*NO* Ninja Gaiden 2 'Scaling the Mountain'

[OceansAndrew]

Name: Luke Keever

Forum/Remixer name: LuketheXjesse

email: lukethexjesse@gmail.com

website: none

forum ID: 20803

Game: Ninja Gaiden 2

Source Tunes: Act 2-2, Ending Theme

This was made for Dwelling of Duels November 2009, so I'll use their link for my song.

I simply want to see if this can pass in its current condition. If not, it'll make for some great feedback. (:

This is a very conservative remix, so in terms of source usage we'll just have to see what happens. I'm more concerned about the production values, personally.

Thanks for listening!

-- Luke

Sources

[DragonAvenger]

Right now you are correct that the mix is too conservative. I do like that the two songs are combined pretty well, and the transitions between them aren't too bad. The problem is that each part separately is a cover of the individual song. Get some more arrangement in here, change the drums up and other parts, especially some of the backgrounds, and throw some solos in there.

Some parts aren't meshing together very well. The part that sticks out the most to me is 1:20. The arpeggios don't seem to quite match up with the backing chords. On the same idea, they don't seem to fit in with the style at that point, but that could be just my opinion.

Overall the parts aren't totally in time with each other, which is making the entire song feel sloppy. I don't know if it's because of the speed of the song that you just can't keep up, or if it's even latency of recording, but as it stands this needs to be tightened up a lot in all of the parts. Also, everything right now is panned dead center, it would help open up your soundscape if you shifted some things around.

The playing overall is very emotional, and it's obvious to see the amount of energy that went into this. I'm impressed with the piece overall and it's a fun listen, although right now it's got a ways to go before it's ready for OCR.

NO

[Palpable]

Definitely not bad, Luke. Even though the arrangement was conservative, there were some interesting things like the key change and the arpeggios at 1:20. With some solo bits and more change-ups in drums, this would be there, I'd say. I thought the mixing was pretty good, though the lead tone could be less brittle, more full. The playing needs to be a little more even though, there's no way around that. Good candidate for resubmit, 80-90% of the way there?

NO (resubmit)

[OceansAndrew]

Hey Luke, I'll skip the arrangement stuff since you are specifically looking for production help.

I don't think it's quite to OCR standards, but it's the closest you've ever been. Here are some tips that will hopefully give you some insight on improving your sound.

I think your velocity on the kick is a little high- It sounds like you are rocking AD, which I think the kicks sound best at about 100ish, rather than 127. The natural reverb of the sample in the 127 velocity is causing a little bit of low end mud, so toning down the velocity on this will make things sound tighter. The beat is pretty vanilla, and though you do change it up pretty well throughout, i'm not hearing any really prominent fills, or even crash cymbals. Might want to add them in to make it more interesting. Cool stuff on the breakdowns and stuff- i'm loving the hi hat with the snare accents.

The guitar arpeggios you aren't quite nailing- you are definitely improving as a player, but I think that specific part should have been worked on more, or the song slowed down slightly. You are almost there, but aren't quite keeping up. Rhythm guitar tone is a little too distorted, you'd get a cleaner and punchier tone from bringing down the gain slightly, and it'd actually sound heavier as a side effect. Lead tone is a little brittle, but serviceable, and some minor tweaks would keep improving.

Overall your production is getting closer, nice work on staying dedicated to improvement, it is starting to pay off.

no, please resubmit