*NO* Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker 'Out on the Open Sea' *RESUB*

[DragonAvenger]

previous decision

Contact:

·         ReMixer name: Mahrellon
·         Real name: Andreas Flodman
·          or 
·         www.youtube.com/Mahrellon
·         User ID: 23451

·         Game: The Legend of Zelda – Wind waker
·         Name of arrangement: Out on the open Sea
·         Songs arranged: Ocean
·         Link to OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN_x1rpGbY8
·         My Comments: The very first time I played Zelda The Wind Waker and heard "The Ocean Theme" I knew straight away that making a remix of this song would become one of my future projects. When I finally found myself having enough time the idea of how I wanted to produce it had matured and the choice was obvious. The theme was going to be electronic dance-music, not my usual style, where the challenge would be to try to maintain the sense of adventure and exploration.

Edited May 13, 2016 by Liontamer
closed decision

[DragonAvenger]

I like the changes you made to the melody, like using a version in major at one point. Small changes but they definitely change the feel of the piece. I do think you achieved your goal, I felt pretty invigorated and ready for an adventure! I think the use of the quote is overdone, and using it maybe the first and last time would have been better, but it's not a dealbreaker here. I also think a breakdown might have been nice to give the ears a little bit of rest, but I didn't feel overly taxed by the end, just would have been a nice addition.

The balance is pretty strong, and I like that the leads change around to give a different feel. Nice work overall!

YES

[Liontamer]

Once the piece picked up around :26.75, the source tune was in play the entire time. The core groove was somewhat plodding, and I thought something less static would have increased the energy inherent in the writing and given more dynamic contrast. Bringing it back at 2:27 & 2:40 was pretty boring, but the rest of the arrangement was OK.

It's good that it's fairly transformative to put it into this genre, because there's some repetition that drags it down. In particular, 3:07's use of the voice clip and then back into the melody at 3:20 felt like a total rehash of :40 voice work and :53's melody, but there was a touch more volume and minor additional writing to beef up the texture.

I could see some NOs, but I'm not going to make the perfect the enemy of the good. Even though more substantial variations of the arranged theme would have made this a top-notch creative effort -- and I agreed with DragonAvenger that the quote was very overdone -- what's here from Andreas is substantially transformative with the theme, and reasonably mixed as well. Not a strong YES, but it gets it done.

YES (borderline)

EDIT (3/17): Reading the NOs, I agree on the production criticism on the soundscape sounding washed out, but it wasn't quite enough of a negative for me to go NO. It's "reasonably mixed" in the sense that it's not a dealbreaker for me, and I can make out the parts well enough. Still a YES, but added "borderline" to it to better emphasize it's not a strong one.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Liontamer
revised vote

[Chimpazilla]

You guys, this is a resub.  I remember the original version of this track.  Unfortunately most of what I said in my first vote still holds true for me.  This arrangement is just too repetitive.  The voice clips are used just as much as before.  The beats are varied a little, but not enough for me.  I don't hear any sidechaining on that rolling bassline, making it sound less groovy than it could be.  The rolling bassline is the same pattern all through the track.  The piano still sounds so stiff and mechanical.  Also, this track is soooooo reverby, and I LOVE reverb, so if it's too much reverb for my ears, that's really saying something.  I don't recall the mixing from version #1, but in this version the mixing is muddy.  I'm very sorry, but I'm still a

NO 

[Emunator]

I'm with Chimp on this one. The production is so washed out and leans on reverb in a way that's just too heavy. The voice clip really shouldn't be used more than once or twice, hearing the same exact voice clip repeated so many times feels extremely corny and I'm surprised that that issue alone isn't a dealbreaker for some of the other judges... The piano is also a weak point for me, sequencing-wise. Overall, I could just quote all of the feedback from Kris' vote and it would reflect my feelings here.

That said, I don't think any of these are issues you can't fix with a bit more work, and I think it would be worth your time because the potential is really high here. The Ocean theme actually works really well in an uplifting trance style and I feel the energy you were going for with this arrangement, but the end result still feels like an unpolished 2nd or 3rd draft to me... not something that's quite ready for primetime.

NO (resubmit!)

[Palpable]

I found myself agreeing with DA and Larry for the first three minutes, but that last minute added almost nothing new and I started to see why two judges had gone NO. I liked the addition of piano to the chorus around 3:00 and I thought the last minute needed some extra changes like that. Overall, it's very close for me. The production is great and I love the combination of instruments here, especially that subtle acoustic guitar. No concerns about the stiffness of the piano either; it seems to work well in this context. But I think I have to side with the NOs on this one. Please make some additional changes to the last minute and think about using some other clips instead of the same one four times.

NO (resubmit)

[DaMonz]

First off, this is a lot of fun! I really like the mood, the adaptation to this style works really well with this source.

I agree about the mix being muddy, which could probably be helped a lot by toning down the reverb, especially in the lows, and by sidechaining the bass and kick, although I believe that going down the sidechain route is also a design choice that could alter your vision of the track. For this reason, I encourage you to only do it if you personally like the effect it will have.

The arrangement is what's really breaking the deal for me, though. It's almost there, but I agree it starts to feel too copy-pasty after a while. I also thought that the voice samples were overused. Finally, I didn't think the stiff piano was an issue at all, I think it's appropriate here.

This is close, please don't give up! I'd love to hear an improved version.

NO (resubmit)

[djpretzel]

On 3/30/2016 at 8:34 AM, DaMonz said:

The arrangement is what's really breaking the deal for me, though. It's almost there, but I agree it starts to feel too copy-pasty after a while. I also thought that the voice samples were overused. Finally, I didn't think the stiff piano was an issue at all, I think it's appropriate here.

This is close, please don't give up! I'd love to hear an improved version.

NO (resubmit)

1. Production doesn't bother me much; to me it just channels that whole DDR vibe of over-the-top, anthem-style EDM... which often has piano sequenced this way, and "lush" reverb that sorta bathes everything...
2. The copypasta is the larger issue.... there are too many blocks that are repeated verbatim, where something additive/subtractive at least would have helped differentiate things. This seems like not only an easy fix, but one the artist *should* actually have fun implementing.

Dig the open-seas, epic/inspiring EDM anthem vibe, just needs a bit more polish still, and the repeated sections need to vary meaningfully/noticeably... too much retreading, at the moment.

NO (resubmit)