djpretzel Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 Email sub file Cool_Water.mp3 CONTACT INFO Blue Magic Damon Campbell e-mail: bluemagic1984@bellsouth.net webpage: http://www.angelfire.com/blues2/bluemagic/ REMIX INFO Donkey Kong Country 2 Stickerbush Symphony / Hot Head Bop COMMENTS Well what can I say about this... For one thing, I've been working on this for a long time (since I finished "New Beginnings"). To be honest I didn't really plan on submitting it, so I wasn't too strict on finishing it. But after hearing some McVaffe mixes, I got some great ideas and decided to put forth a serious effort to produce a submission worthy mix. This mix is a real cool, laid back remix (as suggested by the title) in which I combine two totally different songs. I was trying not to rely too heavily on the originals, so alot of it is just me messing around. As for the genre, I was trying to combine a sort of ambient(ish) background with heavy bass and ethnic drums to create something like a New Age mix. Overall, I think I've done what I set out to do as far as this mix is concerned. I had loads of fun making it and I hope everyone enjoys my piece. This song is posted on my page and the link to my page is up above. Peace out and vote YES!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkq.rsn - "Hot-Head Bop" (dkq-14.spc) & "Stickerbrush Symphony" (dkq-17.spc) "Hot-Head Bop" does a great job of using sound effects. This track tried to work a similar angle with all of the animal sound effects as well, which was a cool move. Anyway, played this on VGF64 to give the people their chill requirement. Track immediately starts out with a more downbeat take on "Hot-Head Bop". Percussion snaps felt a little too loud, IMO, but that's personal taste I suppose. The Hot-Head melody kicked in at :51 with "Stickerbush Symphony" on the xylo (Xylo? Ah shaddap, Gray) as support, which was a cool combination. The texture was still noticeably sparse to me; felt like things needed filling out and the bassline needed to be beefed up a bit, as it was a non-factor. By 1:42 the beats dropped out, but whatever plucked instrument was there stuck around, and made the track feel monotonous despite the effort to try and change the flow a bit, though it finally faded out by 2:31. The woodwind from the intro was revisited, though already I'm feeling like the atmosphere remains too samey so far. I hear the subtleties being changed, but there have been no significant changes in the track yet to change the style, and it left the track dragging to me. By 2:33, we came back to the Hot-Head Bop melody with some extra embellishments, followed by the Stickerbush melody again at 3:01. Melodically, I wanted this go start going in some other directions, which was why the changeup with the strings at 3:24 was LONG overdue. That's more of the kind of ideas I was looking for to change the texture/feel in a significant way, but it came a bit too late, IMO. Track also cuts off abruptly at 4:22 after some synth actually started rising in volume at 4:20. Would need a fix for that. Overall, the production was fairly good, and the arrangement definitely had something going for it. I'd say that the texture needs to be beefed up for everything before 2:07, and that the track needs to be restructured in a way that doesn't have it overstaying it's welcome. To me, it could be a half a minute to a minute shorter and still convey the same message, so more dynamic contrast is needed. This is fairly solid already, and features a weaving of the two source tunes that surprised me with how it was pieced together, but I still need more going on to secure a YES. Go for some tweaks to really get it to that level. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 This is headed in the right direction. the groove is cool, the rhythm section is interesting, and the guitars playing off each other is interesting, even if the guitars sound really cheap. unfortunately after the first melody the song loses steam. from here you want to keep moving onward and upward rather than backward. after this buzzkill of an interlude the melody repeats. okay. so what you have here is pretty good so far, but you only have about 1:30 of actual arrangement. keep developing your ideas and this could be a good track. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 I can actually hear the McVaffe influences here, pretty cool On the production end, this is solid all around, but it could still using some polishing. For example, the drums (besides the ethnic percussion and sfx stuff) are really lame, practically GM drumkit quality. Please look for better samples or soundfonts and put those to good use. Considering the chill mood of the mix, an electro bassdrum doesn't really fit in, if you know what I mean. They could also use more varied sequencing as the pattern does sort of plod on for awhile. Adding more fills or more percussive layers could really help. The overall mixing was good, though I think the piano had a little too much reverb, and at times the different textures tend to muddy together. The guitar-type instrument that's doing all the slides is really fake. You might as well just use a synth there, because again, it sounds GM-quality. There are definitely better free sounds out there. The sequencing of it is pretty lame too, at least when it's playing chords - the lead guitar panned slightly right doesn't sound as bad. Good work on the effects processing too. Arrangement-wise, I could hear some of Stickerbrush Symphony, but it wasn't immediately obvious to me. Larry + Vig pretty much captured my thoughts on this; there's a lot of 'space' here with not as much actual arrangement. Tweak the structure more and see if you can tighten things up. However, you did do a good job of interpreting the theme - this isn't a cover or a MIDI rip, for sure This brings me to my next point, which is that overall, the structure could use some work. There's not a lot of energy, especially with the repetitive drum pattern, and there's a lot of sparsity all around. You don't have to make the mix "dense" or turn it into an upbeat dance song, but thickening it up with additional layers, as well as perhaps cutting down some of the repetition, would really help. I liked this one, tweak and resubmit! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted October 31, 2005 Share Posted October 31, 2005 I have to say, I'm really enjoying this. The atmosphere is gorgeous. There's a right amount of instrumentation and space to allow the reverb/delay to do their magical thing in the stereo field. However, one could probably get away with thickening up the atmosphere a bit more with another layer of pad. The guitar was ok, I thought the bends got a bit cheesy at one point. For me this instrument didn't really belong in this space. I would have personally preferred either a woodwind or softened solo string in its place. Or something more gentile and less abrasive. The percussive work in general is delightful. It really works within the context of the piece. So for me outside the lead choice, I'd like to see the arrangement get some more TLC. Work on the structure, work on evolution and expansiveness. It seems as it progresses it loses focus. Don't change the percussion. Lovely stuff though, but sadly as a whole, not ready for postage. Keep at it, this has a lot of potential. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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