ReMix: Skies of Arcadia 'Dungeon Cave (BuriedAliveMix)'
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- Game: Skies of Arcadia (Sega, 2000, DC)
- ReMixer(s): Steve Pordon
- Composer(s): Tatsuyuki Maeda, Yutaka Minobe
- Song(s): 'Dungeon Cave'
- Posted: 2002-08-04, evaluated by the judges
Some judges had some criticisms for this mix, but in the end more liked it than disliked it. It was actually interesting (and indicative of healthy difference of opinion) to see the discord. Steve Pordon gives us our first Skies of Arcadia mix, in an ethno-rock style with excellent percussion and multi-layered guitars, which segues into a hard rock section, kicks booty for awhile, then reverts back into the more sedate, tribal sounds of the intro. I think a lot of the concern had more to do with repetition than with sound quality or the arrangement - Steve's done an excellent job mixing various guitar timbres with syncopated, well-panned percussion, and contrasting that refined, trance-like idea with a no-holds-barred wall of sound middle section. I sorta think of this like I would a techno trance piece - the repetition is part of the appeal, in that it's very hypnotizing - I would say moreso than most trance - and gives one the mental image of spiraling deeper and deeper into a dark, foreboding space. Some will naturally lean towards pieces with more defined structure and identifiable verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus-format, but I personally enjoy more freeform stuff as well, as long as the ingredients are compelling enough and there's still some focus and momentum. I think Steve's latest meets all three of those criteria, and is good chillin' music that's guitar-based instead of electronica, something you don't catch too often. Groovy.
Discussion: Latest 13 comments/reviews; view the In fact, the only problem I have with the mix is that the two sections don't gel like they should. Transitioning into the heavy part was a lot less jarring than coming out of it, but both left a bit to be desired. Most of it is the fault of differing levels of production quality, or approach to production quality. The result is the disorted guitar work drifting over the acoustic stuff like a murky fog. Aesthetically and cohesively, it creates problems for me; stylistic choice or not. It could have been a much better bridge section if it didn't make everything seem unclear and cloudy. It's like listening to a bad song and a good song over the top of one another.
As for the rest, I understand that it needed some sort of variation shift with the bridge, but I have to say that I liked the drawn out approach and thought the added drumline worked a treat. Pity it didn't knock it out of the park though. A misfire maybe, but an intriguing one nonetheless.
- Marmiduke on October 4, 2009
and overly snubbed and criticized
if you are easily offended by any hint of repetitiveness in music, never play a video game or judge video game music
and let the rest of us enjoy the splendor
blighters
- uagrenadier on January 7, 2009
There are some good parts to be sure, but the out of tune lead guitar and the somewhat aimless arrangement left me wanting more. The clean guitar tone was nice, and it was really densely layered, but it seemed to go in circles.
- OA on December 27, 2006
- Corporal Eschebone on January 17, 2005
- Dark Heart on May 13, 2003
- GrayLightning on December 24, 2002
- Shhteve on October 8, 2002
Near the middle the low-quality heavyer stuff kicked in, but its just not enough to make me put up with this mix .. the sound isnt horrendous .. but theres a lot of better remixes out there
thumbs down on this one folks, sorry.
- TheWired on August 11, 2002
First off, this is an excellent mix. The subtle intro smoothly introduces you into some nice heavier juice. My only complaint about this mix is during the heavier parts. The way the percussion is panned natural just doesn't work well with my ears. Panning the kick hard left and the snare hard right just doesn't work for me :) Other than that, it's great. Nothing else I can complain about. Good work :)
- DarkCecil13 on August 5, 2002
This is actually my favorite remix to date. I understand some of the judges' complaints about the "muddy, crowded, busy" middle, but I should point out that I mixed it that way on purpose. It *is* called "Buried Alive," after all, so even if you didn't like it, I'm happy I accomplished my goal. :)
As for the other concerns: some of the lead in the middle was slightly out of tune. I'd like Ailsean to jump in and give me his impression, as he has a good ear for tuning. My guitar's intonation is off a bit, which affects higher notes, and I tried to correct the pitch drift with software. I don't have the best ear for pitch, though, so hopefully it wasn't too far off. For the repetition: the intro was just long enough to let me get the melody sections in (there are two in the original). I tried to make the outro a little different by throwing in the extra drum line over the bongoes, but apparently it wasn't enough to break the monotony.
Anyhoo, thanks for the comments and constructive criticism. I'll keep it in mind next time around (although my Demon's Crest remix is done and I'm too sick of it to mess with it anymore, so there).
-steve
- Legion303 on August 5, 2002
- vdj_microbe on August 4, 2002
- Ryan8bit on August 4, 2002
The quality on this mix is high. At least on the guitars, though I think the bongos aren't varied enough to connote realism to me, but that's just the way I think when it comes to bongos.
The intro has a nice almost Irish sound to it, very beautiful with the layers and the reverb, though I'm still disliking the bongos. It drags on for a bit (maybe too long?) then the hard part. Ok, that sounds like bass-distortion there. And out of tune guitars. Not [b]as baldy out of tune as it could be[/b] but... still... The guitars ARE out of tune in the "heavy" part. To be honest, I've heard good guitar music (Dream Theatre, Steve Morse, Joe Satriani), and this middle section just sounds plain messy. Very messy and crowded. The acoustic part isn't too bad at all, but it IS a bit too repetitious in my opinion, seeing as the first 1:45 repeats itself at the end.
Overall, there's not much variety here, and the middle part is very messy, though, on the positive side, the repetitious part is high quality. A former roommate once said "Just because you really like a part of the song doesn't mean you should beat everyone over the head with it till they don't like it anymore." And if there had been more melody over the repetitious part it would have been more bearable. A nice violin with subtle reverb and delay would have sounded nice there. Anyway, I feel this mix has much potential but really isn't finished yet. A shame really. The question in my mind is does the high quality repetitious part redeem the rest of the song? I can't answer that.
DC
- Disco Dan on August 4, 2002
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