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OCR01646 - *YES* Doom 2 'No Man Is an Island'


Liontamer
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Wassup Judges, DJP,

Here's a mix by me & Luiza.

ReMix

Name: No Man Is an Island

Contact Info

Remixers: The Joker; LuIzA

Real Name: David L. Puga; Luiza Carvalho

Emails: Jtown_music(at)yahoo.com; lu_carvalho177(at)hotmail.com

Websies: None that I know of. Google it!

UserIDs: 8669; 6052

ReMix Info

Game: DooM 2

Song Mixed: Into Sandy's City

Orig link: Into Sandy's City

Comments:

Tell me kid, you ever danced with the devil... while he's wearing a dress, the color of the pale moonlight?

uh-um, though, this is a collab between Luiza & I, my words will have to do, as she's on her way to... another country, I forget which. As you've probably gathered, this is a remix collab between Luiza & I, done in... electro/symphonic/rock. Or, whatever you want to call it.

I started this song with the intention of getting Luiza to sign on. She was my first & only choice for the track. I sent her the old beta I made, she signed on, & long story short, we made this awesomeness! Long story kinda long, I did the Synth/orchestral/drumworks, while Luiza did the Guitar/Electric Bass/Guitar FX, each of us having input on the others work (I was pretty much happy from the get go with Lu's work). Anyway, I've taken up enough time. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the mix!

P.S. The name as well as the tone of the mix was isnpired by the John Donne's poem of the same name! I'm gonna include it! Yay!

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." - John Donne

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http://doomdepot.doom2.net/music/doom%201%20&%202%20midis.zip - Doom II: Map 09 ("Into Sandy's City")

Interesting intro. Source finally came in at :28. Once things picked up at :47, the atmosphere seemed pretty lossy, so I'm not sure what happened there, especially for a 169kbps VBR encoding. Sounded like :58-1:15 had a cameo of Doom 1's E1M8 "Sign of Evil". Cool alterations to the rhythm of the source melody, by the way; very creative.

Hmm, around the 1:48 mark, the textures didn't seem very cohesive. On the production side, things don't sound like they're in the same room, especially the guitar and the bowed strings in the back. Maybe another J could elaborate on the issues there, since I'm not able to hone in on what's wrong. Same issues at 2:59, it just sounds like the guitar is pasted on top of the other music and not like they're in the same soundscape.

Meanwhile though, some downright nasty guitar playing from LuiZa at 3:00. Sick stuff! Loved those effects from 2:40-2:59 alongside the beefy drums as well leading up to it. This could use some production refinement to get everything sounding like it's cleaner and in the same room, but this is put together well enough. Deserves some tweaking, but this had a really creative arrangement and good energy throughout. Good combination of your talents, y'all.

YES

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  • 1 month later...

leaving this original vote in here, though in smaller text to show that it's outdated now.

Let me see if I can shed a little more light on what Larry's talking about when things sound like they're in different rooms. For one, the far left and far right guitars are obviously pulling your ears in two different directions. Obviously, this is a pretty common thing, so I'm not saying that's bad. But the attack on the strings is a bit awkward, and it sounds like there's more emphasis on the reverb attached to the sample than the actual sample itself, so it makes the bow attack sound delayed and far away, hence, another room-ish. And then the drums are way out in the front. This mainly due to the overall mix job of the track, which I thought was not as solid as it should be. There's hardly any low end at all--where's the fat bass support? I think that would really help in tying things together as well as thickening up the audio canvas. Guitars are swimming in high end which helps in that they're extremely dirty-grungy, which is appropriate for a Doom remix. But again, should be more bottom end at some point.

I really like this mix. Despite my previous paragraph seeming like nothing but criticisms, even. I'm just pointing out flaws that I think could be better. Overall, I'd say this is acutally pretty solid. Luiza is obviously a skilled guitar player--that goes without saying. And David has a knack for creating effective ambience. (I'd still like to hear a *slightly* tweaked version resubmit of your original Chronometrical mix from about a year ago, bro). This is a pretty solid expansion of the source tune, so I'm inclined to vote YES here.

However, I think I may see if I can get in touch with David and Luiza after some more J's offer their input, simply to see if we can get them to re EQ the track, maybe balance it out a little more. As is, according to my 3-band-text-equalizer, it sounds like

L--

M

H-------

and I'd like it to sound more like

L---

M--

H----

or something. Hope that's clear.

I'm not sure whether to call this a NO, RESUB or a CONDITIONAL YES.

I'm about to be late for work, and I really do like the track, so I'm going to say

YES, conditionally re: EQ

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Oooooh... Haunting intro! I love all the ambient textures you've used throughout the mix, and the percussion is very effectively placed. Much more interesting than the source, that's for sure.

