side. I also agree that the transition into Iris's theme was a bit sloppy and could definitely be smoothed out.

Guitar playing was solid, and the drum patterns were interesting and varied. Props there, I'd love to see this live. \m/

Production is in need of a little tune up, as the Compression is smothering, and the mids are a little overhyped. Depending on what you are doing with your master channel (i'm guessing a limiter), something as simple as reducing each track's individual volume by 3db or so would help it not be so smooshed. I'm of the opinion that EQ should be a last resort, and oftentimes overcompression colors the sound a lot on it's own. I wouldn't do anything to the mids or anything until you fix the compression problem, in order to not throw things off balance too much.

Overall I think you've got a good start, and the Atma Weapon project sounds pretty sweet. The main issue right now is production, OCR or not, and just a little bit of arrangement tweaking if you wanted this to get on OCR. As is, it's a rockin sendup of some of my favorite Lufia tracks, and I hope you revisit this to give it the polish it deserves. :-)

no, please resub

[big giant circles]

I don't have much else to add beyond what OA just said. The mids are definitely too hot, they kind of drown out all other frequencies in the spectrum.

Pretty close, overall. Just needs a production tune-up and a slight tweak of the arrangement. Otherwise, the mix had great energy and I really like the vibe/tone!

RESUB

[Liontamer]

Glad to see you tackle Lufia!

Right from the get-go the backing instrumentation was very flimsy, and the soundscape was too dominated by the guitars in the midrange. The mixing is such that everything besides the leads sounded distant and quiet.

Weak transition at 2:18 to "Battle #3," I agreed with Palp. You've gotta connect these themes much more seamlessly. However, I did like the change in the guitar tone and effects at 3:38 for a nice change of pace.

The transition at 4:43 was even MORE jarring and abrupt, which was a shame. There's just 0 flow there, it's lazy. With the leads taking up a lot less foreground space, the poor drum tone and sparse backing instrumentation were a lot more exposed until 5:21.

The guitar performance was strong, and while the drum tone was weak, the drum writing was also good.

The overall arrangement was very conservative and just sounded like a rock adaptation. It wasn't a bad one, but the interpretation beyond the genre change was too limited. Coupled with the poor mixing/balancing, flimsy backing textures that didn't properly fill out the background, and weak transitions, that's more than enough to say it needs significant work.

I think the others are being too lenient when they say the arrangement needs a little tweaking. You've got a good start here, Trevor, but you really need to get more unique, interpretive and personalized with the the treatment of these themes. More melodic interpretation, more grace notes, some rhythmic changes; spice up the delivery more. Follow all the production advice the other Js put out there as well and then give this another shot.

NO (resubmit)