Liontamer Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Original Decision Contact Information Your ReMixer name: overflow Your real name: Sebastien Skaf Your userid: 23598 Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: F-Zero Name of arrangement: Break City Name of individual song(s) arranged: Mute City Link to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBuXfcFKAlo Here's what I did: In terms of the arrangement, I cut the breakdown at 2:34 to about half. One of the things I hear back a lot from you guys is that the drum patterns are too repetitive, and while I think this is sort of a symptom of the genre I agree that there's room for improvement. So I went ahead and wrote a few new grooves for the resub, you'll recognize them most in the last use of the main theme and in the half time sections. I also wrote in 3-4 new tom fills, particularly between sections where I feel they're most noticeable. I've addressed some of the judges concerns about the EQ & compression; a lot of the ducking here was because I wanted these big Pendulum kick & snare hits, but they definitely overpowered the mix, so I decreased the gain on these by maybe 10%. The guitar is still not doubled, but I gave it some more stereo space and a little more low end to give it some body. I'm not sure if that's sufficient, but I wanted to thank everyone for the feedback anyway. I'm still new to this type of music so it helps a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 17, 2019 Author Share Posted October 17, 2019 There's some sort of light deformation/buzzing going on very lightly in the background from :05-:16 that doesn't sound intentional. The drums are louder than the guitar stuff and the melodic lead, which doesn't make sense to me, but the balance isn't so off that it breaks the track. Props on switching up the drum patterns some as well as decreasing the overly long breakdown, moves which I felt did benefit the track. I was already on board before with the prior version, and the revisions were an improvement. Good luck with the rest of the vote, Sebastien! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Definitely an improvement. I'm still not a big fan of the "quack" synth, but at least it's clearly a synth now and not a distortion of the rhythm guitar. Pacing is great now. Lots of fun and energy. There's still a fair bit of room for improvement, though. I think Larry understates the problem with how loud the snare and cymbals are. They're really, really loud. Even though you're breaking up the drum pattern now, it's still a bit headache-inducing. They do still cause a bit of pumping, although not too bad. Conversely, the bass guitar (at least, I think it's a bass guitar) is far too quiet--I didn't even hear it until my second listen, and even still I can barely make it out. As for the drum pattern, I have mixed feelings about it. The syncopated pattern that starts at 1:33 is... unconventional. It's certainly different, and the change is welcome, but I'm not convinced it works. Given the previous vote, I expect this will probably pass, but now that I can tell there's a bass, I really want to actually hear it! And the percussion really could stand to be substantially quieter. So for my part this gets a NO (borderline, please resubmit!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 (edited) this definitely has a Pendulum feel in the drums and leveling. i think the cymbals are too loud - Pendulum is notorious for every drum being just sounding like it's snare and drum only, and that's for a reason - cymbals are grating after a while. i don't mind the drums being a bit louder, and i don't mind the mixup on the beats that you've added. i do wish the kick had more balls - it's got a fairly muted beater sound, and it would be great if it had more treble on that beater sound combined with more meat in the really low freqs to let it kick harder. i agree with MW that the bass instrument is too quiet, and also that it doesn't have enough bass in it. it's mostly high. the arrangement is entertaining, and it's very energetic. i still don't dig the synth guitars but they definitely settle into the mix better than they did before. the ending's pretty blah after so much drive throughout, but as a whole it's fine. i'm a bit torn here. i'd like to see what the other judges say before i make my decision. i feel like the mastering pulls this down a bit, but it's still a fun take on the theme, and we don't expect everyone to sound like a pro d&b group. edit: i've let this one percolate long enough. i really don't think that this is at a level enough to pass the bar on the mastering side. i do think that the arrangement works when you consider pendulum's style (pretty repetitive), but i recognize that it is fairly repetitive even when considering that. i'm going to say that this is a no but pretty close...another pass on the mastering and a bit of additional creativity in the arrangement will put this over the bar. NO Edited January 31, 2020 by prophetik music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 I think this is mixed much better than before and everything feels well balanced. I love the sidechaining, it is appropriate and gives the track wonderful groove. The master still sounds a bit hot and gritty but not grievously so. On listening to this version though, I'm struck by how much copy-pasta (or nearly so) is going on in the arrangement. There are three extremely similar playthroughs of the same material separated by well varied transition sections, but other than slight drum changeups, the three sections (buildups and verse) are nearly identical with the same lead and backing elements. I'm finding the similarity to be problematic, unfortunately. Sorry to reject this again. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir_NutS Posted January 31, 2020 Share Posted January 31, 2020 (edited) Well this is a tough one. Better than last time, yes, but not without issues. The track feels a bit too loud right now, though I'm not sure it's on a reject-level. I think the drum pattern and repetition as a whole is a bit problematic here but given that this is going for sorta pendulum-style rendition, I don't think it's too bad here. I did like the pattern switching around 1:22 and 1:36, it helps with variation, and sounds cool. I feel this track needs slightly more bass as well. I see the cymbals are bothering some judges and I think they are a bit pronounced here. I feel like the cymbals in a pendulum-style song are usually more like a cloud of soft white noise that hovers over the mix rather than something that is constantly poking out of the mix. Anyways, I also think this could benefit from another eq/compression pass. The transients on the drums feel slightly too aggressive and I feel this mix would benefit from some peak taming overall. You want the drums to sound punchy and beefy, not too clicky. Sounds like I'm ragging on a lot of little details on this one, but I feel like these all add up to bringing this track down. This is very close and I think another pass would make it an easy pass for me, but right now it's also very close to the bar, and it's possible I'm being too nitpicky. I'll mull over this one for a bit longer. ------------- EDIT: 2/6/20 Re-listened and I think my criticism still stands. I want to hear this one again with more polish though, so please revise and resub. NO (resubmit) Edited February 6, 2020 by Sir_NutS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 Gotta admit that this one is still pretty close for me. Without restating what the others have mentioned, the biggest issues to me are the bass and the overall loudness of the drums. I think if it came down to just the drums I'd be cool with it, but the lack of low end is really hurting the track overall. Sorry to toss this back to you but I do think it's really close! NO (resubmit, please) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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