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*NO* Deus Ex "Rebooted"


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Remixer Name: Marc Chemali

Real Name: Marc Chemali
userid: marcchemali
 
Name of game arranged: Deus Ex (2000)
Name of arrangement: Rebooted
Name of original: UNATCO
Original soundtrack link:
 

Comments on mix: My intention was to make it as theme-centric as possible - give it a little bit more drama but still keeping it very natural and electronic. I gave it my particular human feel to play. I could see how putting different sections together would create a big section.
Edited by Emunator
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  • 1 month later...

Deus Ex, what a classic soundtrack, with this being one of the real gems of the soundtrack. Been playing it again lately, too - can't really help it, it's a classic.

This one does sound like it ripped the theme from the MIDI file that's on vgmusic.com. While I normally don't mind as long as it's merely used as a springboard to something more personal (as you've used it for here), the MIDI gets a lot of the arrangement simply incorrect, ranging from the classic bassline being out of sync with the rest of the track to the backing textures simply being about a 4th lower than they should be. It's distracting, unfortunately - I suggest listening to the Youtube source and seeing if matching your elements to the source improves your track in any way.

Distracting as that can be, the bigger concern is the production on this. When the pads and other instruments come in on the track, the mix gets quite crowded and suffers from some limiting issues. The mix needs to be overall lowered so that the limiter isn't hit quite so hard when everything comes together, and the pads holding the thematic elements need to be backed off in the mix so that the other cool and interesting instruments have some room to breath in the mix.

There are some really cool elements in this track (like when the space opens up for that cool texture at 1:32 - that gave me some chills), but the production holds this track back from the front page. While I think the source is recognizable as it stands, I would also suggest listening to the original source and seeing if that bassline could be adjusted so that it better matches the source (mostly so that it doesn't sound off rhythm throughout the track). Nice work, hope to see it in here again with some adjustments.

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  • Gario changed the title to 2020/08/10 - (1N) Deus Ex "Rebooted"
  • 4 weeks later...

yeah, gario hits this one on the head.the hard limiting that shows up often (you can even see it clearly on the waveform) is really noticeable. most of the time it appears to be due to wide pads with tons of air in them being chorded - you want to avoid that wherever possible, just separate the air and the pad out and chord the pad only if you're going to do that. in terms of arrangement, i can't say that i find your changes to the repetitive plucked synth for example to be positive - stripping out the octave shifts makes it much more bland, and that's never something you want to say about one the defining features of the original track.

there's some really fun ideas here, honestly - i really like a lot of the textures. they're just not EQed together at all, so your limiter is obviously engaging way more than you want. a production pass would help significantly. i think the arrangement's probably fine even if i really don't like the change to that plucked synth.

this isn't there yet.

 

 

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  • prophetik music changed the title to 2020/08/10 - (2N) Deus Ex "Rebooted"

I have to agree with both gentlemen above, who covered the issues with the track quite a bit. There's a lot of strength in your textures and the way that they evolve over time, but things get pretty muddy and compressed due to the pads. The buildup around the 2:30 mark, for example, should have a lot more impact but because everything is pushed against the limiter so hard, it just sounds like a wall of mud instead of a dramatic final sweep. There's simply not a lot of dynamic range in the mix, which is hurting this quite a bit because your arrangement itself really has a lot of movement to it. 

I will also note that the outro didn't really add anything to the arrangement in my opinion, and didn't offer much in the way of resolution. The fadeout just felt lazy to me, and given the drama of the section preceding it, I was hoping for something a bit more to close out the track.

Excellent sound design and dramatic tension here, but the mixing is not doing full justice to the approach you took. Another EQ/compression pass, and possibly something more in the outro to leave listeners with a stronger final impression, would seal the deal here. Good start!

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  • Emunator changed the title to *NO* Deus Ex "Rebooted"
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