*NO* F-Zero GX & F-Zero 'Blue Blazes'

[Liontamer]

This is Starblaze. Well, I'm actually just Evan now. Yeah, I think Evan will do just fine.

I completed one of the few remixes I've actually attempted in the past few years about six months ago. Since then, my hard drive has crashed. I've reformatted, but I lost a lot of information. One of the things I lost was the FLP file associated with this song. While feedback is obviously still appreciated, there is little, if anything I can do if there are "acceptance-breaking" problems with my submission, which I imagine there will be.

I'll be honest: I don't think this is amazing. I barely even think it's "good." It's the first piece of electronic music I have ever really completed (I am still more of an orchestra guy at heart), so there will be problems. You could probably argue that the drum line isn't various enough, or that my instrument choice is a little stale. I might even agree with any of those statements, so at least we will agree. :)

In any event, this is a very simple, and yet somewhat complex, arrangement of various songs from F-Zero GX for the Gamecube. It is simple because it doesn't go crazy; I don't break any musical barriers, and stylistically, it's even somewhat generic. It's a bit complex because of the way the melody was composed; several songs were wrapped up and then "spit out" so to speak. Listen carefully and you can hear them all; "Infinite Blue," "Mute City," (which is more prominent; I wanted to make at least some of this a bit more obvious so that even if you can't hear what I'm trying to do, its 'arrangement' status is somewhat justified), and the victory music which escapes me in name at the moment. Fans of the game may recognize a few more goodies.

If by some chance this remix is to be accepted, I would request that you change my name from "Starblaze" to "Evan Pattison." All other information is current and accurate.

Thanks. Hopefully, I will become somewhat more active and begin producing more music.

[Vig]

glad that you plan to become active again.

The lead instrument is not great, and the leads disappear behind the saws. Those saws are far too prominent; they are in-your-face the whole time and it gets tiresome. The vamping sections are pretty cool, but they are too simple and repetitive. You have a good foundation for the groove, but it never really changes. Work on sound design and making a more evolving groove.


NO

[Liontamer]

This one's over the 192kbps bitrate ceiling. Watch out for that when submitting, please.

F-Zero GX-AX Original Soundtracks - 227 "Infinite Blue (Big Blue)"
http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=fz - "Mute City" (fz-09.spc)

Good to see Evan around again in the community. I briefly reviewed an older version of this one back for a June '05 VGF Pimp Section (http://oc.ormgas.com/forum_viewtopic.php?18.11810), so I'm already familiar with it. It helps that I kept track of what material was arranged back then, since the sub letter has nothing. :-P Watch the panning around :08; it's too extreme. Don't start cutting out entire channels! :-)

Decent intro conservatively based on "Infinite Blue", but some of those synths immediately became very annoying, especially at :13 when they carried the brunt of the sound. Compared to the original, your synth tone sounds too similar from note to note. :39 started some buildup toward the Mute City melody that we all know is coming. I liked the panning employed from :39-1:05, but with the mixing you need more distinct separation during the thicker parts. Push the supporting synths toward the back more. Right now, I felt like all the crazy sounds in that section were interfering with the melodic content rather than accentuating it.

Brought back that ugly synth at 1:06, 1:46 and 2:25; oof, get rid of it for something more subtle and different-sounding that will create better contrast from section to section. Right now, it unfortunately just sounds loud and ugly, and buries the supporting instrumentation. Sounded like you had a decent bassline in there, but it couldn't be heard very well.

On the arrangement side, I felt like things were underdeveloped and repetitive. Look at how many time that ugly synth was brought back, playing the same stuff from over and over again from "Infinite Blue". Feels like a good base, but unfortunately needs a fair amount of work on both the arrangement and production side to get it in a better position.

NO

[JJT]

I agree with Jesse re: the lead synths getting buried by the saws. The production, while not terrible, could use a little bit of tweaking, because I think some aspects of this mix are getting lost in the mush.

On top of that, however, the arrangement doesn't bring enough to the table. The same ideas get repeated over and over again, and the Mute City section, while a nice departure, was brief and had virtually no interpretation. Melody + boom tiss.

This isn't your best work, and you know that. While it's definetly not bad, it's also not up to what OCR's standards have become. It's a shame you lost that .flp file. Hope to see some more submissions from you in the future, Evan. Take care.

NO