OceansAndrew Posted November 21, 2010 Share Posted November 21, 2010 melody peter kim www.youtube.com/xrisingforcex 29447 submission info: mega man x5 ending theme first off i'd like to say whether this meets the bar or not, i want to thank the terrific people in #ocremix for all their help. pass or fail, it's been almost exactly a year since i've first started coming onto irc and looking back, i've learned so much from these guys. just to name a handful, tensei, snappleman, sixto, blitzlunar, blitzwater, dproject, monobrow, you guys are great the x5 ost has always stuck out to me among the vast mega man catalog, and i love the melancholic overtones in this particular track. a big creative influence was the recently departed nujabes (rip), whose jazz-infused hip-hop style inspired me on many levels and whose passing encouraged me to re-evaluate the lack of jazzy goodness and phat beats in my own songwriting style. the crackle in the beginning represents x as he slowly regains consciousness after the fight with sigma, and the title comes from x's self-doubt and perpetual search for truth amidst the carnage caused by the eurasia crash and the loss of his partner zero. hope you all enjoy source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xhmlaWQ3lk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted November 28, 2010 Author Share Posted November 28, 2010 it sounds like the piano didn't render correctly or something, as it frequently cuts out. If it's intentional, then I don't know what to say besides I don't agree with the choice. Once drums and backing stuff comes in, it's very nice. I do think the melody of the source could be a little more prominent, but the balance was good. Overall pretty nice, but i'm gonna say No, Resubmit unless that cutout in the opening piano is changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted November 29, 2010 Share Posted November 29, 2010 I have to agree with OA one this one, the piano cuts out and it feels super awkward. If it was an artistic choice, I'm not really feeling it. I loved the rest of this track, it's really laid back and chill. The balance and instrument choices are nice as well. I thought there was enough source, although it wouldn't have hurt to put a little more prominent sections in. Fix the piano, and I think this one is good to go. YES (conditional on piano fix) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 I don't think the piano is so bad, plus it's only in the beginning where it's noticeable. Anyway pretty solid interpretation, some cool beats and a nice atmosphere. I like the swelling synths. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted November 30, 2010 Share Posted November 30, 2010 Pretty gentle song, I liked the jazzy hip-hop treatment. It could have used a little more smoothness, but otherwise, there's not much to pick on here. Some examples of places where the song could have been smoother: The opening piano. I don't know if you were going for some kind of glitchy drop-out sound, but it didn't come across, and sounded like a mistake. The drum sequencing is very even, which isn't a huge deal or even always a problem in hip-hop. In this case, I think a little more variety would have been nice. The hi-hats are also too in-your-face. I do like the washed-out snare sound though. The lead plucked sound is a little too sequenced, and it could have been more in the forefront. Strings at the very end aren't good - if they stood out more, it would be a real problem. I think overall, I'd call this a borderline YES. The song is well-written and enjoyable if a few issues get in the way of total enjoyment. This is a close call and may not muster the final votes it needs, but I wish you luck. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 The version you have is not mastered. Here's the proper version with mastering. Also added some ambient guitar. melody also supplied a new submissions e-mai, please use this in the write-up: "first off i'd like to say whether this meets the bar or not, i want to thank the terrific people in #ocremix for all their help. pass or fail, it's been almost exactly a year since i've first started coming onto irc and looking back, i've learned so much from these guys. just to name a handful, tensei, snappleman, sixto, blitzlunar, dproject, monobrow, anso, you guys are great the x5 ost has always stuck out to me among the vast mega man catalog, and i love the melancholic overtones in this particular track. a big creative influence was the recently departed nujabes (rip), whose jazz-infused hip-hop style inspired me on many levels and whose passing encouraged me to re-evaluate the lack of jazzy goodness and phat beats in my own songwriting style. the title comes from x's self-doubt and his perpetual search for truth hope you all enjoy" RE-VOTE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 The new version sounds almost identical to me, just a little more high-focused. I couldn't find where the new guitar was. I don't think this will change any votes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anosou Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 The new version