*NO* Donkey Kong Country "Prime Factor"

[Rexy]

Hello there,

I'd like to submit the following track as my first serious contribution to the site:

Contact information

• ReMixer name: Blooming Late
• Real Name: René Mulder
• Email: 
• Website: https://soundcloud.com/bloominglatemusic
• OCR UserID: 34581

Submission information

• Game: Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
• Arrangement name: Prime Factor
• Songs arranged: "Fear Factory"
• Link to source / soundtrack: I'm pretty sure this song is already in the OCR database and well known among you guys

Comments about arrangement

Donkey Kong Country and its soundtrack came into my life when I was very young. My cousin was the first person I knew to own a Super Nintendo Entertainment system and it was this game that started my own desire for a games console. I remember getting absorbed into the colorful world of DKC and especially being captivated by Aquatic Ambience. Discovering the factory stage theme for the first time was equally awesome. We probably spent way too much time in that area, just to hear the song over and over again!

After several decades, I still find myself inspired by the music from the series and so it is only natural that I would pick songs from this game to remix/cover. This particular idea for a take on "Fear Factory" came to me when I was playing around with the relatively recent release of FL Studio's FLEX synth. My simple bass-line sketch reminded me of the factory stage theme and so I decided to see if I could recreate the whole thing with new and interesting sounds provided by FLEX.
After recreating the original melody I left the project alone for quite some time before returning to it and turning it into a more personalized remix. This is the final result.

It would be an honor to have it get its place on the site that introduced me to remixing in the first place!

Kind regards,

--René Mulder a.k.a. Blooming Late
 

 

[Emunator]

Thank you for the submission René! Happy to hear that our community has inspired you in some way

When listening to your submission, I am certainly hearing some hints of personalization to make the melody your own. However, this is a very conservative mix that sticks closely to the original material, in a style that's been done by more than a few artists before. I certainly don't want to imply that we can't have multiple remixes in similar styles of the same source - each submission can stand on its own merits, to be sure. However, Fear Factory has been done in trance style many times already, so when comparing side-by-side with these other tracks, I am hearing a much lower level of interpretation and advancement beyond the source material in this submission. 

https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03732

https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03664

https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01009

I would encourage you to take a listen to some of these arrangements that were posted and listen to some of the subtle ways that the Fear Factory source was adapted to get an idea for where the bar would be on this particular track. You were on the right track with the gated bass and changes to the lead melody around the 1:20 mark, or the break around 2:20, but as a whole, this feels like it's built too closely to the structure and sound design of the original Fear Factory song. 

A few other production notes - I found that all of your monosynth leads were very dry and subdued, and not all that well suited for carrying a melody with much energy. Some reverb, distortion, or even layering of multiple synths together would help those stand out a lot more, in my opinion! I would also recommend watching the tone of your synths as you start to get into higher octaves - the synth bell at 1:14, for example, loses all of its texture by the time you've reached the top of your ascending riff, so either using a different patch or pitching that line down an octave would allow you to retain more of the textural quality of your synth patch and reduce any unintentionally-shrill frequencies.

Don't lose heart - you've got strong fundamentals here and a good place to work forward from! I appreciate the enthusiasm and inspiration, but unfortunately there's not enough interpretation going on with the arrangement to clear our bar. Best of luck in the future!

NO

Edited April 11, 2021 by Emunator

[Gario]

This is a nice, clean arrangement of Fear Factory, and I think there was plenty of personalization with the arrangement aspect of this. The production is fairly clean, as well - on paper this sounds like something that could be posted.

However, the instrumentation sounds very... stock, and there doesn't seem to be any stylistic reason to have such simple instruments used throughout. While there are plenty of performative flourishes used throughout (pitch bends, gating, etc.) there doesn't seem to be any attempt at making the instruments take up the space optimally (using tools like delay, chorus, unisons, etc.) or have sound designs beyond a little attack/delay/sustain/release tinkering with basic square/saw waves, so the arrangement sounds dry, thin and incomplete. The drums also are prone to droning; while the pattern changes from time to time (which is cool), there's no effort to use fills to break up the phrases and sections. It compounds the issue with the vanilla textures, as it does nothing but set the beat, leaving the listener to focus on the 'nilla aspects of the instruments.

I disagree that the arrangement doesn't have enough to make it stand out - the licks happening at 2:42 are pretty cool, for example - but you need to have instruments that better stand out and make the arrangement your own. It's not to say I dislike this arrangement - on the contrary, I think while conservative it does enough to make itself stand out with clean production to boot, so overall I still enjoyed my time with it - it just needs to have some more work invested in the sound design and the drums for it to be pushed from "okay" to "pretty damn good". Looking forward to seeing what you'll have for us!

