ReMix: Gran Turismo 3 A-spec 'Lunar Dioxide'

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Gran Turismo 3 A-spec

Even with his nearly-omnipotent beard, I question whether Stevo is now or ever has been a bad enough dude to rescue the president. From ninjas. Fortunately, the answer to that question has no bearing whatsoever on our enjoyment of his music; in this case we've got a mellow GT3 rock jam that lead-foots the pedal after the first minute (cue the Fast & Furious guy: "I need NOS! I need NOS!!") and - complete with patented car acceleration sounds, lest their be any ambiguity that a beast is being unleashed - things get heavy. Bortz writez:

"This MIDI-rip is dedicated to my dead girlfriend's homeless daughter. Plz accept.
....
What, that didn't guarantee an auto-accept?! OA LIED TO ME!

Getting down to seriousness, this is a two-part attempt on Moon Over the Castle, the theme song for the Gran Turismo series in Japan. It's no secret that KyleJCrb is an absolute fanatic over this song, as he constantly brings it up everywhere all the time. It's because of him that I learned the song on guitar, and ended up using it for an arrangement in a One Hour Compo round. I refined the entry from that OHC and put an mellower acoustic-electric intro. It still ends up being a rock arrangement of the song, but a different enough style of rock that I feel would allow this arrangement to be valid. The source should be audible besides the original bridge section. Just for fun, I attempted to use a few racing sounds during some transitions, which gives some more intensity to them. The intro's lead guitar was an aesthetic choice to sound sort-of old, rustic, worn but still a bit airy and distant. Other than that, I don't think there's much else to say."

Way to go, man - you just needlessly offended an entire demographic of MIDI rippers with homeless ex-girlfriends' daughters. For shame. Aforementioned car sounds actually DO work pretty well; it can often be a gimmicky move, but in this instance it feels manly and testosteronderful. Gran Machismo 3... Beard-Spec? Sure, why not. I personally would have preferred a return to the tranquility of the intro towards the end, bookending the jammier bits with mellower pontification about the philosphical nature of driving very expensive cars very quickly, but Stevo definitely captures the thrill of the race and keeps the energy level at or above 99 for most of the mix. Nice filter sweep at 3'11", a segue to the lead guitar going all wah up in our business, which always makes baby Shaft smile.

Great mix, sir; I'll have to rectract my previous uncertainty as to your presidential rescuing inadequacy and instead assert that indeed, you appear to possess the requisite badness.

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
The intro was nice, kinda like riding off into the sunset in a sweet racer, but then it rips back open with heavy guitars and incredible drum playing. In a way, I can see a similarity between this and Level 99's Wild Arms ReMix, going from lighter to rocking it out all to hell. Good use of car SFX. I'm glad you didn't over use those. Cool ending as well.

- Crulex on September 19, 2012
Master_Yoshi;722419 wrote: Not familiar with the source, should I be? Meh, racing games were never my thing.

You might've never known it anyway, since it was never featured in any western release of the game until GT4 (and even then, half of it it was edited from the intro and relegated to hiding on the in-game BGM list). However, it's a [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQMlzcbfz0I"]source[/URL] so good that even Japanese doujin arrangers Preludio, who otherwise stuck exclusively with Final Fantasy songs on their albums, couldn't resist doing [URL="http://www.kngi.org/miscstuff/04%20-%20Moon%20Over%20The%20Castle.mp3"]their own version of it[/URL]. Yes, so awesome that even Final Fantasy fanboys sat up and went, "damn."

- KyleJCrb on November 6, 2010
Dunno what to think about the first 80 seconds of this remix. As an intro, I feel it is too long, and it's not like it's a breakdown or simply the first half of the song. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad or anything, quite the opposite, but it sounds kinda tacked on.
Guitar shredding once the remix proper starts is very good. Nice breakdown at 3:11. Awesome climax at 4:00; really powerful.
The car sounds are corny as all hell, though.

- Martin Penwald on October 24, 2010
Not familiar with the source, should I be? Meh, racing games were never my thing.
Right, music. And it's more Level 99, who sold me back on the FF5 project with his NIN-esque heroin shooting calbrena remix. Why did I bring that up? Because the intro to this really does remind me of a concept there, although that's probably a lack of sleep and excess of caffeine running through my veins.
Also peanut butter.
I liked it, nice interplay between the car samples and the guitar work, that was an unexpected surprise, and was quite fun to listen to. I can only think that it was fun to make!
This is where I would normally try and say something deep and meaningful here, but nothing is coming to mind, so... That'll do, pig. That'll do.

- Master_Yoshi on October 15, 2010
Man, way to show what Addictive Drums can do when you actually know how to use it! This song is rockin', nice work!

- AMT on October 12, 2010
"This MIDI-rip is dedicated to my dead girlfriend's homeless daughter. Plz accept."

D00d, you just offended me....oh wait, I don't use MIDI....

this song is frickin awesome, and definitely on my mp3 at work and while I'm jogging. Definitely has my up and go with this

- Uraniumpoppyseed on October 11, 2010
Liontamer;720634 wrote: The game attribution for a ReMix is based on the specific game the source track is from, not where the original version of the song was first used. The version of MotC this mix was based on was the "A-spec mix" version, per checking with Stevo.
Another example was http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01036/ - it was specifically based on the Super Turbo version of Boxer's theme, not the World Warrior version.

I understand, but I don't really hear the GT3 version in this (not that there's much overall difference between the songs used in each game aside from different intros and outros anyway, but still). But, I guess I trust Stevo to know what he's doing. Sometimes.

- KyleJCrb on October 11, 2010
Pretty awesome mix. And though I will credit Gran Turismo for some of my real-life driving skill, I don't care what anyone says—the car noises sound like stuff from Speed Racer. Not that I consider that a bad thing, but that's what I thought as soon as I heard the first effect.


~LS

- Lady Shinigami on October 10, 2010
Awesome man, I think Kyle loves you now ;)

- pu_freak on October 10, 2010
Something about the electric guitar tone around 1:30-1:1:43 seems off, and I'm not a guitar man enough to tell what. That aside, this rocks. Even the car sounds don't bother me, great work man.

- Rozovian on October 10, 2010
Excellent work! Thanks for keeping the standards of OCR consistently high. Its not in my listening queue.

9.5 out of 10

- ddavis1979 on October 9, 2010
hahaha!!! You quoted me in your submission e-mail! That's funny! :P
Anyway, nice work! This is a lot of fun to listen to.

- Abadoss on October 8, 2010
Oh, this is catchy. I really dig the melody once the distorted guitars punch in - huge flow of energy. Me likes. Thanks for sharing this one, Stevo.

- luhny on October 8, 2010
The game attribution for a ReMix is based on the specific game the source track is from, not where the original version of the song was first used. The version of MotC this mix was based on was the "A-spec mix" version, per checking with Stevo.
Another example was http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01036/ - it was specifically based on the Super Turbo version of Boxer's theme, not the World Warrior version.

- Liontamer on October 8, 2010
It's brilliant and awesome, but you all already know this.
I'm just curious as to why this is classified as remix from GT3 when it's a remix of the same song that ilp0 remixed from GT1. The song does appear in GT3 as well, but wouldn't it make more sense to attribute it to the game where the song originally appeared?

- KyleJCrb on October 8, 2010