Gario Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 (edited) Submission Download Link: Contact Information:: Your ReMixer name: Mercurius FM Your real name: Borigard Mercurius Your email address: Your website: http://mercuriusfm.com Your userid: 17383 Submission Information:: Name of game(s) arranged: Chrono Trigger Name of arrangement: Chrono's Fight Dance Name of individual song(s) arrange: Battle Additional information about game including composer, system, etc.: http://ocremix.org/game/16/chrono-trigger-snes Comments: Hi, long time listener and gamer... Been producing since 2005 and finally decided to start hammering out video game remixes because regular dance music has been boring me! This is my take on the classic Chrono Trigger Battle theme. The idea came to me after listening to the SNES soundtrack for the thousandth time... I noticed I was humming the bassline still. At this point, I began writing the remix and it transformed into an electro house stomper inspired by acts such as Soulwax and Justice, complete with heavy drums and a grinding bassline. It should be great for listening, and also for DJing since I've tested the track a couple times when I do my monthly video game remix DJ gig called Gamer's Paradise Party. Thanks for listening! Regards, Bo E. aka Mercurius FM Music Producer & DJ http://MercuriusFM.com Winner of Independent Music Awards (Electronic), Toronto Independent Music Awards (USA), Phoenix New Times Best of Phoenix (Remixer), Phoenix Makes Games Jam (Composer), Phoenix Global Gam Jam (Composer), and Phoenix Comicon Game Jam (Excellence in Audio). As seen in Rolling Stone, Earmilk, Canadian Music Week, and more. Edited September 7, 2017 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 This is pretty great. The beefy bassline really brings the track to life, and the Daft Punk feel that comes in every so often adds a lot of flavor to the track. Plenty of source throughout, and while things do get a little repetitive towards the end, I felt there was enough changeups that it didn't turn into a dealbreaker. My nitpick comes from the entrance of the track, and the riser used about halfway through. It completely overpowers the track with a lot of white noise. I like the idea of it, but it just feels too strong as-is. That being said, those two sections are pretty small in the long run and I bet in a big dance crowd they would sound fine. Solid work, hope to hear more from you soon. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 I felt like background was an issue throughout. It was most pronounced in the intro, which was messy to the point of drowning the music, and during the riser DA mentioned (2:45-3:02 or so), but the layered arps and pads, sizzling cymbals and snares, and SFX combine to make the backing highs sound extremely cluttered in most of the arrangement. On top of that, the leads are extremely meaty and cover nearly the whole frequency spectrum, which conflicts with those highs. It's a little repetitive, of course, especially towards the end (4:00 on) but as EDM goes, it fits the bill. And I think the production would probably work just fine in a club setting. But in a controlled listening environment, the highs sound really cluttered. There are a lot of clever things going on there, but they're all stepping on each other like crazy. Pull them apart and use more use of your frequency and stereo space and I think this will be a winner. Right now I can't sign off on it, though. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Maybe it's more apparent with headphones, but to me the beats were too overpowering compared to the other parts; until 1:30, there's so much clutter created by the bass and beats. And it's from :15-1:30 and especially 3:01-3:53 where the soundscape just sounds too cluttered, which undermined the attempted dynamics of the arrangement. Perhaps whatever's going on with the lead from 1:45-2:00 is an acquired taste, but to me it wasn't quite melodious there. That said, I liked how you constantly varied the lead sound as you played that source melody numerous times, and it clicked better for me with some of the other lead choices. At 2:00, a change for the instrumentation handling the countermelodic synth would have been nice; that part got overused, IMO. 3:30-3:52 did get repetitive by re-using :30's section, but it was a good, meaty sound; some sort of textural variation earlier there would help it sound more creative and less cut-and-paste-like compared to the beginning. This is a great start, but despite many of the textural changes going on, the overall groove felt too samey. Right now, the core beats and instrumentation were too repetitive. Some more varied beat-writing and swapping out the instrumentation for some of the parts would help keep this fresh. Along with cleaning up/re-EQing the soundscape so that your parts didn't clutter together, that's mainly what I'd work on. Nice work so far, Bo. This was very promising, and I hope you're willing to revisit this one to see how else you can improve the writing and production. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted August 11, 2017 Author Share Posted August 11, 2017 Man, I've given this so many false starts when trying to give this a fair, proper evaluation it's kind of crazy. No idea why this hangs me up so much, but it's so borderline and it's hard to put into words what takes it down for me. Reading what my peers have said, however, it's helped me put it into more definite terms, so kudos to them for that. Anyway, first the good: the style is slick and oddly fitting to the source. The oldschool EDM fits this like a glove when by all accounts I wouldn't have thought it would. The retro synths all work together, and the drums compliment your soundscape choices. While long, the subtractive arranging that occurs throughout does ensure that it's different enough to justify that length. The production, while not perfect when everything crowds is still nice and loud for most of the track without really sending production red flags like unintentional overcompession. Lots of sidechaining and such against the drums, but that seems both intentional and fitting. The largest issues that hangs me up on this, though, is the repetitive use of textures throughout this track. Nothing ever is combined in the same way twice, but the textures are repeated over and over again, which makes the track feel like it's at the same energy level throughout. The static nature really makes the track feel like it's dragging on, there - you'd really need to introduce more fresh elements throughout rather than recycling material so heavily. The drums (specifically the toms, for me) also really crowd yours soundscape too much; I'm not against the kick being so heavy, but the toms above them have too much volume and too much reverb, which kills everything else below them. The track is borderline too crowded throughout, so there's really no room for something like that. As Larry states, this feels too "same-y", which is due to the heavy use of recycling throughout. I'm onboard for most of the other elements in this: the style and general arrangement structure are good, with the production being close to acceptable. Add some more fresh material in there and clean up the crowded soundscape a bit and I could see myself giving this a thumbs up. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 Off the bat, the tracks sounds really cluttered and washed out - probably due to the "watery" effects and various instruments playing. Beyond that, I'm having a little trouble listening through this one, because there's a very high pitched ringing that keeps fading in and out of the track and it's really piercing on my headphones. It's in the very high 14Khz+ range probably and it's killing my ability to listen to this in a normal volume level. I THOUGHT it was coming from the arpreggiated synth, but when it finally cut off near the end, it kept going (maybe it's the sweep synth, or possibly hats, I honestly don't know) . I'm not sure why others aren't hearing this (it might be the frequency response on these headphones), but it really needs to be fixed. I agree with the crits regarding bass synth/beats overpowering the other elements. That's probably part of the reason I had trouble nailing down what was causing the high pitched ringing, because elements like the arp synth & others get buried when the track gets going full bore. It's hard to tell from lower volume, but beyond the high pitched issue, the EQ balancing in general felt off to me - like too much in the mid-low range, missing mid high/high on some instruments (but obviously not missing the super-highs). I agree with repetition remarks as well. There are elements that play on repeat for long stretches of the mix, like the sweep pad, arp synths, core beat pattern. With some fixes and tweaks I could see this one rolling through for sure. Concept is solid and the arrangement is nicely handled with the battle 1 theme obvious throughout. NO Resubmit, please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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