Chimpazilla Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 REMIXER INFO Remixer Name: XPRTNovice Real Name: Joe Zieja Website: http://joezieja.com REMIX INFO Games Arranged: Super Mario RPG Name of Arrangement: Lies My Snifits Told Me Name of Individual Songs Arranged: And My Name's Booster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQYCu5EZOGI **This is a pre-emptive submit for the SMRPG album** Remixer Comments: I got asked to fill in a gap in the album for SMRPG, and this was the song I got handed. When I pulled up the tune to listen to it, I was a little put off. The source tune was really only something like 20 seconds long; it has only a few bars of melodically significant stuff going on, and the repetition within the source itself doesn't really have a lot of room for interpretation. Then I looked up Booster (having not played the game myself) and kind of thought that his story was a little tragic. So, instead of trying to do something complicated with it, I wanted to instead radically simplify the already simple. It sounded like a weird idea, but I think it ended up working. I wanted to go for something meditative and unlike anything I've done before. A man can only klezmer so hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted August 18, 2016 Author Share Posted August 18, 2016 This is very different from Joe's usual stuff (and the remix could not be any more different than the source than this!). That said, the writing and arrangement are actually conservative, but it is completely transformed here. The track starts out VERY quiet. The writing is mellow, almost too mellow for me. I like the vocal samples. The humanization is good overall. Reverb is heavy yet tasteful and appropriate. The track has an Enigma feel to it, it is meditative, I gotta give it that. I like it. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Well, THAT was a different way of approaching it. It really pulled out the core of the themes and melodies that are in the source and transformed them into something completely different. Chimp is pretty right on, in this regard - it's actually pretty conservative in the actual material used, but it uses it in such a different way that it sounds like a completely new song. The samples that are used throughout are pretty top-notch. I like the use of the sitar, and that vocal clip adds a lot of cinematic flavor to the whole thing - it reminds me of the later Tomb Raider soundtracks. I've... gotten pretty familar with those, as of late. The quality of the samples are great, but I feel there was quite a bit of humanization TLC that should've been put into the big string section and horns. Dynamically they work alright, but every note has the same articulation (swell into the note). For booming background chords (like the strings tend to have) that articulation works, but for quicker passages and more melodic phrases the articulation used throughout makes the lines sound disconnected and wonky (Listen to the strings at 3:04 - 3:20, for example - that's supposed to be a melodic hook, but it doesn't sound like a connected line of music). Considering the quality of the instruments around those instruments this isn't a dealbreaker, but it's something you should try to address for your next orchestration, as this issue is pervasive throughout the entire track. Production on this is spot-on; it's clean, rich, and makes nice use of reverb to fill the space realistically. One issue I might have is that overall the track is a little quiet, but it's not too extreme an issue. Some limiting and raising of the volume would help make the beginning much easier to hear at normal levels, though. Regardless of these things, this is a great track. It transforms the source into something that I never imagined it to be. That alone convinces me that it should be on this site (though the solid quality of the track certainly helps, too). YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 Wow... I LOVE THIS! Unique, well crafted, your idea was delivered perfectly. The instrumentation is fantastic, everything is well performed and nothing I hear sounds overly sequenced. I found some of the voices to be less on the ambient side and probably more fitting to something more on the ethnic music side, but this is just a minor nitpick. Production is very clean, and the source, albeit heavily modified, it's there. TBH I'm a big fan of DJP's remix of this same song, but you've also done an excellent job while also going in a completely different direction. Pretty amazing. This will be a great addition to OCR's library as well as our own Relaxing ReMixes Youtube Playlist. Nice Work. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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