This is wonderful Neon! Glad to see you again. Admittedly I haven't been around much either... Been busy with a lot of other stuff, but finally put something out a few days ago! Anyway, the voices sound really really nice, a little synthetic at times, but regardless I think you did a pretty good job with them. I wish the drums have come out a bit more. The flute sounds a little bit like a gliding synth a bit at sometimes, like it belongs in an electronic track... The melodies are really nice I suppose that the realism is where it falls short for me.
The atmosphere and emotions in the track are really lovely. It feels ominous and magical at the same time. I wish there was a bit of a fuller sound, perhaps if the drums were a bit louder, and a little bit more low end would be great. YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE THIS A FULL SONG. With some greater dynamics and counterbalanced emotions, you could have a really fulfilling track! As it stands though going a little over a minute, I think it's really solid. Not sure what else to comment on. Nice work!
Hope all is well with you :) Miss talking with ya, message me at anytime.
It's been a while, Ryan! The voice, from Shevannai, sounds marvelous...I love the whole library! I definitely could have been a bit more careful with their implementation though, I see what you mean by synthetic. As for the drums, I turned those down on purpose because I felt they were too loud haha! That's a quick fix all the same.
I'm taking notes on that 'realism' point; that is always something to strive for. I SHOULD HAVE MADE THIS AS A FULL TRACK! :D
Things are well, and I hope the same goes for you - talk soon, and thanks for the great review!
Step, for me, this is your best song. I realize it's only a remix, and that you didn't contribute as much to the main-melodic themes of the song as David Wise did, BUT I think you have outdone yourself in composition, and general immersion. Both of which in my opinion are the most important aspects in any musical piece. You encompass a jungle-esque vibe within seconds from the start of the track. You manage to make the music shiny, powerful, and groovy all at the same time. This will probably be me randomly rambling about the qualities about the track that I really love. Things that I find awesome, brag-worthy, and maybe tiny little nitpicks that I have... and they are most definitely the nittiest of picks.
What I find impressive is how you manage to use so much of the original songs (including other DK tracks) to your advantage and pretty much utilize them however you can. The most impressive instances are during the transitions from part to part. Like at 1:45 to go into the next bit was perfect, you do it again later before going into the map theme from Donkey Kong Country. The song is separated by a few different songs used from the games, and you manage to transition between them seamlessly, and also manage to connect them all within one flowing track while making them sound unison in a way that it ALL has that jungle vibe I mentioned earlier, holding the original immersion throughout the entire track. Each transition perfectly prepares me for the big emotional dynamic changes from your countering emotions throughout the track (like going from the main theme to the more cheerful guitar, or even the guitar to the map theme). I also really enjoy the variation of your melodies (the ones from the original tracks I meant, not the improvs), you really use them to your advantage to, again, make proper transitions and create a greater dynamic.
The dynamics in this track are beautiful. In volume, and emotion. Going from sparkly, to badass to cheerful and back to badass, etc, etc. You mentioned that some people thought the map theme section was underwhelming, but as I mentioned, I completely disagree. One reason I once stated is because it offers a greater dynamic throughout the entire track. The more important reason to me though, is in the composition. The very ending would not have been as big if it weren't for the dynamic change and the build up right before hand. The map theme is naturally more less exciting, and let's be honest... nothing is more badass and NOTHING can be as exciting as the Congo Jungle Theme which go back into after the map theme. So like I said, the dynamic change in the specific instance of the Map part to the next works really well for the tracks compositional aspect. I can elaborate more if that doesn't make sense, my wording is a bit weird.
One thing I was a little disappointed by was not hearing the theme a little more at the end. I have heard this track at least 10 times since the album has come out, and I never really thought about it but I would have liked to hear the theme a bit more. I only thought about this after those 10 times, so I think you really nailed the ending that you kept... I guess I just realized that I wanted more :p Which is definitely another good quality about the track, wanting to hear more of the awesomeness within it. I can also see how making the song bigger throughout that final "chorus(?)" would be difficult as well. So again... nitpick. Along with the ending, I love the calm feel you give off. It sounds BIG (4:55)... but then you sort of just let it cool down and relax with the last little bit (5:01). Again, the track is very dynamic, even on an emotional level.
