prophetik music
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Persian Improv Sword
Marth from Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Marth was one of my favorite playable characters from this game. I bought it in February 2002.
The 5:00 mark is loosely based on the oil level from Sonic 2 for Genesis.
This song is roughly based on the Persian scale from The Guitar Grimoire:
G-G#-B-C-C#-Eb-F#-G
The book has about 40 different scales in it by the way, you should check it out. It made this song possible as I learned it in 2005. No, I am not sponsoring them or accepting any endorsements from them.
Epic sword battles have taken place from Marth against Donkey Kong, Ganondorf, and Falco. Marth and the final opponent are both at 100% damage, one life left each. This is battle music folks. There’s a fire flower, proximity mines, and poké balls. Who will win?
The sound bank you hear comes as MONO by default and I wanted to explore the realm of a solo improv piece using a MONO soundbank. The Lo-Fi sound here is killer like Dave’s Killer Bread (the bread even shows this guy playing a guitar lol). I just keep hearing epic sword battles from Marth, as he is one of the quickest and most agile characters as well. I am not sponsoring or endorsing that bread either people.
I have perfect pitch, so I am navigating the keyboard improv MONO. Creativity is in demand by ethical people, this proves it, no?
OK, so, the song is 8mins 15 seconds long, but this is an improv piece, one that I cannot really get down to a "T". Please forgive me for making the song more than 7 minutes. I hope this song will be an exception to the golden rule here.
The Upper Maridia song from Super Metroid would be one of my next contenders in a song for OCRemix (besides a long-lost OCRemix tune). Thank you! — dolphin92329
Games & SourcesMarth from Super Smash Bros. Melee for Nintendo Gamecube. Not a soundtrack, my interpretation of Marth. So, yes, is VGM.
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opening is just a weak bass, kick without any meat, and a lead that sounds like it's effectively just the original dumped in. the sfx helps but it's pretty blah throughout - there's little here that's really giving it uniqueness. it's the same 30s repeated twice, then a big kick dumped on top of the same thing (but the kick still doesn't have any beef to it) and repeated again. there's some clipping around 2:00.
this needs some significant development before it'd be something we post here. i'd encourage you to work through some new ideas and mixing concepts on this, and then bring it to the workshop (on the forum or on the discord) to get some more feedback.
NO
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this is a pretty hip original.
this kind of offset between the ears is something that you never want to see in a track waveform:
separately this is also not good:
so this is essentially a guaranteed NO right now. but i can at least review it to talk through what's good and what's not so good.
the opening elements would be neat if they were balanced between ears, but the sharp tone in the left ear is far too much. overall it's panned really hard which makes it hard to hear what's going on until it comes more centerline by about 0:37. i wound up just changing it to mono to be able to hear what was going on. the various synths are doing really disjointed things for at least the first thirty seconds - i honestly don't know what's going on in there nor can i parse what each instrument is doing. if you're attempting to ape what the opening minute is in the original, i don't think it worked.
by about 0:55, it's more balanced and there's a recognizable riff going on alongside the continuing sharp left-ear synth. i believe this is the bass riff from 2:43, but i didn't hear anything else that was fitting around that area - no melodic line, none of the rhythmic elements, etc. this continued until the woobly synth from the beginning came back in at 1:41 and did stuff that i didn't understand again. some other synths that were off-key came in after this (like at 1:52) - this doesn't sound like functional dissonance, it sounds like incorrect notes.
this section continued for most of the track and then ended suddenly, and the track was done after 10s of silence.
from an arrangement perspective, it's not super clear what you're doing here. it sounds like you're hoping to work with the track in the original that starts at 2:43, but the lack of percussive elements or other strong rhythmic elements outside the bassline and the constant dissonances alongside the very loud, sharp lead tones really make it hard to pick out anything cohesive from your arrangement. i honestly recommend stripping this one back to the bolts and building it back up one element at a time. i'm honestly curious if this is a misrender and some elements were supposed to be percussive but didn't get the instrument assignments or something.
from a mastering perspective, the hard panning and wild volumization across the board makes this borderline unlistenable. you're going to want to take a lot more time with managing the individual elements before resubmitting.
