*NO* Pokémon Red Version "Lavender Dimension"

[Liontamer]

Artist Name: Matt Frequencies

Hey, I've been a follower of OCReMix for many years, play a lot of the music found here in my DJ sets, and wanted to give something back to the community :)

The first big inspiration here is Rux Ton's Lavender Town remix "Club Lavender" which has had a lot of airtime at local nerd raves to a lot of headbanging success, he was actually the first mix that really got me thinking about OCReMix as a source for dance music!

The second inspiration is a lovely downtempo mix of Lavender Town by Emdasche, from the Yesterday's Journey album. While listening to it I couldn't help beatboxing a little dnb break.

I've been listening to a LOT of Sub Focus and Dimension recently, and "Timewarp" enters as the third major inspiration here, and the source of the idea for those nasty slamming bass bites that come in at 2:35. Structurally this is pretty similar to the Dimension remix, but sticks to its own vibe mostly.

Also a big shoutout to PrototypeRaptor's Chaos Nightmares, which gets a HUGE amount of airtime in my shows, which led the way to video game DnB for me. Hope you catch this message, you rock!

Composition wise, this was all made in Reason 13 from scratch elements, no samples. I chose a few strong synths I liked plus a string chorus element, with some atmospheric risers and did a lot of nonsense with reversing samples, one of my favourite things to drop in a track to help progress it along. I had timewarp open as a reference track to help get the structure and timing right, and though it could *probably* use a bit more in the high end to keep the energy up I also kind of like the darkness of it, I find a lot of dance music feels like getting your head sawn off in the club these days.

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Games & Sources

Lavender Town - Pokemon Red

Edited Monday at 04:46 PM by Rexy

[prophetik music]

opens with that creepy arp to start in a neat bell-like synth. melodic riff is in the pads initially with some big sweeps over top. the arp starts to double up and do some delay stuff with some rising action behind to escalate, drums that come in at 0:45 are kind of weak, but i see where they're going as you use them as an escalation element.

the sausage starts to get made at 0:56 as the kick and bass elements come in more regularly. this track is super slammed in the feel despite not really having a ton of super loud elements, so it feels a bit oppressive, but i recognize that's both intentional and part of the style. it's nowhere near upbeat as i expected though given the big transition drums. 1:10-1:20 for example feels really empty, as does the section immediately following. 1:52 switches to a triplet feel (among other things), so it's a lot busier, but it's still just the beat, bass, melody in the pad, and arp repeating. i feel like there's not enough going on through most of these couple of sections.

there's a big drop at 2:36 in energy, and the arp element is doing some hits in here. the off-beat part that followed was a fun feel. 3:09 hits and it's the same instruments as before but now they're doing different rhythms. still using the same synths after all this is starting to be tiresome, and the overall mastering is still super heavy so it's still feeling oppressive. to be clear - the variety you've implemented on the arrangement itself is really impressive. you're doing a ton of variety considering the melody itself is like 20s long. my issue is with the instruments being reused constantly and never changing, and with how empty several of the sections feel behind the melodic representation.

we get to the end and it just kind of ends, and there's a cutoff on the synth instead of a fade. i wouldn't have minded something deconstructive to end this given how much you played with these elements throughout.

i'm honestly not sure about this one. i love the arrangement. i don't like that it's four instruments throughout, and i don't like that there's a ton of room throughout for other stuff that doesn't seem to be capitalized on. it feels like this is the framework and it still needs the finishing bits.

 

 

?

edit 12/3: ok, i slept on it, and i still don't dig the extended sections with so little going on, and i still don't dig the limited sound palette. kris's note about sidechaining is good too - that's why it doesn't feel like it can breathe (well, one of the reasons). so i think that a NO makes sense for me.

Edited December 3, 2024 by prophetik music

[Chimpazilla]

I love this theme, have remixed it myself.  I also really like this arrangement.  I love all the rhythmic changeups especially.  I love the creepy synths and sfx, and the reverses here and there.  I love the big monster hits in the middle.  Tons of fun detail in the arrangement.

