DragonAvenger Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 (edited) ReMixer name: prodigis Real name: Zach Email address: Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKJlafNdX5YcIPYnoMYltDg UserID: prodigis Name of Game: Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow Name of Arrangement: Water Guns Are For Raves Name of songs Arranged: Cerulean City Original source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpPWNOhJtqs Remix: Comments: Hi there! This is my first submission to the site, which in fact I only recently learned about. I've been remixing each of the main themes from the original Gen1 Pokemon games in a different style. For this piece, Cerulean City, I chose Happy Hardcore, a somewhat trashy and over-saturated rave style that I felt matched well with the unrelenting cheese of the original theme. While this isn't my favorite genre, I am pleased with how its hallmark elements meshed with the source material. ---------------------- Edited March 23, 2019 by Gario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 Definitely trashy but also definitely true to the genre. A lot of times when I've heard people trying to make happy hardcore vg remixes, they're very straightforward with little imagination or creativity put into it other than making a 4 on the floor pitchy kick and setting the bpm to 170. Luckily this is not the case here as this remix is chuck full of ideas, processing tricks and wacky transitions. The artist wasn't content on just sitting on autopilot with the sound design, as the bass synth changes several times depending on the section, and the drums aren't static either. The song isn't without faults, I find it could use more sub and lows (though I will check back on this again on my best setup), and even with all the creative flairs it does repeat the source verbatim quite a bit. Staples of the genre in part, and the repetition didn't feel lazy nor overshadowed everything else that was done in this adaptation. Super happy and quirky, maybe not for everyone, but I'm pretty ok with most of it. Let's go. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted April 5, 2018 Share Posted April 5, 2018 I'm not familiar with the genre outside of happening across it when playing DDR, but I can clearly tell what it's trying to do, and it's successful at it. It's melodically repetitive but does approach that melody in a few different ways with effects and juxtaposition. It's a little pounding in places, but it's not severe, especially for a rave style. Perfectly adequate, nice job overall. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted April 14, 2018 Author Share Posted April 14, 2018 I'm a little concerned about the direct sampling of the source at the beginning, though it doesn't last particularly long. Aside from that there isn't a ton to add that hasn't been mentioned already. The track definitely pumps, which is especially noticeable on headphones. There are a good number of breaks from that pumping though which is a good break for the ears. I'd have liked a little more variety in the main melody itself, but I do think there's enough structure changes to keep this interesting. Personally I'm not feeling the out of tune synth that's used, but it fits the feel of the song well and adds a frenetic frenzied feel to it. (alliteration ftw). Nice work overall. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 This is a very chaotic mix that doesn't stay the same for too long before moving on to the next section. I feel my vote is quite detached from the others here. You do hit the style well for the most part. I must say I wasn't a fan of the intro sounds at the start of the mix - there was a bit of muffle during the build-up, the layers didn't feel like they fit together cohesively, the levels of the different parts felt unbalanced, and the kick based booms took up a good chunk of frequency space on each hit which blocked out the other parts (and continued to do so whenever they were used). There were a few purposefully detuned synths used, including one of the main leads during the "verse" sections. These were interesting initially, but over the course of the mix they became overused - their happy-hardcore vibe being overshadowed by their somewhat static presentation, lacking much in the way of tweaking or note variation. The noise driven trance-ish lead during the chorus sections felt someone flat dynamically, and those sections in general were quite dry with a perceivable drop in volume compared to other sections. The snare was quite weak in comparison to the other percussive elements, and the bass and kick treaded a bit too closely at times. Low end was otherwise mostly decent. There is quite a lot of variety initially in the arrangement, and I appreciate the attention to detail given to each section. By the 2 minute mark however, things began to feel very samey arrangement wise - with the main hooks becoming frequent, predictable and overused without much in the way of major changes or surprises. I would've liked to see a section that was a complete departure from the rest of the mix, and more sparing use of the detuned sections, which incidentally would've given them more impact on each appearance. The abrupt ending while nifty in some respects felt a bit cheap, especially by that point when the listener was hoping for something different to take us out. I think there is some work arrangement wise to be done here. I thought the mix lacked overall direction, with a collection of relatively solid sections used a bit too much, spreading the originality thin over the duration. Along with my mixing and instrumentation concerns, I feel there is a bit too much weighing this down. Good luck with the remaining vote. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 The heavy original source tune sampling in the opening did bother me. Although the piece wasn't using the sampling as a crutch to tie this to the VGM, I'd have liked less direct sampling of the original audio to make things less dicey from the perspective of the Submissions Standards. The ducking first found from :47-1:29 was annoying and should be pulled back some; I'd live with it as is, but that's a lesser ding on this. Was disappointed that 2:08-on was essentially a cut-and-paste; for something with a fast tempo and big energy, this particularly made the track feel flat and repetitive. Arguably, there's enough interpretation here to bear a ding on the repetition, but to me it made the track boring for the last minute. I'm more in the middle of the YES's and Jive's NO. To me, the production was stylized and even if I'm a grandpa and thought the ducking was too much, the production felt cohesive enough and had direction. That said, the last third needs to bring something new to the table beyond the copy-pasta and it would be rock solid. I won't have a big problem if this passes, but wish the arrangement were more fully developed for the last third instead of re-treading with no meaningful difference; it's OK in some tracks, but with the tempo so fast, it feels like too much repetition. If this doesn't make it as is, see what more you can do with this for the final third, Zach, and consider pulling back on the ducking/pumping and original audio sampling; for me, a combination of smaller issues are making me feel this needs one more pass. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted November 20, 2018 Share Posted November 20, 2018 I like this track! I find it fun and I'm not bothered by the glitching/pumping. I am not sure if the source material used verbatim is an audio rip, to me it changes in level of reverb from wet to dry, which indicates it has been re-created using the same synth (but I could be wrong). Where I do find an issue though is with the direct copy-paste of that last section. I agree with Larry that just something minor changed, added, etc. in that final passage to differentiate it from the previous identical passage will get the job done. Other than that it gets my vote. NO (borderline, please resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted January 21, 2019 Share Posted January 21, 2019 I love the style here. Lots of small details and embellishments that keep this from being a sound upgrade with drums. Like the glitching and processing and stuff. Really good there. This is the kind of music that OCR is always accused of being full of, but that we don't actually have enough of. But for a track that's so aggressive, there needs to be some variation to keep things interesting. This track a little longer than 3:00 and around 1:30 I was like "okay what else?" The copy-paste really bugged me. I get it, I've been there, and you can see it in a couple of my earlier remixes on this site; you're working on this track and you're just like "ugh I want this to be DONE" and you just copy-paste some stuff and call it a day. When a song is just barely past 3 minutes and it sounds like it made 2 laps around the track, you gotta get in there and change things up. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 Not my style of music, so I'mma differ to others saying this is typical to the style so I can accept that a lot of the pumping in this is stylish. I've heard things in this genre before that sounds like this so... yeah, I'm going to place that in the "Not my taste, but not necessarily bad" category. I can't give the copy/pasta a pass on this, though; the song is quite short, and a good portion of the song is simply a repeat of the body. More could (and should) have been done to distinguish it from the first half of the song, because with something that has as little change to the soundscape as this song does throughout the issue compounds into something that makes this hard to finish when you're listening to it. Change up the second half so the copy/pasta isn't nearly as much an issue anymore and I'll give it my stamp of approval. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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