ReMix: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin 'The Whip's Memory'

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Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

TheGuitahHeroe (Jamison Randall) debuted back in August with his Pokémon Mystery Dungeon ReMix, and now follows that up with some Castlevania electronica:

"Ahh, love the music from this game... Portrait of Ruin is actually the only Castlevania I've played, and it was fantastic; especially the music. I'm not sure why I haven't gotten to playing any of the other ones yet... But oh well, on to the mix. Alright, so if you've ever listened to deadmau5, it's not hard to tell it had a huge influence over me throughout the creation of this track, hahaha... As well as some other (possibly) obvious influences you can find in there.

Anyway, the creation of this mix involved an original idea of going mostly chiptune-style, but what I had just begged for rock-style drums... so in those went. Then after about 45 seconds or so I decided to put on my giant red mouse head and pound dem phat beatz (!!). Or, at least attempted to. The compression and percussion was a pain to get the way I wanted it to sound, but I'm overall pleased with the end result. Thanks a lot to Gario and WillRock for the great feedback on the WIP board!"

Gotta go back to the first & get your roots together, for sure, but we generally have fewer NDS/GBA mixes from the franchise, so seeing more love there is always a good thing. This is a fantastic treatment of a great source tune from the game, stepping TGH's game up and throwing out some mad-elaborate chiptune solos & embellishments on the already solid melody, with - as promised - phat, heavy beatz. The addition of the rock kit lets the artist pull some more interesting breaks & fills and just makes the overall aesthetic more interesting & distinct; as Fishy puts it:

"Very nice. Lots of attention to detail in lead instruments. Bit of a genre chameleon here. Chippy, boomtissy, 80s rocktopia."

halc also wrote:

"awesome chippy work reminiscent of WillRock's style in terms of sound and partwriting (killer soloing, dude!). arrangement is easily recognizable with lots of great added personalization and variation. mixing for what its worth isn't perfect, but this is probably your most solidly produced sub yet, and definitely above the bar imo. great work here. :D"

Ditto all that, plus kudos on a classy & contemplative mix title. No sophomore blues at all for Jamison, as he follows up his debut with an even more impressive, developed, rock-out Castlevania chiptastic adventure; great stuff!

― djpretzel

Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
In my opinion, this hits exactly the sweet spot between chiptune and modern sound. Very well done.

- Martin Penwald on February 21, 2012
I haven't played this game but I love the Castlevania series and this tune stay unique while fitting into what my mind defines as "Castlevania Soundtrack". I like the fun of this one, along with the complexity. It feels like this mix is always moving, always changing. It's such an enjoyable song that it's hard to imagine vampire killing as hard work.

- duskvstweak on December 27, 2011
Love Castlevania, you should definitely play the other games. Very cool chippy sounds going on, feeling the drums. Tons of little detail, so much fun to listen to. Great remix

- ryankeeton on December 27, 2011
StigtriX;826719 wrote: Lovely remix, but what kills it is the file quality: MP3 160kbps... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! What the shell are the OCR staff thinking with all the low bitrate MP3 files? This is the case with album releases too: the MP3 albums are low quality, so I have to manually make MP3 320kbps files from the FLAC and WAV albums... Even the newest album follows this sad trend :(
MADNESS!!! THIS IS OCR!!!
/kick high quality mp3 files down into the endless pit

Don't worry, next tiem ill hog ur file space :razz:

- TheGuitahHeroe on December 9, 2011
Lovely remix, but what kills it is the file quality: MP3 160kbps... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! What the shell are the OCR staff thinking with all the low bitrate MP3 files? This is the case with album releases too: the MP3 albums are low quality, so I have to manually make MP3 320kbps files from the FLAC and WAV albums... Even the newest album follows this sad trend :(
MADNESS!!! THIS IS OCR!!!
/kick high quality mp3 files down into the endless pit

- StigtriX on December 9, 2011
purplecowadoom;824609 wrote:
Also, the title is called "The Whip's Memory" because that's what you're fighting when "Bloodlines Bequeathed" plays. It's more a straightforward title than anything else. Kind of funny seeing these clueless responses chalking it up as profound because they don't know the context there. :razz:

This.
Shame on you people for mistaking me for a contemplative individual.
Seriously.
Thanks a lot for the comments guys, really really much appreciated, and glad you guys enjoy :D

- TheGuitahHeroe on December 7, 2011
Lovin' this. A lot of really creative synth work from start to finish.

- DusK on December 2, 2011
The youtube preview was really good. The mp3 is awesome. :grin: Anyways, the mp3 feels a lot more stereo, which helps clear up any muddiness I heard from the video. I've listened to this twice now; I don't think I'm going to get bored of this soon. :)
My only gripe is that it feels a bit short, and the cutoff is a bit sudden. :-| It doesn't hurt it too much, though. Keep up the good work; I look forward to hearing more! :)

- GravitySuitCollector on December 2, 2011
For some reason that lead synth just catches in my head. Sweet mix, if a bit on the simple side arrangement-wise. There are some areas where I think it sounds a bit dry, like that one part where a wub comes up - it has a strange sound to me and it could use some tweaking there.
Otherwise, good job! This is a pretty creative take on what is pretty much a traditional Castlevania melody.

- Bahamut on December 1, 2011
Dang, who are you and where did you come from with this amazing chip track?
Smooth all the way through.

- Modus on December 1, 2011
Pretty good. I'm definitely hearing WillRock-style. I'd almost say this should be considered a Rondo of Blood/Dracula X remix though. "The Hidden Curse" is only there for a couple seconds, and "Bloodlines Bequeathed" was already a remix of "Opposing/Divine Bloodlines".
Also, the title is called "The Whip's Memory" because that's what you're fighting when "Bloodlines Bequeathed" plays. It's more a straightforward title than anything else. Kind of funny seeing these clueless responses chalking it up as profound because they don't know the context there. :razz:

- purplecowadoom on December 1, 2011
I'm really loving your style! So many tiny and clean sounds playing together on top of that massive beat and bass :D Plus a whole lotta nostalgia.
While I have your attention, I want to point out that the first 10 or so seconds on your entry for the GRMRB round 1 "Blowing'em outta the water" is probably the cheeriest 10 seconds I've heard in any song. Always gets me in a good mood!

- fredrikd on December 1, 2011
Whoa, nice! I really enjoy the upbeatness of this chippy ReMix right here. It's like an energy drink for the ears! The arrangement was solid and the transitions were great. Nicely done.

- Crulex on December 1, 2011
Gotta say , I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would!
The integration of Portrait of Ruin's and Symphony of The Night's versions of Bloodlines is VERY well done!
;-);-)

- BONKERS on November 30, 2011
Gotta say I love this, bro. Chippy goodness tastes like chips... chocolaty, delicious chips.
The phat beats layered on top of the chiptastic flavors really work well, and the textures that support them all are appropriate, subtle and perfect. Great mix, great posting.

- Gario on November 30, 2011