Liontamer Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Special note: The song is called "In Joy & Sorrow" but the ampersand made the link not work. * Oinkness * Brandon Strader * http://brandon.rainwound.com/ * 3123 * Xenogears * The Sky, The Clouds, and You * Yasunori Mitsuda, Squaresoft, 1998 * http://www.ocremix.org/game/70/xenogears-ps1 About the song: When I returned to the ocremix community, I checked out which album projects were currently running. I found the Xenogears project which was apparently coming to a close, but tried to sign on for one of the remaining songs anyway. The song I chose was "The Sky, The Clouds, and You". The first time I heard the song, I knew it would be perfect as a polka rock remix. I started building a little recording space in the living room, and tried out some new equipment. In about a week and a half, "In Joy & Sorrow" was born. I had a lot of fun making this song and I tried to do something that I had never done before. I've never written a polka song before. Also, I don't usually write songs that have such a fast tempo. I was very happy to learn that the track had been accepted onto the Xenogears "Humans and Gears" album project, and I am hoping to produce many more songs for ocremix in the coming months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 Production is a bit muddy due to a bit too much reverb on the instruments, but the live crowd ambiance make it seem at least a little intentional, and the track overall has a live feel to it, so the muddiness present is more natural sounding, if that makes any sense. Other judges may have more of an issue with it, but it doesn't dealbreak this deal for me. Snare is a bit loud as well. Arrangement is fun and silly, but very personalized, with additional transitions and leads, and of course vocals. The genre change-up was unexpected, but the melody really fits. Overall, an excellent arrangement; creative and cool. Pretty nice solo as well. Overall, the production has some issues that definitely add up, but I feel the vibe and arrangement rises above despite the issues. It's a close vote, but I feel comfortable enough giving this track a yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 I'd say it's not the muddiness that's killing the track, it's the volume. I just don't understand how loudness is not an issue for any of you guys lately. If I record something and it clips from essentially measure 1, and then I render it, most programs will generally limit it to 0.0 db, but crikey, it's going to sound bad. That's what's happening in this track, and it happens in a lot of other tracks that nobody else seems to mind, and if this one ends up getting a bunch more YES's that totally overlook that, I'm going to have to throw out a big huge WTF at the lot of you. I sort of felt the same way about that Langresser track, but this is way worse, as far as the loudness issue goes. There is obvious issues with sound quality resulting directly from the excessive master volume. I refuse to pass this in it's current state. Hate to seem like a douche, but it just really is that bad to me. (Also, I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you Andrew, I'm just addressing the issue in general.) <3 Now then. As far as the arrangement goes, it's certainly a creative and unique approach, and I definitely admire that. Let me go ahead and get all my gripes out of the way so I can get to the good parts. -Electric guitar tone is pretty thin and not very appealing in general -Not a fan of the cheesy crowd FX. -Volume of the vox is a little inconsistent. For example, 1:41 isn't even audible. -Intonation on the vox kind of wanders in (or at least close to) the red from time to time. -Clutter, clutter, clutter, mostly a direct result from the poor mastering and somewhat-meh mixing. -You really ought to dampen your kick, take off some of the reverb or at least shorten the tail. Now then, the arrangemnt is pretty fun. I'd say this type of music generally isn't my bag, but in spite of that, I found myself really enjoying it, even though it's not something I would think I'd typically enjoy personally, so that should say something, and I'd say you deserve a high five for that, certainly. The connection was obvious and the outcome is fun, so I'm 100% on board with the arrangement. All the flaws are on the execution side, so if you don't care to address a couple of 'em, that'd be absolutely stellar. Most critically, fix the volume, and try to even out your levels before you master it. It's better for a track to be a bit on the quite side than even a bit too loud. RESUB! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Haha, like the concept, but the production on this is way too rough. The volume is too loud AND the reverb muddiness hurts this, it's really hard to make out the accompanying instrumentation. There's a lack of timing to hold it all together (sounds like there is an extra beat in the chorus because you couldn't cram the syllables in). The lighter drum parts sound too soft, not that realistic. Overall, it seems thrown together rather than polished. There's a lot of small things you can do to improve this, Brandon. My criticisms on this are pretty one-sided. Some of the vocals drift, though I was alright with that. Fun arrangement, just need to improve that production! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 I'm with Big Giant Compressionhater on this one. I think it's the volume that's hurting this track. It's way squished. I liked the sound of the kick until everything else came in. There's just no separation, everything's so loud. I really dig the arrangement and instrumentation. I'm definitely not crazy about the vocals. The performance isn't great, and stylistically it's rather inappropriate. I agree that there's too much reverb on the vocal. The track feels like it should have somewhat of a live feel, and I think the vocal would do better with maybe a subtle slap than the verb you have here. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 Everything sounds smashed together and really messy. There are parts where you sing quietly and it just gets lost. Accompaniment and vocals don't lock together, and there are some intonation issues in the singing. The crowd is also extraneous and gimmicky; it worked on CREID but it doesn't really work here. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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