Gario Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 (edited) Link to submission: Contact Information Your ReMixer name: Magnetic Ether Your real name: Karlyn Singh Your email address: your userid: 22769 Submission Information Name of game arranged: The Cat Lady Name of arrangement: Lady in Black Name of individual songs arranged: Don't Follow the Light Additional Information: Soundtrack composed by micAmic. Game released for PC by Harvester Games. Links to the original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msg_DMtuXVE, http://vgmdb.net/album/47168 Comments: This is a stoner/doom metal inspired arrangement. As is usual for many of my arrangements, the source has been taken apart piece by piece and then re-assembled in a very different way. The first minute and a half is based on the same repeating riff from the beginning of the source, but little changes are added as the track progresses in order to keep things interesting. The riffs at 1:44 and 2:22 are lifted from the string sections in the original, but are altered to create a more melodic guitar line. The section at 2:48 reflects 0:36 from the original track but extends it, pulling in material from other parts of the source (mainly the stuff played by piano/lead guitar that's dispersed sparsely throughout). The solo at 3:53 is largely original but features references to two other tracks from the OST between 4:13 – 4:32 (namely 0:00 and 1:00 from Two Stone Rings and 1:59 from Psycho). The ending of course goes back to the opening riff to bring it all together. Additionally, the organ parts at 1:04 and 4:45 are based on various piano chords from the source although I can't remember well enough where they came from to give time stamps. The lyrics are based on the “River” poem from chapter 3 of the game but are not a direct reading of it, rather a mixture of lines and words that have been re-arranged into something else. Thanks for giving this a listen Edited March 30, 2017 by Liontamer closed decision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindWanderer Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 For metal, this is mixed awfully quiet. There's also almost no dynamic variation at all: other than the intro and the organ & bass breakdown from 1:02-1:14, everything's at a flat, static volume level. Oddly, the second organ section (2:45-3:50), as well as everything after it, is overcompressed despite being quiet. There's some overcompression in some of the earlier part of the track as well, though it's not as severe. The arrangement suffers from being on the static side, as well. The bulk of it has the same bass line, and two or three percussion patterns account for the majority of the track as well. The leads go to some interesting places, but it's always in that very limited soundscape, which makes it feel fatiguing long before it reaches the end of its 5+ minute length. There is some great melodic work here, but I feel it needs to be backed up by equally interesting accompaniment, after which the levels will need a second look. NO (resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Opened up pretty interesting. The lead sounded like it should have been in the foreground more, and the growling lyrics at 1:15 sounded needlessly distant; IMO, the vocals should have cut through more into the foreground. I would have liked them to be more understandable as well, but that's just a personal preference thing, not something influencing my vote. After the percussion dropoffs at 1:01 & 2:45, the organ sounded OK, albeit distant. The soundscape started feeling cluttered and muddy at 2:58, and moreso at 3:11 with the return of the percussion. The part-writing all sounds good, but the mixing needs to be cleaner so that you can hear the instruments more distinctly. Re-EQing this piece to give it more clarity would take this a long way. I could live with the current volumes for the parts here as long as more clarity was achieved. 3:50-4:41's section was a great rhythmic changeup from the flow of the track before this, so nice job giving this a good shot of variety. I liked the vocals returning at 4:51 for the finish. I see where MindWanderer's coming from in criticizing the lack of dynamic contrast, but I felt the deliberate pacing and shifts within a more limited dynamic curve were perfectly reasonable. I've heard melodic rock tracks with more of a droning style of pacing, where the dynamic contrast is more subtle. For example, I heard noticeable changes in the energy or textures at :22, :35, 1:01, 1:15, 1:40, 2:19, 2:45, 2:58, 3:10, 3:24, 3:50 (extended soloing), 4:29, 4:42 and 4:55. Some of the changes were more understated, some more distinct, but within a narrow overall curve, I felt this piece had lots of development and shifts to keep things varied and fresh. Having made my own mistake with this line of thinking before, I'd argue not to miss the forest for the trees and appreciate how this track works in the big picture. On the arrangement side, Karlyn, I have to give you major, major props. After hearing the source tune, you really fleshed out the instrumentation compared to the original. If you gave me both tracks and I didn't know any better, I would have thought YOUR track was the original song, and the source tune was an attempt at a mellower version (with weaker instrumentation, no hate). You really made this theme a natural fit for doom metal, and it's an awesome approach. The arrangement doesn't need a thing changed with it. This is nothing but a strong, creative rock arrangement that could use one more pass at the production to sharpen it up. We absolutely need this posted on OCR in some form, so definitely please do not drop this one. It deserves a place here. NO (refine/resubmit) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted March 29, 2017 Author Share Posted March 29, 2017 Holy crap, I almost gave this track such a hard time in the critique, then found out my headphones were half plugged in. Got suspicious when the source had all the exact same EQ problems I was going to hammer this arrangement for. Haa.. that would've been embarrassing... *Ahem* Funny story aside, I agree with Larry that this is a pretty sweet arrangement. I think the lead should've been brought to the front more along with the vocals (though intelligibility in this genre is somewhat optional, from my understanding). The bass, being as powerful as it is, could be tamped down somewhat in the mix to give the leads some more space, but it does a great job acting as a solid grounding for the rest of the arrangement being prominent, so it'd be wise not to over-correct the bass presence there. I agree that the mix could be better on this. The arrangement is pretty great, though, and the mix isn't too far off as presented here. Half of me wants to even give you the YES on this (solid black metal is hard to come by!), but I know Larry is correct on the mixing critiques on it. Balance your leads, vocals and bass better and we'll have a real winner on our hands. NO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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