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Here's the link to the Remix:

http://www.homegrownhymns.com/PickinColors.mp3

 

Hi all... this is my first attempt at posting anything to OCR. Though I love all genres of music, my experience thus far has been mostly with Bluegrass. So, I found a song that I thought would work well with this genre and created a remix of the Mario Paint Theme Song.
 
I still have ideas for enhancements I'd like to make to this remix, but am most interested in hearing what the OCR community thinks. Please listen and let me know your thoughts on how I can improve this arrangement!
 
Thanks ;-)

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Wow, you don't hear this genre a lot around these parts.

 

And by a lot I mean at all.

 

Like I don't think I've ever came across someone else attempting this genre (except Hillbilly Rodeo, but that was years ago).

 

It's a pretty good mix.  I'd be interested in hearing/knowing what your enhancements would be, as my only criticism is a lack of a certain spice to this.  The bassline plays through-out the entire song and doesn't drop out, or really changes the down beat pattern.  There's no snazzy transitions from segment to segment, no spicy fills, just a pretty smooth sailing piece.

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Thanks for the Feedback. I like your suggestions about the Bass line and the Transitions. I'm going to accumulate all these suggestions as I head for a next attempt :razz:

 

In regard to my ideas for improvement, I would like to "Humanize" several of the lead instruments. As it is, they are a "midized" (note-for-note transcribed) version of me playing and then rendered via professionally recorded sound fonts. I chose to record it this way as I don't have the recording equipment needed to obtain a quality recording. I'm working on getting the needed equipment for this. I'll eventually bump the 2 versions against each other to see which comes out best.

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timaeus222...

 

Thanks for the link ;-)

I listened and I love what "worldsbestgrandpa" has done with these 2 songs. His style is probably best defined as "Old Time" or "Appalacian String Band" tradition!" (and this according to him as well).

 

No doubt about it though, there's cross-over between his style and what I'm attempting on my first post. They are cousins (and not too distant cousins at that). I wish I could play the "Claw-Hammer" style banjo like he does. My background is more of the "Earl Scruggs" style. It wouldn't hurt my feelings to see both of these styles get a little air-time on OCR.

 

Here's to us old-folks joining in with you young whipper-snappers. I really like what you guys are doing (in all genres)  :razz:

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All...

 

I have followed Skrypnyk's advice and created a Second-Take of "Mario Paint Theme Song - Pickin Colors" Now that I've heard it with Skrypnyk's feedback included, I like it better. Hope you will too!

 

Here's the link to my Original Remix:

http://www.homegrownhymns.com/PickinColors.mp3

 

Here's the link to Remix-2 (using Skrypnyk's feedback):

http://www.homegrownhymns.com/PickinColors-2.mp3 <---THIS IS THE NEW ONE ***

 

Oh Yeah... And here's the link to the Original from Nintendo (so you have something to bump it up against):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdapZ1FZhI

 

Shown below is a screen shot of the changes and where they occur:

MPTS-2.jpg

 

Thanks...

Steve (dabedaab)

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Well, this is indeed a genre you don't hear all that often around here. But yeah, it is surely most welcome! This is a super fun arrangement.

The changes to the arrangement v1 to v2 add a lot in my opinion. The sounds are actually mostly pretty serviceable to my ears - the ensemble playing sounds genuine enough, like a band playing. Only the banjo feels rather mechanically sequenced, and the bass when it's exposed during multi-instrument dropouts (arrangement-wise, these spots are really good).

Arrangement-wise, the only thing to improve I'd say would be the ending - it kind of just stops, it could do something more there, like repeat the last phrase a couple of times, slow it down a little, or some other such signaling that the piece is coming to a close.

Strong stuff, I'm really eager to hear more. Good luck with the recording gear!

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Really enjoyable listen.  Not a go to genre for me either, but I enjoyed this and it definitely fits with the general Mario-ragtime writing feel over the many iterations of the series.

For me, I think the lead mandolin (your maybe calling it Middle?  "MandolinM" above) could be EQ'd a bit to allow it to sit in the mix somewhat more comfortably.  Perhaps tinker with reducing the low end and boosting near 350 Hz and add some sparkle with slight boosts around 7k.  Side-chaining as well might prove to offer some interesting results.

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Wow...

 

Thanks evktalo and MrKyle for the feedback!

 

evktalo added:

Only the banjo feels rather mechanically sequenced, and the bass when it's exposed during multi-instrument dropouts

 

I completely understand and agree. I did get my recording equipment and am experimenting with it now. My plans are to replace the midized version of my banjo playing with the real thing (we'll see how that goes). Also, I have a bass, but it's an electric bass. That one would be easy to record. I'll experiment with that too!

 

evktalo also added:

Arrangement-wise, the only thing to improve I'd say would be the ending - it kind of just stops, it could do something more there, like repeat the last phrase a couple of times, slow it down a little, or some other such signaling that the piece is coming to a close

I agree again. I've got some ideas here. I'll incorporate and re-post.

 

MrKyle adds:

For me, I think the lead mandolin (your maybe calling it Middle?  "MandolinM" above) could be EQ'd a bit to allow it to sit in the mix somewhat more comfortably.  Perhaps tinker with reducing the low end and boosting near 350 Hz and add some sparkle with slight boosts around 7k.  Side-chaining as well might prove to offer some interesting results

 

I'm somewhat of a newbie to these ideas, but I can see in the DAW I used (Audacity) that they have an equalizer option. My guess is that I can work with this and add the noted enhancements. I don't know what "Side-chaining" is though. I'll look it up on the internet.

 

In summary, I'm kind of amazed that there's an on-line forum/community that offers good constructive criticism. :razz:  Thanks OCR Community!

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Well...

 

Here's version# 3:

http://www.homegrownhymns.com/PickinColors-3.mp3

 

I made a horrible mistake. I inadvertently corrupted all the individual files pertaining to this remix :oops:

Since all the tracks have been merged, I have no way to unmerge them :cry:

I was working on making the changes listed above when I corrupted the files.

My only improvement was to modify the ending per evktalo's suggestion (as best I could considering the damage).

 

Though I wasn't really ready to do so, I'm going to mark this as "Finished" (I don't have the heart to start from scratch again).

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All...

 

On my last post, I informed everybody that I had inadvertently corrupted my files and didn't have the heart to start over.

Well, I waited a few days for my wounds to heal and then started over again (completely from scratch).

So, this time I was able to implement the advice given me via feedback. Here's the latest:

 

Here's version 4: 

http://www.homegrownhymns.com/PickinColors-4.mp3 (Enhancements: Live Recorded Banjo, EQ'd Mandolin)

 

I'm interested in all feedback of course, but in particular about the live banjo. For example, how does it compare to it's midized predecessor and/or does it need some technical tweaks?

 

BTW (different subject)... The young man in the video (link provided below) is one of my 3 children that introduced me to VGM. He's the one playing mandolin on "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - Magi is Everything":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pxRvKzCJ5o

 

Thanks... Steve (dabedaab)

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All...

 

Here's version 5:

http://www.homegrownhymns.com/PickinColors-5.mp3 (Humanized the Banjo Track)

Here's the Original Tune for comparison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdapZ1FZhI

 

In my last post I included a live recording of me on the banjo. I'm not down on my ability to play... but It's my opinion that the listening pleasure decreased on version 4. In a nutshell, I have yet to gain the experienced needed at live recording. I've been reading up on how to do this, but for now I'm reverting back to a humanized/midized version of me playing. I'm quite pleased with the humanizing effort on the banjo track. Sounds considerably more human-like to me.

 

I'm going to put this in Mod Review now.

 

Thanks...

Steve (dabedaab)

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  • 2 weeks later...

MOD REVIEW

 

Dayum, man, this is freakin' awesome. I can still pick out the mechanical nature of the banjo myself, though - it just... yeah, sounds thin and not real. I listened to the performance of the other track, and I would have to say that it sounded so much better. While it's entirely up to you, I feel your track would stand much better with the live banjo performance over the sampled one.

Otherwise, I think it would pass quite nicely - there's just such a nice feel to the whole thing. But yeah, I compared the two and I feel the live performance was far superior to the sampled one. Great playing on all those instruments, by the way ;)

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