Chimpazilla Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 'The Ballad of Bowser's Balls' - by Chimpazilla mp3 and wav (mastering changed 6/17/16, described below) *SHAMELESS SELF-PANEL ALERT* I had planned to call this track 'OMG No, Not ANOTHER Mario Mix' but ultimately I went with the clickbait title. This started as a production exercise only, but then it became a thing, so I finished it and now I'm foisting it on the unsuspecting public. Sorry guys, I really have no excuse. This was super fun to write though, and I hope it makes everyone smile. Any judge that requires a source breakdown for this remix needs to be fired from OCR in disgrace and forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Anything with good use of Mario 1's Bullet Bill SFX is an automatic YES. It sounds silly, but keeping the Mario 1 & 3 SFX exclusive to their respective sections of the track was a nice move! Ending the track with the "So long-a, Bowser!" was n00bishly cringeworthy. Good straightforward stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Alrighty, you panel abuser, you. You really go all in with them sound effects - very inundated with them, in fact. I'd argue perhaps just a touch too much so, but I think that's personal preference - you make artistic use of the sound effects, having them accent the beats appropriately. The bass pattern used throughout gets a little repetitive throughout, but the song is short enough (with an appropriate break from it in the middle) to where it doesn't quite grate on the listener. Just something to be aware of. The production on this is pretty hot, though - it's overcompressed to high heaven, with plenty of moments of clipping to go along with it. The waveform is hitting the ceiling constantly throughout the track, which makes the track sound crowded and needlessly loud. Fortunately, you stylistically side chain the bass and drums throughout the track, but it's still very overcompressed throughout. The lead that you use throughout sounds like it has some pretty oppressive highs, contributed by the reverb you used on it, and it sounds very compressed on its own, to boot. It sounds like it's being played underwater the entire time, and it kind of hurts my ears with all the high frequencies that punch through. I like the simplicity of the arrangement, though. It's pretty straight, which gives you room to do whatever you want around it, so you used that room to goof the hell off. I like goofing off, so it works in your favor. Do make sure to cut some of the space in the last 6 seconds of silence on this track. It's minor, but it seems like a mistake, otherwise. It's alright, but I don't think it's there, quite yet. The production needs another pass on it; remove the compressors and limiters on the master track and mix it in such a way that it's not redlining on the mixer. After that, you can compress to boost the volume a little, but don't squish the mix too much, either. The lead synth should not pierce through as much as it does, and the ending silence should be cut out. With that being done I could give this a pass as I like the arrangement, but as it is I send it away with my best regards. -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 17, 2016 Author Share Posted June 17, 2016 You've got a good ear if you can hear clipping, Gario! I went over this with Sir_Nuts this afternoon, and he helped me decide to take the clipper out of my mastering chain and just rely on the limiter (I was using both). The clipper was giving the track a clean digital sound but at the expense of clipping (not going over 0db, but clipping the peaks). Mike and I both agree it sounds better and more natural now. Thanks to Mike and Gario, this continues to be a terrific production exercise! Sir_NutS and Eino Keskitalo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted June 18, 2016 Share Posted June 18, 2016 So I hear where you're coming from here Gario, there was clipping but it was not caused by going over 0 db, as that would cause some pretty noticeable digital distortion. There was a clipper device on the master so that's what was causing that effect on the peaks, it's not a bad thing, it's just preference. With a clipper you can achieve more clarity in a mix than with a compressor/limiter at the price of completely chopping off some peaks and that can cause some undesirable results. Nevertheless, it's a matter of preference as I've heard and seen many producers use them on their masters. In this case, I do prefer the new version provided by Kris. Not too many people try to approach these themes because they're so classic and a lot has been done with them already. However I did like the approach Kris took here, which was a fun romp full of effects and quirkiness. Some effects such as the fireballs are used melodically and they're a surprising good fit. I can agree that the fx usage could've been toned down a bit, perhaps around the 2 min mark, to give the listener some rest from them for a while, but it's not as bad as to bring the whole thing down. The production was clear, and the actual synth textures were rich. Rolling bass was pumping and the drums were clear and kept the groove going without going on autopilot. Fun stuff. YES Eino Keskitalo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaMonz Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 Well, this is fun! Where are the balls though? Production is clean, arrangement is cool, I don't think the SFX are overdone. I want to ask @Chimpazilla though, the last note in both runs of the initial theme (roughly 0:22 and 0:26) are a semitone lower than what we usually hear in the source, is that intentional? It can very well be an intentional divergence from the original to give it a different color, but since it was such an isolated change I thought it might have been unintentional. It's not a problem at all, but I wanted to point it out just in case. Good stuff! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 25, 2016 Author Share Posted June 25, 2016 FIREballs, of course I meant FIREballs. Bowser throws massive fireballs. What kind of balls did you think I was referring to? Oh THOSE balls? Now you're just being gross and inappropriate. Yep I changed that one note so it fit with the chord progressions I was doing! DaMonz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palpable Posted June 30, 2016 Share Posted June 30, 2016 This galloped along pleasantly, a good mix of original material and source material. I agree that it's a little hot for my tastes, sometimes a little shrill, but never too much. I think the FX are incorporated better than in most subs - they are used rather percussively here. All in all, great stuff. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted June 30, 2016 Share Posted June 30, 2016 Just popping in to point out that my review of this track was from the initial version that was posted - the newest version improves the overcompression issues that I had considerably. I just wanted to put that out there, in case anyone was wondering what I was blabbing about on overcompression. Kind of redundant at this point, but seeing that's more or less fixed in the newest version, I figure I'll give my approval, as well. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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