Liontamer Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Contact Information: ReMixer: Kc1336 Real name: Case Portman User ID: 49824 Submission Information: Game: Sonic & Knuckles Arrangement Name: Tranquil Reef Original Song name: Lava Reef Source: Comments: The Lava Reef track from this game has always hit a soft spot in me. When first listening to the track I instantly fell in love with it and, to this day, is still one of my favourite tracks pulled from any Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack. The inspiration of this remix/arrangement came from a pianist named Isaac Shepard, which at the time I was trying to develop a sound inspired by his beautiful piano playing. After many hours of playing tracks I'd previously learned from video games in the style of his, I accidentally stumbled across a few chords and a melody that sounded very familiar, Lava Reef! From then to now, here is the finished product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 I get that this is supposed to have a distant sound, but it ultimately sounded very lossy rather than ethereal, like I was handed the 96kbps version. As soon as the strings came in at :25, the bassline was marginalized; the bass writing was subtle yet good, but it still needs to cut through and give your track that bottom along with the beats. Don't undermine your own writing ideas with poor mixing. Also, the timing of the string sequencing from :25-:38 sounded too stiff when it was handling the melody briefly. The changeup of the original piano pattern into something new from 1:04-1:29 was very welcome. The interplay of your original writing with the source chorus from 1:29-1:55 actually worked pretty well. Piano sequencing handling the Lava Reef was super mechanical and exposed at 1:56. The fade at 2:57 seemed pretty sudden (logarithmic?) and with no resolution, so it just sounds like you ran out of steam, when there could have been a deconstruction or some new ideas to wrap things up. Fadeouts aren't inherently bad, but if a track like that was going to fade, it would have taken longer and been executed more smoothly. The arrangement approach is actually pretty solid. The pattern that starts off the track feels a little repetitive by the end, BUT I was feeling it overall. If you can clean up the mixing some, and refine the piano and string articulations, this would better realize the potential of the arrangement, and have a much better shot at passing. Good concept, but it needs production TLC. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halc Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 definitely some quality or file compression issues here, apparent right off the bat with the resonance on those high piano notes. the sequencing is also pretty rigid, as well as the articulation on those string stabs. the arrangement was pretty solid although some more rhythmic and timberal variation would've kept things a bit more interesting, as the soundscape and groove are pretty static and doesn't evolve a whole lot over the course of the piece. A good start to be sure, but it needs a little more work before we can take it on as an OCR - hope you find these critiques helpful. I'd love to hear a resubmission sometime! NO(resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted February 23, 2013 Share Posted February 23, 2013 Definitely overdoing it on the reverb here, and the overall song ends up sounding very muddy and lossy. There's definitely a way to pull off the ethereal sound you're looking for, but there are other ways to go about it. Adding in atmospheric pads/textures and easing off the reverb would make this sound much more naturally fleshed out and pleasing to the ears. Some other nitpicks: the piano writing is pretty cool at the start, but the phrasing gets repetitive as it goes on. By the end of the track you definitely need to consider changing up the part writing for that instrument particularly. The piano sample itself sounds boxy and lo-fi, I'm not sure how much of that is due to the reverb issues but if you have access to other, softer-sounding samples, it would be worthwhile to experiment with the sound itself. Honestly though, despite my negative reaction to the mixing and sequencing, you've got some solid arrangement ideas that really come together when all of the instruments are active. There's a lot of work to be done on this one, and honestly I feel like it would take a total production overhaul to pull it off, but it's definitely doable. I'd like to see this one again. NO (resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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