OceansAndrew Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 XSTmusic Frederic Smallstep (Please do not publish it on the verdict page) No website at the moment userid #33898 Submission Information Megaman X (SNES) Chill Penguin Additional information: (already on the site) Link to the original soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6ISsXnti24 Comments about the mix: This remix is a part of a medley for the album Maverick Rising. It took me a couple of hours (many) to come up with it. Making this little tribute was a challenge somehow, but also very fun! Guitars were recorded with my Boss GT-10 plugged in my soundcard and the other instruments with Record (Propellerhead). I did not really have inspiration behind it, I just wanted to make a kick-ass rendition of a pretty good song and have it sound a little progressive metal with some little shred. I think it maybe sound, in the intro, a little bit ala Dream Theater with their song "The Glass Prison" in a bar, and ala Symphony X with their song "Fallen" with the way the drums progesses to a steady beat in the intro. On the other hand, it's far from being the same at all. I hope you enjoy this as much as I had making it. The name for the submission is: Chill Out, Tux! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted December 27, 2010 Share Posted December 27, 2010 There are a lot of good arrangement ideas in here, and overall I like how you approached this theme, as well as the Dr. Light theme that cameos in a few spots. A couple things are bugging me. Overall, this is pretty long, and I felt like you could easily take out about a minute out of this. There's just a little too much fluff for my tastes; areas that are very similar to other arrangement ideas I heard earlier in the piece. There were also a couple of transitional areas that were a little weak; the slowdown transition sticks out the most for me. I was also not really feeling most of the sound effects and how they were used. The only one that made sense to me was the "X gets an upgrade" noise (or whatever you would call that). I think the biggest thing that is pulling this down are the samples overall. A lot of them just aren't cutting it for me, and aren't holding their own like they should. Synth you use for the main section is a bit thin overall, and the strings sound pretty fake and mechanical. The bass drum needs to cut through more; this really shows when it gets into the double pedal section. The guitar playing throughout is good, although I'm wondering if it needs a little more of the lower frequencies. Good start here, but I need you to trim the fat a little and work on those sounds. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted December 28, 2010 Author Share Posted December 28, 2010 Definitely hearing the SyX influence in this one, though the drum sounds wasn't really meshing for me, the snare sounded a little dead, and the the kick wasn't present enough. The string sample also seemed to have some issues. I think it'd be usable if you trimmed some of the high end from it. Also, arrangement-wise, there wasn't enough energy for a lot of it. There were sections with a lot of runs and a lot of notes, but they didn't feel intense at all. It seemed also that there was a decent amount of small-scale cut and paste going on, which made the song feel more repetitive than it really needed to. This was mostly in the first half- as things picked up after the solo section. Production sounds like there isn't enough separation, and that the sounds are crammed mostly into the mid ranges, with not enough distinct highs or lows. Nice guitar playing, especially those really clean sweeps, really dug that. I think the main issue here is a first half that drags a little, and overall production issues. It's a very strong start, but needs some additional polish. No, please resubmit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Cool. I'm digging it on the whole. The bell synth, the composition, all very cool. I like the snare, though it's a bit crushed and boxy (400-800Hz). I'd say the snare drums are a bit forward. I think the strings and pads are the worst thing about this song right now. The strings don't sound pleasant, and there's just too much going on at times. When you've got that percussive synth going crazy with the thin bright strings underneath, it's just too much. The brass pads...There's really just so much going on. Make some space down there. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Cool rock intro, though the crystalline sounds were sequenced a bit rigidly. The electric guitar at 1:05 was real? Sounded like a pretty mechanical synth. The slowed section at 2:14 was a welcome change. At 3:40, the fakey strings definitely stuck out. Immediately afterward, the lack of realism was better hidden in the background as a supporting part to a much richer texture. At 4:01 when even more elements came in, the soundscape became pretty murky. I did like the concept of the guitar shredding a bit. Awful (complete lack of a) transition at 4:43. Sorry, but there needs to be some sort of connection/flow between the two sections to not make this changeup so jarring. The Doctor Light theme cameo from 5:26-5:41, was OK as well, but again, little thought to the transitions before or after it. Arrangement-wise, once the theme truly kicked in at 1:05, it was pretty conservative, but the sounds built around it did personalize the sound, followed by a second iteration with a (tiny) bit more personalization. Arrangement-wise, this was definitely a beefed up version, but it still came off to me like it needed further interpretation. During the verses, much of the part-writing was exactly the same as the original, so there wasn't enough differentiation to make me feel like the arrangement was an easy pass. I also agreed with the other judges that this was too long and a lot of cut-and-paste sections should just be eliminated, because they don't say anything new. The use of the sound effects wasn't cohesive either. This was a decent base, but the production's not there, and more importantly the arrangement wasn't quite interpretive enough and didn't justify the length. Definitely worth polishing up and resubmitting, Frederic. Keep working on improving though. This is better than most rejections, but it lacks a lot of polish. Just don't be discouraged and keep using the forum resources here to learn more. NO (resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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