Chimpazilla Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 (edited) Remixer Name: Trev Wignall Email: Website: facebook.com/trevwignallofficial Game: F-Zero X Arrangement: Dream Silencer Arranged Tune: Silence (Dream Chaser) Comments: The lead is electric violin. It sounds like some sort of guitar or synth sometimes, but it really is electric violin all the way through! The effects solo 2/3 of the way through is all done in real-time using my custom effects patch in NI's Guitar Rig 5. It's an abstract violinistic interpretation of what it might be like inside one of those cockpits... Instruments: Fourness Fuse Electric Violin (Lead) NI Guitar Rig 5 (Violin FX) Waldorf Pulse 2 and Blofeld (Basses) Zoom 9030 (Bass FX) NI Battery 3 and Kontakt (Drums) Travis Bean Electric Guitar (Rhythm) Ableton Live (DAW) The Silence theme doesn't really get enough love in my opinion, compared to Big Blue and Mute City. The inspiration do this (and I've wanted to submit for a very long time) comes from the great remixers of OCRemix. Lastly, here's a video of me playing it live. Thanks and enjoy, Trev Wignall Edited March 25, 2016 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted September 4, 2015 Author Share Posted September 4, 2015 That's some impressive violin playing. The arrangement is mostly conservative but then goes into some really interesting territory at 1:45 with a unique breakdown and some soloing. At 2:37 there's a really interesting section where the violin becomes sfx. Love it! My big issue with the track is I don't feel like it's mixed that well. I can barely hear the bass but the kick is too loud. The violin seems muffled most of the time. The drumming is generally very stiff and I'm not sure how well the kit suits the playing style. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 This is definitely not mixed well. From the beginning, it sounds like a lot of higher frequencies just got chopped off. I was waiting for a transition to have the piece go clean and sharp to provide some contrast and explain the intro, and that didn't happen. I was actually put off a bit by the e-violin, because the way it's produced almost makes it sound like a fakey-sounding electric guitar synth instead (weird articulations, in particular). The drumwork underneath was busy and creatively written, but sounded thin, and the background felt too empty. I agreed with Chimpa that the kit didn't sound like it clicked in combination with the guitar, but it could probably work if just produced in a different way. Right now though, this track desperately needs some sort of padding to fill out the soundfield. 1:45's section was an interesting changeup, but the percussion still doesn't work, and when the tracks starts building back up at 1:58, none of the percussion drives the track forward. I'd love to hear another J better explain what the core problem is there. Creative, albeit odd violin-turned-SFX section from 2:37-3:28; doesn't really work all the way, but it's mostly OK, and it's definitely creative and ambitious. Back to the spirited but lo-fi lead work at 3:29 with good perc writing but an empty background. The textures just never, ever click here. This really needs some sort of ambient padding and more cohesive percussion sounds to fill that background space, and the highs can't be eliminated like this. The arrangement has potential, Trev, and the live video was cool, but there's a lot of detail work that's not tight despite the very cool premise behind this. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 It's always good to hear people try something a bit different and break away from the norm utilising instruments or combinations of instruments we don't hear all that often. However with this ambition comes a number of challenges: deciding what will play each part in the arrangement, knowing what works and fitting the pieces together, and most importantly - how to mix the parts. This is where I feel this mix falls flat. When listening to your submission, it felt a lot more like a demo or practice run than the finished item. This is largely in part due to the missing upper frequencies on the entire performance and a heavy emphasis on low-mids. The entire mix is muffled. At the same time, some instruments sound thin, like some of the drums (especially the snare and lighter kick) and the lead in places. The bass is also hard to make out. You have a lot of elements sharing the same frequency range, which also makes some of the parts hard to hear. I was not a big fan of the phaser/flanger effect over the violin through the entirety of the piece, and would've liked to see it used sparingly along the mix to break things up and add variety. Arrangement wise the drums feel too busy and messy at times. When things slowed down around 1:45 and the drums dropped away, there was no real impact when they returned to get the mix going again. The solo-ish portion in the centre with all the effects was an interesting change, but goes on weird for far too long with long interludes between any kind of discernible melody. Above all else, I really feel this submission needs go back to the drawing board mixing wise, including a complete reset of the mixer and EQ on every instrument. Pay particular attention to what parts require what frequencies, and carve out the unneeded frequencies on the parts that do not require them using EQ and/or HPF/LPF's. My other crits still stand but may be lessened by a rework of the mixing. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaMonz Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 First off, this sounds very dark, and damp. Most of the soundscape seems to focus on the low and mid frequencies, leaving the lead all alone to fill the highs. I like the idea of using violin with guitar rigs and effects, and it does sound interesting, although it gets stale pretty quickly as there's very little variation to the sound throughout the track. The playing is great, you've definitely got good performing skills. Although, I feel like focusing the spotlight on this exact same lead sound during the majority of the track contributes a lot to devaluing it. The drum sounds also generally lack impact, especially the cymbals and hi-hats. I do like the toms though. As for the arrangement itself, most of it is repetitive. Some ideas are interesting, like the 2:40-3:30 crazy part which reminded me a bit of Rage Against the Machine when Tom Morello just goes nuts in crazy weird solos. Although, as the full track currently stands, I personally don't feel like the few variations in the structure are enough to keep things interesting throughout. Bottom line: the idea is interesting, but the production needs a lot of fixing, mainly to balance the frequency usage, and I personally think the arrangement could use some more variation. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 There are plenty of issues present here, and I hope I can be of help to you for your future mixes. First, the use of a single lead instrument for every melody in the song is not something you may want to do. In the original, you have several instruments taking turns at leading the song at times and some other times playing off each other, or using call and response. This creates an interesting dynamic that is sorely missing here. The use of a single lead instrument for everything tires the listener's ears pretty quickly, specially since for 90% of the song, this instrument is present and it's relentlessly beating the listener down. I do applaud your skill with the violin but the song will improve if you make so it's the star of your mix, appearing at key moments to steal the show, and not something that is ever present, because then it becomes common and unsurprising. The lead is also oddly mixed with some sort of phaser/flanger that just makes matters worse. The overall mix is pretty muddy, leaving the listener with barely anything else to hear but the lead and the drums, which are also processed weirdly at some points. The overall mix needs clarity and better separation of the different elements that make the song. Regarding the arrangement, it doesn't differ much from the original song, with some exceptions like at 2:37 where the song breaks down into a crazy bridge section. believe me a breakdown was sorely needed but I think you went way too crazy with the lead here to the point where it stops making sense. This remix would have benefited from more interpretation and perhaps distancing itself more from cover territory. Again, I applaud your performance skills, but work on getting a clear production and giving your lead instrument a spotlight, not the entire presentation.NO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Fun source, and the arrangement does some really fun stuff with it toward the middle. The instrument choice is pretty interesting, but it's hard to hear how well they mesh overall when the production is as it is, at the moment. Not sure I'm following the random sound effects in the middle of the track (2:37 - 3:28), though - doing that for a short time can give a cool, almost Hendrix sound to it, but that part goes on for quite some time - I'm not so sure that works for that long of a time. While the electric violin part is a neat addition, most of the instruments in the background are extremely close to what the source is. Drums nearly mirror the source, and the bass mirrors both the instrument and notes in the source. There's not enough change from the source to make this pass on OCR, as it stands. The entire mix sounds like a muffled mess. It's like there's a heavy low pass on nearly all of the instruments. The eletric violinand the lead suffer the most with this, and it just makes the whole track sound... wrong. I couldn't even tell there was a guitar in there the first time around, due to this issue. You're going to need to redo your EQ, low pass and mixing for the whole track, here, so all of the instruments are more clear and balanced. The entire production (mixing, EQ and low passing) needs to be completely redone before this can be considered for the front page, and you need to work out the arrangement so significant swaths don't sound just like the source. OCR has a music workshop forum that would be able to help considerably on the production front, if you'd like some further advice on these things - people on here are more than happy to help, on that front, and I believe you'll find their collective experience useful. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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