sounds almost identical to me, just a little more high-focused. I couldn't find where the new guitar was. I don't think this will change any votes. Me neither really. It's just mastered now. Felt good to caps RE-VOTE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 The piano dropout isn't done musically. Just bad. Aside from that, the mix is a mess. The hi-hat is by far the most dominant thing in the mix. You can tell there's something up with your mix when you turn the volume all the way down and slowly bring it back up, and there's one instrument that is clearly audible way before everything else. Second after the hat is the snare, which would be fine if this were a rap tune, but this is instrumental, and the focus needs to be on the musical content, which is buried behind the beat. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Yeah the piano is just wrong, fix that shit up. I agree with Vig that the hats are too loud but the rest of the mix is... okay I guess. Laid back, kinda groovy. The snare is a bit pants to me, you might want to look at changing that in some way while you're at it. YES, Conditional on piano fix and hats down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 The weird piano stuff in the intro, I feel like I should like it, but the way it's executed just feels awkward. The perc balance is a bigger issue, that can definitely be dropped down. The balancing is a little iffy in general, with things getting a little crowded in the busier sections like 1:40-1:50. Also, that ultrafake violin at the very end leaves a really bad impression as things are winding down. Cool arrangement. I like where you went with this, but there are too many issues at the moment. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 groovy arrangement, really digging the bendy lead synths. like my fellow judges, I was a little wtf at the piano dropouts too. don't know if I'd go conditional over them alone, but a quick fix would be nice. the drums (hats specifically), as mentioned, overpowered the track. that said, there's a lot to like here. Gonna go conditional on the hats and piano. Easy fixes. YES (conditional on paino/hats) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 These beats were definitely not phat enough. They sounded pretty bland and basic to me. I'd change the tone to something more complimentary, with more punch/body, but with the volume pulled back. The hats also needed to be pulled back, so I'll be the umpteenth judge to call that out as well. Those perc patterns definitely droned on after a while and got boring. Get some more variation in there without upsetting the laid back feel. Arrangement-wise, this generally got the job done, but this could have used more melodic/structural interpretation to stand more apart from both the original and DCT's own laid-back OC ReMix of it. I agreed with the production of the opening piano coming across as a screw-up, but it wasn't there long enough to have a significant detrimental effect to my vote. I actually could see what he was going for, even if the execution wasn't there, that's probably why it didn't bother me as much. The sequencing of the plucked lead was too rigid, as Palp pointed out. "Ooh, no" on that violin at 3:30. Quiet or not, the mechanical sequencing was very, very exposed to me, especially that awful fast decay. Yeah, this is definitely full of potential, Peter, it just needs some production TLC to balance the parts & smooth out articulations to get this sounding its best. See what you can do to spice up the arrangement as well on it in some places. No need to be discouraged; take another pass at this and push it over the finish line. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Guess it looks like with fixes, this would have six Y. Let's see what Peter can do for us, I e-mailed him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 hey vinnie, same deal with my wild arms track, i lost everything i had in reason so i spent the better half of this day rebuilding the track in fl studio. i thank all the judges for their criticism and did my best in addressing everything except for the piano drops in the beginning, which i further developed. the crackle in the beginning is x slowly regaining consciousness after his battle with sigma. hopefully this context will shed some light on my stubborn decision to keep the piano drops, as unpopular as they are. also it looks like my revised submission letter didn't come through all the way. i'd like it to read: "first off i'd like to say whether this meets the bar or not, i want to thank the terrific people in #ocremix for all their help. pass or fail, it's been almost exactly a year since i've first started coming onto irc and looking back, i've learned so much from these guys. just to name a handful, tensei, snappleman, sixto, blitzlunar, blitzwater, dproject, monobrow, you guys are great the x5 ost has always stuck out to me among the vast mega man catalog, and i love the melancholic overtones in this particular track. a big creative influence was the recently departed nujabes (rip), whose jazz-infused hip-hop style inspired me on many levels and whose passing encouraged me to re-evaluate the lack of jazzy goodness and phat beats in my own songwriting style. the crackle in the beginning represents x as he slowly regains consciousness after the fight with sigma, and the title comes from x's self-doubt and perpetual search for truth amidst the carnage caused by the enigma crash and the loss of his partner zero. hope you all enjoy" here is the new track: http://tindeck.com/listen/fdgv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Still not crazy about the piano dropouts, but it makes more sense in context. I'm willing to give this a pass. