Chimpazilla Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 (edited) Remixer Name: APZX Real Name: Austin Simons E-mail Address: User ID: 30429 Game Arranged: The Lawnmower Man (SNES) Name of Arrangement: Link to listen & download Song Arranged: The Streets/Suburbia Additional Game Information: The SNES version of the game, which is where I pulled the original composition from, had Allister Brimble as the composer. However, there are other versions of the game: DOS/Composer: Fergus McNeill, Sega CD/Composer: Unable to locate, Gameboy/Composer: Teque London (not able to find a specific person), and Genesis/Composer: Allister Brimble. Original Soundtrack for the SNES: The specific track for the remix can be found at the following link I have always wanted to do a remix of the first song from this game because I remember hearing it and saying to myself, "This is freakin' AWESOME!" What really got me going with the original though was that bassline. It just sounded right. Fast forward to now and I had a recent stroke of inspiration and that is when the track Cyber Mower came to life. I know it is a terrible name. But to be fair I have never been good at coming up with names. There really is not a lot of fun production notes though other than it came together very quickly. --------------------------------------------------------------- Edited April 22, 2015 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 (edited) This is certainly an interesting mix. Nice bassline indeed. The synth blasts in the intro get a little repetitive but I really like the filtering. Nice beat established but the main hat sample is a bit too loud. The "club siren" sweep starting at 1:42 is pretty generic and it appears two more times in the arrangement (I feel like sfx are better utilized if they appear just once, twice max). The middle part of the arrangement is nebulous and sparse for my taste. I like the solo section at the end the best, although the lead writing is sort of scattered and lacking contour. I think there are a lot of great ideas here but I'm not sure about the overall arrangement and I need to listen again to really get the source connections. Can anyone help especially with that middle portion? edit 4-20-15: Thanks Larry. Listening again, I really think this is a cool arrangement. That hat is still too loud and dry. I still love the bassline. That long empty middle section just needs more stuffz. Maybe some hints at drum patterns, hints of bassline, and a ton of ear candy could be added to really tease the listener about what is to come! So much opportunity in that section from 1:54 all the way to 4:06. That's just too long for such an empty soundscape. And yes, one "club siren" is enough, find other super cool sfx to use in place of the others. I agree with Larry, the arrangement doesn't need to be changed, it works as is. Just fill it out better. NO (resubmit) Edited April 21, 2015 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 For a 5:35-long arrangement, I needed at least 167.5 seconds of overt source usage for the source material to be dominant in the arrangement. :11.5-1:24, 1:39-1:53, 1:53-2:23 (subtle), 3:39-3:50.75, 4:05.75-5:31.75 = 214.25 seconds or 60.69% overt source usage There were actually more liberal nods to the source that I didn't explicitly count, but it wasn't really a question of the original song being referenced enough. The middle didn't reference the source overtly, but the core pattern opening the source was used in spades for the first and last few minutes, and other sections of the theme were referenced. Cool opening synths; didn't quite click with the source line brought in at :11 at first blush, but we'll see where it goes. Pretty long intro until 1:09. Interesting line added at 1:09, though the new beat added sounded kind of thin and the texture was empty until 1:25. Yet another interesting bit with the SFX from 1:42-1:57. Got my attention with the near-fadeout around 2:30 and the gradual re-raising of the volume; cool idea there. Chimpa said, "The middle part of the arrangement is nebulous and sparse for my taste." I acknowledge both things and wished it didn't get so thin from 2:23-2:44. That said, I did like the dynamic shift there, even if the soundscape got too thin with generic synths for a segment of it. Agreed with Chimpazilla on the lameness of reusing the SFX from 3:02-3:14 & 3:53-4:05. Not sure why you needed those re-used, or at least didn't produce those sounds in a different way. There's no hard limit on repetition, but you do have to be careful about the wholesale reuse of ideas without variation. Overall, the synth design was generic for some extended sections, and portions like 3:14-4:05 were more vanilla-sounding. However, 4:05-4:49 helped move against that synth design blandness by doing more energetic, varied things with the leads and employing lots of great ear candy for supporting instrumentation. Overall, the soundscape is generally filled out enough where I think it's OK, but I believe this needs one more pass with some of the thinnest, most dry synth sections tweaked to add some meat to the bones, e.g. 1:57-2:44 & 3:14-4:05. In my opinion, the arrangement itself doesn't need to be touched, but some synth changes or some additional, subtle part-writing for the thinnest most generic-sounding sections could pull this over the line. Either way, Austin, this is an excellent piece that's well in the right direction; it just needs some further tightening up with the synth design. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 This is a pretty unorthodox arrangement, spending nearly a minute to build up steam, catching a groove for a very brief period of time and then dropping out for a very extended period of time before finally bringing the beat back to full intensity around the 4 minute mark. It's a bit of a tease, and admittedly there's some points of the track that start to test my patience, but I think the payoff with the track is decently rewarding and interesting. I really like the ending synth solo, definitely worth the wait for that. Overall, you have a lot of ideas at play, and when everything goes into full swing, it clicks. However, the slower breakdowns are underwhelming and it doesn't always feel like you utilize that time to its full potential. I would strongly suggest experimenting with those parts particularly and either shortening them (if you feel appropriate) or, more preferably, adding in more layers and sounds to flesh those parts. The length of that middle section can be justifiable but it's not quite there. And yeah, those repeat club sirens need to be swapped out. It's such a conspicuous transition that you REALLY notice that it's being re-used. I see a lot of potential here and I admire the unconventional structure you used, I think this just needs another detail pass to get it up to par! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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