Mega Man 2 (Game Boy) - Will of the Forest

[LuketheXjesse]

http://tindeck.com/listen/ccld

It is a remix of Wood Man's stage from the Game Boy version of Mega Man 2.

Feel free to be as cruel and relentless as possible in your critique. Seriously! I need something wrong with my song to work on.

EDIT: I just put up a different version because the cymbals were obnoxiously loud on the other.

[Emunator]

Your drum samples seem reeeaaallly thin and quiet, but with this kind of music they should be packing a lot more punch. I get the same feeling from some of your guitar tones, but with the guitar it's a lot less noticeable and doesn't impede the song nearly as much.

The transition between the chiptune intro and the metal part is not very good at all, to be honest :\ The timing makes it sound totally tacked on instead of flowing smoothly like it should, which is a shame because I like the idea of using the original chiptune as part of this song because of the notoriety that comes with the GB Megaman 2 soundtrack

Other than those issues, I just feel like you could do more with this song in terms of soloing and personalization, especially on the synth writing that comes in every once and a while. There's tons of room for some great sequencing there but instead you stick with some pretty simple note melodies. Take it to the next level brah.

This is actually pretty damn close to the bar though, and I think you nailed it with the clean guitar and soloing parts (the performance might have been a little loose with the clean guitar now that I listen again, check that out and see if you agree. Other than that, though, that section was awesome!) Just do a bit more to make the performance and sequenced parts stand out more - I don't know what the actual names are for those little inflections you can put into a guitar performance but I'm sure you can come up with something!

Run with this, it shouldn't take too much more effort to get it where it needs to be

[LuketheXjesse]

I actually wanted the transition between the chiptune intro and the actual song to be abrupt, just fyi. I agree with you on everything else though. I tried to avoid using distortion to give my drums more presence, but it seems to be my only choice at this rate. Anyway, your review was very appreciated.

Oh, for shits and giggles, here's the revised version, drum distortion and all.

[Emunator]

Yeah, I get the abrupt transition idea, it's just something about the timing that seems off to me; I'm going from memory right now because Tindeck is blocked at school but I remember the initial drumbeat coming in at a weird time. Just to clarify what I meant by that.

Glad I could help!

[Dafydd]

Guitars are a little thin and muddy at the same time. Drums a little too weak (though the samples are fine, it's just they disappear in the compression behind the guitars), bass is much too weak.

I'm a sucker for dry production though. Lead is fine.

Glad to see someone else tackle this, I haven't gotten around to working any more on my wip from 2008 or so.

[LuketheXjesse]

I want to say this is the last version I'm rolling with, but being real OCD with this song, I can't guarantee that.

http://tindeck.com/listen/dnyh

There might be a lack of any noticeable differences to anyone else, I've just been making many EQ and compression readjustments and whatnot.

[halc]

the chiptune bit sounds great, but i agree with emu about the abrupt transition. the timing works, but the complete change does make it seem tacked on. overall, the arrangement is well-paced with some good variations and fairly solid production work. that piano-ish synth bit that comes in every so often seems a little robotic and simplistic compared to the rest of the arrangement - like emu mentioned, there's a lot of room in those sections for some more expansive sequencing.

it's on the right track, and getting quite close to the judges bar imo, but i think you should succumb to the influence of OCD and give it a little more polish before calling it finished. other posters have covered most of what needs to be said - try implementing a few more critiques others have left + spicing up some of the sequencing a bit and you could end up with a very nice product

[LuketheXjesse]

http://tindeck.com/listen/oprz

Gonna fix it up some more today, but here's a lot I did yesterday.

[Dafydd]

I would have preferred less reverb on the drums. Guitars are sweet, though!

[halc]

good improvements over the last version, if i'm remembering it correctly. chiptune bit is still awesome, and the transition seemed more natural this time around. seconding dafydd's comment on the reverb- the drum parts seem a bit muffled, a little less reverb might give them a little more clarity.

sounding good!

