*NO* Alien Storm "Alien Slime-Gut Splat"

[Liontamer]

• Your ReMixer name: ThePlasmas
• Your real name: Mauricio Castro
• Your website(s):  https://linktr.ee/theplasmasvgm
• Your userid: 30081

 

• Name of game(s) arranged: Alien Storm
• Name of arrangement: Alien Slime-Gut Splat
• Name of individual song(s) arranged: Cybernate-P
• Additional information about the game:  Keisuke Tsukahara, Arcade/Genesis.
• Link to the original soundtrack: 
  https://data-discs.com/products/alienstorm?variant=32442195279957
• Your own comments about the mix: This is one of my favorite Beat 'em ups when I was a kid, I spent tons of coins playing it, it was really fun to play with friends.  This song was recorded to participate in the "Summer of Sega" event produced by GameGrooves, available soon.

 

Edited January 7 by Hemophiliac

[prophetik music]

huge, aggressive opening, with some of the original arp in the background behind some very loud guitar chugs. kick doesn't have a ton of bass content (the toms might have more) but i really like the tone of the toms and snare. the chugs sound a little sparse during the verse when they're under the lead guitar, and i don't hear the bass much at all in the opening sections. 0:49 it opens up a lot and there's a ton more backing elements and harmonic parts. it's just so loud that it's hard to hear most of them - all i can hear is the kick and the chugs/rhythm guitars most of the time.

1:20's a copy of the opening section for a bit, and then we get into another melodic section. at this point the chugs are getting tiresome since we've been hearing them so much and they aren't changing much at all. the leads are panned very wide as well which makes it hard to put them together. 2:25 the rhythm guitars finally change it up and we get some double-time work in the drums which is nice before a big break at 2:40. there's some other sfx and leads in here which is a nice change after so much hearing the same stuff. we get one more blow through the chorus at 3:12 and then it's done. there's even less than no ending - there's a few more chugs, and the synth keeps playing until the pattern ends. truly feels incomplete.

this is a neat idea initially, but the chugs especially become tiresome very quickly. i like the exploration of some of the weirder elements of the original in the middle third of the piece, but there's simultaneously too much going on for the middle minute or so while also not having enough energy to drive it forward - it just gets tiresome in there. and then the ending doesn't exist at all. separately, the kick and guitars (mostly rhythm) are just so loud that you can't hear the bass, the backing synth elements, or any nuance in the leads. backing them down to make a more balanced soundscape i think would help a ton, and panning the split leads when they occur back more to the middle so they're not so far apart would help a ton to make it more cohesive in those sections.

i think this has a ton of potential to be really fun. fixing some of the mixing issues and utilizing less repetition in your rhythmic elements to allow for a track with more dynamic movement so as to avoid the middle third feeling dead would be a huge positive, as would adding a real ending.

 

 

NO

[Chimpazilla]

This may be the most sausagey waveform I have literally ever seen:

So.... alrighty then.  It hits 100% full force from the first note.  It feels very, very loud.  I don't hear overcompression, and the mastering tolerances are ok; it's not overcompressed but it's very dense and it feels oppressive.  

Wide-panned chugs and rhythm guitar, I agree with proph that this placement in the stereo field feels off since they are SO wide and loud. The lead guitar sits nicely centered with side-presence highs when it plays, but the lead only plays for a small part of the track.  The lead is the best-mixed element in the whole mix.  There's a tiny arp in there which also seems centered which is fine but it is mixed extremely quietly.  The drums seem to sit entirely centered other than a few tom fills.

This arrangement is relentless and repetitive.  At 2:40 there's a break in the action and this section sounds very cool although the dreamy synth instrument is also panned super wide.  Why?

The chugs are oppressive to me, because they play so much, and also they sound hollow to me since they live almost entirely between 200-300Hz which is kind of a weird zone to have an instrument sounding this prominent and totally stereo spread.  The snare also has a hollow snappy feel to it and from what I can tell on SPAN the snare fundamental seems to also sit at 250Hz.

So.  Many.  Chugs.  I like this concept but it is just too repetitive with the same writing for much of the time, same energy level (until the short breakdown right before the end) and the same instrumentation all the way through.  No real outro or ending, it just stops.  I do like this concept but it just needs more development and variation, and some mixing work on stereo placement and EQ of the parts.

As I sit here listening and watching on SPAN I notice the correlation meter is going back and forth from positive to negative.  Uh oh.  So I put the track on mono, and no surprise, the chugs almost completely vanish.  Whatever has been done to get these chugs that wide has caused them to go out of phase.  That will need to be fixed.

NO

[Hemophiliac]

I think we are all in agreement that there are legs in the concept and style adaption here. The genre is rad and injecting some weird elements before the final recap was cool (with the synth). Bring that out more!

Static and repetitive are both words I'd use to describe this. It just doesn't change up much and keeps relentless chugs going. The chugs themselves are also mixed so much more forward and present then the other parts including the leads. The leads should be the focus while the rhythm guitar chugs should be a background element working in tandem with the percussion to drive the piece forward. Right now they are continuous and get dull after a while due to lack of variation.

My fellow judges already did a great job explaining what should be addressed should you choose to continue working on this more. I'd like to see the static repetitive rhythm addressed with variation and some more careful examination of the mixdown/balance of parts.

NO