Harmony
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remix name =
Credit to DeathBySpoon for the remix name suggestion.
I was unable to find the source but I vaguely remember the tune and analoq is satisfied with the level of arrangement so I'm good.
Compositionally I don’t think enough is here to justify a 2 minute mix.
Sound quality is hurting this piece. The kick is absolutely lifeless which leaves the low end feeling weak. In future efforts you might try to get a fuller sound by layering two or three kicks, adding distortion or playing with the EQ. The rest of the percussion track was similarly lacking, especially the snare, so be sure to find ways to thicken up those sounds as well. Application of chorus, reverb, pitch changes and delay are some odeas that could be explored.
The piano sample was decent but it’s usage isn’t. I think much of the mechanical feel is coming from the lack of dynamics that Larry mentioned. The high individual piano notes aren’t too bad but the low supporting chords could really benefit from some careful velocity editing. I enjoyed many of the strings. The lead solo violin, though somewhat repetitive, is made pretty dynamic by the sharp attacks and variations in velocity. The intro strings might have been concealed a little better, since their quality isn’t really that great.
Good work but a little more practice is needed to get more out of your samples and you mix. Keep hanging out in the WIP forum.
NO
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Great show, once again. Keep it up!
Consider picking up a pop/breath shield for your mics. There are some really breathy F's and popping P's that could easily be cleaned up.
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Pretty cool song. Great use of vox and FX to setup the paranoia vibe, interesting and engaging composition ideas and some slick processing choices.
The sound quality is generally good but there are a few things that might need to be looked at. That kick at 1:46 would be so much more effective if it blew up the entire sound field. As it is, it comes off rather weak. It also leads into what sounds like a bad note at 1:50. I felt that the entire section from 1:46-2:14 could have been better. The choir steps on its own toes and the notes mush together which isn’t very pleasant at times. The acoustic drums in the final section certainly need some punch. Bring those bad boys up! You might also want to tone the choir down on that same section as it seems to jump out of its place at points.
Good song but as a remix, its way too easy to forget what the source is until the familiar intro chimes in from time to time. As has been said, work on that. I hope to see this retuned and resubmitted.
NO (Please Resubmit)
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Ah, memories of saving up $5 to buy the shareware version of Descent on two 3.5” diskettes. Good times, good times.
This has got a pulsing vibe that I’m really digging. Although the main beat is a chill oom-tss deal, there’s some subtle and at times rather intricate percussion going on behind it which really drives the track. The synth that carries the main theme at 1:26 is refreshingly smooth, although a bit quiet for my tastes, and in general the choice of synths and their processing fits well with the ambient feel.
Too much is happening in the lower registers. Through 1:25 we have a very low bass, low strings, reverbed toms and a pounding kick. The creamy synth at 1:26 is low and many of the sound FX are low as well. While I won’t say that it’s muddy, I will say that the combination feels indistinct and heavier than it should. Props on handling so many lows without the mud but a more prominent lead and more high frequencies from something other than the percussion would make for a more polished sound.
My biggest issue is the limited arrangement. For a 5 minute mix not much happens compositionally beyond the source. There are extended groove sections like 1:55-2:15 and 2:33–3:11 but more interesting synth processing, additional FX or something along those lines is needed to keep them from sounding as repetitive and bare as they do. Additionally, there aren’t any significant modifications to source instrumentation so at times I feel that this is something of a simple upgrade with a tempo change.
Great sounds, great mastering, cool groove but a little repetitive and not expansive enough for me to pass outright. I’m close on this one but I think the source can be used much more creatively. Work on it and please resubmit. The first Descent soundtrack deserves all of the attention it can get.
Borderline NO
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Wow, I’m loving this. The music production is spot-on, the vocals are cleanly recorded and some quality work has been done in terms of doubling, panning, EQ and chorus effects to provide a very dynamic feel to Jason’s lyrics. The vocals fall apart at 2:58 but that’s a minor gripe. Honestly this could have easily been something played in any club that I frequent and no one would blink at the quality of much of the track.
