OceansAndrew Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 Original submission: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=30452 ReMixer name: Guifrog Real Name: Guilherme Arcoverde Country: Brazil ---- Game arranged: Kingdom Hearts 2 Song arranged: Rowdy Rumble (source link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGOrSBZu7Dk) Ribbit! I decided to get off my chair and buy samples/VSTi's. Done. Now for resub time! This one's the former "Espacio Cañi" that got rejected, and I decided to change names because the new mix doesn't intend to focus Pascual Marquina's "España Cañi". Everything was re-written, from scratch, and there's no source other than the original KH2 track. Breakdown: 0:00-0:14 => Intro. Original writing. 0:15-0:20 => Marimba plays source beginning with just a bit of variation. 0:21-0:45 => Main melody from source. 0:46-1:08 => Chorus. Marimba goes for source harmony, and melody from the rest is original. 1:09-1:44 => Melodía principal de la fuente. 1:45-1:55 => Marimba toca la harmonía de la fuente. And don't worry, this part and the previous describe the same thing from 3rd and 4th ones, pero en español para que sea diferente. 1:56-2:08 => Yep, marimba vanishes. But chord progression's still based on the source. 2:09-2:26 => There's superhero marimba again! It plays the main harmony, again... 2:27-3:01 => Source has a lil' variation on the melody, and I decided to put it here. 3:02-3:31 => " " " " " on the pitch, " " " " " " " (y'know? Change quotes to previous part description words). I don't know why, but the way I've done this mix makes me feel like I'm on a disco party in a pirate ship. Yeah, they could be spanish gypsy pirates, why not?! Yohohohoho!!! Enjoy XD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 Big improvement here. Samples are fine, arrangement is good, and it's good the Guifrog flair. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted December 28, 2010 Author Share Posted December 28, 2010 Guitar seems too far forward overall, but the rest is very very nice. Sequencing is solid, and the arrangement is very good. Creative, classy, elegant, and mature. Yes, though a revision with the guitar back just a touch would be appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I think the guitar seems so far forward because it's so dry, and it sounds like a really poorly recorded sample. Everything sounds great in the mix except the guitar. There's also distortion around 3:20, as well as one or two places earlier. Gotta fix that. These are a couple of relatively easy fixes. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I can definitely hear you improving, Guilherme. The sequencing and mixing in this song is a step up. The guitar, which needed to sound realistic as it is a lead, does a reasonable enough approximation. Even the brass, which is more of a background player, sounds pretty decent. Arrangement is boss. Here's the issues I noticed. One, the guitar is too far forward and too dry. This was most pronounced in the 1:08-1:20 section. Two, the arp-y synth work (Sytrus? I think I've used that preset) was too in your face and took away from the other instruments. I actually didn't think it fit the song period, but if you wanted to keep it there, it should have been pulled back. On the fence about whether to send this back and make you do another version, which I think would have no trouble passing. Eh, hell with it. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Several things about this weren't fully cohesive. The bowed strings sounded a bit muddy and distant, but not too much. There seemed to be a lot of empty space, with the plucked strings and brass sounding very upfront but the background sounding a bit empty. The thin bowed strings samples couldn't really pad out the background enough. At 1:08, the guitar articulations were pretty awkward, but I loved the writing. It's harder to mask issues when you leave every flaw so exposed. The timing was a bit jerky and should have flowed better like earlier. 1:45's section was a lot more successful with smooth timing. Whatever was introduced into the 1:21, 1:56 and 3:03 sections definitely cluttered and muddied things up significantly. Would love some clarification on what's causing that. I don't mean to make the perfect the enemy of the good, but this needs production needs a LOT of TLC before I can fully get behind this. This sounded so squeaky clean for the most part that weaknesses with the depth and articulations of the instruments weren't adequately covered up. Many sections needed to be filled out/padded out and the volume of the parts needed to be balanced properly. This gets a lot of things right, but the current result isn't cohesive enough to look past a lot of the production issues which is unfortunate. I really like the arrangement, but the potential of the writing wasn't realized in the execution. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 nice choice of source, seems right up your alley. excellent arrangement and genre adaptation; no complaints with the writing. I didn't think the (pretty vanilla) synthwork fit in very well with the organic feel you have going. the sequencing was great, but I gotta echo the guitar and bowed string samples bring this down. there are some balance issues too; I think the guitar at 1:09 was too upfront (might not matter if the sample was better), generally the non-synth bass was too weak, and busy sections like 1:59 and 3:15 were a bit crowded. a few sample swaps and some mixing tweaks and I could definitely roll with this, because the arrangement is hot, and it's quite close as-is. I'll re-emphasize my opinion that this would be more enjoyable without the synths, or as Vinnie suggested, they should be pushed back and serve more as a accompaniment to the organic stuff, rather than a major element of the mix. NO(resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Man, I was so onboard with this up until 1:08, with the really up in your face & rigid acoustic guitar. The following section at 1:21 was also a weak point, with the too loud synth sequence cluttering things up. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the synths - I feel like you could just drop them entirely if you wanted - but at the very least push them further back. Trumpet high notes definitely sounded fakey at the very end. Not entirely sure what you can do about that, though. It just sounds pitch-shifted instead of performed/sampled if you know what I mean. Larry mentioned that many sections needed padding to fill them out, and that may have been what you were going for with the synth pattern. It sounds a bit empty in the lows & low-mid areas until the synth comes in and fills that hole. I can hear the off-note bass you have going, but it's quiet and gets buried in more busy areas. I'd recommend bringing it up and expanding the bass work and letting it have those low freqs, rather than the synths. That said, very nice arrangement here. There was some impressive sequencing work to get the most out of your samples. Just needs some additional production work to get it over the bar. No, resubmit please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Great sequencing and arrangement, but right around 1:18 there is just too much going on in the front and everything gets messy. Need to balance elements better, especially with percussion. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 As always, a really creative arrangement with a ton of different ideas. Like a few of the judges, the synth work seemed a bit out of place to me, but otherwise I don't really have any big complaints about that aspect. As also tends to be the case with your mixes, the production could use a lot of work. The balancing never really clicks; at times there's a lot of empty space, and others there's too much going on and things get crowded out. The strings and bass are weak and never really do a good job of filling things in. The guitar is really dry throughout. It's not too terrible when there's other stuff going on, but the moment at 1:08 that everyone's mentioned really shows it off in a bad way. The squeaking of the too-high final trumpet notes is also a bit off. Everything up to that was decent, though. Your sequencing has definitely improved from your earlier stuff. There are too many issues for me to sign off on this one now, but it's almost there. I feel like you're making progress with your music; just keep working at it and see if you can touch this one up. When you can nail production, you'll be a superstar. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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