Liontamer Posted May 30 Share Posted May 30 (edited) Artist Name: Aaron Lehnen Created unique sections, extrapolation of melodies and chord changes. Juxtaposing various themes and extending harmonic structures. Heavy usage of double bass metal drums and 8 string djenty guitars. Multiple harmonies re-imagined through various instruments and ranges. Harmonized guitar sections/solos. Synthwave portions mixed with Prog/metal Games & Sources Metroid is an adventure platformer released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and the NES in 1987. In this game, you play as bounty hunter Samus Aran on her first mission to defeat Mother Brain on planet Zebes. Platforms: FDS, NES Year: 1986 Developed by: Nintendo Published by: Nintendo Edited September 7 by Hemophiliac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted June 3 Share Posted June 3 opens with some wide synths and an articulated bassline element that's pretty hard to hear and parse. the synths are playing a stylized version of the melodic line in fifths which sounds really weird initially. i don't see at all how this opening section ties to the rest of the piece, and i really didn't care for whatever the synths were playing, and i couldn't really hear what the bass instrument was doing at all so it sounded very tuneless. i don't think this opening fits in the slightest and didn't have any idea where it was going from here. 0:25 is a dramatic shift in style as a more traditional guitar approach comes in. lead guitar is pretty heavy in the left ear and the bass is hard to hear although i can tell it's there somewhere. there is a huge block of mud between 40 and 80hz and that's making it real hard to hear anything specific down there - i believe this is due to the rhythm guitars being really low and in the bass range and playing constantly (ie. no rhythmic variation). this trucks through most of the melodic lines in a row and then starts a solo section at 1:09. each of the first few licks in the solo end on a weird note which is unfortunate because the following harmonized solo part is fun to hear. there's a djenty section starting at 1:55 that's pretty mean and rhythmically heavy. the panning here is really extreme and it sounds kind of strange as a result. 2:14's got a melodic line over a proggy, fast section in the rhythm guitars, but it's a bit hard to hear the backing elements since the lead guitar's so loud. this continues into the section at 2:25 - the lead parts are so loud compared to everything else that i can hardly hear anything under them. there's a sudden drop off to electronic elements. these are the outro and the track quickly trails off after this. i don't think the opening and ending fit the rest of the track at all - there's essentially no audible synth work in the main body of the mix, so why start and end with them? there's nothing to tie them to the rest of the work. the main rock portion of the track was fun to listen to if straightforward initially, and then there's some solo work that again is interesting but had some weird notes. the lead guitar is also very loud and left-ear heavy throughout, which caused some difficulty in hearing what was going on in conjunction with the low-end mud that was throughout. i think that overall the arrangement was fairly conservative but enough to do what you're looking to do. i don't think the production is there yet - there's some EQing needed on the low-end guitars and bass and kick, and the panning is pretty significant right now. beyond that, there's some leveling that needs to be done in regards to the lead vs. the rest of the track - probably you need some automation to adjust the later sections down without touching too much of the solo section. i also think the opening and outro, which at ~40s is a fair portion of the work and doesn't make a lot of sense what it's doing, needs attention. so this is a no from me, dog, but i think you've got a good basis here to continue to improve. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted July 20 Share Posted July 20 The synthy intro and outro do not match with the rest of the track at all, as Brad said. There's no source in the intro at all either, which can be totally fine, but the intro is so disconnected from the main body of the track, that when the drop hits at 0:25, it is extremely jarring. The intro appears to be in 4/4, whereas the guitar portion of the track is in 3/4 like the source song is, and there is zero signaling or preparing the listener for this intense change in soundscape as well as time signature. The drop hits suddenly and hard... which is fine, but it just HAS to be signaled somehow, either with hints of guitar (a few notes of source motif or something else) coming in over a longer intro, or some kind of upsweep, or even filtering sounds down to a couple beats of silence, so the listener is aware that a drop is inbound. So to summarize, the intro is fine, even thought is is sourceless and guitarless, but that drop has got to be signalled. At the drop section, the lead guitars are panned so wide. The bass that lives in the middle is quiet and indistinct. The kick and snare are the only other elements occupying the center, that I can hear anyway. There is synthwork going on back there somewhere but it is mixed extremely quietly. I think it is fine to have the leads wide-panned, but the backing synthwork should at least be audible and should have its own place in the stereo field. Leading into the outro, a quick sweep would help with that transition (I don't think it needs much more than that, like it does in the intro). For the fadeout, I recommend continuing just that first part of the melody, fade out on that bit of writing and don't transition into the next portion of the melody at 2:50, because that sounds like the melody should continue, and it doesn't. Just duplicate that first bit of writing and let it fade out on that. I really like this concept (and I love this source tune). The melodic interpretation and soloing is very good! The production isn't quite there yet, but I feel like it's close. I look forward to hearing this again with these improvements made, and having it posted on OCR. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 (edited) Rubber-stamping with Prophetik and Chimpazilla here. They've already covered the key issues (disjointed and sudden transitions, low end muddiness, and other general production for a cleaner sound). There are absolutely some positives here and those should be applauded. The soloing (aside from a couple questionable notes) and interpretation of the melody was good, and that's the thing that really makes it your own. The timing of the guitars felt solid and wasn't hearing anything out of time. I'm not a fan of the fade out ending, especially with the melody playing over it. I'd recommend to either continue on the synth arp and textures without the melody to fade out, or come up with a more definitive and solid ending. I'd also like to suggest to include the some of the synth work in the middle of the track as well, it's a little strange to book-end a track with elements that don't show up at other points in the track. This is a solid start and something that has potential to be built around, but this is not ready and needs more work. NO (resubmit) Edited September 7 by Hemophiliac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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