Unfortunately, making something that sounds like it could be played in the club just isn’t enough to pass these days. If you want to make a successful remix you’re going to need something to set you apart. What we have here is very well produced, for what it is, but it’s very lacking in creativity. It might be catchy, but it’s certainly not interesting. Just like I have problems with out-of-the-box techno, this rap mix, from beat to lyrics, is dangerously generic.
Although that is an issue, the primary reason for my rejection is the lyrical content. The explicit lyrics don’t particularly bother me but what are they talking about? Nothing. If a song has lyrics then those lyrics become an instrument that must be congruous with the theme and supporting elements in order for it to qualify as a remix. Otherwise you’re simply playing the source and writing an original piece on top of it. That is what we have here and that doesn’t fly with me. Two recent rap mixes that have passed, “Niggaz 4 Life” and “Memories Frozen in Time” make much better use of the poetry of rap in the context of a remix. The lyrics of the first mix directly relate to the storyline of the remixed game and the lyrics in the DCT/Just Us mix, as I mentioned in my review of it, play on the theme of music creation which is what remixes are all about.
There’s also the issue of arrangement value. This is a cover of the source with a beat and lyrics. Conservative reinterpretation of the source would be an overstatement.
I love rap and I’d love to see more songs of this quality make it to the front page but it would be wrong of me to pass this. This needs a lot of thematic reinterpretation and more creative and relevant lyrics. Great production though.
NO
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I think this mix gets better as it nears the end but the first two minutes are really not working. The music box in the intro is slightly out of tune, which is cool in some respects as it fits with the dreamy strangeness of the Special Stage. I would have preferred a gradual introduction of the reverb rather than abruptly stepping it up (and down at the end). Also in the intro we’ve got some light pops and glitches, most notably at 0:26 and 0:30.
When the main strings and background pads come in at 0:30 everything goes to mush. The choir pads are low quality and indistinct and simply need to be removed or changed. Similar problem with the bass which has way too much reverb on it. The lead strings are at least bright so that we get some contrast from the other elements but their consistent very slow attack gets bothersome after a while, as Malcos mentioned. The chromatic percussion that remains from the intro doesn’t sound out of tune anymore but it does hit some bad notes (e.g. 0:33).
The jazzy vibe that you were going for is a cool idea but the drums aren’t living up to your creativity. They sound as if they’ve been around the resampling block more than a few times. Very low quality with a lot of high frequency distortion. I’m sure that it supposed to be a ride from 1:00-1:22 but it’s completely garbled. The crashes at 1:01 and 1:32 are too loud and bright and their contrast with the other percussion makes for a tough listen.
Arrangement was conservative but I think passable given how brief the mix is. The symmetric composition is interesting but I don’t think that it works well with this brief of material. For the last minute we have essentially the same material as we had for the first minute. It’s difficult to effectively repeat an entire minute of a 3 minute track.
Lots of work needs to be done to get this into shape. The sample quality needs to be greatly improved and the composition needs to be expanded. Improving is the joy of music though so don’t hesitate to keep working on this one. In addition to the feedback you’ve gotten at VGMix, there’s great help available at OCR’s Remixing and WIP forums.
NO
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The intro bell sounds really thin and sort of creepy. If that’s the vibe you were going for then capital work old bean but I would have preferred a much more full sound there. Nevertheless I think that the short strings and breakbeats that come in at 0:13 are sweet. They still feel like an intro however and thus there is too little build up before we are launched into a thematic chorus section at 0:27. The result is a mix that feels underdeveloped from that point onwards. In addition, the beats are cool but that lack some amount of captivating energy, especially given the amount of repetition that they undergo. The drum switch-ups at 1:24 and 2:27 breathe some life into the percussion track not only because they are different from the rest of the mix but also because they’ve got some funky processing laid on them. Try to keep that in mind with the rest of the track as well. I didn’t particularly like the beats as they were used at 2:11. Although this is more of a personal preference issue, I feel that their choppy breaks didn’t mesh well with the flowing sustained strings and light chromatic percussion.
The arrangement started off great with the really cool bass groove that threatened to take the themes in cool new directions. To some extent we get that but for the most part the good ole Dream Shore theme is conservatively recreated with the same instrument as in the source and then played over the supporting groove. That can work if you have really strong, engaging supporting elements but as has been mentioned the mix is relatively simplistic.
