Chimpazilla Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 (edited) This one is a collab: ReMixer name: jnWake. Collab ReMixer name: Ivan Hakštok (User ID = 43292). Name of game(s) arranged: Mega Man X2, Mega Man X6. Name of arrangement: Forever a Sponge. Name of individual song(s) arranged: "Wire Sponge" (from MMX2), "Infinity Mijinion" (from MMX6). LINK TO ARRANGEMENT: Mix comments: I made this mix for Round 1 of last year's Grand Maverick Remix Battle (took me a while to submit it!). In that round, I had to mix Wire Sponge (my choice!) against Infinity Mijinion (picked by Zerothemaster). There are a couple of Mijinion mixes here on OCR that focus on the 80's sound of that song, so I tried to stay away from that in my remix. Instead, I only focused on blending the two sources as well as I could, so this mix is actually quite representative of my "natural" style, which is some kind of piano/synth heavy rock thing... Or something. Source breakdown: To make this easier, I'll show some important stuff of both sources! First, Wire Sponge ( ):0:00 - 0:11: Intro (ignored in the remix!). 0:12 - 0:21: Section 1 (used a lot!). 0:22 - 0:30: Section 2 (also used a lot). 0:31 - 0:37: Transition (ignored). 0:38 - 0:50: Section 3 (used once). Now, Mijinion ( ):0:00 - 0:13: The Final Countdown... uh- Section 1/Intro (used in the remix). 0:14 - 0:30: Section 2 (also used). 0:31 - 0:46: Section 3 (also used). 0:47 - 1:13: Solo! And finally, the remix! 0:00 - 0:28: Intro. Based on Mijinion's Intro. 0:29 - 0:35: Sponge's Section 1. 0:36 - 1:03: Sponge's Section 1 on piano and Mijinion's section 2 on ac. guitar. 1:04 - 1:24: Sponge's Section 2. 1:25 - 1:48: Violin plays Mijinion's Section 3. End of the section uses a transition from Wire Sponge. 1:49 - 2:21: Mijinion's guitar solo played by a synth. A violin plays Sponge's Section 1. 2:22 - 2:53: E. Piano plays Mijinion's section 2 and synth plays the lead from Sponge's section 3 (chord progression is also Sponge's section 3). 2:54 - 3:06: Guitar plays Sponge's Section 1 melody. 3:07 - End: "Epic" outro with Mijinion's melody. Hope I didn't mispell Infinity Mijinion's name too many times there! Edited September 23, 2014 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted July 4, 2014 Author Share Posted July 4, 2014 (edited) Wow, I'm loving this arrangement, it has great flow and dynamics and a nice mix of instrumentation, lots of attention to detail. Really nice blending of the sources. Hats are a little loud (and machine-gunish at 2:34), snare is a little weak. Mixing is just a tad indistinct, could stand a bit of cleanup but it's workable. Synth work is really great with some really fun soloing. Overall, this is a winner! edit 9/22/14: I won't hold this up. I really like this track. Do the eq cleanup and humanization tweaks mentioned, get the production sounding really tight, and resubmit it please! NO(resubmit) Edited September 23, 2014 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 (edited) Piano tone is a beat weak from the get-go, both from a lack of body initially to not cutting through well when other instruments are playing. A tad mechanical is sequencing as well. Nice synergy of instruments as things kick into gear at :43. As mentioned, the hats stick out a bit and they and the snare tend to get robotic at times with repeated similar hits. Tip with your drum writing: have the hat notes cut out when the snare or toms fills hit (like :43). You actually remember to do this later, but not early on. Balance could use some improvement. Rhythm guitars are a bit loud compared to others and, as mentioned, the piano tends to get buried a bit in the mix. The acoustic lead sometimes gets lost behind other elements. The leads in general don't always cut through well to the forefront. 1:26 is the weakest section. The lead barely emerges from the backing instruments at all and is too slow of an attack to carry the melody. The transition leading into it felt awkward as well. It doesn't either drive the song forward or provide a good energy contrast to the rest of the song. It's just kinda there. Source breakdown: :00 - :28 - claimed by mixer as based on source2 intro, but far too abstract to count IMO :29 - :36 - source1 :37 - 1:04 - source2 melody 1:05 - 1:25 - source2 second section in guitar melody 1:26 - 1:49 - source2 section 3 1:50 - 2:04 - source2 solo section Ok, that's probably enough. I'm pretty much agreeing with mixers' breakdown besides the intro section. Overall, nice arrangement that utilizes