Liontamer Posted September 22, 2023 Share Posted September 22, 2023 (edited) Hey VGM fam! This is one of my older remixes I did back in 2015. For some reason, I thought I submitted it a bit after I submitted my Sky Chase Zone remix, but I can't seem to find a submission email , so I'm assuming I got distracted and forgot. Just a heads up: I did end up releasing this song, along with a few other remixes on streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music, so I'm not sure if that would disqualify my submission or not. I'm a bit fuzzy on the rules, but I understand if this one can't be posted on OCR As for the remix: This is my Bollywood inspired remix of the Oil Ocean Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I used a mix of Middle Eastern and Asian samples to create the overall flow, and I heavily modified some sound fonts to create the background layers. The plucking sample in the background is actually a soundfont pad that I filtered and added gating effects to. And As I do with most of my remixes, I snuck in an small "audio Easter Egg" from another game, but I don't think anyone has caught it so far. Thanks for listening, and I hope y'all enjoy. Contact Info NoTuX (aka Blue Magic) Damon Campbell Link to song: Listen to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Desert Rose by NoTuX on #SoundCloud Submission Info Game: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Remix Name: Desert Rose Original song: Oil Ocean Zone Edited October 20, 2023 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted September 25, 2023 Share Posted September 25, 2023 fun initial groove. there's a bit of machine-gun affect on a few of the instruments but it's some neat sounds. 0:31's where the melodic material comes in the first time. the lead instrument is pretty obviously fake in an uncanny-valley way, but i like how you've played around with the melody a bit to make it more instrument. the solo guitar at 1:34 doesn't really sound like it's in the same place sound-wise - i think among other things it's EQed very differently, and also doesn't have any verb on it, so it sticks out. 1:55 sounds much like 0:42, enough that i'll call it copypasta until the countermelodic element comes in. then it very suddenly ends with no prep. i think this one's not quite there, but it's more of a sum of issues thing than any one glaring element. i did not like the solo guitar in the middle at all - it was alternately sharply EQed and meandering in notes, and never seemed to fit. the groove is the same throughout and never changes. the lead does interesting things but is used in a non-idiomatic way and feels pretty fake throughout. lastly, almost a third of the track is copy/pasted as well. i think these add up to a not-quite-there. i might be making perfect the enemy of good but i think these issues really bring down the overall product. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 29, 2023 Author Share Posted September 29, 2023 Belltone at :09 & :20 that accented things sounded off-key, so I was wondering if that meant more stuff would be iffy later; I'd say it comes off enough like a sound needing to be tuned with the rest of the music that you should change it. The claps at :41 were too dry and upfront, and the sequencing was feeling too stiff, particularly the strings at 1:13. I did like the personalization of the theme though, this just needs more fluidity. Same with the guitar at 1:34, it's just too stiff and exposed. Agreed with prophetik that the ending felt too abrupt. On 9/25/2023 at 8:04 AM, prophetik music said: i think this one's not quite there, but it's more of a sum of issues thing than any one glaring element. i did not like the solo guitar in the middle at all - it was alternately sharply EQed and meandering in notes, and never seemed to fit. the groove is the same throughout and never changes. the lead does interesting things but is used in a non-idiomatic way and feels pretty fake throughout. lastly, almost a third of the track is copy/pasted as well. i think these add up to a not-quite-there. i might be making perfect the enemy of good but i think these issues really bring down the overall product. This is fair and pretty much where I fell on this. Great personalization ideas, just needs more polish, with a lot of more minor things adding up rather than any singular glaring problems. If you can humanize some of the timings and fashion a genuine ending, that would go the longest toward tightening this up, but, provided you still have the source files and the desire, please see what you can do about everything that's been critiqued. Good base here, Damon! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted October 20, 2023 Share Posted October 20, 2023 That bell LT mentioned does sound off-key, but it's not the only thing to me. There's a synth that first plays at 0:30 that sounds detuned to me, and the instrument that starts at 1:52 doesn't seem in tune with everything else either. Production is kind of muddy, and there are several vanilla or uncanny synths. And that ending is abrupt. However, I'm otherwise not coming down as hard on this as the judges above. I liked the guitar solo, and the static groove made sense in the context of the genre. I didn't detect any total copy-pasting, though there were loops with additions. The tuning and the synth selection are my hangups. Otherwise this is pretty good. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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