*NO* Kingdom Hearts 2 'The Xemnas Imperative'

[djpretzel]

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Hi guys! I hope you are all doing great.
 

Name of game(s) arranged: Kingdom Hearts 2
Name of arrangement: The Xemnas Imperative
Name of individual song(s) arranged: Darkness of the Unknown
Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site): Yoko Shimomura / PS2

Credits:
- Chernabogue: arrangement, VST programming, mixing, mastering
- Furilas: bass
- Sbeast: electric guitar
- tibone: acoustic guitar

Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.:
 

This arrangement was made for Dwelling of Duels' MAGFest 2016 month, which had a collaboration theme. After asking who'd be interested in collabing on an arrangement, tibone and Sbeast proposed their services for guitar recording, and I contacted my man Furilas to get some live bass as well.

I love the KH soundtracks, and "Darkness of the Unknown" has always been a highlight from the KH2 OST. There's a big Mike Oldfield influence in the instrumentation of this remix and also some Edguy here and there. I'm really proud of what we've been able to create -- thanks a lot to my collaborators and to Timaeus222 for his precious tips on mixing/mastering on the Workshop.

 

LINK: 

 

Hope it's all okay -- cheers!

 

 

Edited August 31, 2016 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Gario]

Well, I'm not familiar with the Kingdom Hearts series, but from what I gather it has a very solid soundtrack. Fortunately this source doesn't disappoint - nice, dark energy pulsing from it. The arrangement does a nice job transforming it into more of a rock ballade.

The mix is generally a nice, balanced mix with clean production values. In the beginning the acoustic guitar sticks out in the mix, though it seems to correct itself at 0:34. Mixing the acoustic guitar from 0:00 to 0:34 like you do at 0:34 on, so the acoustic guitar doesn't punch through as much.

The arrangement does a great job incorporating the source while adding it's own spin on it, but there's a single issue that dogs the arrangement consistently throughout - the bass doesn't seem to act like a bass in this. Functionally, there is no bass that holds the harmonies together - the bassist has a tendancy to follow what other instruments are doing, at the cost of giving the song a solid bottom line for the rest of the instruments to play off of. Moments like 1:25 - 1:59, for example, hold the bass at the 5th of the chord in question, which sounds incredibly odd. 2:11 - 2:33 sounds like the bass is following one of the accompanying parts rather than allowing the rest of the harmonies to build off of it. I'd detail more cases, but past the 1:25 mark the issue is consistently there. This isn't a slight against the bass performance - it's well played, certainly - but the part that it plays doesn't function well as a bass part.

There are two ways to address this - either the bass could be performed again to function as the bottom of the chord (with embellishments, but still functional), or if a lower bass part is added to the track that can act as the functional bass. Either fix would work. Aside from the slight mixing issue in the beginning (which is an easy fix) the bass is the only issue I take with this song, but it's such an important part of any arrangement, and it's such a consistent issue throughout this track that I have to consider it a dealbreaker. With a more solid bass this would be an easy pass, but without that the chords simply don't sound right throughout the arrangement.

NO

[Chimpazilla]

The acoustic guitar is indeed too loud, and not just in the intro.  The kick is very quiet with not much low-end while the snare is loud but too woody sounding, too much midrange body.  I agree that the bass is doubling the lead instrument often (or, the other way around?  either way it's a doubling of the note and it's not a chord, which is what Gario was pointing out).  I'm finding that regardless of this issue which occurs here and there in the track (and I don't find this doubling to be as problematic as Gario does), the writing ends up sounding pretty jumbled and random sometimes, for example 1:08-1:23 is sort of awkward to me, same with 3:00-3:25. The fast arps don't always sound tight enough (might be the attack on the organ sample, or maybe that the mix is just so busy), and the drumming being sometimes off and/or random does not help this feeling either.  It's a busy and bold source choice, perhaps this adds to the level of difficulty in remixing it.  I think I'll be happier once the mixing is fixed (quiet kick, woody snare, too-loud acoustic guitar).  

NO (resubmit)

[Sir_NutS]

I agree there's some balancing work to be done regarding the mix.  In the drums, the kick lacks low end.  It doesn't need to be prominent as an EDM kick, but it's important to have low end in your kickdrum for your rock/metal songs.  I thought the snare was fine though.  I didn't find the bass arrangement as problematic as Gario did, although it does sound odd in some sections such as when it follows the lead/other instruments.  I did find the transition to 3:00 disappointing, and this section seems aimless and jumbled.  It doesn't help that the clean guitar in this section jumps out in front of the mix at random moments.

I think that overall the mix could be tightened a bit further, as some of the synth parts felt dry and separated from the other elements, but fixing the balance comes first, and the clean guitar was the biggest offender here.  I wouldn't mind some beef in the low end of the kickdrum, without making it louder, and maybe look into the issues Gario had with the bassline, although as I said it didn't strike me as a major issue.  The last half after the transition around the 3 minute mark could definitely use some work in both mix balance and arrangement though.

NO (resubmit)