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*NO* Ecco the Dolphin "Open Ocean"


Rexy
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If the track passes, it will need a different title.
-Rexy

 

Remixer name : jmabate
Real name : abate jean marc
Email :

website : https://www.youtube.com/user/jmabate
userid : 35644

 

Name of game(s) arranged : Ecco the Dolphin

Name of arrangement : Open Ocean cover

Name of individual song(s) arranged : Open Ocean

Composer :  András Magyari, Spencer Nilsen, Brian Coburn

System : Sega Megadrive 

 

Original : 

Best regards

jmabate

 

Edited by prophetik music
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  • 3 weeks later...

The violins shifts felt a bit off, however when the other layers come in this is less noticeable. The piano portion 1:00 sounds great and probably the best part of the mix. Conversely, when the strings hit at 1:15 things felt cluttered, likely due to the mixing of being off — the accompanying strings are just too strong. This continues past the mid-way point. At 2:14 the bass is rattling. Arrangement is fairly straight forward, with the main theme featured regularly, it would have been good to hear a break away from this to introduce something extra, though I believe the backing elements have some riffage not in the original. Not bad so far, but this one needs at least needs a mixing pass.

NO

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  • Jivemaster changed the title to 2020/04/21 - (1N) Ecco the Dolphin "Open Ocean"
  • 1 month later...

Jean-Marc, I know I said I like to hear you experiment with your work - but I wasn't expecting you to entirely put the guitar to one side!  Structure-wise, you allowed the bass to provide most of the quota leading up to actual melody use.  When you got there, you ensured that no section variation sounded like another, which is not an easy thing to do considering your limited instrument setup.  I particularly liked how you added harmonies to the melody at 1:30, making the second loop heighten this adventurous feel you've got going on.

Going to how you articulated the strings, you managed key switches well and gave firm volume shaping to your legato notation - but at the same time, many of the notes feel locked to tempo rather than being slightly in or out.  The piano also has that same stiffness, but the tone and velocity variation more than makes up for its placement in the mix.  That said, the balance feels off in multiple ways.  A lot of your backing strings took more prominence than the melody, higher-pitched solo string parts have a piercing quality in the mix, and the oboe isn't cutting through the mix at all.  It's worth taking a look at your project file, tweaking overall volume levels so that the backing parts aren't as dominant, and making any necessary EQ cuts to both give the oboe its presence and cut back on unwanted sibilance on your strings.

Even before hearing this track on the panel, I've said to you that it's a more daring direction than what I usually expect.  But it's currently let down with a cluttered mix that needs another pass regarding both volume and EQ.  Keep going, mon ami!

NO (resubmit)

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  • Rexy changed the title to 2020/04/21 - (2N) Ecco the Dolphin "Open Ocean"
  • 1 month later...

what a thoroughly wretched original track, at least as represented in the youtube link. that wiggle synth is terrible.

this starts with some interesting strings work, which while creatively applied unfortunately don't mask that the samples aren't suited for the part writing. once everything comes in it's a little more covered up which is good. once the entire group comes in at 1:14, it's a fun sound, but it's also dramatically louder (ie. lacking compression throughout) and pretty muddy, especially on the fast runs. i like what you're trying to do here a lot, but it's failing on execution. the power of that section needs to come from good scoring and part-writing and timbral expansion, not just because you quadrupled the volume of what was there. there's a break back to the opening scoring at 2:00 that emphasizes how dramatic the dynamic shift you're demonstrating is. 2:26 features a recap and expansion of the last part of your prior orchestral section, and a fairly well-handled ending.

from an arrangement standpoint, this is a fun listen that falls a bit short on the implementation of your part-writing specifically. you've got very dynamic and score-oriented samples, and so they're very vibrant but they're just not suited for the speed and flexibility of the parts that you're asking for, and they're suffering a bit from that. something that'd help is finding a patch that's got less vibrato on sustained notes (notably in your vin 1 part), and then relying less on wall of volume for your more intense parts and more on instrument timbre to drive home the excitement. a compressor will help significantly with this, and it may help level the opening sections where your arpeggiated solo violin switches to stepwise motion where it sounds so different right now.

this is fun but not there. this may require better samples before it does what you want, but i think it's worth the effort as there's a dynamic and interesting piece under the plodding attacks right now.

 

 

NO

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  • prophetik music changed the title to *NO* Ecco the Dolphin "Open Ocean"
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