Liontamer Posted October 4, 2013 Share Posted October 4, 2013 (edited) Mega Man X - Zero's Theme (the one with the nasty guitar riff where he falls from the sky in the opening sequence and annihilates some poor robots) Added some slight stuttering and glitchery madness in the 2nd half for some variation. Also completely gutted the super saw synths and the orchestral strings. Cheers, ~Shaun ------------------------------- Edited December 14, 2013 by Palpable closed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 4, 2013 Author Share Posted October 4, 2013 (edited) There's something that comes off too loud and imbalanced with this; the leads and beat overpower everything else, and don't lock together as well as they should with the supporting writing. It's pretty difficult to hear any details of the supporting instrumentation. With the dropoff of background elements at :52, this sounded too empty despite the volume. The core drum beat during the verses also felt too static over the long run. Well, I form lettered this in the inbox for being too muddy (and also to speed things up a bit), but this version now seems a bit too bright. Overall, I think the arrangement is OK and extended the theme decently, but the textures just don't click all the way and the drum pattern during the verses quickly got boring/complacent after a while. It's alright, and there's a lot of attention paid to various effects and instrument changes to make the theme variations not be cut-and-paste, but something feels a bit too repetitive/overlong about the arrangement, and the production possibly isn't quite as balanced as it should be. I'm initially leaning NO (resubmit), but I need a second or third opinion before I vote on this. EDIT (10/10): Shaun sent an update of his own accord: Hey Larry, Saw the mix is on the Judge's Panel. I made some modifications and uploaded a new version as of 10/6:It's the same link as before. I just overwrote the old file. Hopefully this didn't cause any headaches for anyone. While working on some new stuff, I realized some of my mixing errors in the track. Cheers, ~Shaun Checking out the revised version, the overall levels seemed a touch lower, but the soundscape was balance better, and I could hear more of the detail work. With the production being more solid now, I'm good to go with this. YES Edited October 10, 2013 by Liontamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 The beat felt a little repetitive to me, but the synth work was pretty solid, with a lot of cool bits and character to the different parts. I really liked the breakdown, where the detail and bass synth were allowed to shine a bit more. There is definitely... enough source in here, as that riff is very present, and almost too much so. The variation on the track was well-handled and the breaks from the insistent main riff were very welcome. Pretty good stuff, love the sounds used for this. Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 Hmm. No offense but I'm not really hearing what the others are here. I'm not crazy about the melodic simplification, and the arrangement is both sparse and quite repetitive. A bass and a melody, occasionally a harmony, all playing the same exact rhythm. Not a lot to surprise you as you listen. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 Yeah, I'm also not feeling this one as much. The tone on the beats came off as somewhat flimsy and the synths (especially the bass synth doubling the melody) are overpowering the other elements. Despite the loud synths, much of the track comes off as empty sounding due to relatively simplistic writing for much of the track. Far string stab panning in both directions at 1:46 is a little disorienting on headphones. Transitions like 2:14 sort of fell flat for what they were trying to accomplish IMO. Solid idea, but you've got to build stronger to moments like that so the sudden synth solo has a more distinct effect, then it needs to hit harder coming out of it. Lots of detail for a single example, but I think working on the transitions in general would be helpful for you. Arrangment-wise, this is mostly focused on the melody line with additive sections and effects around it. By the end, I feel like I've heard the same theme way too many times without something new and/or meaningful to justify the repetition. On the positive side, there is some cool synth work here for sure. String breakdown was a good idea to get away from the main theme for a while. I think this could turn into a very cool dnb track with some TLC. NO Resubmit, please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Yeah I'm not really feeling this one either. Justin says it best; it feels very repetitive and simplistic. There's some variation with effects which is good, but I feel like there needs to be more happening with the part-writing. You don't seem to have a good sense of when to modulate up and back down again the melody. Sometimes you go up and then stay there too long. It feels like it's very arbitrary. Needs work. Maybe consider pulling in Zero's other theme from this game to give yourself more material to work with. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Justin's vote is gold here: there's definitely some personalization you've put into this, but overall it feels very repetitive and overall a bit simplistic. That being said, the source is really short here, so you don't have a lot to work with, but even with that consideration I felt like the mix was dragged out a bit too much. I also wasn't feeling some of your synth choices. I didn't mind a little of it here and there, but overall it feels pretty piercing as well as thin, which contributed to the sparse feeling overall. I think some more divergence from the source, or expansion would be the right track to go here, or as Shariq suggested, bringing in another theme to augment your material. Good luck, Shaun! NO (Resubmit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 The revised version of the track still sounds a little bassy to me - the thin leads are crowded out by the bass region. It's not a huge issue, more of a minor one. Things can still be fairly clearly heard, but it could be better. The harder thing to judge is the arrangement. The source is really short and frankly even having played MMX many times, I barely knew this song. You only hear about ten seconds of it in the game. It's a very repetitive source and it really needs a lot added to it to stand alone as a remix IMO. I don't think Shaun added enough. My first time listening through, I was impressed by how Shaun was able to change the timbre and dynamics of that riff, but on my second time listening, I was just focused on how overused the riff is. In the first half on the song, there are some hard-to-hear synth patterns accompanying the main melody but otherwise it sounds like everything else is doubling the riff. The bridge section was a nice addition and it flowed well from the source material, and after the bridge the additions of harmonies and countermelodies are more substantial. It's almost a 50/50 call but my gut says NO. NO (borderline) (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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