Earthbound: home + coffee as BoC

[sci]

This is mostly complete.

I'm quite happy with everything so far and all that's really left (I think) is adding a few layers of sound here and there, but I'd like some feedback.

first posted version, for comparison:

tindeck http://tindeck.com/listen/nupc

direct link http://sci.bronyradio.com/stuff/home%20board%20remix%20v4.wav.mp3

about the song / what I was trying to do: I've been inspired by Boards of Canada as of recent.

for this remix, I wanted to invoke a familiar feeling within anyone who listened. My plan to get this feeling was to sample various old cartoons/shows/movies. Hopefully they don't stick out when you listen.

(if you can think of a few lines about family/home from some show/movie that would work better for the ending, that'd be cool too)

----

songs used:

Coffee Break

0:26 to 1:16 coffee melody

Ness's House

divided into three sections:

0:00 to 0:11 main reason I remixed this song

0:11 to 0:43 pollyana cover

0:43 to 0:58 close chords

breakdown of my own song:

0:00 to 0:48 main

0:48 to 1:36 coffee melody

1:36 to 1:47 ...

1:47 to 2:10 close chords

2:10 to 2:37 main

2:37 to 3:00 pollyana cover

[sci]

ok I am now quite satisfied with this.

Totally ready to call it finished.

I'm going to set this to mod-review due to the above, and also lack of replies.

FINAL VERSION (except the title. I'll figure that out eventually)

tindeck: http://tindeck.com/listen/yfbd

direct link: http://sci.bronyradio.com/stuff/home%20board%20remix%20v5.wav.mp3

[Rozovian]

Not familiar with Boards of Canada, so I might not "get" this track. Just so you know.

The breakdown seems about right, but it's a really broken up arrangement and the transitions get worse as the track goes on. You've got a really interesting sound design here, and those background voice clips don't bother me - they just add to the ambience. What does bother me is the level of noise in the track. I get that it's coming from your instrumentation, but it sounds like some kind of electric hum. Not pretty. The off-tune instrument for the Pollyanna melody doesn't make things better.

These, and transition problems, apply:

PRODUCTION

-Low-quality samples - not so much as low as... weird-quality samples. Get rid of the noise.

-Drums have no energy

PERFORMANCE (live recorded audio/MIDI parts)

-Timing not tight enough

-Bad intonation

STRUCTURE

-Pace too plodding

-Too repetitive

[sci]

What does bother me is the level of noise in the track. [...] it sounds like some kind of electric hum.

heh, that's because it specifically is a selection of electric hums / feedback / noises.

The off-tune instrument for the Pollyanna melody doesn't make things better.

Yeah that's more of BoC influence.

I was specifically trying to get an aged, noisy, kind of broken but still recognizable sound.

of the things you mentioned, shoddy transitions is my biggest concern.

I'm particularly happy with the drum + pause at 1:40 and 1:46, but I can see a few other spots being breaking points (so to speak) (looking specifically at 1:47, and the entire bar at 1:31).

[WillRock]

Pretty cool rendition of two rather sweet themes. There seems to be a weird type of distortion on the master or something throughout this. It enhances the mood (bizarrely) but its a little too strong and makes this mix sound much muddier than it needs to be.

I quite like the samples, this track has a very cool and unique "Retroness" to it that I dig. Honestly, I feel like up to 0:47, you could get away with the production issues as artistic intent because you sound you get from this seems very deliberate imo.

However, when it kicks in, I feel like it needs some work in execution on production. It feels rather muddy, quite a few of the synths have rather grating distortion added, and the drums don't exactly give this the "omph" factor. It feels like a rather bizzare, yet rather cool experiment in production. The production is very hard to critique because its so unique. Alot of distortion that doesn't need to be there. Ending felt tacked on and unnessary. It seems like you ran out of ideas, let it fizzle out and added that random piano bit cause you wanted to give it closure.

If you got rid of the distortion for the rest of the track and focus on cleanness and fullness in your soundscape (use the stereo imager to fill out the sound a little more on those pads of yours) this would sound much better imo. I actually like the arrangement as a whole, I think its creative, and the production has a certain artistic flair to it, even if the judges wouldn't totally dig this.

So -

Beef up drums (add a kick to the proceedings or something, I think I can hear one but i'm not sure.

Remove some of the distortion. Its good if its used in moderation, this is a little too much.

Give better ending.

I'm not 100% sure how the samples will seem once this is cleaned up a little, but update and post back here again and i'll have another look. Hope this is helpful!

[Emunator]

Just chiming in to say that I can totally feel the BoC influence and think you chose a wonderful set of sources to apply the style to. The workshop mods nailed the issues but I think you need some more dynamic, interesting noise samples. You can definitely get away with using a lot of distortion and noise in your mix throughout but right now it just sounds like a poor-quality recording. Experiment with sampling some record scratching or ambient noise samples and EQing/fx'ing the hell out of them to see what you can come up with so that your use of noise sounds more deliberate.

Great track though, hope to see this on the panel soon