Chimpazilla Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) Submission Information The Legend of Zelda - The Wind waker Out on the open sea Ocean Original song This remix/cover wasn't supposed to happen at first. It all started out with my having some fun in renoise while sampling my aucustic guitar. After a short jamming session I started playing the chords from the Ocean theme from Wind Waker and that's when I decided to make it. Contact Information Mahrellon Andreas Flodman www.youtube.com/Mahrellon Userid: 34595 Edited July 20, 2015 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Whoa, cool concept! Nice filtered intro. Beats and piano start sounding repetitive right away. I like that vocal, very cool... but I hear it four times verbatim in this mix which is too many of the same thing for me personally. The instrumentation is cool overall but the writing is very repetitive without a lot of interpretation on the source theme other than a few alternate notes here and there. I like the piano verse starting at 2:13, good delay but the piano sounds really stiffly sequenced. There is some variation in the soundscape with different leads being used or layered in each verse, but ultimately the repetitive nature of the writing and that vocal are bringing this arrangement down for me. The mixing seems to be working well enough. I think this is close but I feel like it just needs a bit more variation on that theme, maybe make one of those verses more original? You could also vary the beats, for example the verse beginning at 2:40 could be halftime drums. Also is there a chance of getting some additional phrases recorded, so that the phrase you have here could only occur once or twice? Maybe make it the first and final phrase, and have two other phrases in the middle, just a thought. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Pretty cool! Kris covered most of my criticism: Basically, there's too much repetition. I think reusing the quote itself can work, but when 3'26" hit and it was the same thing AGAIN, I was overcome by a general feeling of repetition. The bones of this mix/arrangement are too good to let things sit on auto-pilot for so long... drop out, build up, add some glitch/chop fx somewhere, modulate, filter.... just do something to differentiate each section. As it stands right now, I can listen to the first 30 seconds or so and hear everything this mix has to say, in a nutshell. It's our job as arrangers to make sure that's not the case, and that the full duration of the piece introduces new ideas or reiterates previous ones in a new context. My only other more minor critique is that the overall dynamic levels are static, but that's also exacerbated by repetition, and that's one of the ways the repetition could be broken up. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Cool intro here, way to build up the interest and action. Great points above on the repetition issues that I can get on board with. I also agree with Kris' that the vocal sample could be used more sparingly or a bit more creatively. Not a dealbreaker, so up to you on that one. I'll also add that for a dance-type mix, the kick is lacking some mid-low/low end body. It sounds like the lows have been rolled off in favor of higher frequencies, so the mix is missing that thumping undertone that the kick could provide. Don't overdo it, but consider either some EQ work or layering another deeper kick to flesh it out better. This is a very cool concept and isn't too far off IMO. Keep at it! NO resubmit, please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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