DragonAvenger Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Contact Info Remixer Name : Mojohamster Real Name : Matt Armstrong Email : dapperswindling@gmail.com Website : n/a (Don't have one currently) Userid : 16222 Submission Info Game : F-Zero (SNES) Song : Sand Ocean Original Version : Comments : I find my compositions are often inadvertently influenced by the music I'm listening to at the time. In this case I had just reached the Mexico part of Red Dead Redemption and my initial versions of this remix were composed with brass soundfonts. However, over time the remix has mutated into a synth rock track. I would quite favourably describe it as a marriage between Santa Esmeralda's 'Don't let me be misunderstood' and Andrew Gold's 'Lonely Boy' - but that might be a touch preposterous with my somewhat modest compositional skills! If there's something I've learned over the course of this remix, it's that I wasted a lot of time trying to wrestle good sounds out of cheap vsts which I should of spent focusing on my composition a little more. My last attempt missed the judges panel for being too close to the original. Conversely, I think the real challenge with this one was holding onto the source through time signature and rhythm variation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 First, I have to say the opening...bugs me. Just getting that off my chest. Love the rest of this though. You've really worked well with this source, and it's a lot of fun to listen to. I've only got a few nitpicks, one that the mechanical flow at 1:04 (and other sections) feels a little strange compared to the rest of the song, but in a way it works, too. There were a couple times I also felt the bass could come up a little. Otherwise this is a YES from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 yeah, you're overdoing it a bit with the glitch in the intro, I'm cool with the song starting all mangled, but you should keep it brief, and more concise. it just sounds like random stuff until the drums kick in. at 2:09 it's a little better because there's some actual music going on beneath it, but I still think it should have been a little less prominent. otherwise, the song is pretty solid. nice blend of sounds. I think your lead could have been brought up a touch more. your bass could have been a little bassier too. nice basslines by the way. how many times can I say bass? BASS. yeah, arrangement is tight.. took me a long time for me to figure it out though. given the fun 6/4 meter in the original, I wouldn't have expected a mix to convert it to plain old 4/4, but you've done it really well, not to mention all the harmonic expansion on top of that, doing other neat things like using a bassline from the source as a melody, etc. very smart arrangement. if I have one complaint about this song, it's that the soundscape is fairly similar for most of the mix, uses the same lead the whole time, etc. it could afford to evolve a bit more. the ending wasn't anything too special either. but ultimately I'm enjoying this mix thoroughly. hope to see you submit some more mixes in the future! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 The way things are mixed makes the bass sound really cheapy to me. I suggest EQing it slightly to roll off the high end. I like the lead, but it sounds a little bit loud overall as well, and is frequently overpowering things. A lot of the pads seemed loudish too, making the RMS of the track really high. The sounds are still pretty clear, so it's not quite overcompressed, but it is certainly getting close, and could benefit from a little bit more headroom. The arrangement is really nice, and has a lot of cool ideas, so that's good to go, but combined with some balance issues and the overly high volume, I think i'd be more comfortable passing this if some tweaks were made first. No, please resubmit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Sounds like some mad dblue glitch abuse here I appreciate what you're trying to do with glitching up some of the original sfx at the intro and 2:16, but the execution isn't there. If you're gonna use sfx like this, try to do it in a way that compliments the mix. Gonna echo OA on the bass sample. I'm not entirely sure an EQ fix will be enough to help it - though certainly try it. Balance issues were also apparent here. For example, the bells and pads that come in at :15 are mixed very loud. Add the lead at :28, which is also mixed pretty loud, and what sounds like another LFO pad type thing, and things get very loud & crowded. If you can work on toning back some of the offenders, it should really help the mixing/loudness issue in general. On the arrangement side, I'm concerned about the sections that are rehashed fairly near verbatum from the first half of the song. 2:17 - 3:40 is essentially a retread of :00 - 1:32. Nothing wrong with bringing familiar themes back, but you need to bring something more/different/fresh to the table the next time around. Sorry if this comes off as a pretty negative judgement. I've focused on a lot of issues on this track, but there are some very nice elements as well (lead & synth sounds, pretty solid drum work, etc), which were present as well. So don't be discouraged - you've definitely got a good start here, but work is still needed. No, resubmit please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted May 12, 2011 Author Share Posted May 12, 2011 Listened again after looking at OA's and Nutritious' comments, and I do have to agree with them both. The arrangement you have is sweet, but the second half is very similar to the first, and there are some balance issues that could be fixed up. Really hope you look this one over! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 So these guys are more or less spot on. The bass lines are great but marred by the very obvious sample. Humanize that some mo. The mixing gives emphasis to some really quite muddy elements, mostly the pads/chordy keyboard type stuff. Do some EQ cuts in general but definitely experiment with either different reverbs or EQ'ing your reverb signal. It's really sounding boxy because of whatever you're using. If you must stick with it take some lo-mids out of there, It's nice work, just needs some mo polish. NO, plz resubmit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 having read the other votes, I'm inclined to switch my vote to a NO as well so we can close this out and get the artist some feedback. Matt, please take another look at this one and send it back to us- I want to see it on the frontpage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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