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OCR02510 - New Super Mario Bros., SSB Melee, SMB 1/2/3 & SMW "Plains, Capes and Turnips"


djpretzel
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As a percussionist, this mix makes me smile. :-)

I have a couple of nitpicks; firstly, the fact that the melody doesn't stray from the xylophone except for maybe 4 bars near the end. There also seems like some times where the unison parts get off a little bit.

HOWEVER, those nitpicks aside, this is a wonderfully peppy and well crafted piece. It oozes Mario, and I definitely enjoyed it.

Nice work!

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Very talented performance. Intro had a few off key moments, but it was smooth sailing after that. Yeah, it sticks to the original and is a medley, both of which are un-OCR-like...but I do agree with the fact that there's a lot of personality in the performance itself. It doesn't sound like a rigid straight forward cover to me. To have all five co-ordinate their performances live is very daunting. Also, Xylophone/Marimba is very fresh around these parts. Not familiar with the latter instrument, but I do know that DrumUltima is the only one who does Xylophone VG Remixes so seeing someone else follow that is definitely a plus.

I especially enjoyed the NSMB part of the mix. Really good playing there. Although I don't see myself listening to this track often in the near future as it's not my cup of tea, I was impressed.

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SO happy to see another percussion ensemble arrangement! Mario music is what actually got me into playing mallet instruments with my friends back in high school, and I really appreciate that this was recorded live at David's actual undergraduate recital. However, there were quite a few mistakes and a number of interesting chord choices that I couldn't help but cringe at.

I realize you only get one shot at an undergrad recital, but perhaps a recording of a rehearsal run-through or something might have produced better results. It was an enjoyable performance, especially for what it was, but if I were to record one of my own performances, I would be recording DOZENS of takes just to get the one that sounds just right. Maybe I'd even break up the piece and do a little light editing to string them together into a full track or something.

Not a bad performance by any means, but there's definitely potential for a better recording of it. :)

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It's a great thing to do my daily check-up on OCR and be greeted with something as different as this. Sure, it could have saw a better recording, but I think given the circumstances of how long things take to get through the queue these days, it would be a bit much to ask these five guys to round back up over some nitpicks. Plus, stage recordings just have that character, y'know?

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Nice!!! I've always thought Mario themes lent themselves well to the style of ragtime xylophone. Good stuff!

There are a bunch of comments below me being nitpicky about missed notes and whatnot--I think for a recital performance, this was just fine. A recital is a super nerve-racking experience, and the one thing that ruins is note accuracy. Sure, a full out recording session would have been nice, but when you're in music school, you don't have a lot of time to do that sort of thing!

That being said, I do have two points of critique--one for the arrangement, and one for the performance. As for the arrangement: when you're the xylophone soloist in a ragtime group, you kind of have to be the "flashy" one. The xylophone part had the melodies played pretty much verbatim--it would have been a good opportunity to add some traditional ragtime ornaments! This would have helped with the "conservative" nature of your arrangement which the judges commented on. Think George Hamilton Green or Bob Becker. You don't need to write super-difficult virtuoso runs to add a little more flair that will make the arrangement a little more interesting.

As far as the performance, one tricky thing about xylophone vs marimba is that the xylophone will always speak much faster than the marimbas in a concert hall like the one you recorded in. There were a few times in your recording that it sounded as if the xylophone was rushing, perhaps even a full eighth note in front of the marimba ensemble. The truth is, the marimba sound just moves "slower" than the xylophone--especially in the lower register. Next performance in a hall like this, the marimba players should consider making a conscious effort to play just on top of the beat. This is something we have to do in the back of an orchestra ALL the time.

Anyway, that's all I got! Nice work guys, great arrangement and great performance! Good luck with school!

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Marimbas and Xylophones! Yay!!! I don't know exactly why, but I really do enjoy hearing Marimbas go to work, and Mario's music, no matter what the game, just goes so damn well with it. SMW's athletic stage was a perfect way to make this point as well as open the mix. The sheer amount of skill by those involved, the ability to weave in and out of multiple tracks and keep a steady pace was impressive. I do have to echo the nitpicks of being conservative (just a tad more liberal with the sources would have been golden), but the pros just outweigh the cons on this, I think. A perfect ReMix, no, but it was a fairly fresh idea for OCR, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of this kind of ReMix on the site.

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  • 3 years later...
  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR02510 - New Super Mario Bros., SSB Melee, SMB 1/2/3 & SMW "Plains, Capes and Turnips"

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