*NO* Paper Mario "Reaching for the Star Spirits"

[Emunator]

ReMixer name: jnWake.
Name of game(s) arranged: Paper Mario.
Name of arrangement: Reaching for the Star Spirits.
Name of individual song(s) arranged: From here (). Tracks #25 (Shooting Star Summit) and #34 (Conversation with the Star Spirits).

I made this arrangement for Dwelling of Duels Mario month 2023. It's a chill, somewhat lofi-ish, remix of the extremely chill Shooting Star Summit track. Since that source doesn't really have much melodies I had to use a second source, which kicks right after the keyboard solo. It's thematically fitting as well since both play in the same area of the game.

 

I'm a little lazy to properly describe the entire arrangement but... the main section is a sped up version of Shooting Star Summit's main chords, the B section takes the main melody from Shooting Star Summit. The keyboard solo is based on a similar progression from the main one and the section after the solo has the melody from Conversation with the Star Spirits but on a minor key.

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by Liontamer
closed decision

[MindWanderer]

Some nice chillwave going on here.  Nice tones, good soundscape.  Not too many sources can be sped up and still be mellow, but this sure works out that way.

You picked two tough sources to use, but it sounds like they're pretty well present.  I don't see a need to timestamp.

Checks all the boxes for me.  Nice work.

YES

[prophetik music]

the initial hit of noodly synth, EP, filtered drums, and lo-fi strings is a great sound. there's a great groove to what the drums are doing and the vibe is really nice.

there's a drop at 1:19 and it picks back up at 1:30 with a slick synth solo. it's a touch out of time here and there but sounds great - i especially like the lfo on the lead tone to keep it moving. the subsequent bridge section is also great and functions well as a way to mix it up without drastically changing the soundtrack.

there's a recap of the B section of the initial lead for the last 20 seconds or so, and then a (somewhat sudden) ending and fade.

overall i think this sounds great! there's a lot of care taken with the drums to keep them relevant and not on autopilot throughout. the synth leads are carefully chosen and the solo is great. the two tracks go very well together as well. i'd have liked to hear more of a prepared ending, but what's here is sufficient. nice work.

 

 

YES

[DarkSim]

Really creative arrangement here, merging the two sources, speeding them up, and working in an awesome solo. No complaints from me on that front!

Production-wise though, I'm not totally sold on some of the decisions. For starters, the drums are drowning in reverb, and the filtering doesn't sound quite right to me. You can have a lofi sound and still maintain clarity - using methods like adding distortion or downsampling are a couple of ways to achieve a grittier sound. The drums do have a great groove though, I just wish I could hear them clearer.

The square arp, by contrast, is a very clean sound and is mixed quite well, except when the panning changes it can be quite distracting. There's an LFO on it with quite a wide stereo range, and occasionally the panning will snap from side to side immediately (0:45-1:20), which I felt exposed it too much. I'd narrow the LFO, and consider changing synth sounds if you're going to go for a call/response idea with the left and right channels. Have the square on one side only, with the other sound responding on the other. The section around 2 minutes where it's more central sounds like a much more cohesive mix as a whole.

I'm also not a huge fan of the pad that comes in at 0:11. It sounds OK at first, but later in the track when it returns, it sounds a bit too white-noisy for me. The timbre isn't quite gelling with the rest of the instrumentation, particularly around the 2:50 mark. A warmer pad sound would suit it better - this one sounds a little cold to me.

I can't find a major flaw with this piece, but the few minor ones above add up to make this one just shy of the mark for me. It has some moments of magic, for sure, but I think another mixing pass could make the whole thing shine that much brighter.

NO (resubmit)

[Chimpazilla]

I agree with DarkSim entirely.  What a cute arrangement, the merging of sources works really well.  But the mixing needs another pass.  The drums sound heavily high-passed and they lack any kind of high end, they sound very dull and muddy.  That snare should snap!  The bass writing is terrific but I can barely hear it.  The e-piano sounds nice and clean in the intro, but at 0:10, suddenly every element is playing and it feels like revealing too much too soon.  Perhaps that first section can be a little more mellow with a couple elements dropped out.  The backing pad and drums are mushing together to make a smeary wall of sound.  There is some kind of airy fuzzy pad that begins at 0:40, that is amplifying this smeary effect.  The little plucks on autopan sound clean and I wouldn't change those.  That solo is absolutely wonderful!!!!  That part of the track really shines.

I like this arrangement tons, but the mixing needs to be fixed.  I would start by putting an EQ on all the elements to make sure only kick and bass are playing in the lowest frequencies (100-ish Hz and below).  The drum kit needs to sound cleaner than this, make sure your highs on the drum kit are not being cut off.  And you may want to rethink that airy pad if it cannot be mixed to sound more distinct.  I do want to hear this again though, cleaned up!

