Jump to content

Flexstyle

Judges
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,603

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    10

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Flexstyle

    New Year's Resolutions Thread 2012 Edition

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I do have a few long-term goals that were already in place.

    - Get paid for scoring a game that gets released (I've been paid for scoring a game that may or may not ever see the light of day, already, haha).

    - Learn to play guitar with some measure of competence.

    - Keep ingesting less sugar and play sports more often.

    - Get my associate's degree and move onto the last two years of college.

    - Obtain necessary equipment for "full band" mobile recording setup, record some local bands, then make a profit.

    Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2011

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Sorry, clarification: By "votes are inaccurate," I was referring to the overall results of each round, not to any one person.

    Also, I don't want reviews. I already know what I want out of a song. I'm okay with seeing what you (note: "you" in this case is anyone in general) thought of the mix, but I probably don't care about your suggestions.

    Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2011

    in Competitions

    Posted

    I can assure everyone that, personally, I've used the same criteria for voting this entire time. I pay absolutely no attention to who the remixer actually is--the questions I ask myself are "Do I like this track? Is it polished? Does it seem to arrange the themes sufficiently?" If yes to all the above, I put that track on my list of "tracks to consider voting for." Usually, from there, it's just "which track do I like the best?"

    As someone who's been churning out mixes with loads of production polish and who has been passed over for mixes that (no offense to anyone, and I'm not going to name any names) completely lack that level of polish, I get it--some people have far different tastes than I do. Something that seems like a glaring, unforgivable flaw to me may be nothing more than a minor annoyance to another listener, because they haven't trained their ears specifically towards engineering like I have.

    At the same time, I am always suspicious when I see a bunch of names voting in the social group that I never see anywhere else on the forums. Some folks, like orlogue and MindWanderer, are people that I can't recall seeing anywhere else, but at least they're taking the time to be present in this discussion thread so they don't seem like people who are just voting for people because they like that person. Do I suspect the votes of being mildly inaccurate? Yeah, I do. Not gonna lie. Does it matter? No, thankfully, because this contest was never about winning to me--it was (and is) about stretching my limits as a ReMixer and collaborating with a couple of really good guys.

    Am I going to regret having participated? Not at all. I hope, Rexy, that your experience with not winning (or not getting some deserved votes) won't sour your experience to the point where you wouldn't consider participating in another, similar contest. I've enjoyed competing against you and hearing your mixes, for what it's worth. :-)

    Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2011

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Some say that AkumajoBelmont's birth was accompanied by a chorus of angels. However, the heavenly bodies soon learned that his silver tongue was far more pleasing to the ear than any old angel--even the sun, moon, and stars wept at hearing even the cries of this newborn babe. The angels, jobless as they now were, still rejoiced, for they could not deny the inherent beauty nor fail to embrace the incredibly silky sound of his voice.

    As the child grew into a man, the legend grew as well. Tales have been told of monstrous beings whose evil tracks were halted by just one word sung by Akumajo. Still others tell the tale of when he merely whispered a song and coaxed an entire flock of baby dragons into blissful dreams. Others, too, swore that his voice was the pure essence of joy. Quack physicians were quick to sell bottles of old wine mixed with prune juice under the label of "Essence of Akumajo."

    To this day, the tale lives on. Small children often report seeing this mythical man at a distance, while they play in the fields. Others say AkumajoBelmont has joined a legendary team of ReMixers who bring justice and peace to the world through music, voice, and copious amounts of the finest alcoholic beverages. The true whereabouts of the man are known to but a select few, whose lives have been sworn in protection of the secret, for woe be to the world against whom this incredible power is turned.

    Land of the Beans (M&L: Superstar Saga)

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    >MODREVIEW<

    As a quick caveat, most of my expertise comes from the production side of things, and that’s how I’ll be approaching this mod review. Forgive me if I come across too harsh, as I’m just trying to pick out anything the judges might find.

    Right then, first things first. That combination of horns and strings—whatever it is that’s doing the little stabs throughout the song—really has some issues in the lower midrange. I’d say do a deep and wide cut around 180 Hz or so in the EQ, or even roll off that area entirely. I’d second the notion that the samples could be improved, since they just sound…cheap, I guess, for lack of a better term. There’s not a ton of believable articulation (yeah, there’s articulation, but it sounds kinda just “there so I can say I added articulation”) in there, since they really do just sound like triggered one-shot samples. I suspect if you lowered the volume of the stabs and made a significant EQ cut you’d have them fitting a lot better, at least, since they’re kinda clashing with the kick/snare and the bassline. If you mixed the string/horn stabs better (the EQ fixes, etc.), you might be able to get away with the “cheap-sounding” samples. Also: do you have any sort of reverb on them? That might solve part of the problem if you were to cut some significant low-mid frequencies out of that reverb, too. As of right now, they (the string/horn stabs) tend to overpower everything else in the mix.

    Around 1:29 or so, when the piano does its own little lead thing, you’ll want to bring it up in the mix a bit for that section. Otherwise it sounds like, “wait, there’s a piano solo here? I didn’t even notice it.”

