Emunator Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 Your ReMixer name: Pixel Pirates Your website: pixelpirates.nu Your userid: 37469 Name of game(s) arranged: Cave Story Name of arrangement: Pixels in the Plantation Name of individual song(s) arranged: Plantation Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc: This was the first video game remix we did together back in 2013. This song is what created Pixel Pirates or Pixelhunters as our name was back then. We had both worked on many non-gamerelated dance songs before this both solo and together, so dance-version was a clear path for us to take regarding genre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted December 15, 2022 Share Posted December 15, 2022 Some prety standard EDM with chiptune elements. It actually surprised me that this was a Pixel Pirates mix, since they're generally more sophisticated than this, so seeing that this was made in 2013 made a lot of sense. As it stands, there's not a whole lot to it. There's a lengthy intro, then a build-up, finally getting into the main meat just before the 1 minute mark. After this, I kind of feel like the rest is on autopilot. There's a breakdown, there's a time signature change (which, IMHO, doesn't really work), but otherwise it's fairly bland and predictable. Sound-wise, the bass synth is set very high in the spectrum, so there's not really anything in the lows except the kick. As a result, the whole soundscape is overly bright and fatiguing. I think we probably would have happily taken this had it been submitted in 2013. But standards have climbed since then, and I think these days we look for richer, more dynamic, more engaging remixes. There's a good foundation here, and it's a fun beat, but I think that, even for a relatively short arrangement, it needs to go more places. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 i agree that the mastering is rough, MW. the kick is mega-boom city without having the punch you'd want for a track like this, and has a long tail, so it clogs the entire soundscape pretty bad. there's a lot of sub-30hz content that feels oppressive as well. there's some fun countermelodic content around 1:25 that's neat. there's a change in melodic content around 1:40 that's a nice change, although it's essentially the same instrumentation as the earlier parts of the piece. the build at 2:15 is expected but executed fine. the time signature change at 1:22 is the first really different thing going on here. i don't mind it at all, the transition is fine, although relying heavily on the 1 and 3 of the triplet exposes the need for something else going on in the background since it's very empty there. it goes back to 4/4 at around 2:52, and does yet another runthrough of the melodic content before going through a standard edm subtractive fade. this does feel pretty last-gen. it's sounding fine but there's just nothing that grabs me from what otherwise is a pretty standard adaptation. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSim Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Production does sound quite rough. The kick is a major issue - you can hear the compressors working on the rest of the track when it hits, but not in an intentional, sidechain type of way. The transient (tail) on the sample is huge, so it's way too dominant in the off-beat. Some transient shaping, EQ, and multiband compression might help here. Aside from the kick, there are a lot of things to like about this remix. It's super upbeat, and although they're not changed up enough for my liking, the lead synths are solid. The transition to 6/8 is cool, if a little abrupt. You can hear there's quite a lot of sizzle in the hi-hats in this section that could be cleaned up. The distortion from the leads is blending in with the percussion, losing some sound clarity there. Arrangement is fine. When I listened to the source, I definitely could hear how it already sounds quite danceable, so not a huge stretch to bring the Eurodance flavour. I think if you revisited this track with the 9 years of experience you've gained since you originally wrote it, you'll probably agree with a lot of points brought up regarding production. If this was cleaned up to your recent production standards, I'd probably be happy passing it. If you feel like you want to give it another go, I'll be happy to hear it again in a more polished state, but for now it's a NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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