Gario
-
Posts
7,532 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
74
Content Type
Articles
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Gario
-
-
I'm not going to lie, if I saw this on the panel today I'd probably reject it for a whole host of reasons.
However, it was a different time back then, and I'm damn glad for it because it's still one of my favorite ReMixes on the site. It rips a lot wholesale from the source, but then pulls the source out to reveal all the cool things in the background that was added the whole time - a great example of subtractive arranging that emphasizes what was added in the first place. Also the song just sounds damn cool the whole time it was doing it, which you gotta give it props for that.
Old OCR is still good OCR, and I'm glad the site does nothing to hide it's roots, especially when the roots are often as good as this.
-
Okay, yeah, Tornado of Souls is like the Megadeth guitar solo, it's pretty fantastic.
... well, studio solo, anyway, I was always more partial to his Rude Awakening version of She-Wolf, that shit is insane. Also you gotta give Dave credit as one of the few bands where he changes the heck out of his songs and just makes them better in every aspect in his live performances, that shit ain't easy to do.
Also off topic but dat drum solo, man...
-
Literally my favorite track from the album, with a great arrangement, good production (and intentional glitching), and some really beautiful vocals to tie it all together. I can hear what others are saying about the glitching, but I had no problem hearing their intentional nature, especially considering the source and FF8 story it's tied to. Perhaps we should consider whether we account for that in our judgments (since not everyone will be familiar with the source game), but it makes good sense with that in mind and honestly would detract from the intent of the arrangement if removed.
No complaints from me, would be fantastic to see it on the front page.
YES
-
Alright, the final due date has passed, there will be no more tracks accepted for this album. I am working on putting together the final package for review for the staff this week. Thanks for the additional support from members like Voodoo Queen, bLiNd, and Bunnylord (aka TimComposer) for producing some final tracks for everyone to enjoy!
- Jorito, Eino Keskitalo, BLAHMASTER and 1 other
-
4
-
Honestly I don't think I have anything to add to this. It's a cool arrangement of a great source, and it's well recorded with performances that are good enough overall. Put 'er up on the front page.
YES
-
Keeping this short, the performances and arrangement are great, but the production quality is holding this back like the others have said. Metal does tend to have pretty hot mastering, but this is much too far. Lower your levels and let off on the limiter so that there's more breathing room for the track. It's plenty loud already, it doesn't need to be hitting the limiter so hard all the time - there are moments where the arrangement is just crackling from the amount it's hitting the limiters like at 2:12, which is unacceptable.
Bring those levels down and clean up the production on this and we'll be good to go.
NO
-
Sounds heavily like a sound upgrade in the beginning, much as others have said, but I think it diverges from the source plenty past the one minute mark - would've marked this as too conservative if it had gone down the "Source but with some added elements" route that it was going down but even just the material from 1:37 - 3:13 is plenty personalized and interpretive for OCR's bar, in my humble opinion.
Overall the arrangement sounds pretty gorgeous, and I really do dig them choral clusters in much of the arrangement. I'll echo that the ending choral section doesn't sound appropriate - would've appreciated a version that cuts that out entirely. It sounds great, but it doesn't tie very well to the rest of the arrangement.
I was really leaning toward passing this - I actually really like this arrangement overall - but that ending just does not work, and it's long enough of a section to bring the arrangement down. I'd be alright with even just ending the arrangement at 3:13 and letting it ring out, though an actual ending would be a better fix overall. Otherwise I think this is great, but I just can't let that ending slide.
NO
-
This track is in a funny spot. On the one hand the blending of sources is great, and the instrumentation is fairly high quality stuff. My concern with this arrangement is that the mixing doesn't seem to highlight elements like it should. The square texture is clear and easy to hear, the lead at 0:20 - 0:40 is nearly impossible to parse, and throughout the song it's difficult to tell what my ear is supposed to hold onto (with the exception of that square texture - kept focusing on that one).
