Pander
-
Posts
81 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Articles
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Pander
-
-
You're right. And the lack of source material wasn't the problem, I just associated the entry of the lead synth with the 'beginning of the song for realz yo"
It's still a kicking song.
-
Oh HELL yes, ridiculously good ending. You pull out an absolutely sick series of hooks between 3:04-3:25 that cements it. Intro is better, but I still ache for more. The up-tempo snares seem like a rough fit considering the rest of the groove (and damn is it groovalicious), and the multi-basses seem rather exposed without the guitars or organs accompanying.
I don't really pick up on any panning problem.
The arrangement is highly creative, the majority of the instruments sound pristine (first few notes are still bugging me), the theme is rarely traversed, and it's finally all flowing together to the same objective on the same beat. I'd say it's got a good chance to get passed as is, or at least a resub (fix minor things).
Bravo, I was listening to the last version at least once a day, I don't know when I'll end up putting this version down. Memorable goddamn song.
-
Very good mix overall, but I agree with Rayza. The arrangement is clever and brings to mind Disco Dan at times, with several unfortunate exceptions that bring this mix down.
Took 1:38 to bring in the melody. Background synths are good. Lead's way too high pitched to stand sustained listening, it just sounds unpleasant on the high notes.
The best section I took away from this piece was 3:28-3:38, followed by some high noise around 3:42 that made my ears go "please tone it down :(", later kicking into high gear around 4:10-4:26. Listen to that section and tell me you don't think it'd benefit from some continued adjustments on the levels.
-
The whole things feels off. Foremost among the problems are the levels. The gong crashes are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy louder than the other instruments in a really weird way. It's hard to judge this as orchestral because there's typically only one or two instruments going at once, and they chop their notes. As you said, almost no variation from the source.
This sounds like fine practice, but not a very strong remix. Add a lot of layering, play with levels, play with the arrangement if you wanted something to really spark the listener's interest.
-
First Listen-through Impressions:
0:00 - 0:17 - Nothing grabs me. Slow. Percussion is very timid. Lonely chords that don't flow well. Bass is only there to pass the time.
0:17 - 0:42 - Lead sounds pretty good. A good mellow take on the green hill melody. Finally in the 0:30's all the instruments blend together to something solid, if not spicy.
0:42 - 1:40 - The instruments continue to meld together well, albeit repetitiously. A minute is a long time to go with basically the same central melody looping without break. The only thing that could keep it afloat would be great vocals, and I tried my damndest to interpret them as great, but they just didn't work. I tried to pretend your voice was a mix of maybe Billy Corgan (doing high octaves, not his more gutteral growling) and Wayne Coyne (of the Flaming Lips). You don't push your voice out, whether by intent or lack of range, and as a result the lyrics don't help the metronomish melody.
1:42 - 2:24 - Hey, where'd this come from? This is a VERY good uptempo counterpoint for the the vanilla start to the song. While the notes could use a little jazzing up (some sound wrongish, too, like the one at 2:09), the piano adds a great touch. It's almost like a later-works Blink 182 piece at this point. When your voice is part of a chorus, it works better. Chanting "go sonic" for 40 seconds is servicable from an aural stand, but I'd rather see a little mixing up of the formula on the repeat so it's not just the same 20 second snippet repeated.
2:25 - 2:37 - Too quiet. Bump something up, keep another instrument in the picture, some distortion, do something. The guitar just isn't active enough on its own with that arrangement.
2:38 - 3:04 - You show some good in the vocals here, the last line is one where your voice works with the song (around 3:02). You also expose yourself with bits like at 2:49, 2:54, and 2:59.
3:05 - 3:10 - The lead comes in nice, but the voice is completely goofy.
3:11 - 3:20 - The lead stays...and stays...and stays.
3:21 - 3:38 - Not too much going on.
3:39 - 3:50 - Good lead-in. This is one of the better arrangements in the piece.
3:51 - 4:45 - This chorus represents what you seem to do best in the mix. You seem to display the most confidence in these sections. The singing is almost superfluous, but the interplay between the piano, guitars, and (finally) active drums really reminds me of a power pop song that'd get airplay for Green Day or Blink.
I feel I've been overly harsh in my criticism here, it's a good song overall. I'm just not going to give a gold star for the singing segments, and parts of the song are too brutally slow and quiet. When you do kick it into action, it's eminantly enjoyable.
