Jump to content

OCR01561 - *YES* Great Giana Sisters 'Synthpop Mix'


Liontamer
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • 4 weeks later...

http://www.exotica.org.uk/tunes/archive/C64Music/Huelsbeck_Chris/Great_Giana_Sisters_PSID.sid - SIDtune 5/8

This is the part where I yell at DarkeSword for being an idiot for not knowing where to find the Great Giana Sisters soundtrack, considered a legendary soundtrack for the Commodore 64. "grrr u idiot" :banghead: :vomit:

Pretty straightforward arrangement, but well-produced. Nice change in dynamics with the dropping out of the beats, the stuttering rhythm arranging the source, plus the pad fading in at 1:05.

Melody finally comes in at 1:25. The beatwork was produced nicely, but felt like it could have been more impactful. Good tradeoffs between the synth lead and the stuttering synth handling the melody, as well as changing the supporting instrumentation, present throughout the rest of the track.

While the track didn't introduce new sound/writing ideas after a certain point, there was still a noticeable sense of making the arrangement evolve and develop over time. The melodic leads constantly traded off, while the background combinations shifted constantly as well.

The track does feel a bit too samey after a while despite EzpRado attempting to vary things up. The synths, the beatwork, etc. dragged after hearing them used so much, IMO negatively affecting the replayability of the piece. The emergence of new sounds and writing ideas, like the ending section from 4:13-4:44, should have been used earlier in the track to keep things fresh.

Could have been stronger and introduced more ideas into the picture over time, which holds it back a bit, but what's here is fairly good. By my call, you squeak by. Good luck on the rest of the vote.

YES (borderline)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

First thoughts--nothing too extravagant, but fairly enjoyable nonetheless. I thought 1:00-1:10 was a little hollow, but then the shortsynth jumped in to save the day. Heh, I really enjoyed the "c'mon!" throughout, though it was perhaps approaching borderline overuse.

I guess after comparing to source, this is a lot like the Ambertrance mix that recently got passed. I think that though this is nothing spectacular, it's still YES worthy. It's a quality mix of a simplistic source that is produced rather well. And though it may not have the fancy embellishments that more and more mixers try to shoot for, it's nothing short of OCR-acceptable.

YES

oh, and by the way

Please inform me if the remix is approved.

rofl

Link to comment
Share on other sites

not thrilled about the instrumentation up front. The synths are simple and fairly raw. Halfway through, i havent heard anything particularly interesting. This is actually quite generic and predictable. I may be exaggerating by describing this track as "cookie-cutter," but not by much. Straightforward beat, conservative composition, plenty of repetition. I think the only reason it isnt dismissed outright is that the production is a little better than most of the really noobish stuff we get.

You folks seem to be passing it with little positive to say besides "eh, it's decent."

I'm not terribly impressed. I want something more creative and complex.

NO

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gonna have to agree with Vig. Frankly, even though AmberTrance passed, I voted NO on that and I still think it was a mistake to pass it. Straight-up dance/trance adaptations don't cut it for me. This sticks close to the original and relies on pretty basic percussive patterns and synth sounds (some of which are unedited presets, I might add). Also, the production isn't hot. There's an overuse of compression on the master track, the bass is really excessive, and some of the harmony parts are too hard to hear. Once in awhile there were some cool variations on the melody but for the most part I feel like there needed to be more substance to the interpretation to really make bring it up to our standard.

It's not far off. Switch up the arrangement a little more - don't rely so much on repeating what little you had from the source tune. Add your own material if you have to, improvise chords/melodies, and so forth.

NO

Link to comment
Share on other sites

there are parts of this that are entertaining but not enough of this is engaging to warrant this much enthusiasm towards it. ambertrance was considerably better than this, i think

i don't have a problem with being a blunt trance interpretation but i want to want to dance - the arrangement wouldn't normally bother me as much, as i am a fan of simplicity, but the instrumentation and production are so average that i feel left to qualify the arrangement and in that scenario, its simplicity does not help it

NO

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

There is a noticeable amount of repetition in this mix; I'm not gonna lie. That being said, I still feel like the personal variations are enough to constitute a solid arrangement— just not a great one. Production is fine by me, although I think everything sounds a little sonically flat. Something's missing.

You've basically split us down the middle, and that is pretty unusual, so even if this passes, I hope you remember the criticisms you've received here and take them into account next time around. I'm going to ere on the side of caution, and ask you to resubmit. This mix has a lot of potential, but there are enough empty and/or repeated sections to lead me to believe it's quite ready yet. Hope to hear back from you soon!

NO RESUBMIT!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This one's been making the rounds around the Commodore arrangement community: http://www.remix64.com/tune_325300.html

Interesting spread of opinions. I think there's a consensus that the sound choices are lacking and that the production should have been better. And though Giana Sisters is heavily arranged in the Commodore community, I disagreed with those who said the arrangement wasn't interpretive enough.

I'm glad Makke and LMan, despite the criticisms given, felt that the arrangement was the best part of the track. While borderline, I felt the arrangement was the saving grace. No qualms on a rejection, but I wanted to reaffirm my borderline YES.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I definitely agree with Zircon with the compression issue. It makes everything sound really flat, minus the pump that overcompression can sometimes give to a mix. The sounds choices weren't that great, and coupled with the repetitive nature, and sections where nothing much was happening, I don't think this quite reaches the bar. Like Vig, I do think this was a 'by the numbers' mix - this needs some more personality.

NO(Resub)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It's not genius, but there are some nice details that I feel adjectives like "average" and "mediocre" don't accurately describe, like the stuttering, distorted FM synth around 1'11" that Larry cited; the production doesn't jump out and grab you, but it's also far from being what I'd call weak.

I think most are correct in saying that this lies somewhere around the bar which we've set for submissions, but I'd tend to say there's enough attention to detail, general technical competence, arrangement, and energy to put it slightly above the bar, rather than below it. I was tapping my toe, and I didn't balk at any one particular transition for being unacceptably hackneyed, even if it was something I've heard before dozens of times.

Gonna tiebreak in the affirmative, YES

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...