OCR03480 - *YES* Metroid 1 & 2 "Cazador de Recompensas"

[Chimpazilla]

• Remixer Name: JohnStacy
• Real Name: John Stacy
• Email Address: 
• Name of game(s) arranged - Metroid 1 and Metroid II: Return of Samus
• Name of arrangement - Cazador de Recompensas (Bounty Hunter)
• Name of individual song(s) arranged - Title (Metroid) Title (Metroid II: Return of Samus)

Additional information:

The JohnStacy Orchestra is a studio big band dedicated to recording big band arrangements of video game music.  This is a multitrack recording of the title themes from Metroid 1 and 2, inspired by Stan Kenton and his Cuban Fire album.  I was preparing to arrange an album, and had the idea to do the title theme from Metroid as an afro cuban groove, and the quasi swing section in the middle just seemed to fit that section of the music.  The title theme from Metroid 2, or at least a fragment of it, made a good concluding theme, using a duple feel against the triple feel.  The track is one of several tracks on the multitrack album, all arrangements of classic video game tunes in various jazz styles.

The JohnStacy Orchestra: CJ Carter, Edward Cosio - Saxophone. JohnStacy - Trumpet, French Horn, Bass.  Jacob Rives - Trombone, Bass Trombone.  Bruno Gutierrez - Tuba. Ben Hilton - Drums  Misael Tambuwum - Piano

 

 

[Gario]

I'm liking this. It's got some very delicious jazz throughout, and a sexy sax solo in the middle. The brass really makes this track sound 'big', and all of the instruments together produces a great, colorful sound overall. Altogether the performances are a little loose (sometimes the instruments don't quite line up proper, such as at 4:15 with those arpeggiating instruments). The recordings are pretty clean, too, which is always a good thing. The first metroid source is unmistakeable, but the second source is a bit trickier to hear. I'm hearing bits and pieces being improvised throughout the solo in the middle, but it comes and goes. 1:21 - 3:02 is tricky to pull source from, but since the track is five minutes long, and the rest of the track's source is easy to recognize (from the first game), I think this has more than enough source for OCR.

In the beginning, the saxophone pans hard to the right. While it's not an issue once everything comes in, when it's more bare it sticks out like a sore thumb, on headphones. That mic doesn't need to be panned that hard - setting the panning level to +/- 40 should be enough to give you space without making the saxophone sound so alone on that speaker when it's not accompanied. This isn't really a dealbreaker, though, as when everything is together it doesn't sound distracting at all.

The recording is quite good, as I mentioned before, but it's very quiet, and save for one or two spikes it remains very quiet throughout the entire track. Those levels need to go up higher. Fortunately, since the offending instruments that keep the levels down are very few and sparse, it's a very easy thing to fix - limit the track down by about 5dBs, then raise the levels by the same amount. Technically this causes production issues with the parts that I mentioned, but they're so short and inconsequential it's worth it for the boost in volume.

Otherwise, I think it's a great song - certainly good enough for OCR. The volume is an issue, though, so my vote is conditional until you raise your levels properly - in this case, it's literally just raising the volume on the exported track - a two minute fix, on Audacity.

YES/CONDITIONAL (on raising volume)

[Sir_NutS]

This is really good!  Excellent jazz remix of this song. Production wise, everything sits well here, very clean recording.  I don't have any issue with the volume levels here, the dynamic range is very large but that's to be expected from this type of arrangement.  Sections without too much going on seem pretty low, but the mix normally hits around -12/-14 db and when it peaks it goes up to -2/-4, which is alright in my book, this doesn't need to be hitting 0 db, actually having this kind of relaxed dynamic range on the mix makes the track sound more natural to me.

Arrangement wise this was pretty great, a lot was done with the source, and in some places it feels like it's on the brink of going too far off (like around 2:50) but you guys know when to reel it in back to the source again.  The last section at around 3:50 with the double-timing of the source really caught me off-guard, but I felt it works and flowed into it very well.  This is an easy pass for me, nice work guys.

YES

[Jivemaster]

Enjoyed the piece. Great playing throughout, the instruments are spread out nicely (though the right channel is heavier than the left in a lot of sections) and the mixing is solid. Like Gario I think it could be a bit louder, although it does pick up in volume across the track. While dynamics are critical in creating and maintaining the overall mood for an organic track like this, at its peak it was noticeably quieter than other submissions. The backing at 3:45 and 4:15 also sounded slightly strange and jarring for me in a non-jazzy way. This wasn't a problem for the others though, and while I wish the overall volume was higher, I won't hold it back for that.

YES  

[Liontamer]

Sources were in play from :00-1:20 & 3:02.5-4:54, so no question on the VGM dominating the arrangement. I agreed with Gario that the piece was strong, and the performances above the bar, but I also agreed that there needs to be an overall volume raise before we post it. Count me in the conditional crowd, but nice job by John and everyone in the JSO.

YES (conditional)

[Gario]

Just giving a heads up, I let John know about the volume adjustment a week or so ago, and he seemed willing to do it, so we might get the update on it soon (hopefully!).