Liontamer Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 Source info was sketchy, but let's just judge this as is - LT Contact Info: Remixer Name: Cyguration Real Name: William Usher E-mail address: Cyguration@vgcore.com Website: (None) User ID: 25762 Submission Info: Name of game arranged: Mirror's Edge Name of song arranged: Theme song Link to the original: http://www.lastfm.de/music/Chris+H%C3%BClsbeck/_/Lombard+Street Comments: It was such an amazing piece I thought I might remix my own version. --- William D. Usher Senior staff writer VG Core Network ________________ http://www.VGcore.com Cyguration@VGcore.com LT Edit: Solar Fields did music for a different trailer where the last few notes seem to be the source melody here. AFAIK, Hülsbeck has been speculated by people guessing at this particular trailer below, but the Last.fm-linked track clearly isn't the source tune. I added a YouTube of the trailer/source in question: ---------------------------------------------------------------- The samples didn't sound terrible, but all of the sequencing sounded too mechanical and the instruments didn't fill out the soundfield, IMO. The drum sequencing in particular was too rigid and, though the (unrealistic) vox and piano padded things somewhat, there was a lot of empty space. The woodwind and ethnic chants were decent touches. The overall mixing was also poorly balanced and too indistinct. Everything sounded lo-fi and once the percussion picked up at 2:29, you quickly heard parts mudding together. There were also way too many clicks/pops scattered around the track that need to be eliminated (e.g. 1:30-1:46, 3:07-3:47), and the ending cutting out during the fade was sloppy. This was a decent base, William, but the sequencing needs to be refined, the percussion can't sound so lifeless, the parts need to be better balanced with one another, and you need to properly flesh out the soundfield. Hopefully the other Js can give some more pointed crits, but those are the overall issues holding this back. While I don't necessarily think you can get this to pass with more work (and that's not meant as an insult, that's just gauging your stuff as is), I think you can learn a good deal in working on this further and become a solid contributor if you keep at it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 *whistles* Sweet looking trailer. Arrangement seems conservative, keeping a lot of the same backing parts (guitar, pizzicato strings) and rhythm. Nevertheless, there were some cool ideas here, like the eastern instruments coming in later. I'd have to hear a full version of the original song sometime to compare for sure, but I thought this arrangement could have done more to differentiate itself, is all. Unfortunately, the production is not good enough anyhow. Larry called this one perfectly. Samples are not bad, but you got to learn to use them better. Lot of mechanical-sounding parts: the piano and some of the keyboard parts seem to play the same volume every note, the backing pad starting at 0:28 has a very mechanical envelope that makes it sound rigid. I also think more delay and to a lesser extent reverb might help out a lot, cause I get a sense of dryness and empty space here. A bass part might not hurt either, because you've got nothing in that region. The overall volume levels could use some attention but I think that comes second to just making the instruments sound more natural. I liked the unique blend of instruments here and I'd love to see you improve this to a passing production level. I'd encourage you to spend time improving those production skills. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Just popping in to mention that this is the Main Theme of Mirror's Edge, it's called "Still Alive" (horrible, I know, portal wtf is that!?. It was composed by pop-star-songwriter-guys Rami Yacoub and Arnthor Birgisson who's worked with Britney Spears and other horrible horrible artists It's sung by Swedish artist Lisa Miskovsky in the full version with vocals ( http://www.myspace.com/lisamiskovsky , "Still Alive" ). Found the information at DICE's (Digital Illusions C.E., the swedish company developing the title) website so it's accurate. Another thing worth noting is that there will be a remix album of this song released. I don't know the details but some names are Junkie XL, Teddybears STHLM and other bigshots. The theme is popular in other words and we should watch out for submissions that sounds like rips from this album in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 NOW, the vote. Larry nailed it when he said the samples didn't sound bad but the sequencing on the other hand did. The chants sounded out of place and kinda strange without any other good rhythmic elements to back them up. The drums are rigid and kinda thin. Overall there are a lot of holes in the soundscape while what's there is fighting over the same spot which makes it seem unbalanced and unfocused. Arrangement had some ideas but overall seemed like it stuck quite close to the original while often repeating itself. It's actually really hard to listen to the arrangement only when all the production issues ar right up front but in general it seemed without direction and too close to the source even though the idea with eastern instruments is quite cool. Overall this isn't there yet. You need to work hard on your production and learn how to make the instruments sound full. The arrangement could be more personalized and varied too. I thank you for bringing this theme to my attention though, it most certainly kicks ass. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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