DragonAvenger Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Contact Information: ReMixer Name: KazeMixer Real Name: Kaze Lee Email Address: / Website: http://www.youtube.com/user/KazeMixer Userid: 49558 Submission Information: Name of game arranged: Portal 2 Name of arrangement: A Portalicious PORTAL 2 Symphonic Orchestra Medley Name of individual songs arranged: -"Carra Mia Addio" -"The Courtesy Call" -"Science is Fun" -"There She Is" -"Machiavellian Bach" -"Still Alive" (excerpt) -"For He is a Jolly Good Fellow" (excerpt) -"Reconstructing More Science" -"You Know Her" -"Exile Vilify" by The National -"Turret Wife Serenade" -"I AM NOT A MORON!" -"Want You Gone" (excerpt) Youtube version, that can show you when is the time for each of the songs come in. Additional information: Most of them were composed by Mike Morasky. "Still Alive" and "Want You Gone" were by Jonathan Coulton. "Exile Vilify" was by The National. "For He is a Jolly Good Fellow" was a traditional children song. Made by FLStudio and EWQL samples. Link to the original soundtrack: All of them except "For He is a Jolly Good Fellow", "Still Alive" and "Exile Vilify" can be downloaded from: http://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php "For He is a Jolly Good Fellow" was sung by one of the character(GLaDOS) in form of monologue, which is not considered as "soundtrack". (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt-zD_TKeEA) "Still Alive": www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUiwR3Jn8hk "Exile Vilify": www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Vg2YS-sFE Comments: I started this project since last year. At first, I was just experimenting my orchestration skill by turning the soundtracks in "Portal 2" into orchestra pieces, since most of the backing musics are electronic musics, and I thought it will be fun to do so, so I did. It turned up quite well for me so I decide to upload the demo version, which included only 4 tracks, to Youtube, entitled "A Portalicious PORTAL 2 Symphonic Medly" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RXVT_IwfnI), to harvest some suggestions and comments for my improvement. Surprisingly, many of them requested a extended version which made me more confidence on making it. So after a long 7 months of meditation and eating cakes, finally the final version had been uploaded to Youtube. Hope you guys enjoy it. -------------------- - playlist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 The sequencing and sample use on this track sounds great to me, and for a medley with a lot (LOT) of parts, it feels very cohesive and a lot like film cues, though it is one theme after another. That being said, there isn't much expansion on the themes beyond what has been interpreted. The some arranging is very well done, but the themes are all so brief that there isn't additional expansion after. The themes are organized in an intelligent manner, and there is a good tension and release dynamic. The transitions were pretty clean overall though, and tied sections together well. straight-up Overall this is a really tough vote for me, as it walks the line so close to straight-up medley territory. Some of the transitions were seamless, and some were good but not transparent, but overall between the pretty solid sequencing and very nice (but woodwind-light) arranging, I am inclined to tap this one over to the YES side of things. You have some great chops, so if you consider submitting some other stuff to us, i'd love to hear a single track arranged and expanded upon as opposed to a medley. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted September 20, 2012 Author Share Posted September 20, 2012 I am sadly going to have to say I'm on the other side of the fence here in terms of whether this medley is one that I feel fits the standards. I think the medley is great to listen to, and as it is is totally fine, but doesn't fit the arrangement standards we hold. The transitions range from good to very noticable (not bad, just noticeable ), and the level of interpretation of each piece isn't where it needs to be. All that being said, I agree with Andrew that you have some very good sequencing skills and I very much look forward to hopefully hearing some more submissions from you. The piece was a pleasure to listen to, just not for OCR. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 I'd just like to say from the start: nice sequencing. The samples sound great, and the samples are balanced well. Unfortunately, I feel like this drifts into medley territory. The individual tracks have been well adapted to the genre but OCR doesn't accept straight-up medleys; I don't feel like this works on it's own cohesively without being considered a medley. I would definitely like to hear more from you, especially single track orchestrations as opposed to medleys! Whatever the outcome of this vote, keep submitting! NO, but very nice for what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Gotta agree with Deia that the transitions are more noticeable than awkward: there's a lot of start and stop going on and it really feels like a medley to me. Shame too, because the arrangements are solid and the sequencing is certainly passable. Feel free to send any non-medley arrangement you've got our way, I suspect it will go over well. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Just quoting section 3, part 2: Your submission must have a strong focus and direction. Medleys must sound like a single song, not multiple songs pasted together. I recently YESed a Castlevania medley that had similar criticism where I thought the scales tipped to YES as far as the overall quality of the transitions and development of the themes, but I was outvoted. These are always tougher calls. I think I'm the closest to OA's praise while also agreeing with the NOs that the medley structure here wasn't quite cohesive enough. It's hard to criticize this in the sense that it's very (very) well produced, and orchestrates these themes very nicely. The transition from "You Know Her?" to "Exile Vilify" at 5:03 was probably the nicest one, IMO. The transitions are potentially a grayer area, but here's where I fell as far as whether they were cohesive or not (YouTube video timing, not the MP3). Smooth enough: 2:01, 2:49, 3:08, 5:03 Noticeably jumpy: :44, 1:21 (a bit jumpy), 2:30, 4:18, 5:59, 6:53 Obviously we're not saying literally every song transition has to seamlessly flow into one another, that's unrealistic. There have definitely been game ending themes that have done what this theme does, as far as piecing themes together. And though it's clear thought and care have been put into each transition, I don't think that dismisses that many of the transitions do quickly hop from theme to theme without enough flow from A-to-B or development of the individual themes. I'm more NO (borderline), because I think the treatment of each section was cover-ish but interpretive, even if the pieces were brief. But a NO is still a NO on account of too many gear changes affecting the flow and cohesiveness of the piece. It's a great orchestral medley; we've gotten other medleys with some jumpy transitions that have made in through due to better flow and more development/interpretation of the themes, but this wasn't quite there and falls a bit outside of what we're looking for. Sorry to decline this, Kaze, but it's definitely NOT an indictment on your skills, it's just a reflection of this piece's structure colliding with this site's particular standards on medleys. We'd absolutely love for you to submit something else in the future, and know you're doing great work. Definitely try us again with something that's more focused on fewer songs and gives the themes a little more breathing room to develop and more flow from piece to piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts