Gario Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Contact ReMixer name: The Man Real name: Email address: Website: https://www.youtube.com/themanpf User ID: 35318 Submission Game arranged: Cuphead Name of arrangement: Don't Mess with King Dice Name of individual song arranged: Die House Composer: Kristofer Maddigan System: Microsoft Windows; Xbox One Year: 2017 Original song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3UguXUvECM This is an orchestral/classical arrangement made for my channel TheManPF in Youtube, where I try to push myself to constantly make arrangements of different anime/series/movie/videogame soundtracks, for this particular arrangement I tried to translate the original jazz song into something of my own style of composing, utilizing orchestral elements and singing with a raspy, villain-y voice, akin to Disney villain soundtracks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted February 14, 2019 Author Share Posted February 14, 2019 Gotta say, this is an interesting approach. Glad this isn't an instrumental, since those vocals really do have a lot of character. I'm surprised how (relatively) in tune you keep your vocals at those deep tones. It's not perfect, but considering you're going for a rough, snarling sound I would say it's passable. Not for everyone, but I like em'. The backing instruments, though, are a non-starter. They're not at all humanized, with the strings and brass being particularly mechanical. It doesn't help that the brass has a long solo at 1:55, which magnifies just how mecanical it is. The levels all remain the same, the attacks and releases of all of the notes are the same, which just makes it sound like a computer is hitting all of the notes the same way all the time (which it is, but the trick is to make it not sound like that). The arrangement is pretty good, but the mechanical backing instruements send this below the bar. If some time is spent making the backing orchestral elements sound more realistic this would have a chance on the panel (granting that others consider the vocals passable, which is in the air), but right now this is a hard pass. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted February 26, 2019 Share Posted February 26, 2019 I'm not as huge a fan of the vocals. They sound muffled, like you're singing everything through clenched teeth, and they're hard to make out. I'm also not a fan of the fade-out ending; they usually come across like you just ran out of ideas, even more so since you're remixing a source that does have its own ending, rather than a loop. I also can't argue with Gario about the instruments. I don't think they're quite as problematic as he does--the sample quality is up there and helps a lot--but they aren't humanized almost at all. The long instrumental bridge makes it really noticeable, for example, the slight attack delay on the trumpet sounds strange in the rapid runs. The bass range of the piano is almost inaudible most of the time. Definitely a balance tweak needed there. I might--might--be OK with the mechanical instruments if that was the only issue. But it's not. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 Right from the start at :06, the string articulations are really fake, particularly the sustains, and they stick out like a sore thumb. The piano sounded fairly solid though, although kind of muffled in the background; it should have had a richer, more realistic tone, but it gets the job done, IMO. Do note MindWanderer's crits. Subtle touch, but nice countermelodic stuff with the bells at 1:19. Brass entering in at 1:53 was also very unrealistic sounding and stuck out. I'm not saying the percussion needs to follow the source tune more closely, but it felt like there was something missing from the percussion to give the piece direction, and the instrumentation felt empty. Consider some sort of drums or other percussion to anchor the piece. That's not a requirement, just something to consider, and something to be ignored if it wouldn't work or fit your vision. For the vocals, they're solid, IMO. A little dry, but they're treated reasonably well. Even though they follow the source closely, there's enough personality to the delivery that they stand apart from the original. Good base here, but the lack of realism/humanization with the strings and brass are definitely dealbreakers as the others have noted. Don't forget the lack of percussion possibly being something to address. If you need more help/guidance, use the Workshop forums here for arrangement feedback and production advice. That said, the vocals work for me, and the arrangement concept otherwise works. If you're still willing to work on it further, that's great, otherwise, I look forward to more submissions from you. You could definitely get this specific piece to a passable level given the strength of what's here so far. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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