-
Posts
9,386 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
152
Content Type
Articles
Profiles
Forums
Events
Everything posted by DarkeSword
-
*NO* Mega Man Zero 3 'Intangible as the Snow'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
More people need to remix MMZ series music. Anyway, the interpretation is pretty cool, but that synth lead sucks so much. Something smoother with some portamento would do the trick a lot better. Rim sound around 1:33 sounds really weak; you need a rim sound with some more body. The other percussion is alright, but the snare pattern throughout the piece could use some more variation; try throwing a stronger, more resonant hit on 2 and 4 and decorating the rest of the measure with some syncopated rhythm using that softer snare you have. In any case I really like the chill interpretation of Trail, and I'd love to see a resub. More MMZ love plz. NO resub -
OCR01443 - *YES* Mega Man 7 'Bombin' Shade of Blue'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Hotness! Love the sound textures. The chiptune opening was great, and it melded perfectly with the following texture. Nice transitions throughout, and the interpretation of an already awesome source material is great. I love all the little Capcom music quotes throughout the piece. Nice. Concept and execution are both nicely handled. Also, Mario ending = WTF. Nice work. YES -
There's a difference between random, overly distorted, clipping, crappy drums, and effectively creating crunchy, distorted percussion without clipping. AB has successfully pulled off the latter. The percussion doesn't clip anywhere; sure it toes the line, and I wouldn't mind if it were a bit softer, but it's not my mix. I can appreciate the intention, and the executuion. The production on this track is just fine. As for the arrangement, it's pretty creative, though I wish the ending weren't so abrupt. In any case, while I don't enjoy it personally, I think that this song meets OCR standards, and its a pretty interesting piece of experimental music. Borderline YES
-
I think you're confused. Crono's Dream didn't have the Ocean Palace in it. I did, however, do a piece for this project that arranges the Ocean Palace theme.
-
Basic, boring, repetitive, and empty. Work on varying up your sounds and texture. I'm having a hard time getting though the whole song. The lead is too loud and doesn't blend with anything else; mostly because there's nothing else to blend WITH. NO
-
Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Project Chaos - History
DarkeSword replied to k u n g f u c h i c k e n's topic in Projects
Please cut the idle chatter. Site Projects isn't a conversation forum. -
Sounds like someone just found all of the phaser/flanger effects in FLStudio. Seriously, those drums sound absolutely terrible. Arrangement is straightforward and sparse. Sustained pads with loud sliced drumloops don't provide any interested accompniment to the melody. It's repetitive and boring. NO
-
I lament the brevity of this arrangement. It really feels unfinished. A longer track would have been much more welcome. The ending just sort of trails off too. The bassline is excellent though, and the overall texture is smooth as silk. Soloing rocks. Nice work there. Gonna have to NO this though; it sounds unfinished; needs to be longer with a more definitive ending.
-
The piano and the arrangement are awesome. I love the ideas your brought to an oft-arranged piece. However, I take issue with your percussion. It sounds horribly fake and doesn't balance well with the piano. It's in the back, of the mix and has no definition. Such a spirited piano performance demands and equally lively and organic percussion section. Yet all I hear is "boom chick boom chick." I weep. Strings are a bit fakey as well, so that was also diappointing. In anycase this mix is a NO with a strong strong request for a resub.
-
Sounds are not too bad; FL-defaultish, but they have a nice cool, buzzy sound. They're used well together. Unfortunately they're extremely basic and the arrangement is way too similar to the original. You need to reinterpret and rearrange the music. NO
-
No matter what you do, you gotta make sure your arrangement is inventive and interpretive. Yes, NEStunes are cool, but this is still overclocked remix, and we still value arrangement very highly. There's a LOT you can do with just the 2A03 chip; your conversion, while nice, doesn't really push the boundaries. Keep in mind that nobody here is saying NO to your mix because it sounds like an NES; I'm sure all of us enjoy chiptunes from that console, and I've personally tried my hand and making some NSFs; it's a lot of fun, and it's a great soundscape to work with. But arrangement is important. Hope to see more from you soon. NO
-
TO pretty muched summed up what I had to say. The variation is really nice, but there's some sparseness that could be remedied by some more mid/high-range harmonic stuff, like pads. I think that the lower sustained stuff drones, especially in the opening. Not a track-killer, but something to think about. Some deeper percussion could really help this song too. I really like what you have here, but I think with a little tweaking and filling out of the soundscape, this could really rock the proverbial casbah. More chiptune like at 2:11 also, please. For great justice? NO resub plz
-
OCR01437 - *YES* Guardian Legend 'Ace of Space'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
The man knows how to use orchestra hits. Someone get him a drink. 1:30 is funky fresh. For reals. Nice beats + weird vox = awesome. I love the squarewave around 2:20; awesome stuff there. There's really nice variation here. Could have done with some nice pads or more harmonic support, but hey it's not my mix, and it works regardless so whatever. Nice work. YES -
