Palpable Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 (edited) Your ReMixer name: urdailywater & flexstyle Your userid: 33000 and flexstyles: 22246 Name of game(s) arranged: Starcraft II Name of arrangement: Broken Wings Name of individual song(s) arranges: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Main Theme Source: (only used the riff at 5:13 when it comes to source, and the riff also plays in the string section immediately after, along with some chords) urdailywater's comments: So this is sweet. Just got finished with this song for the "Remixing with the Stars" Competition and it turned out great. The first draft with the full arrangement I sent in to Flexstyle was sort of a small orchestral/electronic ambient track with an acoustic drumset. However, it seems Flexstyle saw more to it than that, and while keeping the arrangement pretty much 100% the same except for a few moving arps and some amazing ambience pads, he turned this into a great cinematic piece. The drums and pads were what ended up making the song IMO, and since the piece was already dynamic, it translated into a cinematic one VERY well. Flexstyle has a great ear for production, and I'm glad I got to work with him on this song. He really took my style of Orchestra vs. Electronica and brought it to life in a way I thought it never could be. This kind of song really encourages me to expand on what I'm already good at rather than trying to expand by composing in completely different genres altogether (but that's always fun, too : D) As for arrangement, it's pretty straightforward. I sat down and listened to the source the night after flexstyle linked it to me, and once I heard 5:38 of the song I knew that THAT was going to be the song. I really enjoy arranging more if I get to take my favorite part of a song and just go freestyle mode on it - and that's exactly what happened here. Source plays from :35 - 1:29 2:07 - 2:37 That's all I can count. I believe that's close to half the song being source (about 89 seconds out of 182), but I might be missing some chord progressions dropped in there. It's also very "spacy" in atmosphere, so hopefully there's some bonus points in that. Flexstyle's comments: When this competition was announced, I knew I had to be a part of it. I got paired up with urdailywater for the inaugural round, and after a bit of discussion, we decided to tackle a section of the first track in the Starcraft II OST. This game has one of my all-time favorite soundtracks, and although udw had never heard it, he knew Blizzard's OSTs by reputation and eagerly agreed to go ahead with it. This came together fairly quickly, at least from my view. After a bit of time taking care of job-related business, udw sent me his full arrangement, and I took care of polishing it. I changed around some drums, added some very high quality samples in place of his soundfonts, and gave the entire thing what I think is an appropriately awe-inspiring layer of cinematic atmosphere for such a truly emotional source. This experience has been a lot of fun for me, and it would appear that my partner in crime agrees. I hope the rest of you enjoy this track as much as we enjoyed making it! Edited December 24, 2013 by djpretzel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 This is pretty nice stuff, and while the actual source usage is literally right o the edge, the original material feels like an extension of it, rather than a complementing part. I am somewhat disappointed you didn't use more themes, but I do have to say what is here is really well done; you guys work very well together. I love the electronic textures with the piano, and the percussion is very tasteful and well suited to creating a solid mood. The storm sound effects were subtle and helped deepen the mood, and overall it felt pretty cohesive. I am impressed two of you worked on this, as I can't really hear any obvious seams. The string sample was a touch dry and could have been pushed back a little bit, but otherwise I think this was really solid. More source would have been nice, but I am very comfortable passing this as-is. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 The intro is not great, mostly because of mechanical sequencing. But then the cross stick came in, and that WAS great. The lushness of the soundfield is so juicy and sweet. Sometimes it gets a bit crowded with the rumbling underneath. Short and sweet.. Man I really want to pass this, but the intro/piano is so mechanical, and because the song is so short that ends up being a sizable chunk of the experience. Please fix it up, cause you've got some really nice stuff going on. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 The production here is extremely lush, I can hear Flexstyle's mixing prowess all over this Lovely arrangement, too, it's surprisingly short but still very fulfilling. Vig is right on the money about the mechanicalness of the piano and strings when they're exposed. Once the beat kicks in and there's more layers on top of each other, the strings are not a big deal at all, but the sequencing on those instruments is a sore spot, for sure. Normally, I might send a track back on that reason alone. But here I feel like the whole package is so strong, and since none of the acoustic samples themselves are terribly egregious, this one still falls comfortably over the bar. To be sure, this could benefit from another pass at sequencing the strings and piano, but neither of those hurt the listening experience so much that I would reject the track on those grounds. Your mileage may vary, but I think this is good to go. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 Ok, gonna keep this one short today. I've listened to this one on and off for about a week now, trying to decide which way it was pushing me. I agree with the above crits regarding sequencing on the piano and (I feel more importantly) the strings. But I have to say I'm with Emu that the whole package comes together strongly as the track develops and makes up for the more exposed sections. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 (edited) Take... these broken wings... and learn to fly again, learn to live so free...!! Oh this isn't a Mr. Mister cover? Well, I guess it's a nice song nonetheless. Great atmosphere and build-up, the song flows superbly. You guys really take advantage of that beautiful melody to tug the heartstrings, ekeing the full emotional impact out of it. The lack of source may trouble the Larrys of the panel, but the song is so well-connected that I could have sworn the closing piano notes of your arrangement were in the original somewhere. The percentage is close enough to the border that I can pass it. In regards to the piano intro: I agree it is mechanical and something smoother would have been better, but context is important, and it is treated as more of a background instrument for texture, so I wasn't as bothered by it. YES Edited March 19, 2013 by Palpable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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