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*NO* Ninja Gaiden 2 'You Gotta Love It (Life)'


Emunator
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First impressions - mixing feels imbalanced and I'm not sure how I feel about the level of repetitiveness in the beat or the guitar sample, but it's got promise - Emu

 

User : KDStylez
 
Name : Diego
 
E-mail Address 
http://kiddeception.newgrounds.com/

 
Name of game arranged: Ninja Gaiden 2 the Dark Sword of Chaos
Name of arrangement: You gotta Love it (Life)
Song Contains Samples from Ninja Gaiden 2 Dark Sword of Chaos Tower of Lahja
Composers: Dj Cutman

Written and performed by Kid Deception, and Rae Raven Produced by Dj CutMan

Engineerd at Black Light INK studios in San Diego. Songs inspiration came from the journey and experiences of living life.

 

 

 

Edited by Liontamer
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  • 4 weeks later...

Definitely like how down-to-earth this is. The arrangement is pretty clear with the backing track being firmly set into the source, so that Kid is able to do his thing on top. I have a couple issues with the production. The first is that the multiple recordings of the voice aren't perfectly matching up, so it sounds like a strange semi-chorus throughout. There are also times where it sounds like there's a backing voice during the verses but it's impossible to understand what or if they are saying something different, so it's just adding a bit of mud to the track. The guitar sample is not super realistic which sticks out further due to there being so few instruments in the soundscape. A more realistic sample and some humanization would do a lot of good here.

I can see this going either way, but I'd like to hear some adjustments.

NO (resubmit, please)

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Why does everyone wants to remix The Parasprinter and ONLY The Parasprinter? I mean, it's a great song but we only have NG2 remixes of this song!  even I went and did one!

Parasprinter ranting aside,  I've kept this song on hold for a couple weeks now, trying to discern my thoughts about it.  First I feel the drum sequencing is very simple even for the genre.  There's very little variation or embellishments and it's the same loop throughout as far as I can tell.  I didn't have much of a problem with the guitar, I thought it had a nice loop to sing/rap to, and there were variations to it, while the supporting guitar played different rhythms.  However there's very little else to find in the soundscape.

The structure though is very simple and lacks development.  We go from verses to chorus without transitions and the track feels like one long bridge, I would've liked more emphasis put on the chorus as the highlight of the track to differentiate between the other sections.

With some work in developing the track further, I could see this going through, but at the moment I'll have ask for more.

NO (resubmit)

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  • Sir_NutS changed the title to 2015/07/14 - (2N) Ninja Gaiden 2 'You Gotta Love It (Life)'

This is repetitive alright, but I don't think it's a problem here. Production is unusual, especially for the genre because there is basically no bass at all except for the bass drum, but I think things are clear enough for this to be over the bar. This balance sounds like an acceptable design choice to me. The guitar in the background keeps the atmosphere (and source) present throughout, and nothing seems to overpower anything. Also, I didn't have any problem at all with the guitar's sound, and I don't even think it's sampled. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me this was performed, honestly.

I don't think anything takes this below the bar. Although, this is 128kbps, which doesn't comply with the encoding requirements. If this passes, please send a 192kbps version.

YES (conditional on encoding)

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  • DaMonz pinned this topic

I loved the song concept but I think the simplicity and lack of dynamics hurt this one rather than helped it. I was bored by the drum loop by the first minute, and it never changes. It's not atypical in rap to keep the drum loop the same for the whole song, but there's wasn't enough else there to make up for it. No bass, and the guitar didn't deviate much either. The chorus also sounds like a total cut-and-paste, with everything coming in at the same time each iteration (including the backing vocal being early at the same time each chorus). Production-wise, I thought it was fine. The guitar sounds like maybe a live guitar that is sampled and triggered, but it's good enough. Vocal was good too. This is a great start but I don't think there's enough here for a pass, based on the simplicity of the arrangement.

NO (resubmit)

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I like it - got some soul to it, and it's fitting. As far as the repetitive nature of the track is concerned, it doesn't seem so extreme, considering the genre that this is based on. I don't agree that it's fair to knock it down due to repetitiveness, as that feels like punishing a track for the genre used rather than for it's artistic merit. Old school rap is very repetitive, as a genre, and frankly has a tendency to spend even less time on the quality of the accompaniment than was spent here. It forces the listener to bring attention to the lyrics, which in this case are pretty sweet.

The production is pretty clean, and the guitar is pretty solid. The lyrics are great, and it works well against the music in the background. I don't feel the mix is a problem, either - instruments are all easy to hear, and the focus (vocals) are in the front, as they need to be.

DaMonz brings up an important point on the encoding, though - bring this up to 192kbps and I think this would work well for the site.

YES (CONDITIONAL ON ENCODING)

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Nice lyric work, it is well performed and sounds quite raw which suits this well.

Production: Straight away I'm noticing something weird going on across the track - every time the kick hits it thuds the mix causing an unpleasant wavering. I'm not sure if this is due to a compressor/limiter or just an audible illusion due to the tremolo/wavering guitar sounds combining with the kick sample, but it's certainly distracting and I'm not a fan of it. I'd like to see this "effect" or problem fixed.

Arrangement: Predominantly the song is based on a core pattern throughout, largely relying on it's vocal content for the needed originality. While this is mostly fine, I would've liked to hear some more done with the source than what was done here. I also feel the mix doesn't really lead anywhere, it has the same direction from beginning to end and maintains that for better or worse. This was missing those little changes and nuances that you get throughout a hip-hop track to keep things fresh. I'd like to see some more work done here to break up the mix and reduce the repetitive feel.

NO

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I'm a bit confused by the mixing here.  The guitars have a lot of what sounds like artifacts that might have come about from time stretching...On the other hand it might be some kind of tape emulation flutter?  I'm finding it distracting either way.  

There's definitely a notable lack of bass.  The kick is too loud, the snare is too quiet, and the hats are way too quiet.  The drum writing is stiff and repetitive.  Some variation would be great.  The vocals need a bit less body to create room for the other elements.  

The vocal writing is okay, and the guitars could sound just great, but the mixing really holds them back.  Aside from the vocals, the arrangement has very little in the way of dynamic lift to differentiate sections.

 

NO

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