*NO* F-Zero "When Your Mom Mistakes Captain Falcon for Captain America Again"

[Emunator]

Contact Information

Your ReMixer name: Vijay van der Weijden
Your real name: Vijay van der Weijden
Your email address: 
Your website: Vijay van der Weijden Music - YouTube

Submission Information

Name of game(s) arranged: F-Zero
Name of arrangement: "When your mom mistakes Captain Falcon for Captain America again"
Name of individual song(s) arranged: Mute city

Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc.:

So I've noticed that it's common for mother's to think that Captain Falcon is Captain America. In those youtube videos, where people let their parents guess the names of smash bros. characters, oftentimes they'll say 'Captain America' when Captain Falcon is being shown.

 

That made me think about 'what if they made a movie about Captain Falcon with the same tone and production budget as Captain America?'. This cover is an impression of how the soundtrack to that movie would sound like. It's sort of a suite with an introduction, impending doom, confrontation, losing that confrontation, finding new motivation to try again and a final climax. All the while using "Mute City" as source material.

 

 

Thank you for your time, I'm stoked to hear what you think about it!

 

Best regards,

Vijay van der Weijden

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Liontamer
closed decision

[Liontamer]

OK, slowed things down and went for some cinematic Avengers-like orchestration, you've got my attention. The mixing's not great in the sense that many of the parts other than the booming drums seemed to bleed/mud together into an indistinct mass (e.g. 2:13-2:29), but the overall presentation was strong and the arrangement included tons of dynamic contrast and creative variations on the source theme.

:02.5-:09, :11.5-:18, :21-:34, 1:08.5-1:56, 2:02.5-2:10.75, 2:13-2:29 (adapting rhythm of opening backing pattern), 2:34.5-4:20

Just timed it out to make sure I was hearing the "Mute City" usage in most of the arrangement and was not being swayed by the unique concept.

The brass articulations from 3:04-3:42 were a low point for me, because the samples were pretty exposed, but I'll live given the relative strengths of everything else. The way things faded after the final note at 4:24 wasn't completely abrupt, but it was still too fast and that final note should have trailed off for longer to make it sit like a real resolution.

The mixing's not ideal, so I could understand NOs on production and wanting another pass at it to clean it up. That said, on the seesaw of what works vs. what doesn't, this tilts toward YES. Creative arrangement with less than ideal mixing, but that's all good with me. Very cool approach, Vijay!

YES

[prophetik music]

fun concept and title.

it starts out very quiet, too much so. it's obvious that several instruments are being volumized to be quiet instead of velocitized (the cymbal roll for example). this track really needs compression.

the brass at 1:10 are pretty slow-attacking and not suited for the quick runs they're doing. subsequently, the brass sample (supposed to be horns?) doesn't sound good at 1:23 either - it's too high for a french horn but doesn't sound like a trumpet. the drums are waaaaay too loud here and it's hard to hear anything else, and there's a ton of bass presence right there that should be trimmed out as it's just boom mud bass city. there is a lot under 50hz that's essentially just rumble and gets in the way. the arrangement itself is pretty fun though. i like the way you consistently are handing off the melodic content, your samples are just letting you down a lot.

it sounds pretty good at 2:13 conceptually, albeit suffering from what i mentioned above around the drums. there's a nice transition to a quieter section at 2:30, and it does that for a while. your cymbal roll at 3:07 is a bit late (should arrive on the beat, not just after) but it's a cool layered building motion you get after that as it heads towards the end of the track. there's some chord soup at 3:55 but it goes up to a big ending. brass samples are behind the beat again here. i like the rising ending that just abandons us - it's a very epic way to end a big track.

you've got some great ideas here arrangement-wise. i'd suggest getting out of your music editor and into your ears more when it comes to realization though - your brass are consistently slow (so maybe shift them a 32nd to the left), and several of your samples are used in a fashion where their timbre doesn't match what they're doing (like the brass comments above). also the mastering is all over the place - you need compression on this track to bring up the quiet parts so they're in the same universe as the strong parts. you can have a track that sounds quiet but is still audible on the same volume setting as the big epic parts with proper mastering.

this isn't there yet but is a great idea.

