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OCR04574 - *YES* RuneScape "We're All Ali Down Here"


Emunator
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>OCR Artist Name - jdamashii!!
 
**NOTE - just another reminder for convenience. "Sir J/W!SE/etc." aliases are retired and everything I submit through OCR is strictly under the name of "jdamashii!!"
This is also ignoring my original music projects with the Philharmonic stuff. Just to make errythang easy I'm submitting stuff as jdamashii!!
 
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> Remix du jour - Runescape / Old-School Runescape
 
Original Source(s) by
Ian Taylor (Mod Ian)
Michael Manning (Mod Michael M)
 
Arabian
Al Kharid
Agents of Keli
A Song for Khnum
https://runescape.wiki/w/A_Song_for_Khnum
 
_____________________
 
>OCR-ified title - We're All Ali Down Here
 
Thanks for listening, hope y'all enjoy.
 
*source links are in the Wiki pages above*
 
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  • 4 weeks later...

This is surprisingly rough.  The arrangement is great, very entertaining, if slightly repetitive, and source usage seems fine, but production isn't what I expect from J.  The samples are not only fake to the point where they've gone through the uncanny valley and out the other side, but they're also very bright.  There's a strong bass, but everything else is in the high registers.

I'm hearing a lot of crackle as well, especially after the 5-minute mark; unsurprising, since the volume peaks at almost +2.3dB.  It's so egregious that I wonder if jdamashii!! even sent us the right file — I know he can do better than this, so maybe it's a rough draft by mistake?

Sorry, but this needs better balance, better instrumentation, and better mastering, IMO.

NO (resubmit)

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  • MindWanderer changed the title to 2022/05/15 - (1N) Runescape "We're All Ali Down Here"
  • 2 weeks later...

big powerful opening, very evocative.

we start to get the initial groove around 0:54 and it reminds me of the dune mix we have on the site initially. it does sound very loud. the initial uber-funk groove at 1:20 is clipping like mad, but it sounds really fun! there's a ton of groove, i especially like the choral pad in the background. the energy backs off around 2:38 but continues to utilize space and silence really well to give it a hard funky feel. the muted brass around 3:00 is nice, a good timbre change.

we get what feels like a recap at 3:22. the melodic content comes back a lot, it seems, and it's repeated right after in the brass in prep for a big drop-off at 4:23. the sudden percussion dropout makes it hard to catch the beat for a few seconds, and there's some big swells with an oud coming in to flesh it out.

this builds into a big blow for the last minute and a half or so, around 5:00. it's definitely clipping like mad, and it still sounds legit awesome. tons of space in the synth groove, lots of interesting synth work. it does kind of end, but it's at least a good resolution there.

i'm honestly torn on this one. it sounds super freaking awesome. and it clips like mad everywhere, but it honestly doesn't sound bad. there's presence in all frequency ranges, and the bass especially sounds really clean. i didn't have any issues with the sample and synth choices - there's clearly a lot of interplay between the synths and realistic-sounding samples, and i thought that interplay was really neat. i don't want to just reject it because i had to amplify it by -2.3db.

ima call this a conditional. send us a version with the gain at -0.5 instead of +2 and i'm good.

 

 

CONDITIONAL

edit 6/14: emu's right, of course - my ear says it's fine, so who cares what the meter says.

YUSS

Edited by prophetik music
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I've never seen a track clip so much yet still sound this decent. That said, the balance is significantly skewed to the low-end, and the clipping becomes way more audible in the final section, from 5 minutes onwards. Fixing that would be a priority.

Love the swaggering groove this carries with it. As if it wasn't big enough though, I really liked how you stretched it out between 1:22 and 1:43, experimenting with the timings of the groove a bit more.

Instrumentation is cool, incorporating lots of middle-eastern sounds with the trappy snares, and the addition of trumpets works well with the palette. The only thing that didn't gel with the mix were the 'Ha!' voice samples. They were a little dry and stood out - might have been better to layer them some more, thereby adding some more body, like you've done with the 'Woo!' samples.

