*NO* Blaster Master 2 "7"

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Would need a new title if approved. - LT

Artist Name: Jeremy Johnson

I wrote this over the last few days, having posted my iterations @ the workshop. I feel more could be done, such as varying up the beat more than just during the break, but yeah. dig it.

vague specifics of the production process:

instrumentation - acoustic guitar, everything else is Roland XV-5080 patches played on a keyboard (drums are Addictive Drums being played on a cheap e-kit). Engineering done in Live! I excluded some parts of the original song, keeping just the lead parts from those sections, the rest is improv. I hope the amount of liberty I took will fall in the "he's cool" range

Inspiration - the original song. it's phenomenal. ocremix.

enjoy.

also, I moved the locators in Live before my last render, just ignore the last 1:17, it's silent. 

I definitely used this great song as an excuse to make an even better one. I hope the break moves ya'll as much as it did me (and I'm quite impartial to myself) :)

I almost forgot - ZANGIEF BASS!! it's a Roland XV-5080 party.

Games & Sources

Blaster Master 2 - Stage 7 (by Tony Williams, 1992, Sega Genesis)

Edited yesterday at 02:53 AM by paradiddlesjosh

[Liontamer ⚖️]

For the instrumentation, it's OK, albeit stilted, particularly the drums; nothing has velocity variations as the patterns repeat, so that's part of everything quickly feeling stale, stiffly-timed, and plodding. Drums in the opening are plodding with no meaningful round robin attack variations, which exposes the sample. You weren't kidding about the drums being repetitive. I can hear how the track subtly but steadily grows in textural complexity, but because you just have the same core bars repeating over time, everything feels very stale. The additive part-writing's not bad in a vacuum, but maybe of the more ornamentation-like lines are mixed in so quietly when they're introduced that there's minimal textural effect (though the changes do stack over time).

Melody arrives at :34, and it handled with some decent energy. The bassline's not bad, but it's not very audible with the way that it's mixed. Better changeup at 1:44 with the drums getting WAY more interesting, but the lead becoming buried. Then back to the plodding drums at 2:08 and some keyboard-focused original writing that was very quietly mixed and should have been way louder than then the rhythm guitar writing. Melody's back again at 2:42 with a higher lead that's piercing, but I'll live. The backing writing has decent energy, but it has only one gear, so it feels like a total cut-and-paste job (aside from 1:44-2:08) and dragged this way, way down.

EDIT (4/3): I'm just voting on the initial/V1 version that was sent, mainly because the V2 version, as different as the leads & additive writing were handled, still had plodding drums that guaranteed it couldn't pass in either form. The other version you sent had more of a melodic focus on the chorus section of the source, but it had the same overall repetition and lack of dynamics. All in all, you'll have to develop your concepts more, which you seem aware of in your submission comments vis-a-vis the repetition. Keep at it!

NO

[prophetik music ⚖️]

opens with keys, bass, and some limited drums. the keys in particular don't really speak very well and it's hard to hear what they're doing. everything's pretty slammed - especially the bass and kick are causing other instruments like the cymbals to distort audibly.

melodic material comes in at 0:34. same drums from the intro are underneath. this trucks along through the A and B themes (the more smooth melody and the arpeggiated section), there's some fills and new patterns at 1:43 which is nice, although the instrumentation is staying the same here. at 2:08 the first drum groove is back, and the honestly the feel here is pretty hip with whatever the plectral instrument is behind the keys. the drums are just so bland. melody comes back at 2:43 way up high - this would have been a perfect chance to mix up the lead with something else. it goes through the melody the same that the last several passes have done, which feels tiresome at this point.

the mix goes through the same A/B pattern that second time, there's a bridge-like section that i can't hear what the melodic material is, and then that bridge section turns out to be the outro and repeats several times copy-paste style until a fadeout occurs.

this has some moments! there's definitely a fun feel to it in several spots. right now the mix is really blown and hard to hear, so that's a problem. and separately, the arrangement has some nice bits, but overall it's the same thing twice through and then an outro. i'd like to hear some use of dynamics (ie. breaks in the beat), a more logical song form, and less repetition.

 

 

NO

[paradiddlesjosh ⚖️]

Howdy, Jeremy!

I'm giving a quick co-sign here with Liontamer and prophetik to close this one out.

The lack of drum fills or groove variations for the bulk of the piece is holding this one back; 1:43-2:08 is a stand-out segment with the new drum groove and, from an arrangement perspective, your piece stands to benefit greatly from new parts like that one. The back half of the track (2:08 onward) is a rehash of the first 1:45 or so, other than the octave move on the melody line at 2:43. And as proph noted, the mix feels overcompressed, and that lead synth gets grating on that upper octave at 2:43.

If you can develop the arrangement, give the rhythm section more variation, and dial the mix in some more, you'll have a next-level track on your hands. Please, keep cookin' on this one!

NO (resubmit)