djpretzel Posted March 19, 2005 Share Posted March 19, 2005 email sub file Chrono_Cross_Astral_Projection_OC_ReMix.mp3 ReMixer name - two-six real name - Evan Joseph e-mail - ojoe88@aol.com user name (ocr forums) - chrono26 game - Chrono Cross song remixed - "Leaving The Body" name of mix - Astral Projection this is my first submission. worked this out in a few hours. no real inspiration other than the original. I made this one using cakewalk music creator as my sequencer and kompakt to load my samples and soundfonts. the beginning is kinda funky but it smooths out into a nice dance/jazzy tune soon after. I composed the piano stuff on my keyboard, but had to enter it with the mouse due to lack of weighted keys. sorry i dont have a place for you to download it from. evan, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 26, 2005 Share Posted March 26, 2005 http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/Chrono_Cross_psf.rar - 113 "Leaving the Body" Very interesting choice of source tunes. Having never played CC, I never really paid any attention to "Leaving the Body" until I had to check it for this submission. Pretty hot shit for just a few hours work and a first-time remixing effort. The sounds were generic, but I thought they worked pretty well. The mix suffered the most in production though, as the whole track was very muddy-sounding (boost some high-end frequencies), you didn't have proper separation amongst your instruments, and on the performance side, the samples that really needed an authentic sounding touch (e.g. the piano) sounded very inhuman. Watch the overall volume levels as well - this was definitely way too loud. It sucks that you don't have weighted keys to work with on your keyboard. You'll want to scope out the ReMixing forum and look for information to help you with your production, as well as your sample work, which could use more processing & effects to create more unique sounds. In terms of stuff like the piano, even skilled mixers like Adhesive Boy have to manually adjust velocities on various sequenced instruments for some of their material, so try and obtain whatever advice you can on that front. Onto the arrangement, which was the highlight for me, I really liked what I heard there. Considering the slow pacing of the source tune, you really overhauled the track well going for a more upbeat style. I really liked that synth that came in at :40 and layered with the whistling-style sound lead. The claps there were too loud and generic-sounding, so see if that can be addressed. Even though the piano that came in at :54 sounded extremely fake, the source arrangement again was very well done there. Sweet move into the chorus at 1:25. If the track wasn't so excessively loud and muddy, I'd really be enjoying this a lot more. You retread the arrangement ideas you previously used at 1:52. If you had spent more time on making the mix, you could have kept things fresh by providing some further variations. It wasn't getting stale to me, but for a relatively short mix at 3:08-long you've gotta keep up the creativity. One of the most counterproductive things you can do is have some hot rearrangement ideas in place for the first half but then just put the rest of the remix in cruise control by merely repeating what you had before. Some people will complain about there needing to be more dynamic contrast as well - certainly a viable criticism, considering no time was invested into avoiding that issue - but I really thought the constant groove worked here. If the rest of the track's aspects were up to par, I wouldn't have had any problem with the composition being like that. The ending section at 2:47 worked very nicely in dropping some elements out and playing with some more delicate piano work on lead before closing up. Watch the very end there - make sure you have a nice clean fade, not a crappy ending where the music/sound abruptly cuts off (3:07). Anyway, I was really surprised with the quality of the arrangement here. I really hope you keep soaking up knowledge on how to improve so that your performance & production match the strengths of your concept. I may not be passing this, but I also won't be throwing it away. Keep improving, Evan. Hope to hear more from you. If you wanna work on this further and resubmit it, that's fine by me, though the production in particular would need a huge improvement. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted April 22, 2005 Share Posted April 22, 2005 This is so fun. I agree that the arrangement is very good. There are indeed failings in the production, mixing side but in my opinion are trivial in the face of this solid and fun arrangement. I haven't heard something quite this fun in the panel in a long time. I love the throwback sounds. This sounds like the great '90-93 japanese synth/sample fusion arrangements of some of the greats of that era. I love it. I would rather have a flawed mix with a lot of heart than a pristine one without. It's good enough for me to go with a Yes rather than resubmit. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted May 5, 2005 Share Posted May 5, 2005 This mix is cute. The instruments might be offputting to some, but i had no problem with it. The mix certainly keeps moving and never gets boring. it's no masterwork, but it's well done and offers a more creative sound than many remixes. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 This arrangement is awesome! Lots of great ideas and cool sound choices. My main issue though is that it sounds INCREDIBLY lo-fi. WHY? This song SERIOUSLY needs some mastering before I can vote yes. Way too muffly and muddy. NEEDS HI FREQS! NO RESUB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 I like what I'm hearing in terms of arrangement and sounds, but that production.. ouch. Sounds like it was converted to mono, encoded to 96kbps MP3, then encoded again. I think that factor alone merits a NO here - please re-render directly to WAV and encode at something like 192-224kbps. Some of the instrumentus used here *are* a little bland, such as the handclaps and some of the more basic synths, but it seems like they've been used well, and that makes up for their slightly lo-fi character (which I may be mistaking entirely due to the mastering). Arrangement is great. Fix the encoding/mastering and resubmit - you're good to go. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analoq Posted May 8, 2005 Share Posted May 8, 2005 funny, a remix called 'astral projection' and it's not hard trance. i think gray's got the right idea of comparing this to some early 90s electronic fusion. this is no where near that level of quality, however. that bass is out of control, needs some eq'ing to ease out the boomyness and give it some clarity. the high-end on the percussion sounds weird, like it was resampled badly. going for a lo-fi sound is ok, so long as it actually sounds like you were going for a lo-fi sound... rather than just not being able to control it. arrangement is fun, but let's go for a resubmit. no Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmony Posted May 13, 2005 Share Posted May 13, 2005 Man I wish I could churn mixes out in a few hours. This mix is really fun to listen to and a nice creative reinterpretation of the original. This is an example of repetition that works. The samples aren’t the best but that’s really not a problem here as they are arranged well. What is a problem is the production. As has been said, the track is muffled and lacking in high frequencies. A bigger problem for me are the mixing levels. From 0:04-0:27 the lead instruments are buried behind the drums and bass. Similar issue with the piano at 0:55-1:22. Go through the track and make sure that your instruments compliment, not overpower each other. Everything is also pretty much dead center. Don’t forget to use panning as a creative tool. Fortunately, production and not arrangement is the problem here. Spend a few more hours making this track sparkle and resubmit. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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