Gario Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Your ReMixer Name: Lucas Guimaraes Your real name: Lucas Guimaraes Your Email Address: Your website: https://twitter.com/Thirdkoopa Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: http://ocremix.org/community/profile/33965-thirdkoopa/ Name of Game(s) arranged: Secret of Mana Name of arrangement: Hallucinatory Province Name of Individual Song(s) arranged: The Dark STar Link: Other people that helped: ImAFutureGuitarHero, Stemage. Stemage opted not to give his email but gave me the blessing; I can get him added in here if necessary. This track was on the Pixel Mixers album "Whispers from a Verdant Grove". This was my first shot at doing the "Psychedelic Rock" genre where I got influence from three eras; any psychadelic rock after The Doors, The Doors, and some psychadelic rock before (which explains the Tabla and the Sitar). I'm super proud of how it turned out; especially with the fantastic performances of my friends ImAFutureGuitarHero, who provided the Bass, and Stemage, who provided the Guitars and Drums. While I never got to finish Secret of Mana myself, it's music always stood out to me, and this part of the game definitely sticks out. Hope I did everything right again; lmk if anything else is necessary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 (edited) A neat little jazzy number here. Great performances and some fun riffs. It does go off track for a while but, without timestamping it, I think it's clearly a Dark Star arrangement throughout. I do have one complaint: There's an extremely high-pitched sweep pad, pretty close to the limits of my hearing, almost in dog-whistle range. It's not there the whole time, but it is there most of the time, and it's driving me absolutely nuts. I imagine not everyone will even be able to hear it, but for me, it makes this impossible to listen to. Slap a low-pass filter on that one synth (I don't have a spectrograph handy but I'm guessing somewhere around 10kHz) and I think this is great. YES/CONDITIONAL (on elimination of ultra-high frequencies) Edit: I clearly have better high-end hearing than my fellow judges, because I can still hear those high frequencies in the intro, where it's exposed. But they're very quiet as well as brief, and I'm not sure I'd notice if I weren't looking for them. Good enough. YES Edited August 15, 2019 by MindWanderer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted August 9, 2019 Share Posted August 9, 2019 That choice of instruments makes me think more in the direction of George Harrison rather than The Doors, but I can still identify the chill 60s vibe here. That source is present from start to finish, going beyond being played straight with a smart interpretation typical of the style. It's been played at half-time during the intro, demonstrated a funk-like swagger at 1:07, and appeared on the bass in a modified form (most evident from 2:00). Even the framework is robust, with the fleshed-out section B segments at 0:40 and 2:53 anchoring it with your Asian instrumentation. I have no faults with interpretation - it's there and tastefully done. The production, for the most part, sounds great too. Stemage and ImAFutureGuitarHero did a fantastic job with recording those live parts, the balance is near-flawless, and the sitar/tabla both feel authentic even though they're VSTs. But I am however in MindWanderer's frame of mind regarding that odd high-pitched sound that crept around the track. Is it a synth sweep? Is it a pulsing synth string? I'm not too sure what it is, but it overpowered the high-frequency band (10k onwards) to the point of piercing the soundscape. If it's on an instrument that otherwise has body below the 10k mark, consider adding a low pass to filter it out. Otherwise, I feel it'll be more comfortable to listen to if the instrument gets muted altogether. I don't see any issues otherwise, so looking into this odd choice of frequency would only take 5 minutes at best to fix. The arrangement is chill, the performers are on point, and the production values are serviceable otherwise. I see no reason as to why it can't make it onto the front page after the problem's resolution. YES (conditional on removing distracting high frequency) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 12, 2019 Share Posted August 12, 2019 (edited) Really smart arranging, and nailed the psychedelic rock vibe; loved the sound here. Nice work using a lot of comping, but always keeping the backing patterns of the original, particularly the rising countermelody, to keep the arrangement grounded in the source most of the time. The piercing frequency did stick out but wasn't a factor for me for more than a few seconds, BUT... it would be nice to eliminate that, so I'll also ask for a fix before we post it for that reason. Otherwise, incredible stuff, Lucas, Jared & Grant! YES (conditional) EDIT (8/15): The tweaked version eliminates those piercing frequencies, so I'm fully on board. Thanks, Lucas! YES Edited August 15, 2019 by Liontamer changed vote to YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 In light of three conditionals, I got in touch with Lucas earlier this week and brought up the piercing frequency. As it turned out, it was on the theremin and he took action on it very quickly. I edited the song link with the new WAV above - not only did he made the EQ cut but he also transposed the theremin down by 2 octaves. Indeed, the track still sounds gorgeous, no other glaring issues are present, and I'm so glad he co-operated with us. Consider my vote to be full of confidence now! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 Love it. Definitely getting a psychedelic vibe from this, though not quite at Disraeli Gears levels, sorta more like something between Abbey Road and Dark Horse. Also reminds me a little bit of the style of K. Praslowicz's mixes. Still quality stuff, lovely performances, great adaptation and the arrangement is varied, utilizing the different instruments to complement the lead melodies bringing this arrangement to life. Reading through the other Js votes, I see there was something about super high frequencies. I don't hear them in this version (though I can't hear anything above 18-19k due to age), but I did check with a visualizer and I don't see any huge peaks. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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