*NO* Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys "Get Your Wings Back, a Song for Perseverance"

[Rexy]

Remixer life name and real life name - Michael Hudak
Game arranged - Ys III: Wanderers from Ys
My arrangement name - "Get Your Wings Back, a Song for Perseverance"
Original source is the PC-88 version of "The Boy Who Had Wings", by Mieko Ishikawa:
 

 

After spending several months trying to get most of my electronic music to sound like it was made between 1978 and 1991, I challenged myself to do something straightforward for once and drum up a nice, modern sounding synth-dance jawn. All side-chained up and everything. My buddy Michelle runs the Doors and Dungeons Podcast and introduced me to the bulky, gray, floppy disk- powered PC-88 and PC-98 while I was in Japan. Ys III is a classic from those "consoles" (I mean, they're computers, and they were expensive), and "The Boy Who Had Wings" is a tune with so much drama and melody in it. This ReMix kinda wrote itself! Kinda. I wanted to cram as much energy as possible into it at first, but 4 minutes of relentlessness sucked the air out of the whole thing, so then I made the traditional chorus section much quieter. 

 

I also got to reflecting on my last 12 months personally, and the start-stop nature of the song became a bit of an allegorical projection, I think. The working title was "The Boy With Jet Boots", but I changed it (with a wink to Melt Banana) to something a little more serious and uplifting. A positive message from me to me, and to you! Things are often really tough, and people falter, but we can pull through! And music can help!

Edited August 24, 2020 by Rexy

[Liontamer]

The beats definitely felt more basic and plodding than they needed to be, but I liked the padding filling things in at 1:11 and the dynamic shift until 1:41 and again from 2:09-2:38. I get that the beats are going for a more minimalist feel, but when I listen to something like Kraftwerk's "Aéro Dynamik", the sound design there is more sophisticated and there's more movement; I know the stylistic comparison isn't apples-to-apples, but I'm just thinking of something else with a relatively stripped down feel that's still employing effects. Perhaps giving the main beats more of a tail could help flesh things out, but without creating a huge contrast for the padding in the drop-off sections.

I like the treatment of the source tune, and dig the approach of toning down an energetic source, but something's missing, IMO, that's making this feel underdeveloped. Will be sure to watch the other votes in case there's aspects to this that I'm overlooking. Really good base here, Mike.

NO (resubmit)

[prophetik music]

there's some fun sound design going on in here. i think i'm getting what LT is saying here - the track sounds like it's missing another part throughout, causing it to be too empty. throughout it does feel like there's at least one voice missing - usually some level of rhythmic mid-level synth that'd provide chord structure without overwhelming the soundscape. you've got drums, an active and fun bass, a lead part, but rarely anything in the middle. at 3:12 you finally added something in the middle, and it suddenly feels much fuller and more corporeal. something that functions similarly without over-energizing the opening few minutes would be welcome.

from a mastering perspective, the track sounds great. there's a few questionable choices in the arrangement (I didn't get the part at 2:30 at all, for example), but overall the arrangement's fun, it's just hollow.

this is close but not there. if you changed nothing besides adding another voice for the first three minutes, you'd be in a much better spot, i think, and i'd probably vote yes on that.

 

 

NO

[Jivemaster]

Some nice synth choices in the opening minute, with some decent modulation to keep things interesting. The chorus portion seems lacking in impact. The break at 1:10 is nice. As we approach the mid-point, the synth part reuse becomes more apparent, with a similar order twice over. Decent drum samples but sequencing gets a bit samey over time. The charged portion at 2:31 sounds nice and is probably the best part of the mix, but the arrangement doesn’t lead into it well. The added synth line later at 3:12 was ok too, although it had less of reverb feel to it making it feel like it wasn’t part of the same room/space. Things end fairly abruptly. Production is ok, although there could be better balance between the left and right channels. Overall, things still feel in draft form here, with a good set of ideas that aren’t completely fleshed out. Encourage you to look at the suggestions here to strengthen the progression of the arrangement.

NO