Rexy Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 (edited) Link Hi, Here's my submission of a track from Valkyrie Profile 2: Submission information: Game: Valkyrie Profile 2 Arrangement Name: Inside the Gate Song arranged: A Thoughtful Strategy Contact information: ReMixer name: infinitytone Real name: Karol Kosacki Email address: charles@infinitytone.com Website: https://www.youtube.com/infinitytone userid: 34463 Additional info: This track is part of "Nibelung Valesti", a tribute to the Valkyrie Profile series by Pixel Mixers. Hope you have fun listening and have a great week! Best regards, --- Karol (Charles) Kosacki | Infinity Tone https://www.youtube.com/c/infinitytone http://infinitytone.com Edited June 23, 2021 by prophetik music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted June 23, 2021 Share Posted June 23, 2021 (edited) this starts out as mostly a sonic upgrade, with the intro being pretty similar to the original. there's some fun riffs and ensemble work in there. i didn't like the lead synth as much as i felt it's too close to a synth guitar in a bad way - something that was a little more cutting would have come across a bit clearer i think. there's a cutout at 1:13 that's got some more fun ensemble work, and eventually moves to a solo section that has some good ideas. there's not much space in there but that's not specifically a complaint as much as an observation. we get back to a recap of the second part of the A section, and it feels copied from earlier for a bit. at 2:29 there's some interesting offbeat guitar work, but the drums and bass still sound similar to the opening section. some half-time drums mix it up a bit (although there's a few snare hits that sound off-time), a bit of a bass feature, and some more ensemble work bring it back to a recap to finish it out. i don't care for the ending - unresolved chords need a reason to be unresolved or else they're trite, so it just sorta ends. overall i definitely noticed that the drums have a few nice fills and patterns but overall felt pretty much the same throughout. i don't know if it's an exact copypasta but it didn't feel like there was much variability there from bar to bar. from a production standpoint it sounds a little condensed from an EQ standpoint. the instruments are all audible but it doesn't sound like there's much in the really high or low registers. it's nice though that everything's pretty clear from start to finish, and there's never a point where it's hard to hear. another note - this kind of style i'd expect a bit more compression overall. it's got a lot of dynamic variability, and that's to the detriment of the rhythm guitars at least i think. more compression on them and a noise gate to cut the in-between fuzz will help make their articulations a lot clearer and will add more punch to what they're playing. there is very little space in this song in any instrument, and that leads to a track that has a bit of a same-y feel throughout. overall there's some really fun ideas here i think. some of the melodic expansion is neat, the band overall sounds pretty good when they're doing less rhythmic stuff, and there's a pretty nice overall shape to the track. the solo was solid as well. i think this can use a bit of love on the guitar parts to compress and gate them a bit like i mentioned, the track as a whole can use some heavier compression so it's not so dynamically variable, and the drums could use some love so they don't sound so robo. i'm pretty split on this. i want to hear what other judges think before i vote fo sho. it's competent overall but it feels pretty robotic and flat. ??? edit 12/17: going to go with my fellow judges here. i think the mastering is flat, the drums are boring, and the ending isn't there. not anything huge by itself but adds up to a NO. Edited December 17, 2021 by prophetik music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 Yep, opens up as a melodic cover, so we'll see where it goes. Agreed with prophetik that the fakey guitar lead is pretty bad and needs to be something else; it has no depth and the note changes/timing sound super stilted and robotic. All of the guitars sound rigid and fake. zircon may be able to help with that via Impact Soundworks' Shreddage. https://impactsoundworks.com/series/shreddage-3-series/ 1:15 in and I still haven't heard anything really setting this apart from the source tune. It's a fun cover, and you do have original writing underneath the melody, which shouldn't be discounted, but this wasn't standing apart from the source tune enough. Finally something changing up from 1:38-2:16 with some original writing, then it was back to the melodic arrangement only more interpretive by going with different writing for the instrument surrounding the melody; much better stuff in terms of personalizing the arrangement approach there. I enjoyed the drum writing and didn't have any significant problems with it; this kit could use more oomph to the sound, but that's it. The ending was flatter than a pancake and just sounded like a loop point ending, so create a real resolution. For the guitars, the bass (except 2:51's section) and chugs were serviceable, but the rest of the guitar samples all sound very fake and rigid, especially the leads. Good base here, Karol. Perhaps get more interpretive with the melody, but it's a take it or leave it thing. If you can improve the guitar sample tone and timing to achieve a more realistic sound, or change those leads into something electronic that clicks, those seem like possible options to improve this. It's not a close call for me in the sense that the instrumentation's pretty lacking throughout. It sounds like a decent arrangement that could stand apart from the original in the first half. The main dealbreaker for me is that the samples comes across like a proof-of-concept WIP for live players to listen to and adapt, and that's not strong enough on the production side, IMO. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted December 15, 2021 Share Posted December 15, 2021 A pretty conservative arrangement overall, but it does mix things up a little bit. There's that 28-second lead guitar solo in the middle, and then a 10-second rhythm guitar solo near the end. Not a lot, but enough to not be a straight-up standards violation. The guitars are clearly fake, but they're pretty good fakes. I don't think you need to buy a whole new sample kit, but I do think they could be humanized better. The timing and velocity are just too mechanical. Proph is also right that the soundscape is pretty narrow. The wailing guitars and crashes don't have quite as much high end as they should, and the bass guitar is lacking lows. And the ending... there should be one. All that said, I'm hard-pressed to say that there's anything dealbreaking here. It's a lot of notable issues, which taken by themselves are borderline at worst, but taken together I do think it adds up. I'm a little on the fence, but ultimately I have enough concerns that I'm going to give this a NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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