OCR01325 - *YES* Kingdom Hearts 'New Beginnings'

[djpretzel]

Whats up,

I have a submission entitled "New Beginnings."

It is a remix of the "Deep Jungle" track from Kingdom Hearts.

Its kind of a jazzy/ambient(ish) mix.

I was experimenting with the drum pattern and I thought it turned out pretty nice.

You can find my mix posted on my site below.

I hope you guys enjoy it.

Thanks,

[DarkeSword]

Sounded a bit similar to the original when I first heard it, but I went back and I listened to the original again, and I can see the variation. Lots of nice percussive work here; subtle and dynamic. It really accentuates the piece. Piano is nice, even though its not there much. This is really chill. I wish the flute wasn't as shrill when it hit the high notes, but it's not horrible.

Nice texture. Ambient nature sounds are used tastefully.

YES

[Liontamer]

Mulled over this one for quite a while; definitely something I couldn't judge after only a few listens. No problem with the ideas in the rearrangement; comparing it with the original, this was a very creative application of the source material. Developed at a pretty slow and deliberate place.

Little things: Nice touch with how one of the animal noises worked alongside the notes of the "Deep Jungle" melody from :45-:48 & 2:35-2:37. The fakeness of the string sample you were using was slightly exposed from 1:46-1:48 for me.

I was worried I'd have to NO the track on a lack of variation, because you essentially repeated what started at :27 later on in the track at 2:17 with only very light percussion additions. I initially wasn't sure if there was enough change/development for the track as a whole, but that wasn't the case. The flute section at 3:12 was definitely shrill like DarkeSword pointed out, and I wouldn't mind that being toned down, but it otherwise worked well and was a welcome change of pace in the presentation.

A bit repetitive and treading water at first glance (due in part to the ambient feel), but nonetheless a fairly cool combination of sounds creating a relaxed atmosphere and providing good rearrangement. Like DS also pointed out, the use of the nature samples was tastefully handled and blended well with the rest of the sounds.

Solid work, Damon. You've really come a long way from the two submissions we heard from you a while ago. I don't mean to point and laugh by linking to those rejections, but rather recognize how you've achieved much better production and more creative rearrangement than the stuff you were submitting before. Keep improving your game and learning new things.

YES

[GrayLightning]

The key word of the day here is subtlety. A lot of nice subtle touches make this a definite evolution on the arrangement side of things. I have no problem there.

Instrumental selection is wonderful. Great use of strings, panflue and flute, guitarlike stringed instrument, nature fx to create an enchanting atmosphere. The range of percussive instruments is also handled very nicely. The rock kit, ethnic hand drums accentuate the piece perfectly.

This seems to come up a lot, but the flute isn't that shrill. I think it might be some of the monitoring systems being used to listen to it. It's perfectly fine imo, doesn't even sound like it was using that strong a velocities or overly eq'd in that section. If you want shrill, try high piccolo on the highest registers with high velocities.

Production on the whole is decent. Better samples and processing, mastering and mixing would have made this shine. But even as is it's still quite very good. Very good use of pan placement. The stereo field is nicely balanced and rich. Another slight gripe is the ending doesn't completely fade out. The audio is still going before it just stops as it's slowly fading out.

I agree with darke and larry. This is a tasteful, enchanting and wonderful mix. Sounds like a theme for a utopian landscape. YES.

[Liontamer]

Contacted Damon looking to get a fixed version where the ending doesn't just cut out. Hope to hear back fairly quickly.

[Digital Coma]

Gray is right, the flute doesn't sound shrill at all. It just sounds like a flute. Arrangement is indeed packed with subtlety and voicings; evolves very nicely with more texture than the original. The brass bleats sound misplaced.

Ending doesn't cut off now, so YES