Liontamer Posted September 29, 2023 Share Posted September 29, 2023 Main ReMixer name: TheManPF (User ID: 35318) Additional artists: evilsonic; Ronin Op F; Zach Chapman; Ian Martyn; Newmajoe Submission: Game: Cuphead Name of arrangement: Rib Eye Rodeo Songs arranged: High-Noon Hoopla (https://youtu.be/w3ReqY8-QQU) Original composer: Kristofer Maddigan System: Windows; Xbox One; MacOS; Nintendo Switch; Playstation 4 Year: 2017 Comments: Hell yeah we're doing Cuphead AGAIN, this time from the DLC, and the track I meant in my last submission as my actual favorite from the whole soundtrack. This arrangement was done as part of the Wild West month in Dwelling of Duels in June 2023, and got 1st place out of 25 tracks (my first gold!!). The arrangement itself is very faithful, High-Noon Hoopla is already a very high-energy country song with lots of noodling, so I got a bunch of my buddies on board to rock hard on all of our instruments and bring the energy of the source up to 11. This one is more country rock, with a few changes in instrumentation (sax, melodica, distorted guitars, acoustic guitars) and a bunch of new solos and slightly different structure. Really, it's more of an excuse to get a bunch of very talented people to do what they do best. Here in the team is evilsonic, who actually took a load off my shoulders and was in charge of the mix this time, he also played all of the acoustic guitar AND a slide guitar solo. Ronin Op F did all of the insane violin playing in this track, seriously, it might be the hardest violin line he has ever played. He also of course improvised his own violin solo. Zach Chapman played all of the bass, as he always does in my tracks. Ian Martyn played piano, including, of course, a piano solo, as well as providing some YODELING that you hear in the intro and middle of the track. Newmajoe added a bunch of stuff including sax solos, melodica embellishments, and extra vocal flairs. I did the usual, arrangement, electric guitars, sequencing, no mixing this time, but I like to think of this one as a very group-focused effort, we like to call this group "Insane Cup Posse". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted October 5, 2023 Share Posted October 5, 2023 (edited) what a great original. tempo's even faster, i think, and it's cooking with gas right off the bat. initial mix seems pretty heavy in the bass, to the point i can't really hear a kick. adding the electric along the band elements is a great addition, and the violin is really cooking throughout. there's a significant set of solos right off the bat, with the sax solos being the highlight for me. there's a recap around the 2:00 mark, a yodel break, and then the electric gets after it which is awesome. 2:59 is the first time the bass isn't playing sustains, and it is suddenly a lot lighter of a track. there's a big ensemble blow to finish it out with some particularly fresh violin and then it's done. i'm honestly a bit conflicted about this one specifically because the bass presence is so heavy. the performances are excellent and full of fire, the arrangement is fine, and it's got actual yodeling on purpose! i think it's probably one i wouldn't want to keep from the community. YES edit 12/4: new mix is better! EXTRA YES Edited December 4, 2023 by prophetik music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 6, 2023 Author Share Posted October 6, 2023 (edited) Man oh man, this source tune is cool as fuck, I love it! I'm insanely glad I heard this theme. Yeehaw! Arrangement opens up super conservatively with some personalization, so we'll see if it branches off. Ah, here we go at :48, excellent. Great example of staying very melodically conservative, leaning into everything that makes the source tune fun, and seeing how different instrumentation and textures can help it stand apart from the original. EDIT (12/3): Listened to the revised mix, didn't notice anything different. (Sammich is still back!) McRIB is BACK! Edited December 4, 2023 by Liontamer added updated comments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 (edited) It's not often we get a remix that goes less off the rails than the original, but here we are. Quite conservative for a while. When other instruments get added in, it really does get quite heavy; I didn't understand what proph meant by that at first, but now I totally agree that it's the right word. The bass is so loud, so repetitive, and has so much presence that it's crushing everything else. Listen to 2:02-2:17 for a good illustration; the bass is so overwhelming that it's muffling the lead, even though most of the bass presence isn't even where the lead is. The climax (3:10+) is quite dense overall, not leaving the instruments any room to breathe at all. That said, this is quite personalized, the performances are excellent, and it's just generally fun. The production bothers me enough that I wouldn't want to listen to it too many times in a row, but it's not enough to send this back over. YES Update 12/4: The new mix isn't worse. While the bass is not quite so heavy, the overall mix is still quite dense, with the ensemble leads especially sounding quite smushed. Still, it was a YES before and it's a YES now. Edited December 4, 2023 by MindWanderer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted November 3, 2023 Share Posted November 3, 2023 (edited) Fun little conservative arrangement, and some fantastic yodelling, to boot. Love this game and it's soundtrack, so it's always great to hear folk tackle it. That bass, though... yeah, it is overpowering, and it's ever present from 0:16 onward. The mixing of that bass doesn't give any other instrument any room to breathe, so everything else in the mix gets drown behind it. Electronic music often has bass this loud, but it gets away with it by chaining it out of the way when necessary - in this track it is there at full force all the time. My ears actually started hurting by the end of it (not metaphorically, quite literally), and the track is only three minutes long. The track would benefit massively by decreasing the levels of that bass guitar, and it'll allow the other instruments to be mixed in such a way that they don't have to fight for the little amount of space that there is. Bass consumes so much of the spectrum, so it's important it's handled very carefully in an arrangement. EDIT (12/4): I think the bass is still a bit too strong, but this is certainly a significant improvement - more than enough to swing my vote. I won't let perfect be the enemy of great, here, since the arrangement is still great. Nice work on the fix! YES Edited December 4, 2023 by Gario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 (edited) The quality of the arrangement and performances here is undeniable. I have to echo the issues brought by the rest of the judges panel though and call out some obvious balance issues with many of the leads being drowned out by the bass. A few key places where this stood out to me the most was the melodica/violin from :15-:48, the brass ensemble from :48-:55, and the guitar solo at 2:48, which feels like it's being crushed under the weight of the bass and the unrelenting snare writing. You've got some amazing performances and solos that I can barely hear. To be blunt, I think this needs another pass at mixing to really reach its potential. This is a real close call - I usually skew on the side of "with something this full of good stuff, let's keep technical issues in perspective and not hold something flawed but ambitious back from the community" but in this case, I think some of those amazing things are actually being held back by the mix because of how inaudible they are. Think you guys could take a second stab at polishing this a little more? NO EDIT: Yeah, this is good now! YES Edited December 4, 2023 by Emunator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 Notified artist with the current votes, until we hear back, please feel free to continue voting like normal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted December 4, 2023 Author Share Posted December 4, 2023 11 hours ago, Emunator said: Notified artist with the current votes, until we hear back, please feel free to continue voting like normal! 'Twas fast. Revised mix in the first post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted December 4, 2023 Share Posted December 4, 2023 @MindWanderer @Gario should confirm their votes before we move this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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