Emunator Posted March 18, 2023 Share Posted March 18, 2023 (edited) Contact Information -Epic Game Music -James Ronald -www.jamesronaldmusic.com, https://www.youtube.com/@EpicGameMusic -38519 Submission Information -Super Mario Bros. -Cascade Cadence -Fossil Falls Collaborator Info -James Rolfe Edited April 13, 2023 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 Pretty straightforward metal take on the Cascade Kingdom theme. It's pretty close to a cover for everything but the first 34 and the last 22 seconds, but there are a few little twists, as well as an original intro and outtro, and original, if simple, part writing for the accompanying instruments. I'm concerned with production a bit on this one. The lead guitars sit pretty quiet in the mix, and get partially drowned out by the rhythm and harmony guitars. The bass guitar is really quiet, too; I took several listens before I even realized it was there. Most of what I'm hearing is chugs. I'm a little on the fence about whether this is interpretive enough — leaning towards yes on that front, but borderline — but I don't think the production is where we need it. Please give this another pass where the lead sits properly on top and the bass is audible. That shouldn't take much work, but if you could add more original transformation above and beyond the source material, it would make this a much stronger submission. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 some clipping and really weird phases for the intro parts. it levels out at 0:33. right off the bat, the bass and the kick are both really quiet. this is a very, very guitar-forward mix to its detriment. it doesn't sound even kind of balanced right now. a glance at the waveform and it's heavily limited as well. i think there's enough arrangement here, but it's admittedly pretty conservative. the variety of backing textures and extra flair brought in by the leads are nice however. the drums overall are hard to hear but are indeed doing interesting things throughout. the loudest part of the mix via a spectrum analyzer is below 20hz, which is why it sounds so dense and muddy. a rolloff on this and something to bring up the highs are desperately needed. really everything needs an EQ pass badly. i can't pass this one as-is. it needs significant production attention. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSim Posted March 28, 2023 Share Posted March 28, 2023 Interesting choice to go for the swirly, synth-heavy intro and then straight into the rock/metal take on the theme. It works though! The lead guitar sounds good, although it's drowned a little in the mix by the rhythm guitar. Check the EQ on the leads there and maybe bring in some more high-frequency content. The drum writing is nice and varied, and kept my interest throughout. The closed hihat sounds very far forward in the mix though - you'll probably want to sit that back a little. The whole kit feels very left-heavy as well, panning wise, due to this. Maybe adjust the mixer so there's more balance to the right hand side as well. On first listen, I also struggled to pick out the bass, and proph's frequency analysis shows there's a lot of sub-20Hz content which is choking out the low end. Get rid of that, and it'll probably bring out the bass a lot more. Arrangement is very straightforward, although the interpretation is there. I'd love a solo if you can work one in somewhere, or possibly use one of the leads to form a countermelody, or some sort of call and response with the other. Outro is back to the swirly synth, which ties in to the beginning. Would there be any way to work that into the middle somewhere for a break section? This has the bones of a decent remix. It definitely needs another production pass, and there are also plenty of options regarding arrangement that would kick it up another notch, should you so wish. I hope you manage to find the right balance, and send this one back again. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted April 2, 2023 Share Posted April 2, 2023 I suggested Ronald submit this, so I'm glad he considered it. The arrangement is conservative but personalized enough for the rock approach (and the bookend intro and outro helped). I'll agree with the mixing critiques here, because the leads should be louder than the supporting chugs, and the bassline basically did disappear once the track filled out at :34. Right at :44, one of the guitar lines seems to have a lot of quiet but persistant buzziness; not sure what happened there. The drum writing's OK, but the main snare tone in particular obviously lacks body; if it had a denser sound, it would fill this out nicely. Not sure what was AVGN's stuff vs. EGM's, but they do work well together. The textures are decent, but there's definitely a lot of parts that seem to have overlapping frequencies, which is causing more clutter than I think was intended. To me, if this couldn't be revised, I'd still pass it, so that helps crystallize my decision, as the energy's solid, but it would only be a YES (borderline) on account of the mixing, and I also can't fault the others for wanting this to be cleaned up further. If this doesn't make it as is, I'd say consider beefing up that snare and mitigating that latent buzziness as nice bonuses, but if there's no appetite for that, just revisit the mixing (and/or message one of us for feedback on a revised mixdown), then send it through once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted April 3, 2023 Share Posted April 3, 2023 There's a HUUUUGE amount of sub-40Hz mud throughout the entire intro and outro. That can be remedied by a simple lowcut of the lowest frequencies (below 25-30Hz is usually a safe bet and it'll still be plenty bassy). I was expecting a sub-blowout based on prophetik's screenshot, but I didn't hear anything dealbreaking on my good setup. The track is mastered very loud (-7.5db RMS) without sounding that loud, and the reason is that low-end, inaudible mud. Lowcut that out, and your mastering will be more solid and won't need to hit that high of an RMS value. The lead guitar could be a tad louder as MW said, but other than that I find the mixing to be adequate. This is a fun, energetic cover of this source. Performances are solid. YES (conditional, lowcut the mud first) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted April 13, 2023 Author Share Posted April 13, 2023 No point belaboring this any further - this is a kickass arrangement but I definitely picked up on the mixing and clarity issues when I paneled this and it looks like that gut instinct was right, based on frequency analysis from the other judges. I also strongly feel like the lead is just not loud enough in the mix and would be so much more captivating if it was just mixed forward a little more. I really hope you take a little time to polish this - I can't find any faults in the arrangement or performances whatsoever, and you're working with such an amazing source tune. I think it would be a very minimal effort investment that would yield a huge improvement in the final product. NO (resubmit!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts