DragonAvenger Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 (edited) Remixer Name: dj VERTICAI Real Name: Zach Herndon E-mail: Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Arrangement: Spring Serene Original Song: Great Fairy's Fountain Original Composer: Koji Kondo Link to remix: Link to original: Thank you for your consideration! Edited June 13, 2013 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Wow. Your writing is really lovely, and your sound choice is excellent. This track has great atmosphere, and you change up the composition of the original subtly but effectively. There are some mixing and sequencing issues that keep this track from reaching its full potential. The piano tends to sit on top of the pads a bit too much, and then the strings sit on top of the piano too much. For instance, at 2:30 the piano comes in and is way louder than the pads, which sounds inappropriate. The piano could use a bit more reverb. The individual sections and instruments are really well written and sound great, but the track generally speaking lacks transitions. There are also a couple places where a part has one or two not incorrect but poorly chosen notes, or the piano is mechanically sequenced. I'm going to give this a YES because I think it's great, and the issues I have aren't huge, but if you happened to address those issues that would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Huh... this really is a tough call. Gorgeous writing throughout this track make me want to pass it on the merit of arrangement alone, but the sample quality and sequencing are pretty rough. The piano sound feels a bit overcompressed/blocky and not delicate enough for the writing, and the strings are also pretty rigidly sequenced without any sort of articulation. They get very thick and bleed into each other a lot during the intro section. The choir sample sounds too lo-fi for the rest of the track as well. I could see it maybe being an intentional aesthetic choice, but it doesn't really come across that way to me. Later in the song, your piano sounds softer and more appropriate for the style, but the simplified writing doesn't impress as much. The middle section of the track is much more coverish and feels underwhelming when bookended by such interpretive, gorgeous writing in the intro/outro. I want to reiterate that you've got some awesome elements to this track, but I don't think the sample quality is doing justice to your writing. This may end up swinging in your favor but I think this is still under the bar and could seriously benefit from some better samples/humanization across the board. Good luck either way NO (resubmit please!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 (edited) The artist sent me this version after I told him my critiques. To be honest I don't hear any difference, but here it is. Edited June 13, 2013 by Liontamer remove link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Not sure I heard what Vig heard, that's for sure. I'm going off of the version 2 in his post above mine with the alleged improvements, so NOT the original submitted version. The delay effects employed were pretty one dimensional, the textures were way too murky and cluttered, and organic-intentioned instrumentation such as the piano was exposed too often (though the piano at 2:26 sounded more realistic, even in the mixing was poor). 2:27-2:47 had a metric ton of distortion and light popping, with even more up to 3:21. Vig's complained of wax in the ears lately, it might have happened here. The advantage of judging on headphones... I hate to be that hater, but while the arrangement shows promise, the poor mixing and pervasive distortion & popping in the second half made this dead on arrival. This needs a lot of mixing improvements and TLC to pass. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Piano was very fake sounding and indistinct, so that got the arrangement off to a less than promising start. The strings that were added thereafter also had a choppy quality to them, and the lack of humanization was an issue throughout. The writing was interesting, but I wasn't feeling some of the harmonic movement when you changed the chords; the writing was awkward at times. Jesse, I gotta agree with Larry - I'm not sure what you're hearing that you think this is a pass. There's promise for sure, but this has too many issues that need to be addressed. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Piano's killing me. Forgive me for saying so, but the entire affair sounds incredibly lo-fi. What's going on here? Piano is very messy and muddy, and your synth pad lead thingy isn't very interesting or expressive at all. Needs lots of mixing and sound design attention. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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