I don't mind the drums - they sound almost like they're in a small venue or garage but I like em' - but the overall unfocused nature of the mix is making this difficult for me to follow, and I imagine the same would also apply to folk who are less familiar with the source like me. I think the mixing needs another pass before we can put this up on the front page, so be sure to remix the leads so folk can follow them better while mixing down the textures so they remain in supportive positions in the mix.
NO
-
Mmm, this is my favorite source from one of my favorite OST's, and you did it justice. The vocals sounded great, backed against the source material very well. The vocals sounded like they meandered wherever they wanted without many motifs or connecting material to itself or the source (the only recognizable recurring element seemed to be a leap of a fifth that the vocals tend to open each phrase with, which is nice), though they sounded very pretty while doing so. It's more of a backing part with excellent line work brought to the front, with the more focused elements from the source being pushed into the background. Folk who want the source to be front and center might miss out, but I don't mind more original material being up front. That being said, it would work even better if the original vocal work was more structured as a melody line with flourish rather than accompaniment if it's going to be up front and center.
The overall mixing and production is great on this, with the one snag being the collection of instruments at 2:23; the static, the bass, and everything else really was too overpowering for the overall arrangement and made things hard to hear.
Honestly mostly nitpicks, though; this is a fantastic arrangement of a favorite source of mine. I'll be happy to see this on the front page.
YES
-
Source is there, it flows well, and the arrangement is ecclectic - vocals, choir, brass, all sorts of stuff to compliment the metal that ties all these disparate elements together. It's a very cool arrangement of a lot of classic Golden Axe sources, and I love it.
The production doesn't have artifacts from mastering, though the mixing could've used some TLC to make some of those ecclectic elements pop out better. The rhythm guitar in particular is pretty overpowering throughout the arrangement which doesn't give you much room to mix anything else to the front when needed, which is disappointing.
I think it'd be criminal to make perfection the enemy of good here, though: there's a fun and fantastic arrangement with good recordings and good production values aside from the mixing imperfections. I think this is plenty fine for an OCR post - nice work!
YES
-
dah, i use reason
but yes GENNY is pretty darn cool, ngl -
Oh shit it's a PsyNES arrangement, haven't had my hands on one of these in a while. I can certainly hear some of that signature psytrance style in this, but it's definitely an older track of yours. Not bad at all, can just tell your style evolved since this one hit the shelves.
Anyway, keeping it short, the arrangement sounds good save for the clashing that MW pointed out. I agree with him, the SFX sound too close to notes so it just sounds like wrong notes slamming the listened, so it'd be best to just remove it or replace it with a more tonally neutral SFX. It's a simple arrangement, but we don't need every OCR post to be incredibly interpretive, the style and presentation is good enough for that.
The production is... well, it's loud, and it's got a lot of post production on it that's causing issues down the road. When things are simple (kick, lead, arp, bass) the loud mastering + limiters sound great, and they only get better when there is even less (like at 1:45 when it's just kick and bass), but the moment the soundscape sounds more complex or instruments start sharing the same EQ range like the texture and lead at 2:08 there just isn't any room for you to make space.
If you need to bring all that post production into play to many the sound nice and fat I understand, but you also have to work knowing that everything is going to be deeply compressed at the end. If you have a lead you want people to follow you need to make sure textures or overtones from other instruments or the bass don't take up the same EQ range, or else it'll be hell to be able to parse the lead. Most of the track gets away with the post production because the lead is more complex so it can bleed through, but at 2:08 it's a bad combination of a less complex / less overtone-rich synth (basically a square) in the same range as the texture, so it becomes hard to hear that lead through the textures.
You'll need to fine tune your mix at moments where your lead is drown by similar ranged textures or put that lead or texture in a different register. Heck, a less busy texture would also help; that arp is basically used throughout the arrangement so it could use a little variety anyway.