Oh man Stephan. The mixing. It's just wonderful... you give off a warm powerful feel throughout the entire track, you are hitting every frequency you possibly can from those crisp rolling cymbals to the down-low tribal drums, bongoes and whatever other drums that Stormdrum2 has that no one knows the name of >.<. But anyway, you covering all of that distance on the frequency spectrum just gives this song the full sound that gives this song the amazing feel that it does. The ONE thing that set me off a tiny bit was the bass guitar in the beginning that plays the main theme. It sounds awesome, and it hits me hard every time and sends chills down my spine. The problem is that the movement from note to note is a little difficult for me to hear. I'm really unsure what it is... But in my experience it either needs a little bit of shelving EQ on the high end to cut through the mix a bit more, or increased bell curve EQ in the mids to bring out the movement from note to note. I really don't feel this way about it anymore, but the first few times listening I really did feel this way, and I may have just gotten used to it/gotten over it... So take it with a grain of salt, because I've felt both ways. Besides that, the bass has an incredibly smooth and clean sound.
WAIT I JUST HEARD STICKERBRUSH SYMPHONY. YOU SNEAKY BASTARD. That was really really really well hidden. That makes me wonder how many more references you put in your track (I hid a bunch in my track too). Anyway back to the review.
You utilize melodies at whatever point you can and each tiny transition. Full and broad, with beautiful harmony from your Camoshark VST. I'm not sure what you had to do with the improvs, if you gave them any sort of direction to go in, but they were really wonderful. There was one or two points in the brass improv that kind of threw me off a little bit... As in it didn't quite match up with the rest of the tracks background music intensity building throughout that section. It does pick up, but it just takes some time I suppose. It just seems a little up and down and all over, at the very end it picks up and ends strong, but it would have been cool to hear it build up to a faster rhythm to reach that big part towards the end (quarter to eighth notes to etc.). The guitar improv is solid throughout. I really enjoyed it especially when the guitar harmonizes with multiple notes.
I really don't know what else to say. You nailed it Step. This is the first song I show to my friends so they understand the kind of standards the album has. You created an incredible atmosphere with your great instrumentation, mixing and composition skills. I really wish I could think of more things to comment on, but I really can't. Great work.
-Ryan
p.s. please don't hurt me for any typos
p.p.s. let me know if you need any clarification.
p.p.p.s. butts
This review is akin to the review you gave me on Encapsulation. You were like "ima review this track" and I was like "k" and then you blew my socks off with a thesis. I've got to say, these are VERY insightful to read and I am super grateful. In short, U DA BEST.
I'll do my usual blow by blow response, but since this review is so gigantic I'll only pick out the notable phrases.
"Step, for me, this is your best song."
I'm actually not sure if I agree with you on that. Maybe! I really don't know... I haven't made much new music recently to justify choosing a piece that I'm most proud of. I'm just really happy with all the work I did for the album, and this is certainly no exception. It's high praise, though, to know that you enjoyed the track enough to call it your favourite from me, EVEN THOUGH it's in a genre I never make, so thanks. c:
"What I find impressive is how you manage to use so much of the original songs (including other DK tracks) to your advantage and pretty much utilize them however you can."
Very glad you mentioned that. It's relieving to hear because I kinda felt like the main "selling point" of this arrangement, so to speak, isn't that it sounds particularly BETTER than the original music or DIFFERENT (let's face it, the original was a jungle-esque jazz/swing track, and so is my arrangement), but its saving grace is that it combines different themes together, plays around with the structure, has stuff like improvs and real instruments, etc.
"You mentioned that some people thought the map theme section was underwhelming, but as I mentioned, I completely disagree."
Like we said the other day, I concede that the map section isn't as exciting as the other sections, but I agree with you that it's still nice to have it there to break up the track a little and add some dynamics.
"The very ending would not have been as big if it weren't for the dynamic change and the build up right before hand."
TOTALLY agree with that ^_^.
"One thing I was a little disappointed by was not hearing the theme a little more at the end."
Damn it, I ALWAYS do this. In hindsight I am entirely in agreement with you. Would've been great to keep the theme going for another 8 bars or so, perhaps with some more instruments playing or variation of some sort. I made this mistake in so many other tracks of mine, including Encapsulation. I just have this constant worry that it will get repetitive and end up being pretty conservative with how long I keep a climax going.
"The mixing. It's just wonderful..."
This track was an absolute ASSHOLE to mix. There are so many drum samples especially... it killed me to balance it all together. Needless to say, I am therefore very relieved that you think so!
"The ONE thing that set me off a tiny bit was the bass guitar in the beginning that plays the main theme."
I can't agree more :p. This is another fault of mine that I do often. I don't have any actual bass guitar samples that are any good, so I end up just using some pseudo bass guitar sample which is actually just a bass synth or sometimes even a crappy bass guitar soundfont. Hence, I hide it beneath the mix so it doesn't sound awful. SkyeWint uses (or at least used to use) similarly bad bass samples, but he'd do some weird magic to get them to sound awesome, whereas I don't have that skill haha. Because of this I've been heavily considering getting Spectrasonics Trillian, but moneys...
