*NO* Super Mario RPG "Geno Hop"

[Emunator]

Remixer: LXE
 

Name: Alexis Gelinas
 

Email: 

Website:

 

38753

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• Super Mario RPG
• Geno Hop
• Beware the Forest Mushrooms
• I used hammered dulcimer and recorders to create a medieval lofi hip hop song about traveling through some spooky woods. Hope ya dig this arrangement

Source:

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by prophetik music

[Gario]

Honestly, I think this is a great little track. The idea and style is something else - medieval hip hop? - and it somehow works great with the source, and the arrangement does a fantastic job keeping things fresh throughout it's short and relatively conservative run.

The flute performance is really quite charming, but it also exposes a few limits to playing flute at that range. If you don't have access to an alto flute you'll need to lighten up on other background parts in sections like 0:33 - 0:40, since it's really not possible to play flute loud enough at those ranges to rise above the accompaniment. You can also shift registers to gain some volume, but that'll probably ruin the impact you have when you do this with the flute later. The trills are also quiet at 1:33 - 1:34, but that's more likely a performance item that can be corrected by, well, being a little louder.

Honestly I wanted to pass this anyway, but that sour note at 2:00 (the high flute note) needs to be fixed; it just lasts too long and is too prominent. I would suggest either raising that note by a half step or dropping it by three half steps to correct it. Please do so and take a look at the other items I discussed and send this back, because it's a pretty cool track otherwise.

NO

[Liontamer]

Immediately digging the interpretive approach here. Even the nighttime/cricket SFX underneath is a very subtle touch. Beats brought in at :14 feel scant, but the bassline bumps and has a nice presense to it. Good instrumentation and textural tradeoffs throughout. I could see someone arguing that the development's too basic, as the textures aren't complex and the tempo's slow; to me, there's original writing involved and the genre change is cohesive. Dunno why I heard a bird crowing in the background at 1:41, but OK; it fits the opening SFX premise of this track somehow taking place outside. Oooh, no, that woodwind line from 1:59-2:02 was wildly off-key.

This is well along the way, Alexis, but does need some sort of real resolution (as well as that off-key part fixed). Any further development, maybe another 30 seconds and with a real ending, would make this feel more complete, more solid. This is very far along the way and could use some extra spices and/or room to grow.

NO (resubmit)

[prophetik music]

as with the other submissions i've heard from you, this is a fun idea! flute performance is appropriately charismatic in articulation and performance. i agree it's hard to hear and needs some compression on that channel specifically to control the natural variances in range vs. projection. the dulcimer combines well with the bass choice as well.

1:59 is a half-diminished vii7/V chord (flute and bass both playing a B#, melody plays F# G# A B under it), so it's technically not wrong. i think it's going to sound funky no matter what without the D# to flesh out the chord, so if you're not willing to do something there to add that into your melody line, it might not really work.

as with a few of your other arrangements, this arrangement quickly runs out of legs. finding ways to extend your tracks beyond the "this is a cool idea but it's real short" stage would be great from a compositional technique standpoint for you. the repeating drums and the main instrument (in this case, dulcimer) doing pretty much the same thing for the whole song with no overarching dynamic shape is something that's come up before, and working through expanding that would be a huge benefit for future compositions.

i agree with the other judges that the flute's range makes it hard to hear a lot, that there's some funky notes that don't sound right as-is, and that it doesn't quite have enough material and expansion of the themes to make this good yet. Some revisions would do a lot to improve the track.

 

 

NO