Rexy Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 (edited) CONTACT INFO ReMixer name: Apollo Merriwether Real name: Robert Cain Jr. Website: apollomerriwether.bandcamp.com User ID: 36707 SUBMISSION INFO Game: Shovel Knight Name of Arrangement: Deep Six Song Arranged: An Underlying Problem (The Lost City) Additional Info: Composed by Jake Kaufman Originally released on PC, 3DS, and Wii U, since released on just about everything Release Date: June 26, 2014 Soundtrack link: https://open.spotify.com/album/0mDSPMGVdWORtoEuxhyMJx?si=R6GpD8NvQDqZ0svvJQxMkQ Comments: I’m a huge fan of Jake Kaufman’s work, especially his take on the Ducktales soundtrack for the Ducktales remake; the Lost City track is a favorite of mine and I decided to have a shot at giving it a Jake Kaufman treatment myself, “modernizing” it while including sampling the original work in tandem with my sounds, keeping it close enough to the source material to feel at home in a remaster but still maintaining my own ouvre. I’m pretty happy with this one. ~ Apollo Edited September 4, 2020 by Emunator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 Man, those opening beats sound really hollow; they REALLY don't lend any movement or energy to this. And the way the different lines are mixed sounds really imbalanced. I mean, I know to focus on the melody, but all of the parts seem to be sharing the same frequency range, so nothing really stands out. Pretty melodically conservative piece overall, not really breaking from that path until a little more interpretation starting at 1:44, but the structure's pretty close throughout. It may have been reconstructed from scratch, I don't know, but it feels MIDI-rip-ish, which isn't the best look in terms of having your rendition stand apart as a distinct interpretation of the original. For something that's more of a cover, Robert, you have a decent take on a catchy original, but it lacks sophistication with the drum writing and polish with the mixing. This can't really realize its potential until you get those two things addressed. Consider other aspects of arrangement (key changes, tempo, rhythms) to help your take stand apart even more from the original as well. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 Straight up, things start quite abruptly, recommend even a small build-up to open the track up. The energy is quite low in this one — dynamics and instrumentation don’t change a whole lot throughout the duration, creating some issues. Synths are interesting, with some good ideas here, but they aren’t tweaked or explored as much as they could be. Production wise, the drums are very weak, without much impact to them. Mixing in general could do with a revisit, as everything is competing for attention at similar volumes. There are some good synth lines, but the core of the mix is quite conservative. Would love to hear some further expansion on the original. Overall, there is a lot to like here, but it feels in draft territory. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 This track features some excellent synth design that does a great job of expanding on the original sound palette, although the arrangement plays it very close to the original source material as far as writing is concerned. Not necessarily a bad thing on its own, but when viewed through the lens of OCR's standards, a little more interpretation would go a long way. The bigger issue though, as the other judges pointed out, is definitely on the production side. Although your synth choices are really well executed, the production overall feels pretty flat and lacking in dynamics. Larry nailed the two biggest issues in terms of low-energy drum writing and samples as well as many of your synths stepping on each others' space in the frequency range. I would also add that you could probably draw a little more energy by adding an exciter or some addition saturation to some of your instruments - there's just a lack of bite to many of your instruments and I think this could be a lot punchier overall with a different set of master effects. I definitely enjoyed this in a bubble, but there's some things holding this back from the OCR bar in terms of production and arrangement. Keep at it! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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