Nutritious

Oh snap I actually finished a song.

*PROJECT MIX* Nutritious 16520 Super Mario RPGWeapons Factory, Fight With Culex This remix was a long time coming. I joined the SMRPG project with the intention to claim one of the better-known original tracks, but unfortunately (or fortunately?) I was late to the game and ended up selecting Weapons Factory. This is a very short theme with lots of repeated patterns and a really strange time signature (13/8 or something?). I started it some time last year with the idea of a electronic focused big wall-of-sound-type mix. I got about halfway through when I ran out of ideas and the song really stalled out. Many months later, DaMonz began contacting me about the status of the track and we had a few discussions about ideas and ways to expand on what was here. He was the one who came up with the idea of a DnB style transition and while working on that, I found myself humming the FF4 Boss Fight theme along with it. It then hit me that that same theme happens to also appear in SMRPG during the secret Culex boss fight, so I decided to roll with the idea. While there is a significant style-shift at the halfway mark, I tried to have a more gradual transition between the two source themes so that they are present together for a good portion of the switch. Definite thanks to DaMonz for pushing me to not give up on the track & OA with feedback help (and anyone else I bounced it off of earlier on that I forgot!). Source usage: :12 - 1:08 Bass line from WF OST 1:09 - 1:41 Lead playing triplet/simplified version of strings from WF (weakest connection probably) 1:42 - 2:27 Bass & triplet Lead together (Bass cuts out after a bit) 2:35 - 3:11 Backing stab synth playing WF string lead more directly 3:12 - 3:32 Guitars playing WF bass, synth on WF strings continues 3:33 - 4:08 Guitar/synth leads playing Culex lead, previous guitars and synth alternate between WF themes and Culex theme 4:09 - 4:36 Culex theme on leads and backing

Man the original track is sick. Let's see what you did with it. Cool old school electro vibe. Man Nuts, I don't think I've listened to much of your stuff in a while because I haven't heard you make anything like this. Loving the synth work here. Cool stereo effect on the snare to widen it out. Great lead synth work. I agree the voice is a bit loud when it first enters and the listener isn't really prepared for it. Arrangement wise, the connections and expansions are definitely clear - no complaints there. It felt a bit meandering with the breakdown section as it passed the 2 minute mark, but it got back on track quickly. TAG

Yeah, not much to add on the arrangement call here. This is a great cover, but as mentioned, it unfortunately doesn't jive with the OCR arrangement philosoph.y Production wise, man, that kick has a lot of presence here (almost too much?). Would like the lead guitar to have a bit more presence in the forefront of the mix. It's definitely clearly audible, but still feels like it could be more prominent. Would love to hear something from you that's more interpretive as this is a really cool track for sure. NO

Great instrumentation and writing on display here. Vocals definitely get the job done here. Chris achieves a great balance between the backing orchestra and the vocals so that the former supports, rather than competes with, the latter. Arrangement work sounds solid to me. Great delicate phrasing on even more minor backing instruments. Top notch sequencing here. Man, instrumentation sounds gorgeous. I'm plagued with sample envy. One note: Sounds like some clipping briefly at 5:27. Probably pushed the levels a bit hard, but it would be good to have a fix for it. YES

Very strong writing here. I'm liking the complexity in the arrangement and adaption of the original tunes. Great transitions, dynamics, instrument interplay, and oh did I mention writing? Production-wise, this is really solid work. Minor nitpick, the brass (esp french horns) sound a bit too dry/exposed during some their more prominent lines. I'm hearing the same resonant in the trombones as Kris, but agreed that it's also very minor. I can't really think of any others, geez. Great stuff. YES

Lots of great points already brought up here. First 1:50 was essentially a generic trance intro with no source usage. Same with the outro minute or so. I get this is a trance-specific thing, but less repetition would be welcome. Oddly, when we do arrive at the full melody on piano, the volume on it suddenly drops significantly. With so much delay on it and the low volume, it becomes sort of a jumble in the background, rather than the clear melodic line the whole intro has been building to. Same issue at 3:40 with the B section from the original. 4:07 transition is really awkward. The hit comes in a early, which is really jarring when you're listening to the preceding melody line. The first part of the melody is on the correct beat, but the second half is then a beat off from the tempo. I'm not sure if these are due to sequencing errors or are intentional, but I don't think it's working here. Balance-wise, the kick and sustained notes are really drowning out the melodic lines. Also, this track is mastered really hot. Once 4:35 rolls around, everything is competing for space due to so many loud elements that the track becomes very cluttered. As mentioned, I'd like to hear more variation & personalization on the melody lines from the original used here. Besides the partial usage during the intro/outro and the off-beat 2nd half of the melody used sometimes, the melody lines are all used verbatum from the original. It's a good start and has some great ideas, but issues with both arrangement and production need to be addressed to reach the bar. NO resubmit, please

