Liontamer Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Hello again OCR, When last we met i barely knew how to use Reason and the material i sent you was... obviously not up to par. Things are probably a little different now, as i've got some live performances under my belt and plenty of experience using said program. This remix is the title screen theme of the MSX personal computer classic Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. I produce a lot of drum 'n bass/jungle, and there are some heavy breakbeat elements present in this mix. Most of the patches and samples used I made myself or found from various sources online. The codec beeping in the intro and heard throughout the rest of the song was taken directly from MGS. In any case, perhaps this submission won't get instantly shot to pieces this time, and I do hope you enjoy it and decide to put it on your site. Cheers fellas Pwnicus ------------------------------------- Bah, can't find the source tune anywhere. I don't like having to guess at a track's arrangement level, so I won't try. Try and provide a copy of your source next time if it isn't easily found. Cool usage of the SFX for the opening. Beats coming in at :29 were alright, building things up. A synth in there at 1:13 helped build things up further and gradually became more and more audible, again a nice sense of build. Wish the groove wasn't so repetitive, staying the same over 2 minutes in, but there was still the other 2/3rds of the track left. Still nothing major in terms of direction even as the beats gradually dropped out around the 2:30 mark. The various textures evolved for a couple minutes afterward. Could have been the encoding, but everything after 4:55 when the drums came back in sounded lossy. The claps were pretty cheap, but were decent enough until exposed so badly at 5:55 towards the ending. I'm familiar with groove-based arrangements that don't focus on or majorly develop a melody. TO's actually got a nice mix like that ready to go for his upcoming Doom 2 project. But if that's (seemingly) the case here, you're gonna need tighter production to get the most out of your sounds. Right now, you've got a decently evolving groove with lackluster production and simplistic textures. I'd be glad to revisit this after hearing the source, but all things considered, it's still a NO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Yeah, I'm not familiar with the source either but the arrangement seems to be pretty repetitive and dependant on just a handful of riffs. The groove is not interesting enough to steal the show unfortunately, as it's too simple and sounds a little lo-fi and lossy anyway. Synths are OK albeit on the generic side, kind of reminds me of earlier Crystal Method or Chemical Brothers stuff. I liked that you changed up things more at 4:56 but that new groove didn't really sit well with me either (snare is obscenely loud compared to the other parts). 3:50 or so probably could have been the end of the mix but it keeps going past that on the same material with no major changes. Same chords + riffs. Beefing up the breakdown with some low drones or maybe some new instruments or phrases would have been a welcome change rather than just dropping out the beat. The ending was pretty predictable too. As is this seems overly repetitive. The production is decent but not outstanding, definitely not enough to make up for all the repetition. That being said, the mix shows promise. Resub with some production tweaks, arrangement fixes (trim the fat), and next time please provide a source link. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillian Aversa Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 This *sounds* relatively good in terms of texture, but it's extremely repetitive. Bass line's too faint, the drums are kind of tinny and dry, and you're basically riding cruise-control for the entire arrangement. I'm glad you've been able to familiarize yourself more with the program, but that doesn't change our standards for reinterpretation. Voting blindly, yes, but even if the source tune were this repetitive, that wouldn't excuse an equally repetitive remix. The ending section starting around 5:55 was cool! That's the kind of variation we should be hearing throughout. I hope you'll continue to work on this... Condense things a little and vary it up a lot, and you (might) be on your way. Can't know for sure until I hear the source! NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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