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OCR02317 - *YES* Gitaroo Man 'FML (If I Could Drift Away)'


DragonAvenger
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Your ReMixer name: Sir Jordanius

Your real name: Jordan Etienne

Your website: http://www.last.fm/music/sir+jordanius/+albums

Your userid (number, not name): 38652

Submission Information

Name of game(s) arranged: Gitaroo Man

Name of individual song(s) arranged: The Legendary Theme

Additional information about game: Composed by "COIL" for the Playstation 2 (and/or PSP)

Link to the original soundtrack:

Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.

I've had an EXTREMELY crappy day/week/month/year and I usually get the worst emotions out of me through music.

To me, this song (the original) is so beautiful because it sounds both happy and sad at the same time and it's great

for chilling out in those extremely crappy days/weeks/months/years when I just need to drift away ("hence the title").

I usually hate the cliche Indie sound of tinkery bells and wannabe Beatles flutes/whirlitzers/Rhodes, but I really wanted

to make this emulate the happy and sad emotion that I interpreted from the original. The original is already an extremely

simple song (meaning that anything too complex ruins the song) so I did something very different from my usual adaptations

by not adding unnecessary embellishments.

Oh yeah, and the whistles are a bit out of tune because they're not a keyboard; I was really whistling, but I've never been

too good at whistling. I hope you enjoy this chill song!

-----danius----

----------------

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Overall, you've got a nice track, and I like the overall dreamy quality of the piece, but there are some really strange harmony choices in here for the background pads. I'm not sure if it's the chords bleeding into one another, or if the choices just aren't working out, but I think that it needs to be cleaned up overall. 2:17 stands out in particular.

I like the overall vanilla texture's you've got going on. Everything is reverb heavy, which I think works pretty well in this context, although I think it could have been pulled back a little on the lead guitar.

I'd like to see this again after you've looked some things over.

NO (resubmit)

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  • 3 weeks later...

there are some moments in here that really come together and are lush, full, and dreamy, but a few spots where the reverb gets to be a bit much. The snare tone also seemed slightly far back in some areas, like when things really filled out, though was good in the more subdued areas.

Overall this is really nice, but needs just a few production tweaks to make it over the bar. I really hope you revisist this one, i enjoyed it a lot. :-)

No, please resubmit

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow, I was really digging this piece. The heavily reverbed atmosphere was executed well (the individual components still had definition), and this was a great slice of dream-pop. The instruments were kind of random but it all came together, which is no small feat. I ended up getting behind the chords at 2:17 that Deia mentioned, though it did throw me at first since it's so different from the original. Finally the balance is a little bit weak but with everything else working for me, I thought it was above the bar. Great work!

YES

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  • 1 month later...

some clicks at :02 and :04 in the intro. another at :31. etc. seems like rendering or encoding glitches.

I really like the direction your going with the arrangement, the 'washed out' approach works really well with the source and the instrumentation you have here. I think it's dragged out a bit too much with the long intro and repetition of the main melody, and there are some pretty wonky note choices imo. but otherwise, I'm really digging the interpretation here.

:55 was a bit underwhelming, but I was enjoying all the elements here. a minute and 47 seconds without any bass? the song needs to build up a little faster. at 2:19 things start getting a bit cluttered, and I'm not so sure about some of the note choices here. seems kinda random.

nice change up at 4:06, though the timing in the drums is off. might be a little overhumanized. :wink:

I really do love the approach here, but it needs another coat of polish.

NO(resub)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmm. I'm deciding whether the mix is tweaky enough to make this a NO for me. Some things I would fix in the mix:

-The intro is muddy. I was expecting this to be a persistent problem through the track, and while the low mids are often mushy, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting from the intro.

-The hand percussion is a bit too dull and too loud. maybe add some crack around 1.5kHz and bring it down a bit.

-The kick is thin. This might be tricky because you've got pads and the bass already taking up a lot of the low end.

-You definitely should throw a compressor on the bass especially for the final third of the song. Some notes stick out and some get lost.

Aside from that, 2:22 gets muddy with the pads. This is at least partly due to the writing. there are bells and softer pads that are stepping on each other's toes. This problem just gets worse through until the guitar comes in at 3:15.

The arrangement and mood of this track is fantastic. I don't think my complaints warrant a NO, so I'm going to go

YES.

If you get rejected, please take my comments and resubmit quickly!

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Gonna keep it snappy since this one's been here for quite a while. Great atmosphere and personalized arrangement. Mixing was a bit all over the place but overall it was okay. Loved the accordion thingie. The out-of-place chord rubbed me the wrong way but not so much it was a dealbreaker.

Overall this JUST squeaks by for me. Good work

YES(borderline)

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Not much to add to what has already been said, honestly. The mixing issues, chord choices & muddiness are definitely factors. Very nice arrangement, though. And the overall atmosphere is very cool.