NO
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nickel creek's one of my favorite bands, and TLT is one of my favorite songs by them. i love how each chorus builds on the prior. if folks haven't ever listened to 'progressive' bluegrass, i highly recommend it.
opens with a bell arp. the arp's really loud compared to the melodic element that comes in pretty quickly after. the strings that eventually come in are also really not great - they don't feel N64 to me, they just sound fake. the 'full' band sound comes in at 0:43, and the lead feels a bit weak in this section as well as slow (the attack feels a touch behind). there's no real bass through here either, but there is a kick. the lack of beater tone on the kick makes it hard to hear except for where you can feel it.
sad girl comes back at 1:43, and there's some weird mallet strike tones through here that would add realism if they weren't repeat strikes next to each other. the strings come back in, and i'm still not feeling them here. the eventual synth lead elements that come in at about 2:34 are really loud, and the lack of balance makes it hard to hear what's going on. i like the patience that comes with the chords after this section, although i think they should be a little closer together as they're encroaching on 'too long since sound' territory.
at 3:07 we get copypasta from the opening 40s, and then subsequently more copy pasta from the band section from 0:43 to around 1:35. there's a repeated phrase at the end, one last arp, and a few sustains.
i think that the combination of these two originals works really well together. i like the idea of focusing initially on bells and then building up to a bigger band tone, and i like the introspective approach and patience that you show. i think that your synths are letting you down throughout, and your DAW's letting you down from a mastering perspective. everything that isn't a bell sounds cheap and fake, and volumization throughout is a mixed bag. this needs a good amount of work, but there's good bones here. i think that the discord or the workshop forum would help a ton with this track.
NO
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opens with a really peppy beat right off the bat. roughly the first minute of the track appears to be a sound upgrade off the midi, with a much better drumloop and better synths throughout. it's mastered well and i can hear a lot of the different bleeps and bloops well, so that's great. there's a build section that's original with the original's bassline at 1:01, so that's where the arrangement really gets cooking. there's a fun dubstep-like section at about 1:17, but that does seems like the majority of the arrangement for the track - about 30s out of ~135. there's a copypasta section at 1:47 of 0:32, and this continues through almost the end before we see any variation again.
i think this has too much that isn't Why_ in it. most of the first minute and the last thirty seconds are all pretty much straight from the midi with new synths and a nice beat over it. there's a great break section at 1:01 and the arranged A theme at 1:17 shows that you've got the chops! so i'd say to lean into your arrangement more and don't rely so heavily on the original for what you're doing through there. more personalization can only help out! beyond that, there's too much copypasta - in a track that is only 138s long, i counted about 30s of copy, which is way too much for such a short work.
this is a hip track! make it more your own and it'll definitely have a place on our site.
NO
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opens with some sfx from jurassic park, and a beat drops at 0:14. we start to get some harmonic material at 0:37, but it's not recognizable as anything until at least 1:02. there i started to catch the chord patterns of the original. from there, it appears that the primary method for realizing the arrangement was in chopping up and splicing together original audio from Yoshi's Song in SSB. there's also a number of times that riffs from the Benny Goodman song poke up their heads, which by itself isn't an issue but the more extended cribbing that occurs at 3:19 is long enough to be problematic. we strongly advise against the extent of original sampling demonstrated here of game music, and the 30+ seconds of sampled BG audio throughout is also a significant no-no. there's no ending. i also believe that >50% of the track uses some form of Yoshi's Song, but it's close - there's a lot of time spent with just a drum loop or sfx.
from a production standpoint, as an aside, the loop was so loud throughout that it was difficult to pick out the actual harmonic material. one of the key elements of kid koala's track is that the loop's very slim in terms of frequency usage, so the music is always at the fore. in your track, the ambiance sfx and the very broad freq range taken by your kick and snare especially cover up a lot of the actual music going on. a tighter kick with less room tone would help a ton in opening that up.
this is a cute take, and i honestly really like the way that you worked the sfx into the track. i just don't believe that this has a place here due to the extensive use of original sampling - both of Benny Goodman and of the original game audio. we don't have a clear no in the submission standards, but enough sections dovetail together between 3.3, 4.2, and 5.2 that i believe this is something that has a great chance at being successful on the internet somewhere, but probably is too fundamentally different from what we do here to fit in here.
NO
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word for word same submission email as the other one, lol :<
opens with a wide-panning bass with a ton of overtones on it. kick comes in at 0:10 that is essentially just sub material with no beater tone. lead's in at 0:20 and cuts through really hard. more additive elements come in over time until we get to some riffs at 0:51 and the main body of instruments at 1:11. the snare is both super loud and super staticky, which is really irritating quickly. additionally, there's a ton of sub-bass content which makes it sound very muddy and dense, and there's a very specific spike around 500hz that's so sharp it's hard to listen to. both your other track and this one make me wonder what monitoring setup you're using. i like some of the arrangement ideas, but the mix is all over the place.
the bubbly synth that comes in at 1:32 (and the lead here) are both tough to listen to - most of the synth choice on this track is subpar in that it's either so pointed it's hard to listen to it for a while or it's super oofy with no attack and hard to tell what note it's playing.
