*NO* Sonic Adventure 'Oceans Turntables'

[Liontamer]

# Your ReMixer name - Electric Concerto

# Your email address - djeconcerto@gmail.com

# Your website - http://www.e-concerto.net

# Your userid (number, not name) on our forums, found by viewing your forum profile - 14517

# Name of game(s) ReMixed - Sonic Adventure

# Name of individual song(s) ReMixed - Azure Blue World

# Additional information about game, if it has not yet been added to the site, including composer, system, etc. - Jun Senoue, Sega Dreamcast

# Remix Link - http://www.e-concerto.net/submissions/Sonic_Adventure_Oceans_Turntables_OCRemix.mp3

# Link to the original soundtrack, if it is not one of the sound archives already available on the site -

# Your own comments about the mix, for example the inspiration behind it, how it was made, etc-

I've always been a big fan of Jun Senoue, following his work since Sonic the Hedgehog to now with his work in Crush 40. One song stood out from the rest, and that was in Sega Dreamcast's first Sonic game, Sonic Adventure. The very first level in the game, Emerald Coast, snagged my love right away, with an awesome melody and chordline. I remember listening to the song over and over in the game's BGM menu. One day I finally decided, "Hey, why don't I just remix the song?", and began work on Ocean's Turntables. After 6 years of music creation, I hope I can do this incredible song some justice.

Note - I wish that the link to the remix remain for judgement reference.

--

~DJ Econcerto

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Sonic Adventure OST - (105) "Azure Blue World"

Sweet source tune. That's some catchy stuff.

Pan whistle opening things up is pretty fakey/rigidly sequenced for too extended a period of time. Joined by some simple synth pads at :27. Going the full electronic route at :41. The bass beatwork at :54 was pretty weak despite the attempt to make it sound powerful, because there's 0 depth to the sounds. When those beats pick up more at 1:08, it's just more annoying and ends up crowding out other sounds, especially the melody and countermelody until the changeup at 1:36.

Decent stuff with the mallet percussion sequencing; that has IMO more leeway in sounding more perfect with the timing. The texture was simple, but seemed a lot more agreeable thanks to the hand drums, ocean SFX, and the electrosynth not being overbearing. The beats and pad added in at 1:49 weren't OMG, but served to thicken the soundscape and get the energy up. Moving into the chorus at 2:17, the beatwork and synths are again really thin-sounding. The synth countermelody brought in at 2:30 had some effects on it to give it some depth, but otherwise this track is ultra-dry and ends up flimsy sounding. Goes back for a softer close at 3:25 with another fairly good texture with the pan flute, mallet percussion, and bass synth. Wasn't feeling the electrosynth lead, but not a big deal.

The boom-tss beat structure brought back at 2:30 definitely dragged after a while. The processing and effects were vanilla, and because the beats overpower the track, the basic pattern gets really repetitive. You gotta go for something more involved in either the foreground (to compensate for the existing beats) or the background (by varying the beats). The arrangement is alright, but "too dry and flimsy sounding" is summing this up pretty well to me on the production side. Without overcompensating by supersaturating the track, you need to flesh out these sounds and build more sophisticated textures to eliminate some of this gapingly empty space.

NO (resubmit)

[Vig]

What did I just say about quantized solo intros? akward. After the intro though, the track has a fantastic energy. It's a bit on the repetitive side though. The writing is not at all complex, but given the style, i dont think it's that big a deal. I think you could do with a little more dynamic range. The one interlude is great, but after that it's pretty much straight through to the end. With a little more variation and a little less repetition, this would be a great track.

borderline NO

[big giant circles]

Aight, first of all, EC contacted me a while ago as to inquire to the status of this one. I apologize that I'm only now *officially* voting. I've had a few rounds with this one since you initially approached me, and typically, the tougher a call a mix is, the longer it takes me to actually get down and do the dirty work (vote, that is).

Blah, blah, blah, excuses, I know. Moving on.

First off, let me just say that this is totally DDR-quality material. Each time I liten, I can close my eyes and see a little 3D person dancing behind a bunch of arrows with that announcer dude chiming in to say stuff like "WOW, YOU'RE AWESOME!" or something.

The opening flute and sound FX were aight, the sequencing was in fact a little rigid--I might suggest layering a couple different pan flute sounds together and adjusting the velocities a little as a possible quick-fix for that. It didn't really bother me a ton, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway.

I gotta be honest. I'm not a huge fan of the monoglide synth lead. Now, don't get me wrong, I love some good portamento action, but leads tend to sound flimsy and nasal (if that's possible for a synth) in that mode. It made it hard for me to focus on the rest of the music. Not to mention the fact that it was such a generic sounding lead to begin with. If couldn't have been a bad thing to apply some modulation and filtering here-or there.

There's really not much for me to gripe at in the production corner. I guess what it came down to for me, is the instrumentation. There's the 1-2 standard club beat, the uber fat trance pads, the alternating octaves bass, and the lead which I already covered. The chimes at 1:36 were really refreshing, to be honest.

I guess the reason this is a tough call, is that technically there's nothing *wrong* with the mix, but it just came off as so repetitive. I really feel strongly in that the song is well enough produced, but lacks any kind of "WOW" in terms of instrumentation. So I guess that's gonna be my critical gripe, bro. If you're going to leave the instrumentation as-is, I suggest reworking the arrangement to make the piece a little less repetitive. With all three judges asking for a resub (I'd say Vig essentially is, since he gave the "borderline" adj.), I sincerely hope you do, man.

NO REWORK and RESUBMIT