[Donkey Kong Country] Life In the Mines - Placeholder Title

[NyxTheShield]

• Title: Placeholder 
• Source: Donkey Kong Country 1 - Life in the Mines
• Link to the Track (NEW VERSION):   https://clyp.it/nlwjlbui
• Link to the Track (First WIP):
• Description: I haven't submitted anything on OCR in a while, but this track made me feel I should do it. A reimagination of the original in a rock/metal style. I hope you like it! Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

EDIT BY TAUCER: here's the source:

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

EVAL:

Arrangement is on the conservative side, but I think there's just enough variation here to clear the bar in that regard. The original soloing at 1:48 is excellent. However, the percussion could use more variation. You have a few changeups, but on the whole the rhythm is too samey throughout the mix. I'd also like to hear more in the final chorus (starting at 2:40) to make it stand out and feel different from earlier iterations. This would be a great place to add in some guitar fills, since the melody leaves plenty of space for those sorts of flourishes.

Production is mostly good, but there are a few issues that stand out to me. First, back off on the compression and saturation, especially in the percussion. I'd also bump up the volume on some of the harmonic squeals (ie at 1:03). The lead guitars, while they don't sound 100% authentic, have some really pretty tone, though again I'd back off on the compression so that tone can still shine through in the busier sections. The rhythm guitars sound a bit thin by comparison. There's several ways this could be addressed; my first impulse would be to see how they sound an octave lower. If that doesn't suit your tastes, then probably double them (or at least double the bass note) with something to give it a bit more low-end punch.
I like your use of reverb throughout; I think you did a good job of using it in such a way to make the mix sound big and spacious without making it too muddy.

This definitely has potential, but I don't think it's sub-ready yet.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

[This is an automatically generated message]

I've reviewed your remix and have returned it to Work-in-Progress status, indicating that I think there are some things you still need to work on. After you work on your track and feel that you'd like some more feedback, please change the prefix back to Ready for Review and I'll review it again! Good luck!

[NyxTheShield]

13 hours ago, Geoffrey Taucer said:

EVAL:

Arrangement is on the conservative side, but I think there's just enough variation here to clear the bar in that regard. The original soloing at 1:48 is excellent. However, the percussion could use more variation. You have a few changeups, but on the whole the rhythm is too samey throughout the mix. I'd also like to hear more in the final chorus (starting at 2:40) to make it stand out and feel different from earlier iterations. This would be a great place to add in some guitar fills, since the melody leaves plenty of space for those sorts of flourishes.

Production is mostly good, but there are a few issues that stand out to me. First, back off on the compression and saturation, especially in the percussion. I'd also bump up the volume on some of the harmonic squeals (ie at 1:03). The lead guitars, while they don't sound 100% authentic, have some really pretty tone, though again I'd back off on the compression so that tone can still shine through in the busier sections. The rhythm guitars sound a bit thin by comparison. There's several ways this could be addressed; my first impulse would be to see how they sound an octave lower. If that doesn't suit your tastes, then probably double them (or at least double the bass note) with something to give it a bit more low-end punch.
I like your use of reverb throughout; I think you did a good job of using it in such a way to make the mix sound big and spacious without making it too muddy.

This definitely has potential, but I don't think it's sub-ready yet.

I have been playing with the mix the past day. While I agree with the drums being the samey through the song, I actually dont know what to do to 'differentiate them, do you think just a tad of variation here and there (Like adding an extra kick, removing a snare, chaning the transition bit etc) would work or are you thinking about a bigger overhaul to them? I kinda like the way they carry the rhytm through right now.

About the drum kit's compression, is there anything specific that's throwing you off? I tried backing off my current processing chain, and while they sound less compressed they also become kinda dull (Instead of using some kind of sidechaining to make the kick punch through, I use a heavier compression instead for example). Any pointer regarding this would be amazing.

About the rhytm guitars, I kinda agree with what you say, they are a bit thin and I will try to handle this. The main thing is, they are not the ones driving the bass rhytm of the song, so they are basically high passed at around 100hz, adding a bass note to them just muddies the mix a lot and doesnt make them punch through. I messed around with the amps settings tho and now they sound much stronger, will post an update asap.

Also, yeah, good idea!! I will add some stuff at 2:40, also fixed the pinch squeal sound at 1:03 and in the ending. Thanks for the feedback!

 

'

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Regarding the percussion: honestly, this isn't my forte, but here are my thoughts:
I don't think it needs a complete overhaul, just a bit more flair and variation. As for compression, again I don't have as good an ear for this as some, but it just feels like the volume doesn't change from hit to hit. Honestly, you might be able to address this with velocity variation rather than decreasing compression, but I'd play around a bit with the compression. Do you also have some sort of tube saturation on the drums? That's what it sounds like to me, and it's a cool effect but it feels like you went just a little too strong on it.

Totally get what you mean with the rythm guitars, and I can hear what you're talking about as far as them not being themain thing to fill out the bass; my biggest complaint is that they just seem to disappear in the mix. A slightly dryer mix (ie les reverb) might help this, but that might also take away from the huge spaciousness of the current mix. But overall, they don't really feel like they've found their niche. Like, they kind of fill the same place as the leads but they're not as strong, and they kind of fill the same space as the percussion but they're less punchy so.... it doesn't feel like they know where to sit in the mix. Hopefully that makes sense.

