Liontamer Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 Hello Judges. It’s been a while since I submitted something here (cuz Larry stole my Tales Project Submission and ran for his life with it ), so it’s good to be doing it again. This is a Remix of “Forest Interlude”, from DKC 2, a song that I had previously tried to submit on OCR (long time ago), but got rejected. The main idea behind this is was to create a nice groove with bass + drums, and then develop a different, retro sound design to go along with it. I used some chipish sounds (even a “chiptune” section, don’t flame me for that) and quirky synths to reach that goal. I think it turned out rather well. Remixer Name: Red Tailed Fox Remix Name: Fixbit Forest Name of game(s) ReMixed: Donkey Kong 2 Name of Indivdual song(s) ReMixed: Forest Interlude (or is it Enchanted Woods?!) Phill for now. PS.: I would like to thank zircon for his patience with me on this. His feedback was very helpful. Also, props to Xennon for the upload. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- You gotta yell at Kyle for Summoning of Sprits not being done yet! Hell, I'd love "Café Mantra" to go up on the front page tomorrow! http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=dkq - "Forest Interlude" (dkq-10.spc) Man, it's a really tough task to compare something with "Forest Birdcussion". Luckily, that's not where the bar is. Overall, things are fine. My main issue was that the drumwork was rather plain and disinteresting. Not sure if it's also the snare's tone or volume as well, but the patterns being so repetitive majorly dragged out the arrangement. Aside from that the arrangement was fairly straightforward but well personalized, with a lot of great variation in the instrumentation and textures. Why the drumwork held so steady in the face of all the other evolution going on here, I'll never understand. Ha, chiptune section at 3:25. Decent crossfade back into the regular music at 3:40; could have been a little smoother, but it was a good concept and pulled off decently. For 3 minutes worth of a 4-minute arrangement, I think the plodding, repetitive drums wouldn't have been such a turnoff in light of the rest of the ideas. But nearly 5 minutes worth of a 6-minute arrangement is pushing it. The arrangement is otherwise cool, but it drags like a motherfucker on account of that one integral element being handled in such a nonchalant way. Sorry, bro, the drum writing needs more substance. I certainly don't mean any ill will toward Caio, and I'm imagining that I may be the lone dissenter, but I've gotta push for the tweak. This is good, but it could be great. NO (borderline/refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillian Aversa Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Cool intro! Scratch that; pretty much cool everything. The drums are definitely the weakest link in this remix, however. I have a feeling you don't enjoy writing percussion, judging from your Malcos collabs on Blood on the Asphalt. The "I Don't Fight Boys" Garageband loop sticks out in my memory. Although that was probably on Malcos' part, it seems as though you enjoy working on the jazzy/soloistic elements to a greater extent. Point being that you could probably be a little more creative and experimental with this stuff - just consider it another part of the combo. Everything else is right on par, in my opinion - production and all. I don't think I could NO this solely based on the lazy drumwork. Variety and instinctive musical choices make up for the minimalism. YES As a side note, there was a bit of a note clash around 3:43 during the downward scale. >< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Yep, I heard the various revisions of this earlier on, and generally speaking I was feeling it. However I don't think I ever gave it a thorough listen (sorry RTF!) so here we go... I still really like the overall mood, which, like the original and Prot's remix of the same theme, is chill and atmospheric. The bass sequencing is something that really stands out to me, as well as the pads. Some might say the chiptune synths earlier on are too simplistic but I was OK with 'em. If they had to be changed, I would recommend some PWM or vibrato to make them more interesting on the sustained notes. All of the sounds in the breakdown were great though. I have to say I'm not the biggest fan of the drums now that I'm listening again. The rhythms are really simple, and the hats/snare are a little too grating. I think a more under-stated snare would have worked better, even a rimshot alternating with a normal snare. Switching up the hats to 16th notes would have been nice, and overall, more 'swing', syncopation, and fills (perhaps using toms) would have been nice. For example, the rhythm at 3:43 was really cool. More of that would have been good for the rest of the mix. Even layering in another loop later on would help a lot. While there's a lot of variation and cool original stuff going on, I think the arrangement is just a minute or so too long, which Larry touched on. So much of it relies on the same riffs and rhythms that it feels repetitive once the chiptune breakdown returns to the main melody. The ending is also a little on the long side. There are lots of good things to talk about here, such as synth design, mood, overall interpretation, breakdown, and so on. But the drums and somewhat repetitive arrangement bring it down a little below the bar. With maybe 30 minutes of work I know you could easily push it back up. Go back to it for just a little more NO, RESUBMIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 strange, for me the track is 6 minutes long and it has an abrupt cut at the 1 minute mark back to the beggining. My biggest problem by far is the pads. they repeatedly play really ugly notes (specifically, the major 7th on what ought to be a dominant). This sounds not like deliberate tension, but an accident. I can't get past it. sorry. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 Alright, first track was eaten by googlepages. Let's vote on this new one. First order of business: /me gets out flame thrower and points at RTF for chiptune section. Just kidding. Actually, I thought it was pretty cool. In fact, the short-and-sweet is I pretty well dug the whole track. Id did drag on a little longer than I would have liked, but it's pretty chill, and I don't really have any gripes re: production or level of actual source usage. And though the drumloop may have been a slight bit overused (something I'm usually pretty miffed by) Mr. Fox countered that concern with his effectiveness in changing up the lead instrument appropriately throughout the track, and this maintained listenability (is that a word?) of the track. The lead varies from softsynth intro to square at 1:30. Then from square to some kind of pulse-ish lead at 2:10 or so. Filtered monoglide comes in at 2:30. Vibesynth coming in to play along around 2:50. Then the aforementioned chiptune section around 3:28 for the switchup. Tags back to pads under chime lead. Softsynth back into the ring at 4:07. Aaaaaand, seems to more or less repeat the cycle there. So there's roughly 7 or so different lead sounds, coupled with a pretty funky bass, I'm going to go ahead and throw in my nod of approval. Could be a little shorter, but still a cool track to bob your head to while driving to nonetheless. YES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted June 26, 2007 Author Share Posted June 26, 2007 It's fixed. Please revise your votes accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zykO Posted July 8, 2007 Share Posted July 8, 2007 i heard this a long time ago while it was still in its infancy. prot's birdcussion was one of my favorite mixes from back in the day and i used to jam out to it all the time... i never really liked to get down to the original source but for some reason its remixes make me horny. this is no different. i really dig the groove. the bassline has that funky jazz drive to it. the transitions are gentle and never get boring. the lead chip is badass... when you get original with the vibes around 2.45, it is very refreshing. i love the instrumentation and orchestration of the track. however, as detractions go, the pads can be grating at time although i think that is a grounds for a resub and fixing those pads. i'm usually all about weird, tense, annoying pads but they go on for the whole track and kinda kill it. and kudos on 3.30 and on. so basically, address the pads and you've got a winner resub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Wait, why do I need to revote? My singular concern has not been addressed, and therefore my vote does not change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted July 12, 2007 Author Share Posted July 12, 2007 Wait, why do I need to revote? My singular concern has not been addressed, and therefore my vote does not change. No problem. With the previous Google Pages file corruption, there was always the unlikely chance that the 1min+ worth of material that you didn't hear may have affected your vote. Thanks for rechecking it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJT Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 for as much as this track is groove-oriented, i really wish the drums would evolve with the arrangement, or even change just a little bit. for example, at 2:48. switch to ride cymbol, or something! the entire track is changing its feel minus the drumkit, and that doesn't make any sense to me. also, the way the drums sound is a bit harsh and bright for my tastes. i also agree that the arrangement feels a little overlong. this is sooooooo close. tighten the screws, and resubmit ASAP. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts