Emunator Posted February 14, 2016 Share Posted February 14, 2016 (edited) Contact Info: ReMixer name: ManKarate Real Name: Jan Zarate Website: Soundcloud Name of game: Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Name of arrangement: Healing Over Time Name of individual songs arranged(and links): Song of Healing, Song of Time Edited March 13, 2016 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted February 14, 2016 Author Share Posted February 14, 2016 Very cool approach, I love the downtempo, heavily-sidechained synth action. It reminds me of a chiptune-rich version of Com Truise or Tycho. Your production is ace, the bassline sits perfectly in the mix and there's plenty of effects and unique fills/melodic content going on to keep my attention throughout the nearly 6-and-a-half-minute runtime. I love the big breakdown right before the 3 minute mark, and the very dramatic resurgence back into the track a little later on. There's a ton to love here. One of my big critiques is with the stagnancy of your lead sounds. Every lead melody is played by the exact same chiptune synth patch, which gets tiresome. While I do appreciate that you processed and sequenced each riff differently to add some variation, I can't help but feel that this would have been better with more variation in sound choices. From 4:22 - 5:02, you got a little more personalized with the melody writing but to be honest, it felt a little shoehorned and awkward, the writing just didn't flow naturally. Did any other judges feel this way too? I'm not sure how I feel about this track yet - the production is really on-point in my opinion and the track is very competently arranged, but the lead melodies feel like a weak point due to patch choice and the actual writing. Will revisit this later. EDIT: After listening again and getting some second opinions, I feel more confident in my gut impression that this could use another pass of revisions to introduce some more variation to the lead and change the original melody modulations to feel more natural. Good luck, I'd love to see this come through again! It's pretty close. NO (resubmit!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Oof note choice at 1:40 and again at 1:54, the verbatim source does not work there with your backing harmonies, gotta change the lead notes at those places. This is produced VERY well. Unfortunately I have to agree with Wes though, the samey lead writing gets very old, it's always the same sound and it's pretty vanilla, and the source writing is verbatim and blocky too. The backing elements really don't change or evolve either. WOW that bell breakdown at 2:54 is cool, what a fabulous idea, it puts me right in Clocktown on the final day! But right after this breakdown, at 3:22 it's back to the same lead sound and backing. I do love how you've creatively written the Song of Time there though. You have really woven these themes together so well. You've also made 3/4 sources work well within a four-on-the-floor context. This arrangement impresses me. Darn that stagnant lead sound. Darn that samey background sound. The drum groove gets old too. This is so good but it could be amazing with some lead, backing, and drumming changeups, and those few non-harmonious notes fixed. I'm right on the fence, as Wes is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 If we get those changes done I can totally see this passing. In the end I'm agreeing that the sameness is really dragging this down. Please send this one back! No (resubmit please) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 This is well produced, as the other judges have pointed out. I have to agree on the lead usage here, the articulations don't fit well, and the bell lead in itself doesn't fit the mix well either. It's fine as something for the intro but it's not dynamic enough for the rest of the song. By 4:00 the arrangement was already stale and the lead had overstayed its welcome far too much. In regards to arrangement, it's simple and as said before, got stale by the middle of the song. The claps follow a weird pattern that breaks flow, although they stabilize to a 2-8 patter later. The repetition of the original melody bothered me and the attempts to create variations on it at 4:21 failed pretty bad, very cheesy and out of context. The inclusion of the second theme wasn't marred well with the rest of the arrangement (i.e. 5:20) Cool drums and bass production, but the arrangement needs a lot of work. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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