OceansAndrew Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Remixer name: Arcana Real name: Irwin Kwan Email: Web site: N/A Forum ID: 10067 Game: Suikoden II (PSX) Song: "The Chase ~ Battle against Luca" This is a track that is part of the upcoming "BadAss Boss Themes" project. I started this track sometime in 2006, shortly after I started my Ph.D in computer science. Back in the day, I thought of making a track for the "Unmod R Bad Men" fan project, where Unmod wanted to create a bunch of boss theme remixes. This was started so long ago that GrayLightning actually listened to and commented on this mix. At the time, he said that it was "a Quantum Leap above my previous mixes". I didn't think that I would have ever submitted this to OCR even then, there was something that always told me that the track wasn't "good enough". I laid down the arrangement but left it largely dormant until 2009, when I decided to actually do something with the track, and as a result I decided to submit it to the BadAss Boss Themes Project. Both pu_freak and The Joker were very helpful in bringing this track up to its current quality; after not working with the track for a few years their fresh perspective really helped me get it up to speed. I've spent a lot of time trying to tweak the production on this; as I am (still) a new remixer and musician, I find this aspect extraordinarily challenging, but also immensely rewarding. Thanks to pu_freak and The Joker for their comments on the mix. Thank you to diotrans for supplying the guitar parts! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX8fKtjpr_E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 This is a pretty obvious direction to take the source, and you've done some nice things with the track. Everything has a pretty 'epic battle' feel to it. There's some pretty decent expansion, although at times the mix feels very close to the source. I think you could take things further and expand on things more, maybe break up the structure from the original more. Along with this, the second half feels a bit like a rehash of the first at times, although it is different. The big issue I'm noticing is the overall sounds are pretty dated. I felt like I was listening to the FF Tactics soundtrack because of the sounds used (but also because of your writing style, which is good!). Right now they are holding this track back from getting some real epicness out of the soundscape. I will defer to the other judges on how you can address this issue, but overall some sound upgrades would help things out here (one example would be the guitar, which sounds very thin compared to some of the other sounds). I'd also cut out the sound effects; I honestly thought you had a bunch of static until I picked up that it's supposed to be rain, and the cheers seem to come out of nowhere and feel out of place. This is a nice direction to take the source, but it needs some work. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 The flow of the piece works pretty good, but it feels to me like an expanded cover in that the sounds are really close to the originals in quality. There are obviously some good expansions, with synths and such, but the sequencing is pretty mechanical, and is really exposing the weaknesses of the samples, which are not pulling their weight. The guitar section was pretty cool, but the guitar was pretty quiet, and then when the brass came in, the guitar sound itself was completely steamrolled. When the pan flute came in, it felt like it wasn't even part of the song, based on positioning and room sound. You'll definitely want to integrate that into the proper soundscape. This is a pretty good start, but will need a little more interpretation to help it sit apart from the original, and the production and samples need to be tightened up. There are a lot of users on the forums who would be happy to take midis of your stuff and output wavs with EWQLSO-grade orchestra sounds. That won't quite cover up the mechanical sequencing, but it'll certainly help. Keep at it! No, please resubmit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 The overall feel was pretty similar to the original, and a lot of the writing and structure was the same too. What's here sounds good, but I think you needed to make this more your own song beyond the light electronic flavor. Also, the 3:37 section had some pretty bad dissonance going on there in the strings, you should probably change the strings or the backing parts. As far as production, this only had a couple problem spots and the rest was good. The brass is not a good enough sample to be put front and center, it reminds me of N64 Goldeneye. See if you can find a better sample, or get someone to render those brass parts for you. The brass and big wall of synths also sounded too cluttered with the backing track, you may have to tweak with the balance or EQ some more. When the guitar and the brass played, that poor guitar got swallowed up. The flute also sounded disconnected from the rest of the track. A good listen, Irwin, but it needs some work on both ends. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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