*NO* Crystalis 'A Tale of the God Slayer' *RESUB*

[OceansAndrew]

previous decision:

http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=27967

[OceansAndrew]

This update addresses every complaint I had with the production and even some additional bonuses to arrangement. strings were tastefully used to pad out the back, and the guitar tones are solid and the leads more audible. There's even extra source added in, all without sacrificing the core strengths of the track, specifically the awesome drums and heaviness.

This is capable of slaying a God.

yes

[DragonAvenger]

Nice fix here, very awesome track. Rock on, dude.

YES

[DarkeSword]

This is the first version of this I've heard, so I'm coming into this fresh.

Not sure about that piano, it's a bit mechanical. Everything sounds kind of muffled too; there's a lack of high frequencies here which is kind of noticeable throughout the mix.

Great arrangement though; nice big sound. Lots of energy, great variation, awesome instrumentation.

Still feel like this is being run through a low-pass filter though (albeit with a very high cutoff freq). I could do with some EQ on this to maybe bring out some of the higher freqs.

YES (conditional)

[Jillian Aversa]

Also coming into this fresh. The intro dragged for me somewhat, partially because I wasn't digging the lo-fi, fakey sounds... but then everything got all badass. Looking back, the cheesy samples don't bother me as much because I have the greater context now, but I still would have done it differently. I also noticed a sudden jump in volume for the lead guitar at 1:02. Just a minor gripe.

Arrangement is great! I was sort of suprised and amused when the prominent strings came in at 2:28; the progression is very baroque, so that was a cool touch. I'm not sure why the lead guitar is panned to the right at 3:00, since there's nothing in the left until 3:20. (I would have just centered it until the second guitar came in.) The ending with just the synths and drumkit also sounds a bit overcompressed to me.

So the production is a little rough around the edges, but not enough for me to want to put you through another resub. I'll take it as is!

YES

[Palpable]

Still not digging the way many of the instruments are produced (drums, backing guitars, piano), they sound murky and have too much low-end. When they drop out, everything sounds a lot cleaner. The string articulations are pretty weak, especially in the 2:28 section. Finally, at 3:40, there's just too much going on. Didn't feel like the parts had much synergy, the strings were one addition too many. Ending dragged a little, there wasn't much variation for 40 seconds of material.

This is an improvement over the last version, especially in the excellent arrangement, but the production is still not there, and I think it's more work than a conditional YES. Sorry bud.

NO (resubmit)

[Liontamer]

Starting out, the guitar sounded pretty rough and exposed, and the balance seems meh; there's a lack of clarity with the parts. Once it picks up at 1:22, the guitar sounds a bit meatier. Not by much, but better. Doubling it at 1:33 wasn't a bad idea.

2:08, what was going on? The soundscape became too cluttered; it didn't sound like it was clipping, but almost sounded compressed or hard limited, it was strange.

The string sequencing was enough behind the beat at 2:27 that it stuck out as awkward; not the most realistic articulations either. The strings were also serving as the main melody when in play and shouldn't have been buried behind the rock elements

At 3:30, the already cramped soundscape sounded too compressed and cluttered again. For example, when the strings returned at 3:39, you could BARELY hear them. Everything was just smooshed together. 4:01 with the machine-gun style stuff sounded brutally mixed.

Arrangement-wise, I'm generally feeling it, because it has some good energy and it's definitely a fleshed-out, personalized take on the source tune. But the production's another thing. As I said in #judges while listening, "still have a minute left, so something else could go wrong." It did.

I was definitely feeling the dropoff though at 4:25, but the poorly processed 8-bit sounds and AWFUL exposed snare drum brought in at 4:49 completely ruined that. When the last two thoughts about the finish were "Why'd he have to do that?" and "What a silly way to end it," it just doesn't look optimistic.

The soundscape needs to be cleaned up and properly balanced, and the final section needs to be fleshed out. I see how it's going for mimimalism, but the drum shots were too exposed, sounded stapled on top of the soundscape and weren't the right tone/sound to work with the 8-bit stuff. If you can clean all that stuff up to some extent, and fix the timing & articulation issues with the strings, this would be clicking much better. This doesn't need EVERY issue to be fixed to have a chance, but I think this still needs some more polishing to fully realize the potential of the arrangement. Fixing at least some of those issues would help that along.

Good luck on this, Michael, I hope we hear more from you whether or not this sub makes it.

NO (resubmit)

[CHz]

Nice nice nice arrangement. This thing is massive. The ending is fine conceptually, but it lasts for a very long time without doing a whole lot.

Production is definitely my biggest concern. The sequencing of the strings isn't great, which shows the most at 2:27. The balancing is rough all around; the track sound muffled early on (0:52-1:10 especially) and cluttered later (2:08-2:27 and 3:29-3:58 especially). I like the arrangement a lot, but there's a bit too much holding this up on the production side.

NO (resubmit)

[anosou]

I don't know why nobody mentioned the odd clicks at the beginning. Left speaker, noisy and a click at the beginning of phrases. Otherwise I agree with what's been said, the arrangement is good but the production is dragging it down. It sounds like the whole thing's been EQ'd in a way so that both the lows AND the highs are gone. There are also something that sounds like noisy distortion, almost clipping. The strings sound mechanical and unrealistic.

I hate to come off as harsh but those judges that voted YES need to re-listen to this, the production really is holding this back from passing.

I'm sorry man, you're gonna have to work some more on this. Try looking up some tips on music production (EQ, mastering, compression etc.) before revisiting this. Not that I think you have no idea what you're doing but because you can always learn new things, I still do all the time!

NO(resubmit)

[Palpable]

Since this is dead split with a conditional, I'll e-mail Michael and give him another chance to fix this up with our comments in mind. I suspect that if he can deliver a version that makes Shariq's conditional into a YES, it may change some other votes.

[Palpable]

Have not heard back from Michael on this in two months since I first e-mailed him, so I'm gonna close it. We can fast-track a resub if Michael wants to give us one.