Diddy Kong Racing - Wizpig's Race - UPDATE

[DarkSim]

Well this game seriously needs remixing, so I thought I'd give one of the more badass tunes on it a try (also has a little bit of this in it at the beginning).

I've been working on this ReMix bit by bit over the course of a few days, figuring out each section by ear (very hard - especially that piano!), so if I've got some notes wrong I apologise.

EDIT: Finished version up here http://www.tindeck.com/listen/chyt with a little help from my brother.

Changed almost everything, comments always welcome!

[Skyline Drop]

Gonna fully agree with you that DKR needs some remix attention here.

Um... Not feeling to well, right now, so I can't give much to comment on, but I do feel like the melody is much too obscured by the rest of the track. That's the biggest concern that sticks out to me.

I actually like the active and driving soundscape you have going, though.

[hewhoisiam]

I'm giving a disclaimer on this one too: I'm binging the reviews in the WIP thread, things with the work-in-progress tag in front of them, it's late, and my sanity is waning. All are opinions, sanity not guaranteed, or likely. Some things may be off. Some words may be dyslexically spelled backwards and there may be things in the post that are just plain off. The better the thing I'm listening to is, the more likely I'll come up with something off the wall to complain about. Worst case scenario if it's really good and I have nothing to say about it, I'll just start making stuff up. 'I want some more schmeere in your somoflange, then it'll be epic...' That being said, lets get going.

It's a neat source. I like the music to the DKC series, even the ones I haven't played and this is no exception. (never did play DKC3, did play the DK64 though. The DK raps sucked imo Q.Q)

Okay, the first thing that jumps out at me is where the piano first comes (just a few seconds into the track) in the sound is too full. This may have to do with some of those low pad levels, but it seems to be that 16th note feeling pad unbalancing things. It's too hot and it seems like you brought the entire mix up to match it, which makes the whole mix too hot. Massive clippage and limiter stuff. Though I'm not an expert on mastering by any means. Some volume automation might help the intro also.

As far as balance goes, that low pad mentioned above is occupying bass ranges. Where the piano first comes in is just a low bassy static sort of fading thud. and crash. It almost sounds like that build up goes into a sound effect, but as is, that crash takes away from the first notes played on the low piano because it's too powerful/overwhelming. You might should back it off after the intro in addition to toning it down so that the bass parts (low piano methinks) can stand out better. This seems to happen a few times in here for some of your 'build ups' Not sure if it's a synth issue or what.

It's a neat sound scape, I like the 16th note arp-ish sound sometimes, and other times I don't. I think it works well for supporting sounds (IE 45-48) and not very well for melody (IE 1:10 1:22)

Speaking of which, at 1:22, there's a sour note. It sounds intentional, but I still don gotta like it Q.Q Granted my theory is admittedly weak, but I'm just not a fan of sour notes, sometimes they're okay for suspense or things sounding wrong, intentional dissonance and such. Doesn't seem right here though.

On the short side, but I don't really know what to tell you for length. It's a neat piano part in the lows that I wouldn't mind hearing more of. Also, it's some neat atmosphere at the very end as well that would sound pretty good expanded. Overall though, I think the balance needs a bit-o-werk.

Hope that helps.

[Malheureusement]

Well, DarkSim, this track really does capture the intensity and mind-numbing stress that comes from this freaking race. I love it because the sound is so full. Soundscape = WIN. The only think I'd suggest is instead of ending it with symmetry (fading out and filtering), I would speed up the track to make it seem like the last lap, and end with an epic YOU WIN sort of thing. Right now it sounds like you just had an epic race with his royal piggy-ness and nobody got to see the end of the race.

The piano is absolutely amazing in this piece. Love the piano bass line. There's nothing like playing on a bass-enhanced, $50,000 Kawai. This reminds me of that. I'd love to hear some more of the flowing bass notes, however. Right now it sounds kinda muddy at parts--like someone doesn't know how to use the sustain pedal on the piano properly. As my teacher used to say--give it a little flutter pedal. Work the sustain so it sticks in some places, but is nice and clear in most places.