Second Listen-through Impressions:
Intro - Not as onerously boring as I listed above. The first 20 seconds are still slow, but not as rough as I indicated above. I'd still recommend changing (abbreviate or intersperse more life)
Singing - Still not a strength. I know where it's leading to though, so the repetitive rhythm doesn't feel as long as the first time.
Chorus - Still the highlight.
Slowdown - Still disjointedly slow and meandering. I'd recommend giving it a bit of life.
Closeout - Interesting, good. There are about 6-8 seconds too many on the fadeout (song is 4:45, but really ends at 4:38ish. Not a big issue, but something maybe to hammer out).
So yeah.
Three distinct parts of the song. A lazy, dream-like instrumental. A vocal-driven verse. An up-tempo chorus. Give the lead-in a bit more zazz (more percussion mayhaps), cut out the vocals, find an arrangement to break up the chorus a bit, and add a little variation in there and you're set. The instruments sound fine.
The idea is creative. When I think of the 'green' levels of sonic, I think 'introduction to speeeeed'. The green levels are typically filled with loops, corkscrews, hills, and few baddies. So when you have a guitar-driven remix, I'm expecting uptempo rock. This remix, however, seems to keep it in either neutral or first gear most of the way through. It sort of reminds me of a less-mastered Sonic analogue to Evahn's recent relaxed take on Super Mario Bros 3. It's atypical, and that can be exciting. This one needs some tweaking however, some adjusting of levels and arranging. (It sucks to repeat this, but I really find the vocal verses hard to deal with.)
Keep at it for sure.
-
I was talking about the VERY end, the last few notes, and you addressed it. Wasn't sure if that was intentional or just where you left off, so I mentioned it, but you are clearly on top of it, hehe.
And I get what you mean by vintage funk. I'm projecting my own interest in there. I love a little bit of heavy every so often as a change of pace. It doesn't need to be metal at all, I love how Evil Horde layers his instruments to create an incredible flood of awesome around 4:00 in his recent Adventures of Bayou Billy remix.
What are the influences on this remix, anyway? I was watching VH1's 100 greatest hard rock songs, and some of those bands pop into my mind, like Iron Butterfly, BOC, Foghat...hell even The Doors a bit. Whatever it is, it's under-done on the site, and really hope you keep at it. I dig it.
-
It's got good stuff. It sounds so close. It's got one foot in acid rock, one foot in prog, and a third mutant foot dangling into early heavy metal.
I say go for Deep Purple. Make it crunchier. Right now it starts out a little light to go for the hazey dropout over the last half minute. Kinda loses the flow. You (as others put it) groove for 3 minutes, only to furrow your brow and realize you can't groove to a disjointed solo.
Those riffs around 1:48-2:08...those are what I personally love. Maybe I'm projecting my love for Sixto and Goat, but I wish those would be more of a wall of sound metal sound. You could slow it down some like you do around 2:20, go into the solo as you do now.
And yeah, I really agree with MarkShark. Your coda beats a weak fadeout, but not by much. It's absolutely too abrupt. End with a 6 second drum solo leading to a final note the guitars sustain on or something. The coda as-is sounds like a solo the band got tired of doing 4/5 of the way through.
Overall though massive props. My complaints are pretty much all of preference, not performance. Hadn't played MM9 yet; good song to pick, and good direction to take it.
Edit: Intro is a bit sudden too, as in "HEY HERE'S SONG!" Maybe clack drumsticks together for four beats, a couple quick snares, then have the guitar join in on a hi-hat. It might also make the groovy part around 0:27 more noticeable if you come on stronger in the intro. I know, I'm echoing "make things crunchier". I like crunchy, what can I say. If this sounded at parts more like Smoke on the Water, it wouldn't leave my rotation.
-
So they took away his English accent after all?
That's too bad. I know he didn't speak very formally in the Japanese version, but I always felt it worked with his character speaking that way and nobody else. It was as if he was overcompensating for feeling like he was unworthy of being a knight.
How many English people use thy/thine? None. It wasn't English, it was psuedo-Latin, and it was hamfisted anyway.
His manner of speech was part of what made him such a likable character. That is unfortunate news.I was always partial to his spirit of determination, senses of honor and nobility, and the fact he rolled with being a frog. Bears are intense, but frogs are always cool.
-
By the way, is it too late to change this to, say, a FF5 ReMix project? Battle with Gilgamesh isn't the only great song in there, you know. =)
Hahahaha you're funny.
