DragonAvenger Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 (edited) Hello, here's a rearrangement from Shell Shocked project for consideration as an individual release. ReMixer & real name: Eino Keskitalo e-mail: eino.keskitalo@gmail.com forum id: 20708 ReMixer name: Tuberz McGee Real name: Callum Kennedy e-mail: tuberzmcgee@gmail.com forum id: 44165 Names of games arranged: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Mega Drive), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (SNES) Name of Arrangement: Aim High Names of individual songs arranged: High Score Display (THH), Warming Up (TiT) Youtubes for High Score Display: Youtubes for Warming Up: Source usage: Main source is High Score Display. I've deliberately killed the swing feel and slowed it down to make it more heavy. The lead melody writing is much rewritten, though it should still be recognizable. Warming Up makes the basis of the bridge section. Warming Up chord progression is slightly modified so that the key matches to HSD. 00:00-00:21 intro (original) 00:21-00:50 HSD parts a & b, fairly straightforward 00:51-00:55 "proggy bit" 1 (based on last bass notes of HSD part 00:55-01:14 HSD part a with slightly modified Warming Up chords used on the clavinet to the right 01:14-01:24 HSD part b 01:25-01:37 proggy bit 2, with original chord changes 01:37-01:41 lead-in to Warming Up bridge (original) 01:41-02:21 Warming Up bridge, chords and bass used (slightly modified), with original synth solo 02:21-02:31 lead-in back to HSD (original) 02:31-03:01 HSD parts a & b 03:01-03:33 proggy bit 3, definitely goes into original territory 03:33-03:42 HSD part a + TV-theme outro Shell Shocked project had been going on for a while when I thought trying to make a rearrangement for it might be fun. I had after all played and enjoyed Turtles in Time back in the day, plus as a KNGI forum regular the project was kind of dangling there. The "major" sources were gone by then, so I started listening through the smaller ditties. I thought I could take the bassline of Hyperstone Heist's High Score Display and develop it into some sort of nasty dissonant proggy progression. I fired up Renoise, transcribed the bass, killed the swing feel, reinterpreted the lead line to the new ryhthm, wrote the first "proggy bit" and had the basic idea for the piece. I added Warming Up as a source to have a bit more material to work with, and sent the first version to Kyle. From there on it was a long iterative process of first completing the structure, then working on the instrumentation, layering sounds and mixing to flesh it out and polish it up. I've got to thank Kyle for demanding quality here! An important point was when Tuberz offered to contribute guitar, adding a rhythm track, a tasty solo at the end of the bridge, and a key moment to the track, the guitar scream in the beginning. Mr McGee brought a lot of life to the piece and was great to work with, responding very well to my feedback and concerns and improving the take greatly with each iteration. His contribution inspired and pushed me to put a lot more effort to polishing the track than I would have otherwise. I also was inspired to record a little of my own humble guitar playing - a little solo at 01:15-01:24 and a little riff that plays throughout the Warming Up bridge. Thanks to Kyle, Magellanic and Monobrow on the KNGI forums, and Pleiade, Rami and my beloved Pirjo (always with the key insights) in real life for feedback during making the piece. Extra special thanks to our daughter Pihla, for enjoying the tune and for the wonderful dances! Brace yourself for The Word of Tuberz McGee: "When I first heard the track in its original form, I found that it was exciting... yet bare. There was something missing. Something that I tried to contemplate a fix for. After several hours of recording cat meows it dawned on me that perhaps cats WEREN'T the answer! It was guitars! So I threw together a sloppy punky rhythm geeee-tar to chuck into dat mix. Turns out that it was just what the mix needed. And after Eino here loaded up his 'anti-bad-ify' plugin into his mixer, my guitar part was good to go in his excellent mix." That's all for now. Cheers! Edited January 26, 2014 by Palpable closed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 This feels close to me in a lot of ways, but the mixing and the drum samples seem pretty off; the guitars sound super scooped and are lacking low mids, making them sound really thin and buzzy. The drums sound really two dimensional and cheap; the part writing for them is good, but the sounds themselves are pretty GM sounding, which brings the energy down a good deal. The bass is also a bit boxy in the low mids and lacks a really good low end. Between the bass, kick, and scooped guitars, it's like the pancake butt of mixes, no lowend on it. The arrangement is creative and has a lot of new parts added in, I think the lead sound could be switched up a bit more, and the guitar performance is sounding pretty loose compared to the precise sequencing of the rest of the track, but it feels fine, as that was the goal. Overall I think it needs a bit of production tuneup to shine. No, please resubmit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 (edited) I like this arrangement, it is fun! There is some great writing and ideas here. Ok I have to agree about the lack of low end. Really noticeable. The bass does sound a bit mid-heavy and the guitars are indeed scooped and thin. Drum writing is good but the sounds are a little weak, could be the samples and could be the mixing or both. The mix needs a nice beefy kick and snappy snare. The crashes sound pretty good to me. Lead work could be brought forward more, the lead and mallet-like synth feel buried often. I love the theramin lead starting at 1:41. The leads are loud enough, but could be brought forward more using eq and reverb techniques. (although you may need to rebalance things once you bring more low end into the guitars) In fact most of the sounds could be separated a bit better to give each instrument a place to breathe, you can use eq, reverb and stereo separation techniques for this (important in a place like 3:00-3:33 where the mix is really busy). I'd love to hear one more lead sound to switch things up, say at 2:31. When you re-eq the guitars, be careful when adding low end to them, not to overlap the bass and cause mud. I do feel like this is close to passing, with one more go at the mixing. Hope to hear it back soon, I like it! NO (resubmit) Edited January 26, 2014 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WillRock Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Haha wow. I don't like doing lazy votes but OA NAILED it. I don't even need to add anything. What he said NO (resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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