Emunator Posted November 28, 2021 Share Posted November 28, 2021 ReMixer Name: The Good Ice ID: 36903 Email: Game: Stardew Valley Song: Fall (Raven's Descent) Composer: ConcernedApe aka Eric Barone Arrangement Title: Raven's Dream Hey everyone, hope you're doing well. I've really been digging the Stardew OST lately, as I finally got around to playing it last year (several years late, I know). So this may be the first of several submissions. But as I continue to expand my production techniques and explore new genres I really wanted to try a solo electronic piece, getting away from the live band shtick I've found a home in for the last few years. "Vgm lofi boom bap huehue" is far from an original concept, but I think I managed to put my own spin on it. I tried to channel a mood that says "the air is cool but the sun is warm, and the leaves are crunchy," and I think I succeeded in that overall vibe in the production. This isn't a particularly complex arrangement either; my additions really just boil down to small harmonic changes and bitcrushed melodies, with a light injection of vaporwavey wash. One thing I found particularly fun in making this was toying with new rhythmic concepts in a lofi context. The pulse is set to 4/4, but there are almost infinite ways to to push and pull that feel within each measure. You can make the drums sit behind the beat of course, but what about two instruments playing the same part in straight 8ths and quintuplets at the same time? Sounds weird on paper, but here it's a beautiful imbalance for those sweet lofi vibes. The air is cool but the synths are warm, and the drums are crunchy. Anyways I hope you enjoy listening and that maybe it makes your day a little bit more relaxing. Thanks and take care, The Good Ice Source: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 interesting writeup. also just a great ost - really remarkable what concernedape was able to do solo. lots of space to start the arrangement, which does a great job setting the feel. the opening synths are clearly derived from the original's opening idiophone, and they're deliciously late on the beat. my jazz background has me always really loving when people really play with the beat and the pocket, so i really like just how far back these drums sit and your playing with attack and delay settings on those synths. i really appreciated the not-quite-organic feel of all of the instruments in the opening - the zippy arp to open it, the flute-like lead at 0:44, the wide, slightly chorused bass at 1:08, and the high-pitched bells in the right ear. they all help convey the mood you were going for so well. there's a transition at 1:33 adding in some brassy chords and sfx, and then a wash into a perc-less section around 1:56. the windy sfx/synth at this point continues the theme, and some more interestingly out-of-time descending bells and pans add some color. the beat comes back in at 2:30 and continues exploring that descending line (which is derived from the right hand of the piano in the B section of the original, for example around 1:20ish of the youtube). this section feels way more vaporwave-y, and i noticed the bass starts to get a little heavy here (something about the pitch it's sitting on is pretty resonant). there's a bit of a transition at 3:21, and i started losing track of where the source was until i caught the chord change at 3:33 which mirrors the part at 2:30ish in the original youtube. at 3:56 it's back to the chords from the main body of the original with some more arps that mirror the piano and (i think?) the clarinet, at least in a deconstructed fashion. then it sorta just ends. not a fan of the non ending to be honest. this one nails the aesthetic really well (ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ) and seems to function very well as a vehicle for conveying the remixer's ideas. there's a lot of "beat with chords for a while" going on here, but there's enough things to tie it loosely to the original that i think that this has enough in terms of original vs remixed content. i just love the synth work throughout, to be honest, and how thoughtful the application was. nice work on this one. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 I personally have a hard time evaluating ambient remixes, because it's hard to tie in the source usage. I feel like there's enough here, though if someone wants to contest that with a timestamp, I'd be all for it. Other than that, it's a nice vaporwave arrangement that I thought succeeded well at what you were trying to create here. Relaxing and dreamy. Excellent choice of synths, very creative extension of the source material. There's a lot to like. However, I have one huge caveat: The kicks. They are loud. More importantly, either they're causing overcompression every time they hit, or the track is heavily sidechained to accommodate them. It pumps on every single hit, and frankly, for me, it's crazy-making. While addressing the kicks shouldn't be too complicated, compression issues aren't usually quite a quick 5-minute fix, which is what CONDITIONAL votes are for. And for me, these kicks are a dealbreaker. So as much as this remix has a lot going for it, I have to vote NO (please resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSim Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Lofi and Vaporwave are 2 genres I’ve listened to a lot the past few years, and combining the two of them was an inspired choice for this source. It fits perfectly. The opening malleted instrument has a wonderful timbre that takes me back to the Machinarium soundtrack, particularly a track called Mr. Handagote, which is one of my all-time favourite VGM pieces. Great job on the sound design there! Unfortunately, the ‘Lofi hiss’ seems very narrow in the mids and sounds quite uninteresting, slightly detracting from the otherwise excellent synths and sound design. This hiss crops up again around the 2-2:30 mark. I’d have liked it to be filtered more carefully, or some other noise generation method used that sounded more random. Some vinyl distortion would have worked well, or some wider noise with notch filters, possibly tied to LFOs for some subtle movement. Some other mixing issues are the bass and the kick - MW’s mentioned that the kick was a dealbreaker for him, but for me I didn’t find it too egregious. The bass on the other hand, was too loud for my taste in this genre. It’s not a dealbreaker, although I would have liked to hear some kind of automation on it, such as a sidechain, to give some more subtle variation to it. As it is, the long sustained notes sound like they’re droning. Now, I have to say, I really loved the rhythmic playfulness you showed in this track. I listened before I read your writeup and was intrigued by the timing on the auxiliary percussion (heavily-reverbed rim shot?) from 3:21 onwards. Thankfully you mentioned this in the writeup, as I would have struggled to nail down the quintuplets, but this was an inspired choice. I felt like the unusually-timed percussion could have been more pronounced in the mix, if only to be able to hear it (and figure out what’s going on) better, but I think by keeping it subtle, you’ve actually added a teasing sense of mystery. By playing with the timing in this way, it kept me engaged throughout the final minute, which otherwise would have been largely repetitive. The ending feels rushed, which is a bit of a shame. The bass in particular goes from very loud to silent almost instantly, which is noticeable after such a chill track. Despite the few issues I had with this track, however, there’s enough high-quality material here to carry it over the bar. I certainly enjoyed listening to it very much, so good luck with the rest of the panel! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPRTNovice Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 Hey don't huehuehate on yourself for not having a concept be original. You don't need to reinvent the wheel every time you want to reimagine a song, and this is a great remix. Was nodding my head within the first 30 seconds; the arps in the background that are slightly off-beat (off-swing?) really add that weirdly classic bit of anxiety into lo-fi where you never quite feel settled but you're okay with it. I had no issue waiting until 1:09 for the bass to drop, I felt snuggled by the rest of it and patient. You could easily, EASILY have told me that I was listening to Tenno, here, and I would have believed you. Your mixing is on point, the instrumentation is on point, your arrangement has good peaks and troughs that keep me interested but also don't force me to pay attention too much. That's lo-fi, baby. Music to chill/relax/farm stuff to. Nothing stuck out to me from a production standpoint. It really does sound professionally produced and well done. I think, maybe, that the arrangement could have been a touch shorter, if only because I felt myself drifting around the 3:30 mark, but that could have been a function of the fact that the chord doesn't change for almost a full minute starting at 2:40. I don't know much lo-fi that extends to a full 5 minutes, you know? I felt like you had expressed most of what you wanted to do by the time 4 minutes rolled around, and the rest was a recap, but because the mix itself and the content was so good, I wasn't exactly upset by it. Just something I noticed. Overall, fantastic job. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 The Good Ice! You don't even belong here, Good Ice. I'm not even going to listen to this. Watch this... YES OHOK, gotta listen first. Hold up... Agreed with Joe in that you don't need to reinvent the wheel, this'll do just fine. I wasn't bothered by the kicks, but maybe it's because I was on headphones. Nice and chill. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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