Gario Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 Contact Information Your ReMixer name Mellow Sonic Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged Unreal Name of arrangement NyLeve´s Falls Name of individual song(s) arranged Dusk Horizon the track is original by Alexander Brandon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 This one was challenging for me to judge. I kept on starting it and trying to listen to it closely, but after a couple of minutes I'd lose focus. Then, six and a half minutes later, it would end, and I'd think to myself, "Oh, crap, what did I just listen to? All right, let me start that again." By the time I finally managed to stay focused all the way through, after trying six or seven times, my conclusion was pretty much inevitable: This arrangement is very static. It takes a simple D&B line and iterates over it many times, slowly adding minor changes, then winds it down, then repeats with a different line. We don't necessarily have anything against trace, but trance should generally be either more melodic or more progressive than this. I know the source doesn't have much in the way of melody to work with, which is why I expected this remix to be along the lines of progressive trance. This doesn't really "progress," but instead keeps re-introducing elements used earlier on. The result is an arrangement that doesn't feel like it goes anywhere. I didn't have any other concerns--production is fine, and although picking out source usage is tough with a mix like this, I got enough to feel it was used appropriately and effectively. But ultimately I think that as a standalone piece of music, this needs to be more dynamic. As part of a soundtrack, I think it would be great, but I don't think it's what we look for in a mixpost. NO Edit: To clarify, I didn't "ding this on not being more melodic" per se; I dinged it on neither being melodic nor having what I would consider progression. That lack of progression is what other judges criticized as well; I feel it would have been saved if it had been more melodic instead. But it was neither, thus the NO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted February 23, 2017 Author Share Posted February 23, 2017 I agree that the source is clearly there and the production is great, but I am at a complete loss to how the arrangement is static. The sections change up significantly from part to part, with a variety of instruments being swapped in and out. At most, it might hold for a few measures longer than necessary from section to section (building with small variations over time, as MindWanderer says), but I didn't find it to be a big, deal breaking issue. The instruments used are signature Alexander Brandon, which could be a point against the track (being that this IS an Alexander Brandon source), but ultimately I thought the instruments were used well. The track had some great peaks and valleys that gave enough variety to the energy levels throughout, so I'm going to say it's really not a static arrangement, in this case. I found myself really getting a kick out of the energy of the track, even though it DOES sound like it belongs in a later Unreal Tournament game. I'm all for giving this the front page treatment. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Nice swells and textures. Your choice of sounds stay pretty similar throughout the mix, although they are complementary to each other and fit the genre well. The opening felt mostly solid, building things up for things to come... however by the first minute a change of pace was well overdue, but never eventuated. In fact for most of the track, things never really evolved past the first minute. A lot of this has to do with the drum line being very repetitive - with its stop starting nature, it doesn't help drive the arrangement forward like it should. I feel even a change to a standard 4/4 beat would've helped after the intro to push things forward. During the opening they felt very fitting, but by the 3rd minute, considering how similar your overall atmosphere here is, things were really getting repetitive. After this point some breakbeats during the mid-point break are introduced, but they don't stick around long, nor to they really change the pace up required by this point, as the underlying 1 bar rhythm is still there. This creates perceived repetition, even though other parts do play different things over time. This is a shame as the overall sound you have here is bright and optimistic. The different melodies over time were welcome, and you made great use of stereo space. Your lead sounds are solid. Your SFX are typical/expected for the genre but implemented well. There was a small problem with the low end being a bit muffled in crowded sections, which could've been easily avoided by high pass filtering some of your synths that didn't need the low end. A tough mix for me. I don't feel the duration of the track is warranted with the amount of perceived repetition here, especially with the repeated use of short drum and melody lines over many bars. I understand the trance vibe here and what you're going for, and appreciate the changes that happen when they do, but I feel overall these transitions to new sections come in too late, and coupled with the repetitive drums the problem is exacerbated, making this fall short. NO MindWanderer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 On 2/23/2017 at 4:42 PM, MindWanderer said: This one was challenging for me to judge. I kept on starting it and trying to listen to it closely, but after a couple of minutes I'd lose focus. Then, six and a half minutes later, it would end, and I'd think to myself, "Oh, crap, what did I just listen to? All right, let me start that again." Thanks for letting me know this is one of those mixes. Not that there's anything wrong with a track that lets your mind drift, not every song needs to be an attention-grabber to be good, but those are pretty difficult to judge for the reasons you just mentioned. That said, I think I agree with some of the issues brought up here. I don't think the arrangement is bad, but it just languishes for too long on the same groove and sections. Every section has unique characteristics to it, and there's some work done in the pads and ambiance to keep it evolving, but sections like 2:20 to 3:11 feel like they go on for too long without significant change. The dnb patterns are cool, but I feel like so much more could've been done with them to spice up those long-winded sections. Instead we get a set amount of patterns that play on loop without change. I feel this one is pretty close, definitely scratching the bar, but I feel that the sections could be trimmed to make each section more significant and less meandering, and more can be done to the dnb patterns to keep the groove fresh and to keep the pace from stagnating. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 On 3/1/2017 at 4:06 AM, Jivemaster said: The opening felt mostly solid, building things up for things to come... however by the first minute a change of pace was well overdue, but never eventuated. In fact for most of the track, things never really evolved past the first minute. A lot of this has to do with the drum line being very repetitive - with its stop starting nature, it doesn't help drive the arrangement forward like it should. I feel even a change to a standard 4/4 beat would've helped after the intro to push things forward. During the opening they felt very fitting, but by the 3rd minute, considering how similar your overall atmosphere here is, things were really getting repetitive. After this point some breakbeats during the mid-point break are introduced, but they don't stick around long, nor to they really change the pace up required by this point, as the underlying 1 bar rhythm is still there. This creates perceived repetition, even though other parts do play different things over time. [...] A tough mix for me. I don't feel the duration of the track is warranted with the amount of perceived repetition here, especially with the repeated use of short drum and melody lines over many bars. I understand the trance vibe here and what you're going for, and appreciate the changes that happen when they do, but I feel overall these transitions to new sections come in too late, and coupled with the repetitive drums the problem is exacerbated, making this fall short. On 3/14/2017 at 10:44 AM, Sir_NutS said: I don't think the arrangement is bad, but it just languishes for too long on the same groove and sections. Every section has unique characteristics to it, and there's some work done in the pads and ambiance to keep it evolving, but sections like 2:20 to 3:11 feel like they go on for too long without significant change. The dnb patterns are cool, but I feel like so much more could've been done with them to spice up those long-winded sections. Instead we get a set amount of patterns that play on loop without change. I feel this one is pretty close, definitely scratching the bar, but I feel that the sections could be trimmed to make each section more significant and less meandering, and more can be done to the dnb patterns to keep the groove fresh and to keep the pace from stagnating. Yeah, I fell basically in this camp. The arrangement here uses the theme through most of the piece, so source usage wasn't in question. MindWanderer's wrong to ding this on not being more melodic; as long as there's arrangement of identifiable writing or patterns, the approach is valid even if not melodious, and that's definitely done here by Mellow Sonic, without question. -------------------------EDIT (3/23): Thanks to MindWander for clarifying his POV. When MW noted this wasn't melodic, that caught my eye more than his explicit point that it was neither melodic nor progressive, which is absolutely spot on. So that's my mistake, and we're totally on the same page along with the other NOs. It doesn't have to be melodic, but if it's not going to be, it still have to evolve and develop more. -------------------------- I'm also OK with a piece that's more of an overall groove with only subtle dynamic changes as long as the changes are apparent within that narrower dynamic curve -- and that also happens here. However, in reading Jivemaster's vote in particular, he nailed down what was nagging me about this piece. The part-writing combinations do change, but the different core patterns of the song feel repetitive and overlong as they mix and match, e.g. the synth lead at :36, 4:43 the heavy bassline at :45, 2:27, 5:40 the breakbeats at :45, 3:11, 3:46 the ambient strings at :45, 3:12, 5:06 the warbling synths at 1:30, 2:16, 4:08 the drones at 2:04, 4:08 Even though you're hearing the textures change throughout, the components feel like just the same loops cycling in and out without meaningful variation, which made the atmosphere seem repetitive and underdeveloped for such a long piece. If the individual part-writing varied a bit more, this wouldn't feel like it was dragging on and not justifying the length. To me, this was a really cool approach that's got a good overall groove, but this needs more variation in the writing and/or instrumentation of the patterns being cycled in and out, which could be subtly addressed. I wouldn't mind an additional vote or two on this just to make sure there may not be other YES's for this as is, so I'd like to continue voting with either a 5th NO or another YES to keeping things going.NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Wow, really great production, I have no complaints. The source is repetitive, and so is this, which is fine in and of itself... but I agree with the others who are saying that it is the drum groove primarily bringing this just under the bar. Throw in just one section with a surprising groove for 32 bars. The other thing you could do is throw in some interesting/surprising leadwork during one of those long sections, some cool original motif over what is already here, perhaps a soulful legato thing, something to sort of tell the story over this amazing soundscape. Damn, I do like this. Just needs a little bit of something to make it less repetitive and this will be a candidate for my favorites folder. NO (please resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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