djpretzel Posted February 19, 2005 Share Posted February 19, 2005 Remixer: Algo-Rythms Real Name: Chris Park Email: Lord_Zekk@hotmail.com Game Remixed: Phantasy Star 4 Song Remixed: Title Theme I just recently played through the game and felt inspired to make a mix of the title theme that was softer than the original, creating more of an ebb and flow kinda vibe. I used my Alesis Ion synth, and Reason 2.5 to create this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted February 19, 2005 Share Posted February 19, 2005 Not really feeling the intro.. ambient/synth effects can work well to create a mood, but introducing the robotic voice and lame bass synth really just ruin things right off the bat. Things don't really pick up, either. More synths are introduced as the melody comes in, but the percussion takes too long to come in. In terms of arrangement, it seems really just expanding things rather than re-interpreting them for the first half, and then after that it starts to go in a different direction, but there's a sparseness of sound that never goes away. The drums are also very static. Put in some fills, use more layering: do something interesting with them. Not sure about those 'airy' fx that come in towards the end too. Sounds to me like 2 minutes of ideas spread over nearly 5 minutes, with not much of a structure besides "intro -> rest of the mix". There are some cool ideas and sounds though, so don't give up on this yet. Rework the structure so it actually goes somewhere, and be more creative in your rearrangement. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 That intro is corny as hell man. Robot voice is so out of place. Anyway, as for the rest of the mix, what exactly am I supposed to be listening to here? There are strings and arpeggiating synths, but I'm not exactly sure where the melody is, because you don't make it apparent at all. There's a really messy, incohesive sound with stuff going on everywhere. I don't know what to listen to as a listener. Needs more focus! Feels sparse, like Zircon said. I would work on fixing that with more mid/low range stuff; tone back the continuo synth, come up with more material, and work on making percussion more interesting. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 http://www.zophar.net/gym/ps4.rar - 01 "End of the Millennium" Heh. Some cool modulating sounds kicked things off. Yeah, that was some cheesy stuff with the vox here at :21. I wouldn't really keep that. The electrosynth that also came in at :21 playing an arranged part of the source tune's opening notes was pretty tame and could use a bit more oomph. Some cool ideas for rearrangement at 1:10; I'm actually liking the vibe here, but things need to fill out. Just as I said that, some beatwork started fading in at 1:33. Good stuff. The strings that came in handling the source tune melody at 1:39 were pretty slow on the attack and had no volume. It sounded like they deserved some presence at your chorus at 2:07, but you kept their volume pretty low. Rethink the balance between your various sounds. Watch the string movements from note-to-note; sounds unnatural in some places. We had the percussion work drop out at 2:38, which seemed like a good move, but it simply faded right back in. The tempo & pacing was getting monotonous at this point. The sounds were always the same, the beats were never changing up, and there wasn't much dynamic contrast going on here though I noticed you increase the volume a bit at 3:06. By 3:30 or so, we got more string work, but again it had no melodic presence here. The electrosynths sounded as if they were handling the foundations of the melody to some degree, but there was still no overtly melodic component to the track. For the close, the percussion dropped out for good and we got some vox handling the source melody and a somewhat cool sound effect from 4:03 until the end/4:37. Again, watch the note movements of the vox; sounds a bit too fake. All in all, bring out your rearranged melodies more, as they're difficult to get a grasp on being so subdued, like DarkeSword easily noticed. Work on giving your vox & string work a more natural feel also. Look up more information at the ReMixing forum & Work-in-Progress forum for advice on how to improve. I heard & appreciated your arrangement ideas, but the composition really dragged on by the halfway point, so you also need to learn how to switch things up in order to retain the interest of the listener. zircon absolutely pegged you on that. I really liked the potential here, so you should definitely keep working at it, Algo. Maybe not with this one, but don't stop attempting to make remixes. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted February 21, 2005 Share Posted February 21, 2005 Pretty much agree with the others here. The synth choir lead that comes in around one minute is very cool. And that's followed by a lot of iffy notes. They strike me the wrong way around the 1:20-1:40 min mark. I did enjoy the following section at around 2:00. I agree the main problem here is the sparse sound. This needs perhaps more synths or pads to fill out the stuff between the highs and lows. Love the string ensembles that rise and enter at the 3 minute mark, they provide a nice contrast with the synths. However why are you using only violins? Why not provide more balance with adding the other string parts, I think at least cellos to balance the sounds out are warranted on the other side of the violins. Wind fx are a bit overused in the intro and end in my opinion. Not too bad I suppose, but they are a bit typical. This lacks polish and better attention paid to the mix levels. Please work on this more, there really is a lot of potential here. I'm digging this though despite some of the flaws... Borderline NO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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