djpretzel Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 (edited) Some definite issues, but some definite strengths as well, will hopefully benefit from feedback. -djp Hello! Here’s my submission: Super Mario World “Storm the Castle” Castle Theme This is a mainly a orchestra arrangement, focused primarily on epicness. It combines classical orchestration with modern movie score and just a hint of rock)mainly form some of the drum rhythms) Choir is also very prominent, I worked very hard on making it sound as realistic as possible with sample, the choir takes on words multiple singing parts. Enjoy! LunarEFX Daine Jordanhttps://www.youtube.com/user/LUNAREFX1 54763 Edited March 25, 2016 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 The overall sound was pretty thin, but arrangement was creative. The opening flourish sounded pretty fake; the brass here's not great (not horrible either, just very exposed as unrealistic samples). Even when it's busy, the lack of realism of the instrument tones & articulations stand out. But on the arrangement side, there's definitely some additive writing and good personalization of the theme through the added original writing and the orchestral adaptation. Back to the production, for example, the strings at 1:51 are unfortunate; they just sound thin and fake. Actually, all of 1:51-2:24 was pretty exposed. It's too bad; if your attention to production matched your writing and creative vision, you'd be nailing it. It's not merely the sample quality, Daine, which seems iffy but potentially passable. Much more importantly, you're just not doing anything to mask/mitigate the realism issues of the samples, and that drags the production quality down of an otherwise nicely personalized cover. Some careful reverb or delay could help in that respect. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Agreed with Larry above. Great writing and orchestration of this cover, but every instrument needs to be humanized and/or replaced with better samples. Every attack on every instrument sounds the same. Layering articulations is what is needed, so the attacks are different for the different writing passages (long notes vs. shorter ones need different attacks), as well as making sure the notes don't necessarily all hit exactly on the grid every time. I'll add that the piano, while creepy and dark, is also very stiffly sequenced. You clearly can write and arrange, it's time to step back and get up to speed on production and humanization, then you'll be killin' it for sure. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 Completely agreed - this is actually a SICK arrangement (love the choir) but the lack of articulation on any of your instruments, and lower-than-average sample quality is problematic. This is way too good of an arrangement to let slide, but you're not sequencing your instruments at a level that does it justice yet. Look up tutorials on sequencing orchestral instruments to have more realistic attack and decay, hit up our Workshop forums for some more direct feedback... whatever you gotta do to improve the sequencing on this! I really love your arrangement! NO (resubmit!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaMonz Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Right off the bat, I have to say this sounds very quiet. I had to crank up my volume at maximum to hear it appropriately, which I think is a pretty big problem. The arrangement is great. The sections at 0:58 and 2:25 with the piano arpeggios have a good impact, and I especially like the usage of horns and choirs in those sections. Also, I really liked the last few seconds that sound more Vivaldi-esque, which was nice and refreshing. I also liked the percussion work quite a lot. On the other hand, some of the samples sound quite lackluster to me, especially when they're isolated. Also, there's little expressiveness in most of the sequencing. I can hear that a bit of work was done on the velocities, but this still sounds pretty mechanical. I strongly suggest following Emunator's advice for resolving this issue! Bottom line: good arrangement, good concept, but the sample quality and sequencing, along with the volume issues, are deal-breaking for me. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 At first I was afraid this was going to fall into the "too cover-ish" territory... and I was pleasantly surprised that, although it starts as such, it develops a bit more into a more interpretative, albeit very close to the original rendition. I REALLY like the idea behind the whole track and I think you're SO close to having the whole package. I think that with a little more work in the execution I would be happy to give this a pass and also my recommendation to other people.First, your instrument quality is fair, and I've heard great tracks with orchestral samples that aren't expensive, but you need to make your performance more human and natural, this is key in this kind of arrangements and the key to making orchestral samples work. The piano at 1:05 is too robotic and loud to work in the context. Sections like 1:45 would benefit from being extended and explored, maybe with longer silences (integral part of a great structure in an orchestral track), variations in tempo and subtler re-introduction of elements and motifs. Your legato instruments and choir would benefit from small changes in velocity and less quantized writing. The next full section at 2:25 works well but would benefit from a better transition from the previous section to really hit the listener hard with a great climax. Loved the ending but please make it so it doesn't cut off abruptly!Like I said I really really like this idea so please step it up in the humanization department! NO (Resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Arrangement: The arrangement is very conservative. It's not a cover, though, and the break at 1:46 helps a great deal. The ending was quite clever, too. It's close, but it still works alright. The orchestration itself is pretty great, but the instruments are a bit too mechanical, especially before the 1:00 mark. There are volume variations, but those variations tend to be sequential (like the notes were copy/pasted, and just shifted to different notes), which creates noticeable patterns in the sequencing. The horns and woodwinds all have an attack that swells - when wind instruments play lines of music they tend to play legato (that is, there's no noticeable space between notes). You need to adjust the attack envelops of the brass and woodwinds so they don't swell from note to note; this swell only works for the first note of every phrase. From an otherwise good production, that mechanical feel does take this track down. I actually really love it, but I don't think it can be posted, quite yet. While the slightly conservative arrangement can be overlooked considering the overall quality otherwise, the instruments are a bit too mechanical for Overclocked ReMix. I could see this coming back with some fixes to the sequencing, though, and having this being postable upon resub. NO / RESUB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts