*NO* Donkey Kong Country 'Metal Cartastrophe'

[djpretzel]

Definitely an original + creative arrangement. Percussion issues imo... - djp

Yes. It's been a long time since I last submitted a song. However, this "piece" has been sitting on my hard drive since... since.. since Binnie told me to make it. It's as finished as it will ever be because my hard drive crashed and I lost all the source files. Do what you will, but remember, I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE.

Etc, etc, etc.

Love,

Ty "Suzumebachi" Guenley

PS: If the link happens to be a piece of crap, you know where to find me. Unless you're that new guy... HI NEW GUY.

[Harmony]

Source tunes: http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - (track 11) “Mine Cart Madness”

Ah, the excellent source material that is DKC. It’s good to hear that this mix isn’t a straight cover and also attempts an interesting presentation of the source.

The two melodic sections are sprinkled on top of a soup of ambient pads, crunching guitars and sparse percussion. Some of those transitional pads are pretty enveloping such as those through 1:32-2:03, and act as a welcomed break in the rhythm guitar work. I wish the percussion behind them was a lot more interesting though. 0:19-0:41 features a bone-dry kick snare combo that really needs some work and percussion in other transitional sections is very subdued and sparse. The percussion sequencing/samples in the Mine Kart Madness section (0:41-1:32) isn’t bad but could still use some punch and variation.

The transition into DK Island Swing is non-existent leaving the entire last half of the mix feeling disjointed from the rest of the tune. The biggest tie between the two halves of the mix is the rhythm guitar which plays the same power chord from 1:42-2:31. That really gets stale right around 2:13 when the energy builds as if leading to something and then oddly drops back off leaving weak percussion and those honestly wonderful pads to fill the void. The rhythm guitar also feels very synthetic and lackluster from 1:42-4:20. Even if it’s not actually synthetic, it’s obviously a lot less dynamic and intense that the one from 0:42-1:32. What happened man? The leads during the last half have a good crunch although the performance feels relatively lazy at points (aside from the intentional sluggish vibe of the first portions of the solo). The solo work picks up steam towards the end and some of the shredded riffs are slick. Sadly the monotonous rhythm guitars start to get overwhelming at about the same time. Needless to say, a more gratifying ending would be nice.

The Mine Kart Madness section isn’t bad and if the DK Island Swing was better integrated with the rest of the mix we might have something. Sadly the two themes don’t work together here and the spaces between them are packed with ambiance that isn’t strong enough to stand on its own.

NO

[Liontamer]

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Mine Cart Madness" (dkc-11.spc)

Damn computer had a memory dump RIGHT after I finished my vote and was about to post it. Bah, let's write it again, cuz Ty is sexy (i.e. I remembered all of the points I made). I really liked the intro here; it was stylish as hell with some nice buzzy synths and ambient sounds. The source wasn't really brought in until the guitars at :42 played some chords derived from the intro of "Mine Cart Madness." A synth playing the Mine Cart melody joined in at 1:01, though it didn't cut through well as the lead since the guitars took up most of the space here. The repetitiveness of the drums wasn't a huge hit initially, but those drum shots definitely sounded too synthetic and lacked punch.

I really loved the spooky ambient transition from 1:32-1:42. Such a sweet idea moving into the guitar work at 1:42 to build things up, I loved it. The intro chords from :42 of the mix basically returned at 2:03 but they weren't as distorted this time around and allowed the melody to show through a lot better at 2:23. Nonetheless, the lead and supporting elements still mudded together and would need to good EQ work to better separate the sounds. BTW, 2:23-onward's not from "DK Island Swing", but just from later on in the source tune (:51-1:33 of Mine Cart, actually). Reading Harmony's vote after I wrote all of my own, I definitely agreed that the lack of dynamics in the rhythm guitars made them feel synthetic, which was a shame.

The lead guitar work after 2:23 could have been a little tighter on the performance, especially the freestylish arrangement after 3:04, but that's nothing that couldn't have been worked on. The tone on the guitar work was rather thin, and it seemed as if the tracked relied on the supporting guitars and drums to fill up the space and give the track some power, though I felt myself that that shortchanged the track.

The rhythm chords and drum pattern repeated ad naseum from 2:23 until the end at 4:20 (with only a slight alteration in the support guitars at 3:57), so that would have needed to be varied a LOT more. Sounded like the drum pattern was just a placeholder anyway, but hopefully the intent was to change that later into something that didn't have the same pattern and the same intensity drumshot every time. There was also a synth on support from 2:23-onward, but you could BARELY hear it at all, so it was almost a non-factor. The ending itself was abrupt and offered no resolution either, but that just sounded like another placeholder decision.

Not sure of how much use it'll be to overview the problems, but in any case vary up the patterns in your instrumentation substantially, hook things up on the production/EQ side so the sounds are better separated, and tighten up the performance a little bit (though that was certainly decent). Meh, I know you know what to do.

It's definitely a shame that the source files were lost here, as I'm sure that Ty could have easily gotten this to a passing level, and likely wouldn't have submitted this as is if the source files hadn't messed up. The world definitely needs more 4:20-long remixes. At least post this to VGMix if you want, and pimp this out on some level. This would have been an easy NO-resubmit if resubmission were actually a possibility. :'-( Maybe revisit this idea down the line?

NO

[Harmony]

BTW, 2:23-onward's not from "DK Island Swing", but just from later on in the source tune (:51-1:33 of Mine Cart, actually).

Thanks Larry, I stand corrected.

[Liontamer]

BTW, 2:23-onward's not from "DK Island Swing", but just from later on in the source tune (:51-1:33 of Mine Cart, actually).

Thanks Larry, I stand corrected.

Oh, no problem yo. I once made the same mistake on a Space Harrier source tune. NSF Track 5 there was just in there later on in Track 2. Hell, I'd never played that game. Now, courtesy of Microsoft's smash hit game Zoon Tycoon 2, here's a picture of a gazelle:

[Sam Ascher-Weiss]

Say What? tick tick tick tick tick tick percussion on every beat starting at 2:23 and 1:12 makes my ears bleed. There are alot of physically painfull elements in this mix similar to that, like the rhythm guitar at 0:42 that's panned dead center accompanied by a dry tick every other strum. There's a whole lot of emptiness contrasted by sections that are full only in the sense that the sounds are overpowering and sonically domineering. Okay enough of the bad stuff!

The delay instrument that joins the rhythm guitar at 1:00 is nice. The break at 1:30 leading into the temporary groove shift is silky smooth. I like the harmonies on the second time through the second part of the melody though there's a bit of rhythmic akwardness in the guitar parts there and in the solo as well.

Your submission e-mail hinted that you see this mix as unfinished. It's plenty of nothing contrasted with some interesting ideas accompanied by some pretty unpleasant drums. I KNOW YOU'RE MORE CAPABLE THAN THIS! I'm just gonna chalk it up to laziness on your part.

N0

[zykO]

don't know what y'all are talkin about - this rocks. that said, i dunno if this works, ty

the intro grabs me right off the bat so there are mucho kudos points for you there, son. then comes the rock and its aggressive and its a dirty tone and it isn't pretty and packaged like all the little beautiful people, its just grungy and rude and uninhabitable and venomous

now the bad.

very jarring, disoriented and just in your face, slapping you with a large uncooked tri-tip. very aggressive track (if it werent' for the immensely lame percussion) but you just confuse the living shit out of me with that solo - i love that you're interpreting that theme in a rather unconventional manner but it loses coherence further on

the track starts off rockin in the first section, then the listener is introduced to a fantastic ethereal transition into what is a deliberate chugchug section with an erratic and manic solo.

don't know. if you stuck with the first section and elaborated on it, you would have a winner. but as it stands, this punched me in the face early on and then poured water on me rather than stomp me into the ground.

sorry, bro

NO