Liontamer Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 Hey Dave, another submission for ya! This song is from Donkey Kong Country 2, the Ice Cavern stage. It's current encoding is a little over 6MB, if you pass it let me know and I'll re-encode it to a lower bitrate. It's another vocal arrangement too, so here are the lyrics: why can't it end what keeps it from fading away is it here in my heart just a grave inside of me all the warmth has gone my will has gone astray all the feelings gone all the hope fell to the way take me away never bring me back again take me away maybe then i'll live again broken inside nothing is left to heal the pain still resides happiness is just surreal falling endlessly its just another day can you heal this soul can you hear the words i pray take me away never bring me back again take me away maybe then i'll live again ------------- Info: Remixer name: Darangen Real Name: Michael Boyd email: darangen@hotmail.com website: www.darangen.com Name of game: Donkey Kong Country 2 Song remixed: Ice URL: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillian Aversa Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Wow, not what I was expecting from you, Darangen! Acousticy goodness. This is a very touching arrangement: beautiful lyrics, spacious chords, haunting FX... Mixing sounds excellent, too. I fear that you may get a few complaints about repetitiveness, but I think the simplicity of the piece actually works in your favor. Do you like Guster? The main problem is that your voice is much more exposed in this style than we're used to hearing, without all the drums and electric elements. I think you are a good singer, but perhaps this key was too high for you. All the vocals, particularly the upper harmonies, tend to sound uncomfortably flat. You may wanna choose a lower key, or you could do some pitch correction on the compy. I can see what you were going for with the echo at 0:58, but I don't think doing it down the octave was a very logical choice. It breaks up the rest of your range. Honestly, though, if you just rerecorded (or pitch-corrected) the vocals, I'd have no problem passing this. NO, PLZ RESUBMIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted November 3, 2006 Author Share Posted November 3, 2006 http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=dkq - "In a Snow-Bound Land" (dkq-25.spc) On the arrangement side, things were a little bit repetitive, but the interpretation was there. The overall mood is definitely different than the source, primarily on account of the original vocal writing, as well as the instrumentation choices. That SNES-style plucked string synth first used at :10 sounded out of place to me. Sounds really muddy for, IMO, no justifiable reason. Yeah, I definitely hear what you were attempting to do with these vocal ideas, but the performance aspect of this was out of your range. I agreed with Jill that stuff like the low vocals at :58 sounded flat. When you go too high or low and can't physically perform the intended notes, j00 got flat. When the flatness was occuring in spades, stuff like the harmonization from 1:03-1:45 was ballsy but definitely was NOT hitting the spot. Might wanna knock on Star Salzman's door and find out what techniques he uses to harmonize and keep his multitracked vox in tune. The timing on the harmonization from 3:43-4:24 was noticeably off in some places (3:53, 4:14-4:19), but otherwise really clicked there in terms of your pitch and harmonies as opposed to all of the other times. If you can get things synched up nicely, and get the vocal performance sounding smoother like that the whole way through, you'd be all set. I'm definitely a fan of your attitude in terms of creating these vocal mixes in order to hone your singing skills, Mike. It's the right way to have some fun while bolstering your experience. Definitely keep at it, bro. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted November 15, 2006 Share Posted November 15, 2006 I agree with Larry on the plucked synth that comes in at :10. I feel like you would have been better off using a piano or e.piano there rather than the lo-fi stuff. Some sections sound kind of off-rhythm to me for some reason, like at about 1:25. Between the guitar, vox, and synths, something seems off. Try to tighten that off. Also, the weird pads and FX in the background aren't helping things imo. They're too dark and muddy to really add anything to the track, and take away from the stuff that should be in the forefront (guitar/vocal). Try different pads instead or roll off the low end and reverb on the ones that you have now. Besides synchronization of the harmonized vocal parts, and the flatness in the same pats, I didn't think there was anything really bad about them. For the most part, I thought they were fine. Hey, if you really want an easy fix there, try picking up an automatic pitch corrector like Antares Autotune. You'll never have to worry about this stuff again. I wouldn't say this would be an easy pass if you fixed the vocals but they're a big problem currently. The arrangement was repetitive, for sure. I would have liked to hear additional elements at least in the last quarter of the song to keep things fresh. That said, maybe I'm just not used to hearing songs in this genre, so perhaps this isn't as weighty of an issue. The interpretive factor is certainly there. Fix up those vocals and some of the production issues and you should be a lot better off. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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