Liontamer Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 (edited) Artist Name: Heel Tactics Made this a long-ass time ago. Thought I'd submit it for funsies. Edited yesterday at 04:37 AM by Hemophiliac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 19 Share Posted July 19 word for word same submission email as the other one, lol :< opens with a wide-panning bass with a ton of overtones on it. kick comes in at 0:10 that is essentially just sub material with no beater tone. lead's in at 0:20 and cuts through really hard. more additive elements come in over time until we get to some riffs at 0:51 and the main body of instruments at 1:11. the snare is both super loud and super staticky, which is really irritating quickly. additionally, there's a ton of sub-bass content which makes it sound very muddy and dense, and there's a very specific spike around 500hz that's so sharp it's hard to listen to. both your other track and this one make me wonder what monitoring setup you're using. i like some of the arrangement ideas, but the mix is all over the place. the bubbly synth that comes in at 1:32 (and the lead here) are both tough to listen to - most of the synth choice on this track is subpar in that it's either so pointed it's hard to listen to it for a while or it's super oofy with no attack and hard to tell what note it's playing. the track continues to truck through the melodic content in order pretty much as it says on the box. there's not a ton of unique or original content to my ears outside of occasionally using the chord progression only as a transitional element. there's a ton of source throughout so the influence is obvious. if anything, i'd have rather that you had more Heel Tactics and less original in here - mixing up the melodic material a bit and personalizing it would have been really nice. i also think the track goes on too long given how much you're relaying on that same A material from the original over and over. i think this one's arrangement is a lot more conservative than your other mix, and the top man influence is immediately clear. i didn't care at all for most of your sound choices though - i found the lead to be super sharp, several of the other synths to be lacking in attack, and your drums overall were super scooped with either no attack note (kick) or were so sharp and loud that i couldn't hear much else (snare, hats, crash). lastly, i wouldn't mind if there was more personalization of the melodic or harmonic elements as compared to the original. a rockstar arrangement with these instruments still wouldn't pass, though, whereas this arrangement with much better instrumentation and mastering would be over the bar. so i'd say to focus on improving your sample/synth selection and then go from there. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPRTNovice Posted September 15 Share Posted September 15 Literally thought I had accidentally opened the same submission to judge twice because of the email. Same problem with the snare on the last song. It's on autopilot, way too out in front, and not a good choice for frequency. This song suffers from the opposite problem as the other, in some ways, in that I feel like there's way too much going on in parts of the spectrum (the high end) vs not having enough fleshed out. The cymbal on top at 2:08 has the same problem as the snare, and now that I'm hearing them both together I can't focus on anything else in the piece. I don't necessarily have qualms with this from an arrangement perspective, but with the drums as they are, I can't say this is above the bar. But we have some production problems here - the consistently pan-delayed hihats, the snare, the crash - they're really hurting things. We need a fuller mix with better selections of instrumentation and a better mix of them before we can talk about passing this one, IMO. I don't want to leave this piece behind without saying anything positive, so I do want to say that I like the general vibe you've got going on here. It's very Mega Man, while still being original enough for my tastes. With a little more attention to detail on the production, I think this one will flesh out nicely . NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted yesterday at 04:36 AM Share Posted yesterday at 04:36 AM Like your other Mega Man 3 submission, the synths in this are very basic. Sounds like something you might hear in the early 2000s. There are a few filter sweeps I heard in various places in the track, that's good! Now you just need to use that same idea to automate effects or parameters on the synths to give them life, add sophistication, and expression. I want to hear more expression! There's mixing problems abound with this, the leads are tough to hear at times, but also extremely bright in the high end making them unpleasant to listen to. As XPRTNovice points out the snare is very forward in the mix and cuts through tremendously. It is also very static and does not change very much at all in velocity or pattern. The main organ-like lead is difficult to hear as it's buried behind many other elements of the track. 3:03 is a strange transition. The drop out in this manner can work, but it was just into another loop of much of the same we've heard. 3:03 felt like a good opportunity to change things up and show us more of "Heel Tactics" territory then just another repeat of Top Man with the continuous kick. Arrangement-wise this is fairly conservative once we get past the intro. There is much more that can be done to make it your own other than changing up the instruments and dropping into a 4-on-the-floor beat. If you haven't already, I recommend reaching out on the workshop on the forums or Discord to get more feedback so you can refine what you're working on more. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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