Karth

Hey, so Some years ago I was faced with the unique challenge of scoring an RPG project for the first time in my life. My partner for this project, a Canadian gamer named Troy, helped me to craft some truly memorable tunes. What I have here is a chronicle of our efforts toward the final boss theme, the fight against the great dragon ADIRA and the demon king BELIAS. I hope you like the sound of our work. Please do tell if you find it interesting. http://soundcloud.com/dmguillotine/sets/adira-a-final-boss-battle-in/ -Dave G.

Alright, I have an update where I incorporate the Victory theme, further employ the star acquisition motif, and after some exploration suggest the possibility of transitioning into part of the game's end credits theme. (bump) The piece has more than doubled in length now, and opinions on the new material would be great.

jnWake: Yeah, this is a sequenced attempt. Although it pleases me you felt the need to ask. By the ornaments you mean the rolled chords and the star theme's trill, for example? I can surely experiment with the dynamics to get them sounding more real. Because the source is, as you reminded, very limited, I had considered maybe creating a medley with some other tunes from the game. At the same time I feel that's a cop-out, and I'd like to take this theme as far as it can possibly go without breaking the established mood of the arrangement. How I can avoid staleness I'm not sure... ...oh there's a thought, I could incorporate the battle theme's victory music. It's related, similarly brief, but could provide further motivic material to flesh out the ideas. I think I'll try that. Finally, I must reiterate that I love the source tune and have a strong nostalic connection to it; I still don't think it's objectively very good, but I accept it for what it is and remember that--battle theme though it be---this is a Mario game, and silliness is expected and encouraged.

Hey all. I have no title for this yet, and it's in its early stages. But, the idea I had was to take the normal battle theme from Super Mario RPG (I'm sure some of you can recall this monotonous ditty) and reshape it into something completely different. I have a feeling I'm on to something, but I'd appreciate some feedback to determine whether I should keep going. Version 1: http://soundcloud.com/dmguillotine/smrpg-battle-piano-rendition MOST RECENT Version http://soundcloud.com/dmguillotine/smrpg-battle-v2-piano The thing is, even though this theme in its original form is annoying, I had always liked it. I guess I wanted to give it the royal treatment, breathe new life into something many of us may agree has grown stale. I'm curious to know what anybody thinks of this attempt, so I'll leave this here and see what happens. Thanks for listening. - karth/dmGuillotine

I've given the whole album near to two listens, and I'm enamored by the results. I recall hearing early versions of some of these, so it's really cool experiencing them fully realized. The Heavenly Integer brings back memories, good ones at that. Wealth of Knowledge is relaxing and deliciously gamey, reminding me of countless villages and libraries from back in the day. I love Need Insurance, it brings Chrono Trigger to mind among other fight scenes. Excellent stuff, I don't have a blog or anything like that but I'll recommend it to my gamer friends. Glad to have this in my library.

I was enamored by this piece from the get-go. I enjoyed it thoroughly despite unfamiliarity with the source, and that's when I know I'm not just being biased and sentimental. Beautiful vocal work from both of you, chemistry and finesse in each line of text. To Josh I have to give my highest congratulations, because this arrangement floored me. Careful and diverse orchestration, power and subtlety, it's all there in this mix. In my book this was a fantastic, successful realization of a great concept, and I tip my hat to you, Danielle and Ryan for a gorgeous work of art. I'll be giving it many listens.

Gorgeous work, guys. I'm a big fan of the source and I'm impressed by the synergy and honesty of this mix. Such a beautiful sound, really. Glad this got through!

Kate, I have not yet played Xenogears (though I want to someday), and I had no familiarity with this track until looking it up after hearing your mix. And in spite of not knowing the source tune, after listening to this twice it's easily become one of my favorite OCRemixes of all time. I love this every bit as much as Star Salzman's "Pillar of Salt" - and as remixes go, that one ranks very high on my scale! This is at once a relaxing, breathtaking, and mystifying arrangement. And I'm sincerely impressed at your great talent, to have played all of those instruments so expertly. From here on out, I'll be patiently waiting for your next mix to arrive here - and of course I'll be browsing YouTube for the ones that aren't here yet. Best of luck in your future endeavors! -Dave

Anybody still not done and still need liturgical-type vocals? I offered my help on this project years ago but now I'm more capable of actually doing it. My SN was Zolborn then, and now it's Karth - and I'm a better singer than before, having extended my falsetto range a good bit. E-mail me at dmguillot@gmail.com if you're in need, or even if you're just considering it.

I've sent you an e-mail, respond when you can. This sounds like a very captivating prospect, and whether I end up as a composer for it or not I'd love to play this game.

Totally amazing stuff. You're extremely talented and it would be a crime if you didn't continue to do what you're doing. Not to fuel your ego or anything. >_>

O_O To ambient, I'd like to offer my maddest props for an incredibly danceable mix with copious amount of variety. As DJP said, this is a really fun mix. I could listen to it for hours without getting bored; in fact, I think I will. Catchy doesn't begin to describe it, it's too delicious. I thought the mixing was done well, a very good blend of instruments, and I loved the way you incorporated the voice. Splendid job. More on the voice: DA, I don't use net acronyms much...that said, OMFG. Your vocals came out better on this one than I've heard them before. Very clean, it gets the real quality of your voice across. I'm impressed with the high notes too, they sound nothing like the somewhat wispy ones which were characteristic of the poorer recordings of your talent I'd heard in the past. In stark contrast, this mix gives me a much better understanding of how good you are. They weren't even manipulated a whole lot, it seems, just brushed up with verb, some occasional flange, and the glitch work near the end. Seriously, you added SO much to this song. I'm glad to hear you in another work of such high quality, having heard only two accepted mixes involving you prior to this one. Please keep doing what you do, because you do it well! =D Excellent work, both of you. More in future from each would be lovely.

