OCR04512 - *YES* Golden Axe "A Golden Axe Journey" *RESUB*

[Emunator]

Original Decision

Hello

I was a little busy and this cover was made on a old PC, so it was a little tricky to re install all stuff

But here it is

hope you will enjoy

best regards

jmabate

[MindWanderer]

Better!  The arrangement is still great.  The melody is always audible, and usually sits at or close to the top of the mix.  But production still needs some work.

1:01-1:14 is a "great" example of what not to do.  It's a mostly-indecipherable wall of sound.  There are a dozen instruments playing at once there, all stepping on each others' frequencies, hardly any EQ or separation going on that I can hear, and the dominant sounds are the flute and tambourine, which are absolutely not the leads there.  The actual lead, the guitar, sits below them — at least, I think it's a guitar, and not horns or something, because all the timbre is smushed out of it — and then you have a bunch of what seems to be very nice part-writing below that that I can barely make out.

That's an example of the worst mixing, but there are smaller issues throughout.  The tambourine is nearly always too loud, and whenever you have more than 4 or so instruments playing at once, something's getting buried.  Orchestral metal is really, really hard to mix, because it involves multiple instruments that really chew up the frequency spectrum and have really rich timbres.  It takes a lot of EQ to let all that get through.  This submission definitely shows a lot of progress on that front, but there's a more yet to do.  Keep at it!

NO (resubmit)

[DarkSim]

This one's a wild ride, for sure! I went in with fresh ears, and despite it being one of the most difficult genres to mix well, I think you've done a decent job. No complaints on the arrangement front either - I like the way you establish a chorus, then circle back to it at 6:10 for the finale. For a long piece, it's chock full of surprises. The choir halfway through was epic, and then the guttural vocals gave me a giggle (in a good way!).

Ultimately it's going to come down to production again, and although there were moments where it's very mushy (the flute arpeggio section at 1:01, and the low piano from 3:37), the majority of the track did the business for me. It's mastered too quietly, but if I turn it up 20% above my normal listening volume then it sounds OK.

Looking back at my previous vote, I don't hear any of the really egregious mixing problems in this version that I flagged last time, so although it's still not a clean mix, the key elements are audible, and the strength and creativity of the arrangement do enough to carry this over the line.

YES

[prophetik music]

intro is still comically quiet. should be boosted by 5-8db at least.

initial presentation is enjoyable. i like the layering of the lead guitar with flute. 1:01 is certainly dense but didn't feel overly so to me (take that with a grain of salt, i like music that is absolutely slammed with content). the drums especially feel a lot cleaner in this version - the snare is much snappier, and the kick is more presence vs. tone, without losing it completely. nice work there. i do still think there's too much doubling in the orchestra parts, but it's more listenable this time, so it's not as bad.

the choir at 3:36 is still hard to hear - there's more EQing that could be done there, and it definitely could have been louder, but it gets the idea across, and is more approachable this time around. the gutteral part is also a lot easier to hear this time around, although i still can't really make it out (could be louder, also i'm terrible at words with complex backgrounds). there's some significant panning elements which may be part of why it's hard to put together.

the building action at 5:25 into 5:23 is probably my favorite part of the piece. still a lot of layering, but the huge band sound alongside the rock set sounds great. the sustains covering everything up here are fixes, as is bringing back the drums relative to the lead.

this is a great arrangement. there's some production questions but overall this is tons cleaner than before. i'm comfortable saying this is over the bar now. it's certainly still quiet overall, but it's a great track that's fun to listen to. nice job taking criticism and improving the overall package.

 

 

YES

[Liontamer]

I hadn't heard the first version, so when I saw this large list of sources, I was worried about a medley-itis structure that lacked flow. Listening through, no cause for medley-itis concerns; smooth, logical transitions and flow between the themes for the most part, so this is fun.

Beyond :29, the bass performance almost never cuts through, which is unfortunate. We'll need lyrics for the choir part at 3:37; the choir started off very quiet, and I was wondering if it would ever have a more commanding presense, then we had some growling lyrics at 4:17. At this point, while waiting to see if the choir would start booming (which it didn't), I realized the drums were positioned louder than all of the vocals (choir and metal), which made no sense. The vocal levels are pulled back so much, it's almost as if everyone was singing & growling softly into their mics, careful not to wake a sleeping baby.

Same with the guitar soloing at 5:32; it's mixed so quietly relative to the drumming and brass; meanwhile the brass, which has epic writing, doesn't punch through, nor did the overall levels rise for what's clearly the track's crescendo. Compare this area to, say, 3:25; the later section's denser and faster, but no louder, which, again, doesn't make sense. Go back and listen to the rest of this track, and the drums (which are performed well and have good energy) are the main event in terms of how this is mixed.

The transition back into "Wilderness" at 6:09 was abrupt, but it was the only theme change that felt so sudden, so it's not a big deal.

If the first version had a muddier sound, that's not a problem now, and that's what counts. The mixing of this is not how I would have it, and there's loads of unrealized potential as a result, but the elements (aside from the bass) are distinguishable enough. The arrangement's a load of fun, and though the mixing's not ideal and should hit harder, it's certainly solid enough to me. Let's go!

YES

[XPRTNovice]

Flute and lead guitar are mixed really well, I love the place it sits in the mix. 

The beginning up to :29 was a little out of character for the rest of the piece

I could definitley use more bass throughout, but that's not a dealbreaker. I don't think it's a mastering issue; I think the bass needs to come forward - at 2:15, I start to hear some low end mud probably around 200hz that might be preventing you from turning up the bass without clipping. Maybe do a little EQ sculpting and see if we can't get that bass more to the front on a final pass. 

The high trumpets come through nice and clean, really enjoying that sound.

The arrangement is a touch long; at 3:00 I kind of felt I'd heard what you had to say and was expecting the song to come to a conclusion, then was surprised to see that I was barely halfway through. The section between :30 and 3:00 would not suffer from deleting one loop, especially since you revisit this later in the piece. 

The ripping guitar lead at 3:35 def needs to come to the front - that was a GREAT little solo but it got buried in the back. 

The choir secton 3:30-4m is brilliantly arranged, but less brilliantly mixed. The chorus - along with the accompanying lead guitar - should come RIGHT to the front and get in my ear. There are some timing issues within the chorus performance that, while humanizing, are distracting. I hear a lot of the drums and rhythm guitars, but not a lot of the stuff that's actually making the section. The piano arps in the background muddy it up as well. 

The re-entry at 4:10 is GREAT. Probably my favorite part.

4:20 suffers from a mixing problem again; the lyrics are all the way in the background. I hear mostly brass stabs and drums here. That carries all the way through 5:15 and further, where I am getting lost in the wall of sound. 

6:30 needs more lead guitar in front. This piece is definitely suffering from burying the most interesting parts. 

I love this; I think with some polish, this will be an incredible track, but the mixing stops me from passing it

NO (resubmit)

 

[Gario]

Source is there, it flows well, and the arrangement is ecclectic - vocals, choir, brass, all sorts of stuff to compliment the metal that ties all these disparate elements together. It's a very cool arrangement of a lot of classic Golden Axe sources, and I love it.

The production doesn't have artifacts from mastering, though the mixing could've used some TLC to make some of those ecclectic elements pop out better. The rhythm guitar in particular is pretty overpowering throughout the arrangement which doesn't give you much room to mix anything else to the front when needed, which is disappointing.

I think it'd be criminal to make perfection the enemy of good here, though: there's a fun and fantastic arrangement with good recordings and good production values aside from the mixing imperfections. I think this is plenty fine for an OCR post - nice work!

YES

[Chimpazilla]

I don't know these sources, but what I hear in this mix flows really well and doesn't sound like a medley.  The arrangement is full of variation and surprises, while sounding cohesive throughout.  The screamo is executed well.  This does seem to be one of the hardest genres to mix well, without exhausting the ears of the listener.  There are sections of this arrangement that go harder than others, but overall I find everything audible and not overly fatiguing, probably because everything has NOT been distorted to death, as is the norm with this genre.  I'm enjoying this track, it's heavy and creative and fun.

YES