OceansAndrew Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Your ReMixer name: Magellanic Your real name: Liam Charalambous Your userid: 45748 Name of game(s) arranged: Sonic & Knuckles Name of arrangement: Super Sonic Fireballz Name of individual song(s) arranged: Lava Reef Zone Act 1 Comments: I was rather gutted at being knocked out of the Sonic competition when I found out that in the next round I would be mixing Lava Reef Zone. Its a level that I wasn't really familiar with before the compo but when I heard it I just HAD to make a heavy rock mix of it. I love the melody and the motif that runs throughout just sticks in your head and gets you dancin' in your chair. I almost ended up emphasizing the latin feel but decided to keep it strictly in the confines of heavy rock. Well, almost. There is a smattering of chiptune. Whilst doing this mix I discovered the joy of famitracker. The harmonic progression is dead simple but if I've achieved nothing else, I've managed to get what was in my head, into my daw and into mp3 format for other people to hear. The arrangement is on the conservative side for OCR, but hopefully there is enough personalisation. Rozovian (Just love 'im) couldn't make his mind up on it so, who better to judge than the lovely panel?! Even if the mix falls before the mighty joojcat I hope that you guys can at least enjoy 3 minutes of some heavy rockin' Sonic coz' I damn well enjoyed making it 00:00 - 00:07: Original 00:08 - 00:14: Variation of Source B section 00:15 - 00:21: Original, uses Source Main Theme chords 00:22 - 00:28: Source Main Theme 00:29 - 00:35: Original based off Source Main Theme 00:36 - 00:42: Source Intro variation as transition 00:43 - 00:50: Source Main Theme 00:51 - 00:56: Original based on Source Main theme 00:57 - 01:10: Source B section with variation/embellishment 01:11 - 01:39: Original breakdown section 01:40 - 01:46: Source Main Theme 01:47 - 01:54: Original transition using Source Theme chords 01:55 - 02:00: Main source Intro 02:01 - 02:14: Original melody/solo based on Source Main Theme 02:15 - 02:21: Source Intro 02:22 - 02:43: Original solo, Source Main Theme Chords 02:44 - End: Source B section embellishment 1:30 of Original and 1:34 of Source....roughly. Hope that helps some. Thank you for listening and thank you again for the awesome feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Pretty fun mix you've got here, and I'd say that it easily fits the personalization requirements for OCR. If anything, I'd look into altering some of the backing areas that are playing the same chords over and over. Maybe some rhythmic variation or some different harmonies to add something to it. My big issue overall is with the balance/mixing of the sounds. A lot of places feel very muddy, and it's hard to make out the parts clearly at all. A lot of the parts are sharing the same note range and are competing for attention. 0:50 is a good example of this between the guitar and synth part that comes in, and then later at 1:04. Those are just the first couple times, but this happens fairly often. I'll also note it's a little better on headphones, but it definitely needs some finesse. I'd nix the synth at 1:53; it's really doesn't seem to fit in well at all and only serves to clutter things more, in my opinion. I'd say this is certainly a big step in the right direction, and you've got a really solid base here, but things definitely need to be cleaned up and the clarity needs to be opened up. Hopefully another judge will have some advice on how to approach this. Good luck! NO (resubmit, please) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillRock Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Hey Magellanic, good to see you submitting! I like the style adaption, and the arrangement. Good stuff there. The production has some notable problems however. The biggest issue is a distinct lack of bass presence in your mix. As a result, your frequency spectrum isn't wide enough, and most of the instrumentation is taking up the same space, muddying up your mix. If you just brought out the bass more in your mix, it would make your mixing much much easier and you wouldn't have everything fighting for the same frequency range. Basically, bring out the bass presence in your track, and sort out EQ on your Rhythms and leads so they aren't clashing with each other in the frequency spectrum. Atm, its quite a large dealbreaker and I know that you have the potential to get the production passed the panel! Again, nice work with the arrangement (and awesome source tune ) but I can't pass this as it is. Keep on working at this one and send it back bro! NO (resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Gotta co-sign with the mixing critiques from above, but I'd also like to add that there's some sloppiness in the sequencing where not everything seems to be lining up. I think you would be well-off doing another take of your guitar solos, they just don't sound quite as confident and polished as they need to be. In addition, that Gameboy-style chip synth just doesn't sound very good to me. I'm not sure how else to put it, I think a chiptune synth could work but that particular sample you're using just does not work for me. The sequencing on some of the synth solos could use a bit of personality too - pitch bends, portamento, vibrato... anything so that it's not just notes being played completely staccato on every note. Lots of work that you could do to bring this one up to par. Not a bad track, reminds me of something Level 99 would do... just needs another coat of polish and some more lively synth lines and more polished performances. NO (resub!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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