Scratched Kirby battle cries = awesome. I love the e-piano sound, strings and bassline; reminds me of my MMX4 mix. Good stuff all around there. Texture clicked together really nicely. There's something not quite right with the percussion though; I think the distortion that comes in later is too subtle; it doesn't sound intentional; it sounds like there's something wrong with my headphones. You catch my drift? I also think that the cymbal stuff is too loud, and a lot of it doubles over itself, causing some weird phasing sounds that don't quite work for the acoustic sound you've got going. Beats are cool, but the sounds are not. Now that I think about it, bassline could be quieter. So much potential! NO resub
-
*NO* Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 'AfterEffect' *FT*
DarkeSword replied to GrayLightning's topic in Judges Decisions
Sounds like you applied the same amount of reverb on all of the squidfont channels. That's a no no, I say. You need to apply the right amount of effect to at least different groups of sounds separately, in order to bring out the better qualities of each of your samples. You didn't do that here, and that's why it doesn't sound good. There's no attention paid to balance; everything sounds cavernous and bleeds together. The dance section...I don't know what happened there. It was a bad compostion choice, and was executed poorly. The same cavernous reverb and bad balance between instruments, along with a boring arrangement, completely killed it. Back to the drawing board. NO -
That pervasive continuo line never really lets up througout the entire mix; it wouldn't be so bad if you moved it into the background once in a while; volume-and-levels-automation is your friend. There's something about this track that makes it sound really muffled. This is another track I've judged tonight that could benefit from a WIDER sound. Everything sounds really tight and packed into the center of the soundscape, except for the percussion, which is the highlight of the mix. Needs to be trimmed down; it's a bit long, without needing to be. I'd work on tha, tweaking levels, and mastering. NO
-
The lead synth sounds like it's inside a small room. The reverb isn't very expansive. Everything sounds confined, if you take my meaning. Something like this could really benefit from some more appropriate sound design. Something wider and more expansive. The lead sound isn't bad, but it's nothing to write home about either. Arrangement is not quite there yet; it would say some more variation would help, and shortening the piece would also be beneficial. NO, but has potential.
-
OCR01445 - *YES* Shadow of the Ninja 'Two Shadows Appear'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Awesome clean sound. I love the emphasis on the bass; the mastering is just right throughout the track. Guitar playing is solid and gets the job done. Nice work there. Some of the parts sound a bit sparse, but the bass does a good job of filling things in so it doesn't sound bad. This sounds like something you would hear in Quake III, except a lot lot lot lot better. I could totally frag people to this. Awesome. So yeah, the energy is there, the production is there, and as far as the arrangement goes, even though it's a bit conservative, there's some interpretation genrewise and the two songs fit together nicely. YES -
*NO* Over Zenith 'Overcoming the Sadness'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Larry basically summed it up. Much too close to the original with nothing substantial added. NO -
*NO* Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & 3 'Liquid Nitrogen'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Such ridiculously repetitive percussion; that snare fill get overused really quickly. Sounds are pretty generic; the lead in particular sounds really weak, especially when Chemical Plant Zone comes in. Hard to hear it. This whole song is pretty repetitive. It doesn't really build at all; right off the bat the energy level is pretty much set in stone; it plataeus really early. Needs more creativity and better execution. NO -
Maybe not on this page, but even stuff like watkinzez's post isn't really contributing anything aside from thanking people, which has already been done. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate all the work done thusfar as well, but as it stands, stuff like that is just useless fluff. Talking about hosting, website issues, and publicity stuff is fine because that pertains to the project. Posting fluff for the sake of increasing the pagecount isn't fine; it's spam.
-
Hey, you know what? Don't spam please. If you have something about the project to discuss, that's fine; other than that, you guys don't need to constantly post in this thread asking about a release. It will be released when it's released, end of story. If you have nothing important to say, don't bother posting.
-
*NO* Resident Evil 2 'The Corporate Office'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
Dry drums sound horribly out of place in this piece. The rest of the texture has an indistincy, reverberated sound; the drums stick out like a sore thumb. TO's right about the piano; way too tinny. Needs some lows, I think. Try a little less reverb to give the piece some more definition, and balance your strings on both sides of the stereo field; there's a left-ear bias right now. Rain samples are cool, but the thunder is too loud; claps of thunder don't work in a smoother texture like this. They're jarring. You want lower rumbles. NO -
*NO* Final Fantasy 7 'JENOVA Curse of Eternity'
DarkeSword replied to djpretzel's topic in Judges Decisions
It's either brilliant experimental music, or an honest to goodness amateur effort. My money is on the latter. Sloppy, repetitive, and monotonous. I realize it's drum 'n bass, but seriously, can we get a little more than just...drum and bass? Voice samples seem gimmicky, the incessant drums are grating, and the bassline is so indistinct that it's hard to actually tell what's going on. Aside from that, I don't really hear anything else going on. The intro was sparse, and there are some percussive hits throughout the piece that are jarringly loud. NO