big giant circles Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 PM'd to me on 10/25, he just now got the file info to me. He said he's since got the email confirmation, but I thought it only fair to go ahead and post to the panel here. -BGC Sorry to bother you, but the submissions page suggest I contact a judge.I didn't get a conformation email. My remix doesn't appear to have been rejected or even received. Should I send it again? Probably. Liontamer has told me that the email has been doing that a bit lately. Also, tell me the name of the remix and specifically when you sent it and I can double check to see if it's on the panel. I just sent it. I know it's been a month or so, but My power supply crapped out on me. Thanks a million. I don't see it on the panel. Go ahead and copy+paste your email submission to me here and I'll see it get to the panel. It would also be great if you make sure your message includes the game title, the actual song in the game that you've remixed, and preferably your own breakdown of how the remix compares to the source tune. Sorry for your trouble so far. Ok... sorry it took me so long, I haven't been on the forums in a while. I sent it, and got a conformation email, but I'll give you what I wrote anyhow. "The first time I sent this remix, it didn't go through, so big giant circles said I should re-send it. this was like 3 or four weeks ago, though (computer troubles), so here goes. Your ReMixer name Thronan Your real name Devin Tierney ( except the drums. The drummer wishes to remain unnamed because he's paranoid) Your email address Thronan@yahoo.com Your website N/A Your userid 26184 Name of game(s) arranged Donkey Kong Country Name of individual song(s) arranged Aquatic Ambiance The song starts off completely ambient, until a high-hat counts off for the guitar, which is the lead for this section of the song. Then It steps up for the main section of the song with a complete drum track, but still a little hollow. After a shredding solo, a heavier version of the main part is played. Then it switches to a Dream-Theater-style Prog-Metal feast with a beautiful lead saw. As it winds down, the lead synth is a beautiful yet bizzare arpeggiation of the background ambience. Enjoy, I hope. " Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 Some noticable clicks and pops during the intro. Guitar-tone is ugly imo, sounds thin and harsh like wasp.. The guitar cuts off abruptly after it has played the arpeggios, like it was gated and that sounds kind of unnatural. The synths also end up sounding a bit hollow and on the simple side. Drums sounded okay but overall the soundscape is really sparse. Some interesting and quite challenging harmonies when the guitar plays the source arpeggios. Many sound quite off, some sound okay. When the drums enter the harmonies end up sounding completely wrong though.. They doesn't make any sense and end up feeling like a different song played in the background. The guitar playing is quite good but the out-of-place backing track and strange guitar sound (is it a square-wave with distortion?) puts the listener off. When the saw enters the soundscape gets a bit fuller but the arrangement still sounds aimless and thin. It's essentially just one chord here. The arrangement never goes past "original backing + source melody" and with such a weak backing I don't think that's a good approach. Overall this lacks a sense of coherence and real developement of the source. The soundscape is on the empty side and processing is questionable. Hang around the WIP-forums or the #ocrwip irc channel for some good real-time feedback. You've got some good ideas so you might as well learn how to get the execution up to par! Good luck in the future! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted November 26, 2008 Author Share Posted November 26, 2008 well, first off, this made me lol [*] Your real name Devin Tierney ( except the drums. The drummer wishes to remain unnamed because he's paranoid) I didn't realize that Toontrack EZ Drummer was so paranoid I recognize those preset fills from anywhere. The other give away is that EZD does not incorporate any crashes into the fills. You need to add them manually, and you didn't, so that's kind of a bummer. Lot of dissonance going on in this track. While I appreciate the uniqueness of the attempt, there's just a lot of unpleasantness going on. The eerie pad intro was aight, but the synth guitar at :51 was way too dry, and as LT might say, too exposed. Then at 1:10, it sounds like the pad takes a chromatic step upward while the guitar riff repeats, and the clashing that ensues is not all that appealing. Then again at 1:35ish, the pad changes tone yet again, but still not staying parallel to the would-be key that the guitar is playing in. Guitar squeels at 1:43 and 1:55 were kind of odd... Chimes/belltones behind it were nice, but again, with the clashing guitar and pads, I'm afraid there's not much salvaging the track seeing as it's gone on for over 3 minutes already in this way. At 3:10 the guitar actually goes a little berserk, which in and of itself, I thought was pretty cool. When the chugga guitar chords come in at 3:31, I thought the track was finally about as close to cohesion as possible. Also the track backing seems to sit on the root note pretty much the entire time, giving little to no appropriate deviation of the bassline to accomodate a more harmonious progression. Pretty amateur stuff, really, but as always, keep practicing. Sorry about the fall through, it happens from time to time. And next time, don't be embarrassed to admit that you're using EZ Drummer NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=dkc - "Aquatic Ambiance" (dkc-08.spc) The warm synths had kind of a generic quality to them, but were aight. WHOA; not feeling the geetar at :50. It's just sitting out there in the foreground, alone, sounding thin and with a grating tone, AND sounding extremely mechanically sequenced. Aside from the annoying/shrill guitar synth, there were some cool ambient ideas going on starting at 1:36. HAHAHAHA, what's going on at 2:14? It was just a lonely guitar synth over some pretty basic (but good-sounding) drums. You really need to learn how to fill out the soundscape here, and either scrap that shitty guitar synth or learn how to beef it up and make the performance sound more human. The change of the lead synth at 4:16 to some generic saw was also a weak choice. Look into what you can do to produce more unique, polished sounds that work well with one another. The lead here was too loud and didn't gel with the other instruments. 5:07 changed up into some warbly stuff that was on the loud side, and written somewhat aimlessly, but at least were more interesting than the previous sections. Still, you gotta give that last section a little more direction for the finish. Arrangement-wise, you were definitely giving the theme a different feel, so that was going in the right direction. You need to focus on getting better performance out of your existing samples, and improving the sound quality by building fuller, more cohesive textures. You're a long ways off, but keep at it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts