Chimpazilla Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 Remixer sent two tracks in one email. I'm not sure which one he intended to name "Heavier Carnage" so I'm leaving both titles as the source song names. -Chimpazilla Hello, I would like to send two cover songs from Spider-man's Maximum Carnage for your evaluation. Thank you very much -- ReMixer name: Rekkinom real name: Fabio de Moraes Ruela email address: website: www.rekkinom.com userid number: 37928 Name of game(s) arranged: Spider-man & Venom - Maximum Carnage Name of arrangement: Heavier Carnage Name of individual song(s) arranged: Story Interlude, (Heated Battle - separate thread) Additional information about the game: SNES, composers: Alistair Brimble and Chris Jojo Comments: I loved this soundtrack since the first time I played the game in the 90's. In 2009 I uploaded a video to youtube playing 4 songs from the soundtrack and it had good acceptance from the gaming community at the time. On December 2021 I decided to record a brand new version of the soundtrack, and selected these two songs to send you for evaluation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted July 14, 2022 Share Posted July 14, 2022 Interesting approach. The source material is simple, short, and repetitive, so this remix basically just uses it as a bassline and builds a wholly original arrangement on top of it. And it largely works. It's clearly novel yet never drops the source. However, when I say "never," I mean never. The simple 12-note bassline never lets up for a second over the entire 2 1/2 minutes. Mercifully, it's a short arrangement. And it does a lot with that simple refrain, from black atmospheric to classic rock solos. Production isn't perfect. It's very quiet overall, especially so for the genre. I A/B'ed it with another remix that happened to be in my playlist, and it was notably quieter... than a Rebecca Tripp mix. So yeah, that's a problem. It's also mid-heavy; just a smidge light in the lows but palpably light in the highs. Overall I think this falls just short on production grounds. It would be a Conditional at best to throw a compressor on there, but I think it would really benefit from some more breadth of soundscape, and that's not a 5-minute fix. I do think it's a fairly simple fix, though, so I hope this gets resubmitted. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSim Posted August 28, 2022 Share Posted August 28, 2022 I just got done reviewing your other submission, and my criticism for that piece was that there wasn't enough original material blended in a cohesive way with the source. Thankfully, that's not the case here. The bassline is present throughout, but using that as a building block, you've got plenty of original stuff layered on top, including an always-welcome solo at 0:56! I also really like how you've introduced a 5-note phrase that isn't in the source, but feels like it should be, from 1:14. Might have been nice to throw that phrase in as a verse/chorus before the solo as well, to reconnect with it afterwards, but it works well as-is. It's a short source and a short remix, which works to its benefit. Any longer and that bassline would have needed a changeup, but you've made a good decision to end it before it outstays its welcome. Production isn't the cleanest, but it's not egregiously quiet on my setup. Something about the open hi-hat still sounds a little off (might be compression, or velocity changes in the hits affecting the samples in some way), but it's not a dealbreaker. It is light in the highs, which takes some of the shine off the guitar soloing, but as with your other submission, I can hear all the instruments clearly enough. I'm pleased I reviewed your 2 tracks in this order, because my major gripe from the other one has been rectified already here. Although there's room for improvement in the production, I think this has the legs to get over the line. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 not a lot to go with on the original here. using it as a structure to build atmosphere from works fine. i'm not a huge fan of the fadeout when you could have just sat on the root to end it, but it wasn't terrible, just unimaginative. i didn't notice any specific issue with overall volume. there's a bit of headroom on here, and the majority of the peaks are single snare hits vs. anything mix-related. the main rhythm guitar is a bit loud and the drums are definitely louder than they need to be, and i think pulling them back would balance it a bit more, but again it's not egregious. the arrangement concept is solid given there's essentially no melodic content. i think production is fine, if not particularly strong. nothing really shines here but also nothing is really sticking out as "this isn't good enough". i think this is over the bar. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPRTNovice Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 Hoo boy, have a lot of guts picking a source that's essentially 2 measures long and consists of a single bassline. Granted, it's a great bassline. 