Nutritious Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Nutritious Justin Medford Ultra Street Fighter 4 Decapre's Theme CEO Project Mix Ever since first seeing Darkesword's recruitment posts for the Apex album projects, I'd wanted to join up and do a mix. Unfortunately, real life tended to get in the way of that each time. However, when he posted to recruit for a similar album for the CEO tournament, I decided not to let this chance slip by as well. As most producers/remixers can attest to, when beginning a new track, the end result very rarely ends up sounding like what you'd originally envisioned. I've been listening to a new artist named Fox Stevenson, and was attempting to emulate a style similar to one of his mixes called Throwdown (Rob Gasser remix, actually). The idea was for a half-time, heavy electronic take on the Decapre theme from USF4. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I wasn't quite able to get it sounding how I wanted it to. Eventually, it evolved into a sort-of Rock D'n'B track, with the same heavy low end presence I was trying for in the first place. I really wanted something high energy for the album and I feel I accomplished it here. In my opinion, I feel that it is one of my best tracks to date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Great soundscape established right away, those bass stabs are terrific! You nailed the low bass presence you were going for. The backing pattern is not identical to the source but close enough. I'm hearing enough source overall. Production is sounding good to me but I don't like the snare, for my taste it has too much body, it pokes through too strongly and also sounds quite dry. I think some delay would work well on that snare, and a little eq to remove some mids. I'm finding the snare distracting. I like the rhythm guitars together with the synth pad backing, and both are audible. The lead guitar isn't fooling anyone of course. I wish the lead guitar was switched for something else for one verse at least, or that you had modulated it or effected it in some way. I'm not in love with this lead timbre and it sounds dry and very up-front. I'm finding some repetition in the arrangement. For example, 0:35-0:55 is identical to 1:18-1:40, and each of these two sections is two repeated ideas. I wish there was something different between those two parts, an additional timbre, different writing or some effect added. While the lead writing does vary from verse to verse, the writing is quite similar, and it sounds more similar because the same timbre is used each time with no modulation. I do like the filter effects you used as transitions, although at 2:34 it almost gets too sparse, that is a good opportunity for some other kind of transition sound to be added. I wish you had used an alternate snare during the breakdown from 1:40-2:02. The snare sounds even more distracting to me during that part, and that would have been a great opportunity to add some sonic variation to your drums, and maybe some more drum writing variation too, as that section is mostly just kick-snare-kick-snare. I think the soundscape is good and the arrangement is working even with the repetition of ideas. I do have some issues though. I'm actually going to withhold my vote until I see what others are saying. edit: Just to be clear, my repetition concerns mainly relate to the non-lead sections in between the melody sections. I believe those two sections I mentioned are identical (someone correct me if that is wrong). The lead/melody sections are similar, but they have just enough variation to work. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Agreed with Chimpazilla on the dry snare at :33; the kick was good, but the snare sounded flimsy & WIP-like with no meat/body to it. I was so glad when it dropped out at 2:19, and equally sad when it (expectedly) returned at 3:08. See what you can do to beef that tone up and/or push it back in the soundscape, whatever may work. Theme comes in at :56 and sounds conservatve but solid, followed by more interesting variation at 1:07. The guitar chugs behind it were solid because they were placed in the background in a way that didn't expose them too much, so props on that. Good dropoff from 2:20 before gradually building back into the original verse structure at 3:09. There were some minor grace notes and changes to the melody to smartly make the final verse different before the finish, so any repetition concerns weren't founded, though some more dynamic contrast across the board would have been welcome. Subtle thing, but I also really liked the gradual close from 3:38 as elements left, and the volume started dropping; very cool way to end it. I was on the fence about the weak snare, but the rest of the presentation was solid enough for me, including the other beats, plus the snare's is surrounded JUST ENOUGH by other elements where it barely blends in enough. While I'd like that dry beat to be changed before we posted this, I'm not gonna hold this back when everything else was creatively on point and above the bar. I can understand a NO, but I'm on board, so let's go. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 Snare is fine for the uptempo sections but when the halftime melody kicks in I think it needed a dupsteppier crack/clap style snare with a longer decay. Generally speaking, when you're going faster, a short & peppy snare like this is almost a necessity, but when you slow things down, you need something to fill that space & resonate a bit more... could even have been layered in underneath, some sort of hit/fall....as-is, when exposed, snare kinda sits there and folks are staring at it for a millisecond or five and it's awkwardly looking around the room and avoiding eye contact. Not a deal-breaker, but also not entirely trivial. Everything else is dope. People still say dope, right? Aggressively compressed modern EDM stuff w/ a touch of guitar - good sound, good times, good beats. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 OCR-level good? Yeah, definitely feeling this one. I'm not sure it's your very best work, Justin, as I think the concerns voiced re: snare, repetition, are valid, but still it's definitely front-page worthy. Is stronk track. Many approve. such YES wow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 Great track, with quite a lot of energy. I enjoy this more than the original source tune. When you accomplish that, you're doing well. A couple of things: -The mix feels clouded to me. It's possible there is some low end clash occurring or something, but during portions when the bass isn't playing (like at 1:40), everything is a lot clearer so the bass may be at fault. I can still hear your kick though, just wish the bass didn't sound like it was all sub. -Snare detracts from the otherwise solid energy in this mix. I agree when the others say this sounds placeholder. I'm almost on the side that if this could be re-rendered with a different snare it would make this a solid yes. Considering the others are willing to pass this regardless, I am ok with it. YES (borderline) Question: Is Nutritious in a position to be able to re-render with a dif snare? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Justin was cool enough to carve a little time out tonight to tweak this with the judge feedback in mind. [01:10] <Nutritious> hey dude [01:11] <Liontamer> yo [01:11] <Nutritious> can I bounce decapre off you? [01:11] <Liontamer> word [01:11] <Nutritious> [01:11] <Liontamer> done or looking for feedback? [01:12] <Nutritious> not positive [01:12] <Nutritious> why I wanted to get another set of ears [01:12] <Nutritious> I've heard this so many times [01:12] <Liontamer> sure [01:14] <Nutritious> almost done rendering [01:14] <Nutritious> most concerned about half-time snare [01:14] <Liontamer> aight [01:15] <Nutritious> tried to take Dave's advice, but easier said than done [01:18] <Nutritious> [01:19] <Nutritious> old version for reference: [01:21] <Liontamer> 2:30 in, definitely sounding like a winner [01:22] <Nutritious> excellente! [01:22] <Liontamer> beats have more depth to them to give it that extra something [01:22] <Liontamer> without changing the sound drastically [01:22] <Nutritious> yeah, I spent just about the whole time on that [01:22] <Liontamer> half-time works [01:22] <Nutritious> I think my problem before was [01:22] <Nutritious> I had so much low-end presence, I was losing snare [01:23] <Nutritious> so I tried to beef up mid-low range, ended up having it stick out a ton [01:23] <Liontamer> yeah, this is totally set, IMO [01:23] <Nutritious> sweet And just like that, winner, winner, chicken dinner. The physical album's already pressed, but we've got this good to go for the digital release and having it posted here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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