Liontamer Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) Artist Name: Mellow Sonic Thought I'd try submitting that one too. The menu theme from Half-Life is quite nice, unfortunately too short and I decided to reinterpret a longer version of it. Games & Sources Edited September 11 by Chimpazilla closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 15 Share Posted July 15 original is just a beat with an arp and some pad chords. it's a neat idea, but man is it limited in what it has. opens with some distorted synth flourishes and pads. percussive elements and bass comes in at 0:18. i hear the first reference to the original at 0:37 in a quiet mid-range synth in the background, but it comes in more at 0:56. mix is hard-slammed up against the limiter here, but the distortion that's coming from that appears to be intentional, giving it a gritty feel that matches the game well. the sonar ping tones in the original are mirrored with some extras at 1:31. the mixing here is dense in a few ways - besides being quite loud, it's a very dark feel with little in the highs and many layered elements in the lows. the bass sits around the 30-35hz mark and there's a lot both there, at the first overtone (70-80hz), and the second overtone (~95-100hz). it's hard to tell if that's from the bass being overtone-heavy or if that's where the drum hits fit, but it's pretty thick as a result. as it is, the fundamental from the bass is hard to hear on the bass-heavy headphones i'm listening on, so i'm wondering if backing off some of the other low-end elements a bit would allow that to breathe more and not feel so crunched down low. there's a cadence at 2:08 and it keeps trucking on the groove. i like the drum work and the space in the bass instrument, but it's an intense groove and it's been going for >1:30 at this point and hasn't really changed at all - some air is needed. there's a shift at 2:44 when a new instrument is added, but it's the same groove here even when a higher rhythmic element is added at like 3:05. we do finally get a bit of a break at 3:24, but the rhythmic bass elements are still there and are back in at 3:40. given the lack of delta for minutes at a time, this definitely needs some repetitive elements cut out - even the chord progression, which is super basic, hasn't changed at all for almost four minutes at this point. 3:58 adds a higher synth which is a nice change since everything up until now's been very low and heavy. after this is some subtractive arrangement as elements drop out. we hear the sonar synth once more time before the fade starts at 5:10 and continues for >30 seconds. way too long of a fade-out. i really like this idea. the initial groove with drums and the squelchy bass synth sounds really great. it pretty much doesn't change for 4+ minutes, though, outside of a 20s break and eventually adding a higher synth to mirror some other elements. that's waaaay too long for a melody-light approach like you've done here. if there were things to draw our attention away from the basic chord progression and almost non-existent harmonic elements from the original, i'd be fine with the length, but this is too much repetition. even the final fadeout is 20s or more longer than it should have been. from a mastering perspective, it's very loud, but the distortion introduced by slamming everything into the limiter is desired, so that's not a huge deal. i'd not mind seeing a few of the backing elements turned down a touch to let the melodic material breathe when it shows up, though. i would love to hear a version of this that's maybe three minutes or so long and includes more expansion of the original. it'd be great if there was some more flex in the dynamics in the piece, as well. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 I'd vibe to this as background music. If your goal was just to effectively "replace background music source with BETTER background music version," you've nailed it! Not enough to be featured as a standalone song, though. It's possible to do this source as an OC ReMix, I'm sure (hey, I've got a bunch of songs interpreting shorter songs than this lol), but this isn't the approach to take for a front page feature. Proph went into the weeds so I don't feel the need to do so, but what's holding this one back is it's just too backgroundey. Good mixing, good mastering, good sound selection -- your production instincts are great! Just gotta improve the arrangement side to where this can stand as its own song. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted September 11 Share Posted September 11 Definitely an industrial bitcrushy vibe which is extremely cool. I think the production sounds great; all distortion is intentional and as Flex said mixing and mastering are ace. However I agree with my fellows that this arrangement really constitutes background music and not a proper song arrangement, at least for OCR. The guys explained it well and in more detail, so I'm just co-signing. I enjoyed listening to it though, excellent vibe track and very well produced. Do more please, make a proper arrangement with leads and melodies and more instrumental variation and this will go on our front page. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts