DragonAvenger Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 (edited) I think this is the 39th Sonic Colors mix I am subbing and it's not even the last one. Game(s): Sonic Colors, Sonic & Knuckles, Bastion (PC) music by Darren Korb Sources: Planet Wisp (Just the first 6 seconds) Sky Sanctuary (first 3 seconds and a vocal line based on the melody at 0:06 until 0:12 but it's a minor key), Mother I'm Here Title: Gone Link: You might need a source breakdown for this one, because the song was built around those 2 basic melodies, they appear EVERYWHERE but the rest of the song is pretty liberal. This was somewhat of an experiment to make a song that did feature those melodies pretty conservatively (6 seconds of Wisp and first 3 seconds of Sky Sanctuary) a lot but also work in original stuff. Sort of like Poolside's Shine Tonight. I'll try to point the melodies out as best I can. The song is also experimental because it uses Abbey Road 60s drums, some Chamberlin mellotron samples, and an overall old-ish vibe minus the crazy 60s panning. 0:00 - 0:14 original intro 0:14 - 0:45 left-panned Wisp on mellotron oboe, right-panned Sky Sanctuary arpeggio on acoustic guitar 0:45 - 0:48 original transition 0:48 - 1:18 Planet Wisp on acoustic guitar harmonies 1:18 - 1:47 [CHORUS] Planet Wisp in the vocals "All that we know, all that we are" + "Everything's changing now" based on Sky Sanctuary + Sky Sanctuary arpeggio on acoustic and left-panned mellotron vibes 1:47 - 2:17 Original solo with the planet wisp acoustic harmonies before, doubled on mellotron flute (left panned) 2:17 - 2:47 Left-panned Sky Sanctuary on mellotron vibes 2:47 - 3:17 [CHORUS] See above. Lyrics change, vocal part based on Sky Sanctuary becomes a bit more southern church revival soul muzak but should still count for the half of it eh 3:17 - 3:46 Bastion panned left (telephone voice), and sci-fi planet wisp theramin panned IN A CIRCLE YO 3:46 - 4:15 Original solo with some kind of weird spanish sound to it or something 4:15 - 4:45 [CHORUS] Changed up a bit. "All that we know, all that we are" is still there for planet wisp. The Sky Sanctuary vocal bit is different so that's gone. 4:45 - E:ND Dramatic ending, you can hear planet wisp clearly on mellotron flute, you can hear Sky Sanctuary arpeggio come back at 5:16 on some kind of weird mellotron voice sound. Sounds TRIPPY! I hope you will find the source usage sufficient. I hope you will find the "rawness" of the atmosphere to be stylistically fitting. Some of the faults were not intentional but are also not fixable, as they are from hardware malfunctions and would require new recordings, which would change the integrity of the song. I won't point them out, and maybe you won't notice them. I was in a dark place when I made this, so I'd rather not include the lyrics or really give any type of substantial mix note apart from what you can use here that isn't too technical. (I hope I'm not the only person whose head spins upon seeing a wall of source usage mapped out. Enjoy!) Thanks for your time. -------------------------- Edited October 23, 2013 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Hmm. Tough. I love your rhythmic ideas, but they are sometimes pretty complicated, and this becomes a problem because the performances are pretty loose. To pull off rhythmic layering like this, you've really got to be tight or else it sounds super sloppy. I think the arrangement at times gets too busy. Too many parts in conflict. The vocal performance is cool, but it's not mixed very well, it's muddy and doesn't cut. More reverb all around! Cool track, needs to be a bit tighter. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Hmm. Tough. I love your rhythmic ideas, but they are sometimes pretty complicated, and this becomes a problem because the performances are pretty loose. To pull off rhythmic layering like this, you've really got to be tight or else it sounds super sloppy. Definitely not an invalid crit, but I wasn't as bothered by some of the looseness in the live performances, just noting. This ultimately sounded fine to me on that level. Arrangement was pretty sweet. I was a bit underwhelmed by the "Sky Sanctuary" usage, because, while it was there, it felt pretty marginalized. But together with the Sonic Colors source usage, the overall usage was dominant and overt enough. I think the arrangement at times gets too busy. Too many parts in conflict. Yeah, this could seemingly lose a couple of things without impacting the song too much. But if you didn't get rid of anything, you HAVE to declutter these textures. The vocal performance is cool, but it's not mixed very well, it's muddy and doesn't cut. Yep, totally agreed here, the mixing is undermining this. On some other vocal-related points, the off-key moment at 2:48-2:51 was pretty unfortunate. Otherwise the vocals were generally on point. Also, the key of the Bastion lyrical cameo just didn't click at all with the Sonic Colors arrangement and felt really forced; I'd honestly ice it. You know, you mailed me about basically having hit a wall as far as getting mixes passed, and it's pretty apparent that's not far from the mark. It's certainly not for a lack of really awesome arrangements, but, as you get more ambitious and your textures become more complex, the inability to cleanly mix and all of these parts is throwing a huge monkeywrench into all of this creative greatness. The next stage of your growth as a musician is 1) buying something better than $20 headphones to mix to (my Senn HD497s were around $60, it doesn't need to break the bank) and 2) nagging the slew of artists in the community who've got their mixing on lock for their advice. The Workshop is made for this, and you now have at least 4 or 5 submissions that all could desperately use some targeted advice there about how to handle dense textures and giving your parts room to breathe. Take it to the next level. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Hmm. Tough. I love your rhythmic ideas, but they are sometimes pretty complicated, and this becomes a problem because the performances are pretty loose. To pull off rhythmic layering like this, you've really got to be tight or else it sounds super sloppy.I think the arrangement at times gets too busy. Too many parts in conflict. The vocal performance is cool, but it's not mixed very well, it's muddy and doesn't cut. More reverb all around! Cool track, needs to be a bit tighter. NO I agree with basically everything Jesse said. The rhythmic looseness doesn't bother me as much but it is a little iffy. There's a real balance problem here; there's too much going on all the time that I don't really know what to pay attention to. Vocals are a bit odd around 2:50, watch the intonation on that entrance. Really ambitious arrangement. Would be nice to see on OCR someday. NO, resub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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