Mega Man 3 Top Man dnb

[baboom]

I've been playing with this for several weeks so my ears are totally biased... anyone have suggestions for improvement or observations?

https://soundcloud.com/money_begone/is-the-room-spinning-or-is-it-just-me-wip-v11-mega-man-3-top-man-remix

Edited September 12, 2014 by baboom

[timaeus222]

Is it just me, or is there some sort of phase inversion effect on the kick? Somehow it's really, really far forward. It's just weird to me, and it draws attention to itself. Also, the snare can be louder. Stylistically, the tone works fine, but it's too quiet. I agree that it would help a lot to put in drum variations and melodic variations (for the sake of progression, not just for its own sake).

I like the short breakdown section at 1:20, but it needs a transition. How would anyone know it's coming if there isn't one? More transitions in other places would help too. Also, I think some considerable attention can be put into the breakdown section so that it provides a greater contrast with the main, supposedly higher energy sections. Fuller textures, maybe an ethereal padding, and maybe more reverbed elements overall in just that part would help.

Overall, the balance is off on the piece as a whole. The instruments don't seem connected/glued, and the textures feel sparse. Basically, it feels too clean/uncompressed, disjointed/unconnected, and somewhat empty. It's fine if you want it to be partially high energy and partially not too heavy, because it can be done, but I don't think this is hitting that mark at the moment.

I think this is a fairly reasonable standard to reference. It's pretty similar to what you have here.

Edited September 10, 2014 by timaeus222

[baboom]

Thanks for the advice guise... still needs work, bit I added a few small variations and things, and pads in a couple of places (link updated). BTW the kick thing was a side effect the stereo effect I'm using. I think it's mostly gone now. Also, I'm reading up on compression atm... been putting that off way too long.

[timaeus222]

Hm, looking at this again, there's a lot of copy+paste. Try not to do that so much, because it doesn't really add new content to listen to.

0:11 - 0:34 is the same as 2:35 - 2:57.

0:34 - 0:45 is basically the same as 1:43 - 1:54, except with drums

0:45 - 0:57 is basically the same as 1:54 - 2:07

0:57 - 1:20 is the same as 2:07 - 2:35, except for that last bit of variation at 2:24 - 2:35. That kind of stuff should be done for the other sections too.