the track continues to truck through the melodic content in order pretty much as it says on the box. there's not a ton of unique or original content to my ears outside of occasionally using the chord progression only as a transitional element. there's a ton of source throughout so the influence is obvious. if anything, i'd have rather that you had more Heel Tactics and less original in here - mixing up the melodic material a bit and personalizing it would have been really nice. i also think the track goes on too long given how much you're relaying on that same A material from the original over and over.
i think this one's arrangement is a lot more conservative than your other mix, and the top man influence is immediately clear. i didn't care at all for most of your sound choices though - i found the lead to be super sharp, several of the other synths to be lacking in attack, and your drums overall were super scooped with either no attack note (kick) or were so sharp and loud that i couldn't hear much else (snare, hats, crash). lastly, i wouldn't mind if there was more personalization of the melodic or harmonic elements as compared to the original. a rockstar arrangement with these instruments still wouldn't pass, though, whereas this arrangement with much better instrumentation and mastering would be over the bar. so i'd say to focus on improving your sample/synth selection and then go from there.
NO
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submission email game is on point.
opens with some glittery sfx that is high enough to make my ears hurt a bit, and eventually some arpy filtered synths. kick comes in soon after, around 0:35, and it's super high, like over an octave higher than i'd expect. more of the beat comes in at 0:52, and there's a panning bass that's very active. the bass is actually playing lower than the sub portion of the kick. at 1:15 we finally get more fleshing out of the harmonic elements so it's not just the bass and the lead synth. i think what that lead is playing is a bastardized version of the A theme from the original, but it's honestly not very clear to me where spark man comes in during these first two minutes or so.
1:42's a 'break' with the synth bass and kick, and it builds back up at 2:09 to be the A theme like it is in the original, and then the B theme. most of this is just a lead, bass, and maybe a single sustained pitch as a pad. it sounds very thin through here, and the fast pan on the bass emphasizes how thin it is.
2:59's another break, again focused on the bass, and there's some sfx this time in there also. this is a single note for nearly 30s until a running synth comes in at 3:26. the snare that's used in this section is also pretty grating by itself vs in the mix with lots of other elements. we finally get more harmonic elements at 3:49 in the form of a nice sweepy pad, and then some melodic material soon after.
my primary critique of this track is the choice of drums. i found the snare to be very sharp and hard to listen to for five minutes, and more importantly the kick is well over 100hz and is so high that it's conflicting with pitches the bass is playing despite the bass not being particularly low. i'd love to hear a more appropriate kick that isn't so high in the frequency spectrum. beyond that, i found the arrangement to often be lacking body - there's a lot of the track that's only a bass, or bass and lead, with nothing between the two. the bass panning was super strong and disconcerting on headphones - i like the concept, but pulling back the max bounds of the pan lfo would be great so it wasn't so wide. lastly, there were really long sections where nothing was really going on - 2:59's a single note for 30s, that's probably 15s too long, for example. and the opening took over a third of the piece to get to the actual source material, meaning we wandered around for a third of the piece before getting to some meat. adding some snippets into the opening section will help tie that first part to the rest of the work.
you've got some great ideas here! i love the energy. there's a lot of nitpicks that need to be cleaned up right now.
NO
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yeah, i hear the high focus right away. there's no beef - the kick, bass synth, etc. all have very little low presence. it sounds like you've EQed the booty off of everything that's supposed to be low and then boosted the highs further. this would have been fine on the site in 2002, but expectations have risen a lot since then.
this is honestly pretty close. the arrangement is solid and i like what the instruments are doing. the bass peak is nearly 70hz, though - there's just no bottom end. there's a huge peak at 145hz too which is roughly that bass instrument you're using - which tells me that a lot of the potential is being used up getting a very vanilla bass synth to cut through a lot of stuff. a bass synth with more edge to the attack may cut better, allowing you to drop off the overall volume. taking that entire bassline down an octave would help a lot too. combined with getting more sub presence from your kick, that'd fix the bass issue, and i think this'd be good. for your kick, i think the clicky attack works great, you just need more bottom end - ensure you're not trimming out via EQ the low end of the kick, like 30-40hz. that'll give it more presence. you could also layer in another kick that's all sub-bass tone and EQ out the really low stuff there.
chimp's right about the RMS as well. turning everything down a bit so it's not so blown (or even just reducing the gain on whatever limiter you're using) would help consolidate the volume a bit.
NO
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Quote
everyone's favorite judge Emunator
opens with a wall of acquatic ambiance pads, but quickly hits the secret of the forest melody with AA behind it. lead is appropriately rudess-y with the scoops and subtle vibrato. it's notably louder than everything else after it though. the AA melody's in by 1:00 with a descending pattern to it under the SotF chords. i love how you're passing the melodic material around between such old-style instruments.
