Big Arm Madness (Sonic 3 Final boss theme)

[DJ H0us3C0rP3]

Finally able to put out some new music I hope you enjoy my new remix of the Sonic 3 final boss.

 

for evaluation purposes 

Edited February 7, 2022 by DJ H0us3C0rP3
changed tag

[Hemophiliac]

Evaluation:

First off, nice track name

I do like that there is an element from the original that you chose to focus on and use throughout the arrangement, the arppegio that starts at 0:09.  You use and morph that motif in various ways throughout the track.

Lots of late 90s, early 2000s detuned super-saw type synth leads here.  The detuning used to make the super-saw lead is making it less clear than it could be.  Some detuning is good, but too much makes it less clear and is taking away from the strength of the lead.  If you made the patch I wouldn't go more than +/- 10 cents when fine tuning the pitch on the oscillators.  This will also help with clarity and help to declutter.
The sections where you have a lot of drill type effects, while they sound cool; gets very busy and cluttered.  Not only is it cluttered in the amount of stuff going on but also the high frequencies.  This is especially the case for the sections: 0:55-1:20, 1:49-2:15, and 3:18-4:00.

So my main issue with the track is the amount of repeated sections.  Where we do get the source melody in it's full glory they are short, and each one is reused with not much alterations to the previous time we heard them, like a copy + paste. 1:20 - 1:30, 2:14 - 2:24, 4:02 - 4:11 should have some variation to them so they are not a direct copy and paste.

2:24 - 2:59 Long ostinato section where everything drops out and it's only the gated backing synth and drums.  It's good to have sections like this that have less going on and allows for a contrast, however; this was too many repeats before the next element is introduced.  The gated synth pattern gets old very fast for a section that lasts this long.  You could possibly reduce this by about 15 seconds and still have the same effect.

4:12-4:48 (end) A very long fade out ending, you could easily cut at least 15 seconds of fade out so we aren't just being mercilessly pounded by that same pattern.  This is also a copy and paste of the 2:24-2:59 section but with more adding one more element to it while it fades out.

In summary, in it's current state I can't see this passing the panel.  Add some variations to the repeated sections so they are not identical, shorten the long fade out, and declutter the busy sections.  This could be a very strong track with some tinkering, and I enjoyed it.

[Hemophiliac]

[This is an automatically generated message]

I've reviewed your remix and have returned it to Work-in-Progress status, indicating that I think there are some things you still need to work on. After you work on your track and feel that it's ready for submission to OCR, please change the prefix back to Ready for Review and someone will review it again. Good luck!

[DJ H0us3C0rP3]

Here is the most recent update to my Sonic 3 Final boss theme. Hopfully I fixed the points brought up by @HemophiliacEnjoy and let me know if things need more tweeking.

[Hemophiliac]

Evaluation:

Revisions for version posted on 1/21/22

I'm so happy you worked on this and improved what was mentioned.  It's a gain for sure.  So much clarity was added in the sections I mentioned from before, it really helped.

And thank you for making it downloadable now, I was able to take a look at this with a spectrum analyzer and see a few problem areas.   0:54 when you bring in the hihats and metallic sounds you're getting a lot of high end frequencies in the 7,900-12,000Hz range (they get as hot as 9.5 db!)  They are too forward in the mix.  To my ear it sounds like the hihats that are panned to the right that are the culprit here.  The same thought applies to the crash type hits at 1:12.

The snare is clipping.

2:15 when the new bass part comes in to accompany the source again it's a nice addition from the previous version.  However, 2:41 when you use that pattern again I'm a bit thrown off by the "skips"(2:42, 2:45, 2:47 for example) in the rhythm.  To my taste I don't necessarily like it, but it's a creative decision.

3:45 return to the opening theme again so now I hear those 3 source sections that I mentioned from my previous review as A B A because of the bass pattern addition to the second repeat.  Improvement!  Good job.

The judges will take issue with how the various sections have been copied and pasted.  I did mention this in my previous review.  You did add the bass to help in the second return of the source melody at 2:15.  I suggest maybe on the third time you add a variation to the melody to make it a little different (that could be with the rhythm, pitches, embellishments, or even effects).  Anything can help it to not sound like it's been copied and pasted.

This was a big step forward and a lot of improvement was made, if you address these things you will be ready for submission.
 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Hemophiliac

[Hemophiliac]

[This is an automatically generated message]

I've reviewed your remix and have returned it to Work-in-Progress status, indicating that I think there are some things you still need to work on. After you work on your track and feel that it's ready for submission to OCR, please change the prefix back to Ready for Review and someone will review it again. Good luck!

[DJ H0us3C0rP3]

Hopefully I managed to get everything nailed down on this version to @Hemophiliac liking. I saw the high end areas and reduced them pretty significantly so it’s not ear piecing and changed up the the variation of the chorus by adding a new instrument and adding effects to it. I lowered the snare so hopefully it’s not clipping anymore. The skipping has been removed as I discovered it was an input error in the sequencer. Let me know what y’all think.