*NO* Secret of Mana 'A Storm before the Chaos'

[djpretzel]

SirNutS:

Well, after a long time and a lot of effort, this song is finished

This is the first collaboration I have made with Usa, and I must say its a pretty damn good start. This remix is based on Usa's "Give Dance Its Rightful Time". I downloaded the mix a few months ago, but I didn't know Usa back then. When I heard the mix I thought it was great, but I also thought that it had a lot of potential that could have been used. So I asked him to let me make a new version based on his mix, and with his piano performance. Now, after some months and a lot of effort and polishing, we think the song is ready.

I made this remix in Reason, and Usa provided the original concept, the storm effects and the great piano performance. This is one of my cleanest works to date, and I hope you all like it.

Usa:

Back when I made the original mix, "Give Dance Its Rightful Time", I never would have thought what will become of it, and that someone would like it so much that he would like to do a collab song based on it together with me. I was astonished mainly because this mix was just a test for the dance sounds my back then new PSR-3000 keyboard.

It was a lot of fun working together with SirNutS on this one. We helped each other in a very productive way and it was fun too see the mix I made "grow up" slowly. He added more depth and we added some more ambience to it, given that feel that you are in the mana fortress, about to face the last battle, and the world is on the verge of chaos and destruction. There are hefty thunderstorms raging and the overall feel is uneasy, but you feel determined to engage into combat!

And IMHO, I can only second SirNutS' statement and tell all of you that this mix really rocks! We hope you all have as much fun listening to it as we had in making it! Have fun!

-This is a remix of fortress of mana theme "Give Love its Rightful Time"

from Secret of Mana. The song can be found here:

If you need some information or have any problems reaching the file, please let me (NutS) know.

[Harmony]

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/sd2.rsn - "Give Love its Rightful Time" (sd2-34.spc)

Nice storm sample for the intro; those can be hard to come by. I’m not sure about the dance intro though. The barebones beat at 0:22 is plain and exposed and although we get some hi-hat action and more storm SFX, things don’t get as interesting as they should until we get some strong melodic content at 0:49. The synth that enters there isn’t anything amazing but I like the way its wide panning and heavy reverb works in context. It meshes well with the thick kick/bass combo and adds some depth to the soundfield.

Interesting use of clutter when the breakbeat comes in over the storm from 1:37-1:59. I won’t fault this mix there but I think 1:59-2:26 could be a little clearer. The two lead synths aren’t panned away from each other and with the amount of reverb that’s floating around, sonic toes get stepped on.

The first two and a half minutes noodle around with the baseline and accompanying melodies from the source (an idea that isn’t bad initially but overstays its welcome) until the piano enters with the familiar lead at 2:27 to hopefully kick things into gear. Unfortunately it feels completely pasted over the other elements. Alone, the piano sample and performance sound great but together the processing isn’t quite right. It feels like the piano was mixed in a completely different environment. Lowering the volume on the piano track would be a first step in the right direction but hopefully some more specific suggestions will pop up in other votes. Once the piano sits better with the rest of the instruments, think about incorporating it in other sections. There’s potential there.

After the semi-successful piano section, the saw synth tries it’s hand at the main melody but 3:27-3:54 comes off as too much of a cover in my book. 3:55-4:08 seriously rocked though. I love the synths stacking to the brink of clutter then backing off, all while the bass and percussion break out of the standard dance mold. Best part of the source and best part of this mix IMO.

The breakdown at 4:10 needs a lot more punch too it. The flute is overshadowed by the synth strings, the hi-hats don’t contribute much, and the harmonies of the source are taken out. It sounds like you forgot to add a harmonizing lead at 4:16 which forced the lone flute to complete the bridge on its own, leaving that section relatively weak. 4:27-4:55 is essentially another cover leading to the outro.

The biggest problems here for me are the mixing of the piano section, and the coverish nature of major portions of this. Since the source is already an upbeat dance-ish mix, you guys are going to have to bring more amazing synth design, percussive sequencing and melodic interpretation to the table if you want to stick with the genre. Good work but there’s plenty of room for improvement.

NO

[GrayLightning]

In case I later forget, the file is above 6 MB.

[Liontamer]

Get the filesize <6MB next time, BTW.

Tasteful rain/thunder SFX; well-panned, and nicely transition into the opening, though a bit lo-fi sounding compared to the other sounds in play. Opening up, the beats are really plain. The energy is lacking on account of that. Just very plain in synth design. The synth string lead at :49 was rather flat as well. The synths at 1:16 were pretty generic, though they were used decently as staple sounds of the genre and possessed a lot more energy. Moving back to the strings at 1:58 just sapped more energy out of it. The beats were becoming incredibly plain as well. Gotta show some more development and variation here to last the 5 ½ minutes, though I liked the new ideas going on at 2:55.

I’m not necessarily coming down on the piano for being synthetic, but nonetheless didn’t like its use at 2:28. Too mechanical sounding and punchy, especially because you used single note plucks the whole time instead of any chords. Sometimes, there were some decent performance dynamics going on, then some exceptionally loud notes occurred and things sounded too quantized and robotic. Piano was basically a cover of the original with some embellishments. Little solo piano section from 3:09-3:26 was poorly written and a weak transition idea, IMO.

Awkward lack of a transition at 4:10 to some woodwind synth solo in a different key that sucks. It’s the same progression as the piano solo at 3:09. Sorry to sound like an asshole, but it’s no good. Needs to be rewritten, period.

Mix started getting too loud in places after 2:28, but that’s just me, so no points taken off. Boring stuff at 4:27 after the woodwind solo with what I guess is a gated synth or whatever they call it when it stutters. Basically playing through the source melody again, except electrosynth-driven. Uninspired last section. Very bloated track, in that it was too long and not enough was going on creatively to justify the length. Some of the sounds were also generic, which isn’t a problem if the execution is well-done, which its unfortunately not at the moment. Play more with the sounds chosen, as well as the beats, and make sure everything clicks better as a unit.

This was genuinely above average bros, but needs more effort put into it to provide unique arrangement ideas and sounds. The first few minutes are way better than the last few minutes, as it seems you played around with the rhythms of the source material more. Then it fell right into the whole straightforward genre conversion deal. I think you have what it takes, Mike & Daniel, to get this passed. Y'all both have the credentials, there's no doubt to me.

NO (resubmit)

[GrayLightning]

One thing I'm starting to notice in a lot of SirNuts' mixes is that sometimes there's way too much high end. I'm not sure if it's because his monitoring equipment are inaccurate or if he just likes it that way. But from the get go this mix sounded very thin and very extreme to me. There was a lot of bottom end then a lot of treble. I think you should work on balancing those issues out with EQ or go back to the mixing stage. I'd personally like to hear some more middle frequencies as of now I think it lacks body.

The arrangement itself is above average. I think this is one of Sir Nuts' least creative and least polished mixes to be honest. As noted by larry I also thought this was a bit bloated. I think about 1-2 minutes could be chipped off for a more complete mix, either that or make the mix evolve somehow in the later stages.

Production is above average, but is weighed down by some of the issues I cited.

Sorry bros, Nuts you know I dig your stuff but this is just underpolished and pedestrian from what I'd expect of you. NO

[The Orichalcon]

This mix has a pretty decent sound, which is what one would have come to expect from Nuts. The other judges cite some pretty loud higher frequencies. While they might think it's an issue, I think it's a feature of your work, it sounds fairly enjoyable to listen to for me. I think it gives the mix a much more powerful sound. The loudness works well too. In terms of quality, it's what I expect from Nuts and it delivers well. The sounds and beats all meld together well and sound very powerful for a techno piece.

The way the rain comes into the piece sounds quite nice, as the basssynth comes in, it's a little dry sounding, but it works as another synth comes in to accompany it at 0:35. The beats are crisp and clear, the beat is a little simple in terms of the way it's programmed, but that's to be expected in a techno type of song. The strings that come in sound all right. The piano soundfont is a soundfont that I personally hate. Sadorf and Nuts tend to use this piano a lot in their mixes, and in this case it works out all right, but the sound still sounds way too bright and tacky. The delay effect on it is just an attempt to cover up how out of place it actually sounds. The synth that comes in at 3:25 is by far my favourite of the lot. It fits perfectly, it's loud and powerful and I would've been happy with 5 minutes of that. The flute that comes in sounds a little out of place, but it works in the overall sound of the mix.

In terms of arrangement. Some parts of the mix adopt the melody over almost directly. You've played around with some ideas that work relatively well. But this mix is lacking creativity. It sounds like a very simple job of cut and paste with your usual basic effects over the piano and the synths to give it a crisp and clear sound. You've been way more creative with your arrangement and sounds in the past, especially in PRC and ORC. I'd recommend on just working to make this sound more unique than what you have here. It's probably just edging into the yes category for me as it is, but I'd love to see it barnstorm itself into the "no-doubt" section of the site.

NO for now. (ReWork, ReSubmit, ReNutS)