Chimpazilla Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 ReMixer name: Terielx1 Real Name: Jeff SlaughterEmail Address: Submission:Name of game: Shovel KnightName of arrangement: Shovel Knight - Strike The EarthName of individual song: Strike The Earth! Plains of PassageGame Composer(s): Jake Kaufman, Manami MatsumaeSystems: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, X-box one, PS3, PS4, PS-Vita, Linux Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted June 10, 2016 Share Posted June 10, 2016 Shovel knight, hell yeah! I freaking love this soundtrack. There are some nice sounds in this arrangement, and a meaty drum that drives the whole thing forward. You do a great job in transcribing it, too - it's all very clearly there. Perhaps it's too clearly there, though, for the sake of getting it posted on the site - it's a very conservative mix. OCR is a site about reinterpretation of a source, as opposed to sticking to the source as close as possible while improving the instruments and sounds. There's nothing wrong with staying true to the source, of course - I like a good, conservative arrangement as much as anyone - but OCR can't accept it on those grounds. As far as the production is concerned, it's pretty overcompressed. You lose a great deal of sound in those drums. You can hear the volume of the entire track pulsate whenever the drums strike, which indicates there's no room for the rest of the instruments to play in. Turn off your compressors and limiters and mix the track in such a way where there is no clipping or muddiness. You have about 2-3dBs headroom to work with, so I think it'll be manageable to clean up the mix. I actually really like this, but I think it's too conservative for the site. You'd do well in fixing the overcompression, too. Nice work, and I hope to hear more from you that's more in tune to what OCR is looking for! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 11, 2016 Author Share Posted June 11, 2016 Gario is right yet again. Yep this is pretty darned conservative. The instrumentation is different, but not enough imo to overcome the verbatim source writing. The synths are pretty generic sounding, although they are used well enough. I definitely recommend you add some writing variation somewhere along the way (and/or some instrument variation at some point) to set your arrangement apart from the original. The overcompression is another issue, you've got the track limited so it peaks at -2db, there's no reason to set your limiter ceiling that low. The track really pumps and not in a good way, it's a mushy wall of sound with no dynamics. Like Gario, I really like this track. Fix it up and let's hear it again! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaMonz Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 This is conservative all right, and I agree that it would need some more interpretation in order to be appropriate for OCR. Still on the arrangement side, I think adding a smoother intro and outro to the track would be a nice plus. I think the biggest problem is the production, though. This seems overcrowded even though there is a limited set of instruments, and that's because most of them currently play in very similar (and broad) frequency ranges. Your leads seem to use a particularly large portion of the frequencies, and I would strongly suggest revising their sound design to take less space. In my personal experience, I find that leads with more compact, localized frequency usage seem to often have more impact. I also suggest reviewing the effects/sound design on your bass. It seems quite wet and undefined, which probably also contributes a lot to the track sounding muddy and unclear. Other than that, I suggest you take the precious advice provided by the other judges. You have a nice potential, and I think you should keep working to try and improve your skills. I hope to hear more submissions from you! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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