Liontamer Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=47578 ReMixer Info:Screen Name: Fusion2004 Real Name: Mark Oleson Public email: fusion2004p@yahoo.com Website: http://www.fusion2004p.com Userid: 7647 ReMix Info: Game: Chrono Trigger Song: Schala's Theme Comments: I never really meant my first submission to be an overly used song like Schala's Theme, but when you get musical inspiration you just kinda go with it. Its done in an Orchestral/Techno hyrbrid kinda thingy if you know what I mean. Once I got into it, I sort of leaned toward the style of zircon's Calamitous Judgment. I tried to fix most, and hopefully all, of the problems described by the judges. I first made an entirely new drumbeat and then expanded upon it 'n stuff. I changed the "sax or whatever that was at :57" as it was called to a better sounding woodwind section. New lead synth, and replaced the bell thingies to another synth. New intro thing at teh beginning, then followed by teh old intro and the rest of the song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 That's it, larry. We're cutting you back to ONE schala mix resubmit per week, K!?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 What we have here is another generic sounding Schala mix. OCR and other communities have had this theme mixed so often that I would like to hear something new with this material. This sounds like a first mix try and using an often mixed theme. First problems, are the awkward transition points, like at :13/:14. It almost sounded like two pieces of different material pasted together and just crossfading into each other. The main lead is not too pleasant, and very thin sounding. It needs more effects processing. Beyond the lead, there's not much going on in the background. I also think the drums are really strong and overpower the other elements. For a sparse, not hardcore sounding track, I'm not sure how appropriate it is. A couple of positives, I felt the ending parts got better compared to the beginning sections. There's also some nice ideas here, and the production in some respects is fairly good. Other than the overpowering aspect the drumwork is one of the better aspects in the mix. Not bad, but I feel it needs quite a bit of work in composition and presentation. There is not much here I haven't heard in the dozens of Schala mixes before. NO. Keep working at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Israfel Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Basically a pleasant, if generic, mix. The only substantial technical problem I hear is the overpowering drums which don't really fit into the mix very well. Otherwise, the composition suffers from a sparsity of ideas. You rarely have more than two melodic instruments playing, and while that isn't inherently bad, in this particular work it contributes to a thinness of texture and an undesireable simplicity. There just isn't enough here to keep my interest. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Well, this is an improvement over the previous version.. but I think there are still some issues holding it back. For instance, the synths are generally 'abrasive'. The opening synth, for instance, should be quieter and more melodic - gliding on those arpeggios rather than slicing through them. The lead synth (which I recognize from a Synth1 bank, heheh) is probably too distorted and saturated for the rest of the mix. Again, consider going lighter on that. The drums also need work. Their sequencing is good, but you need to process them in a more pleasing fashion. The bass drum is not very audible but has a lot of reverb, making the low end muddy. You might try a more substantial kick, but go light on the reverb. The snare is somewhat overpowering, though the hats and crashes are good. I'm not sure if you intended for this, but basically, the drums sound like a march, when I think a laid-back groove would suit the rest of the mix much better. You're moving in the right direction. Keep expanding on your arrangement ideas, add more harmony, tighten up the percussion and synthwork. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted December 14, 2004 Author Share Posted December 14, 2004 http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/ct.rsn - "Sara's (Schala's) Theme" (ct-3-06.spc) Certainly a lot more promising material in place now, but not yet there. The choices for the leads are less abrasive now, but still grating. I made sure Mark pulled the drums back on this before I posted the resub, because they were even louder than this. They're not so jarring on that level, but they're definitely still obscuring things. The drums still pound at the same intensity nearly all the time, but sounded fairly realistic otherwise. Like Israfel mentioned, the percussion structure seems to clash with the other ideas here, which was a problem the first time around. Not so much so now, but still a problem. zircon has some excellent ideas for you to use once again. I allowed this resub to go straight to the panel, since I noticed Mark had just submitted it to djp, so I might as well do Fusion a favor. Loads of improvement compared to the first version. Less abrasive textures overall, along with slightly better sound balance this time around, but this still isn't cohesive enough. Really rethink the structure here, bro. You're coming along fairly well as an artist though. This isn't a track I would focus on retooling much further, but I'm looking forward to what else you're gonna come out with as you develop even more. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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