Really fun to listen to though. Work on thickening up and varying the percussion as well as introducing more expansive interpretation of the source material. Have fun with it.
NO
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Some of the FX and processing are really cool. The vocoder sounding FX at 0:32 are really trippy, as are the breakdown at 2:50 and the outro. The section from 1:40 is slick indeed with its ambient beat-driven groove. There’s a decent variety of lead synths whose textures all seem to work nicely with the supporting elements. The bass isn’t too smooth though and I’d either swap the sample for something creamier or tone the bass track down.
Sadly, not much locks together to give the mix a cohesive feel at any given point. The percussion sequencing is good but is very sparse and the drums are in need of some interesting effects processing to thicken them up. I’m all for crazy amounts of compression, distortion or some unique use of reverb on drums and you guys might consider something along those lines in the future. I’m wondering why the bass dropped out at 1:02 as it was somewhat holding things together. Sections like 1:02-1:20 and 2:19-2:49 aren’t strong enough to stand alone with the few elements that are present at those times. I also wasn’t feeling the harmonies created with the lead during 1:02-1:40. The supporting and main theme just didn’t mesh well.
An enjoyable track and an interesting spin on the original but a whole heap of compositional concerns keeps this from being as cool as it could be. Keep working at it.
NO
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Hey, this is a fun source tune that certainly lends itself to the mix’s genre. The adaptation here doesn’t live up to the source’s potential however. The source has plenty of variety, interesting harmonies, key changes, lead changes and aside from the bass and drums, the source doesn’t really feel that repetitive for a 4 minute video game track. The mix however loses a lot of this by keeping the same harsh lead throughout, cutting some of the sections of the original, and shamelessly repeating the sections that are kept.
I would have liked to see more synth variety. If you’re going to stick with the same beat throughout, the synth processing and choice of synths needs to be very creative and have a lot of variety. For the most part the buzzy lead is alright but at 2:37 a smoother lead is desperately needed. When the beat cuts out and for a brief moment all that’s in the mix are creamy background pads, that sawtooth synth comes and slices any dream trip that I was having.
I think the mix is enjoyable for the most part but it is really not an improvement over the original. Bring in some more of the source, add some variety to the instrument choices (including the drums), avoid the fade-out on such a short track, put in some tweaking time and I think we will both be happier with the final product.
NO
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A major issue is the overwhelming reverb. Everything from leads to kicks is drowned in the stuff. Rely more on dynamic contrast and bold instrument/arrangement choices to create an epic vibe rather than on a single effect.
The intro needs a lot of work as it is too sparse and not interesting enough hold the stage on its own. You might try adding some pads to smooth that section out. This would also ease us into the synth at 0:38 which is a somewhat jarring transition right now. Once things get going, don’t forget to actually remix the theme instead of simply playing it over your background stuff.
As a note, the cymbal build at 2:44 was bad. The attacks on the cymbals are way too short so it sounds very mechanical. If you can’t adjust the cymbal attacks, there are plenty of free drum kits out there that have good cymbals for that kind of effect. The cymbals in this mix are much nicer however when not completely exposed (ex. 3:38).
Good effort but plenty more work needs to be done to make this track as exciting and polished as it could be. Keep working at it.
NO
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A lot of great improvements have been made since the first revision that I heard. Most of the instruments are much more fluid and realistic and the arrangement was always there in good form. The flute arpeggios are very nice now. They don’t overpower the mix and a good sample is used. Unfortunately, there are still a few sticking points and for the most part I agree with the problems that Larry mentioned. The new solo horn is cool but it’s too loud when compared to the string and the piano that get buried behind it. This is especially evident when the horn stops at 2:19 and I feel like I have to strain to hear the now exposed background elements. I don’t have a problem with the vox. I think that they are pretty well covered which is a necessity for synth choirs in my experience.
I think the biggest problem with this version however is the “missing register” that the wingless mentioned. The entire piece is mid-heavy which contributes to the muddiness of the lead instruments and generally makes everything sound like a gray rainy day. This wasn’t the case in the first version (compare the sound of the strings when they first enter at 0:28 in the new version with that of the old version and you should hear a big difference), so I suspect that the culprit is either an EQ production mistake or the lower VBR encoding of this version. Fixing this would go a long way towards making this sparkle like I know it can.
