[SuperiorX]

Final (3/22/12): Supersonic Stardust - Final

Update (2/22/12): Supersonic Stardust v3

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So over Christmas I found Sonic CD on the PSN for $5 (5 bucks!?!). This was a game I missed out on growing up because my family never had a Sega CD. I played all the Genesis Sonic games to death, so I'd always wanted to try out Sonic CD. I played through the game with the Japanese soundtrack and I was pleased to hear some awesome tracks. My favorite was Stardust Speedway, in all of it's cheesy jazz/hip-hop 90's glory.

I knew I wanted to try a remix of that song so that's what we've got here. The arrangement and style are pretty similar to the original, but I mainly wanted to make a spiced up, jazzier version of the track and then do some of my own improv with the melodies & backing stuff. Plus it gave me the opportunity to use my large collection of brass hits, vocal clips, and DJ scratches that I never thought I'd get to use

This is still a work-in-progress, but I wanted to hear what you guys think. The arrangement is pretty much done, but I plan on switching out the crappy brass sample that you hear throughout much of the first half of the track with either a better brass sample or a different instrument altogether. If I switch the instruments, I'll compliment that with some additional brass hits (like in the second half of the song). I recorded the piano myself too FYI, which was fun.

Source is all Stardust Speedway (JP - Present) with a tiny itty bit of Hydrocity thrown in there for kicks. Tell me what you think, thanks!

My Mix: Supersonic Stardust v2

Source: Sonic CD - Stardust Speedway (JP - Present)

[Garpocalypse]

I really like what you have here so far. I know it's a WIP but some of those vocal clips are waaaay too loud. Also the piano sounds a bit too loud as well. Try kicking it down 3 or 4 db and see if you can still hear it take the lead.

Now for a more philosophical question. Did you really go straight to the Japanese soundtrack for your first time through this game? Poor Spencer...

[AkumajoBelmont]

Originally Posted by Gar23

I really like what you have here so far. I know it's a WIP but some of those vocal clips are waaaay too loud. Also the piano sounds a bit too loud as well. Try kicking it down 3 or 4 db and see if you can still hear it take the lead.

Now for a more philosophical question. Did you really go straight to the Japanese soundtrack for your first time through this game? Poor Spencer...

Agreed. But I'm still assuming because it's a WIP, that he hasn't really touched the vocal clips yet in terms of mixing, and yeah, the piano is a little bit loud, but I've no doubt that will be addressed.

The WIP as a whole is awesome, and I can tell that you really enjoyed the source, because it still contains a lot of my favourite hooks from the original track.

Loving this

And good for you for going straight to the Jap/Euro soundtrack first The creativity and variety in that versions soundtrack still blows me away to this day, and each and every track is amazing.

[PROTO·DOME]

Can't comment on the production as I'm listening through laptop speakers, but damn dude, some awesome stuff going on here.

Piano is weaksauce at 1:12 though; that whole section isn't brilliant. Sounds fake and hollow, a complete contrast to what you had going before.

[Calum]

I agree with everyone. Piano + Vocal samples are waaay louder than everything else. Piano also stands out as being a bit dry - could do with a bit of reverb/processing to place it in the mix - maybe it's mostly a volume thing though. Pretty cool source, i've never heard any of this stuff before! You've got a whole bunch of stuff to keep us interested throughout despite the fact that the material is quite repetitive. Although I do feel like the piece kinda goes nowhere in a way. There's no big structural definition in my mind. I'm not a huge fan of the end as well to be honest. I feel like the piano sounds a bit weak and exposed at the end and the drop-out thing felt a little clunky to me. I get that the outro was kinda winding down but i felt like a track with that much energy could have done with a powerful ending.

That said, this was pretty awesome!

[SuperiorX]

Cool! I'm glad everyone is liking it pretty much!

Originally Posted by Gar23

Now for a more philosophical question. Did you really go straight to the Japanese soundtrack for your first time through this game? Poor Spencer...

Well the Japanese soundtrack was the default and I didn't realize I could switch them, so the first playthrough was with the JP soundtrack. I started a 2nd with the US soundtrack, but haven't gotten all the way through yet. So far though I have to give the edge to the JP soundtrack.

Originally Posted by AkumajoBelmont

Agreed. But I'm still assuming because it's a WIP, that he hasn't really touched the vocal clips yet in terms of mixing, and yeah, the piano is a little bit loud, but I've no doubt that will be addressed.

Yeah I EQed and mixed most of the other instruments, but I haven't adjusted the piano or the vocal clips yet. I think some are fine, but others definitely need adjusting.

Originally Posted by PROTO·DOME

Piano is weaksauce at 1:12 though; that whole section isn't brilliant. Sounds fake and hollow, a complete contrast to what you had going before.

I actually recorded the piano myself with my MIDI keyboard in an attempt to make it sound more natural, but yeah that part sticks out a bit to me too. It's weird cause where that part repeats at 2:44, it sounds fine (in my opinion) because there is a lot of other stuff going on, so I think it's just where it's exposed it sounds a bit weak. Or even more importantly, I think the left hand part is making it sound bad. I was trying to do a bit of chord playing there, but I think since they overlap nearly identically it sounds kinda off. When it's just the right hand part playing (1:36 - 1:44, 3:00 - 3:33), I think it sounds ok. I'll take another look at it though.

Originally Posted by Calum

I'm not a huge fan of the end as well to be honest. I feel like the piano sounds a bit weak and exposed at the end and the drop-out thing felt a little clunky to me. I get that the outro was kinda winding down but i felt like a track with that much energy could have done with a powerful ending.

I like the piano at the end, but I'm going to try to clean it up a bit and adjust the bass drop out a bit more, cause that feels a bit awkward to me too. I'll play around with a few things though and see what else I might come up with.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm having a lot of fun with this source! It's been making me even more excited to get my Sonic Remix Compo started

[Cash and Change]

I agree with the other's feedback, so I won't bother repeating it. I want to say that I'm really enjoying what you have so far. The bass is interesting throughout and the lead synth has a nice sound. I look forward to your next version!

[ondellonoya]

am enjoying this one, cool..!

[SuperiorX]

Update: Supersonic Stardust v3

So I did a number of things with the new update here:

• Lowered the piano & voice clip volume throughout
• Replaced the old synth brass sample that plays the melody in the beginning with a square synth (similar to the one that plays the little Hydrocity melody later on)
• Added some more brass hits to the first half to make up for removing the synth brass instrument.

I'm not sure how I feel about the new square synth lead in the beginning. It sounds better than that crappy synth brass sample, but I'm not sure it fits 100%. I might need a punchier instrument, but I've been having trouble finding something I like a lot. Thoughts?

I still need to do a bit more tweaking with the piano and I want to add a bit more variation with some of the percussion patterns, so those updates are to come.

What do you guys think about this version? Particularly on the areas I changed? Thanks, I appreciate everyone's feedback!

[SuperiorX]

After a few more listens, that new synth (the one that enters at 0:24) doesn't stick out as much as it did before. I think there are a few too many falls (buuaaaaaah) though, so I'm going to take some of those out. I went a little crazy with them in the beginning

I'd like to hear what everyone thinks though! My box.net accounts tells me statistics, so I can see you guys previewing and downloading my track (and not leaving feedback)

Thanks!