Earthbound - Pokey Plays the Pipes

[Impulse_Aural]

Remix of Earthbound "Pokey Means Business!" can be found as the top song of the web-based music player at the following link.

http://www.purevolume.com/nathanmcwilliams

I am pretty new to this site but have been wanting to submit for a while. I have been working on this first attempt for a few months now. I would love to hear some feedback.

_____________________________

Background if you're interested...

I programmed this all in the Cubase Midi editor, then used Cubase to play back each track individually through the keyboard MIDI engine. I recorded the analog output of the keyboard for mixing, then I bounced each analog track down to a 2 track stereo recording. It hasn't really been mastered yet, just some rough MBC and Limiting, so this track is a little quieter than the final will be.

Mix reference tracks:

Big in Japan - Carbon Dioxide

Nightwish - Phantom of the Opera

Ben Folds Five - Dont Change your Plans for Me

Below is the equipment I used:

Yahmaha S90ES

Cubase Studio 5

Smattering of open source VST plugins (GVST among others)

M-Audio Delta1010

Asus NForce4 A8N5X

AMD Athlon X2

[Impulse_Aural]

Whoops, here is a link to the chip tune in case anyone was wondering what I was remixing.

http://ocremix.org/song/810

[ambinate]

i'm not too familiar with the source, but i thought this was a really cool, unique arrangement done in a style that i don't hear too much around here. the piano work is really nice, especially. my biggest issue with it on my first listen was that the overall production is a little flat sounding - some of the samples used are just shy of sounding a lot more believable than they do right now. maybe if you tried adding a little reverb to each track (unless you already have), you could get things sounding a little more natural and a little more live. also, for my personal tastes i think the kick drum is a little weak - you might want to change that a bit, but it's up to you. it sounds like it could be as simple as increasing the velocity of each hit, but you could also probably add some compression to add some more punch. nice job so far, though, especially for your first WIP.

[hewhoisiam]

The piano on this thing is the real highlight for me. Lots of fun. But good enough that it makes the accompaniment stick out somewhat.

This will be fun, trying to talk EQ and mastering (my personal weakness!) with partly broken headphones. But I'll give it a try.

The whole of this mix needs some filling. Lows with a touch more kick and punch, especially at those builds, highs that pop out a little bit more. That should help the sound to be more where you want it.

Then. Needs some reverb and echo in places. One that pops out at me is you have an instrument playing a sort of 'plucked' thing in the first few seconds that would kill for some echo.

The pads at 0:39 seem thin to me, this could be fixed by just thickening that chord, or some reverb, or both.

There's some others, but you get the idea.

The drums around 2:21 are going to be played with lots of flams and bass drums by a real drummer. This song is pretty dynamic, so to make up for the quiet bits being quiet, the punch needs to be terrifyingly loud and amazing. A real drummer hits bass, low tom, mid tom, or low snare. To get the effect of just loud on those accented places. This section feels kinda weak in that area. at 2:33 though, it's pretty spot on with what I'd expect. I'd like to hear more pop on the snare accents (I picture rim shots myself) and a bass drum that just has more power, but otherwise, not bad. You play some ride cymbals over there also, I picture a ride bell giving a better sound.

hope this helps

[docnano]

I recently got an S90ES -- I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I'm a newcomer to remixing myself, but I have a background in classical piano and played percussion in wind ensembles and orchestras, to let you know where I'm coming from.

I really like the mixture of gothic/organ sounds with heavy-hitting rock drums and sprinklings of orchestral pizzicati. The song has a nice "feel" that is distinct and has the potential to really go places.

Here are a number of suggestions, in no particular order:

- The piano has nice expressiveness, but you could make it more expressive with some tasteful damper pedal throughout. It doesn't have to be heavy, just enough to tie the broken chords together. Or, if you must have your staccato, add some reverb.

- The arrangement sounds a little muddy in places, for instance around 1:50-2:00. You might try moving the piano up an octave or two (this goes for MANY sections in the piece -- at least give it a try), and maybe back off on some of the boomier sounds, unless you are specifically building towards something.

- You use a lot of 4-bar phrases that could benefit from more shapely dynamics. For instance, gradually increase the organ volume (especially that deep, deep foot pedal sound) over the first three bars of a phrase, then back off a little for the last bar. Rise, fall, rise a little further, fall slightly... and BOOM! That idea. Just make sure to start low enough to give yourself room to build.

- Rhythmically speaking, you could try introducing triplets here and there for variety, say, at the end of certain phrases or in piano arpeggios.

All in all, it's a good start!

