Palpable Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 (edited) Original decision Name: Arceace Real name: Ben Clifton Email address: Game: Crash Bandicoot Warped Arrangement name: “Tiny’s Requiem” Original track: Tiny Tiger Theme Link: Comments: Thanks for all the awesome critiques you guys gave me on the first submission. I was able to go out and purchase some actual samples packs in addition to the one you recommended, so I am no longer forced to work with lousy free samples. I've also upped the production and actually figured out how to clean up the soundscape a little. Enjoy! PS. As of right now, this remix is no longer part of the Crash Bandicoot Warped Album. (the project fell apart I think?) -Arceace -------------------------------------------------- Edited May 8, 2014 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Yeahhhh, this is more like it! THough the sounds are similar in a lot of respects, the depth the song has now is really nice, and the drums pack a way bigger punch. I enjoyed the arrangement a lot the first time around, and this is pretty much a fully realized version of the same track. Very nice, and I'm sure Crash fans will love this! Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Whoa... cool dance/trance mix here! Haha I didn't expect that with a name like "Requiem!" Dem's some punchy drums fo sho. The kick tail is *almost* too long. The bass is super cool with nice upper end crunch. (that bass crunch competes with the leads sometimes, but not enough to be a problem) Great lead sounds and writing, nicely sequenced glitching and fx. You've used some really nice sounds and automations. The low end could be a tiny bit cleaner but that's a nitpick. Maybe it's that kick tail causing just a touch of mud against the bass. The mix gets a little washy with reverb at times but never too much so. My biggest nitpick is that the drum writing gets a little repetitive sometimes in the hats and snares. The hat hits seem to be all the same velocity, some velocity variation would add more interest. I haven't heard the first version but this one gets my vote, I love it. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Here's the thing--this is a really awkwardly-handled electronic mix, to my ears. I get that it's a good arrangement, but let's see if I can really vocalize why this track bugs me so much. - That kick drum is so. freaking. compressed. I mean, it sounds like it's distorting when its tail comes through, that's how compressed it is. It's hogging the entire bass spectrum, leaving no room for any kind of legitimate bassline, and it's mixed very far forward. I get that the genre requires that, but it's not working when it's this hot. - The snare isn't really helping, either. It's a long snare, and it's used a lot, which means that what is essentially white noise is crowding a ton of the song. - The hat pattern is killin' me. It doesn't flow very well, as if it can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a rock-style (every beat) or electronic style (every off-eighth) hat. Sounds jarring. It's also taking up a lot of that upper midrange spectrum, which tends to be a problem since that's where the meat of every single one of your synth patches is, too. - It (the hat) is also pretty repetitive, and that also goes for a lot of the drums. What would help a lot is if you introduced new percussive elements as the song goes on, instead of throwing everything at us all at once. Start with just the kick and snare, add the hats in and out, etc. - There are only so many ways to do a mostly-clean detuned saw, and it gets really boring after a while. I mean, there are other kinds of patches out there, honestly! A square wave? Maybe some distorted sines? Something with a bit of character? That would be nice. Part of the problem this creates is that every synth patch occupies the same spectrum, since they're all using the same set of harmonics. This makes it sound messy, especially in the upper-midrange. It also doesn't help that a lot of the synths sound like they're at the same volume, giving no room for the mix to breathe at all. So yeah, get that overcompression cleaned up, get the mix cleaned up (give every instrument its own space, and don't let the kick take up your entire bass range), and then I'll be happier. I'll be especially happy if you can get some more interesting synths going to really give this song the character it deserves. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Nice arrangement work here. Hearing lots of source throughout, but it's creatively used. I'm a sucker for LP filtered synths, so I'm digging the synth intro. Plenty of power behind the beat, which is important for the genre. I liked the counterpoint synth that comes in at 1:09 to compliment the other elements. The big hit transition at 1:36 felt a bit forced to me, honestly. I think it could've built more into the hit, which would've made it much more effective. Hearing seemingly random cymbal crashes in some sections like 1:15, which is throwing me a bit. They're not too loud, fortunately, but it's a bit odd to hear in a dance genre. Changeup at 3:26 was a good idea to bring something different to the track and extend the life a bit. I'm finding myself somewhere between the Yes & No camps above. I'm hearing some of the same crits as Flex (kick is a bit overpowering, could use some more synth variety), but I guess they're not striking me as serious issues here. I also didn't feel like overall mixing was a big of an issue. Still, he's the dance genre pro, so you'll have to take my opinions with a grain . I think this has potential to improve, but what's here is solid enough for me on both production and arrangement fronts. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 I love the treatment here, sweet adaptation with some slick, restless programming. Even the balance sounds pretty good EXCEPT for that massive kick hogging all the space. Flex has gone into detail about the problems with it. I'm not that bothered by the lack of bassline, but even still, the kick takes up too much space. The repetitiveness of the drums was not something I noticed on the first listen, but after reading Flexstyle's comments, it did start to bug me a little bit on the second listen. It's close to the line for me, wouldn't be bothered if it passed, but seems a few tweaks away from making it. Cleaning up the kick would make this song much stronger, and a likely pass. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 That kick drum is bugging me. Everything else is great, and I'm in agreement with most of the Js about the track. Great arrangement, some problematic mixing. Percussion is really relentless, you know? Fix that kick and we're golden. NO (resub) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 The reason the kick is not working is because nothing is side chained. Side chain everything else and suddenly you've got room to make everything else louder. It's also too busy. The kick, that is. The arrangement is also too busy and repetitive. Electronic music does have breaks and builds. NO Also, this sounds nothing like a requiem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Synths seemed rather flat to open things up. Lead synth at :41 was also generic, plus had some odd notes. The soundscape also sounded kind of lossy for whatever reason, with the lead feeling buried from 1:01-1:29. 1:42's lead seemed a little more expressive, but the (otherwise cool) supporting writing from 1:49-2:10 was burying the lead and creating clutter, so the balance continued not to make sense, IMO. I hate to sound like this is bad; it's not, but I'm definitely not as enthusiastic on this as anyone else. The arrangement wasn't clear to me, i.e. the A-to-B connections. It could just be lack of familiarity with the theme, but the arrangement sounded pretty liberal with the treatment, and I'd need more of a breakdown to feel confident on it. It may be more rhythmically similar than melodically similar. More importantly, things were too busy, the beats were repetitive and the leads were vanilla/generic. Flex gave the best, most detailed critiques on what could use more detail work. Ben's persistent, so I'm not worried that he couldn't work on this further and get it over the finish line, but it's not there yet for me. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Loving the upgrades here, you've done a lot of good work with what you had before, and I think this only expands your horizons! I'm going to agree with the others about the kick, and I think they all have some great advice. I also see a little bit of what Larry is going for, though I think he's being a bit too harsh on it overall. There's a ton of interesting aspects of the arrangement and you change the sections around frequently; there's plenty of new things to grab your attention throughout. I can see this going either way, and I think it skims by as-is. If so, definitely take all the feedback to heart for future submissions, otherwise I'll look forward to hearing it again! YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Think I agree with the other chaps about the kick, it's crucial to this kind of music that it sits well and that there is a bit more of an audible sidechain going on to make room for it so that it doesn't have to hog so much spectrum. I also agree about the hi-hat patterns, try to make them flow a little more if you can. I'd be okay with it otherwise, but those are key to the genre. NO, but please resubmit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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