I really hope you can eventually continue to work on this one because I feel it’s very close to a YES and I think a lot of folks out there, Sonic fans or not, would really enjoy it. Do the community a favor and please resubmit.
NO (Please Resubmit)
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That bass is killing my speakers and I love it; wait, and what's this!? A crazy delayed funkadelic Rhodes solo!
Please, Pretzel, don't hurt 'em.
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...i now have Russian vocoder vocals in the mix... though i gotta blend them in a bit better, but they are there, and you can listen to my commendable attempt at speaking Russian as of now:D
lol, you can't call your own attempt commendable. You've gotta let someone else do that
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Good work Mike. The build up through 1:39 was very dynamic and the drop in momentum to the intro of the source at 1:40 worked to the song’s credit. In the context of a remix however, a 1:40 intro with a classic paint-by-numbers trance intro that has little to do with the source is not going to cut it. Considering that the source itself is repetitive and not very melodic, every available second of this mix needs to be used for expansion and reinterpretation. After 1:40 I simply hear the theme repeated at the same tempo, in the same key, from a few various synths. We’d love to hear more of your own style here Mike so more original melody or something to break the standard monotony would be great.
Man that 909 snare fill starting at 2:05 is really plain. Why not layer it with something or EQ it so we can’t tell it’s just the default 909? In general though, I don’t have a problem with many of the synths. They’re generic but most of them fit the style. Unfortunately even if you’re the best chef in the world, if you use generic ingredients to bake a cake, you end up with a generic cake.
NO
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…not much creativity beyond trance/electronica coverage on the arrangement side.
Exactly. In the past I’ve been jumped on for calling a mix “generic trance,” but this is not necessarily a bad thing in general. Good generic trance can be good but it’s going to be hard to pass anything like it because by definition it requires little creativity on the part of the mixer.
That being said, this mix is pretty blah. Take 2:28-2:42 and 4:32-4:58 for example. The muffled bass and relatively weak kick alone are not interesting enough to justify 40 seconds of solo time. I would have also liked to hear some more interesting drumwork. What's here isn't bad but it feels very repetitive. The lead synths aren't too terrible and I think with more creative FX processing and the right supporting elements, they could be cool.
Needs more spice: Creative EQ work on the drums/bass, more engaging percussion sequencing, more elements in sparse sections, some dynamic contrast (even given the genre), and a pinch of paprika couldn’t hurt. Keep working at it.
NO
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Very nicely done Evinid. Production and performance of the live instruments is good, especially that hella smooth bass. I do hear the track hiss cutout around 2:39 so don’t forget to fade the live instrument clips to prevent this from being as obvious. Good quality drum samples and although somewhat repetitive, the fluid sequencing has a good groove that allows it not to seem as such. The snare and toms could use some reverb.
The intro is strange. The first e. piano chord at 0:08 isn’t in the same key as the rest of the melody which makes for an awkward entrance of the bass. Change that chord to something more relevant to the rest of the piece and you’ll have a pretty chill intro.
Breakdown at 1:37 is cool but I could have gone for a different lead synth. Something more acoustic (maybe a return of the e. piano from the intro) would have been nice. The transition out of this section at 2:39 is ok but seems too sparse. That bass solo was nice though.
As much as I’m digging the performance and production, the arrangement is where this suffers. The melody is played pretty much straight from the source and the backing groove isn’t expansive enough to give it arrangement cool points. As Larry mentioned, the arrangement picked up towards the end but never really developed much. Where was that flute for the first half of the mix man?
I hear the bass/pad chord mismatch that Jesse mentioned. Bring that bass note up a half step. Done. Not particularly noteworthy really.
Very enjoyable and I’ll be keeping this version but I hope that you can find some time to work on expanding the interpretation of the original and submit a reworked version.
NO (Please Resubmit)
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Why am I loving this old-timey prospector source tune so much? Good stuff.