    2:00 with the unison lead—it’s a bit buried, and you could probably stand to maybe even bring it up an octave. As of right now, it’s just kinda muddy. I would also mention that it feels almost “forced,” melodically, in that it doesn’t quite fit with the source or the remix—almost as a slightly random mish-mash of notes strung together. I’m sure that wasn’t the intent, and I’m certainly not accusing you of doing such a thing, but I am saying that’s what it kinda sounds like.

    At the end of the song, where you’ve got everything playing at once, it sounds REALLY crowded, musically. You’ve got dissonance from melodies playing at the same time that shouldn’t play together in a lot of places (multiples of those unison synth leads, for instance). As someone who likes to throw everything and the kitchen sink at the listener at the end of the song, I can sympathize, but it just makes a jumbled mess in this case.

    Overall mix thoughts: The entire mix sounds quite crowded and perhaps overcompressed. You could probably get away with rolling the sub bass frequencies off of the song entirely, maybe making a sharp cut or rolloff around 45 Hz or so. An overall mix cut of around 170-200 Hz wouldn’t hurt either. Looks to me like your bassline and kick are trying to occupy the same spot in the mix. You can pull that off, but you might have to lower the volume of one or the other, or simply re-EQ the kick to throw more weight into the higher end of the spectrum and less in the low end. Also, make sure your snare/clap has nothing sitting where the kick should be. Roll it off around 170 Hz or so. To be clear, actually, nothing besides the kick and bass should really occupy the spectrum below around 150 Hz or so, otherwise you’ve got mud problems.

    All that said, it IS an enjoyable mix. I think the little voice clips are well-placed and tasteful, adding a nice little bit of fun to an already cheery track. It's a joyous and playful song, and the overall arrangement is, I think, quite nice. Please don’t hear me tearing everything apart in a malicious manner. I'm just pretty certain that it's not going to pass the panel as it stands right now with all those production elements (some of which are a direct result of the arrangement) missing.

    WCRG - Gario - Magnet Man vs Wily 1-1

    in Post Your Game ReMixes!

    Posted

    Let's see--this was one of my favorites this week, and barely missed out on a top-3 spot.

    So far, on my first listen-through (of the new version), my only big issue is that the lead synth which comes in around 1:50 sounds just a bit too loud (leading to a harsh sound) and seems to be distorting a bit. Back off the high mid-range in the EQ and lower the overall volume of that synth and you should be alright.

    The bass, overall, isn't terribly present, but I think this particular song lets you get away with that. Same goes for a lot of the drums (kick in particular).

    That background arp which is ever-present (the one which is last to fade out at the end) might be just a bit too loud--you might consider scaling it back just a teensy bit.

    Overall, the song is a very bright-sounding, cheery, fairly polished mix. I hear plenty of source usage, so no complaints there. While quite enjoyable as-is, the overall sound is perhaps just a bit crowded at times, due to all the high-midrange synths in play. I don't think you're *quite* overdoing it just yet, but the judges might disagree. Consider raising or lowering some of your background synths an octave or so, as that might help with some of the crowding--which, incidentally, is probably no more evident than when that 1:50 lead synth comes in.

    Fix that harsh lead synth, check that background arp, maybe even change up the way some of the synths are phrased (octave-wise), and I personally think you'll have a winner.

    Merry Christmas!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    A very merry Christmas to y'all, too! I've been blessed to spend the last few days with various parts of my excellent extended family, and there's more to come.

    Got a four-figure sum of money in cash (enough to fix my car, holy cow!), some much-needed articles of clothing, and some delicious snacks...and the day's not even over yet.

    OCR02357 - Wild Arms "Telepath Tower"

    in ReMix Reviews & Comments

    Posted

    As a huge lover of trance, and as someone who's been pretty heavily influenced by Ferry Corsten and his various ventures, this song is easily one of my very favorites off the album. This song is one of the few I've ever heard from OCR (along with perhaps a couple of bLiNd mixes) that I can say would fit right into a DJ set without anyone even questioning that it belonged. As a DJ, that's very neat to me. As a diehard fan of VGM remixes, that makes me almost giddy. If a world-famous name like Tiesto can remix the Pirates of the Caribbean, why can't we get artists with a similar pedigree to remix VGM tracks? Now we DO have someone with a rock-solid track record in the club industry giving the gift of excellent trance music to OCR. Well done, Mr. Saint-Jules, and thank you G-T for helping us get this masterpiece on here!

    OCR02349 - Wild Arms "Fireflight"

    in ReMix Reviews & Comments

    Posted

    I've had this particular song in my collection for quite a while, and while I'd agree that it's perhaps not in the same league as, say, "A Ring and a Promise," it's still a darn good deep trance track. As a trance track goes, you really can't ask for much more. The song stays very true to the production values (super-clean, and that kick drum is perfectly prominent) and arrangement sensibilities of trance, and I'm an admitted trance-maniac. Two thumbs up from me on this number! :nicework:

×
×
  • Create New...