Rexy Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) Hello everyone. Here is my remix submission and below is the information: Your ReMixer name: ALADS Your real name: André Silva Name of game(s) arranged : Mach Rider Name of arrangement: Future Rider Name of individual song(s) arranged: Race Theme 01 This remix was made in Ableton Live 10, with Maschine 2, Guitar Rig, Kontakt and Ozone. The inspiration is basically one day I got the midi file and started to mess around it and that is the result. A rock rendition of the race theme. Thanks! Edited June 26, 2020 by Emunator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted June 18, 2020 Author Share Posted June 18, 2020 Arrangement-wise, this plays safe with some fresh ideas thrown in. While you've used a VST guitar rather than the real thing, the tones you picked out worked for this pseudo-surf vibe you've got going on. You've got the slide at 0:05, the melody drop-out at 1:14 in favor of a call-and-response between the toms and beat and fast string strumming emphasis, and a build-up on low strings at 2:08 over the B section's bass. Said slide at 0:05 showed that you'd got a decent ear for articulations, though it won't hurt to explore more of what your synth guitar VST can do. However, the three straight renditions of the theme (0:10, 0:42, 2:40) all sound tonally identical, with the only difference being where you placed the snares. I can see you tried to avoid autopilot based on percussion, but see if you can do something similar to the rest of the instruments. The mixdown also has room for improvement, unfortunately. First of all, this track got rendered way too hot - clipping at 4.2dB, with the slide guitar intro taking the brunt of it. Consider bringing down the sound levels for all instruments, or putting a limiter or compressor into your master chain (or both). The drums feel like they got pushed too far behind, the guitars too far up, and the bass further than it needed to be - so see if you can take that into account when lowering the sound levels. Stereo placement is also odd, as there's a slight emphasis on the left ear. That could get remedied by just bringing down the volume of those stage-left instruments so that they're more even with the right. I also feel the rhythm guitar is lacking fullness, too. It's an appropriate tone for surf, but some fullness can help fill in this low-mid gap in the mix, so see if you can experiment with that. It's not a bad start, André, but it's not ready for the front page in this form, I'm afraid. It'll be nice to hear a revision with less autopilot, further development on the theme itself, and a complete mixdown revision. Keep going and keep growing! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 OW! Please make sure to put a limiter on your master track to prevent clipping, there are a few points in this arrangement where your track clips over 0.0dB and it's extremely harsh on the ears. Aside from that, there's a real charm to this synthetic surf rock thing you've got going here! I'm usually put off by all but the highest-end synth guitars, but this actually worked for me in many ways. The distorted organ was also pretty cool sounding. Aside from your lead instruments, however, the sequencing on this track is incredibly robotic - they're quantized hard to the grid, coupled with a lack of variation in velocity for the notes. I would love to hear a version of this where the drums/bass/other rhythmic elements were sequenced more like a human would play them. You could have also gone a lot further to spice up moments like 1:58 by writing a more energetic drum fill. Breaking down to just drums is a great choice to let the track breathe before the solo that follows, but the drums feel too basic to hold my attention as a solo element. This is a pretty cool take on the Mach Rider theme, but the production and sequencing needs some work. Thanks for the submission though, good luck! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 I have to agree with Rexy in full, she nailed it. I love this idea, "pseudo-surf" is a great term to describe it. The mix is way too hot, this much clipping is unacceptable; the track needs an entire re-balance and mastering with levels not exceeding 0db (but preferably more like -0.3 at least). The arrangement is short and repetitive, in writing and instrumentation, three playthroughs of the same material, and the ending is an abrupt drop off. I agree with Emu about the drum breakdown, great idea but it sounds too basic to carry of that section solo. Cool ideas but this needs more work. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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