OCR04208 - *YES* Sonic Adventure 2, Jet Grind Radio, VectorMan, Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3 & 2 "SEGA Space Station Big Dome, 2094" *RESUB*

[Rexy]

Original decision

Name: Michael Hudak

ReMix name: SEGA Space Station Big Dome, 2094

Games arranged: The same ones as before, plus Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Sonic Adventure 2 is still the primary game.

 

Michael Hudak here, resubmitting my Sega jam. The original email was loooong, so it might be best to just look at the old forum post for time stamps, for sanity's sake. Judges hated the "I'm a Spy" lick at 0:47 because it was horrendously dissonant (i.e., bad), and I also toned down the synth stacks a bit at 1:34. I think I was mixing this song and also working on another project at the same time that was essentially walls of distorted white noise, and so I thought, somehow, those things sounded good at the time.

 

I also changed the synths at 4:41...in the middle of where I added a new ending! "I'm a Spy" doesn't appear a second time anymore; now the final minute features "Emerald Hill Zone" from Sonic 2 starting at 4:09. It's a long section, but I continued using the "Space Trip Steps" elements throughout - pizzi violins, the the Dr. Dre sine - and so I still consider this to be a SA2 remix. That sine was tough to mix though...it really cuts through on ear buds, but is almost lost with some other listening devices...for once I decided to air on the side of caution with high frequencies and leave it lower in the mix, for the ending at least. Song ends with the "SEGA" signature tune.

 

Overall I'm very pleased with how this turned out. One last thing to mention that I didn't before is that this arrangement was partially inspired by an old OCR jam by Protricity called Savage Seduction, which I listened to who knows how many times throughout high school! 
 

[Emunator]

Right on Michael, this resubmission does a great job addressing my writing and mixing concerns with the original submission while also expanding on it in a few unexpected ways! I've always appreciated your pallet of different throwback sounds that transport you directly to a specific moment in time. It's not mindblowingly technical, but this fusion of different SEGA tunes was always strong on a conceptual level, and is now even more solid from an execution standpoint as well! The Emerald Hill sections get a little on the busy side, but overall this is clicking much better than before. Really happy to see this one back on the panel, thanks for sticking with it!

YES

[prophetik music]

my original complaints were around the security hall theme usage, volumization, and the last minute or so. let's see what's changed.

the security hall section is 100% better and still sounds like the original despite being significantly different from a note perspective. so that's great. i think the saws in the section at 1:34 is still too loud but it's much better than it was before. the ending is significantly better than it was before - there's more thought into what's where and how it dovetails together, which is great. i like the callbacks to earlier sections as well, it really ties the piece together.

you did the things that i said would earn a positive vote from me, so here it is =)

 

 

YES

[Rexy]

I can confirm the source use right off the bat.  It's as described across both submission letters, and it's evident and apparent.

I didn't contribute to the previous submission, but I compared this attempt and the last to look at your adjustments.  I sensed Security Hall better adapted tonally, less abrasiveness on the saw synths at 1:34, and the new Emerald Hill ending working well with both the Meteor Herd backing and allowing the saw synths to adapt to their chord structures.  I just missed the cool pitch-bend down from the initial sub, but the rest of the change-ups work well to secure the tail end nevertheless.

The rest of the track is no slouch, either.  The sound design is fun, tightly secure, and has various tones throughout to keep us guessing at every step of the way.  And the arrangement, even though it's in a medley format, has a significant number of places where parts of other sources (namely Day 3 and Meteor Herd itself) would interact with others - such a creative technique that otherwise gets overlooked.

I'm in favor of the track getting posted in this form as well - excellent work!

YES

Edited September 18, 2020 by Rexy

[Liontamer]

Perhaps it's just my personal taste, but the sound/synth design still isn't great, IMO, and I think Michael will look back on this one in 5 years and hear a lot more things he could have done with it. The production isn't poor though, and the sound design was definitely improved vs. the previous version. Now with the off-key writing fixed, and the interwoven usage of the various source tunes from before along with a few new source tune nods, this now works works well in terms of the arrangement. Count it!

YES