*NO* Silent Hill 'Welcome to Silent Hill'

[Liontamer]

Info:
Remixer name: NeoS
Game remixed: Silent Hill series
E-mail: mail.neos@gmail.com
song title: Welcome to Silent Hill
style: Jumpstyle

Hey OCR judges,

Here I am (again) and this time I have a Jumpstyle Remix from Silent Hill’s main theme. I don’t know if you guys know the genre (as it’s not really popular in the US)

I don’t have much hope this track will pass since it’s not the typical OCReMix-style electro house you usually get, but what the hell, right?
So if you don’t know the genre, I hope this is a nice introduction to it.

Again, thank you for your reviewing time.

NeoS.

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I don’t have much hope this track will pass since it’s not the typical OCReMix-style electro house you usually get, but what the hell, right?

Uh, what are you talking about? zircon said "we have 0 electro house tracks", and, besides, genre has nothing to do with anything with selecting what makes it. Out of the last 25 tracks posted on the front page, we have maybe 2 or 3 tracks you could classify as electronica. I'm not offended, but it just seems you have no idea what we post at all. :lol:

Anyway, let's get to the meat:

Silent Hill Original Soundtracks - (01) "SILENT HILL"

No hate here, but the opening electrosynths, boom-tss, and other sounds are too thin and generic-sounding. It just makes the track sound bland, because there's no depth or sophistication to the textures to make it stand out. Conceptually, I'm fine with the rhythms.

Drops off at 1:21 to move over into some sampled screaming before what sounds like a sampled portion of "SILENT HILL" quietly fades in around 1:30, lasting until 2:05.

Moved into an electronic, more rhythmic take on the source melody at 2:08, but again, you've got really generic & bland synth lead that arguably makes the theme sound less melodious than it really is. I liked the light vox in the background, though the melody was LONELY. It was just that solitary melodic line until 3:09, where the harmonized vox wasn't loud enough to have any synergy with the lead. The second electrosynth on harmony added at 3:09 unfortunately didn't add much. There was still no depth or complexity to the textures. This was just too barebones the whole way and not interesting to listen to.

You should have probably changed things up at 3:24, because the repeated iterations of the melody until 4:04 got old pretty quickly. You definitely could have cut out some fat and switched to the 4:04 section a lot earlier to provide some contrast.

Went back to the sampled screaming and source tune around 4:34 for the close, which was a cooler way to end it. Perhaps scrap the earlier use of it and just save it for the end; I was feeling it more as the finish.

But yeah, if you wanted to work on this further, the composition and textures need more depth, the sounds need to bring something more unique, and the length could be trimmed down. But this would honestly need a lot of work.

NO

[Palpable]

I wasn't really feeling this conceptually. The intro was definitely too long (it doesn't get going until 2:55!) and the sounds you used didn't really cohere. The main section and intro sounded like Jumpstyle, and other parts of it were very atmospheric. I don't think this can't work, but it would require more subtlety in the way you transition. I felt the song was also too repetitive and was sort of just one big build-up and then break-down. There wasn't enough detail for such a lengthy song, and the speed-ups and slowdowns didn't help - in fact, I thought they took too long and did too little. Some accompanying melodies and more varied beats would add a lot to this song.

Production is not bad. The reverb is too high, even when it's trying to be airy. I also think your synth lead is a little generic and something more atypical could work better in trying to create a unique texture. Your incorporation of the sampled source was a nice touch, but like Larry, I think the best usage was the last one.

Decent ideas here, but this has a long way to go. Keep improving your skills, NeoS.

NO

[anosou]

Interesting style, never heard anything this jumpy before.

The intro is a bit drawn out without much (if any) source usage. The general 909 sound is a bit bland when used on it's own. So, after the intro the bassdrum is just out of tune. Check that out, always make the bassdrum in tune with your track when it comes to synthesized kicks.

The sampled screaming and guitars is decent but gets kind of grating. What follows is more source usage though and that's all well and good. Still, it's a bit too easy and empty here. Two synths? One melody line? Try expanding your writing a bit, make use of variation!

The production isn't half bad. It sounds like the presets or synth patches used were higih-quality. The mixing is not flawless though. Pretty much every element of the drumkit except the kit gets drowned. A bit too much reverb too, as Vinnie pointed out.

This is not over the bar just yet but keep refining your skills, make use of #ocrwip and the WIP forums and maybe some day we'll have jumpstyle on OCR.

NO