If at all possible, I would really like it if you could change my name from "Zolborn" to "Karth"--Karth is my typical online handle, and it's the name I identify with online. Thanks in advance!

Of the David'n'Phil who did Rock the World, I'm the David. I'd like to follow SwordBreaker's example and give response to what each voter said about our mix, because it seems like the proper thing to do in exchange for a victory. All opinions matter to me, so I'd like to say the following: 1. "- Got a nice almost Chris Isaak sound in the vocals - Vocals slightly overpower the backing track. Hard to hear the background especially during chorus - I like the creativity of the verse's rhythm and melody - Maniacal laughter is a bit creepy." a. I love it when people compare my singing to people I'm not that familiar with, because it gives me a chance to get more familiar with said people's work. After listening to the entirety of Wicked Game, the comment "almost Chris Isaak sound" is a good one to have. So thank you. b. You weren't the only person to make the comment about the volume levels, so I'll handle all concerns about that here. Basically, yes: we screwed up on that one. Definitely could've made the vocals softer and still had them understandable. We did the recording session one weekend, and I actually did the mixing several weeks later, in one hasty afternoon on the day before an evacuation from a hurricane. Not a good excuse, I know. The fact that we achieved victory in spite of this (and other things) is interesting to me. c. You liked the creativity! Yes! =D It certainly did deviate from what everybody else did rhythmically and melodically, which is what I was hoping for. And now for your last concern: d. The maniacal laughter is from the introduction to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. As the lyrics dealt with supervillains, and both Phil and myself were big fans of Dr. Horrible, I arbitrarily decided to squeeze that into the ending segment. We have a version without it, but thematically speaking I like it there. The song had to have some kind of quirk, aside from my singing, right? Every other song had a quirk, whether it was beatboxing, pitch shifts, Arabic, or female. 2. "- Your lyrics tell an interesting story. As far as things like pitch are concerned, I think you're the best one at it. But even though I hardly know enough rock to judge, I didn't think it had a rock feel, or at least not one that I was looking for. It was also chilling how you sounded, so I was able to catch on to your lyrics much better than without. Your note choices were pretty slick and catchy. It was pretty good overall." a. First: Phil did the majority of the lyrics, and I agree that the story they tell is interesting; he gets mad props in my book for them, because without them I'd have had a hard time with the contest (instead of a GOOD time, like I did have!). Second: I'm glad you thought I was good with "things like pitch"--that's really a compliment to somebody who composes by ear, because I rely on pitch rather than theory when writing songs (usually). My thanks. b. It really doesn't have a "rock feel," you and everybody else are right about that. With this genre, I was completely out of my element. Typically I do a lot of choral singing, musical theatre, operatic arias...which is the polar opposite of rock. So rather than aiming for the right feel, which I KNEW I could not pull off, I decided to focus on "things like pitch." And even though I didn't do a stellar job, in my opinion, enough people seemed to be okay with it for our mix to do well. c. I attribute the "chilling" sound you described to the reverb on the vocal track. My actual voice is anything but chilling, I think. But if it helped you understand the lyrics, then in that case I'm glad it was chilling. d. The note choices weren't anything incredibly complicated, but slick and catchy is the best I could've aimed for. Appreciate all the critiques. 3. "- The most solid overall of all the performances. The singer has a clear tone, a definate melody that fits well into the song, and good harmonies. I'm not sure if I like all the creative choices in the melody, but it's not too distracting." a. Solid? Clear tone? Definite melody? Good harmonies? Many thanks! =D b. Phil takes no blame for creative melodic choices, that's all on me. If they didn't distract terribly, I suppose there's no harm done. Glad you thought so many things about the attempt were solid. 4. "-No offense to the singer, but his style and tone of voice don't fit too well with the song. I like the tone, just not with the VOCR song. Not that I can say much myself." a. I couldn't agree more, mine is not the right voice for rock music. I just wanted to enter the competition anyway and see how I'd fare. The fact that you liked my tone, however, is intriguing. If even my toughest critic thinks my tone is good, perhaps I should try a mix in my preferred genre. >=D 5. "- this is the best voice of the competition. Love the singing, even though it's not really fitting to this rock-oriented track. Lyrics are cool. The melodies follow the track's riffs quite well while being creative in the same time...but again not really rock-friendly. LOVE the harmonies of the chorus and the guitar solo parts. About the mixing and mastering, while the singing sounds very solid, the track itself is a bit too low compared to the singing. One final note, and you know I'll have to say something about this: WTF is with that part towards the end? lol. That was just weird, man." a. Dave is glad you love the singing, and we're both glad you think the lyrics are cool. b. ...Maybe I should've attempted some Nightwish-esque stuff, just to push the envelope. If real rock doesn't work... ;D c. LOVE the harmonies? Really? Thanks so much! d. If ever VOCR happens again--which I do hope it does--I'll make an effort to balance vocal and track volume more properly. Thanks to everyone who pointed out that flaw, as it's a big one. e. Dr. Horrible FTW. Freeze Ray. Stops time. Tell your friends. >_> Again, had tons of fun with this and enjoyed everyone's entries. I hope others can find the time to discuss their reviews and such in-depth. Keep singing, everybody. =)

I'm incredibly grateful to have done so well in this. The first time Phil and I entered a VOCR, it went over poorly. So I guess it's vindicating in a sense that so many votes came our way. This was a lot of fun for me, and I hope everyone else involved enjoyed it as well. May VOCR live on--this is a great tradition! =D