I could honestly see this one going either way, and I'm pretty torn myself. In the end, I feel like the few production weaknesses of the track are compensated for by the strengths in arrangement & writing, so I'm going

Yes (borderline)

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Pops/encoding glitches: :01, :04, :31 (very light), :35, :37, :41-:42 (distortion), :46, :49 (possibly), 4:19, 4:32 (minor bass distortion?)

The sleigh bell timing was briefly off at 4:18, followed by what sounded like an encoding glitch at 4:19. Not a huge deal, just worth pointing out.

Would love to get an encoding free of those issues, as well as at a higher bitrate, but if it's not possible, I'm OK enough with this, warts and all.

"Drifting away" motif or not, there were definitely some wonky balance issues here, already covered in more depth by the others. Not a huge deal to me, though there were parts where the source melody got swamped/obscured more than necessary. That said, I was OK with the production overall, and it didn't both me as much as some others.

Arrangement-wise, this did a great job of following the original's structure, but personalizing the instrumentation and performance, as well as weaving it some smooth original material. Compositionally, the drops and swells all worked nicely, and I appreciated the dynamic range here. The imagery of drifting was, for the most part, conveyed nicely in the production, and one could argue that nearly everything besides the more obvious glitch noises had purpose to it.

Let's try to get a cleaned up encoding, but otherwise, I was digging it and you brought it enough on the arrangement & production levels. Good deal, Jordan, welcome aboard!

YES

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  • 1 month later...

http://judges.vgdj.net/mp3s/tobejudged/Gitaroo_Man_%27FML%27_RESUB.mp3

Your ReMixer name Sir Jordanius

Your real name Jordan Etienne

Your email address youcanfindsirjordanius@gmail.com

Your website n/a

Your userid (number, not name) 38652 ( http://ocremix.org/forums/member.php?u=38652 )

Submission Information

Name of game(s) arranged Gitaroo Man

Name of arrangement FML - If I Could Drift Away

Name of individual song(s) arranged The Legendary Theme

Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site) COIL, Tomohiro Harada; PS2

Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site) reference >

(I don't know where to find a "legal" link to the full album, sorry, unless you want a torrent or mediafire link)

Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.

sorry, I just wasn't satisfied with the other version.

same concept: horrible year, made a song about it; but no sweat, it is what it is.

I don't know much about genres but this was basically made to be similar to Ratatat, Mute Math, and TRTS.

peace

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It's definitely different enough to merit looking at it again. Aside from a couple of sections retaining the same structure of the first version, this is basically a totally different animal.

Honestly, this is an easy pass for me. Normally when we have a very straightforward YES, we don't need to redo a vote, and I just go with the revision the artist sent. But since the previous version split the panel, there's nothing wrong with doing another vote again if y'all would like to. Jordan is basically asking us to ignore the conditional YES on the old version in order to send us this version, which is a reasonable request.

That said, I was YES last time, and this version is still very cool. I'm more partial to the relaxed nature of the first version, so I hope Jordan doesn't feel like it should never see the light of day since we'd be going with this one.

Definitely a lot stranger and a lot more mutated, if you will, compared to the first version. Either way, they're both great arrangements. This one could use a higher VBR encoding to max out the size, and there were still some mixing issues where this could have sounded cleaner, but definitely nothing approaching dealbreaker to me. The timing was loose in some parts, but nothing setting off any flags or killing the experience. Not really any huge issues on arrangement or production, IMO.

This here offers something sonicly [sic] unique despite us having over 700 contributors. Jordan, keep us this great work.

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I love the reversed string synth stuff at the beginning, and sonically this has a very unique imprint. Very ear-catching.

The whistling sounds like it's a few milliseconds behind the beat, but it is somewhat inconsequential, as it's doubled with the Epiano, which is on. The only way you could really tell is when the parts deviate from each other slightly melodically, and because of the panning of the 2. More cool reverse stuff afterwards is pretty nicely done, and though I didn't think the drums after the huge build felt that great to me, stylewise, and that they were pushed a little too high in the volume, the interesting textures won me over.

The different sounds that shift throughout are interesting and unique, and though I felt that the arrangement goes a little long, there is always something new happening that is pretty experimental, and while it's not a style or genre I can say i'm familiar with, I definitely think most of the ideas click.

Yes

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some timing issues on the whistling being both behind and in front of the beat in places, but track has a sort of loose/laid-back nature in general so it's not a big issue.

Not sure if it's the effects used or something, but sounds like distortion from some of the loud drum hits, notably around 3:12 & 3:34-3:40. The section at 3:40 seems to be pushing the limits of your compression as well, so be sure to watch those levels. Fortunately, this isn't a significant portion of the song or it could've been a big issue for me.

On the positive side, you've got a nice arrangement on the theme and a super creative approach to your mix. Not sure I could pinhole this to any specific genre. Nice work, Jordan. I'm looking forward to more from you.

Yes

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