*NO* BlazBlue 'The Lone Rebel'

[DragonAvenger]

Hello there, My name is Gaute Vist Grong, my remixer name is GVGguy, user ID: 47725.

My e-mail is

My webpage would be... This one? www.youtube.com/user/gvgkid

The arrangement is of the theme song of "Ragna The Bloodedge" from the Blazblue Franchise

The arrangement's name is ''The Lone Rebel"

It is an arrangement of ''Rebellion".

The first game to feature this theme was the first game in the series, "Blazblue:The Calamity Trigger", which was released in Arcades in 2008. The theme itself is composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari.

Link to original soundtrack:

Own thoughts about the arrangement:

I have always been a fan of Daisuke Ishiwatari's work, ever since I discovered Guilty Gear, which I did through it's soundtrack, so that kinda says a bit about my relationship to Arc System Works and it's music, it's Ishiwatari that reeled me in.

So I figured I'd pay tribute to one of his main pieces from Blazblue, by making an Acoustic arrangement, while at the same time trying to make it sound more "Wild West-like", thus kinda portraying Ragna the Bloodedge as a lonesome cowboy, travelling the west and causing trouble for bandits, gangs and oppressors in every town he came upon.

Hope you like it!

Sincerely,

Gaute Vist Grong

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Edited September 23, 2014 by Liontamer
closed decision

[DragonAvenger]

Really cool concept, I love the intro, and the percussion effects on the body of the guitar. As this continues on, though, I feel like the constant tempo and background get to be a beat repetitive and it wears itself out. I think working on finessing the backing writing will really help this stay interesting. The whistle in the background is also very mechanical, and overall could come up a touch. Humanizing that will also add more life to the piece.

This is pretty close to the original in terms of arrangement from what I can tell, and I think you can work on straying a bit more from the original and adding more of your own flare beyond the style change. Variation is really the key here.

It's a good start, and it has a ton of promise om terms of style and approach, but it has a ways to go here.

NO (resubmit)

[Chimpazilla]

Deia nailed it here. Great concept, and I love the genre adaptation, but the idea needs to be fleshed out a bit more.

This track is lacking in instrumentation variety. Since the entire track relies on the guitar timbres (is that lead a guitar or dulcimer?) and only the whistle as countermelody, and with just one percussive element, the track feels like it lacks dynamics and there is not enough differentiation between the sections. The guitars sound great sometimes and super mechanical other times (during the faster passages where every note is the same and at the same velocity).

You've written a nice breakdown at 2:57, and some cool soloing at 3:15, but the instrumentation never varies so it all kind of blends together. What about changing the lead timbre for a section, or adding some other unique backing element, additional percussion elements, some sfx, even a pad during part of it, or what about some bass in there somewhere? Any or all of these things would help break the track up and maintain interest. It just needs some more variety throughout the track.

NO (resubmit)

[Liontamer]

Right from the beginning at :09, the guitar sample was very exposed, sounding very thin, static, and unrealistic. Even the intensity/triggering of the hand percussion sounded exactly the same, which isn't possible in real life. Texturally, there wasn't much going on beyond the guitar lines and hand percussion. The light gliding/whistling synth was an OK addition, but that wasn't enough to fully flesh out the soundfield.

:37's verse & chorus vs. 1:56's had no significant differences or development in terms of the arrangement. I wouldn't have cut-and-pasted :55 & 2:14's chorus wholesale at 3:55 again either; you need some sort of variation to keep the piece fresh. 2:57 finally shifted into some new territory as far as the composition, but everything was hampered from extremely mechanical sequencing. Chimpa rightly cited a lack of instrumental and dynamic variety as a problem, but if everything sounds this robotically timed, it wouldn't matter what instrumental or dynamic variety was there. Definitely hit up the Workshop and learn what you can about acoustic guitar sequencing, otherwise your further efforts will always be hampered by poor sound quality and a lack of even decent realism.

Arrangement-wise, the genre adaptation was there, but (regardless of the soloing later) the sheer repetition of the ideas dragged on. Pretty far from the mark, but one has to start somewhere. Definitely keep at it, and keep looking to broaden your skills through the Music Composition & Production and Post Your Game ReMixes forums.

NO

[Palpable]

The guitar samples sound like they might do the job, but not the way they're sequenced here. Pay close attention to repeated notes in the lower guitar, the stiffness is most obvious there. In a live performance, the notes will all sound slightly different - not all directly on the beat, at different volumes, at different lengths. The bends sound pretty fake too.

The arrangement also suffers from repeating the same patterns and staying in the same gear for too long. You've included some change-ups in intensity, but for the most part, you've got the rhythm guitars playing similar parts throughout, sometimes cut-and-pasted. I did like the solo sections though.

The genre adaptation is a good concept, but this needs more to it.

NO (resubmit)

[Jivemaster]

Source wise you're there, I have no complaints. On the production side, to be completely honest, when I first heard your track I thought I was listening to a MIDI, because everything was very rigid locked to grid timing wise, and the guitar samples used did not sound very convincing. I absolutely accept that guitar is very difficult to emulate in a sequencer, it's something a lot of people have problems with. I think there are a couple things you can do to make this work.

1. Loosen up that quantisation on the guitar. All DAWs these days have the ability to humanise a performance by loosening the quantisation by a few milliseconds/ticks, making notes appear slightly sooner or later like a human player was playing it. This would reduce the roboticness of the playing. I then suggest exploring some of the other options below.

2. Accompany the acoustic guitar lead you have there with some sampled chords. There are some free sample packages out there which contain some nice acoustic strums. Combining some real chords with the MIDI driven lead I think would help to mask the fact the lead is fake, and would create a thicker texture/atmosphere in your track, making things feel less sparse as well.

3. All else failing, pop into the workshop and see if any folks there can direct you to a good sample library to use. Someone may even want to collab or lay down some chords for you to use in the track. They are a friendly bunch there with all kinds of ideas.

4. Perhaps try switching to another genre. Faking a complete acoustic performance is damn hard. If you can't get things convincing, you could possibly switch over to the electronica side of town to see if things work better.

Looking at the arrangement things aren't too bad, but a couple unique licks here and there would make things feel more fresh.

Definitely some work to be done of this one. I'd like to see you explore some of the options above to strengthen the mix.

NO

Edited September 21, 2014 by Jivemaster

[Beatdrop]

NO

While I like the concept, there are a number of issues with this. First of all, the primary guitar/plucked instrument sounds very ingenuine, largely due to a lack of humanizing. While something sounding fake isn’t really a problem by itself, unfortunately this sound dominates the entire track. Pretty much every note is at the same velocity, or very close to it, which causes the primary instrument to lose interest. Even if authenticity isn't what you wanted here, adding humanization of the note velocities would go a long way toward breaking the monotony. What few other sounds there are, such as the percussion, are nearly inaudible in comparison. Even in terms of the arrangement, humanizing what ends up being the primary sound for the entire song can create dynamic shift throughout the length. Speaking about the arrangement, nothing particularly noteworthy happens versus the source, and it actually stays fairly true to the original in terms of form. However, I should note that due to the previously mentioned predominant instrument, most of the really cool solo sections from the original are lost in the fold. Again, I enjoyed the concept, but in this case, it turned out to be a faux-acoustic piece that’s just a bit too heavy on the “faux” side of things to be effective.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Beatdrop

[Clem]

There is a lot of room for improvement with your use of samples. The guitar sounds are obviously fake (the pitch bends especially). Your instruments chug along mechanically with very little humanization. The percussion sounds are flat and have little punch. All of the instruments are stiffly programmed and this vibe is what dominates the track.

You are going for an acoustic jam style, but to sell such an organic style of music, you need to use your samples with more finesse. It would help a lot to get better sounds, and incorporate real instruments where you can. I would also suggest experimenting with processing the lowish quality samples you're using here. Subtle use of effects can make a cheap sound much more interesting.

All that said, you do have respect for the source. You’ve transcribed it faithfully and created a serviceable, unplugged style rearrangement. It just lacks the sound quality & personality found in the original.

NO