Liontamer Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 (edited) Artist Name: Jewbei Wassup guys?? I'm BACK! I know... its been about 10 years since my last submission. A lot has changed since then, first off i got married back in October of 2023. i moved away from The City (New York City) and I now live a peaceful life in the suburbs of Long Island, New York. My wife is a Music Teacher, She is also a classically trained violinist, maybe some day she'll be on a remix with me. For the last 10yrs i dived into many different styles of music especially Drill music, but i have never strayed away from Trance, That is my heart. More about the Mix: This is a remix to Captain Bells Memorial Theme from one of my favorite NES games of all time... STARTROPICS. I have fond memories of playing this game as a child. i still play this game and its Sequel Zoda's Revenge till this very day. This remix came to be due to Jade asking me to give this theme a shot it turned out well! this remix was finished way back in 2021, but i shopped it around over the last few years to get feedback on improvement. I will say that this is a more "mature" sound from me I hope that everyone will dig this. Over the years i still came back and read all the reviews from the judges panel on my past works as a reminder not to repeat my old mistakes from my early days. I used it as a tool to get better. Anyways i have so much more stuff on the way. Be on the lookout! This wont be the last of Jewbei! Edited Friday at 08:20 PM by prophetik music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted May 22 Share Posted May 22 big beat right off the bat, love the bass synth especially. we get a fuller beat at about 0:29 and some nice subtle backing elements until the descending melodic motif comes in at 0:44. 1:14's another representation of the A theme, just without the arpeggiation. i didn't care for this FM-y lead quite as much, i found it to be a bit grating. 1:44's a bit of a drop and the melody's still going - this might have been an opportunity to drop it, but we get one more playthrough and then it's done by 1:58. there's a bit of a break of countermelodic material and then the FM lead's back for another go. the B theme makes an appearance at 2:57 and continues through another beat drop and build, but quickly is set aside for the fm lead again. this keeps hammering until 4:11, when we're in the outro of the track. it does show up right before the end too. this is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the original, primarily focused on the A theme, and it has a great beat and some fun backing elements to keep it moving. there's a few breaks and they show up in the right times. my main criticism is that the A theme just keeps getting repeated over and over (using a synth i didn't personally care for), which gets tedious maybe halfway through the mix. if it changed synths a few times (instead of just once at the beginning) or wasn't used so consistently with no breaks for most of the mix, it wouldn't have been as big a deal, but imo that's really dragging the overall product down. this is, i think, over our bar. the mix is solid and the beat has a great body to it. i wish more attention had been paid to repetitive elements, but other than that i think this is an enjoyable track and fun to add to the site. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted July 14 Author Share Posted July 14 The track was 5:06 long, so I needed to identify the source tune in play for at least 153 seconds for the source tune to be considered dominant. :43.25-:48.5, :50.5-:55.5, :57.75-1:02.5, 1:05.5-1:10.5, 1:12.75-2:00, 2:27.5-4:12, 4:32.5-4:33.5, 4:39.5-4:56 = 189.25 seconds or 61.84% overt source usage I wasn't majorly concerned about source usage, but did want to time it out since the intro sounded original and the melody took a little bit to come in; wouldn't want to be groove biased, of course. :-) Long build-up, but the main melody finally came in around :44. 3:26 was an opportunity to do something markedly different with the melodic or textural presentation, so I get where prophetik's coming from in terms of wanting further ideas. To me, everything's dialed in and meaningfully evolving within this groove. A little building blocky, one could argue, but I'm enjoying the groove and didn't have a big problem with the lead (which had a bit of a piercing sound that's cutting through but wasn't a huge deal for me). Loving it; what a cool tribute to Jenz and of a game that doesn't get nearly enough arrangement love, which was an extra treat. Wonderful to hear how well things are going, James, and I do hope you stay on a healthy path so that you make the most out of married life (congrats!) and get to do that potential musical collab, I'm selfish there. :-) YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 Jewbei!!!! Hey dude, long time no see! Congrats on your marriage! Very abrupt intro, I would have preferred even a short upsweep or reverse-reverb intro, but ok. Soundscape sounds great right away. Bell lead starting at 1:14 is too bright and loud and feels abrasive. I appreciate Larry's timestamp of the source. The arrangement is generally good although it feels quite repetitive. The same leads appear again and again, against the static trance backdrop. There are four nearly identical sections with the piercey bell lead, with extremely minor differences each time (slight writing variation, additional perc loop). The production is good overall, the sidechaining is good although leads could use some slight sidechaining as well, especially that bell lead which feels like it just rides on top of the soundscape most of the time. The master is bordering on too loud but I don't hear overcompression artifacts. Ok after listening through several times, I hate to say it but the arrangement is just too repetitive. It's trance, so having the continuous trance backing for the majority of the track is fine, but with that being the case, the leads absolutely need more variation as the piece moves along. And the bell lead I feel needs to be tamed or replaced, as it hurts my ears if I try to listen to the track at anything other than a very quiet volume. NO (very borderline, please vary leads and resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 So this is going to make it sound like I hate trance and don't like this piece. While the piece is very well produced, there is way too much repetition going on here. Multiple sections repeat completely, and the same identical main drum fill gets used over and over (0:29, 1:57, 2:12, 2:27, 3:26, 4:10). The backing synth bass/arp is a staple of trance and that going constantly is fine with me, but what's above it has gotta change up some. It could be melodic changes, instrument changes, different effects placement, etc. Anything that would distinguish it from it's first time playing. Similar to when you're having a conversation and speaking with someone and they ask you to repeat yourself, most people will change how they said it: increased volume, slow down their enunciation...you get the idea. If you're gonna say something more then once, make it unique after the first time. If there are tiny changes in these later sections, I'm