Chimpazilla Posted September 6, 2016 Share Posted September 6, 2016 Contact Informations : Remixer name : Evil Ducky Production Real Name : Meirone Julien Website : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg8fnwVQcgVWyWgCxh1Aasg Submission Informations : Name of game Arranged : Pokemon Red Name of arrangement : Creepy Loudness Name of the song : Lavender town Game composer : Junichi Masuda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted September 6, 2016 Author Share Posted September 6, 2016 I think this mix is really good other than two issues: 1. The strings in the intro are super fake sounding, their volume envelopes are really weird. 2. The larger issue is how badly overcompressed the track is, there is a huge amount of unwanted pumping going on. Depending on how the rest of the vote goes, we can maybe just ask him for a less compressed master. NO (but more like a conditional on non-squashed render) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 Solid metal goin' down, here. Very loud, dense, and the performances hit all the right places. The backing instrumentation, while not perfect, does compliment what you have going down in this fairly well. Chimp runs down the potential issues that I would have with the track quite well, but I don't agree that they're deal breaking issues, here. The string part, for example, has an issue with realism in the beginning, as the attack swelling is handled in an odd manner. String sections may swell the first note of a phrase, or they may swell a note periodically for effect, but from 0:07 to 0:21 ever low note has that distinct swelling attack, which doesn't sound realistic. This improves later, so it sounds like a purposeful choice rather than an accident, but it's one that doesn't reflect how a line like that would be performed. Other than that, though, I found the humanization to be decent in general. The track is certainly overcompressed. I don't agree that this breaks the entire track, but you would've done better to sacrifice a little volume for the sake of decreasing the levels of compression you have going on in this track. The mix often gets crowded, and as Chimp mentions there is a noticeable amount of artifacts that come in due to the overcompression. That all being said, I don't agree that it's quite enough to turn this into a NO vote. The arrangement works well with the source, utilizing the creepy nature of the source to both create quiet and heavy moments in the song, and it breaks itself up quite nicely throughout. There's little repetition, and the performances are very well done. I think the good outweighs the bad in this, but do pay attention to what Chimp said, there - she's not wrong, and you would do well to pay attention to what she said for your next track. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 21, 2016 Share Posted September 21, 2016 I'm with Chimpa. The timing of the opening string attacks seemed slightly behind, but the main issue is that the articulations sounded pretty fake. Cool transition to the metal at :28, though the strings might as well have been removed because they were mixed so softly compared to the guitars & drums during that transition. When the strings come back as accents at :57, they again sound practically inaudible like they might as well not be there. I liked the string writing from 1:11-1:31, which was audible. The machine gun drums from 1:32-2:00 completely drowned out the xylo/chromatic percussion; again, the ideas are good, but what's the point of layering stuff if one part can't be heard anyway? I love the expansiveness, creativity, and energy of the arrangement and performance overall, and that aspect was an easy pass. I'm not even a strong NO because the case can easily be made that, on balance, the production is OK. For me, I think this was almost at the line, but there should be some adjustments to get the bowed strings sounding more humanized and, more importantly, re-balancing this so that some of your supporting instrumentation isn't completely squashed out by the face-melting guitar & drum work. Chimpa pointed out over-compression was hurting this, and her "NO (more like a conditional on non-squashed render)" is basically where I'm at as well. It's a close call. If we got a tweaked version that toned down the compression a bit, that might be all we need to flip some NOs to YESs. Good luck with the rest of the vote though, Meirone, this is awesome, and I definitely want to see this posted in some form. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted September 21, 2016 Share Posted September 21, 2016 Agreed on the strings crits on the overly slow attack and lack of realism. The strings sound a lot better later with the stabs to me. Rebalancing of the whole track would be very welcome so the guitars & drums don't completely overpower the backing stuff going on. I like the direction here. Performances sound good. Interesting arrangement as well. I'm not sure I'm hearing overcompression here as mentioned, but as I mentioned prior getting the levels to the point where you can get a more clear sound from the strings and other backing parts without losing TOO much energy from guitars and drums would make this a pass for me. NO resubmit, please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clem Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 The intro strings are fakey, but the drum/bass/guitar blend is well done. Way overcompressed, but the mix has a deep warmth. Gives me a good doom metal vibe, reminding me of Daylight Dies. Arrangement wise, the orchestral parts are tripping points. I'm hearing the other judges on blend issues, but I gotta say that a little cheese in samples doesn't bother me much in a heavy metal Pokemon mix. Clean instrumental performances are a plus. The switch into palm tremolo is tight. The hard hitting metal angle isn't the most original way you could go with this source, but I think the execution is too good to pass up. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted December 23, 2016 Share Posted December 23, 2016 I'm just on the NO side here, I think the compression/balance along with the super fake strings is enough to warrant another pass to get it improved. It's super close, though, and the arrangement itself is great. NO (resubmit please) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted December 30, 2016 Share Posted December 30, 2016 Tough one here. I've been switching my vote on this one... but after many listens I will have to go with a rejection, based on the compression issues rather than the (admittedly) fake-sounding envelopes on the strings. It didn't bother me as much when I listened on my crappy setup, but after listening on my good setup... yeah, it's very unbalanced and overcompressed. It's generating pumping everywhere and the whole mix feels very boxy. The guitar performances are pretty solid though, and the arrangement works well, I liked the horror theme you had going on with this one. I just want to hear this on a relaxed, better balanced mix. If you can do something about the strings that'd be great as well. It was really a split decision for me, but I hope the artist reworks this. I'm pretty sure you will get through with a clean mix. Like Clem said, I don't think 100% believable performances are a necessity for an arrangement that utilizes orchestral aspects as support, but it would definitely help your case to have those sorted out.NO (please resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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