OCR04385 - *YES* Minecraft "Pigmosh"

[Emunator]

Hey guys! Long time lurker on Youtube, first time submitter here. This is a remix of "Pigstep" from Minecraft, in the heavy metal style of Mick Gordon's DOOM soundtrack.

Contact Info:
ReMixer name: Mosh Bits
Real names: Chris Goins, Josh Fullerton, & Dylan Shipe
Email Address: 
Website: youtube.com/c/moshbits
User ID #: 38030

Submission Info:
Name of Game: Minecraft
Name of Arrangement: Pigmosh
Song Arranged: Pigstep
Original Composer: Lena Raine

Pigstep is easily the most energetic theme in Minecraft, so we gravitated towards it almost immediately. You'll find the song in Minecraft's Nether, and with the release of the Minecraft Nether update and the release of DOOM Eternal in such close proximity, along with the underworld/hell theme being the focus of each, it didn't take any time at all to make the connection between the two. We talked about putting this track together for ages, and almost 2 years later, we finally have something we're really proud of.

Thanks in advance for (hopefully) considering us, and thanks so much for the service you all provide. Hope to hear back,
- Mosh Bits

[MindWanderer]

Cool premise.  As someone who's been forced into Minecraft Pigstep dance parties with my kid, I approve.

It's a great arrangement that really captures the style of the DOOM Eternal soundtrack.  The bass chugs are iconic and instantly identifiable.  You know exactly what this mix is going to be in the one second from 0:22 to 0:23.  And it delivers.

Production is another story. The soundscape is pretty muddy, very heavy in the mids.  The bass has little bass, the cymbals have very little trebel.  It lacks inpact as a result.  I did A/B comparisons to DOOM to make sure it wasn't an intentional homage, because it is a very unique approach, but no.  Here's a particularly good comparison track, where you can really feel the low end of the bass and hear the sizzle of the cymbals.  That's lacking in this remix.

I love the arrangement to pieces, and the performance is great.  It just needs some more EQ work to really shine.

NO (please resubmit)

Edited October 7, 2022 by MindWanderer

[DarkSim]

Perfect genre for the remix! Doing an arrangement in this heavy style is tricky though, as things can very easily get muddy very quickly. There's definitely room for improvement here in that regard. My favourite parts are those little fills and dropouts at 0:35, 2:17, etc. Really cool detail there, and as things drop out and the mix becomes clearer, it's a nice mini-break.

I think your stereo separation could stand to be a little wider - the leads seem to be occupying the same stereo space when they're playing together. I appreciate you've paid attention to the panning of the percussion, and there are certain points where you've panned for emphasis, such as 2:33, but getting a clean mix takes a lot of work, and every bit of breathing room you can give your instruments helps. Get in there with the EQ and start carving out space for each one: rolling off the low-ends of everything that doesn't need it, put a small notch in the bass to make room for your kick frequency, filter out any rogue low-end reverb.

That said, it's a really creative mix, with some good performances and lots of little details to catch on repeat listens. After discussion with Larry and Kris, I'm happy to recalibrate to a

YES

Edited October 12, 2022 by DarkSim
Discussion on passing standards

[Chimpazilla]

Ok I'm torn on this one.  The arrangement and performances are terrific, this is a great remix of this source!  It could surely be mixed more cleanly, it does feel a bit flat, but dealbreakingly so?  I'm not so sure.  If this doesn't pass, I do agree that the mix should get some EQ treatment, as DarkSim explained, removing lows from every element that isn't kick or bass, and an EQ notch in the bass to make room for the kick (or even a very light touch of sidechaining, very slight gain reduction, super fast attack and release) will also help.  I can't quite see rejecting this excellent arrangement based on EQ alone.  Leads could indeed stand to be a touch wider, but I understand keeping them centered since the rhythm guitars are super wide.  I am going to listen to this a few more times before I vote, I can't simply put the third NO on this on EQ alone.

Edit 10/12 - I asked Larry to chime in on this one, after I listened again with fresh ears today and still found the mixing to be adequate.  He agrees with me.  The arrangement and performances are great and people will enjoy this mix.  Our bar for production is high but I disagree with the NO votes that this mixing isn't good enough to post.  Let's do this.

YES

Edited October 12, 2022 by Chimpazilla

[prophetik music]

oh, what a great idea. this fits so well together. the rhythm guitar is super aggressive and widely panned which i like in this style. the drums are pretty standard outside a few big fills but sound great and do a great job keeping it driving too. there's some well-timed breaks and the pick-ups like at 2:04 are definite head-bangers. the half-time feel around 2:28 was unexpected but helped to keep it feeling now. it kinda just ends, but that's stylistically appropriate IMO so that is fine.

it definitely feels like there's no bass, which is weird because there's buckets of sub-bass content if you look at the freq plot. i think DS's idea of going through and doing more mastering work makes a lot of sense. this track's reliance on the guitars to do big rhythmic elements in conjunction with the bass requires a super-clean, super-punchy mix (can't help but think Disturbed or Breaking Benjamin with the guitars tuned so low), and right now it is very muddy in the low mids while simultaneously not having much bass presence. i do think that the EQ is enough to sink this, although it honestly sounds decent right now.

i might be making perfect the enemy of good, but i think this needs an EQ pass to at least filter out the sub-40hz content. beyond that, i like the arrangement and i love the vibe.

 

 

NO

edit: i was making perfect the enemy of good. this isn't pro mastering and it doesn't have to be. this is over the bar, although i'd really like another mastering pass.

YES

Edited October 13, 2022 by prophetik music

[Liontamer]

Opens up with some interesting production; appreciating the small, crackly sounds going on in the stereo field. Mix is definitely too crowded once everything comes in at :23. The backing guitars in particular just sort of add an indistinct distorted pad underneath, though once the main melody came in at :45, the backing guitar didn't hog up as much space in the soundscape. Love that bass work from 1:20-1:30; nice, meaty tone to it. The mixing on 2:35's section was nice and sharp until 2:47 (and that's not a complaint after 2:47, it's just showing how sharp it was when the electric guitars weren't in play. Such an awesome spin on Lena's material here.

It's definitely not ideally mixed but I can make out the partwriting reasonably well, so it's a matter of looking at how much works vs. how much doesn't on the seesaw. The performances and arrangement are all sorts of good, and the other NO judges, while not wrong on the details are missing the big picture, IMO.

This ticks every box we want. The production's not even poor, so I just don't get the broader issues. I'm listening on some Sennheiser HD497 headphones, so perhaps on monitors or in a car, there are other mitigating issues I'm unaware of. For my setup, however, it sounds strong. I've definitely been on my share of votes where I'm the outlier against something that passes, so I won't pretend that I've never been the bad guy. But this is all sorts of good; I have 0 reservations here.

YES