Liontamer Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 (edited) Arrangement Link (WAV): 16 BIts, 44,1 KHz Contact Information Your ReMixer name: VGMasters Your real name: Dark Hunter Your email address: Your website(s): https://www.instagram.com/darkhunterc7/ Your userid: 37166-dark-hunter Submission Information: Name of game(s) arranged: Black Belt Name of arrangement: Black Belt Destruction Name of individual song(s) arranged: Boss Theme Original Composer: Katsuhiro Hayashi System: Master System Link to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkBzUJgPE2o "Black Belt Destruction" is a re-arrangement performed by the band VGMasters. The band is notorious from doing VGMusic covers since 2010. They're still on the road, improving their sound quality and looking forward for new projects! Here's a link showing the band performing Black Belt Destruction: Edited September 10, 2023 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted June 7, 2023 Share Posted June 7, 2023 Nice, solid metal adaptation of the theme. Pretty conservative approach but there's plenty of original interpretation added and layered on, including a neat solo. Pretty much everything one would expect from a take like this. Production could be a smidge cleaner (the various synth pads in particular get muddy), but I think it's good enough as-is. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted June 15, 2023 Share Posted June 15, 2023 whoa, great original! never heard of this game. initial presentation is much slower, but it works pretty well to let the melody breathe a bit more with this arrangement. there's some fun flourishes in the intro, and a fairly straightforward adaptation of the melodic material. there's some added material that fleshes out the original without being overwhelmingly original. the drums are essentially the same pattern and velocity throughout, although there's a few fills which are desperately needed to mix it up. there's a break around 2:12 that is certainly needed at that point, and after that it goes into a short solo section, and a blow through the melody before ending on a quick flourish. there's a weird cymbal sound that sounds like it's added in post at the end of this that isn't needed. the elephant in the room with this one is that it simply isn't mastered very well. there's little to nothing above 10khz and a ton of content (i think it's the bass) at like 150hz, so it sounds very dark and condensed and musty. the bass tone especially has essentially no harmonics so it sounds very plodding...the chorus on it isn't doing it any favors. i think there's some EQing needed to expand especially the lead guitar's tone and notch the bass in so it doesn't have to be so loud on the fundamental to make it be heard. i think the arrangement's fine if fairly conservative, but i don't think it's transcendent or anything. with that in mind, i don't think the mastering is good enough to call this one a postable track. the myriad DoD submissions we regularly get are mastered cleaner than this pretty consistently, so I think at least another mastering pass is needed before we can post it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSim Posted June 30, 2023 Share Posted June 30, 2023 Awesome take on a great source tune! No problem with the arrangement here, and I love the guitar solos. I watched the video of you guys performing this, and you're really getting into the spirit with those outfits! So, my only issues with this are the mixing. To begin with, the percussion doesn't sound like a cohesive unit. The hi-hat is panned too far left and becomes distracting after a while. The snare also has a large amount of low reverb on it that makes it sound a little boomy, and slightly out of tune. It's lacking high-end too, which makes it sound like it's in the next room, and not adjacent to the rest of the elements. Also, compared to the live performances, the percussion is very rigid, and could use a little more humanising. The synth sounds are varied, however I'm not sure the mixing is accounting for this, and some patches sound louder than others. The female choir sound from 1:44-2:11 sounds good, however the pad (might even be the same choir but octaves lower) from 0:43-1:11 is dominating the low-mids and contributing to the overall lack of cohesion. The track overall seems to be lacking highs, and it sounds like your bass guitar may have some excessive reverb on it, particularly towards the end (2:59 onwards sounds very suspect). I can see from the video that everything was recorded separately, so I'm sure you'll be able to have another go at the mixing, and hopefully address the major issues here. The must-fixes are the cohesion of the percussion, the mixing of the synth, and the boominess of the snare and bass. I think once those are addressed, you'll see a huge difference in quality. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 7, 2023 Author Share Posted September 7, 2023 Nice source tune choice; I appreciate you introducing me to this! Sounds lossy to start, without high-end clarity. Heard a light pop at :28, just FYI. Source's melody kicked in at :42, and this mixing's pretty rough. The kicks sound upfront and dry, louder than the lead guitar and too metronome-like. I'm glad the bassline's nice and audible, and the keyboard part at :42, while blocky-sounding, had a good throwback tone to it. From 2:11-2:25, the texture opened up, but the sampled sustained strings were super exposed and sounded pretty poor; earlier from 1:11-1:42, they're still audibly lacking humanization too but it's less in your face vs. when all you hear is the strings. They fit better in the texture as a less audible supporting part afterward. A sampled choir line came in at 2:54-3:22 and also sounded robotically timed and artificial, just like from :21-:35 when it was first used. Too sudden of an ending at 3:23; with such a quick decay of the final note, it felt rushed and abrupt. If the final note can have a proper trailoff so that it breathes, that would be a nice-to-have. I'm in line with the others than the arrangement's melodically conservative but has an interpretive presentation, so I'm cool there and there wouldn't need to be any changes. The timing & sound of rigid samples (e.g. choir, strings) needs to humanized, and the mixing needs another pass for a clearer sound and more cohesive texture. Good base here, Hunter! If you still have the source files available, this is certainly worth putting some additional time into it to see how much further you can improve the production. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted September 9, 2023 Share Posted September 9, 2023 This is a good metal interpretation of this source, with good performances and good solos, and the arrangement is fine. The drums are on autopilot but there's enough variation to break it up as it moves along. The soundscape and energy never vary as the arrangement progresses though, giving it a repetitive feel. There has been a very harsh high-cut EQ applied starting at 10KHz which makes the mix sound very dull. The mixing is mostly adequate, but I can't imagine why this EQ cut has been applied; it should be removed. The strings starting at 2:11 sound just terrible, there's no nuance to the sample at all and the writing of that part is so simplistic and so exposed. This bad sample does not fit well with the live-played guitars. The ending is very abrupt with no resolution, which is disappointing but not an ultimate dealbreaker for me. I agree with Larry's assessment that the strings/choir need to be humanized or replaced with something more natural sounding, and the mastering needs to be corrected to remove that harsh EQ cut at 10KHz. If there are harsh frequencies in the mix, they should be removed strategically in the mix and not in the mastering stage. Those two changes would add up to a pass from me. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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