On another note, I misread that...I thought it was mp, not mv. McVaffe? That'd be very WOW-worthy.
-
Heh, have fun at Great Lakes
(I'm an Ensign in the Navy, down learning to fly in Pensacola, fun stuff)
I feel bad for never playing Guardian Legend, it apparently has music ALL OVER the place, residing in awesomeland. Hyperion is still my favorite, but this bass-pounding blast is just fine too.
-
Now that's some fun electronica.
-
I'd have given it a yes, but I lean further towards the "What sounds good" spectrum as opposed to focusuing on having a "different from source but not TOO different" arrangement. And there's no arguing that it sounds good. Very good.
-
-
Great song, I agree with DJP's True Lies vibe, heh. Then at the end it sounds like what you'd hear at an Eastern European wedding, up tempo and bouncing.
Only concern is, as a huge FFVIII fan (both of the game and soundtrack) that I couldn't pick out the source material very well. Minor gripe, and probably just cause I haven't heard it in a while...
It's the Waltz music from the scene between Rinoa and Squall. It's also the melody in Eyes on Me.
Nice work getting it posted up there Blad, it's a great solid and enjoyable piece to listen to, enough said. One thing I find interestingly unique about it is that if you try to hum the original melody along with it, it sounds very much out of place, however by itself this piece stands strong. Dare I say that Squall and Rinoa would probably enjoy dancing to this piece more than the one they did in the game (although it might be a little too fast-paced for two-left-feet Squall.)
Bolded my exact sentiments. That's what I mean, after that Energy Tank remix flowing the Brinstar theme throughout the song, maybe I was too hooked on being able to place the source in throughout the song.
-
Great song, I agree with DJP's True Lies vibe, heh. Then at the end it sounds like what you'd hear at an Eastern European wedding, up tempo and bouncing.
Only concern is, as a huge FFVIII fan (both of the game and soundtrack) that I couldn't pick out the source material very well. Minor gripe, and probably just cause I haven't heard it in a while...
-
Awesome stuff!
Well done dude. As someone who has never played much into the game (never owned a SNES and I hate emulators), I can't relate to where it comes from.
Anyhooo it's cool.
sux2bu. Super Metroid STILL holds its own in EVERY aspect...gameplay, music, and surprisingly enough graphics. There's something about well-executed, colorful sprites that will never be beaten.
Of course, for something similar and almost as good, Metroid Zero Mission for GBA is very very worth it.
-
In my opinion, this remix battles FF Mystic Quest - Mystic Mountain for the best intro on the site. The intro to this one blew me away. Then yeah, it sorta got into a "random trance with the source ing the background" rut for a while, with the energy kicked up in a new direction around 2:20, in a Donkey Kong Country minecart madness sort of vibe.
Imagine if the original material is a basepath in a baseball game, the remix is a baserunner. If the runner gets too far away from the basepath, he's out. If he stays too centered on the basepath, the fielder will tag him out, he's got to stray a LITTLE bit. Good remixing is all about maintaining that fine balance, and in this case he's diving off the basepath but still manages to get his hand on home plate, barely. Safe.
-
The intro guitarwork SO reminds me of some other song...not a pop song, like a hymn, or an old-timey patriot song...screwed with my head.
Good song in general. Why try is a fun set of lyrics, and I like the breakdown in the instrumental part.
-
It doesn't exactly come out and slap you like a goat remix or something, but it does have distinct tempo changes and whatnot, even if it doesn't have a wildly different range of "sound". It sticks pretty close to its synth-jazz-pop theme throughout the song, so expecting randomness in terms of a solo here or there or wild variations within the song is going to lead to disappointment.
I liked it. I give it 3 stars out of 4. I prefer Gecko Yamori and DiscoDan's Megaman works, but I consider this still very worthwhile.
-
Wow, after the first remix of the Hyperspace theme by Vera (Electro Blast), this quasi-space rendition is quite a surprise. Electro Blast seemed to simply be a high-energy remix, whereas this is an entire shift of style, going beyond what was done before.
In the game, this theme would drive me nuts in the game after 2 minutes (I'd always have to consult the hand-drawn map my brother and I drew to plot where each wormhole led to in-game, a time-consuming process in which I'd hear this song repeated over and over and over), but the much improved quality and layering of instruments here make it eminently listenable, over and over again. I liked Electro Blast a lot, didn't much like Property of the Crimson Corporation (loved the druuge though, BOOM!), but this is definitely the king of SC2 remixes so far. Excellent adaptation, way to take a creative synth arrangement and turn it into a damn fine song.
