Liontamer Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Title: "Maternal Instinct" (4.25M) "Lower Brinstar" from Super Metroid Greetings! I hereby present my debut as a contributor to your site, an interpretation of one of my favourite mood-setting pieces from this epos of platform jumping. Inspired by a recent playthrough as well as classic science fiction soundtracks, this version was realised through FL Studio, soundfonts, some stray percussion samples and hours of obsessive work before being left to age in the proverbial desk drawer. The stage set, our protagonist wanders into the depths of a hostile world. Old adversaries rise again. An act of compassion stands yet unrewarded. With most above average regards, Sir Kiosk of the realm of arctic sphenisciformes Royal Subject #25781 -------------------------------------------------------------- http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sm - "Brinstar Red Soil Swampy Area" (sm-20.spc) Sounded fairly good on the whole. Faster pacing than the original, though still very deliberate. The Eastern instrumentation instantly reminded me of Reuben Kee, as those samples were a signature of his. :'-( The pacing was a bit too rigid, IMO, but it was more than serviceable. I also thought the theme really needed to be more interpretive and creatively developed. Structurally, melodically and in terms of mood, the arrangement was close enough to the original where I didn't feel like the interpretation was substantive enough. For a near 4-minute mix, this was really reserved in terms of going somewhere with the arrangement. I liked the new instrumentation, but that wasn't enough to carry this. If you're willing to add other ideas into the picture to personalize the melodic and countermelodic arrangement more, that would be great. Comparing to another recent mix of the same theme, "Zebes Rising", that mix had a greater amount of subtle changes that added up to a more interpretive product than this. See what else you can do with this; you've got a great base so far! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Gonna have to agree 100% with Larry here. This is definitely not bad as-is. I'm definitely digging the instrumentation, especially the lead flute. I'm really a huge fan of Eastern-sounding soundscapes to begin with, so I may be a tiny bit biased. Everything sounds great, bro. But it's definitely on autopilot as far as the arrangement goes. It's almost an Eastern-ensemble cover song at this point. Try to work some more melodic and/or countermelodic ideas, and don't be afraid to stray from a verbatim progression here or there. Definitely want to see this one back on the panel after some tweaks. RESUBMIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Best submission letter in a while, I give you that As previous judges said, very cool instrumentation. It might not be radically different from the source but it works very well. The flute sounds particularly good. Production in general is solid although I would like to see the flute take the front seat some more, it's now much quieter than for example the drum hits and strings. The arrangement is the issue here. Especially the chords and bell-line could be altered so this would sound less repetitive to the listener. You've varied the lead some with the flute, a good start, but straying outside the source's harmonic content is probably a good idea since it sounds very much alike the source at the moment. You have a good base to work from here though! Focus on the arrangement, while touching up the production a bit, and try to make it your own and this would be a great addition to OCR! NO(resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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