*NO* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 'Protect the Starbase'

Contact Info:

My ReMixer Name: Groggie

My Real Name: Chris Blakley

My Email Address: groggie@gmail.com

My Website: http://www.groggie.com

My UserID: 27236

ReMix Info:

Name of Game ReMixed: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time

Name of Individual Songs ReMixed: Starbase: Where No Turtle Has Gone Before

Link to the Original Soundtrack: http://www.ocremix.org/game/421/

My Comments: I've always loved the music from all the TMNT video games, but Turtles in Time has to be my favorite soundtrack. Protect the Stairbase has been the most effort that I have ever put into a remix, and I hope it shows. I showed it in the forums as a WIP, and have made about 8 revisions ( thread can be seen here: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=70272 ).

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/tit.rsn - "Star Base ~ Where No Turtle Has Gone Before" (tit-17.spc)

Not bad for a first sub, especially with such defaulty/common sounds, but this feels like a mere simplification of the original. The feel is a little different, and some of the rhythms are slightly altered, but the overall pacing and energy feels very similar to the source.

The beats are half-decent, but don't do an adequate job of filling out the background and providing a foundation for the rest of the arrangement to stand on. Right now, this feels somewhat empty and there's not much driving the track forward.

The arrangement, like I mentioned, is pretty simple. Doesn't take any particularly notable creative liberties or interpretations with the source. At 2:34, the lack of substantial interpretation only hurts such a brief track. "Cowabunga" sample at :15 sounds pretty tacky.

The production was decent, all things considered. The sounds were balanced fairly well, although the track may have been clipping a lot, as there were a number of slightly abrasive and crunchy parts. 2:25-2:29 near the end was the worst offending area though, so it wasn't a huge issue throughout, just something that needs to be addressed and reigned in with future works.

Not bad for a first sub at least. You show genuine promise, Chris. Hang in the ReMixing forum to learn more about the programs you're using, places to go for samples, as well as production tips. Also don't forget to actually digest the fan feedback from the Works forum on ways to make this more complex and engaging. Some of the major issues here were pointed out to you in the very early stages of the thread, so don't overlook those.

NO

I enjoy the syncopated beat. very well done.

A couple problems: You follow the original fairly closely. you arent doing anything terribly groundbreaking with the arrangement.

also, the track feels empty a lot of the time. the polyphony of the track is farily low at all times. beef it up at some points.

NO

This is definitely good stuff for a first submission. But I think the arrangement values are still rather conservative. There's not much done in terms of melodic, harmonic or structural expansion. The source material is very basic, so one can look at it in two ways. It'll either hamper the mixer with not much source to work with and expand on, or it'll help the mixer by giving him/her more freedom to do more expansion. This depends from case to case. Ultimately, this aspect is something that needs to be worked on.

I like the classic sounds here, but the production is very basic. There's really no sophisticated or noteworthy production values going on here. I'd like to hear more short delays to add depth to the leads. Also I feel the drums are overly powerful considering the sparseness of the mix. I'd like to hear more supporting material under the lead. Even some sort of pad playing the chords would really help fill things out.

Impressive first submission, but this still has a ways to go in the compositional elements and polish needed to pass. I hope you take this as encouragement to continue, as you definitely show a lot of promise.

NO