ReMix:Guild Wars 2 "One Wintersday Night" 3:34

By DusK

Arranging the music of one song...

"The Great Toymaker"

Primary Game: Guild Wars 2 (NCsoft , 2012, WIN), music by Jeremy Soule, Keenan Sieg, Lena Raine, Maclaine Diemer, Matthew Moore, Stan LePard

Posted 2015-12-24, evaluated by djpretzel


HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

An OverClocked Christmas v.9 is now available at http://williammichael.info/aocc/aoccv9.html!

AOCC has been running for 9 of the 16 years OCR has been in existence, offering up seasonal arrangements & originals from the community! I definitely recommend checking out the whole series, including this latest entry arriving JUST in time for boys & girls who've been naughty OR nice - we can't really tell, plus it's free anyways ;) To celebrate, we've got DusK (Dustin Branscum) with another Guild Wars 2 arrangement, chanelling a Trans-Siberian Orchestra vibe for some epic wintry rock/metal:

This one came at me kind of suddenly. This year, I really wanted to do a track for An OverClocked Christmas, but as The Coop was recruiting, I couldn't think of any solid track ideas for the album. I thought about covering some Christmas song, and giving it the vocal DusK treatment so everyone on the Internet could rip on it and ruin the Christmas spirit, but my current circumstances don't give me a whole lot of opportunity for vocal tracking right now, and I already have a remix idea for what little live recording time I can find.

So I took my Disney World vacation pretty much entirely sure that I wasn't going to have a track for this year's Christmas album. And then it happened. As I was watching the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra started playing. And at that moment, I remembered; Guild Wars 2 has a seasonal, Christmas-style track.

It was at that point that I realized that I could totally remix that track in a style reminiscent of TSO. I started thinking of ideas on the plane ride back, and almost the moment I stepped into the door, I started putting it to DAW. The result is a little heavier than much of TSO's stuff, but I still feel like I accomplished what I set out to do rather well.

As with DusK's previous GW2 mix, the source is from an expansion, this time 2012's Wintersday: The Wondrous Workshop of Toymaker Tixx. Dustin didn't even have to tell me the inspiration - I first listened without reading his comments, and instantly picked up on it. As he says, this mix hits a little harder and has a bit more edge, but TSO fans & fans of high-energy rock/metal instrumentals in general should be pretty happy. Liontamer writes:

"There were some mixing issues I noticed. I thought the percussion behind the leads needed more power. During the verses, the melody and countermelody tend to share the same frequency range. The strings from 1:18-1:41 were well-written, but bled into the background instead of being a clearly audible accent... That said, all those production issues aside, the arrangement is strong, and there's a definite synergy with how all of the parts come together that makes this a go. "The Great Toymaker" by Lena Chappelle is absolutely beautiful, and you succeeded in taking her wonderful melody, retaining a few of those yuletide touches, and giving it a more forceful spin with a different kind of energy through the TSO influence. :-)"

Well said; merry xmas to those celebrating & happy holidays to all from everyone at OCR; check out AOCC v9 for MOAR MUSIC, and kudos to Dustin, The Coop, Dyne, & everyone else involved with the AOCC series!

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 6 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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Crulex
on 2018-05-15 02:54:23

Wintery seasonal music that bursts into metal, my favorite kind of holiday music. I do get a bit of the Trans-Siberia Orchestra style out of this, which is the way to go when you want to give the cold months of the end of the year an edge. The mood is right, the arrangement is right, and there is really nothing I can nitpick that distracted me too much out of the song, so I definitely dig it.

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WesternZypher
on 2016-01-08 13:32:57

Great energy, it almost threatens to disrupt the 'seasonality' of the track, but enhances instead of distracts from it, ultimately. Would've loved to hear some holiday bells as a great accompaniment to the crunchy licks. Nice!:-D

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Trism
on 2015-12-31 04:27:19

Love the intro, excellent way to set the mood. The overall drum sound I found to be little too quiet but it doesn't detract from the mix. The strings are a little on the synthetic side at times but I actually quite like this aspect as it sets off the guitar tone nicely. The breakdown at around 02:10 is a particular highlight.

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timaeus222
on 2015-12-26 21:16:09

The cello at the beginning needed more overlapped notes to make it more realistic, but the compositional aspect of the intro was good. The overall mastering is pretty cramped though; you can tell from how you get mostly that "papery" tone from the kick and mostly the transient from the snare. Still, the way The Great Toymaker was adapted to the performance makes total sense. I can feel the wintry influence here. Sounds almost like Carol of the Bells or something like that, due to the repeated arpeggio that is only slightly different each time it's played (such as 2:07 - 2:24).

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Necrox
on 2015-12-24 15:59:09

Ah, the solemn intro is just right for the season. Pretty straightforward metal mix executed pretty solidly with some nice orchestral elements for contrast. i especially like the 2:25 buildup; strong genre-blending there.

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Liontamer
on 2015-12-24 15:09:22

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Guild Wars 2 (NCsoft , 2012, WIN)
Music by Jeremy Soule,Keenan Sieg,Lena Raine,Maclaine Diemer,Matthew Moore,Stan LePard
Songs:
"The Great Toymaker"

Tags (6)


Genre:
Metal,Rock
Mood:
Energetic
Instrumentation:
Bells,Electric Guitar
Additional:
Usage > Winter Holiday

File Information


Name:
Guild_Wars_2_One_Wintersday_Night_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
7,534,549 bytes
MD5:
a4a54e279e5876d90e79a05ab58315a4
Bitrate:
277Kbps
Duration:
3:34

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