-
Wow. Its repetitiveness is a blessing cause the groove is just so much fun. It's definitely worthy of just playing on an endless loop.
-
Yeah I understand what you're saying, but in this specific case, it wasn't just that he was giving the song an unfavorable review. He went way beyond that and was using expletives and debased imagery so as to try and destroy any semblance of worthiness within the remix. That's not a remix review, that's just remix bashing, and it's uncalled for, especially when the song is this good. That's why I'm saying he has no right to say the kind of stuff he did without having the balls to try and remix anything himself.
Quite true! I found his review to be quite negatively toned, almost inappropriately so. Hence, my last suggestion:
Instead, simply say "I disagree with what you said", which translates into internet-speak to mean "I don't know how you can say something so stupid with that much man-cock in your mouth."
-
Hmm, I love how Phantosanucca has such harsh criticisms towards Star's work, when let's see, in the 2 years I've downloaded every single remix on OCR, I've never seen him post any works. Before you go off on a rampage why don't you try remixing something yourself, perhaps then we can all see the true definition of amateur.
I disagree with that viewpoint. While you probably would find a person's first remix to be the very definition of amateur, that doesn't necessarily mean that person's review is unqualified. If you listen to enough, and experience a wide enough variety of a kind of music, you eventually become qualified enough to review that type. Most music/movie critics aren't directors or musicians themselves, or at least are very unlikely to have ever had critical success themselves. Does that mean their viewpoint is to be discarded since they don't do it themselves?
Fallacy. Personally I've only remixed things I wouldn't show anyone. Hell I'd kill to keep them from ever being heard, they're THAT BAD. But I've got pretty much every song from this site (um, I swear to God I intend to donate reallllll soon DJP!) and a shit-ton of wips, and remixes from other sites, etc, and I consider my own opinion at the very least informed, if not refined to the level of the talented remixing reviewers.
Just my two cents on why his opinion may be different from your's it shouldn't be discarded simply because he doesn't have anything on the site. That sort of argument is begging for comeuppance should someone you throw it at actually have credentials you aren't aware of. Instead, simply say "I disagree with what you said", which translates into internet-speak to mean "I don't know how you can say something so stupid with that much man-cock in your mouth."
-
With slightly better quality samples, there's no reason this couldn't dominate airtime on actual pop radio stations. Such a goddamn sweet song with a happy melody and far beyond decent singing. Count me floored. And the message is so damn poignant too, PRIMA needs to die a fiery death.
Phantasy Star Online A song for eternal story WIP
in Post Your Game ReMixes!
Posted
Right around 1:27 I couldn't handle the chaos. 2:03 is an excellent segment, clear through basically the end of the song is good stuff.
But early on it sounds like a lot of missed notes, mis-tempoed beats, blah drum samples, and a general sense that the different instruments and melodies were really fighting each other in a jarring way. And the kicker is that it's not off by much, but enough.
Lemme go bit by bit.
Intro to 0:17 - Good atmosphere. No problems with it really. Nice guitar lead-in.
0:17-0:28 - Nothing happening? Slows down a bit until the lead synth joins in. Sounds okay though.
0:32-0:52 - The lowsynth that joins in at 0:35 is odd and unpleasant. It's like it trells out of tune and buzzes a bit. I think it's in too loud, it ends up combatting the higher synth for supremacy. Might want to adjust the levels here.
0:44 - Ugh. I don't like how the higher synth note fades out,, it sounds out of tune.
0:52- 1:24 - You're relying on an uneventful lead melody and static drums to pass the time for half a minute? As the piano joins in at 1:16 it gets better, more like a stew gelling, until...
1:25-2:00 - Utter chaos. The low synth doesn't complement the higher notes, it sort of buzzes. The high plucks around 1:33-1:44 don't sound right on the note fadeouts.
2:00-end - Tight. THIS is very good. I'd really re-work the stuff before this, but with the exception of maybe some of the lower synths and drum samples don't touch this part of the arrangement. The great arrangement here shows there is a lot to be had with this remix, but I really didn't like too much in the minute and a half that preceded it. It felt like you were passing the time until you could hit that 2 minute mark.
Even at my hardest of criticisms, there's still nothing that requires scrapping or burning. Just retuning.