Liontamer Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 Not sure if this was sent through before. Apologies if it did; I couldn't find it in either of my inboxes. Your ReMixer name: Lucas Guimaraes Your real name: Lucas Guimaraes Your email address: Your website: https://twitter.com/Thirdkoopa - knew nothing better to link for this Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile: http://ocremix.org/community/profile/33965-thirdkoopa/ Name of game(s) arranged: Earthbound Name of arrangement: Threed, Doomed At Last Name of individual song(s) arranged: Threed, Freed At Last (.mp3) (.wav) Attached the .wav above. Please let me know if you also need the .mp3 Description for the site: I knew I wanted to do Earthbound for a while. The theme for Pixel Mixer's Saturday contest was "Time Travel". I did Chrono Trigger the previous month, so I didn't want to do Chrono Trigger or Cross again unless I couldn't come up with anything else. Earthbound spoke to me. I knew I wanted to do Earthbound covers in either a 90's style, like Grunge, or something very psychedelic. I didn't have much time to finish it. What I got was a pretty nice in-between: The first (or one of the?) Doom Metal video game arrangements. It took the source material (normally in major) and turned it into a minor key. My goal was to embellish some of Electric Wizard, Sleep, and other Doom Metal bands. I hope you all enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted June 15, 2023 Share Posted June 15, 2023 My order of operations when voting on this track went something like this: Read submission letter describing a wave of impending doom and darkness Listen to source tune, wonder how the hell you were going to get from point A to point B. Listen to remix, now fully enlightened and nodding my head along as much as I can at my work desk without drawing undue attention to myself \m/ As I've come to expect from Lucas, this is out of left field but conceptually very strong! The chugging, bending rhythm guitars are right on-brand for the doom metal genre. I'd encourage any judges not familiar with the genre to give a listen to a few points in Dopesmoker by Sleep (yep, it's a 63 minute long song) to get a feel for the frequency balance expected from this genre, since the mixing style doesn't exactly follow traditional conventions, and the arrangements can easily be interpreted as "plodding." It's not a defect, it's a feature! Your guitar tones and bass seem right on point here, though I think this could benefit from having the rhythm guitars sit a bit louder than they currently do, or adding some subtle amp distortion on your bassline so they gel more. Tonally, the detuned synth elements also fit really well. I don't have any qualms about the tone of the instruments, but the mixing feels like it needs some additional saturation and reverb to glue everything together. My big gripe with the mixing here is the drums - they feel really anemic and in some cases, the rhythm of the fills doesn't seem to line up quite right (for example, the pattern at 2:29 has an unnatural stuttering quality to it.) The mixing just isn't doing justice to the drums, especially the snare and the crash cymbals, which is incredibly dry and tinny sounding. This is the major area I feel needs to be tightened up in order for this to be a clean pass. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 I didn't read the blurb, but I did see the title, so my expectations were also met. Thanks for the comparison track, Emu. I do think this remix is excessively dissonant, but dissonance makes sense with what you're trying to do here. I think Emu is being excessively nitpicky about the drums; the production could be improved, but it's a far cry from being a dealbreaker, and the stuttering arrangement is clearly stylistic and not a mistake, and I feel like it works. Solid pass from me. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted June 22, 2023 Share Posted June 22, 2023 My order of operations is very different from Wes's (this is my general protocol). I skip the submission writeup entirely, and immediately listen to the source tune while the remix downloads, which I then drag into Cubase. Once I'm done listening to the source, I hit play on the remix, and peruse the other votes while listening. I begin my vote writeup. Lastly, I read the submission letter! So, this is a cute source tune. Let's see what the remix is. I have no expectations at this point. Wow, ok this is some seriously dark metal, right off the bat! Let's see what the other Js think. Both of them don't mind the dissonance but Wes thinks the drums are too quiet. I understand this crit but I'm not having a problem with the drums being quiet, in this context. The mix has a grungy production style, which is clearly purposeful. This arrangement is dissonant and plodding, but as Wes said that's a feature, not a bug. As for the source, I hear it, I think? It is a little tricky because the cadence of the main motif has been altered along with the change to minor from major. I'm not entirely sure there is enough identifiable source here, and I feel it could benefit from a timestamping (Larry pretty plz). As long as source is enough, I'm onboard. YES (if enough source) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted June 29, 2023 Share Posted June 29, 2023 part of me wants to complain that this mix sounds like boiled buttholes, but i recognize that the style is intentionally over-grungy and that's not a knock on it. i've listened to a bunch of this style and agree that it's executed fairly well here, although i do feel the drums have way too drastic of volume fluctuation throughout the track. there's major sections where you can't hear anything but the crash, and i don't think that's wanted (although it may be intentional, i'd argue that it's not a good intent). from a source perspective, the most common riff in the remix (0:14-0:25) is the initial riff in the original, with a few less notes. 0:17 in the original is at about 0:45 or so in the remix. 1:13 in the original is roughly 1:35 in the remix. there's a lot of noodling around each and obviously a ton of detuning, which makes it hard, and lucas did a great job totally tossing out the original chords and going with a much meaner and gloomier set of chords that really changes the vibe drastically. i'm never going to listen to this again! but it's clearly not marketed to me this is a good execution of your vision and meets my criteria for the site. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted August 21, 2023 Author Share Posted August 21, 2023 :00-1:33.5 (bassline from 1:14-1:32 of source; plus melodic arrangement I recognized from :13.5-:18.75, :20.5-:35.5), 1:33.5-1:53.5, 1:55.5-1:57.5, 1:58.5-2:11.5, 2:13.5-2:25.5, 2:33-4:06.5 (drums), 4:06.5-4:33.25 (drums & melody) The opening guitar chugs that are at the foundation of the piece derived from the bassline from 1:14 to 1:32 of the source, which carried all the way until the chorus was referenced at 1:33. 1:33's section was shrill, but I'll live. I may be underplaying other references 2:33-4:06, as I didn't recognize any of the melodies being used anywhere, so I'd love a judge's or Lucas's clarification there. It's not the way I would have preferred to reference the source most heavily, but in concert with the melodic references, it's alright. Not my cup of tea, but capably done, so no worries about me not being the target demo. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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