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OCR00687 - Donkey Kong Country 2 "Simian Symphony: Part 1"


Saunders
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Donkey Kong Country 2 'Simian Symphony: Part 1'

Protricity let me listen to this song a while ago now, so I've heard this before, so let me just tell you how BOOORING AND STUPID AND LAME THIS IS!!!

...

...

Just kidding! Haha.

Truthfully, I really like this song, not my favorite of Prot's (that's Brainsick Metal) but it's great.

I love the piano intro. The horn sounds a little off, un-real, etc, but not bad. The strings are great.

At around 1:00 it seems to change themes I believe and becomes a little darker, with a lower horn, and some deep heavy drums.

Then it changes again at 1:30, it becomes much lighter with a harp and some choir backing I believe. Not sure what the following sound is (at 2:11), but it's pretty neat. That goes for a bit then the trumpet takes over and the strong percussion comes back. Later the percussion fades out and the piano does it's thing for a bit.

Now it changes themes again (4:13).

It gets a very powerful feeling with some bold percussion and horns. Eventually that simmers down into a short peaceful bit just before it ends.

Overall, I REALLY like this mix, and I suggest you get it, especially if you like orchestral stuff.

4.5/5

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Now first off, I'd like to say before I right this that I love Protricity like he was my own eema. He is definately own of my favorite people in #ocremix, one of thew first person that ever acknowlegded my existece. He is an excellent artist, and an extremely smart individual in other fields as well, and I have loved every remix of his to date, but....

This song...I wasn't really feeling as much. Granted Protricity has taken on the task of remixing an EXTREMELY difficult track to remix, as well as a very high quality entire soundtrack, I just don't like this one as much of the original.

Now don't get me wrong, this song is good. I just think that there are better orchrations that have been made. (But as I said, DKC2 is EXTREMELY hard to remix)

I commend Prot on his change of style, and it IS a good piece, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as Brambles and Shiphold Rock.

Anyway, with all that said and done, I leave you all once again, and I hope my review was helpful to artists and listeners alike :P

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well actually i like this remix alot, the first part mostly as i have been wanting that song remixed for sooo loong, nice work protricity, and since this is called part 1 i assume there is a part 2 coming :twisted: well if not this is still great, but if you get a chance when your not busy doing other tracks from this soundtrack (which i know your doing the whole soundtrack anyway) but would you beable to make a seperate remix of the main theme to the game by itself, i know you put it in this mix but if you made another version with more of a upbeat/dance/techno like version of it that would be really sweet, if not well i guess you won't :D well just a suggestion, and again great mix i will listne to it many times just for the opening, it's kinda a little dark tones but i like it just the same, if you did make a seperate mix i know it wouldn't be too long so if you actually do get around to doing it, just loop it once or twice or something, thanx anyway for maybe thinking about it, if you get around to reading this :P

keep up the great work

conker

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BTW Geocities and Angelfire are pov and don't allow remote loading of pictures for the signiture. Does anyone know of a server that will let me do this?

You can do it on Geocities. Just take the image you want to use, and go to rename. Change the file extension from jpg or gif or whatever to .txt. Now it will show up in your sig.

Nice remix by the way.

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nice, ive been waiting for more dkc2 mixes ever since u announced that ud be doing the whole st =)

another great piece, i personally enjoy orchestral a lot.

there are 2 'sections' i guess to this piece, i dont know how to describe them. but i gotta say that 2nd section i enjoyed very much. very.. pleasant, ambient i guess. great job!

whoaaa 3 sections haha, kinda goes back to the original theme w/ trumpets and drums. nicely done. i think that no spaces would be better, but other people might think otherwise. again, great job :)

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I'll probably get flamed for this, but oh well -- here are my opinions.

Likes:

I like your orchestrations and the ideas you were trying out -- very nice. You didn't stay with one instrument too long and flirted with the others as the piece went on, with the the exception of the trumpet. The trumpet has an excellent depth to it -- it sounds as though it's positioned in the right place. I love the ice theme, especially the trumpet part -- it'll probably force me to find the game somewhere and play it again. I like the summarization of the individual themes in the end.

Dislikes:

The high strings are on the wrong side of the spatial field. The ear is trained to hear them on the left side -- having them on the right side sounds alien and wrong. When I heard the French Horn (barely) it's shoved off to the right side -- the French Horn is always in the center of the 'stage' not only because it's an alto voice, but because the bell of the horn projects the sound backwards and it somewhats tends to drift to the right spatial field. Also, the trumpet is all over the spatial field -- don't do that.

The percussion, harp, and keyboards sound too close to the front. The snare drum and harp are prime examples -- a harp isn't that loud without the use of microphones.

The strings are neglected -- these are the main component of the orchestra and should have highest priority. I only really hear them in the beginning (contrabass not withstanding -- it has it's share in this mix) and at some points in the end. Also, the cello(?) solo in the end is on the wrong side as well -- it should be on the right and not the left.

The instruments need to remain stationary when doing such an arrangement -- unless you're trying to achieve a certain effect by using enough instruments to cover the entire field from left to right ( i.e. Elliot Goldenthal is a prime example in FF:TSW -- "Toccato and Dreamscapes" uses 30 F Horns spanned using alternating half step pitch bends [lip or hand glissando] to create a warning/emergency siren effect). Yeah, I know, some of you are 'pan whores' but I don't care -- being a panning whore is lovely and whatnot, but it has no place in an orchestral setting.

The trumpet is overused in this song (and that says a lot coming from me when I play trumpet). The brass section should always be built around the French Horn and it should have presedence over the rest of the brass. Now granted, it is up to the composer's/arranger's choice which instruments he wants to use, but is the song as a whole feels 'empty' because only the trumpet can be predominately heard. I didn't hear the lower brass or F Horns, except for two occasions. (Example: to me it would have been better to have the French Horn start off in the beginning instead of the trumpet -- and just have it pick up at around 0:43 -- and let the French Horn and Tombone have it at 1:24)

The ending is anti-climatic in my opinion -- it leaves a lot to be desired and sounds abrupt. The pauses between the section also sound too cut and dry. I'm not syaing having continuous music constantly, but for the transition from the begging to the ice theme a bass note could have been held out softly and would have sounded a lot better.

From the ice theme to the boss theme you could have just done a bigger dimuendo and made the pause shorter -- the bass just seems to drop out.

I didn't like this piece as a whole very much, with the exception of the ice theme. However, you were going for your own orchestral approach -- you don't have to agree with me. These were just my opinions, comments, and suggestions.

~Russell

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:( damn, of all remixes that i skipped, i dont think i should skip this one(since i got a new modem, its just too damn slow, almost 3000 bytes max..anyway) and i still cant download stuff without it turning into realplayer(even after i uninstall it), so whats in this mix? i heard something about the main theme( :cry: which sux..cuz thats my favorite and i dont wanna download some realplayer file..)
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I like the idea of orchestrating the soundtrack of DKC 2. What'd be cool would be to lengthen the songs and make it into a full length orchestrated soundtrack of all the songs. KnowhatImean? Anyway, cool shtuff indeed! BTW, where can I get this "Shiphold Rock"?

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I gotta say, great idea orchestrating this. It followed the original closely. Then again I'm biased toward classical songs. I like how there were about 3 movements, felt like I was at a classical concert!

But at 4:40, where you pick up the pirate tune again, well that was so good that there is only one word to describe it: SHNAW!

Very nice indeed!

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  • 6 months later...

Russell, you take Music Theory before? Cause it sounds like you know quite a bit about the workings of orchestas (and from some of your remixes, its quite apparent as well).

Anyone, onto the mix.

Basically, I loved this whole piece... Except for the Ice theme :/ Too mellow, IMO. I guess its just because of the transition... Just goes from nothing to something overly mellow. As Cox stated, perhaps a bass note or 2 to perhaps leave you with a feeling that you weren't exactly ripped from one section to the other (which is how I felt about it).

BTW, dont mind me. I have no idea about the workings of music, and I doubt I could remix anything in my whole life, so I applaud everything that ever gets released on this site :) This especially (besides the Ice theme part), which is definitely one of my more-listened-to tracks :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Three words: Where's part two?

I actually started it last month while attempting to wrap up the DKC2 redux track I was working on, then my computer got f*cked. Then I took on 2 jobs and tried to move into a new place. until things calm down and I have a chance to fix my computer, I cant do anything.

It will come, just wait a good OC-submission-waiting-period or 2 and I'll have finished it with all the others :D

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  • 1 month later...

Hrm I haven't played DKC2 yet so only have so much to say. Around 4:20 the song sounds like Warcraft 2. A LOT like Warcraft 2. In fact you could probably take that little segment, call it a Warcraft 2 remix, and no one would be the wiser.

I think it's 4:20. That's what my counter reads if I play the song from the beginning. If I click on on the bar to skip ahead to it, it says that it's 1:50 into the song. So it could be anything... but I think it's 4:20. Maybe I should update WMP.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Collaborator Posted: Sun 06-30-02 4:02 am Post subject: All I can say is...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All I can say is that when I was listening to this song, my anus began to bleed and I discovered that my spoon was too big. Whether that means it kicked ass or not, I have no idea. Keep reaching for that rainbow!

-Collab

Heehee, Rejected is funny! But did you forget that I am a bannana and that you're watching the family learning channel? By the way, Tuesday's coming, did you remember your coat? I live in a giant bucket! *Parasite comes out of one guy's head* other guy: F***! *Flying pig/squid hovers overhead... 8O:D:wink:

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Interesting. 3 parts to this one. First one deals with some intro and earlier levels. Sounds a lot like what you might hear for pirate music. The middle is a bit slower and deals with... an ice level? Anyway, the third part is the boss stage and leads up to the end, which is extremely good in 05:25-36. Love the Remix. Yes, you know the rest. Good work Protricity!

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Russell, you take Music Theory before? Cause it sounds like you know quite a bit about the workings of orchestas (and from some of your remixes, its quite apparent as well).

No, I am completely self taught, though I have had some one-on-one 'lessons' with David Holsinger. Most of my experience comes from actually playing in several orchestras, conducting a few songs, and natural talent.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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