Donkey Kong Country 2 'Dance of the Zinger'

[BlueTronic]

http://www.zshare.net/audio/56286585559c47c5/

Original: Flight of the Zinger

MIDI Used: dkc2wasp.mid

A trance remix of 'Flight of the Zinger' (the beehive levels of Donkey Kong Country 2) made by request of Minoator2. I made it in FL Studio, and this is my first attempt at a remix.

[PianoCat5]

Dude, it needs lots of work. The tempos don't line up, and it all feels very, very WIP right now.

There are some interesting musical ideas there, but it is far too busy right now, plus the tempo problems at the beginning. Clean it up, and then repost it, please.

[DrumUltimA]

PRODUCTION

[x] Too loud

[x] Low-quality samples

[x] Generic/cliche sound choices

[x] Overcompressed (pumping/no dynamics)

PERFORMANCE (live recorded audio/MIDI parts)

[x] Wrong notes, general sloppiness

STRUCTURE

[x] Lacks coherence overall (no "flow")

[x] Not enough changes in sounds (eg. static texture, not dynamic enough)

[x] Too repetitive

[x] Abrupt ending

PERSONAL COMMENTS (positive feedback, specifics on checklist criticisms, any other thoughts)

There's a lot in this mix that needs to be fixed--I can't comment on arrangement/interpretation until the basic musical elements of this mix are fixed.

Your harmony needs a ton of work. A ton. The melody, accompaniment, and bassline are all in different keys. The original source (thank you for providing) definitely goes through more than one chord, but you don't change a thing throughout the entire mix. Also, there are many wrong notes in the melody itself-- 1:12, 1:36, and 1:39 to name a few. Go back, listen to the source, adapt the accompaniment riff to match up with the right chords, put the bassline in the right key... this is imperative.

Everything is too loud, the only dynamic level I hear in this is loud. Your drums sounded a little lo-fi, and I thought everything could use at least a little reverb so it didn't sound so edgy. The soundscape was totally static, involve some more instruments. Once again not only is the accompaniment riff in the wrong key, it stays on one chord and repeats mercilessly (with the bass line) through the entire mix, albeit the break at 1:03. I find the transition into the melody at 1:12 a bit awkward, once again the synth is playing wrong notes and the gap of silence is too long imo. Ending is kind of weird to me, but I can deal with it compared to the other issues.

So please, don't submit another update until you've gone back and carefully reconstructed the harmony of your accompanimental parts. It really sounds like you only sequenced one pattern in the bass and acc riff and looped it throughout, and then wrote the melody over top. Go back to those lines and do all the work--write out the key changes, match the keys etc. It's far too sloppy right now. Once you've gotten that try to branch out your soundscape and vary the mix to rid yourself of that repetition. This needs a lot of work.

Good luck!

[Therapsid]

A bit messy, indeed .

But never give up

[Audity]

It's the return of DJ Frog!!

anyway,

I'm basically gunna be repeating Drumultima, but...

1. It's too loud. Your bass kick/some other stuff is clipping. This advice is 100% correct and must be changed (unless it's on purpose/stylistic, which this isn't). Lower the volume for all of your instrument/sample tracks equally and see what happens; it should sound clearer. Comparing your song with your favorite OCRs is useful. ...Preferably ones that are well-produced, like djp's Socket/Fortuna/Sveldt remix (and many other remixers'). This WIP is louder than most songs on the entire site.

2. The sections starting at 0:56 and 1:23 are both uncharacteristically dissonant/out of key, especially 1:42-2:12.

If you were actually going for a dissonant approach, you would need a LOT of style to pull that off---you would have to make the whole song flow enough for the listener to be taken on a journey uncommon in music (on this site anyway, though I think Mazedude did something like that)---usually through the use of chord progression. But, since I doubt you are, there's no point in making a dissonant song. Also, considering the original is anything but dissonant, your audience wouldn't approve.

Things to read up about:

a) Auditory Clipping

Key signature

c) Chord progression

[OfficialJab]

I really like it. Definitely a keeper for me. I think it's just being over-analyzed a bit. It's a fun mix. Not complicated, but still creative. Good job.

[HoboKa]

yeah this is very retro OCR ish, like DJ Harding and Frog...too bad this isn't 2002 man. I personally like the 1:20-ish part, it's very good, but the build up to it needs some help...also listen to Drummy Boi's critique. Keep at it dude

[Gario]

Even though this is an old, old WIP, the OP bumped it... a few months ago, but still, he may be paying attention, and I wanted to review this one, anyhow, so here I go (Ironic that I just gave some flack to people reviewing old mixes a few days ago, yet here I am)...

