Gario Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 (edited) Contact Information Platonist Jonas Loman platonistmusic.com 16372 Submission Information Legend Of Mana Nocturnal Lumina PSX Composer - Yoko Shimomura This one is old, so if it sounds old, it's because it's old. Well, at least the intro loop is. I wanted to leave that part intact, because stubbornness, but I had to polish it a little bit at least. The arrangement beyond that is new and pretty straight forward; a trance beat, some strings and a pwm chip lead that I've overused :'D. I tried to make it not loud, because that's probably the most common complaint I've gotten over the years, and since the loudness wars are over anyway I decided to master it to -14 LUFS with a -1dB true peak headroom. As usual, sequenced in Schism Tracker - because I want to and you can't stop me? Edited July 27, 2017 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 I love this source, one of my favorites from LoM. There's some fun stuff you have going on here, and some unique sound choices. I don't know if all of them are really working in the end. The opening is really buzzy, and that kind of takes over that entire section. I think if the buzziness were more in the background it would be ok, and would work, but it's too strong as-is and draws a lot of focus. Also not sure what's up with the animal growls, they feel a little random. After that the melody comes in, and the synth has a somewhat nebulous attack, making the track sound out of time. Once the groove starts things fit better in place, but there's not much development. The harmony/counter melody is a nice touch, I enjoyed that, but the rest of the instruments are doing the same melody/background for a few repeats, then the track goes back to the buzzy intro for a fade-out. There needs to be more development overall. I'm pointing out a lot of negatives, but I think this has promise. I like the overall soundscape you're trying to achieve here, but I don't think it's at potential yet. I hope you keep working on this, there need to be more Legend of Mana tracks on the front page! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Deia has this dead-on, I think. Those low-fi sounds are really questionable, IMHO. 1:45-3:06 is especially problematic because the "noise" accompanying some of the synths is creating conflict, especially with the hats, and the effect is sort of a wash of white noise. That section is also pretty long and static; I was ready for it to be over at 2:39, and the additions to it after that point were quite subtle. It could really use a solo or something thrown in there to break up the simple melodic hook. Maybe something from a different source, or some original writing. Sorry, but right now I think both the sounds and the lack of development are holding this back. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Arrangement-wise, this used the theme well in adapting it for a more upbeat genre. Interesting approach going for a kind of grade-up Secret of Mana-style instrumentation. The combination of 16-bit sounds with other instrumentation was good, but the muddy mixing and bland beat-writing ultimately dragged this down for me. The bowed strings at :50 didn't sound good IMO because the attacks sounded slightly behind, but maybe it's just an acquired taste, since the 16-bit tone was at least super-authentic. I didn't feel the buzzy synth in the opening section was as negative as Deia did, but I still agreed with her that it was too upfront and distracting; perhaps pulling it back some would work better. The beats/kicks at 1:17 had beef to 'em, but the writing was really vanilla, so I was waiting for something more interesting to happen with the perc writing. Then the perc writing shifted into something more boom-tss with the cymbals coming in at 1:45, but it's still a pretty basic, too-straightforward beat that ultimately dragged out. Plus, the mixing didn't make much sense, with the beats being nearly the same volume as the lead. When the bowed strings then came back at 2:12, the writing was good, but the part mostly added clutter to the soundscape because a lot of these parts occupied the same frequency range. 3:06's finish had some parts drop out, clearing up the soundscape some. I think the development of the track went well in the right direction, but more sophisticated and varied beat-writing and cleaner mixing would be enough to get this passed, IMO. Promising stuff so far, Jonas, so I really hope you're willing to revisit this again. Would love to have you finally get Legend of Mana up on the board here at OCR, and what's in place now is well along the way and just needs some additional refinements. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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