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 agreed, I guess I'll live with the drops. the hats at least aren't an issue in this version, so I'll switch my conditional to a straight-up YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Ok, seeing that this is a big split, I'm writing my notes down here prior to looking at any of the other judgements: Piano started off playing pretty haltingly, seemed a bit awkward sounding at first. You know, I think some notes are getting cutoff prematurely. Heard it at :11 and :15. I don't think it's intentional as I can't see how a piano would do that normally. It seems to continue this way into the song. Piano is so quiet and delicate, as soon as other elements like the pads come in, it just gets buried. Really, the piano doesn't need to be here anymore if you're gonna leave it way back there - plus there's plenty of other stuff covering the bases now. Once the lead plucked instrument comes in, it's clashing with the piano part anyway. I know there's some dissonance in the OST, but the bell synth part 2:04 isn't really doing it for me. Just sounds like wrong notes in the context of this track. Again, unnecessary piano at 2:24 buried in there. I'd either restrict the piano to the intro & outro, or bring it out more in parts where it doesn't clash with other elements. Drums basically sit on autopilot for the mix here, with an extra hat rhythm added in or taken away. Really could use some variation here. Balance-wise, the hats are a tad loud. Lead plucked instrument gets slightly overpowering with the heavy delay on it. 1:55 gets a bit crowded, but not terribly so. On the positive side, you've got a nice groove established. Cool elements are introduced with the bass, pads, and leads. Clear use and expansion/personalization of the original track here. You clearly are most of the way there, just have a few oddities here that are holding it back. No, resubmit please EDIT: Ok, so reading back, I see we've had a couple new versions. Looks like I've only heard the latest though. Interestingly, even with the fixes, the hats stuck out to me as too loud. Still feel like there are enough issues to keep this in NO territory for me. I'm perfectly fine being in the minority, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 The balance is still iffy, and I thought the percussion was still treble-heavy and overpowering, which SHOULD be addressed. That said, I can live with it; it's not as imbalanced as the previous version. There's also some pretty obvious crackling/distortion from 3:14-3:28 that really should not have been there, but most people won't notice it and it wasn't a dealbreaker. The opening piano seemed altered a bit, but I didn't have a big problem with it anyway and don't think anyone else should have made a big deal about it. The tweaks definitely raised this a bit. It's not where it should be to address all the issues, but it hit enough of them to change my vote. Nice work, Peter. Thanks for taking another shot at this! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted April 26, 2011 Author Share Posted April 26, 2011 Still has a few minor issues, but this is a definite improvement for me. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 hey guys,someone just pointed out to me that i meant to reference the eurasia instead of the enigma so i'd like to fix my submission email if possible. it should read: "first off i'd like to say whether this meets the bar or not, i want to thank the terrific people in #ocremix for all their help. pass or fail, it's been almost exactly a year since i've first started coming onto irc and looking back, i've learned so much from these guys. just to name a handful, tensei, snappleman, sixto, blitzlunar, blitzwater, dproject, monobrow, you guys are great the x5 ost has always stuck out to me among the vast mega man catalog, and i love the melancholic overtones in this particular track. a big creative influence was the recently departed nujabes (rip), whose jazz-infused hip-hop style inspired me on many levels and whose passing encouraged me to re-evaluate the lack of jazzy goodness and phat beats in my own songwriting style. the crackle in the beginning represents x as he slowly regains consciousness after the fight with sigma, and the title comes from x's self-doubt and perpetual search for truth amidst the carnage caused by the eurasia crash and the loss of his partner zero." thanks! -melody Got this in the inbox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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