DragonAvenger Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 ReMixer name : Thunder Thouin real name : Yan Thouin website : https://www.youtube.com/user/ThunderThouin userid : 11481 Name of game arranged : Shadowrun (SNES) Name of arrangement : Reborn Name of the original composer : Marshall Parker Name of individual song(s) arranged : Morgue Link to the original song : Contribution : Marc-André Tremblay for the electric guitar at 2:29 Hi! So here's a remix of the morgue theme from Shadowrun on the SNES. I love that game because it introduced me to the cyberpunk universe back when I was a kid. The soundtrack was not very conventional compared to other snes titles but it fitted with the mood perfectly. I always told myself I should cover one just to pay my respect to the game ! At first, I wanted to do something like "Rites" from Jan Garbarek but I moved away from it since I couldn't properly emulate the different articulations of the sax on my current setup. You can still hear some similarities in my arrangement (flutes) but it's really thin. I mixed a lot of stuff in there.. electronic with orchestral, middle eastern voices with distorted percussions.. and even a banjo! It was intensional. I wanted to represent the blending of different cultures and styles that occurs in a world like shadowrun. I decided never to use synthetized electric guitars again in my mixes so my friend Marc-André Tremblay did the part (with the echo) for the crescendo that lead to the ending segment. It's subtle but it really adds up. All my thanks goes out to him for his help. So here it is, I hope you guys will like it! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 (edited) Cool source, and I hear plenty of it in the track. Mix is unique and has tons of variety in instrumentation, very creative arrangement. Bass is very groovy, synth work is good, strings sound terrific, I like the bitcrushed perussion, tons of sfx and I love the vocal bits. The mix sounds like it is missing some low end though, like the whole thing has been high-passed. There are a couple of areas where I'm concerned that the track is overcompressed, such as 1:10, it just borders on distorted at that point. I think the drums might be a bit loud and mixed upfront, most noticeable on the snare and hats. So yeah, the lack of low end is a bummer, there seems to be nothing happening below 80Hz in the track, and it could have a lot more impact with a bit more volume in the 40-80Hz range. The drums would probably not sound so loud if there were more bass overall. If this doesn't pass, I'd suggest bringing up the low end, also be very careful about overall compression, maybe lower your limiter gain by a few db. But the arrangement carries it for me. YES Edited December 14, 2014 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 Excellent, I loved your last two submissions - you have an excellent way with massive genre fusions, and the source is interesting, so let's see where you take this... This really lives up to the expectations set by your past few mixes! I think you raised your personal bar for incorporating so many disparate elements into one track without it being a total mess. In fact, this is quite cohesive and well-arranged all-around. Electronic drums, traditional orchestral instrumentation, funk bass, ethnic flutes/vocals, metal guitar... I don't know how you pulled it off but it all fits quite nicely! Source is plenty present but expanded and elaborated upon in many ways. No issue there! My only real complaint with this mix is that the big moments never seem to have as much impact as they could. This rides a comfortable dynamic level for most of the track, and although the writing itself has plenty of peaks and valleys, the mixing falls just a little bit flat. Not a big deal to me in the grand scheme of things, but I thought it was worth mentioning to see if anyone else might be able to elaborate on that, if they feel it's an issue. Additionally, some of the sequenced instruments (the ethnic flute :54 and the lead synth at 1:49) are getting buried in the mix and sound slightly muddled. This is a pretty easy call for me on the merit of the arrangement, but there is room for improvement. Naturally, with an arrangement this ambitious and dense, not everything is going to click 100%, but what you got right more than makes up for any shortcomings in my opinion. Good luck with the rest of the vote! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 I enjoyed this track. Your mix is very creative with a lot of changes in instrumentation to keep things fresh. Orchestral elements, guitars, winds, vocal samples, synthage, piano - the textures blend into each other well and the transitions are very smooth and seamless. Your performances of each of these elements is done realistically and nothing stood out as fake. The main concerns for me: I thought the mix was glued together a little too much, causing some elements to not be as clear as others. In particular, some of the low end elements lack clarity. This may also be due to what Chimp has mentioned with regards to the lack of the lower frequencies. There were also a few isolated moments where the mix got crunchy like the limiter was slightly overloading. However I'm not going to hold the mix back for these points - the overall quality of the production is decent and the arrangement is very interesting doing the original source a lot of justice. Just some things to think about for future productions. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted January 8, 2015 Share Posted January 8, 2015 Cool and creative take of the source, It really expands on the aesthetic of the original and ties in a lot of the mashup of themes in the game mythos as well. This definitely feels like technology slamming into magic in a gritty setting. Some of the production gets a touch overstuffed on your master channel, and i wish there was a bit more bass response, but it's within acceptable limits for the OCR bar, and the creativity and arrangement more than make up for it. Good stuff, I enjoyed it a lot Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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