But yeah, from 2:08 - 2:52 and 3:05 - 3:33 the arrangement doesn't have any clarity, and those SFX at 1:03 don't work well. Either look to see if the post production loudness is necessary, or remix (not ReMix, haha) the arrangement in the areas that are causing issues so that there is better clarity in the arrangement. Wish I could give more pointed advice, but it's an issue with many different solutions that would impact the arrangement differently so I hope you find the one that is right for your arrangement.
NO -
Lost Vikings 2 is quite underrated, and honestly a fantastic source to draw from, and you certainly take it in a really cool direction. Love the style, the beats are heavy and tasty, and that change to triple time in the middle was a perfect way to break the mix up and give us much needed variety.
I'm certainly hearing what the others are in the production, though: it's dense in certain EQ ranges and lacking in others. I'm less bothered by the low pass (though admit it'd be better to not pass it so much), and more affected by all the texture and lead sounding so sonically similar. It's creating an issue where the mid range of the EQ is crowded, leaving little room for the listener to distinguish what's what. The arrangement is mixed in a way that you can parse the lead, fortunately, but now it sounds much too loud and drowns everything else out.
There are a few ways to approach this - changing the texture instrument so it isn't so mid heavy will give the lead some more room to breath and allow you to mix it down. You could also decrease the levels of the reverb so that it doesn't clutter the mids, as well. I'm sure there are other approaches, but something needs to be done to clean the EQ of this mix up before I can pass it.
I'd really like to pass this, too, since it's a great arrangement of a highly underrated source.
NO
-
Is this a Summoning Salt speedrun video song? It sounds a whole lot like HOME, with these delicious old school synths. The kick and snare give this it's own flavor, but I'll be damned if it doesn't sound like someone should be talking about the Marble Madness speed running community with this playing in the background.
*ahem*
The overall soundscape is gorgeous, and the arrangement does a fantastic job blending the two sources, really brightening up the "Level 2" music with the "Level 1" harmonies. The melody is at risk of being drown in this soundscape, but I'll be honest: with a soundscape this full of pads it really doesn't bother me, the melody is pretty much texture in this style anyway. Great arrangement, had nothing but a good time with this one. Hopefully others will, too.
YES
-
Well this track certainly goes places, I'll give it that - and I generally really enjoyed where it went. I thought this would be a highly atmospheric yet relatively conservative arrangement at first, but those pad sweeps at 2:40 with that almost Metroid Prime lead in the background were both unexpected and fantastic. Production is also top notch, with a nice, rich soundscape to keep with the spirit of the source.
The only point against it would be the guitar performance at 1:41 - 2:26 - there was a lot of lag where the notes landed. Some of it sounded intentional, almost rubato, but most just sounded like they landed a fraction of a beat too late. Ideally these kinds of performances could either be tightened up or the landings could be adjusted or quantized post production, but at the end of the day it doesn't sink an otherwise fantastic arrangement.
And fantastic this arrangement is; the slow build-up of instruments, the rich soundscape, the sweeping pads, it all works and works very well. I think it has a home on the front page as is, regardless of my nit picks.
YES
-
So long story short, this sounds great, with the main concern being the source usage. It was close with Larry's stopwatch, I marked the watch as such:
0:36 - 1:14, 1:49 - 2:44
93 seconds of source out of a 185 second track (the last three seconds are silent)
~50.3% source
It's close, but I think it peaks over the edge (I agree with MW's method of not counting silences mid-phrase as non-source, it's counter-intuitive to count source this way musically, imo). It's right at the threshold of what I consider enough, and while I can see others' feelings on this being too liberal I think it's just over the bar to still be recognizable enough. It sounds fantastic otherwise, so I hope it can be put onto the front page.
YES
-
The source is great and it's there, so it's a good start. A rockin' arrangement is a great place to take this, so another point in it's favor. The arrangement works pretty well, and the instruments while simple are a good combination throughout, and it has solid moments with the acoustic guitar to help break things up so it doesn't get stale - all great things about this arrangement.
