*NO* Donkey Kong Country 2 'Wood's Motel'

[djpretzel]

Hey OCR’s!!!

I am back with a Brand New ReMix, from Donkey Kong Country 2. I hope this one can pass without problems, after that big struggle with my Sonic Mix hahaha =)

ReMixer name: Red Tailed Fox

Song Name: Wood’s Motel

Here is The Link:

Or the VGMix Link:

OBS: There’s some slight difference in the volume of the lead flute, but you can choose to download whatever version (although I recommend the one that is NOT on VGMix).

Some words:

So you thought it was all about saving the big monkey, right? =)

I am back with a new ReMix, this time from DKC 2.

I’ve never been a fan of the game, but I can’t deny the soundtrack is awesomely inspiring.

Some of you may notice that my 3 other mixes are from games starting with the letter “S”. I am glad I managed to ReMix a song from a game that started with a different letter hahah.

The feeling that I managed to bring up here is a combination of an airy relaxing jazzy vibe, with hip hop drums, basslines and synths. I hope everyone can enjoy it!

Special Thanks to Luiza and Phill (Tepid) for being both main adviser and main inspiration. In that order.

Cheers…

RTF

PS: A cookie for the person who guess what melody the piano plays in the last seconds of the song!

[Liontamer]

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Forest Interlude" (dkq-10.spc)

Things start out OK. Very sparse, but it can work depend on how the intro builds & evolves. Some drum work comes in at :44, but it sounds really distant and not in the same room as the lead.

The melody arrives at 1:07 with a thin lead. The percussion patterns are decent, but are too repetitive. Part of that problem also is that your bassline is way too quiet as well during some parts and thereby doesn't fill out the track as much as it could. For sections like :34-1:04 and most of the way through, it's used properly and serves its role, though for sections like 1:49-2:21 or 3:34-4:15, it really should be louder and carrying more of the track to compensate for the lack of other major activity.

You need to know when the presence of the bassline should be punched up (or scaled back appropriately, depending on what section you're using it for. You look at something like Tsugunai "Static Wonderland" and compare the bassline in parts of it. 1:26-2:16, it's used at moderate levels. 2:16-3:06, it takes a backseat and quietly fills out the track. 3:06-4:01, it's at its loudest and carries a large portion of that section. In this track, the bass is at the same level practically all the time, and deserves to be punched up for some of the quieter sections.

Some organic drumwork comes in at 1:50 and sounds alright, but the rest of the track still sounds very spartan and the percussion patterns are still repeating. The melodic lead remains very weak-sounding. I understand the feel for the lead is supposed to be gentile, but it's not working.

The phrasing for the solo at 2:53-3:13 is random and awful. Nice try, but you need to write something coherent and possessing direction. No credit for it. Decent stuff at 3:13 tackling another section of the source tune. Pretty conservative per the general approach so far, but it feels different. Percussion is STILL the same until 3:33. Notable change-ups there are critical for this piece to evolve.

The chorus is handled by a xylo (Xylo? Ah, shaddap, Gray.) at 3:34, and then doubled with a flute at 3:55. It's ok, and the hand drums are cool again, but the atmosphere remains bare. The phrasing from 4:16-4:26 is also awkward and directionless. No. You get an E for effort, but that's just poorly written. You're better off riffing on the original and using your own personal touches to give it flair. I also don't like hearing that stuff not work, because, no matter how you spin it, it implies that you can't write any passages without using someone else's previously written material as a crutch.

Nice last section at 5:08. The way all of the instrumentation dropped out for the quieter finish would have been more dramatic and effective if the track had been busier in the first place. The way the track sounds now, there's actually not much contrast here in the transition towards the last section. Cute "Dire, Dire Docks" reference as well for the close.

Overall though, the track goes for a somewhat downbeat, almost jazzy approach, but all of the lead material needs more activity & meat on the bones to fill things out. And yes, this is from listening to the Savefile/Filefront version, not the VGMix one, so no worries about that. The percussion needs a lot more variation. The purely original solo sections need to be either fixed or scrapped. And the arrangement needs to be a bit more interpretive. Right now it sounds too simple. There's some interesting genre adaptation stuff going on, but the melodic content is still too straightforward. Decent but not ready until it gets some refinement.