1:00 is absolutely the high point of the mix. There's so much great stuff going on with the guitars, which are well performed and the hardpan gives the song some dimension. However, that's really the only high point of the song for me; although the source is sparse, I don't think from an arrangement standpoint you needed to be as faithful to it as you were, which results in massive ear fatigue by the time the short song is over. The guitars at 1:00 were great, but the dopamine of that wore off quickly and I just found myself sort of listening to the same two measures over and over again. So yes, you do stick to the source, and yes, you do make it your own, but the over reliance on the bassline (and the fact that never, once, stops in the entire arrangement) make it difficult to listen to. Changing keys, modulating the bassline, breaking up the rhythm, double time, half time - the possibilities are endless with this to make it a more engaging and interesting mix to listen to. You might even consider grabbing a second source from the game and having a small interlude, if you run out of ideas, but even that's not totally necessary. However, if you're going to really take a go at this, the production also needs to carry it better than it's doing. The overal mix is too quiet for me, the drums are thin and lack some body, particularly in the kick drum, and the overall the mix is mid-heavy. It's thin on the bottom and thin on the top, and the heavy Van Halen-esque headbanging vibe doesn't come out strong enough without it being more powerful. More body in the drums and guitar would have helped with this; the bass is fine as it is, I think. A brave attempt at taking a paper-thin source and making a banger out of it, with admirable effort, but I think it needs some effort from both an arrangement and a production standpoint. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 We'll see how this arrangement attempts to expand on such a straightforward loop. Building on top on it with original writing's not a bad approach here. The lead guitar probably doesn't need to be so loud over the bass handling the source tune until :55, but it's alright. Something about the mixing of the leads leaves this sounding cluttered. Good idea to let the lead guitars take over the source theme after :51 to vary up the presentation of the melody. Got the mid-90's Spider-Man cartoon theme brought in for a cameo from 1:13-1:32; it's a limited usage, so it doesn't tank the track for having too much non-VGM arrangement in there. [None of the other Js are nerdy enough to have watched Spider-Man? :'-( My wife and I both loved it!] Nice dropoff at 1:49 to begin winding down the track down and gradually simplify the texture to make the mood more reminiscent of the original track. The overall levels could have been pushed up more, and something about the mixing's not bright enough, but no big deal. On the short side of arrangements here, but you're arguably not going to get more length out of a concept like this without just (cohesively) adding in completely original sections. The textures never stay in one place, so even though the structure has the source tune as the foundation, the track doesn't plod by sounding overly repetitive or static with the sound combinations or energy level. Solid work, Fabio! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted January 21, 2023 Author Share Posted January 21, 2023 I've listened to this quite a few times now and I like the arrangement. It's a cool atmospheric track with minimal melodic content. The bassline plays verbatim throughout the track but what's on top of it keeps changing and keeping the mix fresh, although some variation in the bass writing for a section, or some sort of soft breakdown, would have been nice. The Spiderman Intro Theme fits very nicely into this arrangement. The mixing could be a little cleaner but there's nothing egregiously wrong here. The autopanning of the sustained guitar is a nice reference to the autopanning bass in Story Interlude (which makes me dizzy!). The final ending of the track is a fadeout, not my favorite type of outro, but it works well enough here since everything else has dropped out. Great guitar performances throughout the piece. I like it. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted June 11, 2023 Share Posted June 11, 2023 Normally, I'd be pickier with an arrangement that has such a static bassline, but I actually think this is a pretty creative approach to such a minimalist source tune. The way you built up a more fleshed out soundscape around that single element works better than I thought it would. Production is aight, nothing mindblowing, but the tones of your instruments all sound cohesive. The drums occasionally feel sloppy on the mixing and sequencing, but I'm okay to sign off on this! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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