 

 

NO

[MindWanderer]

I'm with proph on this one.  The cinematic arrangement is great overall, but production has notable issues on several levels.

The brass in particular sounds like an ensemble of childrens' toys; the tone is harsh, tinny, and unrealistic.  There's not much presence in most of the bass range, but there's huge sub-bass.  And the timing in the climax is just bizarre---the drums hit some strange interval before the beat, and it's really jarring.

The levels aren't great but I don't think they're as problematic as proph suggested.  I can hear everything comfortably without adjusting my volume, which is more than I can say about many mixes that pass.  However, I suspect that if I were to listen to this on a setup with strong sub response, that might not be true; they're loud even on the headphones I'm using now, which are light in that range.

Lots of excellent ideas, but the execution just isn't there.  I recommend taking this to the Workshop and iterating on it a few times with feedback.

NO

[Chimpazilla]

What an awesome approach to this source tune.  This mix is dynamic and exciting.  I wish the super quiet sections weren't as long though, the fast paced sections are such a rush!  Larry is right that the mixing causes the sounds to blend together into an amorphous mass, and that's a shame.  Some strategic EQ treatment would fix that, in particular cutting lows out of instruments that don't need them, freeing up the low end to breathe.  The track sounds very heavily compressed, evident mainly in the fullest sections, and I would prefer a fuller low end overall (the eq treatment I suggested will go a long way toward fixing that).  There's too much sub-bass, causing the lows to drop out further, and the mix sounds a bit crispy.  You'd get a fuller master out of this by carefully cutting sub-rumble out of everything.  It sounds counterintuitive to say that cutting lows gets you more/fuller lows, but it's true.  My biggest complaint though is the same as prophetik, that low brass has a slow attack that makes the writing sound behind the beat.  The brass generally is the weak spot in your instrumentation.  All of that sounds negative, but overall this mix is totally awesome.  If it doesn't pass, I suggest making these changes and sending it back to us, in particular if you could get a better low-brass patch that would be great.

Edit 4/22/22:  I initially went "yes" on this track because I love it so much, but seeing all the NOs I listened again, this time on headphones.  That slow-attack brass patch really sticks out, and the flute patch has a similar issue.  I believe both patches need to be swapped out for something with a faster, more natural attack.  And the over-compression and overall too-crispy sound is overwhelming on headphones.  Please take my EQ suggestions to heart, cut out all unnecessary sub-rumble, and your master will be able to breathe without driving your compressors so hard.  Then please send this delightful arrangement back to us!

NO (please resubmit)

Edited April 22, 2022 by Chimpazilla

[DarkSim]

What a fantastic idea for a track! The intro is really atmospheric and drew me in immediately. I've no complaints on the style or the arrangement, but once things get busy with the drums and low strings, that sub bass is impossible to ignore.

I can hear the bass entering at 1:18, and then it leaves again at 1:51. For those 33 seconds, it's entirely imbalanced in the mix (also 2:13-2:30, 3:54-4:24). The energy of the sub-bass is causing any compressors you have on the master to max out, which in turn is causing the frequency imbalance. The melody in this section should be the most prominent thing, but all I can hear is a rumble and a faint flute in the distance, as if someone's playing it on the other side of a busy road as trucks rumble past. It's possibly due to your mixing setup - perhaps your headphones don't reach those sub frequencies so you can't hear it - but I'd suggest playing this mix on as many systems as you can, so that you can hear the imbalance for yourself. Not being able to hear this sub frequency noise may also cause you to crank up your compressors to try and make the rest sound louder, but that only exacerbates the problem.

Chimpazilla has some great suggestions for how to sort some of this out. You should definitely be rolling off the low end using a low-cut filter on any instruments you don't need there. Also, use EQ visualisers to make sure nothing is getting through, just in case there's some sub frequencies you can't hear on your setup.

I also agree on the brass attack being too long, which dampens the impact of the melody, particularly in the climax at the end.

Unfortunately I'm falling on the NO side for this one, but I really hope to hear this cleaned up and with some more bombast in the brass next time around. It's a cracking source tune, and a brilliant reimagining of it that you've created, however the production is holding it back for now.

NO (resubmit)