OCR04373 - *YES* Donkey Kong Country "Oceanic Aura"

[Emunator]

ReMixer name: Neon X
EMail: 
Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV8NwzoUa9I9HD1YXRIXp3g
UserID: 37046

Name of game: Donkey Kong Country
Name of arrangement: Oceanic Aura
Name of song: Aquatic Ambience
Original composer: David Wise

For clarification:
Name of remix: Oceanic Aura
Name of original song: Aquatic Ambience

[MindWanderer]

Allow me to walk through my thought process while listening to this:

• 0:00-0:43: Okay, really vanilla so far, nothing I haven't heard a dozen times for this source.
• 0:43-1:20: The industrial beats are a nice touch.  Maybe this will get interesting.
• 1:20-2:00: Nice drop into a nice soundscape.  I'm digging it, but I'm still not sure this is interpetive enough.
• 2:00-2:22: Getting there.  Nice harmonies, nice arp.
• 2:22-3:12: WHAT IS THIS?!?!?  Holy hell, this sounds good.
• 3:12-3:26: ...and it's a fade-out, with absolutely no wind-down.  It just... stops.

So out of 3 1/2 minutes, there's about a minute I absolutely adore and about a minute that's pretty darn good.  But that ending... in my almost 800 votes on this panel, I cannot recall having ever been let down this badly by an ending.

Now, I've never sent a remix back just for having a fade-out ending.  And I'm not about to start now.  I'm finding myself digging deep to try to find a reason to vote against this, which isn't really fair.  And I'm not succeeding.  Production pumps just a little bit but is clear, it's definitely good on both source material and interpretation.  But I want to.

Edit 8/30: Much better.  The loop back to the main AA theme is less exciting than I'd like it to be, putting the best part in the middle rather than the climax.  Still, it's clearly a much more complete mix now.

YES

Edited August 30, 2022 by MindWanderer

[DarkSim]

OK, for the first 2 minutes I was worried that this was going to just be a decent cover. Sounds very MIDI-rippy, albeit with some nice instrumentation.

After 2 minutes though, we get the Neon X treatment: double-time percussion, a slick solo, some chord changeups, different arps, then back to some familiar territory with the soft arp, before... a fadeout?! Man, I was fully primed for another run-through of the main melody with that double-time percussion and new arp, with a few original flourishes thrown in for the finale.

This remix sounds great, but it feels like it's missing its 3rd act. There's 2 minutes of source, then some great original work, and it's crying out for a big finish that brings the two together in a more satisfying way.

I may be way out of line here, but I subscribe to you on YouTube and I see how productive you are. Your remixes are great, and I see no reason this shouldn't be featured on OCRemix, but the ending does sound like it was rushed out. I get the YouTube grind is hard, but some extra time spent on the ending/final section would elevate this track from "passable" to "one of the best Aquatic Ambiance remixes of all time".

YES

Edit: Still not exactly the finish I was hoping for, but it resolves a lot better now. Still got goosebumps in the middle.

Big thanks to Neon X for being so receptive to the feedback and willing to change the fadeout to a more satisfying ending!

Edit 2:

One of the best Aquatic Ambiance remixes OF ALL TIME BAYBEEEEE

Edited August 30, 2022 by DarkSim

[Chimpazilla]

The opening does sound like a straight cover, almost midi-rippy as DS said, but once the beats kick in I'm onboard, I love the soundscape and groove even though it is so conservative still.  The mix sounds dynamite.  Then the original/interpreted section begins at 2:24 which is just awesome! 

But what the heck, I'm in the middle of a full-on drop section, and it fades out???  I may be in the minority here by actually saying no to this, and I apologize because this mix sounds so good, but I feel (as the others have pointed out) that this is indeed not a full arrangement, even at the length of 3:27.  If you came this far with it, why not finish?  Instead of a fadeout, what my ears are expecting is some kind of resolution.  It could be a second breakdown (something a bit longer, epic, and story-telling) followed by another full section (revisiting the source motifs but with new elements or drum groove or something) and then a proper cooldown and ending, or if that sounds like too much, skip the additional full section and just make a drumless cooldown lasting 30-60 seconds, featuring the original writing again, and controlling the energy down toward a proper conclusion.  Make it make sense!  MW said he has never rejected a track purely for a fadeout ending, and in eight years as a judge, neither have I (although I find them super disappointing every single time).  But in this case, the sudden fadeout truncates the track at its fullest section and it just doesn't feel right. 

