ReMix: Jurassic Park 'Concerto for Velociraptor'

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Koelsch1 has sent in a number of mixes that have really had some very innovative and expressive arrangement ideas coupled, unfortunately, with problematic production elements or arrangement ideas that didn't fit the context quite so well. This particular mix he finally decided to keep revising, based largely on panel feedback, to a point where it'd more likely "break on through to the other side", and his iterative process has indeed paid off. This JP (Gen) mix uses sax in its intro and outro to evoke velociraptors crying... or howling... or whatever it is that velociraptors did. Perhaps they were just voicing disapproval of Sam Neill; it's hard to say. The effect reminds me of some of the very strange and otherworldy woodwind effects that permeate the soundtrack to the X animated feature. The more melodic sax passages remind me of Branford Marsalis' performances on Horner's Sneakers score (truly great soundtrack), if more minor key and menacing. GL gives mixed praise:

"I was ready to NO this, but the sax work is too nice and luckily it's the star role here. The background material while problematic, is sufficient. Now that it has reverb again, it sounds better. Though I would have pushed the strings a bit further back, especially during the solo harp section and the string pizz/spic where they are exposed and very thin sounding."

The sax is definitely the star, and the strings definitely have some consistency issues. There are times when the sax itself is a little late on the beat; whether intentional or not, it does come off as dragging a bit once or twice. But the arrangement itself capitalizes on the live sax admirably, with afforementioned intro and outro effects that do quite a bit to contextualize the piece and put it in a sort of "double-reed wilderness", in addition to the flowing, legato melody. The ReMixer put quite a bit of time and energy into revising this, but there are still some latent issues with the portions that don't lean as heavily, or at all, on the sax. Collaborations might be one way of learning to handle aspects of accompaniment while turning out pieces that are more polished overall, but if he wants to go the solo route, I can admire that, too, since that's the path I've taken to date. The arrangement's dark and inventive and the sax adds quite a bit of life; other elements have some catching up to do, sure, but the former duo is enough to hold down this particular fort.

― djpretzel