Liontamer Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 The submitting artists actually sent two letters after the first one didn't get the auto-confirmation. I've taken artistic license and cut/pasted both letters into one mega-letter; I know how you guys love mega-letters! - LT Contact Info: Remixer name: TomThamuz Real name: Tom Coglianese Email address: tomcoglianese@hotmail.com Website: N/A UserID: 20124 Remix Info: Link to song: Game: Starfox Name of song: Corneria Game info: Composer: Hajime Hirasawa System: SNES Publisher/Copyright: Nintendo Comments: I remembered the first time I played Starfox, it made a huge impression on me and the rest of the gaming industry with it's polygon graphics, which would later take over gaming as we know it. It was a cutting edge game at the time, and the soundtrack perfectly fit the theme of the game. Hats off to Hajime Hirasawa for the score, this is a tribute to how it sounded to me when I first played it. After playing Starfox a few weeks ago after so many years, I pulled out the guitar and ended up figuring out the main little theme to the first Corneria level by mistake. I showed a friend of mine and he suggested that I attempt to recreate the song with tools much more powerful than the SNES had. I had some time to kill so I went ahead and did it. Then he suggested that I post it on OCReMix - you guys will probably say no, but that's okay either way. I just did it to try something new. I thought it would be an interesting project worth spending some time on. I spent about a week from start to finish. Now he wants me to redo the rest of the game. I'm not sure if my guitar-driven background would fit it at this point, only time will tell. Anyways, this is a tribute to how it sounded to me so many moons ago. The main guitar line I set with a stereo panning chorus when I recorded it to make it sound less organic and more digitally hard-edged to fit with the original song. I used the same approach on most of the MIDI instrument tracks I used - I wanted it to feel like a modern take on it, but keep it faithful to the original. The first guitar solo I am still half tempted to pull, as it was improvised on the spot for filler space and to differentiate the second half of the song. I decided to remake the intro "SCRAMBLE" sequence by hand (yes, the static is intentional) with actual sirens instead of the SNES frequency sliding they used in the original, and the "Emergency!" portion I decided to use a text-to-speech tool to emphasize it as being futuristic (besides, without a ROM debugger I'd have never been able to cleanly pull the originals). Every remix of this particular track I've heard have been straight electronica or trance without so much as a trace of the guitar-driven tempo they used in the game, so here's hoping that I pulled it off somehow (and that you all enjoy it). Thanks for listening! ---TomThamuz PS: Yes, the static is intentional. ------------------------------------------------------------ http://snesmusic.org/v2/download.php?spcNow=sf - "Corneria" (sf-09.spc) Cool rock cover approach. I'll admit, it helped that your source tune was great for a rock mix. It wasn't hugely interpretive, but the writing was certainly expanded a bit and there was a noticeable degree of personalizing the performance via the electric guitar with note embellishments and some brief freestyling. Ultimately, it wasn't enough from the arrangement perspective, but it could be worked on. The only times I ever heard your bass were when the electric guitars cleared out (e.g. 2:32-2:34, 2:42). All other times, it was, for all intents and purposes, barely audible and didn't contribute anything significant. Too bad, because it could have played a valuable role here. Expanding on that, the production wasn't that hot. It's not terrible, but there was a lot of mud and lossiness to the sounds. It was a decent grungy feel, but on the cluttered side. Try and better separate the parts with some selective EQing. You do have a 6MB filesize ceiling as well and may want to bump up the encoding quality. The sequenced drumwork left a lot to be desired. It was pretty flimsy and didn't mesh well with the other sounds. The percussion writing was on the plain side, but you varied up the patterns well enough. Figure out ways to add some more meat to the drums. Good use of sound effects though. The air raid sirens (1:44) were a bit over the top, but everything else was cool. Cool ending as well focused on that aspect. With better attention paid to the production, Tom, I'd be comfortable giving this a go. Very cool. Keep working on this one and send it back; I like the potential of what you've got in place so far. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vig Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 TL;DR That said, this track is sonically dull...where are the highs? It sounds like I'm listening to this track from a room away. Aside from that, there are guitar and BASS tuning issues. That bass is waaaay the fuck out of tune. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 guitars aren't too bad. the rest really leaves a lot to be desired. maybe it's just me, but the bass sounds really out of tune. almost sounded a whole half step flat at times. mixing/mastering is very lacking in sheen. guitars overpower most everything else in the track. drums and other midi instruments just can't keep up. the arrangement is borderline pushing this one into the "cover" realm, and of course, we're not looking for mere covers here, but a little more of your own flavor. for all i know, you may have just taken a pre-written midi file and played guitar over-top of it. not bad, and this track does have some great potential and energy to be a great rock track, but touch up on your production techniques, and perhaps rework the actual theme a little more, so it's not TOO similar to the original underneath the shredding licks. not bad, but not quite OCR ready yet. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts