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*NO* Sonic & Knuckles 'Tomorrow's Wake'


djpretzel
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CONTACT INFO:

ReMixer name: Rexy

Real name: Bev Wooff

Email: baroness_praxis@yahoo.co.uk

OCRemix user ID: 7528

REMIX INFO:

Remix title: "Tomorrow's Wake"

Game covered: Sonic & Knuckles

Individual song covered: Sky Sanctuary Zone

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First of all, I want to thank you for your constructive criticism as applied to my previous submission, "A Weekend Down Under". I have taken what you have said into account and will plan to alter the song in the future, however with the original Reason file being anywhere but my University campus right now, I can't go back to edit it just yet. Rest assured I will get something on the line and at least give Crash Bandicoot some OCR recognition for once.

That aside, I have a fresh contribution for you guys to see into. The foundations for this piano arrangement of the "Sky Sanctuary Zone" theme from Sonic & Knuckles came from my early experiences through my first semester in my new student life; although I managed to find it somewhat enjoyable, I've always had the feeling of missing my family and companions from back home. Eventually I managed to put what I've learnt from piano playing tuition and came round to putting the arrangement together, mainly influenced from a lot of heart-warming animation (The Snowman, anyone?) and some reflective piano work from years gone by (Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" being a firm example).

I seriously need another filehost other than VGMix. o_O; Again I apologise for the tag set, although suggestions on future file storage are welcome alongside your song criticism.

That said, I leave this message by saying thanks in advance for taking your time going through this file. Once more I am satisfied with how the arrangement came out, and whichever result comes out of your analysis, well done for doing your job. :)

Peace out,

-Rexy-

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I liked this a lot. I thought that perhaps the high end of the piano sounded a little piercing, but maybe that's just my ears playing up, cause I've just recovered from a bad cold!

Nice arrangement, and although I would have liked some more movement at times, this was an emotive piece first and foremost, and I found it to be effective.

In other words

YES

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a very nice take on Sky Sanctuary; very emotive playing. There were some points that felt a bit odd because of timing issues; some of the piece ends up sounding disjointed, rather than the emotional quality it strives for; then again, maybe I just use FL too much (omg quantization).

Anyway, that little minor section in the middle doesn't sound like anything from Sonic, but it's quite short compared to the rest of the mix, so I'll chalk it up to originality. I do like the Sky Sanctuary bits; a bit conservative on the arrangement, but still, nicely interpreted.

YES

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http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR - 24 Sky Sanctuary

Played this one in the X-Mas block for VGF44, and it was a very nice fit. The arrangement was conservative, though I generally liked what I heard on that level; no problems there. The main thing that was an issue here, one I was affected by moreso than DarkeSword, was that the performance could be a lot more cohesive-sounding. On account of that, I felt the piece was lacking in places on an emotive level.

The tone of the piano sample itself was an issue with, as it made the presentation dry and plinky at times, instead of full and rich. If the performance was more polished, however, the tone of the piano sample might even enhance the piece, so (repeating myself) the piano tone could go well hand-in-hand with a more natural, flowing and cohesive performance.

If you listen to JigginJonT's two versions of "Live from the Yggdrasil", even there you can hear how Jon's performance on the VGMix version was much more practiced & internalized than the OC ReMix version, achieving a more effective product in his eyes. Ultimately, that's what I feel this piece here needs.

And that's not meant to be an insult like "this isn't OC material while the old Live from the Yggdrasil is", but I believe that some more attention to timing and realism would result in a much stronger performance. Excellent stuff so far, Bev. If it doesn't make it, I hope you can come back with a more masterful performance that shines.

NO (refine/resubmit)

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Major Issues: Sometimes *plunky* playing gets irksome. Organic rhythym sometimes gets a little too liberal, and feels more awkward than charmingly human.

Major selling points: Poignant. Great sensitivity to the source material. Uniquely minimal treatment of the source material. Eerily reminescint of DSHU's rainbow road (which is a good thing)

Major selling points outweight the Issues.

Therefore

YES

OMG. PIANO FOR TEH WIN!

and similarly

NERF PALLIES!

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Definitely plunky. The arrangement is fine, the original material is decent. My reluctance towards passing this is due to the performance, which leaves much to be desired. Timing in certain spots is wonky, plunkiness (and other vague untechnical qualifications) abound, and the tone is sterile rather than warm. Nothing too bad, but nothing too great either. This can benefit from another take to improve the performance.

Borderline NO

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I'm simply not hearing the technical problems to the extent that some other judges are. Regardless, even though the sample is a bit grating sometimes, it's definately passable. The arrangement is very original and creative. It's emotive, and that emotion does come out even with the slightly mechanical sample.

This is a great example of excellent arrangement transcending SQ problems that might have been problematic without such sophisticated composition.

YES

-D

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you know what this sounds like?

a piano player who isn't used to playing on an unweighted controller yet.

it reminds me too much of my early piano sequences with my brand new roland pc200.

the velocities are really uneven, some of the dynamics just come off as awkward.

rhythm is needlessly sloppy.

arrangement is super, if this was recorded live i'd probably pass it.

but this is clearly a sequence that can be edited and fixed, and that's what i'd like the prospective remixer to do.

clean up the rhythms, smooth out the velocities/dynamics.

it may be tedious, but it will be worth it.

no

resubmit!

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Arrangement is great, but I'm inclined to agree with analoq that this sounds sloppy overall. The rhythms and velocity changes are unnatural and really throw me off as a listener. Getting a live version of this would be *really* great if you can't fix up the sequencing manually.. which may or may not be harder, depending on how quickly you can work in a piano roll. Production otherwise sounds pretty good - I wouldn't touch the piano sample, the reverb, the EQ, or anything else besides the overall level which is on the quiet side.

NO but resubmit.

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The first thing that jumps out at you is the stereo image follows the Audience Perspective. This is unique in that, frankly I haven't heard a mix in our community off the top of my head that follows this convention, usually we hear the Player Perspective all the time. It's perfectly acceptable either way, it just stood out to me as unique.

Which is appropriate since the arrangement is quite unique and refreshing. I thought the arrangement was neat. Rexy displays here a new level of difficulty that I haven't heard in her prior mixes either.

Production overall is decent. The sample's pretty good. Personally would have liked more room ambiance, maybe a dark small room, would have helped the plinky sounds particularly in the higher registers. It's not a major issue at all, but might be worth considering if you decide to polish this up a little more.

Performance is the issue here for me. I felt as I did months ago in my buzz comment, the execution felt hesitant and a bit rigid. For a solo instrument piece/mix, this is paramount to how the emotion is conveyed. As with the other judges, in this regard the result is a bit awkward.

This took me a while to weigh in on, as I personally enjoy the mix quite a lot. The arrangement is very good, but there are enough sequencing/performance flaws for me where I don't think it's ready for posterity yet. Extremely borderline, NO. Resubmit!

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