*NO* Master of Monsters 'Into the Deep Blue Square'

[Palpable]

ReMixer Name: lordofultima

Real Name: Michael Rivard

Email:

Website: youtube.com/lordofultima

UserID: 51777

Game: Master of Monsters (Sega Genesis)

Remix Title: Into the Deep Blue Square

Genre: Drum & Bass

Original: Into the Deep Blue Sky

Additional: Sega Genesis Strategy RPG

Composer: Hyato Matsuo

Comments:

I didn't want to step on the toes of this lovely VGM, since it is one of my favorite of all time. I didn't even know what this game was until I heard the music for it and fell in love, causing me to seek it out for collection purposes (and because I love hexagonal grid-based RPG's).

I love the square synth that is prevalent in much of the song, so I kept that mostly in tact, instead changing the rhythmic elements, bass, and tempo surrounding the piece. I wanted to give you a glimpse into my eclectic approach to music, and to present this tune in as many ways as possible while keeping the "drum & bass" theme.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Liontamer
closed decision

[OceansAndrew]

The different moods added with the percussion was pretty solid, but the synths sound basically the same as in-game, and feel a bit thin and dry to me. There is a bit of expansion overall, but I think some additional harmonies and melodic expansion, as well as more humanization on the leads would help make this feel better. Also, the transition around 2:50 was really gross, that needs something proper to bridge the sections.

Overall there is some nice elements to this, but the sections don't all feel like they belong in the same piece at times, and the drums throughout are inconsistent. There are several beats that do their thing, but you only hear each of them once.

Overall decent, but needs a bit of polish and personalization. No, please resubmit

Edited February 3, 2014 by OA

[Chimpazilla]

The drumming sounds pretty much like several continuous loops. The drumming in the intro starts up in a totally unsignaled way. The loops sounds pretty good but often they don't feel like a fit with the nearly ambient background.

The synths sound generic and mid-heavy, especially the square lead. That lead is used throughout the track. Some varied lead sounds and more interesting writing would really help. There is too much reverb on nearly everything.

The two tempo-change sections (2:12-2:49 and 4:28-end) are an interesting idea, but the transitions are not so great, and the kick in those sections has much too long of a tail and just ends up sounding muddy. Also the writing in both those sections is identical.

The heavy sidechaining and filtering as an outro is sort of odd and jarring. The ending filtered beat goes on too long and then cuts off abruptly.

You have some interesting ideas but this needs quite a bit more production love.

NO (resubmit)

[Palpable]

The synth design is definitely a bit lacking, like other judges have mentioned. These are some very basic sounds that sound like they could be taken from the game itself. It's fine to have one or two elements like that in a mix, but there are many here. I would have liked to hear something with more bite to it.

The drum loops got very repetitive and needed some fills or something to break up the flow. I did hear some neat high-hat work here and there, but you went for very detailed additions, when some more drastic changes would have added energy. The change-up at 2:20 was very welcome, with a cool transition to introduce it, but the transition back to the main section was very awkward, as if a new song was starting.

The main problem with the mix is a lack of energy and direction due to few change-ups and simplistic instruments. This has a fair bit of expansion on the source, but I wouldn't have minded seeing more. You stick to the original mood and patterns a lot, and the drums and the half-time section are the big new elements. It's an ok approach, but it compounds the lack of energy by having the source played so straight so much of the time.

NO (resubmit)