OCR01252 - *YES* Super Mario 64 'The Alternate Route' *FT*

[GrayLightning]

ParagonX9 Fallthrough

I just wanted to ask you again if you can directly place this in the judges panel... Because ive submitted this around March but it still didnt appear on the panel. This isnt the first time this happend.

I think the problem is that when the site where i host the mp3's exceeded its data transfer limit

it cant be received... I do got the email that it has been received tho...

Here's the info:

Username: ParagonX9

Site: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/view.php?id=198486/

Song Title: The Alternate Route (Remix of Koopa's Road (Super Mario 64)

Thanks again, Jermain

[Liontamer]

http://www.zophar.net/usf/sm64usf.zip - Koopa's Road

This is decent d'n'b/breakbeat-type stuff. I would have preferred more to have been played around with on the "Koopa's Road" theme, since all of the references stick with the same 2 lines of the track. Original sections that go into more of the d'n'b-style staples (and referenced the Koopa's Road melody) like from 2:13 to 3:11 worked surprisingly well to me. Nitpick: The timing on the echoes for the Koopa's Road reference at 3:00 sounded a bit out of synch with your beatwork.

This isn't a bad genre adaptation, but the EQing needs to have more sharpness and fullness to bring up the energy level. I'm liking the bass frequency power, but it's a little too high and potentially clippy. Refine the production in general; it's actually not too bad. The d'n'b sound is alright, but is applied a bit at the expense of the melody and countermelody volume-wise. Things can sound a bit cleaner without sacrificing any of the power in your bass levels. I improved the clarity of sound in Winamp just by upping the non-existent 14K & 16K frequencies +20 decibels. Not much needs to be done there.

I felt the dropping of instruments & voice sample at 1:47 would have been a much more logical transition point to the more minimal/ambient break section at 2:25, so you might wanna see how that could work if you're interested. The cymbal usage could certainly be more creative as well.

I'm not sure how if any of the others are gonna accuse this of either relying on the drumwork or stapling the source tune to original work, but I don't feel either potential criticism would be valid. I often heard the "Koopa's Road" countermelody adapted to the genre, so this was a good attempt at actually applying the genre to the source material instead of merely slapping on some beats. The only things I could recommend are to see if any other sections of the source tune can be creatively integrated into your formula, even just briefly, and also looking at refining the production (ReMixing forum!) to punch things up a bit. I definitely enjoyed what I heard so far, Jermain, and wouldn't mind hearing a resubmission at all.

NO (borderline)

[Protricity]

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMm

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Borderline here. This is how dnb is done (as opposed to some recent examples). In that, its very well done. Doesn't loop much. Doesn't get boring.

On the other hand, it doesn't remix much. Its rather minimal and original.

As a song, its aces with me.

Listened to the original.

This is just fine as a remix. The original really sucks anyway.. ugh... man.

ok,

YES

[DarkeSword]

Arrangement feels too repetitive for me. Some nice drum work, but some of it's a bit loopy. Hi-freqs could use a boost.

It's a nice take on the source material though; bass stuff is really tight sounding. Overall its a very groovy piece, with some overlookable issues.

Borderline YES, but I'd feel better about it if we could get a re-EQed version.

[Digital Coma]

Decent DnB arrangement, but borderline on the side of NO for these three main reasons:

• -- very limp, unaltering synth parts (especially the pads)
  -- what small portion of the original that is used here is used repetitiously
  -- overall under-development of theme

Although somewhat loopy as mentioned, the drum programming is good; it's the mix's strong point. However, this mix needs to do some more composition-wise before I can pass it.

[Vig]

i'll say this is borderline YES

never too repettive, mixes it up, could use more layering and polish in some places. good not great. would have liked to hear more harmonies in some spots.

i'm bored of writing this review.

[GrayLightning]

I'm borderline on Paragon X9's mix. Digital Coma brought up some good points here on why I'm torn with this mix. Some parts are full and interesting, then some parts are dull for this kind of genre. Drumwork is really tite though.

As far as the eqing issues cited by the other judges. First of all, that may be all well and good to boost the 14-16K range by 20 db in Winamp, but this will seriously damage a piece like this in any music program (FL, sequencer, etc).

One should question why the frequencies are resulting this way. Instead of boosting, I think one needs to work on cutting rather than boosting, also work on the mixing (per channel eq, volume, etc.) aspect of this mix. A more simplistic cure would be to cut the bottom end some more for better balance. Also, there really is no room to boost this any more as it is, since the loud sections are already hitting the ceiling.

Finally, I must make a slight complaint about the loudness here. About half of the mix is hovering with an rms of -7 to -9 db. Yes, I know it's electronica, but I don't feel that's an excuse for being so loud, so long. Personal taste and a controversial issue though so I'll move on. I'll leave it to say that Electronic Musician and other reputable music magazines have covered this issue well in the last two years.

Looking past some of the minor issues, I still thought this was a cool mix overall. It's not the most sophisticated (beyond the great drumwork), but everything everything together just works and the arrangement is good. Overall, I enjoyed it enough for a borderline YES.