[No Escape]

I'm a huge fan of your piano arrangement throughout the song. The arrangement of the song itself is very expressive, and probably the most impressive and enjoyable that I've heard in the WIP forums for a while now. The kick has too much low and not enough "click", though the verb setting sounds alright. The rim shot snare sounds very bland, and the hi-hats (though well arranged) could use a touch of verb. The toms might a smidge hot, but that may just be my preference. The staccato setting was decent, and the organ was pretty solid as well. I also think the cymbals could come down in the mix a little, because their volume is a little distracting. This probably sounds like a ton of problems, but this track is very enjoyable and can easily (source usage withstanding) make it onto OCR with some production work.

Aaaaaaaannnnnd (this is my favorite part) I'm also currently recruiting for a project to cover the songs from the game Flying Dragon (N64) and I'm certain you could bring something to the table. Check out the thread below if you're interested

Flying Dragon

[Inferno232]

EPIC. At first, I was wondering, "Just where are these 'pipes' the title bragged about?" And then they kicked in. And it was awesome. Great job, man. I can't throw any technical jargon at ya, but I HAVE listened to the source, and I think this is an awesome treatment of it. I just wish I could have downloaded it... Or did I miss that option? Hm. I'll have to listen to it again, I guess.

[Impulse_Aural]

Thank you all for your helpful and encouraging comments.

I was a bit nervous posting my remix because I know so little about the culture and I didn't know how I would fit here. I set a goal to get a song accepted by the judges, but I think that the process I will go through, with a community like this, could really help improve my skills.

I am not a quick worker, and work (the kind that pays the bills) occupies a lot of time lately, but I will try to repost here sometime soon.

Thanks again,

-Nathan

[Impulse_Aural]

I just wish I could have downloaded it... Or did I miss that option? Hm. I'll have to listen to it again, I guess.

Thanks man. Its not quite done yet, but when its done, I will be happy to send you a copy if you like. Peek back in on the thread from time to time and remind me when I post a finished product and I will make sure you get a copy.

[Impulse_Aural]

I got my act together and worked on this one a little bit.

http://www.purevolume.com/nathanmcwilliams

The comments were quite helpful, and they definitely drove the re-development of this song. I think this one is at about 95%, I am expecting to do mixing and mastering changes before Mod Review but not much else. Any more comments would be warmly welcomed.

_____________________________

Background if you're interested...

I programmed this all in the Cubase Midi editor, then used Cubase to play back each track individually through the keyboard MIDI engine. I recorded the analog output of the keyboard for mixing, then I bounced each analog track down to a 2 track stereo recording.

Mix reference tracks:

Big in Japan - Carbon Dioxide

Nightwish - Phantom of the Opera

Ben Folds Five - Dont Change your Plans for Me

Below is the equipment I used:

Yahmaha S90ES

Cubase Studio 5

Smattering of open source VST plugins (GVST among others)

M-Audio Delta1010

Asus NForce4 A8N5X

AMD Athlon X2

[hewhoisiam]

As stated before (elsewhere), this will be one of my finest drunken reviews. by request. Mostly opinions, so... Take with grain salt, etc.

Well, right off... There's something about the beginning that feels like it comes in at mid thought. It could be partially because I like my intros, but it feels like it's starting mid thought. I could really see that low rolling piano that you have with the beginnin playing a few times as a low intro before the actual beginning, just 5-10 seconds would be enough.

The whole track makes me kinda have a MOAR!!! feel to it. I like the ideas and sounds, but lots of them feel under developed. I catch myself doing that in stuff that I do, maybe it has something to do with listening to it over and over and going 'yep, that's good, but I don't want to make it too long...' At just over 3 minutes, I could really see 1 or 2 of those ideas being drawn out a bit, to bring the length of this dood up to at least 4 mins. Just something to shift focus and make the listener go 'AND THAT'S where it shines!' Pick the section you like most, and extend it until it borderline gets old to you, and it'll be just right for the listeners. For me, that killer section at 1:30 is it. But lots of places in this track shine, so it's up to you. Make it wow people!

Along those lines, some of the transitions need to have a fuller sound to not drop the energy in the track all the way down. This almost suffers from 'intro-itis' a term I coined. *bows* While it can sound great; the track still has to flow. This is one of those things that ends up being 90% opinion, because I'm not disagreeing with any sounds or ideas, only presentation and order. That being said, it still feels worth saying that doing this well will really make a track nice and smooth and flow through ideas, and doing it badly makes a track start/stop/start/stop... This isn't a huge factor in this, but some of the transitions could stand to be fuller. I guess you could say nothing is a deal breaker in this, but it's worth thinking about.

