Chimpazilla Posted January 2, 2015 Share Posted January 2, 2015 (edited) Contact Information Username: timaeus222 Name: Truong-Son Nguyen timaeus222@yahoo.com Website (constant WIP but publicly available; should be used as official website): http://tproductions.comeze.com/ http://soundcloud.com/timaeus222 ID: 39971 Submission Information Games: Mega Man 7, Mega Man V (GB) Remix Title: Involuntary Planetary Motion Console/Platform: SNES (MM7), GB (MMV) OST Composers: Mega Man 7 - Yuko Takehara, Toshihiko Horiyama, Makoto Tomozawa Mega Man V - Kouji Murata Sources: Attached MP3's. Composed in FL Studio 11. Remix: Here, VBR1, and here, WAV. Comments: "This combines Saturn's Stage from Mega Man V (GB) with Junk Man from Mega Man 7 in a hardcore DnB/Electronica style. My personal favorite part is in the breakdown section at 1:29. I dunno if anyone noticed this, but this part of Saturn's theme sounded a bit like a certain -skyward- pop single by Demi Lovato... *nudge* It took a while for me to land on this fast-paced energetic style, but I got inspired by the first sound you hear. Believe it or not, I was ALMOST going to do techno for this. Almost. But I didn't (sorry, technomanga fans! :V). I kinda felt like this mixdown was unavoidably difficult because there was bound to be a LOT of midrange content. If your track sounds muddy for some reason and you feel like you've EQed everything well enough already, you can try forcing some elements (that don't need to be stereo; EX: kick/snare, electric basses recorded in mono, etc.) partially to mono to save stereo space. I think that helped here when I was reworking this after the compo; just don't overdo it! :)" Extra info: I spliced the sources together kinda weirdly, omitted some (seemingly unimportant) notes in the last bits of the Junk Man source to make it not sound awkward for the fast tempo, and had this obligatory all-original section near the middle (partially resembling something from Chrono Trigger, which apparently I keep accidentally writing without thinking about it! D:<), so I figured I'd do a source breakdown. 0:00 - 0:18 = Original 0:18 - 0:23 = Saturn (0:03 - 0:16) 0:23 - 0:52 = Junk Man (0:07 - 0:12, 0:12 - 0:22, 0:22 - 0:32) 0:52 - 1:16 = Saturn (0:03 - 0:16) 1:16 - 1:29 = Original 1:29 - 2:06 = Saturn (0:16 - 0:38, 0:03 - 0:16) 2:06 - 2:43 = Junk Man (0:42 - 1:02, 0:12 - 0:22, 0:22 - 0:32) 2:43 - 3:16 = Saturn (0:03 - 0:16) Saturn Junk Man Edited February 18, 2015 by DarkeSword Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 (edited) Quick notes here... strong mix of sources, as usual, but this feels very "paint by numbers" to me... nothing jumping out as very memorable. Noticeable lack of bass for the first part of the song compared to later on. Mixing is a bit troublesome, but I need to think on this to determine whether it's solid enough to pass despite feeling generic and by-the-book. EDIT: Honestly, on my second listen through I feel like I didn't give nearly enough credit to this with my initial impression. There's actually quite a bit of personalization going on here with the synth design and I can tell that, although it sounds fairly similar to your usual work, there was still a tremendous amount of attention to detail put into crafting this. I'm not sure what I was hearing on my first listen, but my second impression of this track was much more positive. The lack of bass at :48 still seems like a big error, when you compare it to 2:14 and onward, for example. I feel like that would be a relatively quick fix, but beyond the scope of a YES (conditional) vote. Other than that, I have no issues with this that would keep it from passing, but the lack of bass presence for the first 2 minutes ends up being a dealbreaker in my book. NO (quick resub please!) Edited February 15, 2015 by Emunator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 (edited) Strong drums and nice use of stereo space. Straight up I agree with Wes that this is lacking fairly strongly in the bass department, except in those parts where there's a strong synth presence. I'd like to see this upped a bit. Apart from this I don't have any major production crits. Each instrument has its place, and reverb gives a nice sense of space. Arrangement wise your sources are fitting together well. There are some nice changes here, the change to half time works well to break things down a bit so they can be built up again. I think there is some room for development/exploration as far as original elements go in this mix. I'd love to see you take them further, but I'm not going to push it if others don't. I will say that this mix is playing it pretty safe from beginning to end. As a side note I think the last note fadeout cuts off unintentionally a bit soon. Might need to extend that ending marker an extra bar or so and reprint. Pretty close one for me. In the end the lack of bass low end requires a resub from me. NO (borderline) Edited February 11, 2015 by Jivemaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Quick notes here... strong mix of sources, as usual, but this feels very "paint by numbers" to me... nothing jumping out as very memorable. Noticeable lack of bass for the first part of the song compared to later on. Mixing is a bit troublesome, but I need to think on this to determine whether it's solid enough to pass despite feeling generic and by-the-book. I have to say this sums up my feelings pretty well. The track sounds great as I'd expect from Timaeus but it seems to lack inspiration somehow, can't quite put my finger on it. I agree about the bass being a bit light in some spots but that isn't bothering me too much. This track isn't knocking my socks off, the arrangement does indeed play it "safe" (even while mixing the themes quite well), but the sounds are great, mixing is great, nice details and overall this track works for me. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatdrop Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 There's not much I can say that others haven't already said. The arrangement is good, but "safe," like has already been mentioned a couple times. A fairly verbatim approach to both themes, but indeed they're blended together well, so I give it bonus points for that at least. The production is really where this takes a hit. I like all the sounds you've got, but the mixing is very... odd. It sounds gutted, like the whole song is notch filtered at a low frequency. Honestly, if only the mixing was fixed, I'd say this is passable for sure. NO (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 The ending doesn't really bother me at all, honestly. I feel like the note fade is fine. That said, there is a distinct lack of bass in the first 1:30 of the song, which I assume probably wasn't intentional. Aside from that, the arrangement was definitely up to standards, the mix was otherwise very clean, and I dig the energy. NO RESUB but seriously get that bass in there and this is a YES from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts