DragonAvenger Posted December 17, 2010 Share Posted December 17, 2010 * Your ReMixer name: Meteo Xavier and WillRock * Your real name: William harby * Your email address: I don't have Willrock's, I'm sure you do. * Your website: Mine is http://12followersmeteoxavier.blogspot.com/. Submission Information * Name of game(s) arranged: Super Metroid and Metroid Prime * Name of individual song(s) arranged: Brinstar and Chozo Ruins, maybe something else from Metroid Prime as well, I can't remember right off the top of my head. * Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc. This is a resubmission of yet another problematic remix attempt I made a couple years ago. My original goal for this was to do the Brinstar theme as something you could conceivably hear wandering endlessly through one of the Metroid Prime worlds. Although Larry made good points that I really had not achieved this goal, I could still see it happening and I still wanted to keep much of the original style and goal in place. You still have what I wrote about my original submission so I won't go into that. This is a slow, steady beat of an electro mix with lots of ambiences and drive going on as well (or at least was my intention). I wanted to keep the German style synth fashion going on so there are intentionally plenty of repetitions. I couldn't, however, do much for the velocities of the z3ta instruments I used (and I used a lot of them) even though I tried. I don't think it will get in the way of the mix. I wanted to collaborate with an artist on this one and that took a long time before I ended up just making the changes myself (to various degrees of success) with WillRock helping me on the mixing and mastering side of things. WillRock's helpfulness went beyond the call of duty in my opinion, so even though he mastered it, I still want his name to appear next to mine if this gets posted. The changes for this version include: - Updated Title "I, Samus (Godwave) - Hopefully significantly cleaned up and fixed mixing/mastering. - Fixed the choir - Fixed the beat - Changed drums from FL Studio to Kontakt 4. The drums were the biggest challenge and I could only really do what I could do. I don't think this will be a problem. (The snare alone required like 13 different samples) - Added some minor changes and instrument additions - Other changes I can't think of at the moment. Its still not just perfect, but I think this has been my best remix attempt yet and I hope you enjoy it. ---------------------------------- - Brinstar - Chozo Ruins(might want to double check sources aside from Brinstar if someone is more familiar with the Prime soundtrack than I am) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted December 19, 2010 Author Share Posted December 19, 2010 Basing this mostly on Brinstar itself, and the very little of the 20 or so minutes I played of Prime, I think the arrangement is pretty sweet. There's a lot of different sounds that are very reminiscent of the games, and still a lot of variation working to your favor. I'd have liked something of a breakdown or some sound changes to let my ears rest and get something else to focus on for a moment, but aside from that, no qualms here. Production overall is pretty good, but I feel like the chorus sounds a bit mechanical. There were also just a few balance issues where some of the parts were getting a little overtaken by one or another instrument. Neither issue is big enough to pull it down, but just something to look for in new mixes. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted December 19, 2010 Share Posted December 19, 2010 Overall a pretty cool and atmospheric mix that retains a lot of catchy synth melodies. The choir was a little mechanical, and the attack is a little slow too. I know you spent a lot of time on the snare, but it still doesn't feel exactly right, but works ok enough. A little more high end and crack would have been perfect. The synth is also a bit piercing and could have used a little bit of vibrato. Otherwise, the track is really good, and I dig the arrangement, but it needs just a touch more polish on the production end of things. Yes (conditional) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 This is very similar to another of Meteo's subs from a couple years back, but it looks like that mixed a different Prime source. I agree with the previous votes that the arrangement is mostly fine as is. The mix of the two themes is cool. The production still ain't doing it for me, there's problems everywhere, ranging from major to minor. The drums are on auto-pilot the whole mix and don't have much energy - that's a major problem. The backing track washes together and it's hard to make out any writing detail beyond the lead. The choir also has a really strange filtering that doesn't do it favors. Combine that with a rigid lead that doesn't have the same smoothness of the sine wave lead used in the Prime games... not adding up to a pass, I'm afraid. When most of the instruments dropped out towards the end, it was a lot better balanced and the drums even sounded OK. I'd say start with the ending, and figure out what you are adding that is making it sound muddied. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 I agree with Vinnie, the (filter?) on the choir causes it to be a little grating in the highs, and the drums need some more punch and rhythmic variation. I think you could push the bass forward a bit too.. the whole mix is just a bit to focused on the upper-mid/high frequencies. no qualms with the arrangement, you blended the sources quite naturally while maintaining that Metroid vibe. A few mixing tweaks and this would be a comfortable pass for me. NO(resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 I agree it's a bit topheavy. There is bottom end, but the bottom is mostly resonant above 150 or 200Hz. More ass! The lead synth is so shrill. maybe drop it an octave? The vocals are back in the mix which is fine, but sometimes they have parts that are too busy for the sample, and for the role they play in the mix. The "wind" sound is really quite harsh: too much around 2-4kHz. As for the arrangement, there are some cool ideas, but I feel like there isn't too much of a direction. The drums could use more variation. This is a close call, but I'm going NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Weird build for the intro. It seemed like things kicked in at :27, but the soundscape was still very murky. Some interesting Metroid-style synth at :39 that sounded like original writing on top of the Brinstar theme before moving more into a cover of the theme. Agreed with Palp on that sine lead not sounding as smooth as what you hear in the Prime soundtrack, but it was solid enough. The snare was flat and the pattern was plodding. Palp was right all the way; you and Will take a look at 3:53's section where the mixing sounded somewhat cleaner, then figure out what additional parts were causing all the murkiness when in play. The big things that stuck out were 1) the soundscape being really murky, murky enough where it seemed like too many details in the writing were being washed over, and 2) the vox sounding pretty fake during its more exposed moments, usually the faster note changes. It sounded serviceable enough when holding some of the longer notes, it just sucked at the more rapid note changes. Like OA mentioned, the attack was a bit too slow. Arrangement-wise, the two themes came together fairly cohesively, though some of the Brinstar usage felt a bit too straightforward and cover-ish. That said, the sum total of what was there was OK. So I liked the arrangement overall, but fix up (in this order), the mixing, drums and vox, and then give this another go. I could see someone going conditional on this, but the way all the issues come together really drags the arrangement and doesn't come close to realize the potential. The bland drum writing really dragged this down, and the soundscape was just too indistinct. The soundscape could be attributed to the story/imagery behind the pieces, but IMO it still didn't work and just sounded like a lot of details were being lost in the haze. No need to be discouraged, this is shaping up OK, so I recommend y'all give these issues another pass and see how much y'all can polish this up. As long as the production is cleaned up somewhat and the drums aren't so plodding, this could have a great chance of passing. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Not much to say here that hasn't already been covered. There's a lot of reverb and long decays on various stuff here, which is contributing to the muddy soundscape. Gotta also second the unnatural quick note changes on the choir and the drum repetativeness. Plenty of advice on this thread to follow up on and get this one sent back to us. No, resubmit please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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