Liontamer Posted August 27, 2005 Share Posted August 27, 2005 LT: Only a 7 week FT, but the submission info from July 5th checks out. djp let Disposer know it was over the size limit, so this is the sub letter now with the <6MB encoding. From: Frank van 't Ende ( DiggiDis.com ) Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 4:27 PM To: submissions@overclocked.org Subject: Sonic 1 - 2 - 3 Medley Whepa .. Sonic Medley from Sonic 1 2 and 3 .. Hopefully you will enjoy .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmony Posted August 28, 2005 Share Posted August 28, 2005 http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic.rar – #1 (Get a Life.gym), #6 (Marble Zone.gym) http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar – #2 (Aquatic Ruin.gym), #4 (Stage Select.gym), #5 (Ending.gym), #7 (Casino Night.gym) http://www.zophar.net/gym/SK+SONIC3.RAR – #3 (Ice Cap Zone 1.gym) Thanks Larry for the #5 source. The live vibe on this medley is great. Some sections feel like a college marching band cover, others have a more “Sonic Does Broadway” feel and the Ice Cap zone cover is a straight jazzy impromptu jam. The transitions are handled relatively well, with the mixer wisely keeping cornerstone instruments through some of them in order to maintain a cohesion between sections that is necessary for a piece like this to work. The nearly constant presence of the bass and drumset is a nice example. The leads on most of the sections were handled very conservatively, which is partially understandable given the limited time available to develop each theme before moving to the next. Even though there’s a bit of funk and spice thrown into some of them, most notably the Marble Zone theme, the coverish nature of individual sections does hurt things from a judging perspective. The supporting instruments don’t do a bad job of making up for the conservative leads though. The harmonica accompaniment for Ice Cap zone is very slick. I wish it varied a little more, but I’ll let the hip-hop style of that section justify the repetition. The brass from the Marble Zone theme, the percussion from Casino Night, and the arrangement of the brass for the Ending theme all deserve mention as creative tidbits that make this piece flow. Productions is nicely done. Elements take up their own appropriate sonic space, the panning is dynamic yet not distracting, there’s a good range of highs/lows, and generally the track just feels solid. Some of the percussive elements are dry though, and considering the marginal quality of some of them (particularly the rimshot and the Stage Select section percussion), they should have been more effectively processed with EQ/chorus/reverb to bring a better sound to the stage. It’s worth a mention that although many of the samples aren’t top notch, I think they mesh quite nicely with each other resulting in a more than passable mix from a sound-quality standpoint. I’m upset at the ending. Both the choice of themes to end with and the way in which the Casino Night theme is ended are letdowns. This is especially true coming off of Marble Zone which IMO is the best arranged, most engaging and climactic section of this mix. A fade out from an extended version of the groovy drum/bass/conga jam from 4:20-4:35 would have been nice. As much as I love this mix, I’m torn. The mixer brings a wonderful atmosphere to the Sonic themes with enjoyable performances and smooth transitions. However, the conservative way in which many of the themes are handled is difficult to ignore. I’m going to go with my performance-biased gut and pass this. Whichever way the vote goes, I won’t be surprised though. Great work Frank. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 5, 2005 Author Share Posted September 5, 2005 Just listening to the opening, the sounds (mainly the brass) are somewhat lacking. Hurts when the track is supposed to sound realistic. The arrangement is basic but stylized, but the soundfield sounds sparse the whole way through. It really need something to fill out the track. Js, give suggestions on that please. No semblance of a transition at :49 to IceCap Zone, which just sounded rushed, forced, and sloppy. It's very lazily written, i.e. dropping everything out, leaving one or two sparse instruments for a few bars, then abruptly changing key and tempo with a new section. The phrasing of the harmonica at 1:02 was strange. It didn't combine well with the bassline. After hearing that pattern several times, it just sounded wrong. Needs to be modified, though when some other instruments come in at 1:19 the harmonica doesn't sound so bad. Still needs work. More of a transition at 1:49 as compared to the last one. The Sonic 2 Ending at 1:59 was conservative and the brass sounds really weak and dry. Just too synthetic and exposed. Gray and DarkeSword pointed out that sequencing trumpet is particularly difficult, but I'm still a stickler for it. It needs some effects on it to sit better in the track. Certainly not trying to be a hater, but at the same time, I've heard Frank do richer sounding stuff even with those trumpet samples. The e-piano freestyle at 2:55 was also spotty, having some strange/random phrasing that wasn't really clicking with me. As it wound down, it was more solid. Might just be personal preference. It also could have been louder, as opposed to so quiet. The transition with the bass after 3:15 sounds lackluster too, but stops that at 3:33. It's the most "thought-out" transition within the mix, but it's still plodding and saps the energy out of the track. The arrangement of Marble Zone at 3:30 was really spirited though. The sax sample is dry, but this was the best section of the track for spicing things up, and I agreed with Harmony there. The trumpets at 4:00 were still very fake, but the layering really helped downplay that, so that was more of what I was looking for. The transition towards Casino Night Zone at 4:19 was at least more upbeat and was gonna be a great idea, but then just went for the tempo slowdown at 4:37, which makes me ask why the transition then had to be about 20 seconds just for that. Sax again at 4:42 is dry and needs some more body to it. The ending at 5:05 is weak too. Write an ending, please. Nonetheless, the percussion work for that last section at 4:42 was awesome as hell. This needs work. Overall it's conservative, but Frank's at least trying to do stylish genre adaptations. They still need more development to me. Some sections are much better than others on that front. Mainly, work on getting the brass to sound richer. Also, fashioning better transitions is a must IMO as some are abrupt, some are too drawn out, and all of them dragged the track down by needlessly providing empty spots that didn't continue to drive the track along. Totally disagreed with Harmony on how well they were pulled off. If the transitions were better, the lack of any development for these source tunes wouldn't also be as much of an issue. The arrangement sounds fun when it gets going, there's no doubt about that, but the issues here are holding it back. Work on it a bit more to iron things out. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted September 5, 2005 Share Posted September 5, 2005 Brass sounds really fake man. I realize that brass is hard to sequence, but its so exposed here, with nothing to balance/hide it. This whole arrangement is suffering from medlyitis; each section sounds tacked onto the next for no reason other than for variation's sake. I would love to see each and everyone of these arrangements fleshed out to their own piece; they can certainly stand on their own as interpretations, but as it stands right now, I think there are too many ideas and not enough development. Percussion throughout this song is perfect, except for the Sonic 2 ending part. I didn't like the odd distorted sound. The Ice Cap Zone section is probably the weakest (shut up larry). You need better samples man; that harmonica isn't hacking it; it's got a weird syncopated rhythm. This medly ends up being less than the sum of its parts; I'd love to see a series of remixes that expand on each section of this piece, rather than having them all mashed together. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analoq Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 darkesword mentioned my first thought: medleyitis. all the interpretations vary in quality from ehh to good, averaging out at decent. though the casino night music didn't even seem to have the right notes in it.. anyways, nothing sticks to a theme long enough to really develop it and the transitions vary from abrupt to uninteresting. it's a lot of fun, post in on the WIP boards, people will enjoy it. but for as for site material... no Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted September 20, 2005 Share Posted September 20, 2005 stylish, nice grooves. the brass is ugly, but not a deal breaker. the harmonica (?) however, may be. really ugly. but i'm already thinking medley tits. what's here is cool except for the hideous samples. but right now it's just a bunch of track demos. nothing is developed yet. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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