Marathon Remix.mp3   Hey everyone! I’m looking for help revising to the feedback of the judges for my Marathon remix. For context, here’s the mix as originally sent to the judges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MPDu8DWY5Q It was well-received in the Marathon community. Hamish Sinclair even featured it on the Marathon’s Story pages, which was surreal as I’ve been reading those pages since my first forays onto the internet as a teen in the 90s. The judges’ feedback was largely positive about the arrangement but negative about the production and mixdown, especially the balance of sounds and general muddiness. Changes I made in response to judges’ comments: Re-mixed pretty much everything, and changed a lot of the EQs Added more sidechain compression on the kick (there was some originally, but not enough) Took treble off the bass when the guitar is present. Swapped the bass in the opening sequence for cello and bass strings. Prophetik seemed to find the synth bass out of place, but I still wanted something in the low end to provide variety from the wall of pads and environmental sound. I really like the result! Changed some of the drum rhythms I should mention that the goal of this remix is to capture a certain Marathon “feel.” It’s not meant to improve on or sound like the source Marathon songs, which are amazing as-is. It’s intended instead to take those themes and give them another showing, in a setting that’s different but still evokes what Marathon feels like as a whole — which for me include not just the original Power of Seven (Psykosonik) music but also Craig Mullins concept art and the philosophical rantings of a rampant artificial intelligence intent on escaping the closure of the universe. I’m not going for a pristine sound, but a dense sound awash in spaciousness, layers, and grittiness that evokes cosmic vastness, ancient mystery, and aggression. Judging by the reception of my original version in the Marathon community, I think I did manage to capture the vibes. So I’d like to retain that, while working to remove muddiness and sound balance. Thanks for any feedback!

do something of your own with it compositionally, man. i can only hear a midi file played by sounds.

Oh gosh.  Nine minutes, ok wow.  I think I am going to organize my thoughts into bullet points.  It still may sound stream-of-consciousness, but bear with me. Too ambitious:  These arrangements are humongous; this one is the longest one yet, of the ones I have heard.  Starts with a ton of voiceover work, nearly two and a half minutes of spoken vocal before anything really melodic arrives.  That may be cool for a story-type video or audio drama, but it isn't really great as a standalone arrangement for OCR. Stiff sequencing:  The piano beginning after the two minute mark is very robotic, having no humanization at all.  The organ has the same problem when it arrives.  The choir, when it is exposed such as at 4:34-4:55 the choir sounds like an oppressive wall of sound rather than an emotive element, due to having a fast attack and long release, no swells, no motion to it, just a block of fake-sounding, overly loud, choir sound. Mismatched melodic and rhythmic patterns:  There are many written patterns in this soundscape, and often they are clashing melodically as well as rhythmically.  At 2:45 as things are just getting started, there's a drum beat and brass and a synthy thing, none of which sounds good together and the patterns are confusing rhythmically and melodically.  At 5:43, the soundscape is simple and sparse, but the patterns being played by drums and bass/synths just feels awkward.  Starting at 6:18, it finally makes sense and I can hear and feel a nice 6/8 time signature.  However when the choir joins back in at 6:36, it feels less groovy and more wall-of-sound.  At 7:08, once again I cannot connect to the pattern until 7:22 when the drums return.  But at 7:22, there are backing chords that aren't helping me make sense of things, and the melody writing feels so hectic and random. Melody lines lack melodic contour, as the notes jump around randomly.  An example is 4:07, the melody is so jumpy all the way until 4:33.   This may be literal source writing, but it doesn't fit nicely with the other writing here, it sounds forced, like the melody is being shoehorned into this part of the track.  At 7:22 all the way to the end, again the lead melodic writing is too random for me to follow, it lacks proper melodic contour and ends up sounding super confusing.   This may be verbatim source writing, but with so many sources combined like this, it does not work melodically or rhythmically.  The choir starting at 8:21 is playing a pattern that is way too busy for a backing element/pad, and together with the random sounding bassline and lead writing, it is making my brain melt trying to follow along. Too many source songs combined:  It is too difficult for mere mortals to sort out all these combinations, lead from this source, bass from that source, choir from something else... and it doesn't always work together melodically or rhythmically.  And these are not simple sources, they are complex orchestral pieces each unto themselves, so combining writing from two or more of them at once is going to be an almost impossible task. Tons of spoken vocals, often interrupting the flow.  Not a dealbreaker, it just adds to the piece sounding overdone. The mixing is fairly decent considering how many elements play together at any given time, but it is nearly impossible to get a clean sounding soundscape with so many instruments in similar frequency ranges playing together so much of the time.  As it stands, the mix sounds majorly overcooked to me. I am so sorry to be giving such detailed feedback that I'm sure will be viewed as negative, but I will say again what I said on an earlier track I voted on.  I recommend starting with much shorter/simpler source songs, and build out an arrangement with a simpler instrument palette and simpler writing, with fewer patterns playing at any given time, while learning about combining sounds that work well together, and writing that compliments each other rather than conflicting or making the patterns too hectic.  You definitely have strengths in arrangement crafting, just gotta revisit some basics to make it work right. NO    

Thanks for confirming! Will do it this way

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