Jump to content

*NO* Shadow of the Beast 'Shadow of da Fonk'


Gario
 Share

Recommended Posts

Contact information:
-ReMixer name: DJ Brynolf
-Real name: Martin Landgren
-Email address: 
-User ID: 34473
 
Submission information:
-Game: Shadow of the beast
-Remix name: Shadow of da fonk
-Original song: Eerie forests / Plains ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqt_N5SOEIM )
 
A bit tough to find the name of the original song. I have several versions of it as mp3 and they are all called different things. 
On the official Amiga Immortal 1 CD, it is included in a medley called "eerie forests", so that's what I've been calling it.
 
So... here comes what turned out to be a synthy, funky, flutey remix of whatever this song is called. The slappy bass came in on a late stage of the process, but it fit the Prodigy-inspired drums so well in my ears that I had to go with it. The flutes are meant to give some life and breath to the harder synthetic layers. Plus, I can't imagine a Shadow of the beast song without at least some kind of fluteyness.
Edited by Liontamer
closed decision
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh boy, I remember this on the WIP boards, and I see that you fixed the crowded sections that I mentioned earlier. The flute is still a touch busy for my tastes (which coming from me is pretty crazy), but otherwise that's not a big deal - it's still pretty cool.

Ack, my fault on this, but I completely missed this on my mod review for this: the sections 0:18 - 1:36 & 1:36 - 1:54 sound almost like a direct repeat, with a lot of it being straight copy pasta, there. There are some small variations to separate the two (some doublings at a few points, one or two extra textures in the background), but for the most part the track repeats itself nearly verbatum, which is a fairly large no-no.

I feel terrible for this since I SHOULD'VE caught this in the mod review, but I actually can't pass this as it stands. Give some more vatiation between the two sections, make the second section worth listening to when the audience already heard it the first time and we'll have some real gold, here.

NO

(NOTE: I'm going to share this in his thread, which he's been pretty active in, so perhaps we'll get an update sooner rather than later on this.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gario's absolutely right about the repetition being a dealbreaker; 78 seconds being repeated out of 226 is over a third, far too much.

Repetition isn't my only concern, though, and I think even without that I'd have a tough time giving this one my thumbs up.  There's a substantial lack of bass throughout, prompting me to break out my bass-heavy headphones to hear what bass was there, and even then the soundscape came across as heavily loaded in the mid to mid-high range.

There are some cluttered sections, as well: the saw lead in 0:18-0:36 conflicts with the funky synths and gets muffled, and the tables are turned in 0:41-0:45 and 0:50-1:08, where the funky synths are being drowned out.  1:18-1:36 has the same problem, but with different leads; there's a lot of detail that gets lost there.  Then in the conclusion, the flute lead in 3:16-3:30 is too quiet, and 3:26-3:39 is excessively busy in general.

The mix is overall on the quiet side.  Despite there not being a ton of headroom, I had to turn up my volume much louder than I normally have to for music.  The dynamic contrast is fairly constrained, though, so that's just an observation and not necessarily something that requires correction.

I'm not a fan of that ending, either.  There's no lead-up to it, it just ends.

So yeah, while this would definitely be a much stronger submission with the repetition issue dealt with, I don't think that's the only issue that needs to be addressed.  The structure is pretty good and there are some solid ideas, but this would really benefit from some more work in the EQ department.

NO

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quite a funky vibe going on in your track. Things start with a fairly full soundscape, without wasting any time. The main groove has some nice movement to it, and supports the various leads that play over it as the arrangement progresses. Sounds work well with a nice combination of synths and real instruments playing together. The detuned far left/right panned synths add a level of eerieness to the track, although their presence felt overused at times.

Things are pretty good in the first half. The main groove evolves over time with a nice transition into the chorus - I particularly enjoyed the fake brass. As we progress to the second half of the track however, a lot of ideas are reused, with not much in the way of new content. The short break with off beat flute licks at 3:15 were a nice touch, though I thought they came in a tad too late. This is a shame as the content you have here is well done.

Production wise things could do with a bit more punch. Mixing works but isn't perfect - parts were blended a bit close together, with the drums sometimes being overpowered and lost underneath everything else that is going on; but for the most part things remained audible enough to make out the individual parts.

I feel this mix is close. If you could do some more during the second half to differentiate it from the first, you'll cover a good amount of the concerns that have been raised here.

NO

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...