Very cool intro. Once the beat kicks in, it actually felt a bit subdued energy-wise from the intro. Source connections are quite clear throughout with heavy use of the melodies from the OST. Overall, the mix sounds pretty dull tone-wise. There isn't a lot of high end presence in general for each of the elements. The beat (esp snare) sounds muffled and doesn't have a lot of energy behind it. Several sections (like 3:14 especially) sound cluttered despite not being particularly loud. Beyond the fact there are several elements in play, there's a lot of reverb and sustained notes which make the whole thing sound indistinct. May be personal preference, but some of the lead writing felt needlessly complex - like notes were added between the phrases for the sake of being different/personalized rather than for musicality. Note: not positive, but sounded like some possible wrong notes on the resolving chord (1:57, 2:06, 2:16, etc) between the chords and more prominent instruments. May want to double check those. I'd recommend some EQ work to give some upper-end presence to elements that need to cut through. Also, another mixing/compression/mastering pass in general to get weaker elements like the drums to have better presence in the mix. It's a great start and lots of potential here. NO resubmit, please

Sweet stuff here. Nice a full soundscape. Hard hitting beat and edgy synths. Connections were pretty clear thoughout, and though I felt the bass deviated a bit more from the source to be a solid connection, the lead pinned it down much more for me. Levels didn't bother me personally. Very creative. Keeps the listener engaged throughout. Solid production. YES

yeah, I'm pretty much 100% on board with Emu's vote as well. Overall, the sounds are mixed pretty dry and there's very little in the way of humanization or dynamics in the sequencing. Some cool arrangement ideas on display here, but this one would need a significant production overhaul to reach the bar in that regards. NO

I'd agree with the exception of a really good sale on specific components if the whole suite is out of price range. I picked up Massive quite a while back pretty cheap during some holiday sale.

Nodding my head at the above votes here. I won't beat a dead horse here on the volume levels/distortion here, but that's the biggest and more prominent issue on the track. Gario realy has given a treasure trove of good prouction advice so be sure to read his analysis carefully I will add that writing on the transitions around 1:00 and just before 2:00 felt odd and didn't bridge contrasting sections well. The synth lead in around :40 wasn't quite on point either as it doesn't really sync up with the rest of the elements. Make sure you connect the dots on the A,B,C etc sections so they flow smoothly and logically. Ending was pretty sudden and didn't feel like it resolved the track well. There are some really cool ideas and interesting sounds on display here, but quite a bit of work on the production side is needed to get this to its full potential. NO resubmit, please

Great points made above here. Levels were pretty hot here and need to be pulled back - especially in the freqs Nuts #2 mentioned, since they're pushing the envelope here and causing distortion in places. Def feeling the repetition comments as well. Some of the non-electronic sounds really rigidly sequenced here (piano/string backing parts. Not much to add beyond that. Good start, but more work needed. NO resubmit, please

Yeah, definitely on the same page as my fellow J's above. There are some cool elements and synths in play here. Overall, though, the mix sounds really empty, especially once it gets going with the dirty wubs. The arrangement feels overly simplistic and too dependent on the extended wub breakdowns. I'll add that the general sound levels are quite low, which makes me think you may be new to mastering compression and mixing in general. Just want to say don't be discouraged. I'd definitely recommend spending some time on the WIP boards to get some more realtime feedback on your work to help improve these types of issues. NO

I like the idea of building up orchestra elements behind a more folksy arrangement. Definitely keeps a lot of the feel of the original, but the artist also takes some nice, creative liberties as well. Pan flute at the start sounds lofi and in a different sonic space than the rest of the elements. Listening a few times in I feel like the various instruments here aren't quite gelling together to form a cohesive ensemble. The elements are mixed relatively dry, but many sound washed out (flute, strings, piano to a certain extent). I believe I recognize some of these samples as ones I've used in the past and I can totally understand the challenge in squeezing realistic results from them, so no hate here at all. Orchestral elements felt pretty static in the background with repeating block chords used and reused throughout the song. Really would've like to hear some more variation and dynamic contrast on those. Speaking of dynamics, after about the :46 mark, the track energy sort of plateaus and doesn't really have much change until the small build up near the end. Part of this is due to repetitive part-writing for some of the backing percussion and strings. I'm not saying you need to go crazy bombastic or anything, but some swells, writing change-ups, different harmonizations, etc could really help keep the listener more engaged with the track. A bit nitpicky, but the transition at 1:16 felt a little abrupt and could be smoothed out. This is mastered pretty low overall. I think there's some room for some tasteful compression to bring out some of the quiet elements. You can see big volume spikes on the waveform whenever the timpani hits, so it tells me there's a lot of room to compress those and raise the overall track levels. Sorry if I'm Scrooge McDucking this one on the production side, but I don't feel like this one is quite up to the bar in that regard. NO resubmit, please

Nice, dude, this project looks awesome. Very cool to see creative endeavors from OCR members. Good luck on your kickstarter campaign.

