*NO* Mega Man Legends 'Another Flawless Operation' *RESUB*

[Gario]

Prior decision

My ReMixer name: Yargami
Userid: 28292
E-Mail: 

Game arranged: Megaman Legends
ReMix title: Another Flawless Operation
Original song: We're the Bonnes!


   Two main things have happened since I submitted this last August. First off, about a month after I submitted this song I realized that it really was kind of terrible. The leveling was bad and few of the instruments were actively painful. But I didn't feel like messing with it at the time so I set it aside. The second thing was that a few months ago several East West plugins went on sale. After playing around with the new plugins for a while I decided to try this one out again. So after reading the advice of the judging panel I decided to update this one a bit. The title comes from Tiesel's monologue during one of the title screen demos.
   Main changes are that the bass is now a completely different style that doesn't explode the soundscape, the beginning is much more ambient, and the percussion has been completely scrapped and reworked.

   This was made in Sonar X3 with the following plugins:

Dimension Pro, Rapture, East West Symphonic Orchestral, East West Stormdrum 2, Studio Instruments Drum Kit, and z3ta+.

 

[MindWanderer]

I didn't hear the original, so I don't know if this entry is an improvement over it, but at least some of the major issues that judges described back then are still issues now.  The orchestral elements are still rather, though not completely, robotic, especially the strings.  Strings are a very hard instrument to get right because an actual human will vary each note in several different ways, not just in velocity and timing.  The nice build-up at 1:42, for instance, sounded exactly like the OST from the Lunar games for Playstation, which was all very well and good for the time and technology, but unless you're clearly and intentionally trying to mimic PS1-style sounds, we're looking for a higher level of quality than that.

The hats, while not totally on "autopilot" loops anymore, still use identical velocity and timing throughout, and they constitute all I can hear of the percussion.  This leads to a lack of energy in the mix.Most of the synths, especially until 1:09, are also very vanilla and not very interesting.  When you use generic synth sounds, there should generally be some sort of aesthetic reason for it, and I'm not sensing that here.  The pad is also oddly dissonant; I don't have the music theory to tell you whether it's actually discordant, but it sounds unpleasant to me.

The ending is still disappointing, with no climax, just trailing off on that vanilla bass synth.

All that being said, I didn't feel like the synths and orchestral instruments were at odds with each other, like the judges complained about last time.  The celesta was too quiet, and the filtered synth at 2:39 interfered with the other instruments' frequencies and sounded muddy, but otherwise I felt that they intermixed perfectly well.  EQ balance was decent except again for the muddiness at 2:39, and the drums in general.  The judges who reviewed this last time can say for sure, but this sounds much better than what they described before.  So keep working at it, and don't be afraid to ask for advice in our WIP forums.

NO

[Chimpazilla]

I also did not hear the previous version of this track, but listening through this version, I am in total agreement with MindWanderer.  This concept is dynamite, but the execution just isn't there yet.  The strings are too loud and present, the celesta is too soft to carry a lead (don't make it louder!  layer it with something else, or have it play a countermelody), and everything sounds very quantized and robotic.  The track needs more elements of interest, some more ear candy here and there, and somehow the drum track needs to be more varied and interesting.  Still some work to do here, but I really do like the idea.  Source is well represented, no issue there.  I like the swirling synth sound, and the koto, those are highlights.  The bass sound is really plain, but works well enough.  The ending is much too abrupt, that's a dealbreaker for me in itself.

NO

[Gario]

Well, THIS was an interesting approach. As yet ANOTHER person who didn't evaluate it the first time around, I'm coming in with some fresh ears. I really like the arrangement and general soundscape - it takes something filled with cheese and silliness and turns it into something darker, more foreboding - I dig. It takes some time to really get to the source material (1:09 is when it's prominent), but that didn't bother me too much. The ending fizzles, but I wouldn't call that a deal-breaker - it lets the music ring, and it closes off all the musical ideas that it was presenting well enough. Not the best, but certainly not grounds for an immediate NO.

While I like the soundscape, there's a bit of an issue with it being static. The pads that hold throughout the track really wears on you over time, as it really doesn't change. Listening to this all the way through is pretty exausting for that reason - don't be afraid to drop out that pad from time to time, to give the listener a break, and to help keep it fresh when it comes back.

The overall mix also has an issue where the leading, interesting elements don't come through very well, as the pads really take up all your space. Mix the pads down a bit, bring you melodies to the front, layer, etc. There's quite a few ways you can improve your mix to bring things out properly, so be sure to do that.

I think it's close, but not quite. Another pass on the mixing and taking another look at the pad and you'll be good to go. A suggestion, too: if you're resubmitting, I highly recommend putting that in the title of your e-mail! We look at those immediately, if it's in the title.

NO