Rexy Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 (edited) Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Crashbomb Your real name: Crashbomb the band Your website: www.crashbomb.bandcamp.com Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: ? Submission Information Name of game(s) arranged: Ducktales Name of arrangement: The Moon Name of individual song(s) arranged: DuckTales [The Moon] by Crashbomb Additional information about game including composer, system, etc. (if it has not yet been added to the site): Originally written by Hiroshige Tonomura, (1989) Song from "The Moon" stage from Ducktales (1989) NES game. Developed and published by Capcom. Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.: We [Crashbomb] make fun, catchy, and melodic metal-induced punk with bone-crushing guitars and a Nintendo gizmo (named C.A.R.L) that gives our music a video game aesthetic. We recently started an album dedicated to some of our favorite video game covers. Ducktales being one of them! Edited September 22, 2020 by Rexy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Good energy, albeit a crowded soundscape where the leads didn't cut through at all. Spirited and expansive rock cover though. For the second iteration of the verse at :51, the leads were at least more upfront. Laughed in a good way at the brief machine gun drums at 1:12, this is going all out. Then the djent-style chugs at 1:28 continued to pack a lot of textural contrast within such a short piece, but it was important that something so short didn't have any wholesale repetition and it ticks the box there. The ending was purposeful, though it did feel like a cop-out with no real resolution. The mixing's not ideal and lacks highs, but it's still reasonably solid and I could make out all of the parts. A little short, and the ending was definitely disappointing IMO, but that's not enough to discount the strength of the rest of the performance. It's an apologetically balls-out expansive rock cover. We'll see how the other Js feel. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 This certainly packs a lot into a short runtime! Although it's a fairly straightforward cover, there's a lot of personalization added to this thanks to the enthusiastic performances. Seriously, the rhythm guitars especially sound badass here, and there's a ton of variation to keep this fresh throughout. The chiptune synths, while not anything groundbreaking from a sound design perspective, added a surprising amount to the arrangement and fit really nicely with the rest of the instruments. I find myself agreeing with just about everything Larry said, but fall on the opposite side of the bar - for such a short and conservative arrangement of the source material, I think things need to be absolutely ironclad, and there's a few things that, on top of the arrangement feeling just a tad bit undercooked, make it hard for me to pass this in its current form. The high end does sound slightly scooped out of the snare, and the balance between lead guitar and rhythm guitar is not perfect... for my money, I'd like the lead to be more present in the mix. I also echo the sentiments that the ending was underwhelming, and would have benefited from something more conclusive. Ugh, this is a hard vote to make because, in a vacuum, this is thoroughly enjoyable, but when viewed in context of the OCR standards, it falls short, mainly due to the straightforward and underdeveloped arrangement and some minor production issues. I wouldn't be upset if this passed, but I would feel a lot more comfortable signing off on it if even a few of these qualms were addressed. NO (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 there's a lot to like here. the intro is great, there's a really nice rhythm guitar tone overall throughout, the drums are solid if simple, and the leads are fun and well performed. the melody isn't particularly dressed up much, but the backing parts do a nice job mixing it up while holding water for the melodic content. it's definitely not perfect. the end is not good, the leads are too quiet pretty much throughout but especially before 1:12, and the song essentially ends at 1:26 or so. i like the chugs afterwards, but it needed to recap the melody or noodle some more on melodic content for me to really consider that part of the music. the mastering is also a missing some brightness in the highs. it's short but i still felt a little tired in my ears after listening to it. with that in mind, this is really short for what's essentially a few runs through a short melodic line and then some closeout at the end. i don't think there's enough here to really say "yeah, this is a complete arrangement". if it had a melodic recap at the end i'd consider it to be enough, but as it is there's just not enough actual arrangement for me to consider it as complete and ready for posting. i love the sound, and the first 1.5 minutes are great - a bit more body to the arrangement at the end and i think this is where it needs to be. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 Wow, I had been going back and forth on this one myself. On the one hand, this is an arrangement with a defined framework. It goes through the intro minus the melody line and transformed from 15/8 to 4/4, then two distinct variations on the theme, and finally, a breakdown using the arp over the top and a ridiculous air-out-of-the-band ending. The first variation feels more straightforward with only slight harmony use, which got used full-pelt in the second run alongside some machine-gun-like rhythms in the B section (1:12-1:25). Technically, there is some modification done with the source, and not one part outstays its welcome - so expansion is what I consider to be nice to have if it gets revisited. The production also has minor issues overall. First of all, great performances and recording quality on the live instruments - those individual components feel clean and well-synergized. The brightness is passable as the hi-hat and ride cymbal both cut through, but I would've wanted more on the snare tone and the splash cymbal, especially considering the latter's importance in the breakdown. I also feel like the lead guitar should've been a *touch* louder, but it's still identifiable in the mix. This track is as borderline as it can get, so I won't be surprised if this split vote involves most of the panel. Myself, I feel it's done enough on the interpretation and presentation to squeak over the bar. Whatever happens, you lot have potential. I hope you all can learn something from this experience, continue to make music, and keep sending them here. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Wow, this is short, but it packs a lot into that short time. This is going to be a very split vote. I could see it passing, but I'm going to say that I'd like two production fixes before passing it. One, the leads are significantly quieter than the backing guitars (which sound amazing). The leads need to come up a bit in volume. Also, that snare sounds really mid-heavy and uncomfortably thwacky, it needs a touch more highs and less mids. I'd pass it with those two fixes, although ideally I'd love to hear another reprise at the end to really finish up the arrangement. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 The leads are unusually quiet (particularly noticeable during the intro portion), the rhythm guitars are a bit intense by comparison. The mixing is otherwise fairly clean. Things flow along fairly conservatively, almost cover territory. The outro portion of the mix is a nice departure to the main progression, with the mix finishing on an unexpected note. A change like this could have come a little earlier in the mix to add some intermittent variety, I guess if it wasn’t so short. The conservative nature of the mix and the low lead volume are my main gripes here. Kinda takes this to the wrong side of borderline for me. Let’s see what the others think. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nutritious Posted September 22, 2020 Share Posted September 22, 2020 (edited) I think short mixes can work, as long as there has been enough arrangement work to personalize it. That said, sub 2 mins is VERY brief, so IMO it's going to need to check a lot of boxes really quickly. Performances sound really good. The leads are oddly quiet compared to the rhythm guitars. They're audible, but definitely feel like they should cut though more. Some minor mixing tweaks would be an easy fix there. Super nitpicky me feels like the snare is a bit overcompressed, making it sound kind of tiny and squashed, but that could be personal preference. First run through of the melody is pretty close to the original writing, though the second go takes more liberties with writing. From 1:30 on is simply atonal guitar chugs and drums over the background synth sequence, which honestly felt like a really big letdown after all of the energy and cool performances prior. I guess I have an opposite opinion than Jive in that respect, because it doesn't really come off as much creative arrangement to me and more trying to quickly wrap up the track with basic, repetitive writing. The fact that this takes up a full 25% of the track is really not helping on the arrangement front IMO. Hope I'm not coming off as too tough on this one. I can see both sides on this, but for me it's not quite enough to push it over. NO resubmit, please Edited September 22, 2020 by Nutritious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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