*NO* Crypt of the Necrodancer 'Dance No Evil'

[Chimpazilla]

Contact Info:
ReMixer Name - Ginjabreadman17
Real Name - Avery Waddell
Email Address - 
My website - https://soundcloud.com/averywaddell

Submission Info:
Name of Game arranged - Crypt of the Necrodancer
Name of arrangement - Dance No Evil
Name of individual songs arranged - Konga Conga Kappa
Additional game info - Composer - Danny Baranowsky
My own comments about the mix:

Firstly, I just want to say that I've been a long time fan and supporter of OCRemix and it has always been a dream of mine of being able to be apart of all of the amazing talent that is present in this community.  I figured if I'm ever gonna get to that level of professional quality, I might as well put myself out there and start getting the constructive feedback so that I can improve my craft.  This is my first time ever arranging a remix and while I feel I have the creativity, I'm lacking the know-how of the do's and don'ts that can add some real weight to my ideas and take me to the next level.  Good thing I set my bar high by tackling a creation by the great Danny Baranowsky right?  A part of the reason I chose this tune is because I noticed that there has yet to be a submission from Crypt of the Necrodancer which I find to be some of Danny's best work.
On my end, I'm working with some very low grade tech and elementary audio knowledge.  This was also a chance to test my own abilities to see if I could make a decent mix regardless of the technology or reliance on the most expensive gear.  I arranged this in Mixcraft 6.1 with my fairly decent studio headphones and later checked how the mix sounded using some smaller speakers, earbuds, my car stereo, etc, just to see how my mix was affected in different settings.  I sort of took a lesser of evils approach as the low end was a bit too much in my car, but sounded a lot weaker when I played it everywhere else, so I guessed at what level seemed appropriate.  I was happy with my arrangement and being able to come up with something that maintained the high energy of the original.  It was 40 seconds worth of material so I explored lots of different interpretations that hopefully positively contribute towards my interpretation.  Eventually, I felt I was at the point where I was too close to the mix and wasn't quite sure what to do next.  Overall, I had a lot of fun with this endeavor and hope you get some enjoyment out of listening too.  I look forward to this learning experience so please BE BRUTAL.

 

Edited March 19, 2016 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Chimpazilla]

This is creative.  The synths are fairly vanilla and the mix is really dry.  The open hat is too loud.  Arrangement is conservative and so is the soundset (similar to Danny's), but I do hear personalization.  I dislike panning like this, especially in an electro mix.  The faux-metal section at 1:44 is a highlight.  Gonna vote later.

*later that same day* Ok so it's later.  Larry is right, it's too conservative and needs to be more varied from Danny's version in both writing and sound choices, and the soundscape needs to be filled out.  It does need some reverb and/or delay.  I agree it's a good start.  I still like the faux metal part!

NO (resubmit)

[Liontamer]

Yipes. There's no beat, so it ends up sounding empty as hell. The textures at :08 are just too empty, especially with no meaningful percussion driving anything forward. Everything sounds ultra thin. Structurally and in tone, there's not enough different than Danny B's original version until :47 finally changes the rhythms a little. Very blocky sequencing in particular of the lead at 1:03. There's just 0 meat on the body to this at all.

On the plus side, I liked the speedy guitar synth sequencing from 1:43-1:51 & 1:58-2:00, which was such a rare case of me digging a faux-geetar synth, but even then this track's still a victim of thin, empty textures and very mechanical sequencing. Don't get me wrong, this isn't supposed to ape Danny B's version, but there's charm in his and none in this; you really need something to flesh out the piece, and that means crafting your own percussion writing. You also need more richness/body to this instrumentation through effects or better samples; it can't sound bone dry like this.

Cool start, Avery, but get that detail work in, and, through that, do more to make your arrangement stand apart from the original version.

NO

[DaMonz]

This is a cool first remix that shows potential. Although, I'm sorry to say a lot of work needs to be done to take this over the bar.

I think the biggest deal breaker here is the sound design, closely followed by the lack of interpretation. Those drum samples are very, very weak. The bass drum isn't *that* bad, but the snares have no impact at all, and the hats and cymbals sound super cheap and dry. I recommend trying to find more samples to have something to work with, and looking into sound design and production techniques such as layering and multi-band compression. The synth leads are a bit crude, but they're mostly okay. The bass is very weak, and undefined. I strongly recommend not applying effects such as delay and reverb on the bass, it very rarely has any noticeable positive effect on such low frequencies, and it contributes a lot to making the whole mix muddy and unclear. I also recommend being very cautious with applying a chorus effect on the bass, although in some rare cases I think it can work well. Rule of thumb: wet + bass = MUDDY ALERT.

There are some nice ideas in here, such as the shredding at 1:43. I also think the breakdown at 2:01 is a great idea that was very poorly executed. This is mainly caused by the soundscape being so sparse, the lack of definition in the bass and the super-exposed super-cheapo open hats. You could, for example, have another synth doing the exact same pattern an octave or two over the bass to back it up, with a low-decay amp envelope to add more punch to each note. Maybe throwing in some pads in the background to flesh out the soundscape some more would have helped as well. For example.

As for the lack of interpretation, I recommend taking some time to compare posted ReMixes with their source material to try to get a strong idea of how you can put more of your own originality in your arrangements.

Looking forward to hearing your progress. Best of luck!

NO