a ton of source material and blends them together artfully. This one's very close for me. Trying to weigh the production crits with the strength of the overall arrangement. On balance, I feel that despite having a lot of minor production issues, it still carries above the bar for me (if just so). I could see this going either way, so good luck with the rest of the vote. <edit: see below> Notes: It sounds like the attack of the very first note is chopped off. Common FL Studio issue (I frequently hit it as well). Just highlight the whole timeline and move things out 1 beat and it should fix it. Would be nice to get a fixed version if this passes. EDIT: Given how much on the fence I was on this previously, I decided to come back to this to give it a fresh listen. The first plucked lead in the intro (and later at 2:51) is really stiffly sequenced and has unnatural sounding note changes as a result. I'm surprised I didn't catch this before. Also, the balance/cutting issues are striking me now as a bigger issue than when I voted on this previously. Gonna flip over my vote on this and ask for a tightened up version. There's a lot of good potential here that is currently unrealized. NO resubmit, please Edited September 22, 2014 by Nutritious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 (edited) Some decent use of the source here, the arrangement is fulfilling consisting of a bunch of nice sections. Liking the instrumentation in this as well. Some nice piano freestyle going on, however it would greatly benefit from more volume so we can hear whats going on more. The hats starting at 0:53 are a little loud in that portion of the track, but are a decent volume throughout the rest of the track. My main concerns: the snare feels a little weak IMO, along with the piano lead at 0:59, the string/violin lead at 1:23 and the synth lead at 1:48. Nothing is really popping out in the mix as much as it should, almost like there is a little too much compression across the master bus gluing everything together too tightly. This for me is hurting the clarity of the above mentioned lead lines. I would also say the bass is a teeny too boomy, but that may only be because I can hear it a lot more than most of the other elements. I might be the odd one out here, but I think a bit more clarity would really benefit this track. The lead instruments need to pop out more. That would really strengthen the mix and make it more enjoyable. If this is done I'll be happy. NO (please resub) Edited September 20, 2014 by Jivemaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 I agree with Justin a ton, I think he really mentions all the parts that really need some work here. I'm just on the other side of the fence with the decision, though. I really think the spit-shine on the balance especially will really benefit this mix and bring it to the next level, and it's not quite making it as-is. Would really love for you to clean this up, the arrangement is really solid. NO (resubmit, please!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatdrop Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I'm also inclined to (mostly) agree with Mr. Nutritious. Over all, the arrangement is really solid. Despite what Justin said about the intro, the source usage is blatantly obvious. The lead that comes in at :13 is the melody taken almost verbatim from :17 into the source. In actuality, the arrangement isn't just solid, it's really damn good. The way you intertwined the two songs worked awesomely. On the other hand, despite how amazing the arrangement is, the song does in fact have a substantial amount of production issues. The overall mixing needs some work: I definitely agree that the rhythm guitar elements are too loud, and this becomes most noticeable towards the end; the hat and ride cymbal are in dire need of some humanization and rebalancing against the rest of the drums; and the mix as a whole could benefit from some mastering tweaks to give more definition to the lower range. Despite these negatives, there are a lot of good things about the production. I especially enjoy the instrument choices, although as Justin also mentioned, the piano could use work. Otherwise, I think this is a really dynamic track with a lot happening throughout. There's really a lot of great ideas all over this, it just needs some more polish for them to shine through. NO (absolutely resubmit please) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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