1:34 is a new vibe, much more low-end body. the drive here alongside the SotF arp is so immediately inspiring. the adaptation of AA's melody here as well is so good - this is an excellent job making it fit without making it feel like it's a clear mashup. the solo that follows it is fun, but it does feel slightly ahead of the beat throughout. i'm wondering if delaying it by a few ms would make it settle back into the groove a bit better.
3:01's chord progression through the bVI-bVIII-i-V is so fitting given that it's half of the chrono cross soundtrack. and then we get double time with the melodies alongside each other! what a climax this is. this isn't chill at all but i don't care. the extended climax at 3:52 was excellent, i loved that you tripled down on it and then didn't even immediately resolve it, but waited a second. what a payoff.
we get a last wash of color and arps and it's done.
i struggle with remixes of AA specifically because Beneath the Surface was my first exposure to the theme and that's a Mt Rushmore OCR for me, so everything else always seems to be lacking in comparison. this is easily one of the only remixes i've ever heard of this way-overdone theme that truly brings tons of originality and creativity in the arrangement alongside superb execution to a similar level. and you managed to do it via alchemy with another rockstar track from another rockstar game, instead of just relying on AA's incredible foundation by itself. superlative job.
WOW
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original is just a beat with an arp and some pad chords. it's a neat idea, but man is it limited in what it has.
opens with some distorted synth flourishes and pads. percussive elements and bass comes in at 0:18. i hear the first reference to the original at 0:37 in a quiet mid-range synth in the background, but it comes in more at 0:56. mix is hard-slammed up against the limiter here, but the distortion that's coming from that appears to be intentional, giving it a gritty feel that matches the game well. the sonar ping tones in the original are mirrored with some extras at 1:31. the mixing here is dense in a few ways - besides being quite loud, it's a very dark feel with little in the highs and many layered elements in the lows. the bass sits around the 30-35hz mark and there's a lot both there, at the first overtone (70-80hz), and the second overtone (~95-100hz). it's hard to tell if that's from the bass being overtone-heavy or if that's where the drum hits fit, but it's pretty thick as a result. as it is, the fundamental from the bass is hard to hear on the bass-heavy headphones i'm listening on, so i'm wondering if backing off some of the other low-end elements a bit would allow that to breathe more and not feel so crunched down low.
there's a cadence at 2:08 and it keeps trucking on the groove. i like the drum work and the space in the bass instrument, but it's an intense groove and it's been going for >1:30 at this point and hasn't really changed at all - some air is needed. there's a shift at 2:44 when a new instrument is added, but it's the same groove here even when a higher rhythmic element is added at like 3:05. we do finally get a bit of a break at 3:24, but the rhythmic bass elements are still there and are back in at 3:40. given the lack of delta for minutes at a time, this definitely needs some repetitive elements cut out - even the chord progression, which is super basic, hasn't changed at all for almost four minutes at this point.
3:58 adds a higher synth which is a nice change since everything up until now's been very low and heavy. after this is some subtractive arrangement as elements drop out. we hear the sonar synth once more time before the fade starts at 5:10 and continues for >30 seconds. way too long of a fade-out.
i really like this idea. the initial groove with drums and the squelchy bass synth sounds really great. it pretty much doesn't change for 4+ minutes, though, outside of a 20s break and eventually adding a higher synth to mirror some other elements. that's waaaay too long for a melody-light approach like you've done here. if there were things to draw our attention away from the basic chord progression and almost non-existent harmonic elements from the original, i'd be fine with the length, but this is too much repetition. even the final fadeout is 20s or more longer than it should have been. from a mastering perspective, it's very loud, but the distortion introduced by slamming everything into the limiter is desired, so that's not a huge deal. i'd not mind seeing a few of the backing elements turned down a touch to let the melodic material breathe when it shows up, though.
i would love to hear a version of this that's maybe three minutes or so long and includes more expansion of the original. it'd be great if there was some more flex in the dynamics in the piece, as well.
