Liontamer Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 ReMixer name: LoopyThePirate Real name: Darrell Reconose E-mail address: loonylupin06@yahoo.com Website: http://www.myspace.com/loopythepirate Game remixed: The Legend of Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time Song remixed: Gerudo Valley Link to song: Comments: My first OCR submission! This is an instrumental rock version of the Gerudo Valley theme from OoT. My hat goes off to Darangen, whose "Falling Back" was the inspiration behind this track. I was going for a high-tech space rock sound that my side proejct The Alien Paradox (http://www.myspace.com/thealienparadox) is known for. Perhaps what was going on in my head was that I wanted it to sound as if Gerudo Valley was "Gerudo Highway" in the 30th century, hence the title. ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 68 "Gerudo Valley" http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01435/ - "Falling Back" Offhand, we only have 2 sets of ReMixes where one mix was directly inspired by another. "Wily Meets Flash Man"/"Dr. Wily Haunts Flash Man" and "Blue"/"Blue (Shooting Star Mix)". The first set was from NoppZ and later Mattias Holmgren inspired by NoppZ. The second was Ziwtra, with Ziwtra later choosing to update the original version of the mix. You listen and compare them and you see how dramatically different both sets of mixes are. Much like the standard we demand for the arrangement of an original VGM tune, if you're going to go for an arrangement inspired by a preexisting arrangement, it's important that your new track still creatively stand apart from the inspiration. This, IMO, does not do that. "Falling Back" is primarily guitar-based, and so is this one, basically using all the same riffs and arrangement ideas that Darangen used, only not as cohesively put together. Playing the vocal parts with the guitar instead was pretty cool and it takes skill to learn the parts, but doesn't get the job done on presenting a different enough arrangement compared to Darangen's. Why was the drumwork so loud at :48? Tone it down. Decent guitar wank ideas at 2:19 for the soloing with the piano underneath, which proceeded to completely fall apart at 2:31 as those terrible drums got added, cluttering the whole soundfield while the guitar and piano decided to get crazy and the overall volume seemed to go up. Terrible idea to throw in the machine-gun drums at 3:05, as it didn't fit with the rest of the sounds. The vox used in that section was barely audible; scrap it anyway, since it sounds cheap and tacky. You have some great energy here along with some potentially impressive flourishes on guitar, Darrell, but that all got undermined by the cluttered soundfield and poor production. The parts adapted from "Falling Back" are too similar to Darangen's to fit in with the standards here. You've gotta get away from the same tempo and/or same rhythmical changes he used and go for something that pays homage to his mix but also stands alone was yours. For the sections you had where you didn't nearly follow "Falling Back" to the T, the production was simply unwieldy and hampered the performance. Keep working on this though. It's got good potential. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zykO Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 i think larry pretty much summed it up. this is, unfortunately, a remix of darangen's piece. the guitar performance is solid but outside of the performance, this lacks in too many areas to bear the entire burden. i think the "high-tech space rock" sound that you're referring to is pretty accurate and is very reminiscent of satch's style of musings. but what ultimately messes it all up is that there are too many references to darangen's interpretation of this. in fact, it feels as though you took his arrangement and felt that you could play better guitar on it, scratched the vocal parts and then ran through a barrage of posessed satriani arpeggios. as a remix of a remix, its a very good one but an OCR submission it does not make. it reminds me of when marty friedman recorded 4 or 5 instrumental remixes of megadeth tracks off of the cryptic writings album. the songs were essentially exactly the same underneath but they replaced dave mustaine's vocals with marty's guitar. a great idea but ultimately not bringing anything to the table but a personal showcase. you can play, brother. write your own arrangement NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillian Aversa Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Sorry, hun. I think you've paid an excellent tribute to Darangen's 'Falling Back,' but the arrangement is simply too close for me to comfortably pass it. There seems to have been a misunderstanding about our submission guidelines. To quote the submission standards page... "Can I submit a revision of an existing, posted ReMix? This has come up as an issue several times, and we've finally decided on a policy to help clarify the answer. ...in terms of submitting revisions that change the arrangement or mixing, we will only entertain such submissions as additions, not replacements, relative to the existing mix, and the new version has to be different enough in terms of arrangement, sound quality, instrumentation, etc. that both the new mix and the old stand on their own as separate creations. ReMixes of this nature will be judged on normal criteria as well as how different they are from the existing mix." Now that that's out of the way, you clearly know what you're doing with that instrument of yours. I am confident that if you personalize this mix beyond what you've done with the guitar solos, you'll have a strong chance of making it to the site. Just a few other things to keep in mind: - I felt that the harmonica/accordion/idunnowhat sample you used in the beginning not only sounded pretty choppy and fake, but also clashed with your (far better) piano work. - The drums at 0:48, as Larry pointed out, were suddenly mixed much louder than before, despite that the previous dynamics should have been the more dominant of the two. - At 1:34, a choral sample appears for all of two seconds, and has no relation to the rest of the soundscape. Not only that, but the chorus you chose sounds flat in relation to your own performance! Can't help but question that choice. - And lastly, I know Larry already covered it, but the tss tss tss tss tss tss tss tss drums you have going on are too overpowering in the section starting at 2:31. Sorry, just gotta drill that one into your head! ^_~ NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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