It's funny, I actually posted a WIP of this very song back when this was originally posted... and it was terrible, by the way. Maybe I'll re-do it completely sometime soon...

The main thing that irks me is how bi-tonal this whole thing sounds. The texture does not go with the source material at all. Please move the texture so it fits with the material better. The same can be said about the bass drum sound you use - it's much like a tom in that it can be tunes, as well. Make it fit the music better.

The old posts still hold, by the way, so even though they are over half a year old, they still hold (production, arrangement, etc.).

Really, the main reason I'm posting here is simply because I wanted to give feedback back when I heard this last April, but I was too busy at the time. If your still out there, give us a ring, here

[BlueTronic]

Update

-I improved the main melody (@ 1:20)

-I gave the mix a lead

-Enhanced the samples

-Just about every instrument has a noticeable improvement of some kind

-Fixed some volume issues

[CC Ricers]

Starts off with big booming bass. Loud, but still interesting enough sound IMO. I wanted to see where you'd go with this.

Now 7 seconds in, and those claps don't sound good at all. I was hoping for a good change in dynamics, but despite adding more instruments the bass drowns them all out. Now I recognize a familiar FL sound at 0:38 but not necessarily saying that's bad. I just want to point out DJ Zircones used this same instrument to good effect, so even standard out-of-the-box sounds can sound well with the proper balancing and compression.

I have to agree that the first part of the remix sounds out of tune and though I can clearly hear the chord progressions it's doesn't give me the feel that it's a remix of the original.

The main part comes in and a different thought comes to mind...if this was produced well it would be a pretty awesome gabber tune. Too bad its mixing is not up to par. Some of the synth programming is decent. I don't think this can ever be up to OCR standards with the current way it's constructed (too much repetition), but with some work it would be a good mix just for bouncing your head to.

[Evil_Cronos]

I agree with Chris, this is a little too repetative. I think complicating the beat and maybe infusing a little more of the source material would benafit the mix. But I like this mix, it's unfinished, but I like it. Keep trying to improve upon this mix and if it seems as though you've hit a roadblock, then maybe ask a techno specialist to collaborate with you on the mix. Good work, I look forward to it being finished.

[Gario]

Woa! You really WERE paying attention to this thread! Excellent!

Alright, here's the breakdown of this... Change the texture that comes in at 0:25 to E. Don't ask questions, just do it. It'll fix quite a bit with the 'wrong note' problem.

That bass sound clashes with the rest of the mix. I don't know how the thing is set, so I can't say exactly where you should put it. It needs to move two whole steps down (or four semitones) in order to work with the E key that I'm suggesting.

At 2:02 the theme hits a very wrong note. It should be a minor third (four semitones) above where it hits, and at 2:05 it should go up the same amount. You fix the note later in the song, so fix it here .

The reverse cymbal is cool at 2:06 - 2:08, but for the genre I'd recommend making the release a lot shorter (it'll sound like the end of it 'clipped off' rather than letting it resonate).

Now that I've finished nit picking, I'll give an overview...

The idea you have is emerging from this song more than the last WIP, but it still isn't there yet. At the moment, it is still far too repetetive and the keys are way off. You've dramatically improved the production quality, but now the mix is too quiet. I'll use a piece of advice Rozovian always gives... "Put your music up there with other current OCR mixes and see if your's sticks out.". You'll notice that the quality of instruments is still quite under the standards, and the mix is very VERY quiet compared to theirs. Now I know that you understand you cannot simply turn up the volume, 'cause you clipping problem will return. I'm still trying to perfect the whole sound level problem myself, so I can't help you much there (Sorry!).

If you want to continue this piece, make the changes I recommended above, then see if you can change the textures, vary them, do whatever it takes to make the song less repetetive. Your solos at the end really should stay in the same key at the piece starts in. Right now they meander without direction and out of key (My brother used to do the same thing on his guitar when soloing...), so change the solos so they are in key. If you don't know what I'm talking about with the whole 'key' thing... then look it up in Wikipedia .

I'd personally recommend working on more than one piece here. You've been chewing on this one for almost a year - It's like spashing in a pond when you could be swimming in a lake. If you want to fix and finish this song, fine, but I recommend moving to a new song, at the same time. Post here and we'll help you out.

Good luck!

[HoboKa]

for fixing clipping problems, you'll probably have to reduce the volume/velocity of your individual notes. That and get a real decent Limiter if you don't already have one.

Also, make sure your EQ for your lows, mids and highs is real good. I.E. make your bass drums have mostly low frequency settings and a touch of mid - shouldn't have any high at all, and snares have very little low and high, mostly middle. Most lead synths are middle range as well, so reduce their lower ends and their high ends a bit and maybe give them some stereo seperation (maybe stereo sep. for the chords too)