NO
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this has a lot of the themes from Earth, which is the only track from the OST i've ever remixed myself. was neat to hear the different elements from a track i haven't heard in a decade.
opens with the quarter note theme from the original alongside some pads and swooshes. there's some keys, but it really hits at 0:30 with strings coming in. they're a bit muddy in the low end and repeat the same pattern for quite a bit. there's some electric guitar for a bit on the arpeggiated lead, but i also hear some clipping at 1:01, and a lot more at 1:06 and after. the additive arrangement techniques continue with a synth voice element and some cinematic strings. there's a lot overlapping by this point - maybe 1:35 or so - and it's mostly doing the same thing as the original through all this.
there's a drop at 1:59 and some rhythmic elements added in, which is a nice change. a plectral instrument is added at 2:13 and again outlines the melodic material with some other light arpeggiation added in. we continue to see additive arrangement as more elements are added in, making what's effectively an additive crescendo through the next 30s or so. there's a lot of clipping around the 3:04 mark for several seconds when the bass instrument comes in. there's a big wall-of-sound transition at 3:27 with some taiko and other rhythmic elements added in. this sounds awesome but clips like nuts - the bass and the bottom end of the drums are heavily conflicting with each other until 3:56 when they drop off. there's some outro material and it's done.
this needs a significant mastering pass. there's a lot of EQing and volumization that can be done especially on the low end to help with the huge clipping that's going on. i don't even really hear compression or a limiter engaging, so something that can reign in the big sections without losing the timbral contrast of the quieter parts would be critical. from an arrangement perspective, this is a fairly conservative but competent arrangement. i wouldn't have minded hearing some more creativity around the melodic line and chord progressions, given that most of the countermelodic and harmonic material you used was already present in the original. before this passes, for me, i'd need to hear a significant EQing and volumization pass made so that the mastering is much cleaner. the arrangement stuff isn't required but it'd be a stronger track if it's considered.
NO
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post-rock? sign me up!
some really pretty flourishes to start. the bass does something really weird at 0:26 and again at 0:30 (detuned? is it scooping?). the drums start at 0:39 and it's a nice feel already. the addition of the rhythmic element at 1:04 in the acoustic is a neat feel behind the drums. we get the b content at 1:57, complete with shift in time signature. i like the lead being carried by the guitar octaves there.
we finally get some real drums at 2:35 and it blows through the chords again before a big hit at 3:28, with some falling action. after a bit of a bridge, 3:52 begins the real build, and this has a suitable payoff of almost a minute of full bore material. finally hitting the electric guitar lead feels really great here. i wouldn't have minded if the guitars were more wall-of-sound here, but the band sound here is still great.
5:12 is the beginning of the end. zach's lead guitar parts here are reminiscent of some of OA's stuff over the years, so that's a fun correlation. some washes of sound and the track's done.
this is a lay-up as expected based on the contributors. excellent work.
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opening is very similar to standoff, but quickly shifts to an acoustic-driven psytrance groove. this progresses through the chord progression before getting to the first break at 0:54. audiomint comes in here - it's not super clear what she's singing at first, as the pronunciation isn't super clear. open your mouth when you sing! that'll fix most of that right away without changing anything else. a bit more emphasis on the consonants will help too.
there's some rising action with the strings around 1:10 and at 1:24 it really kicks it up. vocals are still clear in the mix, although i wouldn't have minded a little more formant boost around 2.5k-3k to bring her voice out more as opposed to just cranking it up. some sfx and the beat hits at 1:58. there's a really nice lfo distorted synth doing some fun stuff in the background here. this headbobs through the chord progression some more until we get to a string-driven section at 3:53. this is pretty dense in here with the low strings and some of the synth pads in the same area.
there's a drop at 3:22 and a shift back to 12/8. kick has a ton of click on it which is a neat feel. some acoustic makes it back in which is nice - i was starting to lose the plot through some of the chord work without melodic backing. the mesh of acoustic and electronic at 4:02 is really nice. the gating effects applied once a while are fun too. it goes through the chord progression one more time and it's done.
this is a pretty hip track as expected from a xaleph-fronted project. the beat is immaculate throughout. i would have liked to hear a bit of a clearer singing section, and separately i didn't connect a lot of the more beat-driven sections directly to Standoff's recognizable elements. i believe we're still >50%, but would have liked more overall correlation. this is still way over the bar though, excellent work as always.
YES
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opens with some tambourine and strings. there's some little wind perks here and there as well to provide some texture. there's an ascending line at 0:27 that sounds like it is being layered and sounds discordant as a result, lots of major seconds next to each other. this progresses for about 40s in a continuing, overlapping, rising motion, alongside some orchestral percussion. there's a shift at 1:10 and the samples being used (which up to now have been not great but OK) are really exposed. the super-long attack on the strings and significant swell sounds pretty rough and unrealistic. there's also not a lot up to this point that i am associating with the original.
there's another break at 1:45 and some pipes are added in. the original's material is behind the pipes solo, and it's a neat vibe. i like the tone of the guitar used. when the flute came in around 2:50, i'm finding myself wondering if that's the original audio with other stuff layered on top (we don't accept original audio here essentially at all). right after that there's some really atonal stuff that wasn't clear if it was intentional.
