Liontamer Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Contact Info: Remixer name: Soviet Power Real Name: Grisha Kuntukov Email: greg.steamroller@gmail.com Userid: 21705 Remix Info: Game Name: Diablo Song: Into to Town (Tristram) Comments: I think that Diablo soundtrack is among my favorites of all times. It fits the game so well. It is dark and creepy and nothing sets the mood better then the Tristram intro song. I only recently started composing and playing around with music. So as soon as I found your website and listened to some remixes, I wanted to try one of my own. Naturally I picked this song because I love the original so much. I can even play it on my guitar. When I first loaded the midi in FL Studio I wasn't sure what direction I was going to take it. I knew that I wanted it to be creepy and dark just like the original and I also wanted piano sound in it. So I split the first part of the song into arp like pattern and found a piano sound that I liked. Then I attached the bass and threw in some drum loops. It went from there. I think the hardest part was doing transitions. Original song transitions didn't fit well so I came up with some time stretching and full stop parts. I also found some creepy sounding stringy sound that worked so well. I am really novice at this whole digital music world and mastering for me is the hardest part. I tried to do my best and I am reasonably satisfied with it. I know that it will get most likely rejected, but you have to start somewhere. Regards, --------------------------------------------------------------- Diablo (Game Rip) - 02 "Town" Fairly well-produced sounding out of the box, but the textures for the 1:33-long intro didn't quite gel together. Shifted over into some vox-like synth and string driven stuff at 1:33, with some beats joining in at 2:11. The beats and bassline were ok, but they also didn't gel together with the melodic work, which felt somewhat obscured and sounded a lot murkier than the much cleaner drumwork. Also, while the percussion writing wasn't poor in-and-of-itself, it doesn't drive the song along. Piano sequencing at 3:57 was robotic with the timing, but the velocity variations sounded decent. The very ending was pretty abrupt at 4:44 and could have been drawn out further. The composition's missing something to give it more direction and some sort of hook to keep the listener interested; right now, it plods along too much. Not a bad first sub though, Greg, definitely keep at it and use the Works and ReMixing forums to gain fan feedback and takes steps toward learning more about your music setup. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 The production here sounds a little off to me. The drums are really crisp and punchy, while the harp-like instrument is washed out with little high-end. I would turn down the highs on the drums, and in fact level out the whole kit a bit and bring it down to give more room to other instruments. Most of the sounds here are pretty well designed, but not really that consistent with eachother. The drumkit sounds like something you might hear in breakbeat music, but the tempo is too slow for that, and so it sounds too big for the style. The harp and the piano are soft and pulled back, but then there are pretty edgy synths here and there. Conceptually, you need to give more thought and planning to how the different parts work together towards some musical effect. Larry pretty much summed up my thoughts otherwise. Arrangement with regards to the source is fairly creative, though I think it might actually be TOO liberal. Directly using more melodies from the original "Tristram" could really help. However that wouldn't even really be the main issue here, because as Larry said, the way things are written now, the remix does drag. You need more dynamics to make it interesting and engaging. It usually feels sparse due to lack of instrumental layers. The ending is also very abrupt with the dry piano having no sort of release or reverb tail even. All in all, a good early effort, but as Larry said make use of our resources here to further refine and improve. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHz Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Liontamer and zircon hit up the production side pretty well on this one, so I'm going to focus on the arrangement, since I'm having a really hard time figuring out what you've used. Most of the harp from the start to 1:29 seems to be a take on the source guitar at 1:10-1:30, ranging from somewhat recognizable to "whoa son, that's liberal." Couldn't place the subtle melody at 0:38-1:05; 0:44-0:57 I can hear in the source at 0:57-1:07. I really like the break at 1:03-1:06. Gearshift at 1:33 is kinda iffy, but not that bad. 1:33-2:12 seems all original to me except for the harp that comes back in on the arps again. The new melody at 2:24-2:50 could possibly be a liberal take on the melody of 1:10-1:34; it goes off on a new direction at the ends of the phrases, but the beginnings are similar. 2:53-2:56 is an easy reference to the four note descending figure at 1:07-1:10 and elsewhere, and then it's back to the arps again. 3:22-3:47 has a synth that hits that figure again. Piano outro at 3:57 busts out a new take on the arps that starts off closer to the guitar at 0:44-1:08. 4:23 to the end hits closer to the guitar at 1:10-1:30 than anything else in the mix. Here's what I'm comfortable linking back to the source: 0:44-0:57 (source: 0:57-1:07) 1:00-1:03 (source: 1:26-1:35) 2:24-2:56 (source: 1:07-1:34) 3:22-3:47 (source: 1:07-1:10) 4:23-4:39 (source: 1:10-1:30) total: 89 seconds (out of 289: 30.8%) With a little bit of cajoling, I'll also buy: 3:57-4:23 [noparse](source: 0:44-1:08)[/noparse] 4:39-4:49 (source: 1:10-1:30) new total: 125 seconds (43.3%) But even if I throw in all of the arps, this mix is way too liberal for my tastes. I had to work to nail down everything I've listed above, and even looking at everything and switching back and forth between the original and your mix, it's still hard to draw the connections. There are a bunch of sections that have a similar sound, but a similar sound does not a remix make. I'm certainly not asking for a MIDI rip here, but bring in more connections, both with what you've already used and what you haven't used in the source. This one strayed too far from the path. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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