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*NO* Shadow of the Ninja "Shadow of the Pixels"


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Your ReMixer name: Pixel Pirates
Your real name: Tobaunta Torkelsson
Your email address: 
Your website: pixelpirates.nu
Your userid: 37469

Name of game(s) arranged: Shadow of the Ninja
Name of arrangement: Shadow of the Pixels
Name of individual song(s) arranged: Sea Port

 

Edited by Liontamer
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  • 2 weeks later...

What a great source, and what a great arrangement.  This arrangement style is exactly the sort of thing I love most about OCR: a straight up expansion of the source material that takes everything that's great about it and just makes it more.

That said, I do think this would benefit from a few tweaks.  Balance isn't great: the arps in particular are pretty loud and squash the dynamics of everything else.  1:13-1:28 is a great example of how not to mix: since it's a breakdown with the melody line taken out, the arp and the harmony line are fighting for exactly the same space, and they're drowning each other out.  You have a lot of space in the mids that you're not using and could be, and even the bass could be a bit boomier.

As for percussion, the kick is good, but the white noise "hats" and "snares" sound weak to me.  Most of the mix only uses those "hats" and the kick, so there's not a lot of percussion going on at all.

1:50-2:19 also bugs me a lot, with the rhythmic notes so very far behind the beat, they sound like they're just done wrong.

And then that ending... you need an ending.  Something.  Anything.

This is a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it a great deal.  It just needs some tweaks, IMO.  I definitely want to see this back!

NO (please resubmit!)

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  • MindWanderer changed the title to 2022/03/12 - (1N) Shadow of the Ninja "Shadow of the Pixels"
  • 2 months later...

i love that your remixer name is that you're a pirate, and you remixed the 'sea port' track.

agree with MW about the mix, but to be more clear - you've got a huge amount of bass presence in this track that's going to waste and isn't actually making anything feel bassy. your peak around 65hz is fine (although a peak of 9db is very loud, i almost think bringing it down a bit will make everything punchier) but there's so much subbass content below 40hz. a hard cut at 35 or 40hz will dramatically improve the clarity down there. some sidechaining to lift the bass instrument around the kick will help a ton as well with preventing your compression from slamming on kick hits. i do also agree there's more room in the mid than you're using, and adding some click to your kick attack and adding some snap while removing some head tone from your snare (claps are fine) will do wonders with helping those sound bigger without having to crank them louder. i thought the hats were fine, tbh, but wouldn't mind hearing a better/more audible crash analog for transitions.

the arrangement itself is really fun overall. i like the expansion throughout and actually liked some of the things MW called out as being negatives (the aggressive synth work at 1:13, the blurbles at 1:50), i just think it sounds boomy and weird throughout and overall the lead synths can be pulled down a bit. i do think it needs an ending since there isn't one right now.

this needs some workshopping but is a fun idea.

 

 

NO

edit: chimps is way better at this than i am, listen to her first. what i thought was missing click is probably more me misidentifying the stacked mids. i still don't hear the bass sidechain but i trust her ears more than mine for mastering stuff.

Edited by prophetik music
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  • prophetik music changed the title to 2022/03/12 - (2N) Shadow of the Ninja "Shadow of the Pixels"

I agree with my fellow Js here almost entirely.  This is a great arrangement of this source, full of cool ideas!  But there are production issues that are causing this mix to feel quite fatiguing. 

Contrary to what Brad said, I think the kick has plenty of click and I do hear some sidechaining on the bass.  I think the bass sounds good, it is full yet not overdone. That kick click does seem to get lost though, when all the midrange instruments are playing.  The lead sounds and all the backing arps sound nearly identical in that they are all playing in the same frequency range and soundscape position, so when everything is playing it all kind of mushes together, despite each sound being super crisp and clear on its own.  There's just too much going on in the mids and highs.  Each sound is very sharp, and as they stack together it becomes painful to hear.  The arrangement is also balls to the wall the entire time with the exception of a bar here or there, that's not enough of a break for me to recover.

The part of this arrangement that feels best to me is 0:44-0:59 where there is only one lead sound for my brain to pay attention to.  Each midrange sound in this mix is quite piercy, so I can only tolerate one at a time!  I did a screen grab of one of the busy sections and you can see how loud the top end of the mix is, ouch.  Everything above 4K is just blasting.  Also, using 0db as your limiter cutoff is causing some unwanted clipping.  I always set my ceiling to -0.5 so that doesn't happen.

image.jpeg.ea1c21ea226185b315118e5a46907f11.jpeg

 

I'm not exactly sure how to suggest fixing this mix, but at a minimum the leads have to be differentiated from any backing arps, either through EQ or soundscape placement, or changing one of the timbres so they don't sound so similar.  I love this arrangement, although I would prefer a longer breakdown at some point, but this would be a YES from me if it weren't fatiguing and painful overall.

Edit to add:  The arrangement definitely needs a proper ending, this one feels rushed and doesn't conclude the ideas well.

NO (please resubmit)

Edited by Chimpazilla
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  • Chimpazilla changed the title to 2022/03/12 - (3N) Shadow of the Ninja "Shadow of the Pixels"
  • Liontamer changed the title to *NO* Shadow of the Ninja "Shadow of the Pixels"
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