Some of the pieces in this mix are nice. The drum loop has potential, there’s some limited yet purposeful panning of the lead synth at 0:14-0:55, and some attempts have been made at applying some interesting effects like the flange on the synths. There’s also a really expansive pad that I like that comes in at 0:41. As a whole though this mix comes out sounding pretty flat and underdeveloped. Beef up your sounds with some selectively applied EQ, better separation of some of the background elements and possibly a compressor or other effect on the drum loop.
I’m with the other judges on the arrangement. For a source tune that I really enjoyed, this didn’t seem like much of an improvement and in many parts, the source tune was lost altogether. This is a fun mix but needs a good amount of work for it to really take off. Hit the WIP forum for more feedback and keep working at it.
NO
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That bassline is killing things here. Yeah, the source bass is doing the repetitive distorted near-drone thing but that shouldn’t have been carried over to the mix. I must also stress that the random ascending buzzy synth that we first hear at 0:30 is not cool. It could have been worked into the mix in a creative way but the way it’s used here is similar to the original which is far from a good thing. In general the synths were too buzzy to extend throughout the entire mix as they did. Some of the cooler parts of the mix were where smoother instruments join the party (1:31, 3:27,…)
The beats didn’t carry much momentum. Try not to overwhelm the drum track with so much snare work. I think the best percussion in the mix comes at 3:27 when the elements are more sparse and it is much easier to feel the rhythm.
Tempo changes were ok but overdone.
It would have been an amazing thing to hear a great arrangement of this source so I’ll say good effort. For now, keep working at it.
NO
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Whoa I like a lot of the ideas on the drum track. There’s some really trick stuff going on with the hi-hats/snares (0:46-0:53, 3:07-3:19), we’ve got tight cuts (0:53, 1:19, 4:00,…) and plenty of percussive variety throughout. The percussion is also well integrated with the melodic elements which helps them make the arrangement spicy. Some of the percussion is bass heavy for my tastes but it’s not completely overwhelming. The sparse section from 0:27-0:53 I thought was strange and worked only marginally well at introducing the rest of the track.
Some sections aren’t quite there yet. I’ve been waiting to hear some Wy0StarFox guitar but the live guitar is too far back and gets swallowed by the bass which is too loud (also at 1:47-2:27, 2:40-3:06) and isn’t that good of a sample. Also, the harmony at 2:55, around 3:31, and a few other places is odd. I’d solo two or three elements at a time and make sure the harmonies that are created are the ones that you’re after and are also pleasing.
Production in general is loud, high and muddy. All of these problems can probably be fixed with global EQ but more individual attention to the track levels, the high frequencies on the percussion and the combined lows of the strings, kick and bass would be a much better approach to fixing this mix’s mastering. This is a good effort but I think a rework/resub would be the best call here. Keep working at it.
NO (Please Resubmit)
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The mastering is done relatively well here. This mix has a nice full sound to it that can elude a lot of first-time mixers. Production in general is pretty plain though as has already been said. With a track whose melody changes very little like this, a lot more engaging processing is required to keep things interesting. The bg synth with the cut/res sweep that starts at about 0:22 and returns later on is good example of type of thing that a lot of the other elements need to give them some depth. The source tune “Battle with the MetaKnight” has some interesting panning/FX to inspire you, so take a closer listen then open up the FX bag-o-tricks and go wild…tastefully wild of course.
Good idea layering the synth guitar with other synths but I think Zircon is right that it might be good to swap that lead guitar for something else. Expressively, the guitar is pretty flat and a lot of processing would be required to spice it up.
The kicks are dreadfully weak when they are exposed at 2:21. For a section like that where a solid low foundation is what you’re after either up the low EQ on them, add an effect that will thicken them up (reverb for example) or simply bring up the volume.
I hear the two sources but I don’t think that they are arranged particularly well. I feel like I’m missing the best parts of each source like the really cool lead synth from “Battle with MetaKnight” and the break down of “Taking Over the Halberd” which if included (in a more complete form than is already done) would introduce a more interesting chord structure in your mix and kill some of the monotony.
Not bad but a good amount of tweaking and arrangement still needs to be done to make this track shine. Keep working at it.
