djpretzel Posted September 23, 2004 Share Posted September 23, 2004 Game ReMixed: Tetris. This is my second submission; my first is still pending . It started out as just a little russian ditty I had in my head, then snowballed into a huge elaborate war song, then I got all ADHD and was distracted by SOUND EFFECTS. Then it turned into Tetris near the end of its development. Figured I'd send it on in; I'm pretty happy with it overall. Contact Info: Alex "Mark_Li" Lavigne markli@hkbo.net http://opera.redeemedsoft.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protricity Posted September 24, 2004 Share Posted September 24, 2004 Nothing but cool going on here. Use of sound effects did not carry the song. They simply added to the cool effect. This is very much like mazedude's nazi requiem. Cant find anything wrong with the song. It builds, changes. Perhapse it could have been much stronger on the 'remix' aspect. Just fine. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 27, 2004 Share Posted September 27, 2004 I hear track 2 from the Game Boy soundtrack in the second half, but I'm wondering where the theme arranged for the first half is from. Certainly sounds like something from Tetris. Any need to confirm that further? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protricity Posted September 27, 2004 Share Posted September 27, 2004 I hear track 2 from the Gameboy soundtrack in the second half, but I'm wondering where the theme arranged for the first half is from. Certainly sounds like something from Tetris. Any need to confirm that further? The idea was to 'sound like something from tetris' but its not from tetris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Cool. I read his e-mail but just wanted to be clear how much of the source was used overall. When Alex said it turned into Tetris near the end of its development, I wasn't sure if that meant he weaved source material throughout whatever he was working on earlier, or if Tetris was just the latter half of the track. http://www.zophar.net/gbs/tetris.zip - GBS Track 2 Pretty slow build for the first two minutes, but the development was pretty engaging so it wasn't a detriment to the mix. Around 2:30 though, I was waiting for the actual Tetris to come in, which it finally did at 2:45. The arrangement of the theme works well; fairly simple/straightforward, but the countermelodic elements are very nice and Alex got into some genuine rearrangement ideas as things picked up. The horn samples could/should have been more realistic moving from note-to-note, particularly during their very prominent section from 4:04-4:30, but were servicable overall and also outshadowed by other stronger instruments/elements that were present throughout the entire track, i.e. the piano, strings, and drums. Although I didn't pay too much attention to the war motif when I was judging this, it was certainly pretty cool when I casually listened to it. Like Protricity mentioned, the sound effects worked well without functioning as a crutch just to make things interesting. For example, the marching sound effects worked well as a beatkeeper yet also contributed to the militaristic feel of the mix. Fairly solid work. YES EDIT: As much as my Russian heritage enjoys the folk music from Tetris, I also agree with Binnie that technically Tetris's use of Russian folk songs is in violation of our policy that any music arranged here should come from a game first. Tetris might be one exeception, but I don't believe it should be. I'll retain my YES if we won't change our standards to disallow the Russian folk songs from Tetris to be remixed here, as I didn't have as serious problems with the brass or the use of Tetris in only the second half, but for the record if we push this issue on Tetris's music further, I'll be switching my vote to NO on policy grounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcos Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 Nice production quality, I like the way the theme tune came in half way through. Very good original part for the first half. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digital Coma Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 First of all, the Russian folk music from Tetris should just be disqualified from being remixed. It's not original game music, whether or not videogamers identify it with the game. Secondly, half of this song has nothing to do with the unoriginal theme in Tetris, except arguably in style, which doesn't mean jack in terms of arrangement to me. Finally, this submission is just poor as a song. Lame, irrelevant sfx take up the whole intro as some military snares plod along, joined by limp piano and poor brass. Serviceable concept, but it fails in instrumentation as it is very simple and unfetching. Nothing about this "mix" interests me in any way. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny B Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 I'm afraid i'm going to have to supplement the minority on this one. There are good, as my compatriot minority judge mentioned, serviceable concepts here. However, there really is very little in the realm of arrangement, when it comes down to actual harmonic and melodic progessions. Before I get steaming piles on my lawn, yes - I do understand that there are a few sections with original brass runs, string progressions, etc. However, they delve into such utter simplicity that I really can't call them worthwhile augmentations to the source work. The sound quality is on average, excrutiatingly subpar. The snare drum is arranged well, but has not the reverb to fit into the sound field nor the dynamics to make it sound remotely convincing. The piano is triggered almost exclusively at a high velocity, giving it that WHAM WHAM quality, and not the beautiful, subdued piano sound that is possible at lower dynamics. The choir patch plays interesting chords, but the quality certainly reminds me of Nintendo 64 music. The brass is easily the weakest part of the sound quality here. Very GM and blatty. I'm feeling no real progression through different ideas, just a smattering of ideas from tetris linked together with sound fx. The sound fx are well done, however, and could be a nice addition to a better realized mix. Like I said, the concept is serviceable. Even attention to dynamics would greatly help the sound quality here. Better samples wouldn't hurt. This mix really does work on a conceptual level, and I really would like a resubmit of this. As always, he can contact me for sound quality or arrangement help if necessary. As much as I hate to agree with anything Digital Coma does, NO -D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 this song could be a yes if any one of a number of things were fixed. 1. Sound quality. speaks for itself, it just sounds terrible. brass MUST be GM, no velocity work on anything, snare is dry, unconvincing. 2. okay so once the melody comes in, the song becomes much less interesting. and much less good. the song would be better if he just chopped out the second half and called it an original. not that it would be great, just better. arrange more, tool more. whole-note strings do not impress me. there's another thing that bothers me, the whole note strings that go on thru the whole song. Can you imagine if this song were recorded live, what the cello player's part would look like? at the end of three or four takes he'd be ready to shoot himself in the face. give that poor shmuck something to do. a different rhythm, a harmony line, anything. think of the poor cello player. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 GUH. Brass sounds TERRIBLE. It's like you used a jazz 'brass section' patch instead of actually building your brass texture out of brass instruements. The piano is unnatural and mechanical. No real attention paid to velocities, and its written like a harp part, rather than a piano part. Not good in this setting. Arrangement is pretty boring; it's not Tetris for the first half, and then for the second half Tetris is hardly developed at all. Personally I think the sound effects are obtrusive and gimmicky. I don't agree with Coma's statements about policy violation; the theme from Tetris is game music, pure and simple. I'm not giving this mix a NO because of policy violation; I'm giving it a NO because it needs lots of work. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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