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OCR01862 - *YES* Chrono Trigger 'Corridor of Time (Time Warp Mix)'


Liontamer
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Remixer Name: The Vagrance

Real Name: Samuel Day

E-mail: Samuel.Day@gmail.com

Website: www.myspace.com/flimusicparty

UserID: 15461

Name of Game: Chrono Trigger (I know...I know....)

Name of Song: Corridor of Time.

Comments: I've always wanted to do a DnB remix of this song, and this is not my first attempt as there has been at least 4 other start-ups that totally sucked. I really felt going a liquid/atmospheric route would be best simply because that means I don't have to devote half my time to the bassline. Plus it gives me an excuse to use the hotpants loop which is about as close to pixie dust a drum loop can get.

I could explain some of my choices made in the song, but I've always been told that if I have to explain a part of the song for others to like it, then I didn't do my job.

If this doesn't pass the panel though, give me a chance to explain some parts of the song out to you guys ;)

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http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=ct - "Corridors of Time" (ct-304.spc)

Interesting intro. Time warp, indeed. Things picked up at :22. Not sure where the original writing added in from :43-1:01 was going. Apparently nowhere. 1:17 briefly alluded to the main melody. I wasn't sure about the weird synth brought in at 1:28, but it definitely contributed to the eerie nature of the track.

The writing underneath the chorus from 2:12-2:23 didn't seem to be in the right key with the Time Circuits melody; maybe that's just me. The cymbal shots at 2:50 & 4:41 decayed too quickly, IMO.

The overall mixing was a little muddy, but things were aight. 3:01 featured some spoken word sampling Phil Borges. There was a seemingly unintentional skip/pop in the vocals at 3:23 (can you fix that?), but otherwise a cool addition. Wouldn't have minded them a little less buried in spots, but the stylistic choice was perfectly fine. I could make out the major majority of what was said without having Borges' speech in front of me.

Probably the only major thing that got to me and made the mix drag was the DNB beatwork feeling too repetitive, which ended up being a dealbreaker. There were some dropoffs of the beatwork, so there were some more pronounced instances of dynamic contrast. But oftentimes, I felt like that drumloop was getting killed out there. :lol: You were leaning on that loop too hard and it made the energy level and creativity of the beefier sections seem too static to me, as it actually ended up compressing (so to speak) the dynamic range of the foreground writing. If you really like that breakbeat pattern that much, perhaps use 1 or 2 different effects on it within the course of the track (e.g. :10-:21) or come up with some slightly different rhythms.

I could see this getting some YESs, and I otherwise liked the overall arrangement, so I almost went that way, but I'd like to see something done with the beatwork to not let this one inadvertently drag out. Great potential here. If this isn't the one, just keep at it, because you're going in the right direction, bro.

NO (refine/resubmit)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cool concept. I'm a fan of DnB remixes that take the original melody and mess with the underlying chords. In this mix, one gets the sense of hearing the original song through a haze. I agree with Larry that it's a little repetitive, but it didn't bother me that much. I hear enough changes in the drums - missing beats, extra snare hits, filtering, added shakers - to keep me interested. I wouldn't have minded a little more "foreground" to command attention, but I appreciate the haze effect you're going for, and there's a lot of movement in the background. Spoken word stuff was an ok addition that I don't think adds or subtracts much.

Production was a little muddy, and I think this would have had more dynamic contrast if the parts were separated better. Larry's comment about the drums compressing the energy level of the foreground writing maybe gets at that.

This song could be tightened up certainly, but I thought it was enjoyable and good enough on both ends, making it a pass. Nice work!

YES

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i love the intro.

when the familiar CT groove comes in with the dnb drums, the synth is a bit too warbly for its own good and distracts me while listening. the drums are cool and i'll give this track at least the acknowledgement that it is good DnB. i don't like the arrangement of the source into the DnB structure, to be honest... i don't think it meshed well.. it sounds forced and out of place. the drums sounded for stretches to be a dnb loop of some sort but you certainly know how to work the bass in a dnb track. unfortunately the backbone completely overwhelms the lead synths.

the arrangement is a trip. i think that is what i like the most about the track. it goes to nice places artistically and the spoken word is a very nice touch. there are times that this drifts into a sort of transient psychedelic place which is usually what amateur dnb artists fail at doing... their dnb just sounds like drums and bass which is considerably a different thing for anybody who is familiar with the genre

still, the lead synth is incredibly critical to the track and it is buried too much. bring it out, vary up the drumwork just a tad and keep kicking ass

YEScond.

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  • 1 month later...