3:41's a rising action and clearly the start of something else from a feel perspective. this is mostly original to my ear but demonstrates better usage (for the most part) of the samples than earlier at 1:10. 4:15's return of the melody alongside some more cinematic strings is nice, although it's quite muddy as the low strings are just crushing the sonic space - the spectrum analysis of here has some really unique peaks as compared to a normal track. this kind of noodles through a lot of mud as the mid range gets overwhelmed by a choir sample, and then it's done. there is virtually no ending to speak of - not even ending on a chord, really, it just sounds unfinished.
i think the mood you attained for the first several minutes is definitely in keeping with the original. you mentioned that as a goal and it's definitely accomplished. overall the usage of the strings - specifically in several of the sustains where they swell out of control, and in the low strings where it just dominates the texture - needs a lot of work. i thought the pipes stuff was really interesting actually and well-done. you'd want to confirm if you're using the original audio, as we don't accept original audio in most cases.
the arrangement was quite meandering and didn't have a clear focus on a melodic line throughout. this is a technique that can definitely work in the right setting, but i found most of the meandering to be forgettable and not taking me along on a journey. there was no goal for most of the track. it'd be difficult to identify 50% of the track as having VtM:R source to my ears due to this. separately, there's no ending, and there was a lot of atonality that didn't seem to be prepared or set up in a way that i'd expect something like that to be - it didn't seem intentional, which is bad when it comes to tonal writing.
overall i think this needs more attention on the strings usage throughout, some focus on the atonal elements where you've got long tails from notes overlapping other sustains, and some time spent paring down the arrangement to be less noodly and more focused.
NO
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opens with sfx and rhythmic elements. opening section is very quiet, maybe too quiet based on the breadth of dynamics in the piece. there's some string sweeps and bells far off, and these continue to accompany foley work until we get to the 1:00 mark when we start to get more instruments. i'm not hearing a ton of source in this opening section, but there's some very tenuous links to the bells and some melodic content. there are definitely nontonal elements around 1:26 which is an issue due to the very long reverb.
1:39 is kind of where things get going. this is very meandering. i can hear the B section of the melody in here, underneath some of the wandering ideas. there's some really odd note choices though (plucked/filtered bell instrument...is that a piano? at 1:50, 2:03, 2:08), and the verb tail is still really long which makes it even more dense. the low mids through here are very dense as well - the fundamental of the aforementioned bell/piano instrument is right next to the bass, and it's pretty muddy here as a result even before the low sweep synth comes.
2:16's a big shift. there's a significant reduction of backing elements in here so it's immediately less dense, but you've still got low strings, the piano instrument, and a bass instrument next to each other in the same range, and a distorted synth comes in later in the same range, so it's still dense. the melody's clearer here, which is good, and there's some fun ideas in the percussion and in the pizz strings that aren't in the basement. the piano gets more noodly as this section goes on, and the lack of clarity on the attack as a result makes it difficult to hear what's going on.
2:53's a shift to orchestral instrumentation. there's a lot of sustains here in the brass especially - it feels very over-orchestrated as a result. this is a super common mistake among people using orchestrated elements in edm and rock, and it's amazing how much body a piece gets by removing elements. cutting out a lot of the instruments sustaining notes would make it feel less mid-heavy and let the melody and percussion soar over the top. the big, blocky melody works really well with orchestral instrumentation, though, and this is a great transitional section to pin together the section before and after it. this would be a great opportunity to get after modifying the melody a bit if you wanted to. there's a tambourine that's used earlier but more heavily at 3:35, and it's very resonant and ringy - it'd be great if we could tone that back.
the drop at 3:50 is a neat idea to change the feel a bit and mix it up. i think it could have been prepared a bit better so that it's not just a knee-jerk change. there's a note issue at 4:05.5 in whatever bell instrument comes in there, and it happens again a few seconds later. the additive crescendo from the pads and other instruments coming in sounds neat, but they are in general all lower instruments and it means that again it gets very dense very quickly. there's a bell instrument used at 4:27 in a percussive manner that is very piercing and was hard to hear. there's an ascending pattern to build tension - and then the instrument fades into a more meandering thing alongside more foley. there's some musicbox elements, and it's done.
i know this track has been a journey! it certainly has changed a ton for the better since the last time i heard it. in general, it's still too low-mid dense (this is an instrumentation issue, not a mastering issue), and there's a lot of leaning on instruments with long tails (either by reverb or by design) that result in clashing tonalities. i think both can be mitigated by taking a surgical approach to each instrument and carefully either adjusting the range it's playing in (for pads, plectral instruments, and pianos) or trimming the long sustains and resonant freqs (on bell instruments). i personally didn't care for or get the first minute plus or the last 30s, but that's neither here nor there. i do think that having a clearer ending statement that's more rooted in the original and less interpretive might be a more effective way to close out the arrangement, but that might be personal preference from me.