NO
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I agree with what’s already been mentioned in terms of arrangement. There are some nice melodic additions here but not enough to support 5:25. I can’t say that it’s repetitive because there’s a good amount of variety throughout, but there are no major changes that prevent the mix from feeling like its dragging. In addition to more dramatic melodic/dynamic changes you might also work on improving the simple 3-note bassline that’s present throughout much of the mix (0:00-1:02, 2:32-3:36,…) Also consider making some element(s) of the percussion a little more steady. The beat is really groovy and rich but it feels choppy and doesn’t seem to gather any momentum to carry me through the piece. A steady quarter-note ride or an eight-note closed hi-hat might help.
I would tone down the lows on this mix by decreasing the volume of the kick and possibly the bass. Very nice guitar work but I would also knock out some of its lows. These fixes would help the soundfield to sound less muffled and cluttered.
The pizz strings seem very dry to me, especially in their appearance at 2:53 when they aren’t masked by anything. However, combined with the brass swells and the rhythmic birds, I like the variety that they create in the mix.
All-in-all, good stuff with a good beat and a chill vibe. Just work on the arrangement issues mentioned, clean up the production and presto! Great mix.
NO
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Some of the percussion work sounds like early 90s throwback R&B and I’m really digging its deceptively simple style accented by tons of FX and subtle variety (such as the introduction of the ride at 1:30).
Whereas the source is completely repetitive, the theme driven sections of this mix morph and evolve allowing a lot of really cool creative stuff to be packed into 2:51. I agree that some of the additive elements, especially near the beginning, didn’t work as well as they could have, even given the “weird” groove that the mix is after. The pitch bends on the organs and synths were interesting but there were points when I felt that the dissonance didn’t work to the tracks credit (0:11, 0:22, 0:25). After 0:30 though I thought everything was spot on. The lead elements all occupied very clear places on the soundstage which made for enjoyable and intentional harmony clashes. In addition we have seamless transitions to much more traditional melodic sections with some slick cross-panned synths that still manage to hold remnants of the source’s off-the-beaten-melodic-path vibe (1:20, 2:26). IMO, the lead at 2:06-2:26 is amazingly groovetastic and works wonders with the feel of the source.
Fade-out on a 2:51 track was a letdown I must say. I was looking for a dissonant auditory assault for the end so my expectations may be getting the best of me.
I feel that the additions to the source in the form of creative expansion of the rather sparse original elements, coupled with superb execution and plenty of original melodies justifies the close adherence to the source structure. Great work Mazedude.
YES
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Oh snap, first ReMix project featured on VGDJ and remixers are dropping left and right. What up wit dat!?
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Lovin' the remixer interviews. Hope you guys are able to get a lot more of those for the upcoming shows.
#002
*NO* Final Fantasy 7 'Solid Gold'
in Judges Decisions
Posted
The intro lead synths are as generic as they come and there are a bunch of stock crash cymbal transitions but beyond that, the execution shows a good amount of creative original work and attention to detail, especially in the drum track. The “frenzy” is driven by intricate percussion and very cool use of sampled beats and FX early in the track (0:11-0:23, 0:36-0:59, …). I’ll also be the odd man out and say that I enjoyed the pitched-up samples. Although they contributed little to the actual arrangement I feel that the energy that they bring to the outro is great.
I can’t say that I felt that the mix was thin. The bass layered with the lead synth in concert with the main bass synth made sure that a good level of phatness was maintained through much of the mix. The bass/lead combo was especially effective in sections where only a few elements were present (1:00-1:09). And then of course there is 1:48 where that monster bass/kick is dropped. It’s almost got too much punch though as I think it drowns out the other elements more than I would like.
I’ve got some issues with the arrangement but I feel it’s passable. I agree with Gray that there is little melodic or harmonic reinterpretation of the source and this is certainly a point of concern. The melodic structure is changed enough for me though. The remixing of the source melody from 0:23-2:11 is interesting in that at times the theme is used as a supporting element in this beat-driven track while at other times the theme rises as the lead. It’s somewhat repetitive but not as much as the source and with only 2 mins of theme, the repetition isn’t overbearing. The theme is completely left-out from 2:12-end which is not a good thing but again, I like what was done with the potentially wasted time.
A few problems here and there but nothing too serious.
YES