Katamari Damacy - Katamari Stars Boom Bap

[Ridiculously Garrett]

EDIT: Forgot the most important part... record scratch. Updated wip below.

 

Source: 

 

Edited June 25 by Ridiculously Garrett
Updating wip

[Liontamer ⚖️]

Cool instrumentation choices. If you can get it sounding more fluid/humanized, the concept has legs. :-)

[Ridiculously Garrett]

Thanks. I'll have to work that out. I decided I like the original chord progression (with the Bb minor chord instead of dominant/altered) better so I updated. Easier to keep the melody intact which I think is necessary since the style is so whacky. It's more moody with the minor as well. I'll work on arranging/humanizing.

[Ridiculously Garrett]

 

 

EDIT: So I'm seeing my main problem with arranging/mixing is I don't have access to a whole lot of versatile, high quality sounds. I'm not super pleased with the piano sound - I think it sounds fine as the chords, but the melody just sounds thin and robotic. I need a better sound or two for the melody(ies)... it will help keep it interesting and contrast with the piano better.

 

Especially since, if you evaluate “mainstream” arrangements from the 50s for example, the instruments that are melodizing and harmonizing change about every 8 bars, keeping the piece interesting. Same goes for big band jazz. Count Basie makes it especially easy to see this. He’ll have the brass “call” the melody in the A section, with woodwinds “responding”, then for the B section swap them (woodwinds call and brass respond), then when refraining the A section will swap back. In bebop and hard bop, you may or may not see this less in the arrangement, but you have solos, and even trading solos, between instruments to keep things interesting. This is even common in some hip hop groups. A Tribe Called Quest has each member taking turns with their verses, synonymous with the bebop solos of a previous era. There are even spoken references in the lyrics to bebop throughout many different hip hop artists from that time, the 90s. But I digress… point is I need more interesting, quality sounds.

Edited June 28 by Ridiculously Garrett

[Rukunetsu]

Definitely like what you've got goin on here.

[Ridiculously Garrett]

 

- Added vibraphone and organ leads to make this more dynamic (and get rid of that filthy piano lead). This will set the stage for better arranging.

- Added vocal pad in C section with record scratch. Reminds me of Katamari.

- Fixed some drum timings. Still more to be done.

- Added reverb bus for all instruments and adjusted as necessary. I like how it feels more like a live arrangement with the added reverb bus. Further adjustments may be needed.

- Added keytracking to EQ for better definition of individual instruments. Overall adjusted EQ, especially of higher frequencies.

- Overall finished arrangement? It is very dynamic, and I tried to keep the idea of "change it every 8 bars" at the forefront.

Edited July 5 by Ridiculously Garrett

[Ridiculously Garrett]

 

Did a bit more mixing and editing... Another problem I see is that I don't know how to master, I've only used (and have been using) basic compression on the master. It's all my skill level can muster up without sounding terrible. 

Anyways, I think I'm happy with this to submit unless anybody has any glaring problems with it. I switched out the organ lead in that one section because it sounded tacky. Went for lower octave vibraphone without piano backing to add some space and breathing room before the "vocal" section. 

The only other main problem I see is the upright bass sample isn't super high quality. I like it though, but others may not and it may not fit the quality of OCR's submission guidelines. But hey it's all about learning.