Liontamer Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Contact information remixer name: Sperzieb00n real name: Dennis malmberg email adress: thebest_jedi@hotmail.com website: www.last.fm/music/sperzieb00n userID: Submission information game(s) arranged: super mario bro's for the NES individual songs arranged: the tune that can be heard in all levels when being outside, part of the tune that can be heard when being under the ground. original composer: Koji Kondo source of the original samples: internet (sorry, lost the website), and self recorded comments: the genre is Drum & Bass, made in 9 hours with FLstudio8, in the netherlands. and my reasons for this song? when i was a kid i played super mario bro's almost daily on my nes, but i never got further then the first bossfight eventually the song got stuck in my head, nowadays i can play the theme on a chromonica (you can find me on youtube) and the piano. when i heard 1-up from spor on a DNB party i thought he could have done better, because i thought the song itself didn't sound "1-up" enough in my ears... so i decided to try to make something like that myself. have fun listening. ---------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.zophar.net/download_file/14690 - Tracks 1 ("Overworld BGM") & 2 ("Underworld BGM") :02-:10, :43-:45, :48-:50, :54-:56, :59-1:01, 1:25.5-2:18, 2:25-2:51, 3:34-3:36, 3:39-3:41, 3:45-3:47, 3:50-3:52, 4:17-4:41, 4:44-4:46, 4:49-4:51, 4:54-4:56, 5:00-5:12, 5:22-5:24 That's 146.5 seconds or 45.216% source usage. I'm not counting sampled in-game SFX. We don't allow tracks solely constructed of in-game SFX, thus I don't count SFX usage as music usage. Not a bad arrangement approach. Wholly original sections are OK, but most of the focus should be on arranging/using the actual themes, not the original melodic writing or sampling the in-game SFX . Someone might complain about the Mario themes souding very chiptune-y, but it wasn't direct sampled or verbatim, and it was coupled with the modern dNb sounds. Production-wise, this got blistering. The tss-es caused by the cymbals should be toned down. The melodic stuff could afford to be pushed up a little as well. I'd definitely like to see the balance tweaked a little, since (aside from the cymbals), this lacked clarity due to the high-end being neglected. Still, the dNb brought the power. Use a VBR encoding to get the filesize closer to 6MB and improve the sound-quality; 128kbps doesn't bring out the best here given how much is going on. If Protricity were still on the panel, and maybe Jesse will feel this way, I think the main criticism there would be that the source material mostly feels shoehorned into an original track. It does lack some synergy, so I agree with that to some extent and can understand that POV. Still, some sections had a really cool integration of the themes. Beyond 3:00 though, we basically got more of the same with the arrangement ideas; think about other ideas you can bring to the table to keep it fresh, rather than repeating them wholesale, and let's get some more of the Mario themes explicitly in there to boost up the source usage over 50%. Pretty interesting. Not sure whether the others will like it as much as I did, but it's got good potential. If you can address these various issues, Dennis, this could be good to go. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 This caught me off guard, very cool. Nice arrangement approach. The change of the main theme to minor match with the typical 3-note DnB-bass was a good move and added some personalization. Even though most melodic elements are chip-tune based it's mostly c64-type sounds and they work together with the backing without feeling like a "rip". However the obvious issue is the lack of direct source usage. Looking at Larry's breakdown it seems correct, it's not like the Super Mario Bros. theme is hard to identify! Production-wise you could've done more to emphasize the source here too, if this was 55% I still wouldn't feel comfortable passing it because the leads and most elements except drums and bass are WAY in the back. Overall you need to balance your levels while keeping the energy. I'd love to see a resubmission of this with improved mixing and some more source usage. It's a good track that surely will be a hit once it reaches the front page! Good work, keep it up! NO(resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Nice title. If Protricity were still on the panel, and maybe Jesse will feel this way, I think the main criticism there would be that the source material mostly feels shoehorned into an original track. I dunno, I got this vibe for some of the song. The underground music felt really shoehorned in. The overworld music was well integrated though and I liked those parts of the song much more. The way the melody slowly becomes part of the background at 2:08 was very cool. Instruments slotted together nicely. There was some repetition of ideas and some sections that disrupted the flow. I feel pretty ambivalent about it; a lot to like, but not as connected as it needs to be, and some parts that don't work. I was ok with the production, nothing to say there. With some arrangement tweaks, I could see myself liking this a lot, Dennis. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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