Liontamer Posted April 29, 2007 Share Posted April 29, 2007 Original Decision: http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6931 Greetings once again OCR! The Tallest Band on Earth remastered their previous Toejam & Earl remix under your suggestions, so we thought we'd give it another go. Some changes made were making it less bass heavy, as well as adding some effects and reverb. And (once again) here's the info! * Remixers: The Tallest Band on Earth * Real names: Jeremy Dutcher - Drums Emily Bosse - Flute Greg Anderson - Bari Sax Jon Dutcher - Alto Sax Chris Nyarady (Moo2u) - Keys Willie L. Pacey - Bass * Website: http://www.myspace.com/thetallestbandonearth * email: tallestbandonearth@hotmail.com - Moo2u ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://project2612.org/download.php?id=82 - "ToeJam Jammin'" Nice extended nonsense intro. Those were some sloppy-sounding brass notes from 1:29-1:42 (a bit awkward, but better, from 2:24-2:40). The textures were fairly good overall though. On the negative side, the volume on some of the melodic material sounded rather low, inadvertently placing too much emphasis on the backing elements and making the track seem rather meandering at times (e.g. 1:28-1:47). The effects on the lead at 2:06 were a bit overboard, but it was a unique result nonetheless. Good call-response stuff from 2:43-3:01 before working together from 3:01-3:19. Brief but awesome changeup with 3:20-3:38's section. The sound was decent, but felt pretty lossy; I'd have tried to push the 6MB limit myself. This would still benefit from some further re-balancing of the parts. Right now the foreground material is too quiet, IMO, undermining the energy and drive of the writing ideas; unfortunately still a holdover problem from the first version. Going very simplistic though, even an overall volume raise of, say, 3-4db (taking care not to clip, of course) would do the track some good without having to do much work, and it would solve a lot of the problems. More should have been done with this in light of the previous criticisms from the panel last time around. While clearly still rough around the edges, there was enough tightening and spit-polishing via the production to fix enough of the issues for me. If you're a really particular listener, this will likely seem too sloppy, but I thought the expansion and interpretation aspects of the arrangement carried this most of the way. Dancing on the line still, but it gets by this time. Good luck on the rest of the vote. Y'all will need it. YES (borderline) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Hmm... the last version seemed a lot tighter than this. The performances here are pretty sloppy, especially in the beginning, which is a total mess. Sound balance is better this time around, no big problems, though the kick could still be more audible/tighter sonically. Maybe use sampled drums or a drum replacement program. Larry pointed out that the volume is low overall, which I agree with. Some master track compression would help. As I said last time I voted, the arrangement is great. You guys definitely have that aspect down here. Honestly, if the performances were just better (the keys + drums were good), this would be an easy pass. One more time, guys! NO, RESUBMIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jillian Aversa Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Hmmm... Sorry, guys, but I think your band needs a good deal more practice. It's pretty cool that you're actually taking on an arrangement like this- some great soloing ideas. I'm sure it's not easy to get things really tight ensemble wise, but I can't let that knowledge influence my vote. Probbles: - The brass notes really clash in the beginning. Larry already pointed that out. - Drums and bass aren't locked in. Just from observing my friends in jazz practices, I've learned that the first step to tightening the ensemble is getting those two instruments synced. Everyone else should fall into place if you do. Maybe practicing with a metronome for a little while could help? - Piano notes sometimes clashed with other things going on. - Flute solo sounds really cool, but a little hesitant and unsupported. Let it go, girl! I like that you guys are having fun. It shows! Just a little too sloppy for my standards at the moment. Please do resubmit again. Practice makes poifect. NO PLEASE RESUBMIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted July 16, 2007 Share Posted July 16, 2007 I can't remember the original take, but here's what I've got to say about this one: judging by my previous comments, it seems' you've fixed the produciton to some degree. The bass is still a bit boomy. Your monitors might not be giving you enough low end signal (listening to my remxies, I used to have the exact same probem.) My issues this time around are with the soloes/performance. I'm having trouble being objective here, because being at berklee, I get to hear the sickest fucking cats imagineable, and it's really not fair to compare. Even taking that into consideration, I'd like to hear a bit more harmonic sophistication. A bit too much pentatonic for my taste. I think Jill had some decent comments, so maybe listen to her. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJT Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 I was in an instrumental funk band in high school, so this brought back some great (and not so great) memories. Good arrangement, but I've gotta agree with the other NO votes. Your bass player isn't doing his job. He needs to focus more on holding down the groove, and less on playing pentatonic scales in the middle register. Hint: there are already 3 instruments at any given point doing that. Restraint, my friend, restraint. Study some more funk recordings, and be more deliberate about your role in the band. I can hear the keyboard clipping near the end. Watch those levels. Also, Vig is right. You guys should either learn a new scale, or solo less. Sorry if this seems harsh. You're on the right track, you just need to take a step back and impose a little more order on your performance. There are so many moments in this recording that feel like a free-for-all. Funk is dance music. Make people dance, don't make them try to differentiate between different 4 solos/melodies in 4 different registers. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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