I'm not sure what Larry's alluding to in terms of lossiness in the atmosphere at 0:47. You don't really hear as much of the atmospheric stuff there since da big beats come in. But maybe he's just referring to the EQ issues BGC elaborated on? I agree that there seems to be a lot of high end and not enough middle/low. That should be a pretty easy thing to fix, though.

Arrangement and performance is fantastical. This could be like a "model mix" in terms of source vs. personalization; you've really struck an ideal balance. I too would love to hear an update on the EQ (I'm sure it wouldn't take long?), but I still think production is above the bar as we currently stand, so...

YES

Great work, you two.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A little too much silence at the beginning for my taste..

Regarding production, the mixing really needs work. For instance, around 1:49, the strings are so quiet you can barely hear them. It just sounds sparse and boring. The guitar should cut through WAY more, and the master volume could really be boosted. Some washy delay/reverb on many of the parts would help everything to gel together, as well as master track compression if you haven't already done so. Some spots, like 2:19, felt like they could have used much heavier drums - mabye something more distorted and industrial. The melody in some parts, like :47, is too quiet. I also agree with bgc's EQ critique, though I think adding another part or two filling up the low-mid to mid range would really help too.

The arrangement is fine. It's creative and interpretive. However I think the production is holding it back.. with minimal tweaking to mixing/mastering it could be much stronger. Please resub.

NO, RESUBMIT

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Just a quick heads up, I've been talking to David about the production/EQ issues. He's been sending me updates, so for the time being, let's put this on hold until he gets me a *final* version.

I'll post as soon as I have it, Andy, may ask you to revote--we'll see.

***EDIT/UPDATE - 10/08***

Commence voting. New link is in original thread

Aight, talked to David & Luiza, and it seems they are both cool with the minor revisions I've thrown together. A quick update for those who may read this after:

The first version of "No Man is an Island" was very cool, but a few of us J's felt the production was a little off-balance, specifically regarding the EQ. I PM'd David about it, and we worked out a small collaboration effort on my part to re-EQ the track. I did so, and while I was at it, I added a couple new things here or there. Specifically, in addition to bringing out the bass, tweaking the drums, an extra drumloop at 0:48 (filter sweep at 1:19, and again at 2:45) and the bass from 2:10 onward.

The rest of it was crafted entirely at the hands of David & Luiza. David had some killer ambience for a foundation, and a pretty darn solid bassline already written that I just had to coax out of hiding with some TLC. And Luiza's raw guitar tracks were awesome as well. She knows how to play her axe, yes she does. I would like to take the opportunity to let everyone know it was a privilege to be able to participate in their track. It actually gave me some practice on my own mastering abilities, as well as allowed me to feed off their creativity.

If it's kosher for me to do so now that I'm officially involved in this one, I'll say that my vote stands, as the production issue has been addressed; namely, the song now has more bass support, both in terms of overall EQ and also the written part.

Do what y'allz will with this one. I suppose you YES voters should take a re-listen and confirm or deny. Andy, since you're a NO, I guess it wouldn't hurt for you to do the same.

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  • 1 month later...

Now that you're involved in the arrangement, I wouuldn't count a vote from you, BGC.

My only real complaint was that 2:59's section felt pretty empty and needed something to help fill out the rest of the soundscape. The drums and bassline weren't cutting it there, IMO.

Even in light of some of the production issues, the quality of the arrangement meant David and Luiza already had my YES before, but this version polishes a lot of things up and gets the balance where it needs to be. Nice revisions, Jimmy. I reaffirm my YES.

I would recommend getting pixietricks in here to quickly confirm a YES for this version.

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  • 2 weeks later...

this has its problems still but i love it.

i'll be negative first so i can gush all over it till i bust my YES.

none of these instruments sound like they're on the same planet, let alone the same room. it can be irritating at times in parts of creative panning and effects. i'm all for ambient weird guitar shit duh but when the guitar tone is so thin compared to the rest of the orchestration, it sounds like you don't know how to mix an organic instrument in with electronic ones. that's something that can be fixed. there's some incredible guitar playing here that gets lost in the mix... literally. the drums are also nearly nonexistent in parts where it is very needed.

but this arrangement is amazing. the actual writing of it is fantastic... there is all sorts of emotive dynamic even despite it being essentially one gear through out once it gets going. the intro was badass. the guitar playing is off the charts cool... you rock, girl. the stuff behind her guitar is magnificent, joker - great writing and instrumental balance. i cannot ramp up any more than this without having a conniption

YES

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