DragonAvenger Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Remixer: Somewareman (Ben Molulon) Remix: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 'Labyrinthine Depths' Ok, so here's my latest remix from Sonic the Hedgehog 4. It's a combination of Lost Labyrinth Zone, Acts 1, 2, and 3. I actually salvaged this from an old, sub-par, western style remix of mine and made it into more of an electronic dance piece. You can still hear a bit of the Spanish and western influence in certain parts. I was holding out on submitting this because I wasn't sure if the mastering was up to snuff, but after a few months of tweaking, I figured, "what the heck, I don't know what I'm doing anyway." and decided to submit it. I hope it's good enough. The majority of the song is Act 1, with small parts of Act 2 coming in at around 1:17 and 2:18. Act 3 is added in for the remainder of the song at 3:07. ------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 As I commented to the other judges, the soundscapes of the sources is really not good. Regardless, I like the arrangement you have here. The melodies all fit together well, and listening through I wouldn't have guessed they were separate sources. The melody changes you have are also pretty nice, small embellishments that fit into the style you are going for well. The production needs some work. The synths in general feel pretty generic, and the drums feel a bit thin overall and are on autopilot for pretty much the entire track. The bell sample sounds pretty fake as well. Everything is very mechanical as well, humanizing the parts would add a lot here. There's also little in the way of any dynamic change, and the track feels like it drags as a result. A breakdown or soundscape change would help a lot, along with varying the backing parts more. You're definitely on the right track here, but the production side of things needs work, as well as adding more variation overall. Hit up our WIP forums, this is a great track to get some extra feedback from. Hope to hear this again! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Very nice chords. The bass and drums aren't that great though, they sound pretty simple and character-less, and don't sit very well in the mix. The overall compression is pretty hard and the leads are taking down the whole mix, obscuring the drums. The drum sequencing was also simple and uninteresting. The rhodes and the violin samples weren't very good and they weren't used in a natural way either, plus they didn't sit very well in the mix. The overall eq levels on the mix feel a bit on the muddy side, most likely because of the persistent pads taking up a good amount of the low end space. The arrangement, although somewhat successful in blending the two sources together, was static and lacked any high or low points throughout, making the song feel stale after a while. Some of the melodic variations were very awkward, as around 3:20, where the different leads didn't play off each other very well and were a bit dissonant even. Plus I think the quick notes in the melodies played by the Bell sample didn't fit this instrument. Deia had some good points as well, though I think this needs a lot of work right now. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaMonz Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 I agree that this is on the right track, but that it's not quite there yet. I agree with Deia and Mike on pretty much all points. You've got a good basis for the arrangement, there's a structure and there are enough elements to be able to build a nice soundscape, which could be improved a lot with better production. I'm not hearing that much conflicting in specific frequency ranges, although the bass is undefined mostly because of the wetness caused by the overall reverb and the effects applied on the bass (is that chorus? It's unclear). The balance is weird, and the drums especially could use some beefing up in the mix. Some velocity work wouldn't hurt either. More humanization work is definitely needed on the vibraphone and violin, and more expressivity in the overall writing would certainly help. Other than that, I agree that the track does get stale after a while because of the same pattern and energy level used throughout. Putting some sort of breakdown or bridge of some kind would definitely go a long way. Bottom line: good start, but the weak production and repetitive arrangement drag this down a lot. I also encourage you to hit up the WIP boards if you want some more advice. Best of luck! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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