The issue I have with this is the overdrive rhythm guitar has no breadth. Everything is panned center, which gives it no life or body. Many guitarists work around this issue by performing the rhythm twice and panning each performance to the left and right, and I suggest giving that a shot for this arrangement as well since this really needs more thickness to the arrangement. This also leaves a nice space for your lead guitar to pierce through, which while the clarity of the lead isn't a problem in the mix it wouldn't hurt to make it clearer.
The lead could also use some tightening up in the performance. There are moments where the lead slides into notes but doesn't quite make it there, like at 2:11 where the note it lands on sounds very flat. There are also minor moments throughout the lead where it doesn't quite sound like it lands on beat, like at 2:53 - 2:55 where the lead sounds like it lags the rest of the music by a fraction of a second. These things are not a big deal isolated, but they do all add up throughout the performance.
The acoustic guitar sounds fantastic, by the way, I really liked that performance and recording.
It's got all the things necessary to be great, but it has some tuning up to do before I could put it on the site. Make that rhythm guitar thicker, and clean up that lead guitar performance. It'll have a place saved for it on the front page until then.
NO
-
I think this arrangement is meant to catch you off guard, and with these ears at least it succeeded. I was expecting something with some powerful synths with Rockos at the helm, but that opening is deceptively charming before it takes the track off the rails. The guitar work was nice in the beginning with what is admittedly a simple synth that I didn't enjoy much in the beginning, but this track goes well off the rails a minute into it and it couldn't make me happier.
I do not think this will be everyone's cup of tea being it really does move in some weird and interesting directions throughout, but being something everyone can enjoy isn't what this site is about. I can nitpick the beginning synth a bit and it's use throughout the song wasn't great, but overall I think this arrangement could hardly be changed to improve anything without fundamentally changing what it is, and what it is would be an ever changing experiment on a simple if pleasant source. I like it, not everyone will but I know it'll be a hit with people who like eclectic electronic music that dares to deceive you with great acoustic instrumentation early on.
YES
-
Interesting source, don't hear too much of this game on this site. Making it into a metal arrangement is a great idea, and the guitar work is pretty good to back this all up.
The backing instruments are pretty thin. The strings are hollow, and the brass sounds like it's being played in a church across the street.. I can see strings and brass working, but they all have to sound like they're in the same room as the guitar and drums if you want them to blend well. The mixing is also a significant issue, especially for these instruments at 1:07 - that brass is supposed to be in the lead, but it's barely audible over the rhythm guitar. The solution isn't to just make them louder, either, since all that reverb will overwhelm the track before they sound remotely in the front of the mix. Those samples really need some cleaning up so that everything sounds in the same space, and then the mixing needs to be reworked.
There are moments where the lead gets lost behind the rhythm, as well (such as at 2:07 - end), so it's not just the backing instruments that need work.
It's a good idea, and the arrangement is well personalized, but I think this needs work before it can get to the front page.
NO
-
I like this one, it has a really cool groove which changes the somber tone of the source. However, the arrangement is quite static; after the introduction of that legato lead at 0:45 the track is more than happy to rest on it's laurels. Don't get me wrong, the groove, the lead, the synths, etc., blend fantastically, but after 0:45 it's nothing but that instrument combination with some drum fills. The ear tunes out of the song after a minute of this, since it's all the same textures and instruments.
Remove some instruments sometimes, add a different instrument, make some changes to the arrangement after a while of using all the instruments at your disposal so that the ears have a break from the instrumentation so that they'll be fresh when you decide to bring all the instruments back again. What's here is damn fine, but it's only so long before one wants to listen to something else.
NO
-
So I can see this arrangement working - there is a version of this that I could easily say YES to, but this has some items holding it back.
This is essentially variations on a theme, which for such a short theme is a great way to approach it. The opening is conservative to establish the theme, then it varies the theme once the idea has been cemented - perfectly fine way to arrange the song, has a good length for such an idea, and it has some nice production (mixing and the like). Also meaty drums, we all like those.
