Rexy Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 (edited) Hi, I’m a remixer from Japan. This is my first submission. Thank you. Hassan A Nojo Hiroki Ando (No website) 36035 Kirby’s Dream Land 3 Matango on Iceberg Iceberg I have dreamed of making a ‘mixture rock’ song with Kirby’s soundtracks.This remix contains rock, metalcore, heavy metal, pops, chiptunes etc. Edited June 29, 2020 by prophetik music HoboKa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 (edited) There is a lot to unpack here! The original Iceberg theme is all over the place, and this is appropriately diverse too. Moments like the transition at :30 came out of nowhere but really felt exciting to me. Your contrast between heavy metal and more traditional chiptune instruments is your greatest strength here. The guitar solo is badass, too. That said, I feel like this track is not fully developed. The arrangement, when you trim off the first 3 seconds of silence, is barely over 2 minutes long, and it ends in a very disappointing fadeout. It sounds like you had more ideas and room to explore at the end of the song but chose not to finish, which is unfortunate. We have passed songs that were this short before, but they need to sound like a complete idea, and the fadeout makes this feel unfinished. I can't tell if you are directly sampling the original game audio throughout this song or if it's just a very closely-recreated sound match from MIDI data, but the opening chords as well as some instrumentation around :30 sounds like it might be a direct in-game sample. Hopefully some other judges can look into this and see if they feel like this is something to be concerned about. Production-wise, this sounds about like what I'd expect from metalcore, where the mixing is intentionally heavy, abrasive, and a little bit lo-fi. I don't have any major complaints on that, although the master compression is over-the-top, especially during the metalcore sections. Ultimately, you have a really strong, creative concept, but the song needs more to it before it's ready for posting in my opinion. Regardless of whether you resubmit this, it's a very cool take and I had fun listening to what you did here. NO (resubmit) Edited June 17, 2020 by Emunator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 Hey, that single loop got a great adaptation to this metal/chiptune fusion! The intro had some sweet added instruments gearing up to go, the B section at 0:29 got doubled up for other synth and guitar parts to sit over the top, the guitar solo at 1:03 was dense and carefully packed, and the drum writing overall felt engaging. However, after this single loop, you decided to start up a second one and fade out simultaneously. It's an anti-climax, it feels unfinished, and it's something that I would prefer a redo. The sound palette is an interesting one - a lot of the instruments are tonally similar to the original audio. Still, for the most part, many of them have a sound upgrade quality to me. The only thing that should be concerning is a direct use of the intro audio during the intro itself, but it's only eight seconds worth at best and is a small fragment of the rest of the track - so I see it as no big deal. As for the mixdown, the instruments themselves are balanced, and nothing's bleeding into one another. But the mixdown is way too hot even for metalcore - clipping at 0.9dB, and the guitar solo took the brunt of those distorted audio issues. I'm assuming you've set up a limiter or a master compressor, hence see if you can go back there and lax it just a touch. This track was a tough one to look through. It's got some great transformation behind that one riff of the source, and the performance chops are very fulfilling. But if this is to get posted on OCR, consider revising the ending and giving the mastering another pass. You've got potential as a performer, so it'll be great to see you submit again. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 hey, there's some great chops shown off in this! there's some real fun/interesting styles showcased too, starting right away with the switch between that aggressive intro and the jazzy interlude at 0:30. snare there is real slammed and could use a bit more nuance. i agree with rexy and emunator that the mastering is decent but a touch over-loud throughout. i get the stylistic consideration, but it's just too much over the top. i liked what you did with the arrangement. there's a ton of goofiness going on and yet you still got some real meat in the heavier sections.i like the contrast between the synth/chippy sections and the guitar as well. there's just nowhere near enough content to really call this enough, though. taking out the ending (repeated) fade, the opening several seconds of silence, and the sections which sound like they're the exact midi from the game, you're at around 1:30-1:40 of content depending on how you count it. just not enough overall. expanding on a few of these sections would significantly lengthen the track without adding too much repetition, and you'd have a much better track overall for it. right now this is just too short. another arrangement pass and maybe some attention to your output level and this is in a much better place. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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