Darkstalkers' Revenge - Lei Lei's (Hsien-Ko's) theme

[CC Ricers]

New version here: http://soundcloud.com/cc-ricers/cc-ricers-big-hands-to-fill-wip-2

First version

I'm flexing my dubstep muscles again. This is what I have so far. I'll try my best not to post an update until I get this to 3 minutes. I expect the final version to be around 4 minutes long.

It's not really dark sounding, considering the source, but it does get loud. Well, take that back, it does get darker at the end. I may add some voice samples, but just not as much as in the source

[CC Ricers]

I'd thought I could give this a bump for this week. Hope I get some feedback this time around!

[No Escape]

Ok I'll shoot a little review over your way. The drum arrangement sounds pretty solid and the synth patches sound decent, but I don't hear any definitive bassline. I think the track would fill out a little more with that. The synth line at 0:56 was a little off (sounding like it was conflicting with the other synth, but it pulled itself together within a few seconds, so not bad). Production needs a little work, but nothing too serious. I don't compare songs to the sources, so you'll need one of these other guys to help you there, but I would say this is definitely workable for an OCR submission.

[CC Ricers]

Thanks for the short crit, it's better than nothing. Yeah I have noticed that the EQ mixdown for this was lacking the bass, but I didn't wanna go again and replace the file to do that.

I have a tendency to cut a tad on the bass to make things less muddy, even when the music in this style needs it. (maybe some instrument frequency overlaps are making it sound off like you said at 0:56) But I am polishing up the production now so the next version would have a more prominent bassline. Also would serve well for the heavier sounding sections I am adding right now, so they'd still sound clear and clean.

(edit) I uploaded a new WIP with a brand new section, plus bumped up the bass parts and overall made it fuller sounding.

[BlackPanther]

I like the sound of this. When I'm a little more free I'll try to give you a constructive form of feedback xD.

[hewhoisiam]

I think some reverb on that first instrument might go a long way. Though I like the punch of having it short for the first few notes, so keep that and turn the mix up a touch later on.

Love the breakdown at 0:40 but it sounds like there's some fuzz in this section that needs to be cleaned up.

The more I listen to this, the more it seems like cleaner is the word that I'm looking for. I like the sounds you've got, but it also seems like a lot of them are coming with added fuzz that I talked about earlier. I don't know if it's distortion effect gone wrong or what. I do know you can add a very specific EQ to certain tracks to cut out fuzz in some cases, but that's really all I know about it.

This kinda DnB thing screams power, I think the snare could use a boost, at least the driving notes (2&4 usually, though this is different in places)

This might be preference, but that lead sound you have is so fat and loud that it's overpowering some of the more subtle pieces. I hesitate to bring it up, cause it's the oomph there, it's the real power in the track. Even then, I don't think it should be as powerful as it is.

@1:50 I think some panning effects could go a long way to really make that synth shine. I pan and adjust volume usually, neat stuff for breaks.

Hope this helps

[CC Ricers]

Heh, now I'm curious to know what crits BlackPanther has for me.

hewhoisiam, I'm not sure if I will make those snares louder. They sound punchy enough as is, at least to me The fuzz at 0:40 turned out to be a badly setup distortion plugin. I'll automate that so it turns off in the quieter parts, where it's not really needed. Adding panning effects in the breakdown sounds like a good idea, too.

[BlackPanther]

This sounds fuckin sweet! Ok now time for some attempted feedback:

That initial synth I think is a little too loud compared to the rest of the track. I think it's that same one threatenss the track throughout the song. Maybe turn that down a few clicks?

The snare sounds like it could be a little too hot, might want to make sure that isn't peaking over, could just be the effects though. Speaking of the snare, maybe layer a snare with more of a snap on top. Keep the punch, try the snap.

The section at :42 gets bass heavy, it doesn't clip but it just sounds cluttered and distorted. Hard to explain but it threw me off for a sec.

That synth and the snare were the only two things that stood out as bothersome too me. The source is there I can easily hear it, and this arrangment is pretty dope. This is pretty fuckin awesome right now but I don't think it's ready to be subbed yet. I think you could go as far as changing this to mod review and see what the vets would say about this. Good luck man I hope you keep working on this because like I said before, this is fuckin awesome lol =D.