Liontamer Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) Original decision Above is latest judges decision. Attached is my latest attempt at remixing the song Searching for Friends from FF6. To the judges' panel, I attempted to make this version of Lookin' for Buddies more cohesive...one of the judges correctly figured out that I was changing instrumentation based on new people joining your party. I'm still going for that idea. Instead of using just synths, I used a DirectWave flute instrument that made myself after taking 15 minutes to record samples of myself when I had a short bit of quiet time. I also used a guitar vst, and a percussive rock organ instrument that I applied some effects to. I did still use two synths for melody for a short period in the tune that I hope I varied the parameters on enough. Original linked, remix attached https://youtu.be/XEO7RCD7jVg?si=5ScZmPzpj69OLjBr Thanks for your consideration! Respectfully, Eric, aka Audiomancer Edited October 16, 2023 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 my original vote critiqued the instrument quality, the overly repetitive nature of the arrangement, and the original section in the middle being overly exploratory. opens with brass and synth strings, and quickly brings in flute (interesting idea!) and some rock drums. 0:30 is kind of where it starts up with a more consistent groove. the bass here is honestly pretty distracting despite it just doing eighth notes - the stuttered nature of how it's being used and how loud it is feels confusing in context. the flute doesn't sound real but it does sound nice. the synth guitar sounds fine as well - obviously not real, but works fine. 1:07 brings in a rock organ alongside the other party members. i can't say i cared for that patch much. at about 1:41 there's a synth lead that comes in also and i also didn't care for this synth's tone, although i liked that it was doing. there's obviously some attempts to keep it moving and active but i found the core of the tone to be irritating. 2:19 is the final recap of the melodic material. there's an outro in the strings and bells at 2:42 and it's done. from an overall arrangement perspective, there's a real disjunct feel. there are numerous breaks in the realization that result in it feeling like it's resetting or restarting over and over again, and combining that with the very recognizable and arguably overused initial riff and the very bog-standard drums outside of a few fills made it feel more repetitious than it probably actually is. this is aside from the fact that nothing sounds particularly realistic - there's a lot of idiomatic usage, but the sound quality just isn't there. i think this is definitely an improvement but not there yet. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 16, 2023 Author Share Posted October 16, 2023 I've never heard this before, so I'm listening to this version fresh. Opening string sustains sound thin and exposed, but not awful. Flute sounds so weird with these faux-breath noises from :11-:18; I don't think I've ever heard that effect before, but it's awkward because that's not how the breath noises should sound. Sequenced electric guitar at :37 sounds super rigid and mechanical, with 0 body or realism to it; it's a difficult sample to use effectively. I've heard it pulled off by jnWake before, but it's tough and puts things as a disadvantage that has to be climbed out of. As soon as the drums are in there at :18, they sound static and locked to grid despite all the activity going on, and the core pattern is boring, creating a plodding pace. Same issue at 1:16; it doesn't matter how humanized everything else attempts to be, because the core beats make this feel super basic and static. Surprised it didn't explicitly come up in prophetik's vote, though he did say the drum writing was bog-standard. The ending section at 2:42 was the most humanized section there and that's saying something; the intro and outro (notably sans percussion) don't have the same rigid feeling that most of the rest of the presentation does. Yeah, there's not enough flow or cohesion to the sequencing yet, so until that changes, it would be a very tough sell. Once you get those timing fundamentals in place, your stuff will hang together better. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 I have to agree with the above. It still sounds strangely random and inconsistent. 0:13-0:16... are those fret noises? Created by a flute? Why are they only here and nowhere else? Without knowing exactly what you're trying to do here, the overall approach just doesn't make sense. Even knowing, it's hard to follow. If it were easier to map the different instruments to specific characters, maybe it would come across better? I'm not sure. Overall, it's simultaneously too static (repetitive beats, looped sections) and too wild (synths and poorly-sampled instruments coming in randomly). You're trying to achieve something very difficult even for someone more experienced. I encourage you to put this project on hold for a while and work on getting your fundamental production, synthesis, and arrangement techniques down on some less ambitious pieces first. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts