Liontamer ⚖️ Posted October 6 Posted October 6 (edited) Artist Name: Mike Stamper Hi! I did this rendition to this amazing song that I have in my head since I was a child and played "A Link To The Past" for the first time. I mixed several musical styles that I love, including death metal, post rock/ambient, epic metal and modern metal elements. Hope you enjoy it, as I loved the process of making it. Games & Sources The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Edited 10 hours ago by paradiddlesjosh
prophetik music ⚖️ Posted October 17 Posted October 17 (edited) big guitar intro with loads of reverb to start, but we get the kakariko theme right away in keys with some heavy guitar backing elements. i hear virtually no bass, which is interesting, and the kit is pretty quite. it's very guitar-heavy in the mix. even the melodic elements are minimal. there's a short drop at 1:19 which is a nice choice to break up the post-rock-esque part before it. it builds back into the full band sound with guitar as the lead, before some really intense blastbeat for the B theme of the melody. this part felt over the top, with the happy major-key melody (and the part with the most pathos, as well) being underneath 32nd note kicks. after an extended fade, we get some acoustic guitar playing the same earlier chord patterns with loads of reverb. the lead has the same verb when it comes in, and the wash of sound is pretty if a bit ringy. this last play-through is the ending, and then it's done. the fade-out sound gets a bit hairier than i'd expect, and it does cut hard so it'll need a fade. i think the arrangement's simple but effective, and the performance is great. i'm interested in getting @pixelseph's opinion on the mix before i decide. i think the lack of bass and the guitar being so up front is too much. ? edit 10/29: i really think the bass is a problem, and the overall balance isn't there. NO Edited 21 hours ago by prophetik music
pixelseph ⚖️ Posted October 17 Posted October 17 I have been summoned! Echoing proph, I love this arrangement and these performances! It's also just fun to hear blastbeats in Kakariko Village as the climax of the section 😀 Mix is certainly guitar-focused and working with extended scale-length instruments (7- or 8- string guitars, 5-string bass), so the tonal center-of-gravity is lower as well. I can hear every instrument fine enough without having to focus, though the bass guitar's most easily heard frequency space in this mix is between 80hz-110hz. Around :57, you can hear a bit more of the string rattle from the bass guitar that's otherwise covered up by the rhythm guitars; I like to hear more string rattle, personally, because it contains most of the character of the bass guitar, but it's also the first to get cut out of the real estate for the mids. I do think that there's been too much shelved or cut below 80hz from either the bass or the kick drum overall, which is most apparent in the sections starting @ :24 and @ 1:41 before the blastbeats. The arrangement creates a lot of space in these sections that could use that low-end hug. I'm also not a huge fan of the particular reverb choice for the track, but it's stylistically appropriate, so I can let it go. The big 808 slap reveals there's a lot down there not being used, 'cause it carries the weight so well when it hits! :D I also think the hard-panned rhythm guitars are, together, about 2-3dB too loud everywhere except for the blastbeat section starting @ 2:03. They obscure a lot of the snare's mids/upper-mids so we get a lot of the fat-bottomed snare impact and none of the crack - which is more of a stylistic choice, given Mike's stated mixing influences. On OCR, we've got comparisons in Black SeeD's Eternal Rain, whose mix swings more atmospheric black metal; the low-end there is also light, but the drums (particularly the snare) have more room in that mix. I don't personally think it's enough for me to sink the track, but I can see why it would be an issue for other judges. Slap a fade-out on that hard-cut ending, and I'm good. YES (conditional)
Chimpazilla ⚖️ Posted October 18 Posted October 18 Post-rock/ambient indeed, this is awash in reverb but that's the style here. What an interesting take on this source, and with the 3/4 time sig maintained. I too love the blastbeats. The guitar solo in the middle is really nice although loud. The final ambient section is extremely cool and a nice way to wind down the arrangement. I dig this generally, but I'm going to agree with both of my fellow Js on their issues. The drum kit is mixed too quietly, the lead guitar at 1:18 is silly loud compared to everything else, there is seriously no low end in this whole mix, and the ending cuts off abruptly and should fade out to silence before the end of the render. Make those changes please and shoot this back over to us! NO (please resubmit)
jnWake ⚖️ Posted yesterday at 04:22 AM Posted yesterday at 04:22 AM (edited) Kakariko Village as post-rock and death metal? Interesting pick! We begin with some guitars with a ton of reverb and quickly introduce the iconic arpeggios of Kakariko Village. I enjoyed the panning there. At 0:12 this turns into standard metal with the addition of drums and guitar chugs. At the risk of simply repeating what the rest said, the lack of presence of the bass here is a shame, as it's pretty much a must for any metal adjacent genre to have strong bass presence. It seems rather weird at first but cutting lower frequencies out of the guitar is a good technique for this, so consider a high-pass or using a shelf to give the bass some space. The kick is definitely more present in the general mix but also fairly weak in the lower frequencies. The main Kakariko melody is handled by a piano with a ton of reverb. At 0:34 we have guitar arpeggios for the B section and there's some shy appearances of the bass here. Section C at 0:57, as noted by seph, features a nice drive from the bass. There's a small break around 1:18 with guitar doing the main melody and some fun riffs introduced around 1:30. We move back into metal at 1:40 (with a very loud bass slide or something of the sort first). At 1:52 we start getting into crazy drums territory, first with crazy quick double kicks and then with a blast beat section. I won't lie, I rarely appreciate blast beats and this wasn't the exception, but that's a me thing. After the blast beats comes peace with the arpeggios being played on a clean guitar with a ridiculous amount of reverb, eventually joined by a lead with an even sillier amount of reverb. Track ends a little after as I almost feel absorved by the reverb. On arrangement this is fun, there's a lot of different takes on an iconic theme and most of them are cool. Transitions are generally well handled and everything flows well despite the big changes. Source usage is clear across the entire thing so no issues there. Production is, sadly holding this back. Main culprit is the unbalanced and uneven bass. Most of the track feels very weak on the lowend, with most of it being simply guitars. I didn't mention them earlier but drums are also fairly unbalanced, I think they could be compressed and pushed louder in the mix, while also making the guitars generally quieter. Finally, and this may be personal choice, the reverb is too much at times, especially on the section after the blastbeats. Overall, while this is a fun arrangement with ton of cool ideas, I think the mix needs a second pass. Focus on balancing the low-end and then doing some smaller balance changes so that the guitars aren't taking over the entire mix. I hope you submit an updated version! NO Edited yesterday at 04:23 AM by jnWake
paradiddlesjosh ⚖️ Posted 10 hours ago Posted 10 hours ago Kakariko Village with blast beats and reverb for days was not on my bingo card, but I'm glad someone's doing it! I'm on board with the arrangement of this one; there's a nice energy curve from the open and reverb-drenched intro into the heavy groove of the first pass or two of the source material. The parts as written are a great fit for the styles you've chosen. The accompaniment falling out for the lead guitar at 1:18 leading back into more riffage at 1:30 is tasty as hell as are the aforementioned blast beats and double-bass patterns that follow. The post-rock ending with the returning wash of reverb works (though a fade rather than a clipped-off tail would be fantastic; this should be an easy fix). Ultimately, though, I have to side with my fellow Js on the NO side of the fence for the production quality. The snare is overcompressed and the rhythm guitars are oppressively loud in the mix, not to mention the lack of bass frequencies outside of the sub hit. This track is really close to the bar IMO and those tweaks are worth it for the best presentation of this track. Please get this one back to us as soon as you can because this is an idea with legs! NO (resubmit)
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