NO (resubmit)

[Emunator]

I agree with the production feedback provided by Jack and Kris here, but I'll be completely honest that I would not have picked up on that myself or dinged the track for it if I was listening purely in a bubble. I really think this gets by on the strength of the adaptation of source material, the meticulous sequencing, and abundant vibes. The lack of clarity scans, at least partially, as a stylistic lo-fi decision. I do think the track would be stronger for a little bit of mixing cleanup, and definitely a big second to Jack's point about different ways to achieve lo-fi drums without necessarily removing clarity. All that said, this feels strong enough as-is to my ears.

YES

Edited April 17, 2023 by Emunator

[XPRTNovice]

Really creative interpretation of these two sources; you weave in and out of them with expertise, keep the listener interested, and avoid a lot of needless repetition. There's so much good stuff going on in here. 

Man that lead at 1:33 is fantastic. I would encourage you to bring it out when it gets into the lower register through some automation, because there were a few seconds where I lost it in the mix, but that's a nitpick. 

My biggest issue by far with this piece is the drums. I think I understand what you're going for here, but I think you're going about it in the wrong way, as has been iterated a few times by other judges here. Instead of having a "lo-fi drums" feel, what I hear instead is more of a "badly-recorded-drums" feel, which I know is not the reality nor the intent. Because everything else going on sounds so crisp and clean, and NOT necessarily lo-fi, it really accentuates the feeling of the drums not being up to snuff. It's bad enough that it really hurt my enjoyment of the piece overall and was distracting. But the good news is that I loved literally everything else, and when I say "resubmit" here all I am saying is "fix the drums." Everything else was pretty perfect to my ear. 

NO (resubmit)

[Liontamer]

Thanks for describing how the arrangement pieced together between the usage of the two themes. Once I read through, I was able to follow how you used each of them.

I haven't read a single vote, yet I know these NOs are gonna be about the production, because this is muddy. There are some brighter elements, yet this feels like every higher frequency got cut -- there's no sharpness to this whatsoever. There's a padded line way in the back that does add some color, almost sounds like cymbals getting hit and purposefully muddied, or it's just a more ethereal, washed out kind of thing; sounds cool, though impossible to tell what it is.

2:24 was a pure cut-and-paste from :39; it was repeating a good arrangement idea in the first place, so I could see others not minding it (nor had anyone pointed out before me, after finally reading the votes), but to me, this was too much recycling despite the snazzy groove, so I'd love to hear what else could be done there to vary it up.

Clean up the mixing some, and see what else can be done to vary up the presentation from 2:24 until the end and it's solid. This definitely should be posted in some form, and I hope to see it here, even if it's not this version. Very enjoyable, I'm just feeling like there needs to be another pass on the mixing at least, and some further variance for the last third would be more in the nice-to-have column.

NO (resubmit)

[DarkeSword]

This is incredible. I for one love these drums.

Fantastic arrangement. Great soundscape. The meld between the two sources is great.

YES!

[Gario]

This track is in a funny spot. On the one hand the blending of sources is great, and the instrumentation is fairly high quality stuff. My concern with this arrangement is that the mixing doesn't seem to highlight elements like it should. The square texture is clear and easy to hear, the lead at 0:20 - 0:40 is nearly impossible to parse, and throughout the song it's difficult to tell what my ear is supposed to hold onto (with the exception of that square texture - kept focusing on that one).

I don't mind the drums - they sound almost like they're in a small venue or garage but I like em' - but the overall unfocused nature of the mix is making this difficult for me to follow, and I imagine the same would also apply to folk who are less familiar with the source like me. I think the mixing needs another pass before we can put this up on the front page, so be sure to remix the leads so folk can follow them better while mixing down the textures so they remain in supportive positions in the mix.

NO

[Rexy]

Your BGM selection works well for your signature jazz fusion style!  You took the two most identifiable parts and made them work well with your A-B structure, and the integration of "Star Spirits Request" at 1:50 also adapted well with the changed key.  There were so many great ideas to follow that even the copy-pasta at 2:24 was a non-issue as it was repeating a creative transformation in the first place.  I can vibe with that.

However, what we've got here on the production side is a muddy mixdown.  I appreciate what you were trying to do - emphasizing warm-sounding instruments, which is per the norm for lo-fi, and I don't mind the panning LFO as it's adding some sweet tonal depth.  But we have a set of acoustic-sounding drums that sound like they've got a low-pass filter on, affecting their impact in the mix.  Due to this, the bass is difficult to hear due to how you've emphasized the snare, plus the cymbal selection blends in too well with your bright-sounding pad, particularly during your B sections (0:40 / 2:24).  Jack mentioned a fantastic idea with down-tuning your percussion, allowing their tones to cut through at a lower signal - and any other effects like distortion, compression, bit-crushing, and the like could make them have the more low-tone artificial sound they're looking for.  It's worth experimenting and seeing what works for you.

I'm all for seeing this track on the site based on the strength of its writing alone, but it'll need another mixdown pass, mainly to fix the drums.  Please tell me that you still have the project file - so that you can take action and aim to get this on the front page.  You've got this.

NO (resubmit)