DragonAvenger Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Original decision: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=35727 Resbumitted ReMix: Star King (v2.0) CONTACT INFO ReMixer name: DaMonz Real name: Emery Monzerol userid: 31308 SUBMISSION INFO Name of the games arranged: Star Fox 64; Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest Name of the arrangement: Star King Name of the individual songs arranged: Star Wolf Theme; Dark King Link to Star Wolf: http://youtu.be/o5ZBu3nHJkM Link to Dark King: http://youtu.be/t8AFiu_SBN4 Comments: Hello again, judges! I can still hardly believe I had hard panned my bass (I banged my head in the wall a couple of times when you made me notice that) Anyway, here's a nice centered bass, and I lowered a bit the highs on my percussion. I added a little mids on a few instruments too, and I also tweaked one of my main leads a bit. I' glad you enjoyed the first version, and I hope you'll like my tweaks! Oh and thanks a lot for the helpful feedback P.S.: expect more ReMixes from me, I have quite a few in the works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Yeah, this is what I like to hear, the subdued intro really takes it's time to amp up the excitement of the track, but has a lot of moving aspects to keep it exciting. The synths are sounding more balanced to me, and the bass sounds a lot better in the center. There's still a few balance levels that aren't quite perfect, but overall it is exciting and energetic, with some good surprises. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted October 11, 2011 Author Share Posted October 11, 2011 Nice fixup here! I will say that the main synths feel a little dry overall, and maybe a tad loud in the soundscape, but overall I'm really liking the countermelodies and play between the two you have going on here. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 Holy shit, that jump in dynamics after the intro caught me by surprise... I'd tend to categorize that as a mixing mistake, but in this case I feel like it fits with the narrative. This mix IS highly narrative, very frenetic, and at times the drums be givin' me an "old cranky man headache," but I love the enthusiasm, and there's a good sense of when enough is enough, at which points it transitions or dials back a bit. It's certainly unique, and while I feel like at points the enthusiasm gets in the way of the track being more "professional" & polished, it's basically a fun roller-coaster ride, and I can dig that. I'd like another judge to chime in, so while I'd probably approve this, I'm not actually going to vote, as I think this should play itself out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 really nice arrangement here! digging the soundscape too; the sounds are farily simple, but you do a good job of playing off their nuances. I gotta agree with djp; that volume jump is a little awkward, and a more pronounced buildup would've been more effective imo, but the song overall is pretty enjoyable. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 People love their Star Fox dialogue. Now if only FFMQ had had dialogue so they could have a battle. I'll go ahead and give you your final YES here. There's some areas that could be improved including smoothing out the dynamics, choosing a pad sound that's not quite as plain, spicing up the quieter parts. But the interplay of the two synth leads, and the manic drums - that's enough to make this song for me. Balance is good, song has a lot of energy. Let's give it to the masses. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 Haven't heard the first version, so I'm coming into this track fresh. Digging the laid back spacey sounds for the opening, with the beats fading in nicely. At 1:18, when the Star Fox source came in, the soundscape was extremely cramped and it felt like there wasn't enough clarity and separation among the parts (e.g. 1:29-1:38, 2:01-2:28 & 3:37-4:20 with two leading synths mudding together; 1:40-2:01 where the bowed strings bled too much). Let me clarify, I'm not bothered by the busyness of the part writing. That stuff was fine and not the problem. Oftentimes, It really felt like the bassline was barreled over by the synths and somehow everything was occupying roughly the same frequency range. Really not sure how this didn't at least get conditional YESs, as an otherwise creative arrangement sounded too cluttered for the most part. Vig or zircon could probably give some straightforward, targeted EQ recommendations. The big dynamic/volume shift at 1:18 was executed poorly; whether or not this was intentional, the way the volume abruptly jumped so high sounded accidental and sloppy when it came to details, which was unfortunate. That alone wasn't a big enough deal in the big picture, but it deserves the criticism. Very swanky dropoff at 2:55 (that also sounded much better production-wise because the parts had room to breathe). I also really liked the transitional shift from lo-fi to hi-fi during the rebuilding at 3:17. On the minus side, the exposed claps first starting at 3:06 were ghettofabulous. Not a huge deal, but they should have been layered and less exposed so they wouldn't sound so cheap and beginner-ish. Luckily they were only around for 10 seconds. Overall though, I thought the arrangement was creative and worked just fine. Production and sample qualms aside, the arrangement had awesome creativity & energy, and I liked the dynamics overall. That said, I'd still never give it a full YES as is with this lack of balance among the parts. Regardless of whatever strides were made from the previous subs, what's here now needs to be further improved a little more for me to get behind it. It doesn't have to be perfect, just ever better. The bitrate should be higher anyway, so we should see if we can get some additional post-production tweaks to it. As is, this is one I could see Emery revisiting in 3-4 years and realizing the mixing was jacked up. Otherwise, a very cool, fun arrangement, so if we get no further tweaks, people will enjoy nonetheless. Welcome! YES (conditional on EQ/balancing) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Haha, it's WillRock incarnate! I've gotta say, I'm extremely impressed with the sequencing and soloing going on in this track, it's like the whole song is one big synth solo that still manages to keep the source usage at the forefront. Great job with that! The obligatory Star Fox vocal clips are actually used really well, although they get pretty buried in the mix once it kicks in. I wouldn't mind hearing them brought up a little bit more. I'm also digging the unconventional breakbeats, they're reasonably powerful but not overpowering or grating on the ears. The rest of the synth sounds are pretty basic, but the insane sequencing uses them properly and keeps it interesting throughout. Overall, I'm absolutely loving the arrangement here, which takes full advantage of the detailed sequencing and panning that the artist has used to really tell a story with the mix. I like that a lot. My only substantial gripe with this track (and it's kind of a dealbreaker for me) is the normalization on the intro. I wouldn't mind if the intro was a 15-second thing, then the song kicked in at normal volume, but when the volume is extremely quiet for the first minute and 20 seconds and then all of a sudden ramps up to full-blast, it's extremely jarring, and not in a plesant way. I think I see what you were going for, and to your credit, it's a very creative technique to enhance the drama of your arrangement, but it needs to be toned down a bit so that the song is more listenable overall. Fix that up, and there won't be anything holding this back from passing. YES (conditional on volume fixes) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 Update, this fixes all of my concerns that made me go conditional. Good stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts