Liontamer Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 Good evening! Got a submission for you. This is a Mega Man 2 rock song featuring synthesized vocals using the Vocaloid software. It was originally a Dwelling of Duels entry, but the mixing has been improved with some outside assistance (who wants to remain nameless, and who encouraged me to submit it to you). I originally wanted to make a wah-heavy "disco-rock" type of song, but somehow I would up making a bouncy little happy grunge number instead. The lyrics are just generic love song tripe which I translated into Japanese (and I don't speak Japanese, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of the translation), so I'm not including them. They really shouldn't be the focus. Artist name: Paragon feat. Hatsune Miku (if you don't want to credit a fictional character with a performance, I understand -- just credit it to Paragon) Song title: This Love is Involuntary Game: Mega Man 2 Source song: Bubble Man's stage (along with bonus snippets of other MM2 songs in the bass interludes) Thanks! ---------------------------------------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G8XQ89risA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 3, 2012 Author Share Posted November 3, 2012 The opening didn't actually sound like Bubble Man, and the lyrics initially don't as well; nothing wrong with an original intro; just noting it. I like the overall sound to start, though the vocals immediately sounded too muddy and the timing, while not horrible or anything, was disjointed and behind the beat. I like the tone of the guitar though, and I like what you're going for with the overall sound. Source finally kicked in at :44. Nice handling of the melody vocals at 1:13. The airyness they have sounds sweet, but again, the vocals still sound too muddy and need to sound sharper. You'll need to EQ them so that they're not competing in the same frequency range as the guitars. Hopefully, a musician J can give you detailed advice. The arrangement was sounding a bit repetitive at 1:57; nothing that was a red flag, but there could have been some variation employed in that verse. The dropoff at 2:13 could have been an interesting transition towards the finish, but I felt the bass cameos of the other themes (2:21-2:35) were messy and out of left field with no synnergy; they merely broke the flow of the song without adding anything. Perhaps ice that and throw in a straightforward cameo of the beginning of the Bubble Man theme in. This is in a really good place to get some tweaks and pass. 1) Clean up the mixing so the vocals aren't bleeding into the other instrumentation. 2) Improve of get rid of the bassline stuff from 2:21-2:35, it just sounds out of place. 3) This one was the most minor issue for me, but tighten up the timing some as well. It may bother others more. Otherwise, the arrangement was a pretty solid pass aside from the hiccup at the end. Now the mixing just needs to be tightened up some for the win. Really sounding cool so far, Paragon! I know just getting it evaluated it has taken a while, so hopefully you still have the source files intact, but this is VERY promising and I hope you'll go for tweaking this! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 A lot of what Larry said here makes sense. What I notice first is that the vocaloid sounds very close to a synth whenever it has longer notes as well as mono-syllablic lyrics. Part of this is due to the muddiness, so cleaning that up will help, but some of it stems from loss of articulations with longer notes. The guitar that starts has a fun pattern, but once the vocals come in it isn't the forefront of the mix and it needs to come down, as it's competing with the vocals rather than supporting them. I also think the backing pattern starts to get annoying as it continues on (again because it's trying to stay so much in the front of the mix). I'll also agree with Larry on the bass stuff that comes in later. I see what you're going for with the other song quotes, but it feels extraneous and not connected to what else is going on. Some readjustment might help here, or it might have to be nixed. I'm liking your approach here, but I think this has a bit of a ways to go before it's ready. Mixing levels overall need to have some tweaks to allow the vocals be clearer and a stronger lead, and some adjustments of the arrangement itself are in order. There's definitely a good start here, and you're well on your way. Good luck! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 This is one of my favorite songs from the whole series and I've been waiting for someone to blow me away with an arrangement of it. Unfortunately, this wasn't it. It's certainly a unique approach, but it felt very unpolished. The timing issues did bother me some, but more importantly the song felt plodding and a little sparse at the slower tempo you used. There wasn't a whole lot going on at times, and the relatively unprocessed rhythm guitars and drums made it sound too basic. I didn't get why they were so dry compared to the lead guitar and vocals, it was an odd pairing. DragonAvenger also had a very good point about how the rhythm guitars get a little annoying because of how much at the forefront they stay. There's not a lot I can tell you that would help production-wise. You could do some fairly easy tricks to bring out the vocal, but it sounded like you were intentionally trying to make them sound unclear, like an indie song or something. My issues were definitely more on the performance and arrangement side. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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