I agree with proph though that the reuse of the same instruments all the way through is hurting this arrangement by making it feel very repetitive.  I believe some of the sections are copied and pasted into the second half with no changes.  (if there are changes, they are minimal)

Production-wise, this is a sausage.  It is indeed slammed from beginning to end.  The mixing is dense as heck, and I don't hear any sidechaining in the mix.  If any sidechaining is there, I suspect it is only happening on the bass.  In a track this dense, more elements should get some sidechaining (in varying amounts), which will give the piece more groove and also clean up your mixing, preparing it for a clean master.  I also suspect some EQ would help, by taking lows off of elements like the pads, plucks and leads, giving the bass and kick more room to breathe without smashing the soundscape this much.  The mastering here is balls-to-the-walls and just adds to the oppressive feel.  It does not need to be this loud. 

There is so much to love about this track and I would love to see it posted!  It just needs another pass at the production to get it sounding its best first.

NO (please resubmit)

 

 

[Rexy]

Good ol' Lavender Town.  I appreciate you going the whole chaotic dance direction with this one, and the source is so evident a timestamp isn't needed.  Credit where credit is due on tweaks - the arp had seen variations including doubling, tripling and even quadrupling on notes; 0:45 went as far as double-time during the build; the groove following had elements of the arp subtracted and later reversed (!!), and then the build at 2:38 opted for a more syncopated variation.  And then there was the last minute going for the arp jumping between half time and double time and the main melody opting for syncopation with the main theme alteration.  I'd say that with the minimalism of the melody, enough was done rhythmically to make it feel like your own.

However, this is also a curious soundscape - one that starts off with some fun sweeps that give the illusion of a thick soundscape, no thanks to the aformentioned sausage - but even then, the pads and drum selection feel thin when isolating them in a vacuum.  The only way that a track can sound this congested while tonally sounding minimal is through an unclear mix.  Sidechaining had been mentioned before, but paying attention to EQ and shaping them to give other instruments room to breathe is a core fundamental.  As of right now, anything that is not a bass or kick drum doesn't need the low frequencies, so they can get cut out - and similarly, any instruments with tonal similarities to each other could also either have some cuts done to separate either or get placed in far-away parts of the stereo field.

I also want to like the section at 1:52 in particular with the triplet grooves (and the similar idea with the final build for the end), but when the bass and kicks are rolling around in the same frequency, it's hard to pick up on where the pulse is meant to be.  It got easier at 2:15 when the drum was reduced to just on-the-beat, but it's still one of those situations where either a kick drum frequency tweak or a side chain won't go amiss to separate the two of them.

I also would really like additional layers on your instruments as well, to make them feel as thick as the sweeps that were used - but definitely look at the EQ problem first before adding anything else.  Layers to me are the equivalent of adding double glazing onto a window before actually installing the window, if that makes any sense.

These are definitely fun ideas in the interpretation of the source, but the impresison it left me is that it needs more mixdown TLC before trying again.  I also recommend that you take advantage of the Workshop sub-forum should you decide to keep working on it.  Please keep going.

NO (resubmit)

[Liontamer]

The vote's already closed, so I'll just tack on some brief comments.  Rux Ton's a high bar to compare to, so forgive me for sounding as if I'm saying you have to sound as polished as him; OCR's bar isn't that high, so at least you don't have to reach his standard. :-)

Levels appear to be insanely loud right at :13; had to turn my volume pretty far down. At :57, the beat-writing's underwhelming, and the synth briefly handling the melody also sounds generic. Very weak claps at 1:51, zero power and a flimsy sound, so your builds aren't paying off in terms of then delivering intensity (e.g. shifts into 1:51 & 3:09. Claps were thin at 1:29 as well and the kicks at 1:40 seemed to be lightly distorting or at least too punchy yet lacking any body behind them. I agreed with Chimpazilla that the limited number of parts leads to a samey sound over time that's also dragging the track out. Good potential here though, Matt; explore how you can vary up but also intensify the tone of your instrumentation. It's not all about volume.

NO (resubmit)