"WAIT I JUST HEARD STICKERBRUSH SYMPHONY. YOU SNEAKY BASTARD."
WOOO, YOU NOTICED IT. After hearing Rush of the Rainforest, which was being made at around the same time I was making Jungle Swing, and learning that the album was going to be split by franchise, I thought it'd be cool to add a few nods to Stickerbrush Symphony at various sections of the track, to work as a sort of foreshadowing for Rush of the Rainforest in the album. Plus, Buoy added a section with Congo Jungle in Rush of the Rainforest, so I thought I should steal that idea with Stickerbrush Symphony :3.
"There was one or two points in the brass improv that kind of threw me off a little bit... As in it didn't quite match up with the rest of the tracks background music intensity building throughout that section."
I'm happy with that sax improv myself, but I'll have to agree that its direction is a little wonky. Compared to the guitar improv especially, which mirrors up perfectly with the intensity of the background and has a solid direction in its melodies, the sax improv was a little bit less satisfying. In the defence of the sax player, I gave half the amount of bars (nearly wrote bras over there) to him for an improv than I allocated for the guitar improv, making it harder to build up a solid melodic idea in a more limited time period. Ah well, in the end it's still a SICK improv that leads wonderfully to the next section so I'm happy with it!
"I really don't know what else to say. You nailed it Step. This is the first song I show to my friends so they understand the kind of standards the album has. You created an incredible atmosphere with your great instrumentation, mixing and composition skills. I really wish I could think of more things to comment on, but I really can't. Great work."
I am totally flattered. Thanks A MILLION for the incredible and detailed review. I hope my response did it justice!
My dad works for nintendo so I get Wii U-2 before anyone else. We have Bono's music playing on it now, but I can get this song to play on the menu screen because my dad works for nintendo.
Wonderful job Chris. Well deserved praise. You did something with the Zelda theme that I don't think anyone else could have done as well in the way you achieved. Really enjoyable to listen to, and I love when it gets crazier towards the end. Quick movements and beautiful piano movement. You are truly talented. Great work! Glad to see everyone on this album composing some awesome pieces!
Thanks a lot Ryan! The plan here was to find a way to arrange zelda onto a kind of jazz that even non jazz fans could stil like - so i tried to avoid extreme or atonal moves and did lots of variations about the zelda theme here to keep the zeldaish feel present all over the piece. Glad you liked the approach. Thanks a lot for leaving your thoughts here!
GAHHH. Dude, this is one of my favorite tracks from the album. I love what you did with it. It's so catchy and it was brilliant to combine it with DnB, it meshes together so well. The synth solo in particular really had me going. Also, this is my favorite track name, did you come up with it? Brilliant work man, wish we could have collaborated on the album.
thanks alot mang :) I remember listening through the available tracks and being like YES I can totally dnb this up
yeah I thought of the title lol was actually a joke I said at first as I wanted the original name- but it ended up being the best I could come up with ha
Wish I worked on some more tracks! but I was really pressed for time
I LISTENED ON FULL BLAST WITH EARPHONES. SORRY. I love it by the way, your unique style of music was an amazing contribution to the album and made it all that much more unique. Great work, I thoroughly enjoyed your tracks.
I think what everyone is talking about with it being messy might be the harder attacks of the guitar plus the hard attack of the drums are clashing a bit too much. The vocals have a really nice feel though and add a nice element to the emotion of the music. You have a nice voice!
Yeah, I should have mentioned that I haven't mixed it yet, this is still very much a wip.
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you like my voice, that means a lot to me. :)
I love Yoshi's Island. Seriously my favorite game and the music is just outstanding. So there are a few things I think could improve. You mentioned the piano sounds lame, I bet if you just lowered the velocity on the piano it would sound way better, the original song is light and gentle, so make the instruments out to play as gentle as the song is. The drums could be turned down a little bit too. It all sounds really nice though. The flute sounds great too! GO YOSHI'S ISLAND!! I'm currently trying to 100% it >.<
Hey guys! I am looking to create music for movies, video games and also as a solo artist! My music page http://soundcloud.co m/ryan-stunkel If you are interested in using my music then please send me a message with your request!
The First Elf 
Jungle Swing 
Tune of Tempests 
High Rollers Castle (Zelda) 
King DedeDnB 
A Twisted Carousel 
Something I'm working on 
Amy's Copper Petals 
Yoshi's Island Flower Garden 
Battle Hymn of the Trollpublic 
