Liontamer Posted March 16, 2008 Share Posted March 16, 2008 ReMixer name: XMark Real name: Mark Hall E-mail: xmark3@yahoo.com Website: http://abstract-productions.net/ userid: 13079 Name of game: Contra Name of individual song: Assault on Galuga An entry in the January 2008 Dwelling of Duels free month. A medley of several songs from the Contra soundtrack done in the style of an action movie soundtrack. ------------------------------------------------------- Along with Kidd Cabbage, Stemage, Chunkstyle and others, XMark was one of the guys I wish I got to meet more formally at MAGFest 6 a couple of months ago. Mark and I got to talk briefly, but hopefully at 7, I'll be able to hang more with him and a lot of great Shizzies. http://www.zophar.net/nsf/contra.zip - A bunch of 'em While the execution lacked on some levels, the writing was great, and showed off how surprisingly well Contra could be adapted to both orchestra and symphonic rock. I could be ignorant of some pro arrange albums doing it already, but I've never heard an approach like this. For the orchestral intro, the sample quality felt serviceable initially. Over time though, stuff like the extremely thin and fake-sounding brass and rigidness in some of the brass and string sequencing stuck out. The guitar joining in at 2:34 could have been better; the guitar performance felt a little sluggish from 2:45-2:52, not quite locking together with the other parts, and the parts should have been better separated to let the guitar shine through more when it was supposed to take the lead. I like how there was no fear from Mark going out of his musical "comfort zone" as it were and doing a lot of orchestration. With more experience under his belt, only obtained by continuing to do what he's doing, the execution on a concept like this would be deadly. Given stuff I've heard as far back as FF6 "Cyanide", I don't have any doubts that Mark could gradually take it his sequencing skills to that level with more trail and error. But as is, this absolutely solid arrangement could use some work with the sequencing and articulations on the strings and brass to achieve a more natural, human sound. You should definitely talk to anyone you know who could give you good tips on this and resubmit this; I'd love to see this up on the site in some form. It's really a sophisticated, unique take on Contra that just needs some TLC with the execution. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted March 17, 2008 Share Posted March 17, 2008 I love what you're doing with this. Great idea, and you've got some really good arrangement ideas. The main problems with this mix have to do with the orchestral elements and EQ. The drums really don't punch like they should. Need more 500-1000 Hz in the snare. etc. The strings get really muddy, because they are too often competing with the guitars. I'd cut the low mids out of the guitars, and leave room for the strings in that range. Aside from that, The main problems with the strings are that the samples sometimes don't have a fast enough attack for the part, and second, that there sometimes isn't a lot of harmony in the parts. Lots of octaves and fifths. I think if you fix the EQ, this could be passable, but it would be really nice if you could make the writing a bit smoother too. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Wow. This is epic. Morphs effortlessly into practically a different style for each song. The writing here is just awesome, Mark. I'm a huge fan of the OST and I think this really does it justice. Which makes this decision such a letdown. I do think you've got most of it where it needs to be, but there's some production issues that really hamper. In addition to what Larry and Jesse have pointed out, I thought the quality of that brass at 0:03 isn't great and only starts to work when it's accompanied by the strings. The drums starting at 1:38 sound a little thin and even when more come in, it never has quite the impact it feels like it should. More lower freq emphasis could give that more power. Especially at 2:34, when the drums come in full force, it sounds too thin. I know it's hard to fit everything in, but they need more presence than they have. If you can fix the production on this, I think it would be a classic mix. Please, please take the time to fix it up. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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