Liontamer Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) ReMixer name: BRTD2005 Real name: Boris Email address: User ID: 38804 Name of game arranged: Aero The Acro-Bat 1 (SEGA Genesis) Name of individual song arranged: Circus Act 5 (Synthwave Remix) Additional info: composed by Fox Productions, a.k.a. Rick Fox Link to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMtbCu4M4UY Edited October 20, 2023 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 16, 2023 Author Share Posted October 16, 2023 The lead sound's unfortunately not pleasing, and it sounds like the structure's verbatim with the original, with some denser sounds. There was one spot of genuinely creative additive writing after a while, the gliding synth at 1:23, which had a nice sound to it. By 1:40, I was ready for something else to be going on, and then I heard some other quiet string sustains briefly show up until 1:58. Those were good parts, but there's still not much going on dynamically with the arrangement. 2:20 finally drops the main beat pattern, but it's only until 2:29. OK, another beat dropoff at 2:38, but boy does this sound atonal due to these beats, all the way until 3:25. Kind of felt like Adon's theme in Street Fighter 1, which is not a compliment, I'm afraid. There's notable effort given to varying up the textures, but too much off-key writing. When the main beats are in play, they sound decent and have some impact, but the track also plateaus at that level and never gets more intense; combined with the very static timing (which I realize is a carryover from the source), this plods over time, with the textural changes not being enough to keep it engaging. Good initial effort, Boris. It's a ways from being something we could pass, but there's growth potential for you, so keep at it. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 what a weird little original. wow, that initial sound is really grating. i don't think combining heavily detuned leads with a 7-6 suspension is a good combination. the steel drum sample that's being used also doesn't really do it for me at all either. larry's right that it's a lot of the original for a while right off the bat. the section at 1:24 has more arrangement going on than the first minute and a half by far, and it's honestly still pretty tame. the synth choices really drag it down overall, but the strings larry mentioned and the glide synth were both nice. the rest of the track noodles through some combination of the elements heard by that point with different instruments dropping in and out. the track certainly doesn't need to be five minutes long, you've heard it all after under two minutes. i really strongly believe that this track is not a good one to use as a demo to play with highly detuned synths. the key element - the 7-6 suspension that's right off the bat (no pun intended) and then used throughout really doesn't play well with detuning. i also think you need a lot more arrangement elements to string a song out this long. what's here isn't near enough. beyond that, it's hard to talk about the mastering elements with how distractingly difficult it is to listen to the lead synth. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted October 20, 2023 Share Posted October 20, 2023 The master seems to be brickwalled at -3db peak, which is odd right away. That initial sound is not pleasant, and not even interesting as a device, it just sounds disharmonious and also too highly distorted. The lead starting at 1:24 is a much nicer sound but it is mixed very quietly in the soundscape and also feels like it has a touch too much distortion on it. Most of the synth choices in this mix are not great individually or in combination. The arrangement itself isn't bad, honestly. The synths would need to be changed out to more pleasant ones. As prophetik said, the arrangement noodles along throughout most of it, without any motivic elements for the listener to grab onto. A track of this length needs to justify itself with some more solid musical ideas, and they need to change and expand as the arrangement moves along so as not to become repetitive. Interesting ideas presented, but this will need much more work in sound design and writing. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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