*NO* Digimon World 'The Metal Emperor' *PROJECT*

[Chimpazilla]

Hi dear Judges! I hope you're all doing well. Following djp's announcement  about BA3's evaluation, I decided to submit our Machinedramon collab.

Pieter/pu_freak just told me the track didn't need any changes for the album, so let's see if it can make it to the front page

Contact Information
Chernabogue, AngelCityOutlaw, Furilas
Alexandre MOUREY, Chris SCHMIDT, Mac HUNTER

fflproduction.fr
Submission Information
Digimon World (PS1)
The Metal Emperor
Wild Battle! Machinedramon
Koji Yamada, Yuko Ishii
I'll try to go a little deeper than for my album notes: I came up with an arrangement for this track, but it was too quirky for the album. So Chris (AngelCityOutlaw) decided to go full power-metal, I quote, "rainbows and riding on unicorns made of fire whilst wielding Excalibur on an epic quest to slay the metal dragon". Yes, that's about it. He then wrote a new arrangement I really like, a la Rhapsody of Fire/Gamma Ray. He recorded all the guitars and synths, Furilas did the bass, and I mixed all of those. Big thanks to Chris and Mac for lending me their killer skills, and to Pieter (pu_freak), Eino, and Tim (timaeus222) for the feedback! Remixing a track from the Digimon games, which are a big part of my childhood, was a dream, and I'm glad I could do it for this album.
Chris' notes: Alex wanted to do a metal remix of Machinedramon's theme. However, the original concept wasn't metal enough (for my tastes anyway) and so using magic wands made by Jackson and Ibanez, I re-arranged it into an attempt at European power metal of proportions so epic that playing it has the power to summon Kai Hansen. Alex took the stems and then, via alchemy, dark magic, and a touch of Furilas, he made it all come together in his cauldron of metal. I had oodles of fun arranging notes in different places so that they sound cool together and making noises on a guitar so that Chernabogue's dream of digi-speed metal would come true. \m/
Mac's notes: It was a pleasure to form the butt, or perhaps left shin, of this 100-odd ton killing machine.

Hope it's all good -- have a nice day!

Edited April 6, 2016 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Chimpazilla]

edit:  I need to redo this entire vote, Cubase messed the track up for me, my stretch setting for wavs was hosed up.  

Ok, gonna listen to this correctly this time.  Yeah it's pretty energetic!  Guitar performances (leads and rhythm) are great.  Arrangement is conservative yet personalized.  The mix does sound like it could have a bit more sparkle in the highs, and the kick could have some more impact.  I'm not in love with the pad timbre (choir?), it has a slow attack making it sound pumpy (as if it were sidechained) during faster passages.  From 2:23-2:33 the mix sounds distorted, is there some phaser effect here, along with a roaring lion?  Perhaps this is overcompression, as Mike mentioned the busier passages have an odd amplitude envelope (which I'm hearing as pumping).

I'm pretty borderline here.

edit 4/6/16:  I won't hold this up.  I think it's close to a pass with a bit of cleanup.

NO (resubmit)

[Sir_NutS]

The original almost has a c64 soundtrack vibe to it, I like it.  I have to disagree with Kris on this song lacking energy, it has plenty of it imo, feels very exciting all the time.  Also -10 db RMS is definitely NOT quiet for metal, it's actually average/above average for a metal track.  Also my diagnostic tools didn't catch any clipping, nor my ears.

I do have to agree on the other production comments.  The mix is lacking clarity, the drums are very distant and lack presence, and there's a severe lack of highs as if they were rolled off with a 12 db lp filter after 5khz.  The overall compression envelope seems to be too relaxed as some of the busy sections are being effected with odd amplitude curves, noticeable at around 1:48, the buildup at 2:08 and on.  

I liked the arrangement a lot, as well as the performances.  But some of the parts need better aligning, 1:30 is a good example where the guitars aren't following the rhythm on point, which makes it sound sloppy.  

Overall this is a good arrangement, albeit fairly close to the original in feel and structure but there's enough for me to differentiate it.  This definitely needs work on the production side of things, and I hope our comments can help you get the track where it needs to be.

NO (resubmit)

[DragonAvenger]

Definitely some good advice here already, and there's little for me to add here. I definitely want to emphasize the drums sounding pretty distant and not having the effect that they could. Would love to hear this one cleaned up a bit!

NO (resubmit)

[Jivemaster]

Drums are definitely drowned out a bit here in the mix, which I feel is mostly due to the large amount of things you have going on at the same time. You have managed to balance a lot of simultaneous parts surprisingly well, but I felt the fuller sections had diminishing returns for the amount of parts that kept layering on top. The track could use some more clarity, with perhaps some consideration given to the amount of parts playing and if they're all necessary. On a side note, I'd like to acknowledge the nice guitar playing that is showcased here. 

On the arrangement side of things, I enjoyed the progression, although everything was too close to the original on most fronts. The song also began to feel sameish as it got to the mid way point, due to the constant level of energy it contains. I would've liked to hear a bit more of a change somewhere to break things up, and this would've opened some opportunities to make the arrangement more original.

I think the track could benefit from the drums being be more audible, more clarity, and some slight changes in arrangement to bring out some originality. You're pretty close here.

NO

[Chimpazilla]

Bump for the 4th NO vote.  It's close though.