*NO* Déjà Vu "Whiskey and Cigarettes"

[Rexy]

Contact info
ReMixer Name: Paralytik
Real name: Kim Stennabb Caesar
Website:  https://soundcloud.com/paralytik
User id on forums: 35995

 

Submission info

Name of game arranged: Déjà Vu

Name of arrangement: Whiskey And Cigarettes

Name of song arranged: Joe's Bar

 

Additional info

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_Vu_(video_game) 

 

Original song 

 

 

Comments

I tried to think of what the composer imagined if the music would have been played on real instruments. The arrangement was made in Reason 10.

--

Sincerely,

Kim Stennabb Caesar

Edited May 30, 2020 by Emunator

[MindWanderer]

Yes, this is indeed probably what the music would have sounded like on real instruments, for the most part.  And therein lies the biggest issue: it's a sound upgrade.  There's no reinterpretation going on here, which is what OC ReMix is all about.

Also, the tones of the instruments are off.  It's supposed to sound like an intimate, jazzy atmosphere, but all the instruments sound like they're in different spaces.  They all sound overly clean, either synthetic or in a recording studio and not in a live venue.  The reverb on them is inconsistent.  The piano especially sounds strange, with its odd detuned warble.

Thanks for submitting, but this just isn't what we look for.

NO

[prophetik music]

i agree with MW that this is essentially a cover. there's a few very minor changes but nothing close to transformative. as a reminder, here's the pertinent guidelines from our Submission Standards document:

Quote

Your arrangement must be substantial and original.

• Submissions must be different enough from the source material to clearly illustrate the contributions, modifications, and enhancements you have made. Acceptable arrangement often involves more than one of the following techniques:

• Modifying the genre, chord progression, instrumentation, rhythms, dynamics, tempo, or overall composition of the source material
• Adding original solos, transitions, harmonies, counter-melodies, lyrics, or vocals to the source material

• Taking the original game audio and simply adding drum loops or using an existing MIDI file and assigning new instruments does not qualify as substantial or original arrangement.
• Submissions must not include any sampled audio, including sound effects, from material owned by Square Enix or its subsidiaries.
• Submissions should be long enough to convey arrangement; generally, this requires at least two minutes of material.

beyond that, the detuned piano sound is consistent with a bar's upright piano, and i'm guessing that's where the sample concept came from. i do agree that when the arrangement is this sparse there needs to be extra attention paid to the environment, and it doesn't sound like they're all in the same place here.

this doesn't have enough arrangement to be considered at this time.

 

 

NO

[Emunator]

I think there's some excellent potential for a remix of this source, and plenty of room for expansion by way of things like instrumental soloing, additional sound design, more intricate drum/bass writing, or an extended arrangement. As it stands now, however, aside from the instrumental upgrade, I don't feel like you've done enough to sufficiently personalize this to OCRemix's standards. 

This is interesting, because the detuned piano sounds like something out of a lo-fi arrangement, but the bass and the drums are dry and don't really contribute to any sort of overall atmosphere. There's room to take this in a lo-fi direction, a live-jazz direction, or even some combination of both, but right now it doesn't sound like you've committed to any particular direction outside of an instrument upgrade. To meet OCR's standards, this would need a good deal more creative interpretation on the arrangement and sound design front. 

NO