Emunator Posted July 18, 2024 Share Posted July 18, 2024 Artist Name: Michael Hudak I rented Sonic Heroes from Blockbuster 20 years ago, played it for one weekend and never touched it again. And yet - the main melody from Casino Park has been in my head playing on a loop for a considerable portion of these last two decades. It's one of the ultimate earworms. Thus, this ReMix. No deep dives down sound design rabbit holes here. This is the most conversative track I've ever made for OCR. I just wanted to not work on something for forever. Just get it a demo down, flesh it out with enough neat stuff to not have it be too vanilla, get the mix sounding good, and ship it out. I did end up spending triple the amount of intended time making tweaks to the drums and percussion. So it goes. I had the most fun writing the bassline, which is original. My initial ending to the song was a cartoony tape-stop thing similar to how the source tune loops back to the start, but I replaced it with a bass hoedown jig reprise. I guess it's more of a jazz bass, but at 174 bpm (same as the source), it becomes something else... The finished product sounds a little like a Smash Ultimate version of Casino Park. I'll take it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 23, 2024 Share Posted July 23, 2024 detuned bells are immediately recognizable off the bat. melody's in right away, and it's fairly straightforward - just beat, bass, and melodic material. 0:33's a change to the B theme, and it's also pretty minimal - just an arp and beat initially, and a few detuned elements after a bit. there's a short breakdown and then we get the chords from the A theme with (eventually) a deconstructed A melody. the bass drops out in kind of a weird place - it's done at 1:26 after a little burble and is out until 1:33, when it comes back in as if nothing happened. 1:34's a reprise of the melodic representation from 0:07 with a palette swap and the drums from 0:57, to my ears, with an added countermelodic element. the B element this time around has a lot more fleshed out - loved the random amen break - and there's a lot more sound design done this time around. this part here really works and elevates the arrangement - all the little spacey burbles going on are really nice. we get a spaceships rising line before...a bass outro? there's definitely some funky notes in there, and this doesn't really feel like an ending at all. i really don't care for this ending at all. from a mastering side, there's a lot going on at any given time and it's all audible clearly. there's a nice crunch to most of the synths you chose and that adds a lot to the feel. i feel that the really clear master adds a lot to the overall package. this is a lot less arrangement depth than we usually get from you, michael, so that's nice as a palate cleanser. there's definitely some arrangement choices here that are suboptimal - the ending, the bass dropout, and some of the repeated elements like the drums, for example - but i think what's here is good enough to pass. it's definitely closer than usual though - i can easily see the ending being enough to put some judges off. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 22, 2024 Share Posted September 22, 2024 Opens up super conservative to start. Nothing amazing or dealbreaking with the sound design. :32's chorus section then took some liberties with the sound design, and then some cool bass stuff at :49. Dug the sound design of the verse at 1:08. Alright, sounds like we're gonna color within the lines here with some solid sound design fundamentals to provide the arrangement's contrast, which is never a problem. Yeah, this is solid. Loved the bass-centric finish at 2:31 too, that was something you really don't hear often. Short and sweet! :-) YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemophiliac Posted October 13, 2024 Share Posted October 13, 2024 Much respect to you. Being able to do something more conservative and simple instead of the usual unique approach you take is great. Especially when this was produced very well. Arrangement is conservative but with plenty of your own personalization. I particularly like your part writing in the bass, those slides are super slick! This goes to show that not everything needs to be off the walls crazy and over-produced. Sometimes simple can be a better approach. Nice work Michael! YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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