Jump to content

link's awakening - elegy of the solipsist


melody
 Share

Recommended Posts

a remix of link awakens, the inspiration for this one comes from link's solipsistic struggle when marooned on the alien island of koholint. i did my best to put myself in the shoes of a boy who desperately pushes forward in an effort to validate his experiences as true.

enjoy

source: http://vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/gameboy/Z4awake.mid

edit 10/13/11: stats.png

link to my debut album: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36932

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Serious balance issues. Piano is way too quiet. I had to turn the song down because everything else came in too loud. The piano should be in the spotlight.

I hear clipping on the kick drum. There is too much going on at the same time, not enough space in the mix for all the instruments. The guitar sounds out of place and shouldn't be there (at least not at the same time as everything else, i.e. the piano).

I like the piano in the beginning, but it sounds fake. Probably needs more sustain, more reverb and better eq.

The vocals sound really out of place and poorly recorded. You can't understand any of what's being said because of serious mixing issues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i would be inclined to agree with you if there was guitar here. i agree that the eq separation needs a ton of work but the piano isn't something that does? the verb on the piano is practically 100% via sends and it's eq'd appropriately at 950 hz. it's also ivory so.. if you think that sounds fake then there's no way i can help you haha. appreciate the feedback though

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Smooth, groovy and relaxing. I was surprised at first to hear the Descartes quote, but it didn't sound out of place to me.

I'd agree that the piano, in the beginning, could use a little volume boost before the other instruments come in, or the pads/drums could start a little softer. After that it sounds nice, and quite realistic IMO. :-)

Nice to hear from you again!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oooh, I LOVE the context of this, really cool way of thinking about the game. (Although, surely the game itself isn't 'solipsistic' until you find out about the Windfish's dream, and even then Link knows both himself and the Windfish exist, but creative licence 'n' all that.)

Despite that, the mixing is really off. It's a shame because all the elements individually are perfect IMO. I like the chords, I like the piano, I like the FX, I like it all but they are mixed together really strange- Ghetto Lee Lewis has covered it really.

If it wasn't for that this would be on my iPod. Please fix.

(Also I hate Descartes with a passion. If you read the rest of meditations you'll realise he doesn't even believe what he wrote there.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for the suggestions everyone, time to go back to the drawing board. i admit i love to cut corners when it comes to initial production, a department this definitely is sorely lacking in. about the quote, honestly i just wanted to sample some super old recording of an old guy saying something along the lines of what i copped from descartes haha. i didn't specifically sample descartes' meditations because it was descartes or anything.

i guess where i'm coming from is that you can definitely question reality irrespective of your experiences being objectively real or not. so who knows if the windfish actually blew link's mind as opposed to confirming his suspicions? a ton of the dialogue and events seem to embrace that same solipsistic theme so is it that far of a stretch to infer that link's mind ever wandered in that general direction? maybe.

maybe i'm just crazy. but definitely thanks to everyone for their input. i'll have an updated version soon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like links awakening so you get a review! ^-^

The feel - you nailed it.

The arrangement - would like to hear more melody, seems like mostly chords with hints at the melody so far but other than that, I like!

The production - needs work, its unbalanced and there are a few iffy samples... the piano sounds midish for sure.

Keep on working on this one, its got a great foundation for an enjoyable mix, ocr worthy or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sounds a bit like one of those iffy piano keyboard samples to me slightly, ones you get on those school keyboards... also it sounds slightly like it was sequenced, rather than played live, the velocity changes don't sound realistic to me... :(

Its not so bad when its in the soundscape, but when its exposed, it sounds tacky imo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will, Ghetto, I just hafta ask: what is it specifically that sounds fake about the piano to you? I find the sample quite convincing, and more expressive than the majority of posted remixes (even recent ones). Could just be the fact that I'm listening on earbuds atm. Just wondering what you're hearing that I'm not. :-?

Kinda with you on this, I thought the piano sounded lovely and very real, it was also very expressive, though normally your mixes tend to pull out more emotion then this did :) Cant wait to see where you take it ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suppose I'm listening to the update?

The piano bass notes sound a little too loud/forced in the first few bars. Also the chromatic note in the 4th bar sounds hesitant and it made me think it was an unintentional wrong note the first few listens.

I really enjoy this mix, don't think the piano sounds too bad other than the loud left hand at the start. Love the chords and the arrangement, I have to agree that there was not too much of a hum-able melody going on there.

I can't help you on productions but it all sounds lovely to me. I'm a sucker for spoken word over music, I would have liked to've heard a little less reverb on it or for the spoken word to be a tiny bit louder.

Yeah, love the key change 3/4 of the way through and the bass line is cool and interesting throughout.

So yeah, i'd say sort out some of the left hand notes in the intro and the chromatic turn in the 4th bar which sounded to me a little hesitant. Also I'm not a huge fan of those cymbal samples at the start. And yeah, gimme some melody!

Keep it up though, I'm really enjoying this track.

Calum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for the suggestions. there's a pretty lengthy piano solo in there that wasn't too audible before so it's completely possible that you missed it. which has now been boosted. not sure how familiar you are with the source but the original is definitely kind of weird with regards to distinct melodic and harmonic layers, as the melody itself completes the chords and is chordal in that sense. the voice leading on the chords along with the contrapuntal bass provides a pretty substantial while subtle melody i thought.. your mileage may vary. and yea the spoken word was pretty shabby haha, there have been general eq cleanups all around that you can check in the op

that being said, op updated

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with the hi-hat thing. I think it might be good if it was a tad "less hard" when it first comes in.

Ditto. Hi-hat needs to come down.

I like almost all of your changes since the initial version. Nice little jazzy flourishes add a lot. Some of the piano writing in the beginning sounds like it must have been played by a 3-handed monster, which is a little distracting to me, but not a big deal.

Never get tired of this though, could have it on repeat all day. :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i like to listen to this while watching the eagle, especially in the evening. yes i am pathetic.

Also good work on fixing the intro. I thought it was messy in the last version but I didn't say anything because I didn't know how to fix it. You're good to go, by my standards at least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...