DragonAvenger Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Hey guys, look I did a song. You might have heard it in the Nov.2010 DoD (virt month). This version has more careful mixing and mastering but is otherwise identical in terms of performances. The song is 5.01 MB for 3:30 min of music but it's VBR with a high pass at 19.7 khz so the average bit rate is much higher than 128 yet the file size is much lower than naive VBR settings would achieve at this quality. Let me know if you want me to try and shrink it some more. ReMixer name -- Rize Real name -- Dave T. Email address -- Your website -- n/a Your userid: -- 1321 Game(s) arranged: -- Scurge: Hive (DS) Name of individual song(s) arranged?? -- The Desert Scourge (my name for the mix) Original track name -- Deadscape (the name of the level where the music appears in the game) Composer -- Jake "virt" Kaufman Link to the original soundtrack -- n/a My own comments about the mix -- "I originally made this arrangement for Dwelling of Duels Nov. 2010 competition. It was my first in three years and my first with live drums (every instrument is played live actually). This version has significantly updated mixing and mastering, but the performances are identical to the original DoD version." Cheers, Dave ------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 Overall this is pretty sick. The playing is sick, and production is very clean. Solos are also very nice. The arrangement is conservative at times, as per a lot of DoD tracks, and that's what's holding me back on this. I'm also not a fan of the fade-out ending, and would have liked to see something a little more definitive. I think it's a close call, and I'm willing to give this a nod. Good luck with the rest of the vote. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 I uploaded a recording of the source tune from the GBA version of the game. It's louder overall, and the melody itself is more prominent. There's some weird volume fluctuation happening in the melody on the provided version, I'm not sure if it's really like that in the game or what. (I just really like this piece.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 Yeah, this is rather conservative. The melody, accompaniment arpeggio, and bassline are mostly recreated from the original through the first forty-eight seconds, and the drum pattern is pretty similar too. B section is also pretty close, but it has some variation in the melody and original writing. Then there's some rad soloing over the same accompaniment, an A section repeat, and finally more soloing. Cool stuff, but I don't think this is quite interpretive enough for OCR. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Definitely plays it close to the source, but the source is really good, so why mess too much with a good thing? Production was clean, playing was solid, and solos and minor adjustments were nice. I think the general obscurity of the source makes me more inclined to pass this, as i'd never heard of the game before, let alone the song, and having a generally no-frills version is preferable than one that had 51% source and 49% original material. The all live aspect is also a plus in my book. Not sure how the other judges will feel, but my vote is Yes edit I agree with the overall arrangement being too conservative. 1:12-2:00 does some soloing and riffing on top of the foundation of the original. I love the soloing, but that's basically the aspect that made this stand apart from the original, not really any particular interpretation of the source tune itself beyond the adaptation to rock. As was pointed out, the patterns, rhythms, tempo and overall mood were pretty much the same as the original, only a rock cover and upgrade. I love it in a vacuum, and don't mean to disrespect David, who is an awesome musician and really on fire with quality arrangement since returning to the scene. This one just happened to be much more conservative than his previous material, no hate. If you want to come back to it and interpret the theme itself more, David, that's cool. If not, it's a great rock arrangement that everyone should check out regardless. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 no problems here production wise, the mix is nice and crunchy, the live drums were great, and all the guitars were really well performed, but aside from the solos, this is really conservative. I'm leaning towards a no, but seeing two other yes's is throwing me off a bit. there are a couple little embellishments on the main melody but just adding solos doesn't seem like enough to me. gonna go with a resub, but I'm curious to see what the other J's think. rocking track nonetheless. NO(resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Yeah, Kyle had selected this for an episode of Nitro Game Injection, so I was already pretty familiar with David's DoD take, although it wasn't the further polished version. I think the general obscurity of the source makes me more inclined to pass this, as i'd never heard of the game before, let alone the song, and having a generally no-frills version is preferable than one that had 51% source and 49% original material. Wow. What the fuck? No. I gotta say, this stated rationale for this vote is completely arbitrary and wrong, and it makes the panel look bad. So if music from Super Mario 64 were much more obscure, a pretty straightforward cover of it would make it? That's not how we're supposed to be evaluating anything, giving bonus points or leniency for source obscurity. It shouldn't matter whether the source has never been mixed or has been done to death, the level of interpretation needs to be pretty substantive. I agree with the overall arrangement being too conservative. 1:12-2:00 does some soloing and riffing on top of the foundation of the original. I love the soloing, but that's basically the aspect that made this stand apart from the original, not really any particular interpretation of the source tune itself beyond the adaptation to rock. As was pointed out, the patterns, rhythms, tempo and overall mood were pretty much the same as the original, only a rock cover and upgrade. I love it in a vacuum, and don't mean to disrespect David, who is an awesome musician and really on fire with quality arrangement since returning to the scene. This one just happened to be much more conservative than his previous material, no hate. If you want to come back to it and interpret the theme itself more, David, that's cool. If not, it's a great rock arrangement that everyone should check out regardless. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Yeah, Kyle had selected this for an episode of Nitro Game Injection, so I was already pretty familiar with David's DoD take, although it wasn't the further polished version.Wow. What the fuck? No. I gotta say, this stated rationale for this vote is completely arbitrary and wrong, and it makes the panel look bad. voting once a month also makes the panel look bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 voting once a month also makes the panel look bad. If that was my only responsibility here, I'd agree with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 HUG IT OUT, BROS Just chiming in on the substantive point: Larry's statement that the obscurity of the source should not influence the evaluation is accurate, based on our standards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 my vote was bad, sorry v___v Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Definitely plays it close to the source, but the source is really good, so why mess too much with a good thing? Because this is OCRemix, not OCLetsnotmesswithagoodthing. The source is cool. The execution of this remix is okay but it's nothing special; there's no dynamic progression, it's pretty much the same throughout. There's nothing too wrong with it, but there's nothing terribly creative or impressive going on either. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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