Looking forward to hearing the updated version!

[NyxTheShield]

18 minutes ago, Geoffrey Taucer said:

Regarding the percussion: honestly, this isn't my forte, but here are my thoughts:
I don't think it needs a complete overhaul, just a bit more flair and variation. As for compression, again I don't have as good an ear for this as some, but it just feels like the volume doesn't change from hit to hit. Honestly, you might be able to address this with velocity variation rather than decreasing compression, but I'd play around a bit with the compression. Do you also have some sort of tube saturation on the drums? That's what it sounds like to me, and it's a cool effect but it feels like you went just a little too strong on it.

Totally get what you mean with the rythm guitars, and I can hear what you're talking about as far as them not being themain thing to fill out the bass; my biggest complaint is that they just seem to disappear in the mix. A slightly dryer mix (ie les reverb) might help this, but that might also take away from the huge spaciousness of the current mix. But overall, they don't really feel like they've found their niche. Like, they kind of fill the same place as the leads but they're not as strong, and they kind of fill the same space as the percussion but they're less punchy so.... it doesn't feel like they know where to sit in the mix. Hopefully that makes sense.

Looking forward to hearing the updated version!

 

Played around the drums setting, tuned the saturation a bit down and worked on the dynamics of everything, while adressing most of the problems you pointed out. I might rework the ending part a bit, but here is the new version:

https://clyp.it/nlwjlbui

 

EDIT: This might also sound WAY, WAY different to youtube, since Youtube usually compress the fuck out of the music while also applying  a gain reduction of around 5db

[NyxTheShield]

bump

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Love the changes to the ending chorus.

Gonna hold off a bit on doing a formal eval; this would probably benefit from a second or third opinion from some of the other evaluators, but if none of the other workshop staff evaluates this, I'll give it another full eval in a few days. My informal opinion (after listening to it once on consumer-grade headphones while working on something in another tab) is that this is hugely improved and either ready or very close, but don't put too much weight on that until I've had a chance to give it a closer listen

[XPRTNovice]

2ND EVAL PER REQUEST:

I really enjoy the overall improvements made in Version 2 of this tune from a production standpoint. The piece has solid mixing and sound overall, with nice support on the low end. 

I think the lead guitars can come out a lot more around 1:50-2:15. It gets lost in the background for me, particularly because, as Taucer pointed out, the arrangement is relatively conservative. Bringing the guitars more to the front might make the variation pop a bit more. Otherwise, I found my attention drifting away, even though we had some pretty great lead guitar stuff going on. 

It's likely ready for a submission. 

[timaeus222]

Just from a quick listen, I thought the drums stayed fairly static... It just stays with the same kind of half-time rhythm, with relatively few fills. Try using toms sometime, to make the pacing more engaging.

The lead guitars can have more attention to detail for added realism. It seems like you may be using Shreddage? Some of the sustains are lacking life, especially at 1:56 - 2:07 with those straight eighth notes and limited vibrato. Putting pitch bends would help (i.e. bending up, or bending up/down for vibrato; but always bend up first, not down first), as well as visualizing when the guitarist would slide his hand on the neck and pick extra hard, etc.

Zircon has a great tips video on that for Shreddage here, if it helps at least in principle:

Another example is here, where pitch bends really bring the guitar to life, depending on what you want to write:

 

[NyxTheShield]

7 hours ago, timaeus222 said:

Just from a quick listen, I thought the drums stayed fairly static... It just stays with the same kind of half-time rhythm, with relatively few fills. Try using toms sometime, to make the pacing more engaging.

The lead guitars can have more attention to detail for added realism. It seems like you may be using Shreddage? Some of the sustains are lacking life, especially at 1:56 - 2:07 with those straight eighth notes and limited vibrato. Putting pitch bends would help (i.e. bending up, or bending up/down for vibrato; but always bend up first, not down first), as well as visualizing when the guitarist would slide his hand on the neck and pick extra hard, etc.

Zircon has a great tips video on that for Shreddage here, if it helps at least in principle:

Another example is here, where pitch bends really bring the guitar to life, depending on what you want to write:

 

Did you listen to the old version or the clyp version? I added a lot of vibrato and pitch bend to the sustains, specially in the solo section, pretty sure I didnt left any sustained note without vibrato or a pitch bend

[timaeus222]

I listened to the clyp version, which said "new version". I really don't hear that much vibrato (if any) in the sustains, particularly at 1:29 - 1:41 and 1:56 - 2:07. Are you sure it's there? Did you solo the track and check? Vibrato CAN be added via pitch bending, and that tends to be more noticeable, but... I hardly hear any in those time stamps I mentioned. Note that I am not talking about the pinch squeals.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

[This is an automatically generated message]

I've reviewed your remix and have set it to Completed status, indicating that I think your remix is ready to be submitted to the Judges Panel. Congratulations!

If you feel like you still need to work on your track and want more feedback, you can change the prefix back to Work-in-Progress and we'll go through the review process again.

If you decide to submit your track, please change the prefix to Submitted after sending your email. Thank you!

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I'm going to change the tag on this to "complete," since xprtnovice declared it ready to sub, but I think all three of us are of the opinion that there are still minor tweaks that could improve the mix; feel free to continue tweaking and posting updates, or go ahead and sub it to the judges.

Best of luck!