keep at it! you can do this =)
NO
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opens with airy pads and some nice vocal elements. there's the slightest bit of overlap to indicate that they're layered else i wouldn't have been able to tell initially that it's done with a synth. technology has apparently progressed amazingly, because this sounds fantastic. the beat and backing elements at 0:31 are great, tons of space in the bass and the drums are nice and tight. the main riff at 1:04 is a little heavy in the left ear, but i like how it's being played and i like the escalation at 1:22 in the backing elements.
there's a recap in the vocal elements starting at 1:42 - essentially a verse 2 - with some extra ear candy behind it to keep interest. the chorus/synth led section right after it has a lot of fun new content as well, including the vocal elements. there's a break at 2:54 and the really dumb lyrics are a bit more highlighted here, but it's effective as a break in the beat and vibe for a bit before the verse content comes back again. i'd have liked the guitar parts to be a bit louder here, as it's the only new thing that's going on in this section. i liked the subsequent guitar/synth stuff at 4:00 or so a lot. it trucks through some more chorus content, hits the flying high phrase once more, and it's done.
this is great! it's got superb mastering throughout, it drives forward throughout and doesn't get stale despite some repetition in content, and the vocal elements really work well. definitely an obvious demonstration of your progress as a musician. excellent work.
YES
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great original!
really slow, glammy synthwave vibe right off the bat. i think the snare's both a little short and a little high for the style. the track kind of noodles through the melodic material in a pretty straightforward fashion until like 1:35 when we get some altered chords. a few of these aren't handled quite as well as i'd hope and are a bit crunchy. we do finally get the B theme of the melody at 1:54, with some vocal pads layering it. there's some more slightly weird harmonies at 2:20 (parallel fifths are in general a little weird to western ears) and then it settles back down to the opening synth lick again.
around 3:00 we get a synth solo which is a welcome departure from the sameyness of the first few minutes. there's also a slight change to the drums and backing elements in this section, which is also a first in the track to my ears. 4:15's the fourth or fifth copy/paste of the opening synth line, with a little added vocal wash the second time through. there's a sustain on the bVII chord and it's done.
i think my biggest problem with this track is that it goes nowhere and it takes over five minutes to do it. there is so much sameyness throughout. this is easily a three-minute track scraped over five minutes of bread, and beyond that it doesn't really ever change backing elements or beat or instrumentation or feel during that entire time either. the shape of this track is lacking, and it's very boring as a result. you've got some fun ideas here - i think the initial style is really a great idea, and i think the synth solo was really fun! - but it's just so much drab around it. mixing up instrumentation can really help with this, as can adding some sparks of color here and there with added elements that aren't playing the whole time, or with drum fills. i mean, the drums essentially play the same thing >95% of the track - i get it's a ballad, but something's gotta add some life occasionally.
i really like the idea, and i think that your electro-ballad approach is a functional one. i think it needs more verve and a better sense of dynamics and movement to get out of the doldrums.
NO
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opens with detuned piano and some neat sweeping effects. that's a really neat effect at 0:27 on the filter, like gravitational lensing. there's some really delicate and pretty string work when they come in before 0:30 there. i also really like the snare when it comes in, there's a layered richness there that i really am into. 1:07's an escalation - it's still a little dense there (your bass instrument appears to have some overtones at ~96hz that are causing it to feel a bit dense, or maybe that's the low strings) but it's clearer than it was before, I think.
there's some fun sfx after the 1:30 mark, and some neat rhythmic elements to keep it driving forward. the strings here started to feel a little copied in, given the repetition of the riff at 1:35 again at 2:00 or so. there's a staggered cutoff into 2:02's outro, and then it's done with some pingpong filter effects.
this is a surprisingly broad adaptation of a completely different genre. there's a lot of little bits and bobs here and there that really add color to it. nice job.
YES
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looks like a lot of changes since the last time! that's great to see.
the opening 7/8 groove is still great for this to highlight the arps. there is indeed a lot of distortion throughout, and as a result the track uses a lot of the audible freq range (much more of the high end than we usually see) - there's significant presence through 7khz which is really significant. the lead in particularly is boosted a lot, and there's a big spike at about 520hz and the subsequent octave (1040hz) when the instrument is around that C# range. it pops out a lot from the texture. i think having the lead be so heavily distorted/crushed as well really is a bit too much, the high-end noise is very grating after a while.
