*NO* Double Dragon 'Game Like It's 1988'

[Liontamer]

Your ReMixer name: Slimy
Email:
Website: https://soundcloud.com/slimy-4
User ID: 30104

Submission Information:
Game: Double Dragon
Name of Arrangement: Game Like It's 1988
Name of Songs Arranged: Title Theme, Mission Screen

Links to Originals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M77093Txe-c&list=PL918478793D2E4C44&index=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XAvPSS9nTQ&list=PL918478793D2E4C44&index=2

Comments: 

"Make a Double Dragon remix and avoid the horrendous waiting period for judging? I'll make one in five minutes." Thus motivated by greed, I scoured YouTube for the perfect track for remixing. After many hours of searching, I found the one - the first one I had come across, to be precise.

"Maybe the intro of the song would sound good on vibes or something," and suddenly, 37 seconds of the remix were finished. So far, so good. Then I was faced with the prospect of writing more than 37 seconds of music.

Out of sheer desperation, I decided to just copy the chord progression from Raiden II and butcher the source melody so that it could fit over the new chords. An 80's vibe loomed threateningly overhead.

After a whole 30 seconds I arbitrarily decided to shoehorn in the mission select theme as a completely different style because "it would sound cool." The song sort of wrote itself after that.
____

The pulse wave at 1:09 is meant to sound similar to the 8-bit pulse wave in the original, like it was ripped straight out of the original, albeit in a different key and with some reverb and vibrato. I like the contrast it brings.

I'm not really familiar with arranging for this kind of genre, so I owe a huge thanks to everyone who critiqued this in the workshop, ridding it of my ineptitude.

One last comment, does the title of this remix sound dumb? I asked in the workshop, but no one told me if it's acceptable to use "game" as a verb.

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[Liontamer]

The first time I heard this, I was put off by how relatively thin the piece was. For example, I'm not quite sure the dropoff from 1:00-1:22 works for an extended period of time with what feels like partially filled in percussion. That said, I think my perception's more affected by the relatively low volume of the piece than the spareness of the textures. The levels could use a bump up, and it's drier than I think it should be, so I could see/agree with criticisms of the lack of fullness, but I'm OK with what's here.

On an arrangement level, this really grew on me over repeated listens, and is certainly a creative and transformative approach. I didn't get any direct '80s vibe from it, but liked the energy of the piece nonetheless. There's decent enough variation of the leads and textures over time, even though there's repetition of some ideas, and I thought the arrangement ultimately clicked once I was used to the structure. Fun use of the Mission screen theme as an interlude and dropoff focus, including parts of it that Double Dragon II player like me has never heard because the theme never played for more than a few seconds in the actual game.

This may get dinged on the percussion or overall sound feeling too thin or bland, and I could be persuaded to change my vote, but it's reasonably well-mixed and full ENOUGH that I'm currently able to leaning more on the arrangement being pretty interpretive.

YES (very borderline)

EDIT (4/18): I listened several more times and talked myself out of it. At :47, the lead should be more upfront. At 2:06, I felt like I was hearing the same thing retread, but it changed up at 2:15. At 1:00, it seems like the track's really missing something to drive it forward, and the main drum's definitely not enough. The percussion's well-written, but feels too empty for the denser sections that, IMO, need to sound fuller and more sophisticated in order to have effective dynamic contrast. Still dig the arrangement, but the sections with more instrumentation are too empty because the percussion there doesn't do enough on its own to fill things out. Hopefully another J can speak on how to potentially address that. That said, it's a good start so far, and I'd love to see this posted in some form due to how strong this already is as a concept.

NO (resubmit)

[Sir_NutS]

The mix feels very muddy in general, leads are failing to properly cut through the mix, and the drums aren't strong enough to drive the song, the kick gets lost in the low end and the whole mix is lacking a lot of clarity overall.  The drum sequencing is confusing, it stops abruptly when it starts to get going and changes pace and rhythm too quickly instead of giving the rest of the instruments the hook they need to latch on to.

The arrangement does take the original songs into new places but the structure was confusing.  I can't really pinpoint climaxes because sections like 1:57, which I believe are meant to be powerful or big main sections, are very lacking in energy, although I think this stems quite a lot from the unbalanced mix, but also the instrument selection and style of arrangement.

Overall the mixing and sound design issues couple with some unconventional structure choices that don't work very well overcome the good aspects in the inventive use of the original motifs.  Maybe I could see this pass but it requires further revisions on the issues we're bringing forth.

NO (resubmit)

[DaMonz]

I have to agree with Mike. The concept is interesting, but the poor production and the awkward structure bring this below the bar for me.

I don't think the mostly required production fixes are a big amount of work, but I think they would go a very long way. Rework the levels to bring the leads forward, and I suggest EQ'ing down the lows on your synth leads, because they're just adding mud down there. You could also look into ways to beef up the drums with multi-band compression and such. Some work on EQ of the kick could help clarify things as well.

I think the arrangement needs quite a bit of work, though. The structure doesn't really make sense. Lots of tempo fluctuations that don't really lead anywhere. There are multiple build-ups during the track, but you're not using them. This could be great on multiple occasions, but I'm always waiting for the follow-up that *could* be so great with all the tension you're building and it's never showing up. I strongly suggest reviewing your arrangement structure to try and use all the untapped potential of your multiple buildups and energy fluctuations.

NO (resubmit)