*NO* Cave Story 'He Came from the Surface'

Your ReMixer name: Joren de Bruin

Your real name: Joren de Bruin

Your email address: ayato_kamina1@hotmail.com

Your website: http://desumetaru.googlepages.com (doesn't contain anything substantial yet)

Your userid: 16286

Name of Remix: He Came From The Surface

Name of game(s) arranged: Cavestory

Name of individual song(s) arranged: Last Battle (Here's a link to it )

Link to Remix:

Alternate Link:

Comments:

What I always try to do with each mix I make is to break new ground for myself, be it in terms of sequencing, concept, musical genre or arrangement technique. For this mix I tried to contain myself and leave it to a relatively limited instrumentarium to fill out a relatively short mix, while I did my best to improve yet again upon the standards I have set out for myself with drum and synth sequencing .

My main inspiration for this mix are the archetypical Scandivian Power Metal bands, in the vein of Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius. I tried to incorporate the typical elements of a wailing keytar, epic synth strings, distorted bass, harmonized lead guitars and rapid-fire drum work.

Besides that, I'll admit that I've incorporated some other elements that could be traced back to the likes of Dragonforce (the high tempo and some of the machine gun rhythm guitar riffs) and Children of Bodom (Most of the drum patterns).

I have to add that this was a new genre for me, and my improvised soloing style doesn't really lend itself to such a high tempo, which is why the guitar solo is a bit on the sorry side of things.

Mixing and Mastering was entirely done in FL Studio, Synths are self-made Reason presets, Bass is the Broomstick Bass demo ran through Guitar Rig 2, Drums are from the Addictive Drums VST and Guitars have been recorded with an USB-interface ran through Guitar Rig 2 and Amplitube 2.

I hope you like it, it's my fastest completed mix to date (did the whole arrangement on the 12th of December, last wednesday.), and I can finally say I'm somewhat confident in the mixing and mastering department.

-Joren

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Cave Story (Game Rip) - 31 "Final Battle"

Your production still needs a lot of work in terms of balance. When the track opened up (:00-:21), except for the drums, not one instrument sounds like it's taken any position in the foreground, most notably the "Final Battle" melody. It was a little better at :59, but not by much. For those areas, you need to push up the melody more and EQ some of the other parts so the overall sound doesn't get too cluttered. From what I can tell, the supporting guitar and drums/cymbals are using up most of the space.

The machine guns drums were arguably overdone in some brief spots when they were more exposed (e.g. 1:29-1:31, 1:34-1:36), but overall I felt things were strong on the arrangement side; on the cover-ish side, but IMO pretty personalized and expansive.

I'd give this a YES if the production were solid, but I'm not convinced that it would just take some brief tweaks to get the production where it needs to be. In that case, don't change a thing about the arrangement, but work on positioning your leads more in the front of the soundscape, and having better balance/separation of parts. I'm OK with a grungy sound, but not when it's poorly balanced. Any good production J who weighs in, specific tips on how to fix this up would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure.

Good stuff so far, Joren. Just give it the spit polish for the win.

NO (refine/resubmit)

Cool arrangement, Joren. Very epic sound, good use of machine gun drums, crazy work on the leads, and nice supporting sounds to round it out. I think on arrangement this is definitely good enough.

Production... not at the same level. Larry has got most of your problems covered. In general, there's a lot of fighting for space between the instruments, and some rebalancing that needs to be done. Many of the instruments that should take the lead end up getting pushed back too far, like the strings in the intro, the synth at 0:21, the orch hits at 1:04, even the lead guitars to some extent. They sound distant and need to be brought out. Start with EQing those cymbals and drums down in those mid-ranges to make space for the leads; maybe take them down in volume a little too. Careful with reverb too; it sounds like the synth at 0:21 might have too much. Lifting some of that reverb will give the track some breathing room and brightness. Finally, the song is a little muddy in the low-ranges. Try cutting some room out of the backing guitars and leads.

Hopefully this can get you started on making this more solid. I personally find it hard to give detailed advice without getting my hands on the track itself, but maybe this is enough to help you see how you can fix it. I hope to see this one make it to the front page in the future.

NO (resubmit)

Arrangement isn't too bad. I think the melodic interpretation could be bumped up a bit, because you've got a personalized take on the melody with the synth, a straight guitar cover, original solos, and then just repeats of the first two melody sections. Major props not taking the easy way out by going with a full copy-paste job for the ending, though; among other things, I thought easing up on the accompaniment 2:00-2:10 was a good development idea.

I don't have anything to add to the balance criticisms that hasn't already been covered. I think there could definitely be more dynamic contrast in this. Maybe it's part of the style to hit maximum overdrive from the start and never let up, but I think this could be a lot better if there were more significant changes. The ending in particular starting at 2:10 could be epic, especially when the backing strings hit at 2:20, but right now it doesn't really stand out at all from the rest of the mix. 0:59-1:19 is another section that just seems to have all power sucked away because it's so flat from start to finish.

I'm up for passing as many Cave Story remixes as possible, so put the polish on the production on this one and send it back. Decent stuff so far.

NO (resubmit)