DragonAvenger Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 CONTACT INFO ReMixer name: DaMonz Real name: Emery Monzerol userid: 31308 ReMixer name: Trainbeat Real name: Sébastien Dufour userid: (none) SUBMISSION INFO Name of the games arranged: Mega Man 9 Name of the arrangement: Mega Blocked Name of the individual songs arranged: Concrete Man Link to original: http://youtu.be/czs3xtuJxUQ Comments: Hello judges! This is my track from DarkeSword's Concrete Man album, but this time with some production fixes and fine-tuning. Making this was an awesome challenge! During a whole school week I kept working on it whenever I could (in the bus, at school (!!), etc.) which was really fun! Big thanks to DS for this opportunity! Big thanks to Sébastien too, he recorded the guitar tracks in literally no time, and provided great help with the EQ work and other production tweaks. I hope you enjoy this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted December 16, 2011 Author Share Posted December 16, 2011 Ahh Concrete Man. So underloved Overall I like the soundscape you have going on and the instrument choices. Nothing is breaking out of the norm, but the sound choices are solid, with nothing feeling out of place. The opening build up is pretty long, it took over a minute for the track to even start up. I'd say you should cut that down by a third to a half, and get to the meat sooner. When the track does come in, it stays pretty conservative for a good while. The guitar playing is pretty sweet, and Sebastien is soloing pretty well here. The problem I am having is that it feels like that is the only large personalization factor you have in here. It kept me wanting more of your ideas. Production-wise, it feels like the balance isn't totally clear, and some sections felt like the parts were all vying for the front. Overall I'd take a closer look at that and determine what needs to be the focus and where, and work on some panning ideas and volume adjustments. I'd also look into your reverb, as this feels swamped. Cut it back a bit, please! 1:52 has a sudden volume decrease that is a little weird too. If you want to bring down the volume, I'd fade into it more. Overall a good soundscape, and a good base, but there's so much you can do with it now. Add some more of your own flair, and hit those fixes please! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I more or less agree with Deia's vote. I thought the mixing was pretty decent for the most part with the exception of some of the busier sections (1:10 for example); instruments fighting for the spotlight, crowded in the highs.. and overall it's just a bit sparse, and relies on reverb to fill in that space. I agree that the reverb needs to be toned back, maybe add some subtle non-chip (perhaps gated) pads or strings in the background. the arrangement is conservative in style and terms of melody but I did think this had a lot of personality to it. this is a very very close call for me but I'd like to see it with just one more coat of polish. NO(resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Your intro serves as a really cool buildup but I feel like the soundscape is just too empty for it to really be effective. Analyzing your arrangement overall, I really don't feel like I can tell what your intention is with each section. I can never really tell when the track is supposed to be at full intensity and when you're in intro/breakdown mode, and I think a lot of it has to do with how quiet your master volume is. At a normal listening volume, the entire song sounds like it's still supposed to be building up to something. Your drums are also problematic - while they're well-written, the lack of any sort of audible kick drum contributes to the same problem I mentioned above. Some of your synth leads are really quiet too Basically, this boils down to a balance/production issue and, to a much lesser extent, conservativeness problems. I think this track is definitely salvageable and thanks to some awesome soloing/synth writing (the guitar performance was absolutely killer,) it would be very well worth it to do so. However, you'd need a revamp on the production to really make it work, I think. NO (resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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