OCR02639 - *YES* Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) 'Cranky's Mojo' *RESUB*

[DragonAvenger]

Original decision

Dear OCReMix Submissions Staff:

This remix is my contribution to the Donkey Kong Country 3 album, "Double the Trouble." It may be added to the site as an individual ReMix only after the album is released. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Contact Information:

ReMixer Name:

Peach

Real Name:

Mathew Kirkegaard

E-Mail Address:

Website:

www.designerpeach.com (Business website may be put on file at a later time.)

Forum UserID:

31706

Submission Information:

Alternate Link to the ReMix Candidate:

Name of Game Arranged:

Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA)

Name of Song Arranged:

"Cranky's Dojo"

Additional Game Information:

The GBA version of Donkey Kong Country 3 has an entirely different soundtrack compared to the SNES version. All songs are written by David Wise.

Link to the Original Soundtrack Song (Source):

Additional ReMix Comments:

Late in Summer 2010, a well-respected OCR community member informed me of the DKC3 album project and suggested that I contact Emunator, despite the fact that all of the tracks were reserved at the time. I was told that a track likely would be dropped, and in this case, it was Cranky's Dojo. It was an excellent opportunity that I was honoured to seize, especially since I had no posted ReMixes on the site.

I selected the Roland Fantom X6 workstation keyboard to remix the track, and began compiling various samples from Roland's World Collection and Complete Orchestra expansion boards. Being a past MIDI transcriber, I wanted to sequence Cranky's Dojo accurately and build from there. My initial WIP was nothing more than a transcription of the source with an improvised synth lead, but the director accepted it. This simple recording was the beginning of a long line of ideas for the remix I dubbed "Cranky's Mojo."

My original plan was to have a bit of a dance section and mix in a Chinese-Japanese refrain, but the dance part became sort of a synth rock hybrid. While performing a trumpet solo improv overlay on Yoshi's "Tropical Island" from Mario Party, I got the idea of using the sample for a jazzy section of the piece, and it was then that I realised I would separate my remix into movements. A new chord progression for the source melody came to mind and I went on to use it for the aforementioned East-Asian part of the arrangement.

After many hours of labour, I was quite pleased with the results. A moody first movement, an upbeat rock section with a lot of source, an Oriental part, and a 1940s sassy swing made this remix very dynamic. However, it had much room for improvement.

An opportunity arose to enhance Cranky's Mojo, which the director for the album approved. With some advice, I implemented a richer piano arrangement for the opening movement, a more realistic rock drumline using Yamaha Motif ES8 keyboard samples, and a myriad of smaller refinements. The outcome of the extra effort feels much more polished than the previous recordings.

Many thanks go to Bahamut, Nutritious, Emunator, Cody Wedel, DragonAvenger, Flexstyle, and all those who helped make this possible.

Sincerely,

Peach

[OceansAndrew]

I really enjoyed this arrangement the first time through, and I think the updated sounds push this up quite a bit from the original submission. The upright bass in the swing section is a bit mechanical on the velocities, but at this point I am really just picking nits. The trumpet remains really well modulated, and the flute is pretty good as well. The layered sounds are thicker, and the drums have a more powerful feel to them. Overall, it's a lot better. Nice work, Mathew!

Yes

[DragonAvenger]

I liked it before, and I like it more now!

YES

(I love easy votes)

[Emunator]

I've been a fan of this song from the beginning and actually thought it should have been a pass much earlier on in the submissions process. That said, having critiqued this song every step of the way from its inception, I can vouch for the fact that he's put an insane amount of effort into polishing every last corner of this mix and I do feel like it shows through. The drums are thankfully no longer a weak-link in the mix, although curiously, I still feel that there's somewhat of a synthetic sound to the piano now that wasn't present before.

I suppose if you dig deep enough, you can find weak spots in the mix but I personally feel like that would just be nitpicking at this point. To me, it's an extremely expansive take on a very simple, "filler" source tune that takes it just about every direction it can be taken while still maintaining a nice sense of flow and direction and not feeling too much like a simple medley of ideas.

I have been involved in the process of critiquing this track heavily so my opinion may be slightly biased, and I would really rather step aside and let the people who voted NO on the last submission have a chance to speak their peace. However, if this lingers for too much longer and nobody chimes in, this track has my YES.

[halc]

voted YES on this before, and this version definitely shows some worthwhile improvement. still a killer arrangement, nice work here.

YES