Liontamer Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 (edited) Artist Name: Worlder I first tried to submit this via email in 2022, but had trouble with sending a working file to Emunator, and then got side tracked as all heck. Now that I have a place I can easily host files, I am trying again! On this up-tempo electronic track there is definitely some breakbeat influence, but production started because I was having a lot of fun with the Team Rocket Theme on the guitar. Always found this to be the craziest track from the original games, it sounds so panicked. I had ideas for all sections of the song so I wanted to be sure to play off every primary melody from the original chiptune at some point in my remix. Largely, the idea of the arrangement is to build intensity on the main riff until it becomes really chaotic, but for dynamics sake it calms down in the middle of the song before ramping up again. The synth instrument that comes in at 3:10 was really a pleasing find at the time I was putting this together. I find something in its timbre that is the same as the noise that plays when you take poison damage while walking. I found that incredibly appropriate. I originally wanted to medley this with the Viridian Forest theme, because they sound similar but I decided that I had enough ideas to fill up all the time with just the Team Rocket Hideout theme, and to add more would just be messy. All digital instruments except the guitars, played by me on an Ibanez RG7421. Games & Sources Team Rocket Hideout Theme from Pokemon Red/Blue Edited October 13 by Chimpazilla closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 22 Share Posted July 22 (edited) opens with some synths before the guitar and some really buzzy stuff comes in. percussion in the intro seem pretty muted. there's a bit of a drop at 0:31, and the guitar here is really dense and muddy, and then the chord at 0:40 continues that. it's a neat fuzz tone for the guitar but it's very low-heavy and hard to really make out. drums come in soon after and really lack punch. there's virtually no kick, although i can hear a bass instrument. the track's got a lot of energy, which is fun - the pinch harmonics and weird stuff in the side ears are neat, but it's over-panned so it's hard to break stuff out. there's an escalating section at 1:15 that's got some crazy bass sfx in it. the drums here are playing interesting things, but it's still hard to hear and they're really weak. a big break hits at 1:57 - this is a neat idea, it's a bunch of big block chords with the guitar doing stuff exclusively in the right ear - but the execution again lacks verve and the pan is so wide that it is hard to listen to on headphones. we get back to the rhythmic pattern at 2:37, and it's a big escalating pattern again. the synth at 3:05 combined with the flanging on the drums causes some clipping there. i like that you keep mixing things up with what's going on - the shift at 3:35 for example was just the right time to do something different and not repeat the bass pattern again. there's a bit of riffage at 4:00, and it's done after that. this is a really interesting idea - i love the energy throughout, i love the attention to the drums, and i love the concept of synth-driven rock with lots of guitar to add intensity. the execution is lacking though. the drums have no punch and that really is holding it back initially. there's no bass in the kick at all from what i can hear - the main bass peak is in the 90hz range most sections, which is nuts! it should be half that! - and adding in something to give it some punch would help so much. separately, the guitar overall is very dark and lacking in highs, and has way too much mid in the mix, which clogs the middle of the road so the synths and snare have to be really loud to compensate. overall, fixing the drums and associated EQing, and fixing the guitar tone and overall mixdown would help a ton. right now it still has a grungy feel that i think is intentional, and i like that - finding a way to better handle your drums and guitar without losing that should be a goal. NO Edited October 8 by prophetik music lol chimpa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted October 7 Share Posted October 7 (edited) There is certainly enough source here, the arrangement is fairly conservative, but this is a great arrangement. There are so many ideas here, so much ear candy and variation in sounds and processing. The mix is full of energy and interest. My only issue with the arrangement is that the sections tend to get too long and repetitive, with the same idea being repeated over and over. 3:09-3:35 for example is the exact same writing all the way through, within a larger section playing the same motif over and over in somewhat varied ways. There's something about the production that I can't entirely put my finger on. There is a ton of very hard panning which I don't care for, especially when it is heavy instruments like basses being panned wide. The instruments (other than the guitar) sound very simplistic and vanilla, and there is minimal processing, very little reverb, and the whole mix sounds almost painfully dry most of the time. I am more borderline than proph on this one, because the arrangement is generally so strong. The mixing isn't terrible, things are volume-balanced just fine, but there is something off about the production for me. I'm not ready to commit either way yet, I would like to see another opinion or two. edit: I'm flipping to a NO because the other opinions verify what I was feeling. I do hope to hear this again with improvements made! NO Edited October 13 by Chimpazilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted October 7 Author Share Posted October 7 The mixing's odd, but I like the use of the stereo field here, for the most part; some brief moments where the panning was too wide. This definitely would have made it in the beginning of the 2000s. At :42's section, the energy's good, but the texture still feels empty, especially from :59-1:14. This would have been more cohesive if it included the source's main melody; much of the time, I wasn't recognizing anything overt from the source theme, so I'd need a source usage breakdown before I could approve this. Someone help a brother out with an arrangement breakdown. I don't know anything about mixing, but I'm more in proph's camp, because while Worlder's musicianship is good, the instrumentation and overall punch of the track somehow sounds nerfed and distant. 2:50 was arguably the best moment of cohesion, but then you have shrill/piercing stuff from 3:03-3:34. Feels texturally incomplete, but well in the right direction. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted October 13 Share Posted October 13 Have to start out by saying the intro is very cool. I love it when something starts out with simple sounds and morphs them into more of the identity of the track. Nice work going from chip to guitar smoothly as that can be difficult to pull off. This one is wild, both in good and bad ways. The wild energy is to your benefit, the panning on the other hand is unusual and very wide at times. The wideness of the panning combined with the dryness of the instruments is creating a lot of empty space and texture. Liontamer identified the same and noted the spots where this was the biggest issue. When everything is playing together, it has a fullness that is alright, but when it's only an element or two together it feels too texturally sparse for me. The source is there on this, but it feels more interpretive then straight up conservative as Chimpazilla was suggesting. More direct reference to the melody would've been nice but not a requirement. I like the performance and interpretation, but the mixing, panning, and sparseness were arsenic and rat poison to me. There's definitely something to this energy though, and I'm bummed that I have to give this a NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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