NO

[Harmony]

I’m really digging the ambiance of the intro through 1:07. Although a bit distracting, the circling drums are an interesting choice. When the groove hits it’s clear that this is a solid track with some quality sounds in play. The flute needs to be punched up a little, but it’s not too bad since it lets us focus on some of the other elements. The bass gets its share of funky riffs from 1:50-2:31 playing backup to the bongo/synth jam, and the left-panned high synth effects that dot the scene play against the soft pads very nicely. There’s a fair amount of reverb at work, and as personal preference I would want a little less, but it’s not bad at all.

The flute solo at 2:52 is decently humanized but it oddly starts to break it’s flow around 3:07. By the time it’s over, it has lost the energy that I think is necessary to carry us through to the synth solo which feels loud and out of place as a result. The synth does bring some life back into things though before we are dropped back down to a sparse extended chromatic rendition of the theme. Things start to drag at 3:35-4:15 and if fat needs to be cut, this is where I would look. The remainder of the mix is largely a revamped version of earlier sections. I think the e. piano solo at 4:16 has it’s shining moments but like it’s flute solo brother, loses steam at points as well. Nice reversed effects for the outro.

This mix has a lot of the same flavor as the original which in one sense is a great thing, but with sources that are as richly developed as this one, it’s very easy to stick too close and end up with a nice cover rather than a creative remix. Some of that is avoided here with creative solos and additive goodies, but in some instances the flute lead, the bass and the drums don’t fall too far from the source’s tree. Overall this mix is certainly conservative, but that’s not where I’m going to have to take off the most points.

As Larry mentions, much of this mix is pretty sparse and some elements are repetitive (percussion) or rigid. It’s ok that this goes for a simple smooth jazz approach but more variety wouldn’t hurt. Rather than pack this 5:31 mix with more instruments, I honestly think a better plan would be to tighten this mix up by cutting 3:35-4:15, cleaning up the flute solo and varying the percussion a bit. You might try throwing a bit of swing to the drums with some additional triplets or dotted notes to keep things from sounding too rigid.

Hey, you’ve got a nice solid groove here and I’m really borderline on this decision, but I think a little polish time would put this mix over the top. Do us all a favor and keep working on this one.

NO (Please Resubmit)

[zircon]

One thing I noticed throughout here was a lot of reverb, and an almost constantly running Malstrom preset (that is SO overused that it's not even funny). Come on.. do at least SOME editing to that! But I think more of an issue is the amount of reverb all around, particularly on the percussion. There are some cases where you want to bring that back a bit, even though I realize you're going for a certain atmospheric feel - stuff sounds 'farther back' than it should for backing percussion. In addition, I thought that the drum sequencing was largely pretty plain and bland. More layering, variation, and humanization would help it to be more engaging and less plodding in nature. On the other hand, I thought the other instruments and the synths were executed well.

The arrangement seemed pretty strong to me, although overall, the structure seemed somewhat sparse, with usually only one instrument taking the foreground, and everything else just sort of setting the stage. However, none of those foreground instruments or melodies were so good that they should have been put by themselves like that - they're not PARTICULARLY expressive. I would suggest adding more material throughout the song to fill it out, by means of different pads, instruments playing harmony parts or chords, countermelodies, that sort of thing. I do like how you change stuff over the course of the song's length, but I didn't think it happened fast enough. It seemed drawn out and repetitive because of how minimal the arrangement was. The original material - the solos - weren't awful, but didn't really add much. I think you could remove some of those and not hurt the overall mix.

Basically, the interpretation factor is there, but work still needs to be done on this.

NO

[DarkeSword]

There's a great ambiance here; the texture is really smooth, so +1 for you. Everything is pretty groovy going though the song, but like the other judges, I felt that the leads were pretty weak, and that there wasn't enough going on in the background to support those weak leads. Hand percussion sounds good though, so +1 for you.

I'd love it if you beefed up some of your sounds in this piece; everything sounds thin and sparse. The arrangement is nice though, so +1 for you.

In the end, you're left with +3 and a pretty sparse mix. I don't really judge with points in mind; that whole +1 thing was just a running theme. Hopefully you can appreciate the humor?

Anyway, work on the sparseness issues and try to beef up your sounds. Thicker sounds with more presence would really help this piece.

NO