Not on my main headphones here (disclaimer) but overall I do think the production is a little muddy. Mainly, the bass seems to be too loud. I didn't really have any opinion with regards to the intro. Didn't sound particularly bad or good to me, just a simple lead-in. I do think it could have been more interesting in terms of chords. The drums are very nice in terms of their tone and mixing; very good snare. However, the sequencing is somewhat repetitive. I'm not hearing many variations or fills.

I think the synth choices were pretty weird. As zyko said, lots of warbly stuff which I don't think worked. Lots of textural/ambient sounds which just sort of mushed together rather than providing solid chords or harmonies. Ended up sounding harmonically unfocused to me and not tight at all. The leads were often drowned out. Ambience can be nice but I feel like there are too many competing elements for a nice texture to really set in. Too many notes. I'm not sure about the organ & speech break, it's a little unrelated and doesn't add much in my opinion. When the drums come back in, nothing has changed in terms of the instrumental setup.

My suggestion... rethink your harmonies and synth choices. If you're going to go ambient, don't use such "mushy" chords. Jazzed up stuff is fine but here it's so unfocused that it's hard to tell what's going on. You could skip around this mp3 and not have a sense of where you are in the track, as everything sounds fairly dynamically equal - drums aside. The interpretation of the source is certainly not conservative... I like the new original writing, but the whole package feels a little aimless with the powerful drums basically carrying the whole thing.

NO

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The mixing and sound choices certainly put me off. For example when you put the main melody with the bells at 1:38, it just doesn't work for me. The bell sound is very buried and drowned in reverb and chorus/stereowidener and makes it very unfocused and hard to make out. Overall most sounds seem to be warbly/reverbed/drowned and with a too long release. The drums and bass are really loud, okay because this is DRUM and BASS but the other instruments shouldn't have to suffer. Your textures sound cool but they just don't sit right in soundscape together with the main beat.

Arrangement was quite cool. You can hear the source but you messed around with the harmonies and structure a lot to make it really interesting. The beats could be a tiny bit more varied but it's not a dealbreaker for me, I listen to London Elektricity damnit :D

This is really cool but I think the production is holding it back too much for me to comfortably pass it. I urge you to rework how you process your sounds and try to separate everything a bit because this is an awesome piece of music that would be even more awesome with the production it deserves.

NO(resubmit)

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The low end sounds really big on my dyneaudio BM5As, which means it's going to sound fucking huge on anything else. Nonwithstanding, I absolutely love the sound design, atmosphere and arrangement. I haven't heard anything like this on OCR before. Well-concieved, well-executed.

I'm Barack Obama, and I approved this Remix.

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I'm a fan of the vibe, for sure. Textures and groove are pretty solid on this. I for one did not mind the warbly synth. I do think the cymbal crash at 3:52 stood out in a somewhat sore way, but minor quirk. Production-wise, I also dig the snare, and the overall mixing on the drums. The bas was indeed a bit loud, but not horribly so I though. On the arrangement end, there were times I felt the drums repetition and the fact that there's lots of atmospheric pads pretty much as the only source of melody, and it made the connection to the source a bit more tenuous, especially since the original is basically bells and sitar, which are in contrast very crisp and defined. Nonetheless, even though it doesn't soar above with flying colors, I do think this one clears the bar.

YES

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think that the drum choices are great, they sound huge. The other synth elements, especially during the opening, don't show the same level of thought. Things got a lot better at 1:28, suddenly the whole groove worked on me. Up until that point I didn't think the source was a fit for the style, but from here onwards it seems to fit. I'm not particularly a fan of the bass sound but not overly so. The breakdown in the latter half was quite nice, and the quote was welcome.

I think this varies the source well, and its obviously there throughout even if it gets pretty liberal at points. The drums are varied enough for me, as are the textural qualities. Overall its well put together, most of my issues are fairly minor and the change ups are frequent enough to keep it listenable, so I'm happy to give this a pass (kinda borderline I guess).

YES

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nice remix, we don't get these kind of mixes much.

The bass on this is STRONG, it's actually vibrating my spine and my whole abdominal area! This balances out with the high frequencies on the percussion, however I do feel that the mix sounded a bit heavy on the low frequencies with regard to the melodic instruments. I wouldn't necessarily call the mix muddy overall, as the high end does give it shine, however, some more mixing and perhaps different octave choices would have given the instruments some more room to breathe.

I listen to a lot of DnB, over the last year or so lots of people seem to be following the Pendulum style beat and not giving it much variation at all. These drums have been given enough variation, considering the feel that this mix was going for.

The arrangement is done well and is a good transition to DnB without feeling like it was forced, and this is helped by all the original elements.

The good certainly outweighs the bad here. A nice addition to the OCR catalogue.

YES

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  • 3 months later...
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