djpretzel Posted May 13, 2005 Share Posted May 13, 2005 Email sub file Donkey Kong Country 2 Brambles In My Pants OC ReMix.mp3 Remixer Name: Tepid Real Name: Philip Schwan E-mail: phswan@hotmail.com Website: www.soundclick.com/tepid (non remix related) Game Remixed: Donkey Kong Country 2 Song Remixed: Brambles Comments: Brambles + Rock = This song. After listening to Brambles for so long, I pondered about how it would sound with a screaming guitar lead in place of the synth lead. This is my first decent game remix; I'm a sophomore in high school and have only been recording for a year so, to me, this song is a breakthrough. The song is compiled of both midi and audio. I did the drums in audio on Fruity Loops 3, and the guitar lead and bass on Cakewalks. The rest of the parts were played in midi through my cheapass Casio keyboard: cyrstals, synth bass, slow strings. On my budget, this song is as polished as can be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmony Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 Hey, no bad-mouthing the Casio. With a little care and a lot of processing, I’ve used a few of the ‘cheap’ sounds from mine with some levels of success. As far as I know, FL 3 doesn’t come with a soundfont player but your Cakewalk program might be able to use them. Grab some cool samples or soundfonts and you won’t have to rely on the Casio’s built in sounds. On to the mix… Despite some problems, I thought the intro showed a lot of potential. Not a bad bass, but it’s sounds too much like noise until 0:20. The lead guitar at 0:21 is panned hard right which is pretty grating to listen to more than a few times. The guitars that are mid-right and mid-left feel much more balanced. By 1:08 repetition is setting in. We’ve gone for more than a minute with the same three or four minimally present elements repeating the theme. I like the distorted drums followed by the clean set that finally come in to mix things up, but they don’t mix things up enough. 1:18-2:07 is essentially the same intro section that we hear for the first minute, now with a simple beat. Again, watch the hard panning on the guitars in the mid section. The power chords at 2:46 fail to deliver the energy that you were after simply because they are played over the same background elements that have been repeating from the start of the mix. It’s ok to build a song using the addition and subtraction of repeated elements, but you can’t be lazy about it. There aren’t enough changes of anything to keep me excited about this mix. The arrangement in general could use some work. This mix has the same key/tempo/genre/structure as the original with very few personal touches added beyond the guitar work. I hear whispers of creativity every now and then, such as the layered drums at 3:16, but not nearly enough. Are the same melodic lines and harmonies often repeated? Is the percussion engaging? Does this mix sound a lot like the source? Honestly answer questions like these about your songs and you’ll turn out much better remixes. Keep working at it Philip. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Stickerbush Symphony" (dkq-17.spc) Not feeling this. Decent effort at the live guitar work, but it didn't really have any meat behind it. The sound balance was all over the place. No meaningful attention to production, placement or panning, basically killing what could otherwise be an enjoyable cover for DKC2 fans. Just a cover of the source material with different instruments with stuff like the ambient string-like pads lifted from the SPC/MIDI. Repetitive and not interpretive. Keep at it. It seems like you don't know the standards or guidelines here, but you're young and could have some promise if you're serious about pursuing the hobby. Hit the ReMixing forum for more information and advice on working with limited resources, so you can make the most of what you currently have available. Post any works-in-progress to the WIP forum to get feedback so you have a firmer idea on where improvement is needed. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 Yeah, what's up with the production here? Sounds like everything is washed out. Periodically, I can hear some cool synths and guitar patterns, but everything sounds far back and mixed together that it's hard to differentiate anything. Sounds like there's some sort of noise at all times too, like the recording wasn't very good. When the percussion comes in at 1:10, that really kind of killed the mix. I was expecting some chill acoustic stuff, but in comes some industrial type distorted drums that just get lost in the soundscape. The 'normal' drum pattern that comes in isn't very creative either - the samples are also pretty overused (I recognize them from the FL defaults). Consider grabbing something like NSkit 7 and using those samples instead. The drums just stop for no reason too, and random 'swipe' or 'swoosh' samples seem to replace it. Why? Besides the egregious production problems, the arrangement isn't all that interpretive either, as it tends to repeat rather than go anywhere. Guitar playing is good (timing could be a bit better), but you really have to flesh out a lot of your ideas here better. The ReMixing forum is a great place to go. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted May 21, 2005 Share Posted May 21, 2005 The problems with this mix are already covered, so there's not much more for me to add. I like the synth bells here. I agree some of the sounds had no definition, it's like everything just bled into each other and to a more serious degree even the instruments that don't textrually mesh together. The guitar kept changing its pan placement, I thought it sounded way too thin and almost mono-ish. On headphones this balance is much more apparent and makes for not a very optimum listening experience. On top of this the arrangement isn't too expansive. This needs a lot of work in my opinion. Keep working at it, there are good ideas here, but they need more work, polish and execution at this point. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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