Jorito Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 (edited) Lately I have been working on a medley with music from Space Manbow, which is a classic game for the MSX by Konami in the Gradius series. The song is a rock/pop/symphonic mixture and contains 2 songs (the first level song and the intro song, in that order). I'm considering submitting it to ocremix after lurking around for ages, but some feedback would be highly appreciated before I do that! The song: https://soundcloud.com/jorito/beyond-the-battleship References to the original songs: Edited February 20, 2014 by Jorito Still want to tweak the mix a bit more... so back to WIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 The arrangement has some major holes. 0:00 - 2:20 is obviously happy, while 2:20 - 4:08 is darker, so there's a split mood that makes the medley aspect stick out. e.g. This doesn't sound cohesive remix, but two remixes each of separate moods linked together. Also, you never really revisit the other theme; you just have coverage of one, then the other, then that's all that happens. OCR's policy says that medleys should feel cohesive, as if they were one singular remix. 0:57 - 1:23 and 1:55 - 2:20 are exactly the same. You can do more than just copying and pasting that 26 seconds. Try varying up the notes (even if you try changing the instruments by themselves, it isn't quite enough to differentiate two copy-pastes). That said, the production also has room for improvement. The drums are pretty buried behind the guitars and strings, as are the choir, harp (?), etc. This is also compressed a good deal, so there's some light pumping going on from overcompression, especially at 2:23. Overall, the production sounds partially between full and low-end-heavy, and more towards the low-end-heavy side. This is a good start, but ultimately I think there are grounds for rejection based on repetition and cohesiveness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jorito Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 That's some very useful feedback, thanks! The copy/paste thing and the production/mix are things I know of and that aren't too bad to fix. However, your first remark about medley cohesiveness kinda has me worried on how to proceed. I have to give that some thought and overhaul the arrangement to fix it, any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 (edited) That's some very useful feedback, thanks!The copy/paste thing and the production/mix are things I know of and that aren't too bad to fix. However, your first remark about medley cohesiveness kinda has me worried on how to proceed. I have to give that some thought and overhaul the arrangement to fix it, any suggestions? Yeah, the issue with the cohesiveness is probably my major concern. Instead of going through one source tune and then proceeding straight to the next, I would actually suggest going through part of one of them, then part of the other. Maybe you could even overlap them smartly (EX: change a few notes to match harmonies, use one as the bass and one as the lead, trading back and forth a melody in a source between two distinctly different instruments, etc.). The goal is to make it sound like one singular remix, so that if someone who didn't listen to the source tunes, they would either not be able to tell which source comes in when, or perhaps they could think, "source 1 came in. Oh wait, now source 2 is playing. Woah, source 1 just came back. Cool, source 2 is back again!". Don't be afraid of straying away from the source tunes' structures, or even adding your own countermelodies, counterpoint, or arpeggios! Ultimately it's up to you how you do it, but those are my suggestions. Edited February 24, 2014 by timaeus222 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jorito Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 That makes sense. Problem is that this song was made in Renoise, and where Renoise is great at the note/detail level, it's not as good as when it comes to flexible arrangement and moving things without loosing track. Will give this some thought, think this is gonna be a longer term project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Wait, so you didn't use Logic Pro? A normal DAW would be really helpful in letting you rearrange material. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jorito Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 Wait, so you didn't use Logic Pro? A normal DAW would be really helpful in letting you rearrange material. =) Nope, 100% Renoise (as you can see in http://www.jorito.net/files/bigtrack.png). And yeah, I know that a normal DAW really helps in arranging, but I've only been working in Logic for a few weeks now (Vampire Killer is my second Logic track!)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Nope, 100% Renoise (as you can see in http://www.jorito.net/files/bigtrack.png).And yeah, I know that a normal DAW really helps in arranging, but I've only been working in Logic for a few weeks now (Vampire Killer is my second Logic track!)... Nice! For your second Logic track, it's a great start! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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