The transition at 1:28 feels unnatural, might do something to smooth that out. It could work, but it's pretty obvious right now. It feels like it's changing ideas in 2 notes, when it needs a full measure.

There are a few places where you use some fast drum hits and fills that are not humanized very well. With anything in 3s, the emphasis is still on beats and off beats. I hear some triplets that sound kinda robotic. Also, accent snares and low toms are going to be slightly louder than hi toms when hit for a real THUMP!!! emphasis.

The drum track is everywhere. I personally love it. I'm actually going to steal it for something I'm working on... Till then, props on that.

That's really all I got, the sounds are great, I didn't listen ultra close to EQ and verb, but they sound okay on ye olde busted headphones.

[No Escape]

What the hell, I'll give a drunken review too. The snare sounds a little tighter and more structured over-all, and that's a nice touch. The part at 1:47 sounds a little dissonant to me. I think the piano line at said part should probably go, but the over-all piano arrangement is still impressive. Some of the toms sound a little too powerful for the track and could probably be volumed down just a bit. Also, There's a type of snare hit at 2:54 (sounds like a rim shot) that just seems out of place. At this point, I feel like I'm just nitpicking. The track is passable by OCR quality standards, and you should put it on mod review. The only thing I would worry about that I can't comment on is source usage. I can't play chiptunes, so I don't know how much source is being used, but generally the requirement is between 33-60%. If you're all good on that end, you have a remix done and ready to go.

[hewhoisiam]

I say depending on what yer doing now (my or Escape's crits) You should pin it for mod review. It's just not getting de traffic. I'd like at least one person to disagree with me, if for no other reason than on principal... I OBJECT, SIR! Usually roz or nutritious have good things to say that I seem to miss.

[Inferno232]

Definitely send this up to the mods. It's good.

[Impulse_Aural]

For your mod review goodness.

http://www.purevolume.com/nathanmcwilliams

Chiptune

http://ocremix.org/song/810

Thanks you select few who re-commented on the finished mix. The comments did help as I was touching up the mastering. Some of your comments were excellent, but I didn't incorporate... simply because I want this track to be done and I am a bit too far downstream to change composition without having to re-mix and re-automate the tracks. I will or will not do that pending mod review. That being said, they will DEFINATELY affect how I compose in the future.

Thanks again to those who helped the process.

-Nathan

_____________________________

Background if you're interested...

I programmed this all in the Cubase Midi editor, then used Cubase to play back each track individually through the keyboard MIDI engine. I recorded the analog output of the keyboard for mixing, then I bounced each analog track down to a 2 track stereo recording.

Mix reference tracks:

Big in Japan - Carbon Dioxide

Nightwish - Phantom of the Opera

Ben Folds Five - Dont Change your Plans for Me

Below is the equipment I used:

Yahmaha S90ES

Cubase Studio 5

Smattering of open source VST plugins (GVST among others)

M-Audio Delta1010

Asus NForce4 A8N5X

AMD Athlon X2

[Emunator]

Your kick drum feels really weak, I'd like to hear something with a little more body to the sound, especially when you get past 2:00-ish.

Other than that though? This is brilliant, I'm not able to see if the source checks out (I don't have winamp + chipamp on this new laptop) but if that's above the 50% mark on source usage, then submit the hell out of this one! Awesome work!!

[halc]

great treatment of the source, this has come a long way since the first version you posted. it could be the stream (or just me) but i feel that the overall volume level is just a bit low. with emu on the kick, it definitely needs some more beef. the whole acoustic kit sounds a little dry actually and it's sequencing a bit mechanical during the more straightforward sections. the tympani which takes over later is very nice though.

overall, pretty solid work, man. i think this has a good chance, but i'd recommend giving the acoustic drums a bit more presence first and maybe boosting the master volume, if you have the headroom for it anyway. nice job!

[Inferno232]

Okay, man, since I love my dramatic villain themes, I really would like to download this. You said in an earlier post you'd send me a copy, so I'm going to drop my e-mail in this post for you to send one to, if you could. I really appreciate it.

pool_c161@utpb.edu

And best of luck with the judges, man. I hope this one makes it through, it's good.

[Impulse_Aural]

I want to tweak the kick and see if I can get a hair more out of my limiter. Look for a copy in your mail-box sometime this weekend.

Glad you like it so much!

-Nathan

[Impulse_Aural]

Just submitted. Thanks for your comments and help. Many of you have affected how I will arrange in the future.

-Nathan