not identifying them. I also agree with Chimpazilla about the bell lead at 1:14, it is very bright and could use a little rounding off on the top with EQ so it's not as harsh. I don't totally hate the sound itself, just needs some rounding of the edges. As is this track is very close and the interpretation of the source into trance was done well, I like the structure of the whole piece, and the production is clean. I just want to see more variation/changes on the repeated sections to help the track progress forward. SUPER borderline NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPRTNovice Posted September 13 Share Posted September 13 SUPER solid, full mix. Really utilizes these expensive speakers. The groove is nice, good pace. You know your way around the genre for sure. There's a but. I gotta say though it's a touch repetitive, especially since we're really only playing with one slice of the melody for almost all of the arrangement. Not just a touch. It's really repetitive. We basically have one melody that we hear throughout the song, and though we switch lead instruments, often that lead instrument goes for a full minute of repetition before moving onto something else, and then we don't really get much of a break before coming back to that very same melody over and over again. By 2:45, I was really, really tired of hearing it. By 4:30, I had to stop listening to the song. There has to be something that can be done with the interpretation for that lead that makes it easier to listen to, because right now it's giving me the impression of a doorbell being rung over and over again. The source is repetitive, yes, but I've seen lots of things done with sources that are half as rich as this. You can split the lead in half, you can double time it, half time it, add harmonies. Add flourishes. Right now it's a copy/paste of the original, and then copy/pasted many times over. NO (vary arrangement and resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 Jewbeiiii, it's so good to see you back in the fold and hear that you're doing well man <3 Life is good. This truly feels like you haven't missed a beat since your last trance submission. It's got all the things I love about your mixes - the production is rich and punchy, and you've got a great ear for pulling little melodic hooks out of a source and building off of that. That said, the runtime on this piece is pretty long and I think you've overstretched some of these ideas and sounds past their breaking point. I'm less of a stickler on repetition than most judges, I feel, but even this one felt like it was dragging toward the end. Without any chageups to the way the melody was presented, or any substantial breakdowns or changes in the arrangement structure, it's just trying to make too much. I'd consider approaching the OCR submission as a Radio Edit, or if you do want to keep it at more of a club edit length, the other judges have brought up a ton of great approaches that could add some spice without having to stray away from what you expect from trance music. Real close, I don't think this would require any major changes to reach the bar, but just a bit of fine tuning and variation will go a long way in keeping the song engaging all the way through. You got this! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted October 1 Share Posted October 1 Oh hello, Jewbie, sounds like you're still on your game, here! Bouncin' arrangement, and the production is crisp. I personally think the harsh highs for the lead at 1:14 sound fine, but that is coming from someone who tends to be a bit high EQ heavy in his own tracks, so take that opinion with the salt it's due. Coming in late lets me piggy back off of the analysis given by Liontamer and say the source usage is good, so that's good overall. Concerning the repetition issues, I think I hear where my colleagues are coming from: the lead that is introduced at 1:14 is distinct, in the front, and used in a few too many places in a similar manner, which gives the illusion that the parts are repeating. When I check to hear if a track is static or not I tend to bounce randomly in the arrangement to see if I can parse differences in the arrangement, and in this case there are quite a few variations throughout that do keep things interesting and fresh (even if that lead ultimately isn't, by the end). I hear what others are saying, and it probably would've been a good idea to reserve that instrument more, but I don't think that's enough to put this below the bar for me. I like it, I think it'd be a fine addition to the site. Nice work! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 Very quick vote, since there's already a lot of discussion above. - That bell lead that begins at about 1:14 is grating to the point of being a dealbreaker to me by itself. Too sharp. Lower the high harmonics (or just use another patch), lower the volume a bit, and you'll be there. - Repetition also a dealbreaker for me. I'd also say that this song would benefit from some detail work: more drum fills to keep things interesting, more melodic interpretation (aside from just straight MIDI rip status on the leads), maybe another melodic element (e.g. a pad or a countermelody or a background arp) in more places, etc. Mix and master is pretty good aside from the bell synth. Drums punch hard, bass is nice and crunchy, the rhythm section overall is pretty strong aside from the lack of variation. NO (but I'll look forward to seeing this one back again). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted Friday at 07:23 PM Share Posted Friday at 07:23 PM I can confirm that the source quota fit the scope well, even with moments with the A section's chord progression being the only usage present and entire parts of the arpeggio getting cut away in favor of a half-time approach. It can be "building blocky" as Larry said, but that is the nature of progressive trance - the slow builds into the crunchy bass, then the dip into a second faster groove and into the outro. But as long as everything evolved within that framework, that is not a concern to me. However, that half-time groove established at 1:14 went back in at 2:27 and 3:40, restoration of the A section and all - and again for the ending at 4:38. And that standard A-section as it was appeared five times throughout under different textures. This is something that I can't chalk up to the genre itself due to the sound choice of that FM-sounding bell synth. The rest of the mixdown is already strong, with the beefy drums, bass and rhythm parts. But this bell not only sounds louder than everything else, but also has such a bright tone to it that I'm hearing more of its resonance more than its pitch. This is something I would've liked to have heard an EQ cut to get rid of the resonance as well as any other layers to add some warmth, but the way it repeated phrases as it did added up to one big issue. I do like this, but the bell synth's mixing and its patterns need more TLC before it's ready for the front page. I hope you still have the project file, because this is otherwise a sweet homage for a friend. Keep going! NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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