Liontamer Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 (edited) Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Mellow Sonic Your real name: Sandro Kreher Your email address: Your websit: http://mellowsonicsound.npage.de/ Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Castlevania II Name of arrangement: Simon's Quest Name of individual song(s) arranged: Bloody Tears -------------------------------------------------- Edited September 16, 2013 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 29, 2013 Author Share Posted August 29, 2013 The piano sample from 1:59-2:39 was pretty fake and exposed. While I liked the melody taking a bit of a backseat to the countermelodic ideas added in from 2:50-3:22, the delay effects and mixing between the parts made things a muddy mess. After that, it wasn't AS bad, but this was another case where the leads and pads were just bleeding into each other a lot until 5:19 had some stuff drop out to at least give a little more breathing room. The pads were louder than anything else from 5:31-6:02. Some variation in the arrangement ideas at 6:12 would have been welcome given how long this piece was. Same muddiness issues standing out a lot from 6:44-7:27, where the theme is barely even audible amongst the other parts. Some additional interpretation ideas for the source tune itself would be good as well, since it's nearly 8 minutes with a lot of repetition. Cleaning up the mixing and making sure the parts are balanced properly during the densest sections is something that has to be addressed. The second thing, which wasn't as important but may be a good move, would be doing a little more to vary the style of the "Bloody Tears" theme throughout, whether it be more variation in the melody, the rhythm, or something else. This is a pretty solid arrangement so far with lots of energy and dynamic shifts as the track went further. Despite the length, that aspect of it (the ebb and flow of the overall energy level) was OK thanks to good buildups and dropoffs. If the mixing gets improved so that you don't have large portions that are cluttered, and a few more melodic variations were employed, then this would be in much better shape. Pretty good so far. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Yeah, I'm feeling like the mix overall is very muddy, and there are some balance issues as well. I can understand wanting to downplay the melody at times to allow some fun countermelodies have the light, but that was happening for the majority of the track, and the other stuff was a bit repetitive. I think doing more shifts between the two on what is the main part would be a solid change that would make the track a lot more interesting as a whole. The overall bleed between the pads is awkward, definitely something you want to clean up, and the volume on them can be toned down as well. It's a good start and you have some good ideas for the arrangement, but there needs to be more going on in terms of variety in parts, harmonies, etc, for a track this long. Start with cleaning up the production and balance and then look into adjusting your parts to add more variety. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Intro was a little drawn out and was already getting a bit repetative by :55. At :55 and 1:19, & 1:37 a new element gets added each time, but the underlying track is still pretty much static. The drop off at 1:58 is a welcome change, but something changing up earlier would've helped. Piano is really distant in the track, especially considering it's holding down a good portion of the source melody. It could use some velocity variation as well as right now it's pretty robotic sounding. 3:24 the track FINALLY kicks into something that's really exciting to the listener. I'm all for long buildups before the main part, but with this much repetition, I was starting to lose interest up to this part. The last third of the track felt like a rehash of parts already covered before. Again, not to beat a dead horse, but I'd recommend on focusing on song progression to cut back on repetativeness and keep the listener engaged. I know it's considered a sort-of ambient dnb track, but so many of the parts are bathed in reverb and delay, they're all overlapping sonically, which makes the mix really crowded without much definition. As Larry mentioned, there's a lot of source here, but much of it is pretty conservative in the interpretation from the original. More personalization on the source tunes would be a positive. But yeah, sweet beats. Cool synths. This really is a good track, it just needs some more love. NO resubmit, please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts