*NO* Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 'Castlevania S&M'

[Palpable]

ReMixer Name: Jopin
Real Name: Joe Dininni

Game Arranged: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Songs Arranged: Lost Paintings, Master Librarian
Composer: Michiru Yamane

Comments:

A fairly epic project I worked on for quite a while (about a month), because due to the given situation, I could only work on it on my lunch breaks..... no, really! Anyway, the name comes from Metallica S&M, because as you might expect, it's (predominately) a symphony/rock remix. I took a whole lot of liberties with the source material, changing, improvising, re-orchestrating, and mixing it up to my hearts content (and adding a few original transitionary parts, as well), but although some of the original parts are fairly lengthy, I don't think I massacred it beyond recognition, especially for someone who has already enjoyed the awesome game this music is from.
Oh, and one thing... it was made in Garage Band (using sampled instruments of course), and Garage Band's samples aren't perfect, so I couldn't get it to rival the professional sound of a lot of the other excellent ReMixes on this site... but, oh well, enough complaining, I'll let the music speak for itself. Enjoy!

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Lost Painting, what a gorgeous source that is. I played this game a long time ago and had completely forgotten about this awesome track.

I really liked the arrangement, you used the sources in a lot of cool ways, and overall, I think the writing matched your ambition. However, the production is just killing this. You've got some places where it's working ok (the intro was alright), but the unusually hard panning, the sometimes rigid sequencing, a few weak samples, and some strange mixing levels often take the listener out of the great arrangement. Couple times it clips or distorts, and at times, it was lacking in bass content too.

I really hope you take another look at this, possibly even enlisting some live players. It's a bang-up arrangement in need of a production tuning.

NO (resubmit)

[big giant circles]

I really liked the arrangement, you used the sources in a lot of cool ways, and overall, I think the writing matched your ambition. However, the production is just killing this. You've got some places where it's working ok (the intro was alright), but the unusually hard panning, the sometimes rigid sequencing, a few weak samples, and some strange mixing levels often take the listener out of the great arrangement. Couple times it clips or distorts, and at times, it was lacking in bass content too.

I really hope you take another look at this, possibly even enlisting some live players. It's a bang-up arrangement in need of a production tuning.

NO (resubmit)

Pretty much, yeah. Pulling the lazy vote here, only because Vinnie nailed pretty much everything I have to say. The production is the biggest hangup, and overall I'd say there's too much reverb going on. I personally don't really mind GB's sampled instruments for the most part, there's certainly nothing wrong with using those if you don't have access to Symphonic Orchestra or something. That being said, I think the lead guitar really should be replaces with something more authentic.

Otherwise, really really really cool take on some great SotN themes.

Visit the WIP forums and get all the advice/help you can on fixing the production. Tone down the reverb, make sure you clean out any "mud" that might build up during the *busier* parts, and if you can, find a way to get the lead electric guitar/synth (the one ~1:50ish) sounding not so rigid and fakey. Maybe just don't even bother going for the electric guitar tone and just use a straight-up synth.

RESUBMIT or I will find you and then do horrible things to your lawn.

[OA]

I do have to say that for being all garageband stuff, there is some really good stuff in here. The intro is pretty good, and a lot of the rhythm guitar chugs are actually decent as well. The leads, not so much, sadly. I think either getting a performer or switching out to some synths would be the way to go- garageband has some killer synth sounds, but I think lead guitars would be the way to go with this arrangement. Drums lack energy, and unless you are a production super-genius, there's only so much that can be done with the GB drum samples.
Overall i'm good with the panning choices, but i do think a touch more bass and less reverb on a lot of the elements would improve this. The strings aren't amazing, but are passable, as are most of the rhythmic elements.

Arrangement was awesome, I really enjoyed it. Creative and well thought out. Good source, and excellent treatment of it.

I hate to no this based on production, but there are just too many issues for it to pass as-is.

no, please resubmit