Palpable Posted September 11, 2009 Share Posted September 11, 2009 Your ReMixer name: Main Finger Your real name: Jesse Gregory Name of game(s) arranged: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Name of individual song(s) arranged: Mystic Cave Zone Name of ReMix: Carnival Cave Several years ago I submitted an OLD version of this track. I never saw it get to the judges. Either it got lost, or it got rejected and I didn't notice. Either way, that is all moot. The song has been reworked a lot since that submission. This is the final version of the song whether it gets accepted on OCR or not. I very recently released my new album Mode7 (for free download) on MainFinger.com and I need to move on musically. The album took waaaaay too long to make due to the fact that I had a very crappy computer. I mean, the latency issues on this computer were so bad that if you hit a note on the midi controller, it wouldn't actually play the instrument for about a full second. And even if you were just doing sequencing, even a mild amount of synths and effects channels would literally bring my computer to its knees causing me to have to export often just to hear what the section I'm working on even sounds like without chopping out. I have finally upgraded to a new computer thankfully, but the majority of this song was made on the old one. When I was making the solo, partway through I just started thinking of Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" for no apparant reason. This resulted in a short little Rockit homage at about the 2:32 mark. I even recorded a little vocoder clip for that part like in Rockit, only mine is me saying "Robotnik". I hope somebody picks up on this. Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoy it. It would be nice to be able to get a song on the site that isn't from 2002. I'd like to think I've made at least some improvement in the last seven years, afterall. But oh well, no hard feelings either way. -Jesse "Main Finger" Gregory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://project2612.org/download.php?id=37 - 10 "Mystic Cave Zone" The song plays with the structure a little and adds some original sections, but I thought the overall mood and instrumentation was similar and most of the parts come from the original. Though it sounded good and was well put-together, it felt conservative and too much like a sound upgrade. I would have liked to hear some more drastic changes to the approach. I did get and appreciate your little "Rockit" reference. Could see others hearing this as a more personalized arrangement than I did, we shall see. Good luck, Jesse! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 A lot of the sounds are definitely similar to the original, but I am hearing a lot of expansion in different parts, with original melodies, counterpoint, and rhythms. Combining new production ideas (those pans are a simple change, but well executed, great hook there), and some really good original ideas that bring the funk while staying true to the source. The structure is somewhat similar, but definitely not 1-1, with a few sections that expand on the groove while doing it's own thing melodically, a well done solo with a cool homage, and some cool breaks. This moves beyond cover territory i think. Production-wise, some sections get a little cluttered, but a solid foundation is in place, and even when it gets tight, you can still hear the different parts clearly. I think this could have been cleaned up by toning down some of the delay and reverb on a few select instruments, but i would say production is above the bar. yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 Too close to the original I think; it started off with a nice intro but then it got really cluttered really fast. I like some of the parts at the end. You have some nice groovy stuff going on in the second half of the piece. Lead at 2:20 is a really bad sound. Very mechanical, very thin. I think that you could do better with your sounds in the beginning of this piece and then later on. Good start, I'd like to see some more of it. No, resub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted October 2, 2009 Share Posted October 2, 2009 I don't think it's too close to the original at all...There's definitely a lot of material added, and the structure/arrangement is different. My problem with this mix is that the parts are incredibly repetitive. I'm not speaking of the larger arrangement of the song, but in a given section, many of the parts repeat ad nauseum. For instance, most of the edgier synths in the first half of the song...well they just don't quit. I agree about the lead sound towards the end. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Opened up with some pretty deliberate pacing. The vanilla gating on the lead at :25 was corny. Spice it up, man. I know you're going for a deliberate pace, but the lead still needs to have energy and momentum behind it. I also thought the sound balance should have been tweaked. The melody needed to be the loudest part. There were countermelodic parts underneath the melody that were supposed to create some interplay and instead they were practically buried for the first 1:31. I liked the changeup at 1:32 though into the chorus and also felt the interpretation factor through the arrangement was acceptable overall from an expansionist perspective. Wasn't feeling the instrumental texture from 2:04-2:19; it went back to being boring until things picked back up at 2:20. The quasi-comping there was a little awkward with the timing, and the placement was also awkward in that I thought it should have been more upfront. Snuck in that "Rockit" ref. Regardless, fairly decent closing section afterward. Spice up/change up some of the more boring sections with elements from the sections that did click and address the sound balance so that the placement of things makes more sense and realizes the potential of the part-writing. Good base so far. Definitely nag some judges and community members on how you can best polish this up, Jesse. I didn't really get to talk to you at PAX so I could thank you for submitting "Secrets" way back in the day, but I hope you don't give up on this one. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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