Emunator Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) Hello again OC Remix, it seems like just yesterday that I was huddled around a windows XP computer listening to tracks from the site. This track will be the second Arth4da mix on your site, and hopefully there will be many more to come. I'll try to keep this email as coherent as possible, as this remix has stolen most of my sleep along with every waking moment since I started it 3 days ago Which brings us to the mix. Lately I've been making the house genere my home (heh), and this track is no different, resonating "progressive house" to the core. Genre business aside, I haven't felt this sentimental working on a track in quite some time. I did my very best to stay as true to the original arrangements of the songs (Kairi II, and Dearly Beloved) while also letting them ebb and flow into each other around the prog house arrangement. I'm especially proud of this arrangement and mix, right down to the Kairi quotes that I ripped from the game and placed into the atmosphere. But at this point, I feel almost overwhelmed talking about everything that went into this mix, I'd rather let it speak for itself With love, Arth4da Edited March 23, 2016 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 Holy crap... the VIBES! Your prog. house pluck patches are very well crafted, and the chords are well-written to match. The arrangement and fusion of two sources is very natural, and I actually found myself getting chills when Dearly Beloved finally came. I can't stress this enough - this approach is a very strong foundation and, in spite of the feedback I'm about to go into, I did really enjoy this. I can definitely see some other judges going YES on this but there's a few production-side issues that I think need a bit more work. First, the level of reverb and delay here is VERY heavy, and I think it goes just a bit past the point of being a stylistic choice and starts to feel like a production flaw because it contributes a lot of mud to the track. I would suggest easing up on your reverb and shortening your delay tails just a bit to clean this up (but not so much that you lose the spacey prog-house feel.) The beats themselves are pretty gridlocked and repetitive, it would be nice to hear some minor variations so that not everything is hitting on a quarter-note and introduce more rhythmic variety. The melodic instruments are playing some really dynamic rhythms but the beats feel incredibly static, even for a progressive house track. I'm also noticing a lack of bass frequencies in your kick, and sub frequencies in the track overall, which strikes me as odd. I would love to hear a deeper kick with a bit more low-end oomph. Right now, the track feels very mid-heavy. Not a huge dealbreaker in and of itself, but I'd love some minor EQ tweaks to help give the track more of a balanced feel and help anchor it better. Somewhat of a personal preference, but the piano sample sounded tinny to my ears. That low-quality sample sticks out like a weak link amidst a series of very high-quality synth sounds, possibly because the delay effect is so prominent. None of these issues on their own warrant a rejection in my book, but between all of them I think this is just a little bit shy of reaching its potential. I tried to list them out in prioritized order based on what bothered me the most. I may be a little harsher on this because it's a genre I'm more familiar with and I'm so fond of the concept here. I won't be upset if this ends up passing in its current form, but I digress... what does everyone else think? NO (borderline/resubmit!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 This is one of those remixes that bring me back to those days of dream trance and progressive trance goodness. Really feeling the Sasha/Digweed/above & beyond feel here. However I feel the production needs a bump to make it past. you have the right ideas and soundscape, but the mix is not as balanced as I would've liked, there's a ton of soundspace to be filled in the highs, while the chords and bass take up quite a lot of the soundspace in the mid/lows. I think you could tone down the chords just a little and bring up that amazing ambience in the highs to balance things out better. Unlike Emu I'm totally fine with the reverb levels and the generally static beat. It's all part of the genre and a busier/varied drum sequencing COULD run the risk of ruining the illusion, however I wouldn't be against trying some variation there. The piano performance is also something that could be worked on. The sample fits the genre but I think you could get away with something more dynamic. Adding more humanization wouldn't hurt either, as even Robert Miles' fairly static melodies showed some degree of human performance to them. I am completely fine with the arrangement. Excellent adaptation to this genre and it's all just lovely. Both sources worked well together, and I really think this song would work as-is with other issues fixed. Work on your mix balance and other issues mentioned above and you'll have a winner here. Please don't sit on this and resubmit! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Nice arrangement. Luscious soundscape. The reverb and delay are heavy indeed. My suggestion is to tame the delays, and reduce the tails as Wes said. For the reverb, there are lots of things you could try. You could just lower the mix of reverb overall, eq the lows out of the reverb, sidechain your kick to the reverb (I fully recommend this!), sidechain a silent kick to the reverb (when no kick is playing but you still want that effect), or automate the reverb mix knob during the different portions of the song. You could do any or all of these things! You might find some of these techniques interesting too. As for the kick, it's really thick and meaty, but for this soundscape I think you could lower the click and bring up the low thump, as Wes suggested, because it sounds a little out of place like it is now. The piano isn't bothering me as much as the other two Js but I hear what they are saying about it, it almost gets lost in this soundscape. You could experiment with a more expressive sample if you want to, or eq this one to make it sound a bit more full. Please fix this up and send it back! NO (borderline, please resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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