*NO* Unreal Tournament "Facing Horizons"

[Rexy]

ReMixer name: bsolmaz13

Name of game: Unreal Tournament

Name of arrangement: Facing Horizons

Name of song arranged: Foregone Destruction
 

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Emunator

[Jivemaster]

An interesting synth layered approach with a slower pace compared to the original. The sounds are decent, though the drums lack the punch I would’ve expected here. At 1:13 we get some added cymbals and snare rolls. Things calm down at 1:38 with a small break exposing the bass as synths slowly re-emerge. The drop at 2:25 had a decent feel to it, with an energetic synth line, and a solo of sorts afterward. The mixing of the drums let this part down. Things start to wind down at 3:25. Arrangement is good, with a different progression over the original, and nice original additions that accompany the source. I think the main challenge this mix faces is the mixing — the synths used carry a lot of low end, which when layered tend to take up the majority of frequency space — leaving the drums little room to breathe. A HPF to lift the low end on the synths that don’t need those frequencies I think would fix a lot of the issues we see here. I don’t think this would take too much effort and I’d be keen to hear a resub. But let’s see what the others think.

NO

[prophetik music]

oh, right away i really like the slower pace. that's a really fun way to add some difference to this track. i agree with jive right away that the synths have little to no volumization to them - it's a lot of layering synths in similar ranges on top of each other. the first full hit at 0:48 immediately had me bobbing my head - what a great feel. the drums have zero low end to them, which is unfortunate, because i love what they're doing. jive's right that there's a ton of noise in the lower ranges in the synths that needs to be cut before the drums speak out and feel right. once you've isolated those middle synths, making the kick and bass speak clearer will be quite easy.

the break at 1:38 was well-timed, and gave it a bit of time to breathe. i liked the build as well, although throughout i just felt that the backing synths were simply too loud. i get that - it you write a fun part, you want everyone to hear it! - but it's just too much. turn your volume way down until you can only hear one thing - if that one thing isn't the melody, you're likely doing something wrong from a mixing perspective.

the drop into 2:25 was fun, and i liked the arp that's right in front. there's still not enough bass clarity here, but it sounds real fun. i like the liberties taken with the melodic line here, but the drums underneath dropping and doing more d'n'b stuff was actually kind of disappointing because i just couldn't hear what they were doing. i love the idea but it wasn't really executed well. the ending is fairly sudden but not problematic.

overall i think the arrangement is fine - it's certainly not groundbreaking, and it didn't take into account some of the mid/later parts of the original, but it's recognizable and different enough to make it over the bar. i like the synth work itself, but agree that it needs a mastering pass before it really feels ballsy enough to have the punch that you're going for. filtering out the low end of most of those textural synths is a great place to start.

i'd love to hear a resubmission but this doesn't pass muster just yet.

 

 

NO

[Emunator]

I have to agree the gentlemen above - this has a ton of potential and it's clear that you're doing some fun stuff with the original source material. Prophetik hit the nail on the head that the lack of attention paid to volume is hurting this track a lot. It gives the impression that there's not enough dynamics or "breath" in your arrangement. This is a simple fix that could be accomplished with more selective volume automation, or if you want to give it even more character, filter sweep automation with a bit of resonance baked into your filter. This will help the dynamics of your mix match the natural rise and fall of your arrangement, and also clear up some room so that the synths you really want to highlight at any given point are front-and-center. It will also help some of your synth lines from sounding too vanilla, and add that extra touch of texture to the track overall.

Solid stuff overall, but the mixing still sounds like it's unfinished. Hope to hear this again!

NO (resubmit)