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OCR01347 - Ghosts'n Goblins "Wanka Factory"


djpretzel
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I'm just glad that "Tempted Teenager Treat Treated" crap made the cut from EAR :D

Good job Shael, I'm rather critical of your fabled "Music Of My Groin", but this more than makes up for it, and proves you're not just a one trick pony (although to be fair, I knew that anyway).

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I have to agree with Gray in his decision. The theme is definitely expanded on adequately and there's a fair amount of interesting and different things going on. But there's just something...annoying about the way everything is rearranged.

I think a lot of it is due to some pretty poor mixing - the drums especially lack punch and beefiness, and the lead synth is thin and piercing in an unappealing way. Still, some of it is the instrumentation. The strings chug along without much dynamic work involved, and the melody is chopped up rythmically awkward in places, which almost makes it a worse expansion of the original.

The bass and the bell synth are well done and there are other redeeming factors about the mix, but overall the mixing/effects processing needed to be reworked a lot and I think the instrumentation and arrangement should've been refined to make it less of a frustrating mix to listen to.

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Usually if I'm influenced in helping an artist/ mixer I don't give additional feedback on a community page too. But as engineer of this song, especially in the last stages till the song was submitted (which was a 3 week span or so), I have to say that Gray is totally off the crack. At least in a couple of cases.

It is true that this mix is not the "best mix ever produced" but to critisize that the "beat has no punch" or "I can do better orchestra electronic shit" (spoken through the flower) is yet another thing of own preferences reflected by a judge that counts as ultimate definition. In other words "I'm a judge nothing else counts" and we all know the rest of the story where we can quarrel about that for months.

Anyway... Like I said I was influenced in the postproduction of this song and helped Shael mostly in volume, EQ and soundshaping issues. The first track I got from him (the version before this final one) was non EQed and non edited. I took my time for the song after I had all raw tracks from Shael and produced for him a pre-mix that was "previewed" by a couple of judges to get some feedback (the only issues were that we were asked to rewrite some minor parts and make the drums a bit more quiet - and all loved the drums btw). Part of the judges who prelistened to the remix and gave positive feedback also judged and aprooved it with a YES, if you're interested.

But back on topic.

In the end Shael redid some parts (the strings at the end in a different key, a bit more bass work, synth a bit more random) of the song and asked me for 3 engineered stereo tracks (the drums and the made-on-purpose older sounding strings) that he wanted to take over from me (and also did). After that he started to use my last mixdown as starting point for his mixing skills which turned out pretty well.

So what you hear is actually some mixing techniques from Shael and myself. And you don't want to know how lush some tracks or especially the old drums sounded. The "punchy feeling" (that you critisize that's missing, which isn't true) was produced with heavy EQ work, saturation and compression. Anyone can use loops but those single stabs are truly unique. The only thing I didn't like in the original was the a bit too loud blearing bass and the chopped off strings. However they add more agression to the track. And who says that a mix of electronic always has to have a uberproduced orchestra anyway!

Allowed is what sounds and seems to fit best, is it not?!

The only thing I did in the end (after sharing ideas with Shael, engineered wav tracks, prelistening, critism, letting Shael fix mixing issues) was simply mastering the final stereo mix into the version you hear now. And that's the whole story that you can also read here:

http://www.studio-compyfox.de/guestartist/shael_riley/Ghosts'N_Goblins_Wanka_Factory_OC_ReMix.txt

Personally I think, aside from the voice samples which let this song sound goofy, this remix is one of the best (if not the best) Ghouls 'n Ghosts remixes on OCR. And before anyone says "this thing lacks punch", I want to hear your attemp on remixing and high end audio engineering. ;)

But that's just my opinion.

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Hey, I really like it. Minus the weird vocals that start at around 2:00 (Not bad weird, just weird), I'd rather like this in-game.

For the criticism, I like the punch, not weak by any means, but not gut-quiveringly strong. Cool synth tune that lilts all around, adds to the complexity and allows you to just listen and let the tune carry you.

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Haar I likey! But why the hell isn't Shael busting out his crazy freestyle?

When that snare came in I was waiting for the song to break out into some insane Shael rap buuut it never happened. However the vocals that are in the song are just fuckin sweet, make em louder!

and make the song longer!! ARgh

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I have to say that Gray is totally off the crack.

I'm not very fond of hearing your opinions being spoken like they're facts Compyfox. You're allowed to have an opinion, but you really shouldn't be trying to dictate to people how to think in a reviews thread. Graylighting had some very legitimate issues with this song, and you seem to be trying to change his words around into something much worse; to the point where it just makes your claims invalid. Obviously, you have something against Gray for some reason which is beyond what he's talking about here. Most of the judges said that they had a few issues with the song, and this was somewhat not your fault and unfixable from your position, but if you actually paid attention... Gray actually complimented your engineering. Get the facts straight, and keep in mind that everyone has their own focuses when judging; some of which you may have not have even considered (which would mean that you are arguing for no reason, since you're just assuming that you know what they actually meant [but you really didn't] when you're saying that they're wrong).

I think you're pretty shallow if you didn't understand at least one concept of what Gray meant when he said that he felt the drums lacked punch. Punch doesn't just mean being loud and in your face, it also means being something that keeps your attention all the way through. How is using snares and hi-hats that don't ever change in velocity and frequency (not to mention not EVER blending in with the more submerged/filtered instruments in the background; always maintaining that exact same clean and mechanical foreground presence), going to give your song an accurate "it has punch" compliment? Each of those drum samples have no sustain whatsoever either, and the actual beat never changes that much. They also sound very General Midi-ish, which doesn't make it any funner to hear them for the entire length of the song. They appear to be in their own channel and on a constant loop, with a few minor changes here and there (that are never based on anything beyond pattern selection and actual sample notes being played); every other aspect of the drums is completely oblivious to the feeling and flow of everything else going on.

Not sure if any of this is what Gray was talking about, but it could open you up a little to the fact that people do have opinions that are different than yours; which shouldn't be used to try and mock them and gain sympathy from others (or to preach your "superior technical facts"). Everyone feels things that are true for them. :P

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I gotta say the first thing that stuck out to me is that the drums are way too squashed in my opinion. Too much compression. The snare sounds weak to me. It sounds like someone slapping a wet towel on the floor and not a snare gettin smacked. The midrange of the snare has been eq'ed out which also adds to the lack of punch. I don't like the kick sample either. The rest of the song is pretty funky stuff. Good bassline. Enjoyable arrangement. Some of the synths are weaksauce. The drum programming is pretty decent. Ayayay.

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  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR01347 - Ghosts'n Goblins "Wanka Factory"

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