The Orichalcon Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 I made this initially as a Bonus Mix for ORC32. The source material was a piece for my Doom Mod which was heavily influenced by the Raptor source piece. I decided to do a bonus mix and adapt it back towards Level 2 of Raptor. The harpline in the background is a result of switching the time-signature from 4/4 to 3/4, and ironically it ended up sounding like the City of the Ancients theme from FF7 so I threw that in as a source and added a theme around it (ie: the "Wake up" from Sephiroth in that game.) The nylon guitar is playing the original backing I threw over the piece in my mod. However the piece was based on Raptor, so I'm using that as the main source. The key's been changed as well as the time signature, but I think it stands up fairly well. Instruments include harp, some bass instrument, strings, an Atmosphere Pad and nylon string guitar. Beats are Stylus RMX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted January 27, 2006 Share Posted January 27, 2006 http://www.mirsoft.info/wogm_download.php?data=YTozOntpOjA7czo0OiIyMzU2IjtpOjE7aToxMTM4MzI1OTA5O2k6MjtpOjM7fQ== - Level01.mid Says level 1 in the MIDI pack I found, but no matter. I'm feeling the intro; it has a nice, different sound to it than anything else we get around here. I see the harp's FF7 influence and the similarites to backing of the Raptor source. The thick kicks also coming in at :16 were a nice touch. Distorted percussion enters at :34, and sounds alright; going for another groove-based mix, I see. I think the distorted percussion is alright, but wears thin after a while. Maybe do something else similar to change it up. Finally got some vocals and the nylon acoustic guitar sample playing the source melody into the picture at 1:07 after that lengthy buildup. Your vocals (badass) sound nice and ethereal, but feel a little too far in the background, subjectively speaking. I'd like to see a way to make the vocals feel a bit more in the forefront, but it's not a hit against it. It seems to work well here, but I think placing them in the front would make the listener focus on those rather than the groove, ultimately making the groove feel less potentially repetitive. Very minimal section at 1:42 provides some contrast, but could stand to be filled out with another subtle element or two before the next section at 1:58. 1:58 sems to repeat 1:07's section with the vocals replaced by a synth piano lead. I'm liking the piano synth at 1:58, one of the few times where a non-realistic sound works fairly well on account of the effects involved. I probably would have went for a slightly thicker or airier sound, as it sounds a little thin for being in the forefront. Very subtle change in the feel moving into the next section at 2:32, though admittedly it didn't feel like the track was hitting any new territory; string sample playing at 2:33 was soft and in the background but lacked a little meat on it. Noticed a subtle bit of extra fuzz show up at 2:47 when the next voice clip was used. Very minor and almost negligible, but could stand to be fixed. 2:48 basically repeats 1:07 with a bit more intensity and some swirly pad stuff, though it didn't feel very different. I liked the arrangement a lot. The "You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet" usage in here was an intelligent touch given the similarites with the source's background, and you did a nice job of interpreting most of the instrumental parts of the MIDI. I feel bad that this can't be worked on any further with the source files being corrupted, but I feel like this could use some more complexity as opposed to the (somewhat) simplistic texture and overly subtle evolution of this groove. But barring that, extending the track and providing that substance via more variation and additional writing ideas would work just as well if the overall energy level remains like this the whole way through. The arrangement ideas are pretty sweet, but beyond that I feel there needs to be more development/evolution as well in whatever form that may be. The beats here felt like they were in cruise control and didn't really vary/develop. The arrangement also felt the same way in that the additions you made to repeated sections after 1:58 were too subtle (IMO) to compensate for repeating the same beat patterns. The sounds do a fairly good job of filling the space but some of the sounds/samples feel a bit thin and make the texture feel that way as well. Somewhat along the same concerns I had with po! & Joshua Morse's "Watermelon Flava", but that managed to pass so my opinion my be the minority. Shit, this would have been an easy resubmit if this in fact doesn't make it. :'-( Best of luck on the rest of the vote, bro. NO (borderline/resubmit/sorry that it's corrupted) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I love everything up to 1:40. there's your intro, all set. great groove, vox are unpolished, but they work anyway. perhaps more reverb would work better in this context. unfortunately, from here rather than elaborating and bringing the arrangement to a climax, you just kill everything and then bring it back up to a rather subdued plateau. this song doesn't have a climax, and it fizzles out after the intro. Get rid of everything past 1:40, use that as your intro, and make the mix go somewhere. escalate. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJT Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 This is really good stuff Lee, but it feels like a demo. When a voice implores me to "wake up" i expect the mix to do the same, to build to a cathartic swell and give some sort of payoff to the promising intro. but it just rehashes some ideas that have allready been presented. it's dissapointing. still, a lot of this is really good. it can be really, really great though if you continue to develop the ideas the mix begins with. resubmit please. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayLightning Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 Not really a vote, just wanted to make a side comment: A lot of enigma's stuff tends to plateau into a state of constancy in that regard, and not really focused on climax. To me this mix and many of his mixes are very much inspired by enigma or similiar styles (consiously or subconsiously). My personal issue with this mix is similiar to that vein but also the issue with lack of development. The guitar part tends to feel like it's playing the same measures over and over. I'd like to hear evolution in the instrumentation/composition or rhythm as it progressed. Also you've gotten a lot better with your drums/processing usage. This might be your best one yet as far as I'm concerned in that aspect, enjoyed a lot of the subtle things you did with the drum/percussion lines and execution of it. I'm almost ready to dub you the groove king of OCR. (that was a compliment) I agree with jon - a lot of this was good, but there were some issues that hampered this one as mentioned by the other judges. Would have been great if you had access to this file, cause it would have made for a great resub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 I don't think I'll bother with the Raptor mix. I like it the way it is, I agree with yours and the judges opinions about it not evolving beyond the first minute or so, especially what Gray pointed out about the sequenced acoustic guitar. That's the main thing I wanted to change in it. But I enjoy listening to it as it is, so there's no real point in trying to fix a corrupt FL file just to get it on OCR, when I could spend that time just making a new mix for OCR. :'-( ... :'''-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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