Liontamer Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Link to remix: Contact Information: ReMixer name: Sengin Real name: Andrew LaChance email: sengin31@gmail.com user ID: 20227 Submission Info: Game arranged: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Songs arranged: Hydrocity Zone Act 1 and 2, Ice Cap Zone Act 1 Additional Info: This has been a long time in coming. I started this in Finale over a year and a half ago just because I was in the shower at 3AM and felt like I had something to contribute to Ice Cap. Well, after getting a bit into the arrangement, I realized that Hydrocity Zone had the same key as Ice Cap, and not only did I like Hydrocity better, but there also aren't nearly as many remixes of it. So I added it in. After working on it and taking breaks due to a lot of things, I decided to take it in a much more Hydrocity direction than Ice Cap, and I am glad that I did. I originally intended to do most of the mix in piano with drums backing and little other instrumentation, but while the piano part stayed, a I decided to infuse a lot of Latin sounds to the mix. The mix flows from laid-back parts to fiery sections (in contrast to the water (Hydrocity) and ice (Ice Cap) source tunes). I was able to work in a couple of time signature changes near the end as well to feel more free, rather than staying in the tried-and-true common time (just subtle changes though, mostly changing between 4/4 and 15/16 measure to measure). I would also like to note that ladyspritzy on the OCR forums wrote a poem named "Thaw" based on my remix, and it can be read here (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showpost.php?p=460331&postcount=34) if anyone should wish to read it. I would also like to thank Rozovian for reviewing my WIP a bunch of times. (Oh, and 128 kbps ABR saved my behind on the 6MB limit, phew). I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed creating. --------------------------------------------------------------- http://project2612.org/download.php?id=61 - Hydrocity Zone 1, Hydrocity Zone 2 & IceCap Zone 1 Piano sample lacks realism, which drags down the whole track. What happened at :29? The countermelody and pads sounded off-key with the rest of the track. Regained its footing a bit at :57, but there was still dissonance caused by the supporting instrumentation. The percussion also sounded a bit flimsy. The piano at 1:28 comping was all over the place and mixed too bright. 3:32's section was interesting (cool Latin vibe), but plagued with the same production issues that hampered the track. Loads of the samples are just too thin and fake-sounding, plus the textures are too cluttered, so parts are tripping all over each other. EQ these parts and carve out breathing room for each one. 4:24-5:13's section was a mess. Everything was cluttered, there was some minor dissonance, and most importantly there was nothing to focus on. Not a bad closing section in terms of mood. It could have used more overt melodic direction, but I did like the dropoff in the dynamics. So yeah, the sample articulations & mixing both need tons of work, you need to eliminate the dissonance and also give this more melodic direction. Just a shade above the form letter, because the execution was VERY rough, but clearly you put a lot of effort into this and you tried to present something interpretive. Keep at it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Larry's got this pretty covered. While I did like the mix of instruments and general approach, the execution needed a lot of work. After the intro, the piano really lost its realism - the long runs and slides used in the Latin sections took me out of the song, and I thought you used them too frequently. It needs smoother sequencing. The pad at 0:29 sounded like it came from a totally different song, notes clashed badly with the piano. 1:30 had too much going on and sounded disjointed, while 1:49 was too empty and exposed the thin higher notes of your piano sample. I also thought the transition between keys were awkward sometimes, like 3:09. But the biggest criticism I can offer is, well, back to Larry: "there was nothing to focus on". This can be applied to a lot of this song. The parts of this that work best are when the piano takes the focus and doesn't try to do too much (e.g. the intro and outro). These parts actually sound pretty nice. Keep the supporting instrumentation out of the way of your lead (use your ears and sometimes EQ) and make the lead simpler like you do in those sections, and I think the result will be better. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 The piano sounds extremely unnatural. It's not just the way it's sequenced but the harmonies and phrasing too. I can appreciate a try at modifying the feeling of a track entirely but the dissonances clashes with the pad. Even if we removed the pad they're written very strangely, some notes sound extremely missplaced even if this would be a jazz-piano solo and half of it would be near unplayable. I'm not trying to be offensive here but since this is basically the main part of the track and it has so many issues I think it's important to point them out. Don't get me wrong, some of the writing in the piano is quite cool though, you obviously grasp theory and harmony. 2:12 and forward is an interesting section with some cool chords but the sequencing is brining these parts down. The production lacks focus with the piano drowning out most other sounds for the first half of the song. The percussion was decent but suffered from the same stiff sequencing as the piano. The arrangement shares the productions lack of focus and the transitions made the piece sound even more disjointed. I hear from most parts that you know what you're doing but you have to put more work into making the piece cohesive, focused and realistic. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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