*NO* Secret of Mana 'Desert Stars'

[Gario]

 

Submission Information

• Name of game(s) arranged
• Name of arrangement
• Name of individual song(s) arranged
• Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site)
• Link to the original soundtrack (if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site)
• Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.

 

ReMixer name -- Matt Canon

Real name -- Matt McWhirter

User ID --http://ocremix.org/community/profile/33899-matt-canon/

 

Name of game arranged -- Secret of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 2

Name of arrangement -- Desert Stars

Names of individual song arranged -- Kakkara Desert (Secret of the Arid Sands)

Additional Information -- Composer: Hiroki Kikuta ; System: Super Nintendo

Link to the original soundtrack: Secret of Mana Music - Secret of the Arid Sands ~ Kakkara Desert Theme

 

Comments:

-- My goal was to create a version that paid homage to the original work my Hiroki Kikuta while extending the arrangement in a way to avoid repetition. 

-- I kept the percussion vary similar to the source material, whereas the bassline is entirely my own. The basslines contain several layers, synth basses, an amp driven bass guitar and a cello. 

-- I made slight adjustments to the pitches/notes played by the marimbas to be more consonant to the key of the song; and layered tom drums, carefully tuned, to give them more weight in the mix. The marimbas themselves have 3 layers, each with different tube saturation, delay and reverb settings.

-- The main melody is also multi-layered, with a piano, guitar, flute, and a lead created with Xfer Serum. All were mixed using a variety of saturation, compression, delay, reverb, and eq, both inserted and parallel, to create the result that's heard.

-- Otherwise, all I can say was that this took a lot of time to mix and master. For my first submission to OverClocked Remix I wanted to send nothing less than the best of my ability and something the original composer could be proud of. Thank you for your consideration and Enjoy.

 

Matt

[Gario]

Very delicious percussion that plays throughout this one - that marimba that plays throughout pretty much nails it. The instruments blend very well, and the arrangement does a nice job with the pacing. There is one place in the arrangement that raises an eyebrow, though - at 2:22 - 2:39 it sounds like you forgot to finish the arrangement, leaving only the bass to play out the harmonies that would normally take that space. That can be a cool effect, if intentional, but the fleshing out of the arrangement at 2:18 - 2:22 leaves me thinking this is a mistake.

The production on this is pretty hot throughout (not complimentary 'hot', but more this-hits-the-limiter-throughout-the-arrangement 'hot'). Moments like 3:14 sound great, but when you have everything going at once (which accounts for a good deal of the arrangement) the mix sounds overly crowded. Bring your levels down a bit so that it doesn't cause as much clutter and limiting artifacts. Doing that and finishing up the 2:22 section would make this a winner in my book.

NO

[Jivemaster]

Your mix starts straight with a full soundscape - not necessarily a bad thing, but the material you introduce early on would easily lend itself to a gradual build up, and a more fleshed out intro would benefit the track. You've mixed this one quite loud, the parts don't have any critical problems (such as distortion), but its verging on too hot and easing back from the limiter would give the track more breathing room, allowing for things to be more audible in the busier sections. The marimba feels like something out of a 80's action movie, quite mechanical but a nice sound. The snare has a strange hollow feel to it which I found odd.

Your saw wave playing low notes continuously in the background did overstay its welcome as the song progressed - its not a terrible sound but its continuous backing of the bass became old quite quickly - I felt it worked best in the busier sections, and parts like 3:19 sounded nicer without it. I would suggest constrained usage of a pad here instead.

I didn't have as much of a concern for the short minimalistic section at 2:22 as Gario had, but having the bass play on its own here would've been far more effective if you truly were going for a bass "solo" type thing.

I feel the main part lacking here is the arrangement - its not that bad at times but the main melodies at play here are quite short and don't really vary much. This is worsened by the same overall soundscape, which in combination make things feel repetitive. Couple this with the other more minor problems and things build up against this one. I feel this is close, tweaks to what instruments are playing at what times, easing off the hot mixing, and a more gradual intro would make this a stronger track.

NO

I noticed a couple little glitches in the audio file which I'm not sure is just a bad file download or not (retried a couple times), but the track has noticeable micro stops in it such as at 0:10, 0:46, 1:48. This doesn't factor into my vote but thought it was worth mentioning. 

[Sir_NutS]

There are some good ideas at work here, but I feel there are several issues that pile up and surpass what could be enjoyable about this remix.  First the arrangement is quite static, there are several different sections but the progression of the track feel very stagnant.  We get a small break at around the 3 minute mark but by that point I felt already drained by the monotony.  Regarding the production I feel like the mastering on this one could be relaxed quite a bit, since it's not trying to be hard-hitting but the mastering is done in a way that would better fit a hard-hitting edm track.  The grainy, low-pitched saw bass is a constant throughout the track that gets old after a while and adds to the overall static feeling of the arrangement.  The main snare felt a bit splashy, as if all the bottom end was cut, but since this track doesn't necessarily need hard-hitting drums, I don't think it's a huge issue but I would have preferred a snare with a bit more body to it.

I could tell the different layers of this track apart so clarity wasn't too much of an issue, but the static nature of the track really brings down the whole thing along with the hot mastering and other production details.

NO