NO

Edited May 4, 2021 by Gario

[prophetik music]

rubber stamping this. the arrangement is pretty minimal (it's there, but i agree there's less personalization than i'd want on a track that's as remixed as this one is), the synths are not terrible but definitely need some work so they're not so "FL preset" sounding, there's some variation of drum patterns but few fills or transition sweeps so it feels very similar, and some of the synths (for example 1:41) sound almost sloppy because their sustain is just a touch too long and it doesn't cut itself.

i want to call out the lack of verb specifically. this style is usually super wet, with tons of reverb filling in the backend of every synth sound. this felt very thin at first and i couldn't understand why until i realized there's essentially no verb here, just synth sustain and sample sustain. some significant attention with reverb will help this a lot.

 

 

NO

 

[Chimpazilla]

Double-rubber-stamping.  I like the arrangement and the trance style, plenty of personalization, but the vanilla-sounding synths and underwhelming mixing are tanking this.  In 2021 the production bar is higher than this.  It's an awesome start but needs modernization.  I'd love to hear this again using much more interesting sound design.

NO

[Rexy]

It's great to hear that you feel inspired by submitting here!  Alas, while the outcome is now a foregone conclusion, I hope you don't feel discouraged from a potential resub or sending new music our way - because there is shining motivation from your work method here.

While you do have a lot of the source's writing, there are enough modifications to make it your own.  The intro's chord sequence got cut in half and then doubled, rather than going for the full 16-measure stretch.  All counter-melodies are gone when bringing in the B section over two different synths.  The bass pattern for the C section at 1:09 feels jumpier than the original; the melody personalization at 1:23 is an excellent twist on the familiar piano intro; then you've got 2:19 referencing fragments of the C section with the melody personalization.  It's a conservative structure, as you allowed for a run-through of the theme, a return to the C section, and an ease-out ending - but there is enough to make it work on a writing level.

However, I do have more problems with the production side.  Credit where credit is due, first - a good number of your synths have some nice built-in effects, like arpeggiators, sustains, and the occasional pitch bend.  You've made a start with picking out those timbres, but a lot of them would keep that same texture and momentum for most of the track.  Have you thought of adding some modulation or setting parameters from inside FLEX as envelopes to change the synth tones on the fly?  Both approaches could get used to significant effect and throw in some more excitement into the mix.

And then we have the layering aspect as well.  Wes already touched upon how you've hardly doubled up any of the synths and especially brought up how the chime at 1:14 sounds so devoid of tone on the higher notes - so feel free to experiment with your gear and see how different instances sound together.  I'd also suggest doing the same thing with your drums, as they feel flat and exposed during the breakdowns (1:09 being a glaring example).  Some more electronic sounding tones or even some claps could add more power on the high end for your snares.  You can also achieve a similar idea on the hi-hats - but if you feel it won't quite work, a simple re-EQ can work to make them sound less buried in the mid-range.

Again, hang in there!  You've made a good start on your own with the core personalization and sound design.  For me, it boils down to me wanting to hear a production/presentation overhaul, particularly with how you shape your synths over time and wanting to see more texture on your percussion.  Whatever you decide to do going forward, I hope you've learned some new tricks for that next big step.  Keep at it, René.

NO

[Liontamer]

Right off the bat, the backing synths were very static-sounding. Everyone's given extensive feedback on how vanilla these sounds are, so I'll leave it there.

Brief issue, but the drum fill from :25-:27 sounded very robotic and fake; I would have went with a different, non-faux-organic sound that didn't expose your samples.

At :41, I would have done something different with the textures, because just changing the leads yet keeping the beat and backing so repetitive made this feel dynamically flat. Then at 1:44 with another iteration of the verse, the core backing beats just drone on ("BOOM...TSS...BOOM...TSS"). Just jump around to any point in the song and the energy level is basically the same no matter if the beats are there or not.

The choruses at 1:09 and 2:19 had more personalization, and were the highlight of the arrangement for me. However, the textures feel very empty/hollow despite everything going on.

Small thing, but I'm not sure what SFX that was from 2:46-2:54, but it sounded so muffled that it just added indistinct noise and clutter. The verses could have been more interpretive. The production also wasn't sophisticated either.

Keep at it though, we've all gotta start somewhere, and this is a more promising start than most.

NO

[MindWanderer]

I'd like to soften that wave of NO's a bit.  I genuinely like this.  It does have plenty of personalization, IMO, and there are some pretty rich synths in there.  I don't think it's as solid or an obvious a NO as my fellow judges have implied.

I do agree that the fact that the leads are the simplest, most vanilla synths of all of them is the big thing holding this back.  The drums could be stronger, some of the other synths could be varied up a bit more, but I think more transformation/variation on those leads would get you most if not all of the way there.

There's lots of good advice above, so I hope you take it and we see a revision back here soon.

NO (resubmit)