The idea of variations is to move away from the idea, though. It goes in the right direction at 0:52, using some nice subtractive arranging, but returning to the same style shifted a key at 1:16 isn't enough variation. This track has a good start, but it plays too safe with the source material for it to be engaging as a variation track, so it all feels like it's staying in the same place and retreading the same music over and over again.
The instrument quality isn't the highest but it's on the threshold of passable, but the music just doesn't go anywhere. If you're gonna do variations really explore how you can vary the source and take it in new directions, but otherwise perhaps think about what you want the music to do over the entire track and make some music with the source, because at the moment it just sounds like the source textures repeating themselves with a kick in the back.
NO
-
Repetitive? Samey? Conservative? I don't know what mix my colleagues were listening to, this one really went places with the source using clever harmonization and neat lead work in the second half of the arrangement. If this were a minute longer the instrumentation could've gotten static, but this is a very short track so it doesn't have the time to wear out it's welcome - a perk to writing a sub-3 minute track. The criticisms on the production values hold, for sure - this one hits the limiter a lot, especially at the beginning with those instrument hits against the percussion - but it mellows out when the instruments aren't slamming at the same time as the percussion. When you have a kick and snare that loud you gotta use some side chaining, and you definitely shouldn't have them hit all at once like at the beginning of the track, that's a production nightmare to deal with.
Production could use work, but I don't think it cripples an otherwise fantastic arrangement.
YES
-
Has a really interesting harmony to it - it's like it's not constrained to any traditional flow, but it still works, y'know?
Good luck getting over the last 5% of polish, it sounds cool.
-
Well, this track certainly starts off strong, and most individual moments sound great on their own. I do understand where the other judges are coming from on this, though; the greatest weakness of this track is the sections sound disparate from one another, with two sections sounding uplifting (2:09 - 3:00, 5:21 - 6:19) and two sounding very dramatic (0:00 - 2:09, 3:00 - 5:21). There is some connecting instrumental glue bridging the sections, but there could've been more effort integrating the motifs and ideas from each section to the other sections, just to make sure we all know it's the same song. Heck, just continuing some of the singing to the end would've been plenty to tie it all together.
Concerning the production values, they're quite good. At 2:44 - 3:00 the instruments get crowded so the melody gets lost behind everything else, so lightening up on the dynamics of the textures would've been a good idea. The singing is very pretty if breathy (stylistic choice most likely), and the samples are humanized well enough for our purposes.
I think this is certainly flawed as the arrangement is tied together with some bridges and a recapped section at the end, but I also believe turning this down would make perfection an enemy of good. Keep a song's cohesion in mind when arranging longer tracks like this, and it'll be perfect, but I still enjoyed it and believe others will, too.
YES
OCR04599 - *YES* Journey to Silius "Level Three (Pulse Mix)"
in Judges Decisions
Posted
I think we all love Journey to Silius, here, and this is a very cool arrangement to go along with this. The pumping electronic drums and bassline carry the arrangement very well, and the piano in the middle provides some solid breathing room and breaks up the track right when it was getting static. I enjoyed the arrangement overall.
The production could use some work. In it's less dense moments it sounds fantastic, pumping with the beat, but when things get more dense (such as at 1:09, and especially at 1:50) much of the backing instrumentation gets buried behind that overcompression, with those intricate arps and such sounding like a pulsing pad. I get making music that pulses like this, but the track is arranged in a way that begs for it's individual parts to be heard. It's not *terrible*, but a lot is lost in the mastering of this one. It also feeds into the idea that the arrangement is static outside of the piano part, because while more textures and such are added throughout the arrangement no one can distinguish them from the rest of the sidechained instruments.
I like it, and I can see this passing regardless since it's damn close in my book, but I think either the overcompression needs to be corrected or some of the background elements get cleaned up to better fit the style, because right now the arrangement is sidechaining all of it's textures into a static mass of pulsing sound.
NO