Hey, a Schala mix. <Insert snarky comment here> Solid work here. Plenty of source use throughout. Melodies and backing patters from the original are used very creatively throughout. Nice soundscape here and very clear production. After a while, the middle section (1:45 - 2:38) felt like it was droning on a bit without much in the way of changes to the core pattern or sounds used. Next section was a nice breakdown transition from it, though, so no biggie. 3:33 melody felt overly quiet compared to the other elements. Even if it's supposed to be subtle, it just sounds like a sequencing mistake. Great use of percussion elements to nail down the atmosphere. You squeezed a lot of energy out of the mix, especially as it progressed further. The buildup to 5:05 was very cool. Great track. YES

Had three steps as well, but after a few tries I managed to get one through Bionic Commando instead of FF. Interesting.

From the site FAQ. So yeah, give proper credit and go for it :).

Good call by DA and I'm feeling myself in agreement with her. Arrangement and development really are what's holding this back. Would like to hear more personalization beyond what we get in the original piano piece. Some more contrast between the various sections beyond the same chords and feel would be welcome as well. Production is fairly solid here. One thing I'd mention is that for such a mellow arrangement, some of the tones are a bit harsh or stick out too much above the other elements. The snare (in the intro and quieter sections specifically) is one example. Some strong piano notes (:48, 1:07, 1:20, etc) do as well. Also, I almost always find fadeout endings disappointing :/ It's a good start, just needs some arrangement love NO resubmit, please

Much agreement with the above, I have. Such a cool concept with the disco-ey feel. Really liking the instrumentation and ideas put forth here. The source melody at 1:35 felt buried between other, much louder elements. Would've liked to hear better balance here. Timing didn't bother me as much as the others, sounds like. Mix feels schizophrenic in a way with somewhat abrupt transitions from heavily contrasting sections. Would've liked the song flow to be more smoothed out as well as a logical connection between these sections. Agreeing also with the copy-pasta remarks. Not that much of an ending to speak of here, so a bit of missed potential as well. I think that last statement is a good sum up of my feelings. Very cool base here and there's a ton of potential in the track. Would love to hear this one again with a bit more refinement. NO resubmit, please

Not much to add here. Cool atmosphere here and really liking the interplay between various instruments you've got going. Liking the arrangement work as well. I do agree there's room for improvement on the sequencing work and realism. I can hear the work you've put into velocity variation, but many of the parts are pretty upfront and exposed, so any artificial note changes or timings become pretty obvious to the listener. It might help to add a bit more reverb to help smooth out the articulations a bit. Beyond that, more cared & attention to sequencing humanization will go a long way here. DA makes a good point on the piano tone sounding thin as well. I don't think this is far off at all and don't blame Nuts for the nod, but I'd like to hear another go-around. NO resubmit, please

Added and appreciated

Crash Bandicoot re-imagined as Star Wars Duel Of The Fates? I need to hear this. The choir seems a bit upfront at the beginning. Wouldn't hurt to push them back a bit and add some reverb, which would give it a more epic feel and also smooth out some of the artificial articulations. Nearly off the bat, this one sounds pretty loudly mastered for an orchestral piece. Haven't heard distortion or overcompression yet, but will see as it goes on. Given the really wide stereo separation for the orchestra, the breakbeat & orchestral percussion sounds oddly centered/mono-ish. Not a dealbreaker, but I would've liked to hear them presented in a more similar sonic space to the other elements. Very cool adaptation. Tons of energy and I'm definitely hearing the source connections and inspirations throughout. More a personal preference, but I would've liked to hear a bit more volume out of the beat and a bit less of the orchestra. Can't really count it as a crit, though, because I've heard plenty of pieces go with the same approach with a somewhat subdued beat behind the orchestra. Starting to hear it push the limiters a bit at 1:30 and moreso at 1:50. The various low elements are all competing for space in this section and it's sounding crowded. Fortunately, these only occur for a limited time overall. There is room for improvement here, but I think as an overall package this gets the job done. YES

Man, Ace Combat music is so cool. Makes me wish I'd tried out these games at some point. Another very cool mix from Brandon. Definitely channels some of the strong melody writing and progression of the original. Transition to the Spanish guitar is nicely handled. though not actually an original idea as it's in the original, it was very cool to hear the rock elements later join in with it to hybridize the two distinct styles. Production-wise, the guitars (both rhythm and leads) sounded a bit overpowering compared to the other elements. For example, the vocal lead seems like it should be a bit more prominent, but ends up taking a bit of a back seat to the rock elements. Mastering sounds a bit on the loud side compared to what I'm normally listening to, but nothing sticks out as hard on the ears. Lots of energy here and tons to like. Very strong guitar performances as well as orchestral writing. Pretty easy call. Great stuff. YES