Hope I helped...I love the way this sounds nice and evil. It's very nice work.

[DarkSim]

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback so far. I've put this mix on the backburner for a while and am ready to go back to it. It's draining when you're straining your ears to try and figure out all the notes in such an intricate piece as this, so I thought I'd get the hard part out of the way first and then leave it for a while before coming back refreshed and ready to tackle the arrangement side of things.

hewhoisiam - thanks for the sour note identification - I'm inclined to agree with you on that one but I've tried changing it and it sounds even worse. Might just have to make it quieter or something...

I also agree that overall the mixing is a little muddy, and I do indeed have a bass part competing for frequencies with the bass piano - I thought it could work but I'll have to remove it and maybe add it in to replace the bass piano in some other parts.

Malheureusement - thanks for the compliments on the piano! It really took a long time to get it right, and I agree that the bass notes in the piano sound the best, so I'll probably bring those out more when I go back to it. Also the fade out wasn't really the ending I had planned (don't know how to end it - whether with a bang or to wind it down as if you've won the race and are doing a victory lap or something), so I'll have to see where I decide to go from there. It also made me laugh that you said "someone" didn't know how to use the sustain pedal properly - I actually didn't! I'd just downloaded a new VST (CVpiano) and couldn't figure it out so left it out with the intention of figuring it out later, haha! If you listen to the source the piano's very staccato as well, but with some sustain on the bass and the fast cutoff on the treble, that could be a nice combo.

Some other ideas I had for this piece were to splice in some sections of the Haunted Woods melody, as I think the two tracks would work well together, and both are probably the "darkest" sounding tracks in the game. It could certainly help to extend the length of the track a bit, although I'd quite like to keep it under 4 minutes due to the intensity I've got going on. I'll have to see how that works out.

Sadly I can't upload to tindeck for the next few weeks as I'm at work and the firewall blocks mp3s, but hopefully that'll give me chance to focus more on the making and less on the uploading.

[UmJammerSully]

Oh God, this brought back horrible memoried of racing Wizpig thousands of times over. I still never beat him, I swear it's near enough impossible.

Anyways, I quite liked the mix, real dark atmosphere and such and to counter hewhoisiam's comment about dissonant notes, I actually quite digged it and thought it fits here. To each their own I guess.

[XZero]

Oh God, this brought back horrible memoried of racing Wizpig thousands of times over. I still never beat him, I swear it's near enough impossible.

Anyways, I quite liked the mix, real dark atmosphere and such and to counter hewhoisiam's comment about dissonant notes, I actually quite digged it and thought it fits here. To each their own I guess.

[Offtopic] Story time! One of my friends growing up got this game shortly after I did. We played our respective copies and kept one another abreast of our progress. One day after school, he called to tell me that he had finally beaten the first Wizpig race. Apparently he accomplished this by getting stuck between Wizpig's legs and some sort of glitch caused his car to accellerate, thereby throwing him right over the finish line. DKR moments... [/Offtopic]

I love the source track, and I like how you're approaching it. The main melody should be emphasized a bit more, and if you're trying to make it like the race, maybe play through the track and then speed it up and add some elements later in it to make it like the final lap (which I think builds off of someone else's suggestion above). I also definitely feel that the ending should be a remix of the song that plays when you win the race to really give it that triumphant feel.

Overall, I like it at this point, and I can't wait to see where you go with it in the coming weeks!

[DarkSim]

I've got something special for you! /dodgy Indian accent

OK so I'm not going to say much about this track so as not to bias any feedback. It's been through such a massive update I've changed pretty much everything. If you listened before, please do so again and comment! The first version was far from complete, but now I think I've got something going on here, arrangement wise.

[DarkSim]

*cough* Well, just bumping cos I'm a little disappointed at the lack of feedback, especially since the original one I uploaded (that was actually crap compared to this ) got so many listens. Any thoughts?