1:17's a shift with some panning elements. i think the lead distortion is more noticeable here - there's some high-end ring that's making my eyeballs itch. i like the doubling you add at 1:50 or so, but maybe just because it's not a distorted lead? also around here i noticed that the backing elements are roughly the same for the entire track up to that point. so i was looking for a shift to mix it up, and then at 2:06 it drastically changes! so that's good. it'd be nice to have that be more of a transition that ties the two sections together instead of just using the same lead and drums. i like the pacing of this section after the consistent beat - it's nice to have some slowdown. also - even this section is slammed against the limiter! the whole track is so loud, and this is just piano and a few synths, it shouldn't feel so blown. literally the entire track needs to go down by 3db. there's just no room to breathe.
there's some fun synths and lfos at 3:34 as a transitional element and then it's back to a fuller section at 3:53. i wish the bass was a bit different here, but the extra backing glam helps this be not quite copy/paste from 1:50. there's at least some of an ending this time, which is also good, and then it's done.
this is still very loud, and it's very distorted to the detriment of the piece, i think. most of the middle, from 1:00 through 3:20 and then 3:50 to the end, is visibly jammed against the limiter still. it just feels fatiguing to listen to. lowering the overall volume of every element so that it's not constantly hitting the limiter is going to help a lot.
NO
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opens with hugely loud snares and some synths behind it? and then the guiitars come in and i realize it's just very big arena-style mastering. the track sounds hugely scooped out - there's nothing in the mid range that i can hear, and it feels super blown with how noisy everything is. there's a ton going on in the low range where the bass and bottom string of the rhythm guitar are overlapping. i can hardly even hear the kick's beater tone, just some oomph from the bass end of it.
opening synths are outlining the first part of the melodic line, if i'm not mistaken, without any of the rhythm. there's a break at 0:47 before we get back to balls-in-the-wall at 1:04, aping 0:55 in the original, i think. it plows through that material with another break at 1:49 for a few bars before building back up for the final blow at 2:04. the section from 2:04 through about 2:24 at least is straight copy from 0:17-0:47 outside the end fill, which is disappointing (for example, compare the fill at 0:39-0:40 to 2:26 and then compare the prior 20s or so for each spot). then there's one last fill and it's done.
this is certainly a different feel from the original! i like the idea of throwing out the rhythmic elements entirely and just focusing on the pitches with a raging inferno of a band behind it. i think the overall shape of the track is solid too, with the different breaks in the piece and a shifting tone in the middle at 1:33. i think the mastering sounds really rough, though - i get wanting it to be this grungy, dirty tone, but it's so muddy down low (and normally I'm not the guy that cares about that!). the synth overpowers everything except the snare almost completely, and then the guitar, bass, and drum toms and kick are just sitting on top of one another. there's also a lot of sub-40hz content which is contributing to the mess. lastly, and this might be more personal preference - i didn't care for the guitar just strumming through the chords for most of the song. there may be more going on and it's just blown away by the synth being so loud, but the guitar really doesn't feel like it's doing much besides providing chorded background (and mud in the basement). i'd have wanted to hear it more involved in the arrangement instead of being on autopilot.
i love the idea - i really do. i currently think this is enough arrangement ultimately if it was mastered better, but the mastering really drags it down.
NO
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Lucas Guimaraes - Arrangement, Master
Minusworld - Production, Guitars, Bass, Synths, Mix
MegadudeXD - DrumsSource Breakdown: (It's in minor key, OG is in major ) - All melody is in the lead synths
0:00 - 0:20 - Intro [ORIGINAL]
0:21 - 0:48 - A Section [0:12 - 0:24]
0:49 - 1:04 - Modified B Section Transition [0:25 - 0:39]
1:05 - 1:52 - B Section [0:25 - 0:39]
1:53 - 2:06 - Original reprise
2:07 - 2:43 - A Section [0:12 - 0:24]
the title and music tells all
Games & SourcesDelfino Plaza - Super Mario Sunshine
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I cut lots of parts and converted the really dynamic pieces into an AutoChip Pulse rythm. I will be making more.
Enjoy!
Source:
0:06 to 4:56
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for those that care, i put a slightly altered new version above. i made some very subtle changes based on critiques around the opening bass drones and a freq pop that kris called out. i also backed off the sidechain just a bit to balance it better, at least partially by lowering the volume of one of the arps in the higher-energy section.
*NO* Super Smash Bros. Melee "Persian Improv Sword"
in Judges Decisions
Posted
unfortunately this breaks a number of the Submission Standards.
we aren't going to be able to evaluate this, nor does a track inspired by but not an arrangement of vgm have a place on OCRemix, unfortunately. it's an interesting exploratory piece when it's not scaring my cats away from my desk, but ultimately a mono solo improv like this isn't going to have wide reception.
NO OVERRIDE