[Dafydd]

It's funny how people keep commenting the chiptune bit. It's taken directly from source, which I think sounds terrible most of the time. You drop a semi-tone in key in the transition (from D# to D), which is a shame. If you pitch the chiptune bit down a semi-tone so it's the same key as the rest of the song, I think the transition would feel a lot more natural.

Also, that weak synth piano thing... that part of the song actually has two parts in the melody, and you've only included one of them.

[No Escape]

I was fine with the chiptune transition, but I noticed the entire mix was clipping. Might I suggest working the volume down a little? Also, the mix seemed a little heavy between 100-200 Hz (not necessarily a bad thing for the genre of track), but at 1:56 it was feeding back and flooding the mix. The clean guitar at 1:56 sounded a little on the tinty side, but bearable by all means. On the composition side, the changes were enough to keep me into the track. I would say that it needs a little work overall, but it can all be done post-production (which is easy). Keep it up!

[LuketheXjesse]

The clipping thing tends to be a Tindeck thing, fyi.

[No Escape]

Not to argue, but I literally just downloaded my own tracks from tindeck and they were basically unchanged. You don't have to lower everything, but the lack of dynamic range will make your track tiring to listen to. A ton of ppl have a problem with wanting their track to be radio ready. Unless you double as a mastering house, you will not achieve this level of quality or VOLUME. I would suggest creating a new mixdown, and making sure not to hit 0Db (a few times is fine). Clipping is not only painful to hear, but is easily noticed if its even a little excessive (I noticed it before I even downloaded your track). The track is good, but it needs to not clip or resonate at certain frequencies (specifically 100-200 Hz) to be great.

[LuketheXjesse]

Nothing here goes over 0 DB.

[No Escape]

OK fine... send me a copy at noescape16@yahoo.com. If that track doesn't clip everywhere, I'll consider it your win.

[Dafydd]

I like that we have a real pro on the wip board. I could use some mastering feedback on my own stuff whenever I post something next time.

[No Escape]

I'm just trying to help out... no harm intended:neutral:. If your track is clipping on my DAW, it may clip on others as well (But it's your choice on your track, not mine). By the way, Dafydd, I'm recruiting for a potential project (I have a thread in the requests forum). A few of those tracks seem like your style (I've only heard your F-Zero WIP). If you're interested message me.

[LuketheXjesse]

Any kind of critique is wanted, really. Shit all over this track, I implore you!

[No Escape]

Oh indeed I will shit on this track... just kidding. No really, its good. I'll leave my last advice at "tone down the track between 100-200 and lower the volume of the entire track by .5 (1/2) Db." This way, it won't clip on anyone's system. That's it. Take it or leave it. The power is yours

[WillRock]

Not heard your stuff in a while dude, but this is showing one hell of an improvement to your other stuff i've heard imo.

Guitar tone is pretty cool, I like it when guitars have some cool effects on them like chorus here (correct me if i'm mistaken). It makes them more interesting imo. The rhythm and lead guitar together slightly mud up the mix tho... i'd consider trying to beef up the mids of the rhythm guitars or doubling the guitars again to increase the stereo width, maybe add a stereo imager on them. Also, I wouldn't pan them completely hard left hard right - i'd try and have it so the guitars aren't completely at the center of the mix. In fact, everything seems to be centered atm and thats proven at least from the screen shot in reaper... pan some stuff man, make sure its not completely in mono

At the moment the bass seems decidedly uninteresting... I'd try and add some little bass melodies in there somewhere (think iron maiden) so its not completely forgotten. The guitars pretty much take the spotlight and you can forget the bass is even there if all you play is the root note of the chord in heavy metal music I know that seems like a tall order due to the fact the bass is recorded but it would make the track better and you could work some variations of the theme in there

The drums - don't sound so bad, but the tone of the kick isn't that great imo, its got a weird click to it and its too loud, it shouldn't be that noticeable.

I can't say too much about the arrangment but i'm not sure about variation amounts here at this point, you might be sticking too close to the source... I need to listen to the source more before I make any judgements there (I might edit this post with arrangement feedback at some point) but I'd say you need a cool section without the drums at some point

Pretty good stuff man, sorry about the mega long post, hope you find this useful