Liontamer Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 Dear OCR Staff, Lasercat I here. I believe that it was fall of '06 when I first stumbled upon the thriving online community that is Overclocked ReMix; I instantly fell in love with the site. It wasn't too long before my friends and I formed a "band" with the intention of becoming a well-known contributor to the OCR archive. After a few months of busy high school schedules and procrastination, I feel that we've finally gotten our act together and are ready to truly become part of the site. Recently, we adapted the aspiration to create the first accepted submission for /Super Mario Galaxy/. The song in question is a mix of the /Battle Rock Galaxy/, entitled /Geo Logic/. It was made exclusively with Logic Express 8, but in the future we plan to use a combination of other programs (FL) as well. We hope that this will help The Lasercats make a good first impression on the rest of the community. Hope you enjoy it! Trevor Burch Lasercat I of the Lasercats ---------------------------------------------------------------- Super Mario Galaxy Original Soundtrack Platinum Version - (111) "Battlerock" The claps brought in alongside the beats at :42 sounded very flimsy, and the beatwork ended up sounding pretty basic and repetitive over the long haul. Develop the percussion writing some more. Don't mimic the original, but keep in mind how much more interesting that kind of drum writing is and spice yours up with some occasional deviations from the straightforward groove you have here. If you want to retain this groove, it might be as simple as adding in another supporting part to handle some fills. Wasn't feeling the sound choice of that warbling synth line in the background used around 1:23; it was OK relegated to the back, but didn't sound good upfront, IMO. Good use of volume and panning there though to really make it travel around the stereo field. A dealbreaker negative here was that the mixing was also very cluttered from 1:26-3:24. The ideas you use to play with the dynamics were good in principle, so look at doing more detailed EQ work to better separate the parts. 2:06-2:24 was particularly bad, and things didn't completely clear up until 3:24 when you dropped some elements out. The string articulations at 3:37 were flat out awful, and I say that as someone who enjoyed the potential of the piece. You can't let details like this slide; the strings didn't sound realistic in the slightest. Sour note from 3:41-3:42 as well. The strings didn't sound any more realistic at 3:50, but, by playing sustained notes, they functioned like a pad, downplaying the lack of realism. The sequenced acoustic guitar at 4:05 also sounded like MIDI-quality; again, totally unrealistic. We're not looking for uber-expensive sample quality, but you've gotta out more care into the velocities to at least sound realistically sequenced. The piano also could have been improved, but was less of an issue. Nice organic percussion stuff tastefully accenting the finish. A subtle touch that worked very nicely. Again, nice use of panning there. In principle, good instrumental variation ideas that freshened things up for the finish. I don't think this needs a major overhaul on the "Battlerock" melody, given the other efforts at personalizing the arrangement, but more melodic interpretation would definitely help this as you played the melody pretty straight the whole time. Also, spice up the percussion pattern and clean up that messy soundfield. You're clearly paying attention to some fine details, but that's not extending to the entire presentation yet; you've gotta focus like laz0r and get it to that level. Keep at it. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Arrangement has a lot of ideas, though I wish it had stuck less to the original structure and melodies for most of the song. A little bit of melodic flair would give this added distance from the original. Nevertheless, there's a great deal of personalization here, including a genre overhaul, lots of new backing parts, and a very creative finish that served as a nice contrast to the rest of the song. I think Larry covered the production very well. Biggest problem is making room for all your various instruments - for the most part, things are clear, but it gets cluttered at points, like 1:53-2:27. Try to cut down some of the backing instruments there in the frequency ranges where they don't help. It just hurts clarity the way it is right now. The little details he mentioned also add up, like unrealistic string and guitar articulations. I definitely like this, and I don't think it will take much work to put it over the bar. Please give it another go, you all. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 Yeah this is a bit cluttered. The filtered synth playing the same pattern as the xylophone seems like it's got a bit too much resonance, it's almost piercing even though the high frequencies are cut. Like Vinnie said it starts getting seriously cluttered at 1:56ish, there it's just A LOT of stuff going on at once without any good separation. Synths are always hard to work with since the presets often occupy a HUGE chunk of the frequency spectrum and must be tamed with some EQ to really work. Larry's comments were mostly spot on so I suggest checking all issues he had out. The arrangement has some nice personalization. Still it sticks pretty closely when it comes to structure and melodies. Try altering stuff and not just adding stuff. It's a great start but I think it could be even better with some more TLC. I personally enjoyed the ending a LOT even though the guitar sounded quite fake. Creative take on the source albeit one that could be even more creative Absolutely a good start here, needs a bit of extra polish before it can go frontpage though. Keep at it, this was an enjoyable listen! NO(resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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