Arrangement is solid, weaving between the 4 source tunes without feeling like a medley at all. The source melodies are presented very identifiably, particularly Al Kharid. Using Agents of Keli in the break works well, but then bringing the beat back in at 5 minutes and going full trap on it sounds great.

Ultimately this is a great track that's just mastered too hot, and the bass mix seems too high. Fix those 2 issues, and we're golden.

CONDITIONAL

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  • DarkSim changed the title to 2022/05/15 - (2C/1N) Runescape "We're All Ali Down Here"


Weird how that buzzing dropped at :44; I would have made that gradually fade more. I wish the brass (e.g. 1:06) & bowed strings (e.g. 1:16, 5:04) weren't as dry and exposed in places, which were the only weak instrumentation points I had here; extremely stylish and zesty per J's usual!

Crazy arrangement, with the main focus being on "Al Kharid" but every theme getting play. It generally progresses without even feeling like a medley, more shifting over into different ideas.

Obviously, the volume's too much. Stuff like the crunchiness with pounding drumbeats like 5:21 might be a stylistic thing, but it ends up sounding distorted to me, so the levels should be pulled back, and I agree with where the conditionals are coming from. That said, if the files got corrupted, I'd still say the site's a better place if we post it as is, so I'm not going to go conditional on a YES.

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2022/05/15 - (1Y/2C/1N) Runescape "We're All Ali Down Here"

What an awesome arrangement!  The themes blend together very seamlessly.  I'd expect nothing less from J and I'm glad to hear this one.  I love deserty arrangements, instruments and sounds.  The brass and some of the synths sound thin and weak to me.  I think the bass is fine, it is not too loud or heavy on my system.  The mixing is fine, I think.  I love the vocal clips!  This is a super fun remix.  

The mastering is hot hot HOT wow yikes.  With the 0db ceiling, the master is indeed clipping like a mofo.  -5db RMS is WOWZA LOUD.  That said, I am not hearing overcompression artifacts, other than some mild crunching, which as Larry said could be construed as stylistic.  But I get the conditional votes.  It is indeed a skill to get levels like this without major artifacts and pumping (PrototypeRaptor does the same.  I've seen him go to -3db RMS.  The track was clean although it had no dynamics whatsoever!). 

If this doesn't pass, please dial back the final limiting to give the master some more breathing room, and lower your final ceiling to something like -0.5db to make sure nothing clips, especially upon YouTube upload.  

But I love it.  I'm with Larry, I'd rather see it on the site than have it languish waiting for fixes or not get resubbed.

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2022/05/15 - (2Y/2C/1N - DarkeSword / Emunator / Gario / Rexy / XPRTNovice) Runescape "We're All Ali Down Here"
  • Liontamer unpinned this topic
  • Liontamer pinned this topic

This is loud as shit, but it's not peaking over 0.0db on standard metering. For what we're doing, I just don't think it makes sense to go conditional (and risk a track not being posted) based on the true peak technicality, which most people will never encounter in this medium. Based on that, I've got to go with my ear, which is telling me that, against all odds, you've managed to still get a super clean sounding master track without much audible distortion that falls outside the bounds of good taste.

Aside from that, this is a very obvious pass - your arrangement is absolutely bonkers and manages to sustain a crazy amount of energy for over 6 minutes without ever dragging on or treading the same ground. What an incredible pallet of instrumental variety, all of your instruments and synths are wielded with a great level of technical precision. This would be a damn shame to hold this back from posting in my opinion.

YES

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  • Liontamer changed the title to 2022/05/15 - *YES* RuneScape "We're All Ali Down Here"
  • Liontamer changed the title to OCR04574 - *YES* RuneScape "We're All Ali Down Here"
  • prophetik music unpinned and locked this topic
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