PLEASE finish this track because I love what's here.  The production is on point and even though the master is super loud it never sounds overcompressed, so I have no production crits at all, great work.  But DarkSim said it very well when he said that the extra arrangement work would elevate this mix from "passable" to "one of the best Aquatic Ambiance remixes of all time."

Good luck to you on the rest of this vote.  This track may pass, and people will surely enjoy it, but this might be one of those tracks where, a couple of years from now, you feel regret at having missed the opportunity to have really polished this arrangement to the awesomeness that it can clearly be!

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Edit 8-29-22:  Neon X sent in a revised version with a proper outro, and it works for me.  Upon listening today, I hear the over-hyped highs Larry was talking about.  Not sure how I missed that before.  Regardless, this revision gets the job done for me.

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Edit 8-30-22:  Longer version is just what I was looking for.  Perfection!

YES 

Edited August 30, 2022 by Chimpazilla

[prophetik music]

this is a top ten original for me. i know everyone's done arrangements of it but the original is just so good.

opening is pretty generic, albeit fine. the beat that comes in is great - love how dry it is compared to everything else, the bass has a great amount of blatt to it, and the wet melodic synth with a bunch of glide is great. it's pretty straightforward, but the work in the bass and some of the fadeout bits help keep it moving.

there's a notable transition around 2:00 into more adaptive territory with a new synth and some great chord changes, and then a slick synthwave transition into a great IV-V-vi-I chord progression that still feels like the original while also being primo driving music. and then it ends, and that blows, because i wanted another solo section screaming over the top of a mid-range melody recap while the drums kept pumping and moving forward building to a big high release with the arpeggio synths trickling away in the background amidst shimmery glam pads and a bass pedal on the root. ugh. darn it.

realistically, i want you to finish this track. but what's here is still great and absolutely worthy of making the front page. chimps is right though that this could go from fine to outrageous with, like, two hours of work.

 

 

YES I GUESS

edit: better ending. got a little cute with the chord structure, but it lets everything down much better than it did before. this is out of I GUESS territory ?

YES

Edited August 29, 2022 by prophetik music

[DarkeSword]

Incredible soundscape. Fantastic production and solo. Great part-writing.

But the structure of the arrangement is incomplete. You state the melody exactly one time, move into the incredible breakdown and solo section, but never return to the melody. I don't mind fade-outs. I use them all the time, and have even written up how to do good fade-outs in the past. I even understand shortening an arrangement because you don't want to overstay your welcome, so-to-speak. Perhaps you don't have more to say. But the fade-out here is premature.

Something as simple as a copy+paste of the melody after the breakdown section would work. Shift it an octave or double it in another instrument if you're after some variety, or don't! But at the very least, bookend your breakdown section.

This is perhaps a harsh judgement, but NO, resubmit. If we can get an updated version we can fast track.

UPDATE: Checked out the updated version. Feels like a proper ending now. I'm good. YES

[Liontamer]

The soundscape certainly sounds nice, but it opens up like a straight cover, so we'll see where it goes. OK, there's finally distinction in the instrumentation once the beat comes in at :43. 1:20 further personalized the arrangement approach with the beat & bassline and some lead changes & SFX.

Not sure why the highs sounded too piercing, but that should have been pulled back. Same with the beats that came in at 2:22; there's a piercing aspect of the snaps that's unpleasant as well; though it's not a dealbreaker, I'd argue that beat also plods.

Fadeout at 3:12 was definitely a lamer one, and I'm not inherently anti-fadeout. It's gonna sound like I don't respect Martin and am making a leap in logic -- the fadeout, as it is now, does come off lazy in an "I give up" kind of way. You could have given that final section another 15-30 seconds with a minor variation, IMO, and then went for the fade. I liked the original countermelody brought in at 2:47, so varying that writing more could be the component that allows you to stretch some more time and substance out of the arrangement before the fade.

The way this is mixed isn't as cohesive as it should be, which plays in part to the high end/piercing issues I'm having. I'm also not a musician or producer, so someone else would have to elaborate more on what's not quite working here.

But does it get more right than wrong, and enough to tip it over the line, IMO? Yep. Some arrangement and production revisions ahead of posting this would be nice, but if that weren't possible, I'm fine with this as is; it's a reasonably developed concept.

YES

EDIT (8/29): Can't say I enjoyed the writing of the new resolution, but credit for making it seem off until the VERY last note that resolved it properly; I got a quick laugh out of that one. Still solid.

EDIT 2 (8/30): And a longer version now. There we go, everyone's a winner. Thanks, Martin!

Edited August 30, 2022 by Liontamer
added comment on revisions