djpretzel Posted February 25, 2003 Share Posted February 25, 2003 I'm the guy that once submitted a pretty bad "industrial" Xenogears under the name DJ Meiji... But now I use the name Conal and I have abandoned my synthesized music ways (mostly... just a bit of synth in this remix.. the rest being sampled acoustic drum kits with recorded guitar) is the URL the remix is of two songs. the quieter parts are Id's theme from Xenogears. the louder parts are Grahf's theme from same game. the overall remix closely resembles a song by a Japanese gothic death metal band, probably because i modeled the mix after the song... the two Xenogears songs seemed to fit into the goth song's style and phrasing, etc... so I just felt like doin it. it was a kind of strange indulgence... just sort of abandoning all self-influencial creativity and utilizing other music to achieve something slightly new. oh well, whatever. the volume is particularly low in the song...i tried raising it but it ruined the sound quality at points, so i guess just turn up your volume. that's me screaming in the middle of the song. hope you like it. from Conal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatdrop Posted February 25, 2003 Share Posted February 25, 2003 Heh, the voice stuff gave me a pretty decent laugh... ANYWAY: I think I definitely prefer the sections of the song based off of Id's theme. The heavier sections just sound really empty due to the fact that the guitar needs some EQing to make it thicker and also due to the fact that the guitar and drums are the only things playing through those sections primarily, except for the hard-panned noisey, unidentifiable instrument, which I can only assume is a guitar... It's a bit repetitive. I think this repetitiveness would be lessened were the final heavy section shortened quite a bit. Of course, the song is 5:15 in length, and for the amount of substance contained within, that's a bit long... You probably could have thrown in a couple change-ups on the guitar part to make it more interesting rather than playing the same thing over and over again. Perhaps the hard-panned noise was supposed to be what made it more interesting, I don't know. All I know is that it ended up sounding like a big mess... On the other hand, the mellower sections sound cleaner and fuller, primarily because you aren't relying on a single guitar and drumset to fill out the stereo field. The primary problem during these sections, in my opinion, is the drums. They're just a bit harsh for the feeling, and the programming (and I say "programming" because that snare just doesn't sound real to me... the rest of the drums are pretty convincing, but the snare sounds really fake) of the drums gets pretty repetitive and just seems to hold the quieter sections back. There are also, as you mentioned, a few problems with the quality. I'm hearing the hissy noise that you get when something isn't encoded high enough or what have you, but were you to encode this one at any higher of a bitrate, it'd be over the file size limit. I think you had a cool idea with the arrangement, but the afore mentioned issues turn the entire thing into somewhat of a flop. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkCecil13 Posted February 26, 2003 Share Posted February 26, 2003 The arrangement itself sounds unique to me as some unconventional sounds are used. Personally, I find the drums in the quieter parts to lack a certain integrity much needed to make this mix make the break. They simply don't fit with the other, more dynamic, instruments. In the heavier parts, I find the überheavily-panned noise to be really quite unpleasant. The mastering really needs some week - the lower frequencies seem to be astray. Perhaps add a bass guitar in the heavy parts to complement the other instruments. I think it'd help tremendously. Other than that, I find myself to find the the instrumentation to be almost unprecedented. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m68030 Posted February 26, 2003 Share Posted February 26, 2003 This really does remind me of an ink blot. It could really be something very cool, but it's too hard to tell because the edges are all fuzzy. With some cleaning up and attention to mastering and stuff this could easily rock pretty damn hard, but right now it's just fuzzyruffles of a datastream. WHARS THE BASS?! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital Coma Posted February 27, 2003 Share Posted February 27, 2003 The take on Id's theme is exponentially more attractive than the metal-mouth play of Grahf's. The loud, rugged breakaways are grungy to the max, with little redeemable sonic value to them. During the brooding, pensive sections, the panned instruments are fresh in their singularity, and the drum work is decent (except when it clips), but the shallow sharpness of the shredded guitar with Grahf's theme, along with the utter lack of any anchoring bass, is just a plain turn-off. And those vocals ... cute. This drags on for far too long; you need to find a point at which you can feel satisfied stopping with some sense of climax. The high-pitched, piercing squeal from 5:00 to 5:06 is not exactly the best way to end a piece. There are solid ideas in this mix, but their execution leaves much to be desired. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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