Liontamer Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 Hello, It's that time again. By submitting this I am of course agreeing to the new content policy that I never accepted a while back. Foot in mouth, etc. My remixer name is currently Starblaze. If this is accepted, I'd like it simply changed to "Evan Pattison" if it's not too much trouble. If it is, Starblaze will certainly do. Of course, that is also my real name. My e-mail address is epattison@gmail.com. I can also be contacted on AIM at "risemix." Forums Member ID is 179. And now for the wall of text: This remix is entitled "House on the Hill." It's a remix of "Green Hill Zone" from "Sonic the Hedgehog" (the first one) on the SEGA Genesis. This remix is trance. It's somewhat housey, hence the name. If you follow the trance scene at all, you know that the line between house and trance tends to blur itself more every day. That's OK; I actually like the new sound that's come about as a result of it. This song is a piece of modern trance with decent-to-high production values. This is not a 4-minute DJ Sammy radio edit. This is a full close-to-seven-minutes dub. That means that there is a full drum intro and outro, which is great for mixing with sets or compilations, but perhaps not easy listening depending on your tastes. It is possible for me to create a radio edit, but I feel as though you lose something in the process. Stylistically, there are a ton of influences here; from house, to 80s, to generic trance, obviously. I hope you guys enjoy this. I've put a lot of sweat into it and even researched a few new techniques to get exactly the sound I wanted out of it. One last note: it is arguable whether I have used a ton of the source material. So you're aware, the bass line, "falling eighth-note" line, and melody are all straight out of the song to one degree or another. The idea is that the song builds to the melody; it takes the listener on a journey to the melody and only gives you a little bit before taking it away. Here's the link. Whether or not it is accepted I hope it is enjoyed by the panel. -Evan ---------------------------------------------------------------- http://project2612.org/download.php?id=36 - "Green Hill Zone" Basic opening beats, but solidly produced; good body to 'em, good energy. Synth part taken from the source gradually fades in at 1:32. Meanwhile everything else basically sounded original. Source melody finally showed up at 3:05 a couple of times before escalating the build with some additional beats. A background synth brought in at 3:37 used the first six notes of the source melody liberally arranged. 4:07 went back to the source melody again, including the chorus at 4:23, leading to a gradual dropoff/deconstruction finish. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I'm generally down with the arrangement. My guess is I'll be in the minority. It's pretty minimalist and out of the ordinary, but I'm OK with this, as it uses at least one portion of the source tune from 1:32-on. DarK PurPLe's SMB2 "The DarK Underground" had a similar type of build, even though the genre's are different. My main complaint here is that the lack of variation by the house groove (beats/claps) used through most of the track made the piece drag out. Dropping it out and bringing it back in didn't really help it not feel too repetitive in the long run. If the groove had more observable variation, this could hang, IMO. 4:31-4:39 was a brief example of something that could have kept the groove fresh without drastically altering the mood & flow of the track. If you can do that, you've got my vote, but it may take more than that to get more YESs. I'm open-minded to a low-key, deliberate arrangement approach like this and think it's alright; could be a bit more engaging, but it's alright. Good stuff so far, Evan; definitely hope you don't call it a day on this one if it doesn't pass as is. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 This remix is trance. Man, you will eventually have to eat those words. Trance-debate is a hot potato The arrangement is very minimal. I can appreciate the approach (I had a similar for my DKC3 remix 'Claustrophobia') but on the other hand I can't help to think you could've put a LOT more Green Hill Zone in here. Larry said he was OK with the arrangement but I don't see it as interpretive enough because the lack of variation in both what PART of the source you're using and HOW you're using said part. I think this borderlines to the source not being recognizable enough during most of the track because it's used as a background element. So, I will have to disagree with Larry on this point and request some more overt Green Hill Zone. The general groove in this is good and it's pretty well-produced. The use of filtered white noise (I think that's it anyway) is good and gives a nice rhythmic effect. The bass line is solid but feels a bit grating after 6+ minutes. The beat suffers from the same thing, it's just a bit TOO repetitive. I enjoy trance, minimal and many other genres that builds on repetetive patterns but for an arrangement site like OCR this borderlines on what's not acceptable in my opinion. If you could use more sections of the source, mainly the melody or other recognizable features, and sprinkle them around the arrangement this would be a much easier pass for me. It just needs to be subtle hints! In this genre it's about the sounds themselves so don't bury yourself in the arrangement but find a fantastic sound and then just use a small snippet of source to get this over the bar arrangement-wise. That's an approach that works for me when I'm working in this kind of genre and don't want to lose focus by putting too much effort on source usage. Short version: a bit more Green Hill Zone and overall variation and you've got a solid track. NO(resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Niiiice groove. When I think a minimal remix has been going on for 3-4 minutes and it's actually been going on for 6, that's a good beat. You almost got a groove bias YES, but like Mattias, I wasn't a fan of the source usage in this. The descending melody is a background piece of the original, a very simple one at that, and it's a background piece in this. That's a weak tie. I was a bigger fan of the use of the main melody and the synth which plays the first six notes of that melody, but together, those parts make up only about 2.5 minutes. In a song this long, it feels too liberal to rely on the descending melody for so much of it. And pretty much that's my only complaint. There was just enough detail and head-nodding to keep this interesting for 6.5 minutes and I enjoyed it (though I can see why Larry or anyone else would want more. There's still a lot of repetition, and more you could do.) That's cool if you're happy with this where it is, but wrapping the melodies into this more would be awesome, if you're up for it. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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