Gario Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 ReMixer Name: LongBoxofChocolate (feat. Tyler Krug & Mary Horst) Real Names: Trevor Burch, Daniel Perry, Aaron Schmitt, Nick Bello, Patrick Lanier, Tyler Krug, Mary Horst http://youtube.com/longboxofchocolate http://tylerkrug.bandcamp.com/ http://www.maryhorstmusic.com/ Game: Undertale Title: The Spectral Mire Source: Waterfall "Never trust a flower...that's one of the constants of this world." Hey everyone, This is a dark and brooding post-rock/prog-metal cover of Undertale's Waterfall - and is easily our most experimental work. Live cello, ambience, voice acting, no saxophones (blasphemy!)...there are lots of elements here we have never attempted before. While it is certainly dramatic, I think we managed to dial in just the right amount of cheese to keep it from being painfully serious. Something to note is that all the spoken dialogue is taken directly from the game. The aptly-named "echo flowers" repeat the last thing said within earshot forever, until it fades into white noise. We actually leveraged this idea as an opportunity to interpret some of the game's backstory, which has some interesting implications Of course, this would not have been possible without our collaborators: Tyler, an independent post-rock guitarist who is largely responsible for the original concept, and Mary, a fabulous Atlanta-based cellist who filled a literal void in the song with her performance. We hope you enjoy it. Cheers! Trevor P.S. I have a newfound envy of professional voice actors - cackling wildly into a microphone is hella fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 When I first heard this on The Lesser Dogs, I meant to ask Trevor what the whispered vocals were. A relatively minor criticism, but the guitars at 1:33 should have sounded more upfront, because the dropoff from the violin's volume before seemed odd and made it feel like the performers weren't sharing the same space. Otherwise, quite the expansive and interpretive approach to the arrangement; "Waterfall" was already a gloomy, contemplative theme, but I felt like there was a different kind of darkness and angst here. Fun stuff, guys, and great job having Tyler and Mary combine their talents with LBoC!YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 More LBC, more Undertale goodness! Lack of saxophone aside (why would you do this?!), this is an excellent arrangement of the waterfall. Very meaty, lots of your ecclectic style minus the sax, it's got a lot to love for everyone. There are a few points that I have issue with, though. The rhythm guitar in the beginning (0:16, 0:29) really overpowers unnecessarily - it just completely overshadows the other texture, which is a shame since that texture sets the mood up so well. It's also pretty inconsistently mixed compared to the rest of the track's guitar work, so it really stands out as strange. I love the idea of talking in this, but I'm finding it distracting that I can't hear anything they're saying due to how far in the back of the mix they stand. It just sounds like mumbling when it's mixed that far behind the arrangement. Not a huge deal, but it's something that I would've appreciated coming forward more. 1:55, 3:07 and 3:35 get very cluttered. Instruments get very loud and fight for space, which makes those sections sound like soup. A shame, because you have a lot of great things going on in the background. There is a lot to like about this arrangement (great live performances, especially that cello), and the arrangement really takes advantage of the somber tone of the source, but man that mixing is inconsistent. I think it's still a pass, but it's a borderline case for me - it would be ideal to hear a better mixed version of this, but I wouldn't want to see that necessarily hold it back from being posted. It's close, though. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 I'm amused that Larry and Gario made exactly the opposite comments about the two guitar sections, but I agree with both of them: The one at 0:16 etc. is on the loud side and muffles everything else, but the ones at 1:33 sound distant and muted, indeed like they were much further off than the rest of the instrumentalists. The vocals are just barely indistinct, although they are direct quotes from the game and will thus be familiar to players; they go on for long enough that I do think they should be clearer. If it were just a couple of lines, I don't think it would matter so much, but it's about a third of the mix. Gario's comments about where the mix is cluttered are spot-on as well. Like the vocals, if this wasn't an issue for quite as long, I could overlook it, but as it stands, it's a significant drawback, no small part because you have great stuff going on that's just inaudible and it's a shame. 1:55 and 3:55 are particularly unfortunate because the cello work is excellent when it stands on top of the mix, but it's competing with so much during these two sections that it doesn't sound good at all. The strong reverb in the ending is a little distracting, since it creates some dissonance, but that might be intentional--the backstory told by the echo flowers is meant to be unfortunate, after all. I never thought I'd send back an LBC remix, especially with such great collaborators thrown in, but the mixing really is bringing this down a lot. It's close, as Gario said, but I'm coming down just on the other side of this. Clean this up a little and it can go from borderline to amazing. NO (borderline, resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Great contrast of instruments and sections in this track. Clear soundscape. The guitar parts certainly hit hard in the first minute, however they don't play for too long at that time, so don't have much of a negative impact on mix quality at that point. I felt their muffled nature during the part at 1:18 was for effect to let the other parts come through, and felt this was a nice creative choice. The section at 3:10 on the other hand did push volume balance a bit far when the lead was playing on top of background elements fighting for attention. The remainder of the track follows this similar theme in mixing (although not quite as hard). Outro was short but effective. Apart from the heavier points of the mix where the guitar overpowered the other parts, there isn't too much here to find fault in. Although I would like to see some rebalancing of the guitar parts when it comes to volume, the sections requiring tweaks are minimal and not something I'll hold this back for. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 I really liked this. Pretty unconventional structure and approach which works because well, what's not unconventional about Undertale? I do have a few criticisms to echo from my fellow judges: the guitars at 1:35 and 2:43 should've been brought to the front, and 1:50 sounds very muffled. The mixdown feels a bit unpolished overall, but it's not something I feel deserves a rejection, as the arrangement more than makes up for it and I don't think these issues are deal-breaker. Undertale may be starting to become one of the most remixed games around here, but there's clearly no lack of original ideas out there and this mix is proof of that. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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