*NO* Super Mario World "Scary Castles and Nice Plumbers" *PRIORITY*

[Emunator]

Your ReMixer name: Lucas Guimaraes
Your real name: Lucas Guimaraes
Your email address: 
Your website: https://twitter.com/Thirdkoopa - knew nothing better to link for this
Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: http://ocremix.org/community/profile/33965-thirdkoopa/
Name of game(s) arranged: Super Mario World
Name of arrangement: Scary Castles and Nice Plumbers
Name of individual song(s) arranged: Castle Theme

 

 (Track #3, in-case it links to the whole album drive)

 

NOTE: This is for an album that's slated to come out on 4/20.

 

My comments: This was for the GameGrooves album challenge - the goal was to make an EP in one year. My idea was an entire Super Mario Synthwave EP. I ended up getting to mesh other genres with it - Some Latin Jazz/Funk, Ragtime, Metal, and others make their appearance. For this one, it was Dubstep+Synthwave track, which made my first time ever experimenting in Dubstep. Definitely daunting to get the hang of at first, but I'm very happy with how much progress I've made on it. The whole album was definitely a learning experience, but I'm glad to have made it. One thing I discovered about myself last year is how much more I love working on entire records than one track - you get to shape a journey for the listener for something larger than life. I was specifically inspired by Skrillex, Fox Stevenson, and Mord Fustang. I hope you enjoy it and that, revisions or not, this can make it onto the site!

 

[DarkSim]

The title is clearly a reference to Skrillex's Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, so I'm expecting hard-hitting drops and wubs for days. Let's see...

Intro opens with some decent sound design and nice skittering ambient synths. The lead has a nice aggressive feel to it, yet when those floor toms come in around 0:52, they don't have enough presence and sound quite muffled. The first 'drop' at 1:00 turns out to be a false one, which is OK, but the next one better be good after that. The energy ramps up, tension builds again up to 1:58, and then... ahhhh, where's the drop?! There's some soft bass, a plucky arp, a 'lead' synth with some resonance/distortion on it, and a shaker is the most prominent percussive element. Not at all what I was expecting from the Skrillex-inspired title. Add to that, 2:26-3:07 is essentially a repeat of the previous build. The drop at 3:07 is again similarly weak, albeit with increased bass and distortion, which only serves to muddy the sound. The ending crash-cymbal roll is something I've never heard in any synthwave or dubstep track, so that's a first for me!

For a first attempt at dubstep, it's not bad, it's just missing a lot of the fundamentals of the genre that make it stand out. Namely the clarity, complexity and aggression of the sound design and mixing. And I don't hear any wubs! In addition, the repeated build and lack of significant payoff let this one down regardless of genre - it doesn't have to be dubstep, but the payoff needs to be satisfying enough to release the tension that's been established.

This source tune has been covered so many times that it's hard to be original. In fact, the most recent post on OCReMix as of my writing this is Castle Creep by bLiNd, in an aggressive, energetic style. Castle Creep isn't exactly dubstep, but Rockos has that covered with their Through the Castle remix from 2012. I'd say take some inspiration from these artists, build on your experience making this remix, and try to get your mix sounding as clean as possible as a starting point. Dubstep might sound simple to make, or even at this point be a bit of a meme genre, but there's a lot of technique and nuance to getting the sound right. You're not quite there yet, but keep at it.

NO

[MindWanderer]

Yeah, I'm not getting "dubstep" out of this at all.  Nary a wub to be heard.

The sound quality sounds really poor all around.  The leads, kicks, and snares are all extremely staticky and distoried

The fade-out transitions don't work at all for me.  It just sounds like the track is ending, plus it's a drop in energy when there should be an increase.  The drum patterns do get increasingly frenetic in these sections, which is house-like, and there is a rise, but then the rise doesn't have a drop.  The energy levels just sort of fall apart instead of exploding.

I hate to be a downer on this, and I'm glad you're getting out of your comfort zone, but you really need cleaner sounds for any time of music, and you need to study EDM a bit more if you want to emulate that genre.

NO

[Liontamer]

I'll pass by the fact that this isn't dubstep in any way; it is important to get musical labels right, but I don't care that this wasn't "as advertised" re: the genre.

Sets a good mood, so the first 35 seconds are sweet, though it quickly becomes super buzzy and abrasive at :17. Synth at :47 was thin and shrill. At 1:00, the running line is thin here but a good sound, then neither the beats nor the melodic line at 1:08 have any depth (drum sounds like a plastic bucket's being hit). As is, the textures were buzzy and abrasive, yet thin. The choir vox accents from 1:16-1:24 got steamrolled and I only noticed them because I was actively listening.

There's a supporting synth line from 1:32-1:58 that adds some tension, but suffers from the same overall problems (thin sample, crunchy production). Stiff and anemic lead at 1:59; not sure why you'd roll with this; drums still sound like a plastic bucket, and the shakers until 2:25 aren't bad, but I'm not sure what they're adding here when these textures are reatively barren.

The instrumentation sounds better at 2:25 going back to the running line until the bucket-like drums (2:33) and bland synth (2:42) come back in. Didn't hear anything else of note going on until the finish, retreading some writing ideas with different sounds that were a little more creative, but still thin, shrill, and piercing (and ultimately didn't feel much different than what came before).

I'll always enjoy renditions of this theme, so I'm glad you tackled it, Lucas. The instrumentation needs waaaaay more depth and sophistication, and the soundscape was too crunchy and distorted. Until there's depth and clarity, it'll be hard to realize the potential of the arrangement, and this isn't anywhere near fully cooked.

NO