*NO* Secret of Monkey Island "The Pixels of Monkey Island"

[Liontamer]

Your ReMixer name: Pixel Pirates
Your real name: Tobaunta Torkelsson & Fredrik Vinterstjärna
Your email address: 
Your website: pixelpirates.nu
Your userid: 37469 

Name of game(s) arranged: The Secret of Monkey Island
Name of arrangement: The Pixels of Monkey Island
Name of individual song(s) arranged: Main Theme

Edited September 6, 2023 by Liontamer
closed decision

[MindWanderer]

Opens with a brass synth and some very loud ocean sounds. The waves do mostly fade out once the EDM beats kick in.

At that point, it's pretty vanilla house fare. You've got your supersaws, your 808s, it's pretty much paint by numbers stylistically. 1:17-1:45 is repeated at 2:16-2:44; not too much, but more than I'd like in such a short piece.  Ending is pretty sudden, but at least there's an ending.

I'm not wowed by this, but I don't have anything in particular to object to. It's a perfectly servicable adaptation.

YES

[prophetik music]

the initial ocean sounds are surprisingly indistinct. the instruments in the opening are all in the same range, which makes it hard to really hear anything until about the 1:02 mark when the rest of the intro stuff drops. this represents over a third of the track. a quick glance at the opening section shows a huge amount of sub-40hz content, and even content below 10hz that's as loud as 100hz is. it's no wonder it sounds muddy. this desperately needs a filter to trim the fat.

the melodic content really kicks in around 1:05, when the tempo picks up. the main body of the track here feels very big, which is good, although it is super generic. there's a short break for about 30 seconds, which features elements we've heard before in different synths - for example 1:07 and 2:02 are very similar to the point that they're basically palette swaps. this builds into a copypasta of 1:18 through 1:46, and then it ends with a clipped version of an earlier melody.

the intro isn't bad but it's hard to hear everything with the synth choices and how loud the ocean SFX are. the actual main body of the remix, is from 1:05-2:47. this consists of the initial presentation of the big house section (1:05-1:46), a repeat of the intro melody with arp in different synths (1:46-2:02), and a repeat of the big house section (2:02-2:44) with a short blurb at the end. that means that the first minute is hard to hear and the last minute is copypasta, and the track is under three minutes long.

this is honestly a lot better of a submission in terms of realization than some of your previous posts. from a mastering perspective, the main body of the house stuff sounds solid if bland - the kick is nice and meaty, the saws aren't overpowering, and the bass sounds fine for a non-sidechained option. the entire track however needs significant filtering on the low end (even the house parts have a lot of sub-40hz content, way too much). the opening could use some volumization to balance the instruments, and you may want to consider moving some instruments to other octaves so it's not overlapping so much. from an arrangement perspective, the last third being essentially a direct repeat isn't a great look. adding countermelodies or varying up the melody, chords, or backing rhythmic elements would help a lot to differentiate between the parts. just changing the q on the lead isn't enough to make it truly different.

this needs some more workshopping. it is an interesting first attempt though! i definitely think there's something here.

 

 

NO

Edited June 14, 2023 by prophetik music

[DarkSim]

The opening brass and synth is a good combo, but I'm not enjoying the very loud and bassy sea effects. They definitely need some filtering on the low end, and some more presence in the highs wouldn't go amiss either.

When things start to ramp up at 1:05, the tempo increase is a cool choice. It can be an effective tool to add urgency, and I think you've accomplished that here. The switch to the supersaw at 1:18 was good, and the kick/bass combo is nice and punchy here. Unfortunately, the claps are lost in the saw, and the hats only barely noticeable. You'll need to find some space for those in the frequency spectrum, but if it's too difficult to make space just in that domain, you can try some light panning as well in the stereo space to separate things a little.

The break section slows the tempo back down, and I like the build better than the intro now that the sea effects aren't 'muddying the waters', so to speak. The tempo increase into the final chorus could have been handled better, and the final chorus is just a copy/paste of the first one, which is anticlimactic for the big finish. Try having another layer in the background like a subtle pad, just to bolster the impact of the finale. Would a little of that brass from the intro work, even?

I like the way you're experimenting with tempo in this one. There are 4(!) tempo changes, and I think some more intricate transitions/builds to highlight those would really set this one off. The SFX in the intro were very overpowering, albeit a good idea, and the percussion needs to be mixed much cleaner. Additionally, it'd be nice to have some richer sound design for the lead saws (tricky, I know), and a bigger impact for the final chorus. There's a bridge section in the original that would be awesome to use in this as well, as the chords are a little darker. Could be an easy way to give more of a release for the final chorus, if you use that bridge somehow.

NO (resubmit)

[Liontamer]

Despite a 320kbps MP3 being sent in, the opening sounds distant and feeling like a low-quality render due to the lack of high-end sharpness/clarity.

Theme arrives at :47, and I liked the arrangement of it, but this soundscape sounds so lossy. 1:04 drops out the intro's sounds and moves the tempo up a touch, then it's supersaw city at 1:18 with some loud thumping beats that had very nice heft. That said, the soundscape's too flooded; some claps were added around 1:25 and practically don't even register; the only reason I noticed them was because I'm actively listening for textural changes; you only audibly hear the clap once when the other sounds drop for the transition at 1:45.

The transition at 1:45 felt awkward/sudden, but I'll move past it. I do like the loose way the theme's arranged there; it's a style I'd never heard before and a pretty unique sound to apply to this theme. Pretty lonely lead there though; some beats entered in at 2:01, but it was a very barren sound until a (relatively brief) cut-and-paste return of the saw section at 2:18.

From what DarkSim was saying, it appears as if multiple parts are occupying the same frequency range, which could explain why it feels to me like the supporting part-writing doesn't provide enough textural glue and makes the textures feel very simplistic/basic. If you compare to something like Pimp! Code's "You Know", that's cleaner, so you can make out the supporting part-writing (which is subtle like yours) more easily. The arrangement approach is good, the mixing just needs more clarity and refinement, IMO.

NO (resubmit)

[Chimpazilla]

The intro ocean sound gives what could/should be a super-clean soundscape a lossy/hissy sound, and this goes on for nearly half of this super-short track.  The ocean feels like it is right up front in the soundscape.  It would feel more natural if it were mixed more softly and cleanly such that it sounds like it is in the back of the music, not in front of it.

The brass sample used in the intro is extremely uncanny.  The delayed pluck is nice although quite plain.  The supersaw lead is very vanilla, and lacks clarity and is overtaken by distortion.  This huge saw covers up everything else happening in the piece other than the kicks.  The kicks are great, as is the bass; low end of this mix sounds great.  Everything happening above the lows feels smooshed together and lacks distinction.  

I like this arrangement generally, but it is too short, and both drop sections are identical in every way with nothing added or replaced.  The mix drops off abruptly at 2:49 without resolution, with only one portion of the pluck phrase from before being repeated solo.  This is a very lazy outro, given that the arrangement is so short and repetitive, and feels very awkward since the fullest section just dropped off a second before.

This sounds like a wip and not a completed arrangement.  More work is needed to make this arrangement solid, and the mixing needs another pass to clear up the soundscape.

NO