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*NO* Lord Monarch Online "Steel Brain"


Rexy
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I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to submit more music for consideration on your website.  I have been a huge fan of OCremix and love having my music up here on this site!

 
Let me know if you need anything else, thank you!
 
-Elation, AKA Brett Jones

 

Contact Information

 
Collaborated with the talented guitarist Casey Chanatry for those epic leads!
follow his band here: 

Submission Information

  • Lord Monarch Online
  • Steel Brain
  • Flash Port Geo Level Theme

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Edited by prophetik music
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  • 3 months later...

Guitar and piano work well together in the intro. Drums are hard hitting, but to the point where the guitar gets drowned out. At 1:39 things begin to sound messy, which gets worse at 1:45 where there is just too much stuff occupying the low end. The wah bass takes up too much frequency space. The break afterwards sounds ok. As the mix continues, it’s evident the drums here are simply too big. This is a shame because the guitar portion sounds quite good, with some nice licks throughout, and the solo at 3:39 is decent, but it’s all too difficult to make out. The mixing here definitely needs work. The arrangement seems ok. I like the ideas and feel of this mix, but please revisit the mixing for us to get things into a more balanced state.

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  • Jivemaster changed the title to 2020/03/03 - (1N) Lord Monarch Online "Steel Brain"
  • 3 weeks later...

The arrangement is straightforward, as it goes through two run-throughs of the theme, with different guitar noodling between both versions.  I appreciate the effort to let your performer do the primary amount of variation - but based on your backing effort alone, the second variation has next to nothing different from the first.  If you intend to keep the chord structure as it is, then it's worth experimenting with different rhythms on your bass, percussion and support instrumentation to present it differently.  An example of "theme and variations" done well is the music to Banjo-Kazooie, so if you hear how an established theme can sound so varied multiple times within the same track, it could give you some ideas on how to alter your rhythmic presentation.  If you feel deviating from the established chords is a better idea, it's acceptable to keep the melody as it is but write an entirely fresh accompaniment over the top.  See if you can experiment with means to lift the writing for your second half.

I'm definitely with Joel regarding the intensity of the bass, too.  I ran your track through a spectrum analyzer, and I saw the low-end frequencies pushed up over the gain line, and it is something I can sense to the point of it being not easy to hear any other non-percussion instrument.  It's a shame because the guitar licks sounded articulate and precise, the use of high-passed reverb felt set to draw attention, and a good chunk of your library fits your choice of setting.  The bass tone is fun and expressive for what it is, so an EQ tweak may not be necessary, but a volume drop is essential.  The percussion itself isn't as overbearing in comparison but is worth considering lowering the volume slightly so that the non-bass instruments get their due presence.

It's great to hear from you again, Brett, and the sound palette you've provided in this case is a charming one.  But it has a couple of critical dealbreakers, with an underwhelming second half for your accompaniment and a bass-heavy soundscape.  I'd like to hear another version with everything post-2:38 re-written and a revised mixdown.

NO

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  • Rexy changed the title to 2020/03/03 - (2N) Lord Monarch Online "Steel Brain"

i'm not familiar with this game or the ost. the original track has a fun feel to it.

intro is interesting. i like the guitar tone. once everything comes in, though, the drums are way, way, way too loud. i can't hear hardly anything over them. that's a shame because what's going on seems kinda cool! but there's just no way to hear anything consistently. i agree with jive that overall everything's very low-heavy, and that's bogging down the sections that aren't getting dominated by the drums. this might be a mixing issue - do you use headphones? if so you may want to try several different models, and maybe some live speakers, to get a better feel for what the actual mixdown feels like.

from an arrangement perspective, rexy's right that this is really straightforward to the detriment of the overall package. it's essentially two times through and an outro. OCR requires transformative arrangement for a posted mix - which, in this case, i think you could easily get with some flexibility on the chord progression in the second half, or maybe some more arrangement from a melodic perspective. a bit of original content could easily bring this across that line.

overall this is essentially me agreeing with the previous judges. the drums are too loud, the lows are way too hot, and the arrangement is not as extensive as i'd need to accommodate for those other two things. some more attention and this will easily get posted.

 

 

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  • prophetik music changed the title to *NO* Lord Monarch Online "Steel Brain"
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