*NO* Super Mario Bros. 'Leaded Mario Brothers' *RESUB*

[djpretzel]

This is a resubmission, which was originally judged on October 18, 2004.
The original judgment can be seen here:
http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=47579

Link to the new submission is here:

If you want to listen to the previous submission, and an interim beta work we completed, those links are here:

Original Submission:
Interim Beta:

I highly suggest you listen again to the original and the interim beta at least once, to get an idea of all the changes made.

Contact Info
inanis/dwills (we call ourselves Nintendo Revengo)
Joe Strosnider / Dorian Wills
inanis@ecr.net / dwills@ecr.net
http://www.inanis.net
UserID: 19326

ReMix Info
Game: Super Mario Brothers
Remix Name: Leaded Mario Brothers

Comments:
Taking into consideration the judges' previous concerns about the mix, we re-worked the song greatly.

1. The core of the song is unchanged. Despite the previous judgement made, we thought the artistic viablity of the core was sound.
2. The bass line was conceived by Joe originally, but he couldn't get it to sound right using samples, so Dorian took Joe's source
material and hammered it out on his bass.
3. The drums were competely rewritten, new samples used, new everything. This was to comply with the judges' comment about it's resemblence to "Fruity Loops".
4. Some of the repetition in the lead guitar was removed.
5. A few rhythm guitar surprises and subtle embelishments were added.
6. We wanted to use a professional studio to properly master the song, but time and resources prevented that.

If the mix doesn't pass this time through, we may not get "published", so to speak, but we aren't worried about that. We are both glad we got to work on this piece. We spent a year perfecting it, had
loads of fun with it, and in the end, it's the fun that it's about, not whether it gets posted (but it's still an ego trip to see your name on the OCRemix front page!). If we don't get through this time, it doesn't matter, because we are moving on to better things.

Credits:
Conceived by Joe Strosnider
Bass Guitar's notes, Percussion, and production by Joe Strosnider.

Lead Guitar and Rythym Guitar composed by Dorian Wills.
Mixing by Dorian Wills

Lead Guitar, Rythym Guitar and Bass Guitar performed by Dorian Wills

Joe used ModPlug Tracker for the Percussion. Dorian used some well kept secrets for his guitar performances that he still won't tell me about. Used Cool Edit Pro to for arrangement, mixing, processing, etc.

[zircon]

This is an enjoyable ReMix overall, let me say that at first. I can hear the improvements in the sound of the drums right off the bat, as compared with the original version that was submitted - they're still a little bland as all bd/snare hits are basically the same, but with free stuff there's not a lot you can do about that. However, extra processing on the drums, such as some thick saturation, compression, and reverb would certainly kick the sound up a notch and give it a more energetic feel to compare with the guitar. On that note, I thought the guitar playing was excellent on all fronts, and the bass playing was good too. Arrangement seemed good overall - lots of variation and the original additions were sensible too. I did think it might have dragged on just a *little* too long. Some of the repetition could be cut out, and because there are few changes to the dynamics or the instrumentation, it does get less interesting over the course of the song.

This is a tough vote for me, for sure. The production is still weak - the 'energy' of the drums and guitars just seems to be lacking, because the mastering is sort of quiet. I would really like to try re-mastering this myself, if you want to give it a shot. I think the mix needs more punch and polish to give it a nice and rich sound that I think more people will appreciate - and you probably will also! Lemme know if you're interested (check my profile for contact info). Anyway, besides that, as I mentioned above, the lack of instrument changes or dynamic changes, combined with the length of the mix and the simplicity of the original theme, makes this ReMix feel sort of dragged out by the end. Cutting out even 15-20 seconds would really help, I think.

Regardless of what you do, this is a cool song. Just one more resub with a LITTLE more tweaking would make this passable in my book.

NO

[Liontamer]

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Tracks 1 ("Overworld BGM"), 5 ("Invincible BGM"), 2 ("Underground BGM"), 6 ("Successfully Reached the Flag") & 9 ("Game Over")

Certainly an improvement from the first version. The drums are better, but do in fact need more variation instead of just being a timekeeper, and need more power. The lead guitar is way too quiet and really needs to cut through more. Right now it just sounds too dull (not in the performance, but the sound quality), as if some of the higher frequencies were cut out. The lead also sounds too far in the back of the room, and the percussion is louder, which isn't working. Otherwise, the arrangement is where it needs to be. Still could have some fat trimmed off it near the end, but y'all are keeping the core of the song intact, and I can respect that.

Personally, I think the lead guitar needs more power and agression to it for a piece of this nature, but it's ok. Certainly not bad in any way, but not superlative and certainly not distinctive. Would love to hear zyko & Vig comment, but they're rather MIA for the time being, so the main issues I had were in the first paragraph. If y'all want to let zircon take a stab from the production side, best of luck with that. Non-repetitive drums (i.e. write a creative part for it) and louder/sharper sounding guitar for the pass. Still salient issues here with this new version.

NO (resubmit)

[The wingless]

*LIGHTNING ROUND*

-very repititious drums (boom, snickt, boom, snickt)
-Piece has an oddly subued sound to it, as if produced under leagues of salty water
-Drums need to be on par energy-wise with Guitar

NO

*those drums are a dealbreaker.

[The Orichalcon]

Okay, let's start by saying this is by no means a bad mix. I wasn't around for the original decision.

The lead guitar in this needs to be much louder and more powerful compared to the drums, bass and rhythm guitar. It's just being drowned out. The drums themselves need a little more punch to them, without becoming too loud. In terms of quality, those are the only two issues I have with the piece. The overall sound is pretty nice.

The quality of everything is above average. The guitar playing is impressive to me. It heads out of timing at some stages, but it comes back so no problems there.

The arrangement of the piece is pretty good. It's very close to being a cover of the original, however it breaks away from that Overworld theme to do its own little solo's often enough to please me. Mixing together the 5 themes given as the source pieces is pretty impressive too.

I'll go with the other judges on the rejections for now. Pump up the guitar, rework the drums to be, as wing said, on the energy level of the guitar, and you'd have a winner here. I'd recommend running it past one or more of the judges first before resubmitting it again so you don't have to wait around only to be no'ed again.

NO. Resubmit.